The term "seaweed" is imprecise and some people find it deprecatory: why weed, they ask, and not vegetable? I don't agree. The seaweeds are ancient and highly successful plants. They evolved between 150 and 200 million years ago. By comparison, mammals only arrived 70 millions years ago and homo sapiens has been around just 250,000 years. Seaweed actually refers to a large class of multi-cellular marine plants, the red, green and brown algae. (Some people also include blue-green algae in this group.) There are 1,500 to 2,000 species of brown algae alone (Hoek 1995). e in this group.) There are 1,500 to 2,000 species of brown algae alone (Hoek 1995). The seaweeds are ancient and highly successful plants. They evolved between 150 and 200 million years ago. By comparison, mammals only arrived 70 millions years ago and homo sapiens has been around just 250,000 years.

Seaweed gets a bad rap. There are actually a variety of seaweeds that can be eaten or used in medicine. The one that I am consuming at the moment is Alaria esculenta, which is more commonly known as bladderlocks, dabberlocks or winged kelp. It is similar to the Japanese seaweed called "Wakame," which is best known as the tasty green stuff that floats on the top of miso soup. Alaria is a kelp that grows best in cold northern waters and not surprisingly, therefore is part of the traditional diet in Greenland, Scotland, Iceland and Ireland. In North America it grows in Alaska, Labrador and northern New England.

Alaria's fronds attach to rocks below the low-water mark and eventually can grow to around 10 feet in length. I recently purchased some alaria from the Maine Seaweed Company. This is a small company run by Larch Hanson of Steuben, Maine and is not to be confused with the much larger Maine Coast Sea Vegetable Company down the coast in Franklin. Larch harvests wild seaweed from the pure waters of Gouldsboro Bay and sells it to serious seaweed lovers via the Internet. I was astonished at the size of the package he sent me.

Alaria can be eaten raw if it is presoaked and marinated. I tried this, dressing the chopped fronds with sesame oil, lemon juice, tamari sauce and roasted sesame seeds. I liked the taste and texture but it caused some gastric distress. I have now taken to boiling the seaweed for half an hour and then, after it has cooled, trimming away the central stalks. My advice, if you take up the seaweed habit, is to start introducing it into your diet slowly: as you develop a taste for it, you may be tempted to eat it in bulk as you would, say, spinach. You definitely want to let your digestive system adjust to this new and unusual item.

Seaweed has zero fat and cholesterol and is a good source of beta-carotene (vitamin A), vitamin C, vitamin E (alpha tocopherol), vitamin K, niacin, pantothenic acid and phosphorus, and a very good source of riboflavin, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, copper and manganese. It is famous for its abundance of iodine. It may surprise you then that I started my seaweed adventures with Alaria esculenta because it has a relatively low iodine content. Since I intend to eat seaweed regularly I do not want to overdose on this necessary, but also potentially toxic, mineral.

Seaweed can be mixed into a more conventional green salad (such as baby spinach or arugula leaves), green beans, etc. All in all, alaria is a very nice addition to the diet and definitely a dinner conversation piece.

TO BE CONTINUED, WITH REFERENCES, NEXT WEEK

--Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.

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