Why I’ve Become a Seaweed Monster!

Don’t worry, I haven’t really become a monster! It is a running joke we have over here, when someone becomes fanatical or wants more and more of something.

So, it has been over a year ago that I went to see a naturopath about my health. She had one of those cool machines that can measure if you have any blockages in your body and then ascertain what areas to focus on. When she tested me, she discovered that my thyroid health was on the low side and recommended having some kelp capsules to increase the amount of iodine in my body.

This made perfect sense to me but somehow, I struggled to take the kelp capsules. They were in that “raw” form, where the texture and taste land up in your mouth and it made me just want to gag every time I took them. I then thought, I might try and take iodine in a dropper form, you know the iodine you get for infections etc. I got myself some Lugol’s iodine and tried to just have a drop in water or in my mouth. It just tasted awful and I also had serious doubts on whether my body was absorbing it properly.

What I recently discovered was that this was totally correct. See, without the supporting nutrients such as selenium and zinc, we will struggle to absorb the iodine. It can actually be quite toxic to us in this form!

For a little while, I landed up adding the iodine drops to my home-made moisturising oil. (Base of pure sesame oil, some geranium oil and a few drops of iodine). It was helping but somehow, I still seemed to have symptoms of low thyroid function. Here is some interesting information on the benefits of applying Lugol’s to the skin. The worst and most obvious one is having cold feet all the time! One of the reasons I loved living in the rainforest!

Well, the other day I conducted my interview with Louise Fawcett from Pacific Harvest for my group program. She was so incredibly knowledgeable and shared so many juicy bits of info for us. She explained how we used to all eat seaweed and how it was just in our standard diet. It was only when iodine was extracted and used for machinery etc, that they discovered that it could potentially be used as a single supplement. What unfortunately happened is that over the years our soils have become largely depleted, so we might not be getting selenium and zinc and other minerals, which we need to be able to absorb the iodine in this form.

However, luckily there is such a thing as seaweed! Seaweed contains high amounts of iodine but also all the associated minerals our bodies need to absorb the right quantities of iodine for our health. Kelp contains the highest amount.

So, I have been making seaweed crazy recipes! I just use them as part of a salad mostly but last night we got some spaghetti seaweed and had it with mussels as a spaghetti! It was super tasty! I have also been adding heaps of kelp sprinkles to my food—kelp salt and kelp spices. I already feel warmer today!

Do you get cold feet all the time? Do you struggle to keep a normal temperature gauge in your body? Always too hot, too cold?

The benefits of eating seaweeds far outrank just the benefits of having enough iodine! This is a superfood and will provide a whole range of minerals, nutrients and acts as a natural detoxifier for the body!

Explore some recipes and share them.