Note: This is a guest blog by one of our fantastic mermaids, but in this case our one and only “Merman” Jay Fickess.
Yuck. Eat weeds? Why?
The word weed has taken on a few meanings, mostly referring to plants that we believe to be undesirable and invasive. But there are some weeds that are healthful, tasty and worth considering as a food source. Purslane, dandelion, clover. Most notable, in my opinion: seaweed.
It’s a name for a host of plants that lie next to the shore lines all over the world. There are three main types: brown, green and red. And they do a lot more for us besides getting caught in boat propellers and tangling up fishing lines.Seaweed
can keep us healthy. It’s a macro-nutrient. Some of them are most
notable for their health benefits. Chlorella, a blue-green algae
(seaweed), is known for its vitamin and mineral content. Vitamins and
minerals help our body’s cell, in particular the cell membrane. This is
important, perhaps obviously, because our bodies are our cells. Healthy
cells = healthy you.
Other great seaweeds: nori (most often used as a wrap for sushi, sold in dried sheets), komba, bladderwrack (both great additions to salads).
These seaweeds soak up nutrients from the sea water around them, including iodine, sea salt and magnesium. Iodine helps your thyroid gland, which is important because the hormones produced by the thyroid govern many of the functions of our bodies. Careful, however: if you have hyper-thyroidism, too much iodine can throw things out of whack. In this case, don’t eat a lot of seaweed for extended periods. Magnesium is a mineral that many of us lack enough of. It helps ward off disease, and a lot of us are deficient in magnesium.
If you are looking at incorporating a healthy, green, inexpensive food into your diet, visit your local Asian market and look for it dried, in sheets. You can also buy it online. Crush it up and add it to your salads. Sprinkle it into soups. Dried and crushed, it’s an excellent addition to baked potatoes, fish, marinara sauce and more.
Clearly, the possibilities for seaweed are endless.
I have discovered one of those possibilities with our Land & SEAsoning. It has dried nori powder and several other select seasonings. You can’t go wrong with this seasoning blend. It goes well with nearly everything. Get this stuff and it will open your world to a new bunch of flavors. To get this delicious and healthy SEAsoning, visit our store.
Kathleen’s Note:
You can also read more about seaweed on our site by clicking: Seaweed
My question is, how are we supposed to trust the purity of seaweeds when the oceans are so filthy, whales and porpoises literally beach themselves sometimes to escape it?
I do buy, and eat sparingly of wakame, alaria, dulse, kombu, but it’s expensive and I wonder how long will it be before the detox remedy becomes a toxic burden?
Wild herbs growing beside the highway, near pollution, etc, were considered suspect when I was a student in 1993 at Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies–but certain teachers claimed we were powerfully blessed to have the medicine of dandelions that had overcome and thrived in urban Boulder alleys!
What do you think?
Hello Julie,
Thank you for visiting our site, and thank you for your questions. We’ve actually studied this topic quite a bit, and from what I have read from seaweed farms, seaweed eliminates toxins by rendering the toxins inert over some time depending on the situation. Also, there are farms in various countries that are growing sustainable forms of seaweed. Only small amounts of seaweed are required to obtain most nutritional benefits.
In addition, the book, “Life Changing Foods,” by Anthony William (Page 228), details that seaweeds are very powerful at ridding the body of toxic heavy metals. In the ocean, the sea vegetable’s (seaweed) job is to absorb toxic heavy metals, radiation, and other toxins, and render them harmless. When various seaweeds encounter poisons in seawater, they continuously sponge them up, deactivate their destructive frequency, then release them back into the ocean, where the onetime pollutants can no longer cause additional harm because the seaweed has rendered them inactive. (This is one of the reasons seaweed farming is growing so rapidly.)
When we consume seaweed, they bring that same miracle sponge-like ability to work for us – with a twist. Instead of releasing the inactivated toxins back into our systems once they’ve absorbed and disarmed them, seaweed’s bioactive phytochemicals lock onto the toxins and don’t allow them to disperse while they’re in the body because they’re not in their natural environment.
There’s lots more on this topic, but suffice to say, as they drive out toxins, the only thing seaweed leaves behind in our bodies is nutrition, in particular, multiple health-promoting minerals. I hope you’ll continue to use both seaweed and other plant-based products to boost the nutrition in your diet!
In Wellness & Beauty,
Kathleen Foland
The Midwest Mermaid Muse