# Stupid Brazil Nuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 23, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993 "2007-12-23T03:02:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/21 "2007-12-23T22:12:52Z")
[QUOTE=SmackFu] I don’t quite get this. If the selenium is in the shells, and we don’t eat the shells, why does it matter who shells them? [/QUOTE] Nobody said the selenium was in the shells - that ban was a separate issue brought up by **Rayne Man**. The edible part is indeed extremely high in selenium, radium and barium, which are concentrated by the tree. The issue with the shells seems to be aflatoxins, which are produced by a fungus which grows on the nuts. They apparently think the fungus on the shells can contaminate the whole nut: > **[BBC NEWS | UK | Christmas shortage of Brazil nuts](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4065611.stm)** > > Some supermarkets are refusing to sell Brazil nuts in their shells this Christmas due to cancer fears. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/22 "2007-12-24T17:48:54Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] They apparently think the fungus on the shells can contaminate the whole nut… [/QUOTE] As suggested by the OP it can be difficult to get all the shell off the meat. I recall as a kid just bashing the thing with a hammer, then putting the pieces in my mouth and gnawing the meat from the shell fragment, spitting out the shell like sunflower seed hulls. This thread is the first I have ever heard of any risk. Thanks to the OP for starting the thread. Brazil nuts (by their non-PC name) were a Christmas staple when I was growing up. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/23 "2007-12-24T18:35:06Z")
[QUOTE=Kevbo] Brazil nuts (by their non-PC name) were a Christmas staple when I was growing up. [/QUOTE] Here, too. Mama was from Tennessee. Where did you hear that name used? ---
**Author:** ![jasonh300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/46a35a/32.png) [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/24 "2007-12-24T22:43:30Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Here, too. Mama was from Tennessee. Where did you hear that name used? [/QUOTE] Up until I was about 15, I had never heard the term “Brazil Nut”, but I knew what it was. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/25 "2007-12-24T22:55:00Z")
Urban Dictionary has the definition I always heard growing up in northwest Oklahoma; [brazil nut](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nigger+toe) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/26 "2007-12-24T23:35:47Z")
[QUOTE=Enright3] Urban Dictionary [/QUOTE] I feel somewhat better that I have never heard of some of those terms. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/27 "2007-12-25T03:30:33Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] Now about all this radium and selenium…I eat quite a few of these things.Am I gonna get super powers? What kind of powers would someone get from a brazil nut? Or should I cut down on eating so many? [/QUOTE] Duh! Didn’t you look at the photo of that guy that \*\*Squink \*\*posted? ---
**Author:** ![papaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@papaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papaw)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2007, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/28 "2007-12-25T10:56:37Z")
> [@](#): > > Urban Dictionary has the definition I always heard growing up in northwest Oklahoma; brazil nut That’s what we called them here in South Texas when I was young, but certainly not PC these days! ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/29 "2008-01-10T01:34:27Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Congratulations. I Googled this, so by golly I’m going to post it. I use this kind of [nutcracker.](http://images.nutcrackers.com/mgen/master:CCD273.jpg) [/QUOTE] I hope I’m not too late, but I sent off for one of [these](http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1140&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=nutcracker) at the time of this thread, and it came yesterday. I must say it works good with all my nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, and frozen brazil nuts) so far. There are other styles on this site. By being careful, I was able to get _all_ the brazils out whole. Besides, it’s cool in a crude way. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/30 "2008-01-10T02:09:39Z")
[QUOTE=chaoticbear] Buy them in a tin, take the lid off, take off the protective seal. 😛 [/QUOTE] Silly question I know, but do you need to shop for them at a certain type of store? I love Brazil nuts, but don’t recall ever seeing tins of unshelled nuts sold at the supermarket. I know Diamond sells the in-shell kind by themselves in bags, but I only encounter them unshelled in tins of mixed nuts. Now that I think about it, this may actually be a good thing; otherwise I would probably be dead from selenium poisoning by now. I do love those Brazil nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/31 "2008-01-10T02:16:49Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] Silly question I know, but do you need to shop for them at a certain type of store? I love Brazil nuts, but don’t recall ever seeing tins of unshelled nuts sold at the supermarket. [/QUOTE] Trader Joe’s usually has whole shelled Brazil nuts, in a bag. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/32 "2008-01-10T04:55:11Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] Here, too. Mama was from Tennessee. Where did you hear that name used? [/QUOTE] I was raised in Denver, CO. Parents grew up in Grand Junction, CO. It wasn’t really a racial thing, just what they were called. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/33 "2008-01-10T05:22:41Z")
That’s also the name that I knew…completely without context…just a name. ---
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/34 "2008-01-10T06:09:55Z")
In pennsylvania here. That was also the name I heard when I was young. Took me a long time to find out the proper name as I didn’t like calling them by the slang name. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/35 "2008-01-10T13:40:42Z")
I grew up in Bakersfield, CA. We (white people) called them “that” too, but the name definitely had racial connotations. Ask somebody _why_ they used that term. When kids heard the word, they’d think of black people’s feet. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/36 "2008-01-10T15:08:06Z")
All I ever heard growing up in central Oklahoma (60s & 70s) was “brazil nut”. I was adult before I heard the other term. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/37 "2008-01-10T15:37:21Z")
In Brazil, they call them “nuts” [/simpsons] ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/38 "2008-01-10T16:07:59Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] Any of ya’ll know a good way to get the nut out of the shell in one piece? [/QUOTE] Enlist the services of a hyacinthine macaw, as those are what eats them in the wild. The birds seem to extract the nut with no problem. Of course, you will then have the problem of extracting the nut from the bird’s grasp… ---
**Author:** ![ArmenE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ArmenE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArmenE)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/39 "2008-01-10T16:14:29Z")
[QUOTE=Broomstick] Enlist the services of a hyacinthine macaw, as those are what eats them in the wild. The birds seem to extract the nut with no problem. Of course, you will then have the problem of extracting the nut from the bird’s grasp… [/QUOTE] Freeze the macaw 24 hours before cracking ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2008, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993/40 "2008-01-10T20:52:31Z")
[QUOTE=ArmenE] Freeze the macaw 24 hours before cracking [/QUOTE] Sure. _You_ put him (her) in the freezer. :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-brazil-nuts/430993.md?page=3)