Seaweed – A Great Addition to Your Diet

Lately I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about seaweed, sometimes called sea vegetables. They are getting a lot of attention as a nutrition powerhouse. So, I thought I better do some research to see what the hype is all about. I will break it down for you here.

Seaweed – A Great Addition to Your Diet

Seaweeds are mineral rich, which makes sense since they are constantly surrounded by mineral rich sea water.

Some seaweeds, mostly the brown seaweeds, contain algin. Heavy metals have a tendency to displace the minerals our bodies need. While it may not be possible to avoid heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and uranium, algin can help bind heavy metals in the digestive system assisting our bodies to excrete them.

Benefits

• Seaweed is a great source of thyroid gland supporting iodine. This is great especially if you are using natural sea or hiymalyan salt (hint: you should be) because unlike conventional salt, iodine is not added. Iodine is essential for maintaining a healthy metabolism. Without it goiter or hypothyroidism could develop. According to the Institute for Traditional Medicine, adults should consume 150 micrograms per day; 1g of brown algae has 500 to 8,000 micrograms of iodine, and 1g of green or red algae can provide 100 to 300 micrograms.
• Calcium is important for heart and muscle contraction and nerve conduction.
• Dried seaweed averages 4-7% calcium by weight, which means that one gram of dried seaweed would include 40-70 mg of calcium.

On top of these three benefits, seaweed offers a decent amount of B vitamins, riboflavin and pantothenic acid, as well as vitamins A, E and C.

Sea vegetables are easy to add to our meals. Of course, there is sushi, but I break mine into little pieces, or you can grind them into powder, and sprinkle on salads, soups or stir fry. I have even put some in my homemade bread. Roasted sea weed snacks are easy to enjoy on their own as a great replacement for the midday crunchy hankering.

Bon Appetit