Nori Seaweed

Nori: is typically used as a sushi wrap and is very high in protein, with 100 grams of nori containing 30 to 50 grams of protein. Nori also contains high amounts of calcium, iron, potassium, vitamins E and K, and more vitamin A per serving than carrots.
Seaweed is known to detox the body and promote circulation, and is often used in cleansing drinks as well as topically as seaweed-detox body wraps, to help with skin tone, cellulite, and chronic dry skin, according to the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Healing Remedies by Dr. C Norman Shealy, M.D., PhD.

Seaweed has been shown to protect the body against radiation and environmental pollutants. And studies have shown that those who eat seaweed on a regular basis (such as people in Okinawa) have a significantly reduced risk of some cancers, including breast cancer.

Other benefits include:

Iodine found in kelp has been shown to boost metabolism and support the thyroid in cases of hypothyroidism.
Regular consumption of seaweed has been shown to improve bone health because of the high amounts of calcium and magnesium found in seaweed. Magnesium helps the body to absorb calcium.
Seaweeds as the Best Dietary Sources of Essential Minerals

All essential minerals are provided by dietary seaweeds. No land plant even remotely approaches seaweeds as sources of metabolically-required minerals(See Bergner1997). Seaweeds can provide minerals often absent from freshwater and food crops grown on mineral-depleted soils. In addition to eating seaweeds regularly, those gardening for food can use copious amounts of seaweeds for mulch and fertilizer(Traditional Irish fertilizer, see: Man of Aran, and The Field), add seaweeds abundantly to compost, and even make seaweed tea sprayed directly onto leaves for foliar feeding through the stomates , as ways to therapeutically get trace elements into patients a trifle covertly.

Leon Uris in his novel, Trinity, delightfully describes the social scene accompanying “kelping” by the Irish.

Seaweeds are 20-50% dry weight mineral(Kazutosi, 2002). This figure is obtained by burning off seaweed’s organic material and weighing the remaining ash. The elements abundant in seaweeds include: potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, chloride, sulfur, phosphorous, vanadium, cobalt, manganese, selenium, bromine, iodine, arsenic, iron, and fluorine.

The large Brown seaweeds (Laminaria species ( known collectively as Kombu), various kelps(Icelandic kelp, Norwegian kelp, Bullwhip kelp,Sugar kelp,Giant Pacific kelp, and Hijiki), Bladderwrack, Rockweed, Sargassum, Wakame, and Sea Palm, tend to contain more minerals per unit weight than the Red seaweeds (Nori, Irish Moss, Dulse, Grapestone, and Euchemia).

Many human body substances require particular mineral elements as part(s) of their respective structure. Examples are iron for hemoglobin and iodine for thyroxine.

For our bodies to function, we use proteins called enzymes. Most enzymes require one or more coenzymatic factors; these coenzymatic factors are usually one or more metals. cations. Chronic dietary shortages or disease-related mineral depletions can produce both specific and general disease conditions: Iodine shortage results in varying degrees of thyroid dysfunction; poor absorption of dietary calcium can result in osteoporosis. Adequate residential body mineral supplies are critical for optimal body system functioning. My personal observations support the notion that non-specific disease categories such as Chronic Fatigue, lack of energy, subclinical depression and depressed immunity are probably due to inadequate minerals either in the diet and /or in the body. Many times I have seen chronically exhausted patients exhibit complete symptom resolution after several weeks of adding 5-10 grams of seaweeds to their daily diets.

In the hydrated seaweeds, raw or cooked, minerals are mostly in aqueous solution and readily available for intestinal absorption in humans. These accumulated minerals can be loosely considered primary metabolites. Even though they are not manufactured by the seaweeds, they are concentrated against the osmotic gradient to cause a much higher concentration of each mineral inside seaweed cells and intercellular spaces than in the surrounding seawater. This enables seaweeds to use water equilibrium mechanics to move materials in and out of their cells. It is no accident that seaweeds concentrate metal cations and other elements many times their respective concentrations in seawater. They have almost unlimited access to mineral resources unavailable to most land plants and animals.