Eating Algae?

[laterade]

Hello! I recently started experimenting with spirulina.
I would like to know how many of us have tried it.

Who loves it? Hates it?

How much? How often?

What brand?

I'd like to hear anything you have to add!

[goodsamaritan]

Me and my brother get constipated on spirulina.
So we stopped that experiment.

[TylerDurden]

Algae? Waste of time, not raw and highly unlikely to be palaeo, either. I used to go in heavily  for Klamath Lake algae in my raw vegan days as I was worried re vitamin B12-level-issues, but I subsequently found data showing that B12 in algae was not properly assimilated by humans.

*Please put dodgy topics like alage in the hot topics forum, in future. Moved there now.*

[raw-al]

Anything new on this?

[JeuneKoq]

I know a source of supposedly raw (that's what they told me) algae kept fresh in cold temperatures with sea salt. They have three different kinds, such as sea spaghetti and wakame. I tried some, and they seemed fresh to me. Just have to desalt them with tap water.

I heard they were good for boosting the thyroid gland.

Algae could very well be Paleo, if they grow on the seashore.

[raw-al]

JK,
thanks,
my daughter is preparing to grow some in their house and so I am looking into it. I am close to the ocean so will get some seawater. Just need to get the starter spirulina.

Apparently their are places in the world where they get it from the water.

Here is a quote from Mercola's site
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/07/01/spirulina-the-amazing-super-food-youve-never-heard-of.aspx

"Historical records report the harvesting and selling of cakes made from spirulina harvested from Lake Texcoco. It was rediscovered in the 1950's in the same place where it has said to have its origins2 by a European scientific mission. The spirulina was being harvested and sold in dried flat cakes called "dihé" at the local markets, where natives would use it as a staple for many of their meals."

[JeuneKoq]

You might have to check first if fresh water algae can be grown in the same environment as salt water algae. I personally doubt it.

[raw-al]

OK you are right I was thinking it was salt water.

[JeuneKoq]

I guess your daughter would not have been too happy if you'd poison her fancy water grass

[sabertooth]

I have found that eating algae seems to cause some kind of gut stagnation. Perhaps it neutralizes gut enzymes and causes too much alkalinity for my own gut ecology. It seems like my gut microbes just don't want anything to do with it and it comes out the other side looking green and undigested

Perhaps for people eating a more conventional diet, who have a different ecology, it could be used to neutralize excess acidity or aid in the elimination of toxins, or provide some prebiotic benefit....... as some of the new age alternative health nutritionist claim. But in my opinion it is a very nutrient poor food which is difficult to break down and assimilate naturally.

Of course I have never eaten any raw algae, outside of the small amounts naturally occurring in food and water....that dried, powdered, split cell wall stuff they sell as a superfood just isn't very appealing, the bad taste keeps me from even trying it, even in small amounts.....

[raw-al]

ST,
Maybe it would be apropos to have it in smaller quantities with something else.

[JeuneKoq]

Saber, maybe algaes -or at least the variety you tried- are just not appropriate to you at the moment, but I doubt that they are only good for people on a conventional diet, or that they are "nutrient poor". After all, they are as accessible a paleo food as any other seafood.

Sea spaghetti, for example, can be harvested anywhere between the Scandinavian coast and Portugal. The young ones still attached to a support (rocks, wrecks...) are best to eat, and the tip is usually the only part collected.

[raw-al]

Are there other algaes available?

[Iguana]

Plenty different varieties available for free on some see shores at low tide. Some are good and some are not, just taste it and spit it if it tastes bad.   

[sabertooth]

Saber, maybe algaes -or at least the variety you tried- are just not appropriate to you at the moment, but I doubt that they are only good for people on a conventional diet, or that they are "nutrient poor". After all, they are as accessible a paleo food as any other seafood.

Sea spaghetti, for example, can be harvested anywhere between the Scandinavian coast and Portugal. The young ones still attached to a support (rocks, wrecks...) are best to eat, and the tip is usually the only part collected.

Sea weeds are a much different matter all together, from algae. I love to eat sea weed and have no issue with it, and believe that I benefit from the iodine and other trace minerals in it, that may be lacking in the land based foods I eat. I haven't had sea spaghetti, but I regularly use dulse to top off my salads. There are many sea vegetables that are loaded with excellent nutritional profiles.

But when talking about Algae, I must insist that some people may have issues with its digestibility.

 I would like to make a comparison of algae, to wheat grass.... Some people insist that juicing grass is a healthy practice, and perhaps it does have some merit, but for many people it just does not provide the benefits which other more easily assimilated vegetables may offer. Like grass, algae having an extremely tough cell wall, is something our guts have never fully developed the capacity to easily break down, and although they may have some minor nutrient components which fit the paleo paradigm, in my opinion you would be much better off eating more easily digested plants such as leafy greens or sea weeds.

[cherimoya_kid]

Sea weeds are a much different matter all together, from algae. I love to eat sea weed and have no issue with it, and believe that I benefit from the iodine and other trace minerals in it, that may be lacking in the land based foods I eat. I haven't had sea spaghetti, but I regularly use dulse to top off my salads. There are many sea vegetables that are loaded with excellent nutritional profiles.

But when talking about Algae, I must insist that some people may have issues with its digestibility.

 I would like to make a comparison of algae, to wheat grass.... Some people insist that juicing grass is a healthy practice, and perhaps it does have some merit, but for many people it just does not provide the benefits which other more easily assimilated vegetables may offer. Like grass, algae having an extremely tough cell wall, is something our guts have never fully developed the capacity to easily break down, and although they may have some minor nutrient components which fit the paleo paradigm, in my opinion you would be much better off eating more easily digested plants such as leafy greens or sea weeds.

I think part of the problem with wheatgrass juice is that it is often low-Brix and lacking in nutrition. High-Brix wheatgrass juice is quite sweet to the taste.  If it's bitter, it's too low in nutrition to be worth consuming.

[raw-al]

I think part of the problem with wheatgrass juice is that it is often low-Brix and lacking in nutrition. High-Brix wheatgrass juice is quite sweet to the taste.  If it's bitter, it's too low in nutrition to be worth consuming.

What would cause it to be high-brix?

Bitter is actually quite good for digestion which is typically one of the issues that creep up in old age.

[Iguana]

Sea weeds are a much different matter all together, from algae.

So, algae and sea weeds are not the same in English? I thought both mean "algues marines" in French, but I was wrong, then.

[TylerDurden]

So, algae and sea weeds are not the same in English? I thought both mean "algues marines" in French, but I was wrong, then.

Strange that the French language does not seem to have alternate terms for algae and seaweed. I checked google translate and my french-speaking relatives but no luck.... At any rate , "algae" are the unicellular types of plant-like  organisms in seas and lakes, with more complex multicellular types being called "seaweed", such as kelp, bladderwrack etc.

[eveheart]

If you look up the dictionary definition of algae, the word does include seaweeds and single-celled sea plants.

However, the distinction between seaweed and single-celled algae is made in common English usage.

So, hurrah! both of you are right.

[raw-al]

Interesting because I always thought that French was more descriptive. For instance if a floatplane alights on the water we say that it "landed" even though it didn't touch land. In French it is "amerir". mer is the word for sea. I guess that shoots the theory I had down.

Algae is the stuff the looks like a cloud in the water.

[Inger]

Sea spaghetti is my favorite seaweed, and dulce is too.....
I order from Orkos.. they have amazing seaweed quality..... imo

[Inger]

I still believe it is way more beneficial to eat seafood than seaweeds.
I eat both..... but seaweed just a little here and there and seafood... loads of...... it is my staple food

If I eat too much seaweed I get heart palps. I do not have it every day, but mostly weekly / a few days / week.

I always eat seaweed raw.

I love to soak sea spaghetti in water, drink the water, and when the sea spaghetti is very soft after maybe 2 days, I add new water and mix into a smoothie and drink it... plain. I so love that... yummy!
Dulce I add into my raw fish meals... yum yum yum

[sabertooth]

If you look up the dictionary definition of algae, the word does include seaweeds and single-celled sea plants.

However, the distinction between seaweed and single-celled algae is made in common English usage.

So, hurrah! both of you are right.

I was always told that algae was the single celled organism, and that seaweed is a much more complex multicellular plant. It is important to note the difference between the two.  The primary distinction I would like to focus attention to is the difference in cell wall structure. Correct me if I am mistaken, but I think that the single celled plant organisms such as "algae" typically have a much thicker cell wall that is much more difficult for our digestive track to break down, than the edible varieties of " seaweed"

Sea spaghetti is my favorite seaweed, and dulce is too.....
I order from Orkos.. they have amazing seaweed quality..... imo

I am going to have to try the Sea spaghetti for sure..... I have been getting a good quality getting dulse, that if it wasn't so expensive, I would eat much more often. I also will put some of it into my drinking water containers to provide a good mineral balance to my water, especially when I am out of blood and am craving electrolytes.