Seaweeds, the modern day miracle workers

Sea vegetables are much higher in all sorts of nutrients and other beneficial substances than land vegetables. They are an amazing food for these times of radioactive and general pollution. Include them in your diet in amounts large enough to have an effect.

The Japanese have understood the value of seaweed for health for a very long time. They eat large quantities, much more than our slight sprinkling every now and then in a salad.

Very old historic documents, teach that seaweed was used to feed people living by the seaside.

Ireland also has a long love story with seaweed. Doctor Prannie Rhatigan, physician and author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen writes:

“We have learned about certain aspects of their medical power through centuries of experience. What we are about to learn through modern science in terms of health benefits is going to astonish us.”

Very high in nutrients and other essential substances

Seaweed is classified in three big families according to their color: red, brown and green.

They are generally rich in minerals and trace elements: calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, iodine, selenium, zinc, manganese, sulfur, silica, chromium. Vitamins are also present: beta carotene, the B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E.

According to the variety of seaweed and the season they were picked, the amount of nutrients will vary. That’s why experts recommend consuming different varieties to reap the benefits from all the different seaweeds.

The ones that have the highest amounts of iodine are the kelps (laminaries) and fucus vesiculosus.

Sea lettuce has high levels of iron. According to doctor Prannie Rhatigan who has been foraging seaweed since childhood, sea lettuce picked at the beginning of summer has higher levels of vitamin C.

Seaweed also contains other substances called alginates, that can protect against our daily exposure to radioactive substances. These alginates are mainly present in brown seaweed.

Valerie Cooksley, was a nurse in a radiotherapy oncology unit. Today, still a nurse, she is an expert in holistic therapy. To protect yourself from radioactive elements during X-Rays, MRIs, scans, mammograms, radiotherapy and even airport scans, she recommends you take between 5 and 15 g of brown seaweed powder a few days before and until a week after exposure.

These seaweeds can escort the radioactive elements out of your body, by latching on to them and eliminating them through the bowels. They do the same with toxic metals like lead, mercury and cadmium.

In 1992 in my book, Protégez votre corps, maîtrisez les pollutions, (Translation of title: Protect your body by mastering pollution), I wrote:

« When a radioactive element enters the body, it has a tendency to attach to one or several sites that element is specifically attracted to like the bones, the thyroid, the lungs, the ovaries, the testicles, the bone marrow. Other particles still circulating freely, continue circulating in the blood. The nutrients present in the blood do their elimination job. Others (contained in the foods you just ate, will travel in the digestive system where the intestine is an excellent passageway to eliminate these radioactive elements. Taking seaweed, pectin, clay will help escort them out.
Therefore it’s the presence in your daily foods and nutrients, that are a permanent protection against higher and higher doses of environmental radioactivity. Seaweed is a very interesting food for eliminating toxins from the body; they contain minerals and also ligneous fibers able to drive toxins out of the body.
Kelp in particular, contains sodium alginate. At McGill University in Canada, a study on animals showed that sodium alginate can eliminate up to 80% of radioactive strontium from the body. This substance passes through the intestine without being digested and escorts strontium out of the body.
Seaweed also contains iodine. If the thyroid gland is already saturated in natural iodine, the radioactive isotope will not be retained by the gland.”

We are all contaminated by these radioactive elements in the world today. We cannot escape it. The subject of pollution is not a very sexy one. However, we must take it into account. What marvels me is that nature always has an answer to “sorcerer's apprentice” type experiences that man undertakes.

Focus on the brown and red seaweed and add in some green ones.

Eat Seaweed, specially the brown and red ones

Brown seaweed contain fucoidan that stimulates our immune system to produce cells that protect us from all sorts of micro-organisms.

Seaweed also contain chlorophyll that is anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-odant, helps degrade pesticides et repair DNA.

Therapeutic effects of seaweed

Fucus contains a type of iodine that is the precursor to thyroid hormone, diiodotyrosine. It can be a valuable aid during the first stages of an under functioning thyroid after a period of severe stress.

A Korean study showed that an extract of some types of seaweed can reduce the proliferation of bacteria that promote gingivitis.

One often thinks that the thyroid is the only gland that needs iodine. Every single cell in the body needs iodine and every gland needs iodine to produce hormones: breast, prostate, pancreas, ovaries, uterus.

Do you know that we women have more iodine in our breasts than in our thyroid?

Read my article : Iodine, the universal remedy

Cancer, seaweed and iodine

« Seaweed has been used for centuries in Japanese and Chinese medicine for treating various cancers. In lab studies, cancer cells have been completely destroyed within 72 hours of being treated with fucoidan.” (In the book Seaweed, by Valerie Cooksley)

Cancer is an area of health for which seaweed has a role as a preventative and a treatment. That’s because of their mineral content that act on the immune system and also specific substances like fucoidan and sodium alginate.

It has been shown that certain varieties of seaweed have anti-tumor and anti-mutagenic effects. Others can dissolve tumors whether they are cancerous or not.

Remember, seaweed can detoxify the body of toxic substances such as heavy metals that can contribute to cancer.

In a study on animals, a red seaweed extract was more efficient (by 27%) than tamoxifen in reducing tumor growth in breast tumors.

Iodine can suppress tumor growth and accelerate cancer cell death.

Japanese women consume much more iodine from seaweed than American women and their breast cancer rate is much lower.

However when they migrate to the US and adopt the same diet, the incidence of breast cancer in the Japanese women catches up with the rate in American women.

Adding substantial amounts of seaweed to your diet several times a week could very well protect you from many health issues.

How to eat seaweed as simply as possible?

Seaweed can be used fresh, dried, in powder form and as an extract of some of the active substances. To start, the easiest way is to consume dry seaweed that you sprinkle on your food.

Cooking with seaweed is an art that I haven’t explored yet but that I would like to know more about. At the moment I simply use seaweed flakes. I add 5 g to my salad.

The seaweed (super) expert and researcher Ryan Drum, recommends 5 to 15 grams of dried seaweeds at least twice a week mainly using brown and red seaweed in a ratio of 2:1. Fifteen grams per week is not a maximum according to Ryan, who consumes double that amount.

He explains that by consuming them regularly the body is encouraged to make digestive enzymes that contribute to the good digestion and absorption of their nutrients.

Diversify the seaweeds that you add to your diet to benefit from their different effects and nutrients.

Allergic ?

ATTENTION ! Some people believe they are allergic to iodine. This ‘sensitivity’ is not a real allergy to the element iodine. You cannot be allergic to an essential element.

You can however react for other reasons: either the form of the iodine or the preparation gives you a reaction; or you have taken too much at once for your body and are intensely detoxing.

Iodine is a powerful detoxifier and your reactions may come from an excessive elimination all at once. If this is your case, reduce the amount of kelp and fucus type seaweed high in iodine for a while. Let the detoxing do it’s thing and than you should be able to resume the higher quantities later.

Read my article : Iodine, the universal remedy