30 Days of Healing Food – Day 16
30 Days of Healing Food Day 16
Seaweed… The Super Food of Tomorrow
By Dr. Paul Haider
Seaweed has been around since the beginning of time and in Asia seaweed is a common staple… and it has many health benefits. Cultures that eat seaweed also tend to eat less meat and because of that have a much lower incidence of cancer and obesity too!
Seaweed, Sea Lettuce, Arame, Wakame, Dulce, Nori, Kombu or Kelp, Sea Spaghetti (can be cooked like spaghetti), etc, all have health benefits including the fact that cultures that eat seaweed have a much lower incidence of breast cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease and other debilitating diseases. Seaweed contains B, C, E and K Vitamins, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, vanadium, enzymes, anti-oxidants, Omega 3 fatty acids, taurine, protein, fiber, and compounds known to prevent cancer (lignans), and perhaps 100 or more other compounds that have health benefits that we don’t even know about yet.
Seaweed is very healthy for your thyroid and if you have hypothyroidism you might want to increase your intake of seaweed because it’s packed full of iodine that’s needed for the production of thyroid hormones. Remember the thyroid gland regulates metabolism and having enough iodine in your system is important for weight loss and hormone balance.
Seaweed contains vanadium and the enzyme haloperoxidase that work together to help you lose weight and control carbohydrate metabolism. Seaweed also contains fucoxanthin which is important for weight loss… and seaweed has almost no fat and very few calories! In fact the University of Hokkaido in Japan did a study on seaweed and weight loss, and found that it prevented the accumulation of fat. And did you know that seaweed contains up to 50% protein… that’s right… not many plant based foods have that much usable protein. — Wow!
