Letha’s Asian Health Secrets

If you can remember reading about Dick and Jane in first grade, you grew up eating the basic food groups consisting of animal proteins, starches, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and milk for meals. The combination was designed to fatten Americans after The Depression and World War II. You certainly ate an appetizer, entree and dessert at meals. Eating like that gave Dick heart trouble at 45 and Jane cancer at 55. It’s time to think outside the refrigerator and eat light, healthy Asian foods.
Think of a normal meal as a mini-meal or snack: multi-grain crackers, goat cheese, a few olives, and tea, or spicy popped corn and a salad, or dried seaweed, sprout bread and tea, or steamed broccoli in a lemon sauce sprinkled with dried seaweed flakes on whole grain pasta. The following sea vegetables are wonderful additions to your daily diet no matter what your age. But they are especially nice crunchy, slimming snacks while sitting at a computer, driving to work, or on board a cruise ship.

Sea Vegetables 101: Their benefits and Uses

Sea vegetables are virtually fat-free, low in calories and one of the richest sources of minerals in the vegetable kingdom. Sea water and human blood contain many of the same minerals in very similar concentrations. Sea vegetables contain high amounts of calcium and phosphorous and are extremely high in magnesium, iron, iodine and sodium. For example, 1/4 cup of cooked hijiki contains over half the calcium found in a cup of milk and more iron than in an egg. They also contain vitamins A, B1, C and E, as well as protein and carbohydrates.

One of seaweed’s most important health benefits is its ability to remove radioactive strontium and other heavy metals from the body. 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. Our most common culinary seaweeds available in the United States include:

Alaria, harvested in Maine, is similar to Japanese wakame biologically and nutritionally. Alaria is a rich source of minerals, including calcium and iodine as well as vitamin K and the B vitamins. It has a black or dark-green color. With a more wild, yet delicate taste than cultivated wakame, alaria needs longer cooking time when used in miso soup. Wakame, collected in the cold waters off the island of Hokaido, Japan, is a good source of protein, iron, calcium, sodium & other minerals and vitamins.

Bladderwrack ( whole leaf or milled) common to cold northern oceans worldwide, is a sea vegetable that herbalists and supplement-makers use for weight loss aids and thyroid stimulation. Bladderwrack is a source of fucoidan, a polysaccharide known to scavenge heavy metals and radioisotopes throughout the body. It is normally available as a whole leaf, coarse cut, or in powder form.

Dulse with a soft, chewy texture, distinctive taste and a rich red color. Enjoy dulse as a snack, a colorful salad ingredient, tasty in soups, zesty when fried. Dulse flakes and smoked dulse are also sometimes available.

Hijiki, found primarily in the Far East, contains the most calcium of any of the sea vegetables, 1400mg/100gr dry weight (compared to milk with 100mg/100gr.) In its natural state it is very tough; after harvesting it is dried, steamed and dried some more. When cooked, it rehydrates and expands about five times its dry volume. If you have never tried hijiki, you are in for a treat. Its delicious, satisfying flavor is a favorite in Japanese restaurants.

Kelp from Maine is a thinner and more tender variety than Japanese kombu and has a light brown to dark green color and similar nutritional benefits. It is used like kombu in soup stocks and it can be pan-fried for chips or stir-fried with carrots, etc. According to an informational website on Japanese foods, www.ampuku.sharepoint.bcentral.com, kombu is valued for its abundance of minerals that stimulate hair growth, protect bones, soften hard lumps and tumors especially in fibrocystic breast disease, and speed recovery from Radiation treatments. It is rich in polysaccharides known for anti-cancer properties and its ability to inhibit the growth of tumors. Its iodine content is used to activate an under-active thyroid and as such, is often a component of weight-loss formulas. It can be cooked with beans to enhance digestion.

Laver a purple/black, wild North Atlantic cousin to nori, enjoyed in the British Isles for centuries. Dry roasting brings out a nutty salty flavor. Crumble dry roasted laver over popcorn, soups, grains. Soaked laver is mixed with fat and rolled oats and fried into a breakfast bread in Scotland and Wales.

Nori (Chinese and Japanese) comes in pressed sheets because raw whole nori is rare. Larch Hanson at Maine Seaweed Company in Steuben, Maine sells whole nori, which can be toasted and crumbled over foods. He says Maine nori is one third protein. (See additional information about his company at www.alcasoft.com) According to experts at www.ampuku.sharepoint.bcentral.com, Japnese nori seaweed is high in fiber, vitamins, protein and minerals. Nori provides calcium and iron and contains other important trace minerals. It is traditionally eaten in Japan to strengthen the circulatory system and help lower cholesterol. In addition, nori has been noted to play a large part in the remission of lupus in several cases.

Sea lettuce, the “salad greens” of the sea vegetables, is a leafy, vibrant dark green, with a distinctive flavor and aroma. This sea vegetable is good raw, but tends to have a slight bitter taste when cooked, unless added to other ingredients. Sea lettuce is used worldwide in soups and roasted for garnishes.

Seaweed Sources:

Maine Coast Sea Vegetables
3 Georges Pond Road
Franklin ME 04634
Tel: 207-565-2907
FAX: 207-565-2144
www.seaveg.com
A commercial source of certified organic sea vegetables that supplies many American healthfood stores. Their products include: 2 oz. reclosable packages or bulk lots of common seaweeds, seaweed seasonings, chips, and other seaweed snack foods. They close from July 12 to Labor day.

Maine Seaweed Co.
P.O. Box 57 Steuben, Maine 04680
Tel: and Fax: (207) 546-2875
www.alcasoft.com
A small family-owned business on the Maine coast.
They hand-harvest and dry Atlantic seaweeds: Kelp/laminaria longicruris, Alaria/Alaria esculenta ,Dulse/palmaria palmata, Nori/ porphyra umbilicalis, Digitata/ Laminaria digitata, and chopped Bladderwrack / fucus vesiculosis. They also sell a Family Pack = a select mix containing over 3 lbs. of kelp, alaria. dulse. nori, and digitata plus recipes and a forager’s handbook. They also sell a seaweed fertilizer and offer a chatty newsletter.