Posts Tagged ‘sea vegetables’

Can You Lose Weight If You Have Hypothyroidism?

October 9th, 2009

I’ve worked with a lot of people who’ve suffered from hypothyroidism and have wanted to lose weight. In fact, my mom has an underactive thyroid.

The difficulty with a sluggish thyroid and your ability to lose weight is that the thyroid gland controls your metabolism. Specifically, if you have an underactive thyroid (ie. not enough T3 and T4 produced and secreted) your metabolism will slow down. Thus, making it more difficult to lose weight.

In general, hypothyroidism tends to affect more women than men and can be attributed to, among other factors, a mineral-deficient diet, adrenal fatigue, or having a more endomorph-like body.

Having said though, it is definitely possible to lose weight with a slow thyroid. You just need to work a bit harder and smarter when it comes to your diet and exercise regime.

Dietary Recommendations for Hypothyroidism

In this article, we’ll examine some specific nutritional steps you can take to improve your thyroid function.

1. Eat more sea vegetables!

Seaweeds like nori, dulse, kelp, and others have more mineral content than any other food on the food. Specifically, most sea vegetables contain up to 2000% of your daily recommended intake for one of  the most important minerals used to form the thyroid hormones – iodine!

If your body is deficient in iodine – which is the case with most people living in the Western world – then it will not be able to produce sufficient amounts of T3 and T4 hormones from the thyroid.

Furthermore, iodine is a mineral which is needed by the adrenal glands for the production of some of its hormones. Thus, there’s a tug of war between the adrenals and thyroid over who gets iodine.

In order to improve your glandular function, iodine-rich foods such as kelp, dulse, nori, wakame, and arame should be included into your diet on a daily basis.

2. 1-2 brasil nuts each day!

Brasil nuts are one of the highest sources of the other critical mineral for thyroid function – selenium.

The good news is that you only need 1-2 of these nuts each day to meet your requirements.

The goal is to support your thyroid (and thus your other glands as well) through mineral-rich foods. Over time, these minerals will improve the functioning of your thyroid.

As this begins to happen, your metabolism should begin to increase, which will help you burn more calories, thus helping you lose weight.

But remember that these recommendations are not going to produce miraculous results. Instead, adding these nutrient-rich foods into a healthy diet alongside daily exercise are the key to long-term weight loss.

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Types of Edible Seaweed

September 29th, 2009

Today we’re going to look at 3 amazing types of edible seaweed. As I mentioned yesterday’s post, the health benefits of sea vegetables are absolutely ridiculous and now we’re going to learn some more specifics relating to dulse, kelp, and nori.

Dulse

Dulse is a seaweed highly rich in iodine, iron, and calcium. 

It can easily be added to salads and soups as it makes a great seasoning. Because of its sodium content it can also a replacement to table salt.

Kelp

Another great alternative to salt, kelp is usually used in smaller quantities because of its potent mineral content and strong flavour.

It has some protein and is rich in iodine, calcium, potassium, and many of the B vitamins. Kelp is other high in disease-fighting phytonutrients such as fucosterol, vanilin, and lutein.

Nori

Nori is probably the most common seaweed as it the one used to make sushi. It is very high in protein (nearly 50% protein content), fiber, vitamin A, calcium, iodine, iron, and phosphorus.

Because it comes in sheets, nori is easiest to use when making wraps (instead of using wheat-based or lettuce wraps).

Seaweed Recipes

Now that we’ve looked at some common types of sea vegetables, I want to give you some ideas as to how to use them. Here are  recipes from our Total Wellness Cleanse to get you started.

Winter Squash Kelp Soup

One 5″–6″ piece of kelp
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium winter squash, cubed (about 1 quart)
1 small handful parsley, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper

1. Lightly rinse kelp

2. In a soup pot, cover kelp with water and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Remove and cut the kelp into small pieces.

4. Return to the pot with the onion and squash; add water to cover.

5. Simmer for 20–30 minutes until squash is soft, or pressure cook for 5–10
minutes. Puree soup is desired. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Avocado Sea Wrap

1 avocado, cut into lengthwise strips
1 small handful alfalfa sprouts
¼ cucumber, julienned
1-2 Nori sheets leaves, rinsed and carefully unfolded
Juice of ½ lemon
1-2 tbsp olive oil

1. Lay the avocado strips, alfalfa sprouts, and cucumber inside the 2. Drizzle some lemon juice and olive and roll to make a wrap.

There are plenty of ways to incorporate edible seaweeds into your diet. Besides recipes like these ones, the easiest way is just to sprinkle them on your salads and soups as seasoning. Then, if you want to get more fancy, you can give some elaborate (yet simple) seaweed-based recipes a shot.

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The Health Benefits of Sea Vegetables

September 28th, 2009

Sea vegetables, or seaweed, are the most nutrient-dense foods found on the planet. They are packed with more minerals than you can possibly imagine, including providing 2000% of your daily recommended intake of the much needed iodine!

No other foods provide the mineral benefits found in sea vegetables. And how could they? Seaweeds accumulate all the wonderful minerals found in the waters of our seas and oceans and transfer those benefits to the end user – us and other animals inhabiting the sea.

Aside from providing tremendous amounts of iodine, calcium, potassium, iron, and many other trace minerals, many sea vegetables are very high in protein. One example is spirulina, which has more protein per gram than most animal protein sources.

Seaweed and Weight Loss

One of the most overlooked and understudied areas of human health and weight loss is the concept that we don’t become satiated from eating tons of calories. Instead, we become satiated when our body has received enough minerals at any given meal.

If you go to McDonald’s and have a 2000 calorie meal, you will most likely still be hungry, right? The reason for this is that your body has received absolutely ZERO mineral nutrition from the meal. 

A lack of mineralization in our food supply causes us to eat more food simply because our bodies are craving more minerals!

One of the first things you’ll notice when you add ocean vegetables to your meals is that you will feel completely satisfied after eating and you will notice a dramatic reduction in food cravings.

This is massive if you’re looking to lose weight. 

Sea vegetables help you eat less because they provide you with more….minerals and overall nutrition than any other food on the planet!

Sea Vegetables Help Remove Heavy Metal Toxins from the Body

One amazing feature of sea vegetables is their ability to bind minerals (ie. heavy metals like mercury and lead) and remove them from the body.

Seaweeds contain algin, a fiber molecule that binds heavy metals and attracts them into the digestive tract for elimination.

Considering the trace amounts of such heavy metals in our food and water supply, eating more sea vegetables can be natural way to help you stay healthy and possibly prevent many toxicity-based conditions like Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and many more!

Seaweed for Thyroid Problems

The thyroid gland controls your metabolism. When it becomes sluggish, so do you. Your overall metabolic rate declines and your ability to lose weight is greatly affected.

Enter seaweeds…

As I mentioned at the top of this article, most seaweeds provide up to 2000% the RDI of iodine! 

The reason that’s so important is that iodine is one of the base molecules of the thyroid hormones (thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3)). When there isn’t enough iodine in the body – mainly as a result of an iodine-impoverished food supply – thyroid hormone production, and thus thyroid function, is negatively affected. 

One of the best recommendations I can make to you is to eat more sea vegetables simply because of this fact. So many people, especially women, suffer from low thyroid function and it really hinders their energy levels and ability to lose weight.

I’m not saying sea vegetables are a miracle cure but overtime they will dramatically most aspects of your health, including your thyroid function.

In the next few posts, I’ll be discussing some specific types of seaweeds (such as arame, kelp, nori, and more) and give you some delicious recipes that will blow you away as well.

So stay tuned!

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