As I've studied molybdenum over the past few years, one thing that I keep noticing is how elements tend to displace and disrupt the function of elements over and under them in the periodic table of elements. For instance, tungsten administration is used to create a functional molybdenum deficiency. Calcium can have effects in the body that oppose magnesium, while strontium can displace calcium in bones.
Selenium has an important role in thyroid hormone function. Being in a state of low-selenium can increase activity of certain thyroid hormones and lead to weight loss. A 2003 study of human males fed controlled diets found the following:
Decreases of serum T3 and compensatory increases in thyrotropin suggest that a subclinical hypothyroid response was induced in the high selenium group, leading to body weight increases. Increases of serum T3 and serum triacylglycerol accompanied by losses of body fat suggest that a subclinical hyperthyroid response was induced in the low selenium group, leading to body weight decreases.
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/11/3443/4817951
How can one temporarily get into a state of functional low-selenium status? Perhaps by intake of the element below it, tellurium. Tellurium is reportedly found in meat, seafood, dairy, and cereals, and the best source appears to be seafood. I suspect heavily farmed soil is often tellurium-poor, which would make it harder to obtain tellurium from grain. I've been tracking my food intake/activity/weight for some time, and I see the best results from intermittent fasting and exercise when I eat a diet that is high in seafood and relatively low in selenium (much as I love my whole grains, consumption of high-selenium wheat germ while trying to lose weight "protects" my status quo).
Tellurium is actually already in our bodies in minute amounts, and scientists have been investigating what biological functions it might have in various compounds. Possibilities include anti-cancer and anti-inflammation. See https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20205748/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22202556/. I don't see why it couldn't end up being something that helps fight obesity. Here are my reasons for thinking that:
1) The "ketogenic" diet also happens to be one that would promote a relatively high intake of tellurium, especially when one is eating wild-farmed seafood and grass-fed-source dairy and meat.
2) If thyroid hormones are involved, that would help explain why widespread use of measures to sanitize food production seem to go along with increased obesity; chlorine can interfere with iodine, and iodinated proteins are important to thyroid function. It's worth noting that the Netherlands, the European country that is resisting the "globesity" trend, also eschews chlorination of water.
3) I have noticed that I do better at losing weight when I include foods that are good sources of kaempferol, which has been observed to increase the activity of an enzyme that activates thyroid hormone T3. See https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/56/3/767/.
4) The state of Colorado has mysteriously low obesity rates (see https://www.denverpost.com/2018/09/12/colorado-least-obese-state/) and coincidentally is one of the major known sources of tellurium in the world. In fact, that's where the name of the Colorado city Telluride comes from.
I know the world is busy figuring out what to do about a new virus, but perhaps someone will take this hypothesis and look further into it. If "dust we art," we ought to find out more about what various kinds of dust do in our bodies.
