Why Sea Vegetable?

We love our vegetables, here at Fresh Thymes Eatery. We dig grating the brussels sprouts for our slaw. We geek-out over the pleasures of fermentation — we nearly dance when it’s time to make kimchi again. The aroma of just-made pesto makes us swoon.

But it’s not just earth-rooted treasures that thrill us. We adore sea vegetables, too. Kelp noodles, in fact, have recently become regulars on the menu, in our pho-in-a-jar dish, which you can find in the refrigerated case, and in our increasingly popular pad thai.

 Why sea vegetables?

The kaleidoscope of water-borne vegetables — including both marine salt water and those from freshwater lakes — offer quite a bit, including different flavor profiles. Vegetarians who desire the atmospheric and evocative flavors of seafood, for example, embrace seaweeds, which can impart the flavor of fish without involving the harvesting of a single anchovy. The textures delight as well. Kelp noodles can simultaneously deliver slight crunch, like al dente wheat noodles, with an almost satiny mouthfeel. And classic sea vegetables like hijiki, arame and wakame introduce something gorgeously ethereal to soups, and something delightfully chewy to salads.

The flavors and textures are special, but it is in the realm of nutrition where sea vegetables really shine.

Sea vegetables, which need sunlight to grow and survive, are neither plants nor animals — they are algae, and are commonly grown on coral reefs or rock landscapes. They contain virtually every mineral (about 100 minerals and trace elements) found in the sea, the same minerals found in our blood. Sea vegetables contain between 20 and 50 times the amount of minerals found in land plants.

It’s not just the things with roots that get overshadowed by sea vegetables’ mineral content. Sea lettuce contains 25 times the iron of beef, while the iron content in wakame and kelp quadruples that found in beef. Milk gets touted for its calcium content, but hijiki, arame and wakame, those sea vegetables commonly found in Japanese seaweed salads, contain 10 times more calcium than the liquid we pump out of cows.

Sea vegetables are high in iodine, and thus help boost thyroid hormones, and come packed with vitamin K and iron, both of which are vital for blood. Bones get a boost from folate and calcium.

More? Indeed.

Sea vegetables possess an abundance of lignans, which are phytonutrients that inhibit blood cell growth that are responsible for nourishing cancer cells and for sending cancer cells into the bloodstream. They contain mucilagenous gels, such as algin, carrageenan and agar, which specifically rejuvenate the lungs and the gastrointestinal tract. The mucilagenous quality to sea vegetables helps with digestion, too; digestive tissues, essentially, turn more slippery, and food moves with greater ease through the digestive system.

Earth plants, of course, contain powerful punches of chlorophyll, a potent alkaline substance that is considered “the blood of plants.” Consuming chlorophyll is extremely healthy. Guess what? The highest concentrations of chlorophyll are found in sea vegetables.

Shall we continue? Yes!

The minerals in sea vegetables are in colloid form, meaning that all minerals and elements are fully integrated into the living plant tissue. Among other things, this means the minerals get used by the body, rather than just eliminated as waste.

Due to this overall high concentration of minerals, sea vegetables are extremely dynamic anti-oxidants, and the wallop of nutrients makes sea vegetables vigorous energy boosters.

Finally, sea vegetables are classic detoxifiers.

All of this is foundational for human life. We all begin our development in a saline solution in the womb and are nourished and cleansed by blood that has the same mineral composition as sea water.

They are gifts to humanity. Miracles. And we honor them with great love at Fresh Thymes.