Photo courtesy of Institute for Traditional Medicine

I promised a post on sea vegetables a month ago in Easy Crockpot Ribs post. So here it is!

I’ll start with an overview from World’s Healthiest Foods. First, it’s the best food source of iodine, seriously trumping runner-up yogurt with nearly five times the iodine and only 1/15th the calories. Big deal, right? Without iodine, the thyroid cannot properly make the necessary thyroid hormones T3 and T4, resulting in fatigue, goiter, low body temperature, and a depressed metabolism. Hypothyroidism can also result in depression and mental retardation. Iodine isn’t just a “nice to have.”

Sea veggies are also great sources of vitamin K, folate (the natural form of folic acid), and magnesium. And here’s a new word that I learned: “fucans”. These are “carbohydrate-like substances…which can reduce the body’s inflammatory response.” These substances are sulfated polysaccharides, a class of compounds that have been shown to inhibit tumor metastatis (spreading to other parts of the body) and to be potent antivirals.

Another proposed benefit comes from this site:

One of seaweed’s most prominent health benefits is its ability to remove radioactive strontium and other heavy metals from our bodies. Whole brown seaweeds (not granulated) such as kelp contain alginic acid which binds with the toxins in the intestines rendering them indigestible and carries them out of the system.

The sea vegetables that you’ll probably find in your grocery or definitely at a Whole Foods-type store are nori, kelp, hijiki, kombu, wakame, arame, and dulse. I have had arame and nori that I know of, so I can speak specifically to their flavor. If you’ve had sushi, you’ve had nori. But the sheets that you buy in the store taste exactly like you are eating seaweed, at least the way I had it. It was not enjoyable, so I probably need to find some other way to use it. Arame on the other hand is rather flavorless and makes an easy, healthful addition to most anything you cook in a skillet or a salad. Wakame is often used in miso soup, so I’ve had it too, though never prepared it myself.

Here’s a quick excerpt from WH Foods to sum it all up:

Why would anyone want to eat sea vegetables? Because they offer the broadest range of minerals of any food, containing virtually all the minerals found in the ocean-the same minerals that are found in human blood.

These are definitely foods that you should find a way to get into your diet. I don’t eat nearly enough of them, though I’m now motivated to expand my horizons. If you have any recipes, feel free to email them to me using the Contact link or post them in the comments. I’ll be sure to post them with full credit to the sender. And if I come up with any, I’ll post them here.

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• Easy Crockpot Ribs
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• Kids Like Homegrown Vegetables
• Do Salicylates Affect The Advice For Vegetable Consumption?

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Tags: arame, iodine, Recipes and Cooking, sea vegetables