Seaweeds in the Herbal Kitchen
An introduction to integrating seaweeds into your home herbal kitchen, apothecary, or clinical practice.
Eating from the ocean connects us to our origins, to our ancestors—both recent and farther down the evolutionary trail. Our ancient vertebrate ancestors moved to land from the sea (as did land plants from their algal ancestors), yet the ocean remained a vital part of sustaining these early amphibians, who stayed close to the water to keep their skin hydrated and to breed. Those who traveled further inland risked extinction. Later, many ancient human cultures remained centered on the coasts of continents, and many of our ancestors traditionally consumed these “first foods” of the ocean for thousands of years. In fact, recent research shows that ocean foods may have been one of the primary drivers for large brain development in humans.1 So much of who we are and what we need for optimal health today still comes from the nutrient-rich, life-filled soup of our seas, and we find this innate connection draws modern humans towards the ocean as populations throughout the world are still concentrated coastally.
Seaweeds are unique and important food offerings of the sea. It’s true, seaweeds contain a diversity and concentration of nutrients beyond that of their land-based counterparts, most notably minerals and micronutrients. You might even call them “superfoods”! While individual seaweeds contain unique nutrient profiles—determined by species and highly variable growing conditions—seaweeds contain a diversity of vitamins, antioxidants, essential fatty and amino acids, and notable quantities of mineral and trace elements not commonly found in land-based food sources. Most seaweeds contain iodine in significantly larger quantities than land plants and in a form that is more bioavailable than the iodine in other foods. Iodine content of seaweeds is highly variable by species—some seaweeds contain significantly more iodine than others, and some in the form of thyroid hormone precursors (MIT and DIT).2