Wakame salad & other seaweeds; also herbal sun-teas - structured water beverages.

Good and maybe fights breast and other types of cancer.

Wakame is a lower iodine seaweed but a source of fucoidan which we learned in the last post is a phytonutrient containing the monosaccharide fucose and it may help against breast cancer. This post is a food follow-up to the last post (Biofilm, polyphenols, microRNA and cancer).

How much seaweed to eat for iodine and fucose and other trace minerals and fucoidan? For general health rather than breast cancer specifics, having a serving of seaweed daily should be fine for most people, or a few times a week, or any rather than none….

Selenium is needed for preventing hyperthyroidism. It is also a good idea to have a couple selenium rich Brazil nuts per day or 100-200 mcg is a typical recommendation.

And this older post is related, on the topic of iodine, structured water and fluid balance for health - and it has a Jello photo. Bonus:

Wakame salad is served chilled at some Asian or Thai restaurants. It might have a little sweet, a little hot pepper, a little onion and or garlic and some vinegar as dressing.

My single serving batch in the photo included one tablespoon of dried wakame, two thin slices of sweet onion, about a tablespoon of sesame seeds and one of apple cider vinegar. Initially soak the wakame in a 1/4 cup of water for five minutes. Add the seasonings and extra crunch and it is ready to serve.

It was good.

• I added a list of seaweed types on the last page of a one week menu prepared by another dietitian that is focused on increasing trace minerals in your meals. I added a few notes and a longer section about the most commonly used seaweed types and their typical iodine content. (pdf in my Dropbox)

• And this post has more information about beans, nuts, seeds and grains with good mineral content - increasing magnesium and calcium in ratio to phosphorus is the goal of my selections and a spreadsheet. Meals for trace nutrients - iodine, chromium, zinc and copper. (Substack)

• This post has a Wakame salad with Ground Ivy salad dressing - also spring photos of flowers and buckthorn clearing. Ground Ivy vs buckthorn; Recipes - Lima bean pumpkin seed salad and Wakame seaweed salad. Round one goes to Ground Ivy in the Ground cover Battle Royale; buckthorn control tactics; plus two recipes at the end. (Substack)

Kombu is very large leaves, on the plate in the photo below. A little goes a long way in a soup broth. It adds creaminess to the broth and flavor. Salicylate and glutamate may be reasons for caution with the amount you use.

Wakame is huge. A one inch piece for soup may get lots bigger if it had been folded. I added one unfolded piece about one inch square to a pot of bean soup.

Above, four inch wide folded leaf of Kombu. Below, a one inch piece of a single layer of Kombu with a tablespoon of Wakame and Hijiki.

Hijiki and arame are similar in a Thai noodle soup. They add black ‘noodles’ to the mix. They might also be rehydrated, drained and then stirred for a crispy texture. The soup would be healthier though. I prefer the slightly chewier texture of hijiki but it may have a contamination risk I would need to look up.

No Nori rolls in that last picture, but the basic how-to roll them is in this post (Veggie Nori Rolls) and a filling recipe is in this post (Content vs Content Marketing & overstuffed Nori rolls).

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Infrared sun tea season will be able to move into suntea season soon.

I made a batch of Wormwood suntea and it has some kick (I bought the Absinthe kind without realizing Sweet Wormwood is different). I ran out of, or lost, my bottle of artemisinin. I add about a teaspoon to a glass quart bottle and leave it for about 8 hours.

Also in my fridge is a larger batch made with skullcap, rooibos, pomegranate peel, and yarrow powder. That is tasty from the rooibos I think. I use about a tablespoon of skullcap, a teaspoon of rooibos and of yarrow powder and about a one 6th piece of outer rind of a smaller pomegranate, dried or fresh.

And I tried a smaller batch of sumac lemonade (about a tablespoon in a quart glass bottle) - it really is like lemonade!

Disclaimer: This information is being shared for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.