seaweed

Dakini Tidal Wilds’ Winged Kelp (Alaria marginata) and Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) are harvested by hand in the Juan de Fuca Strait, on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island. They have been tested by CanTest Ltd. in Vancouver, B.C. and have been shown to be among the purest and most nutritive kelps on the market today. Dakini Tidal Wilds provides customers with a local choice of kelp, since most kelps sold in Canada are imported from Asia. This is surprising because our west coast contains the highest concentration and diversity of kelps in the world!

Seaweed as healer…The Kelp Family

The group of seaweeds known as ‘kelps’ are among the most nutritive and complete foods and are the most concentrated food source of minerals on the planet. Their ability to prevent and eliminate heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium as well as radioactive isotopes, including radioactive strontium90, from the body has been proven over and over again by biological research. Their ability to safely eliminate heavy metals, PCB’s and the by-products of radiation from the body makes kelp one of the most important sources of protection against today’s most harmful environmental toxins.

The profound positive effects of kelps on countless health ailments including psoriasis, eczema, thyroid disease, heart disease and arteriosclerosis, obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, cancer, arthritis, digestive problems, constipation, mental illness and even colds and flus, is due in most part to their rich mineral content that exists in very similar concentrations to human blood. Every process in our body, from nerve impulses to enzyme function to hormone balance, depends on the presence of minerals in specific ratios to function optimally. The minerals contained in kelps are in chelated and colloidal forms, making them highly bio-available (i.e. our bodies can easily absorb and thus utilize them).

Kelps are also high in anti-oxidants, vitamins and protein. Winged Kelp specifically is high in B-vitamins (including B12) and vitamins A, C, K and E. It is the second highest food source of calcium on the planet (Hijiki is the 1st) and is also very high in magnesium, iron, phosphorus and iodine. Winged Kelp is composed of 25% protein, is fat-free and low in calories. Bull kelp is very helpful for inflammation and arthritis, ADD, hyperactivity and depression. It is rich in Ca, Mg, Io, Ca, Br Ph, Fe, fibre, vitamins A,B-complex, C, D, E and K.

All kelps have a gel-like quality to them. These substances counteract hard growths, including cysts and tumours, by softening them and thus encouraging their dissolution. Indeed, several seaweeds from the Phaeophyceae family of algae (the Brown Seaweeds, which include all kelps) have had dramatic results shrinking and dissolving cancerous and fibroid tumours. The soothing gel-like substances are also healing to the lungs and gastrointestinal tract, transform and relieve phlegm and tone and cleanse the organs, particularly the liver.

There has been some controversy over the form of vitamin B12 in seaweeds. While most seaweeds are abundant in this essential vitamin that is crucial for healthy brain and nerve function, and that is not present in any plants, it often is in a different structural form (analogue) from the B12 that humans normally process. Some people in the field believe that humans cannot process the B12 analogue and that it may actually inhibit the useable form of the vitamin. Others, including Naturopathic Dr. Gabriel Cousens, argue that humans can assimilate it, particularly if they consume it on a regular basis. Regardless, seaweeds are powerful healing allies.

Licenses

Amanda Swinimer,

DBA Dakini Tidal Wilds, holds two 2010 Federal

Seaweed Harvesting licenses:

License No. 105192 to harvest Alaria spp.

(Winged Kelp)

License No. 105194 to harvest Nereocystis leutkeana (Bull Kelp)

Amanda Swinimer, DBA Dakini Tidal Wilds, holds a Ministry of Agriculture and Lands ‘Plant License’ under the category ‘Marine Plant Processing’. This allows Amanda Swinimer to dry the seaweed and sell it as food.

Plant License No.:

2010-00001

Algae & Seaweeds…Our Evolutionary Mother?

The popular theory among the science community today is that all life on Earth evolved from an organism similar to today’s blue-green algae, cyanobacteria. I have fun reflecting on that theory and it remains present in my mind when I harvest seaweed and when I eat it. It fascinates me that most seaweeds contain every mineral essential to sustaining human life, often in the same ratio as human blood. If the ocean is the womb of life, as many myths describe, is algae the first born? Algae & seaweeds are indeed very ancient life-forms.

Algae and seaweeds make up a diverse evolutionary group. In fact, in current Linnaean taxonomy, the group of organisms referred to as algae (including seaweeds) span five kingdoms, 4 of them comprised solely of algae! So while humans are grouped together in Kingdom Animalia with fish, sponges and insects, the algae are so evolutionarily different even from each other that they require different kingdoms! The organisms we refer to as seaweeds are actually just the larger, plant-resembling algae. The micro-alga cyanobacteria, or blue-green, is physiologically a photosynthesizing bacterium, as are many other micro-algae such as chlorella. Seaweeds, alternatively, have eukaryotic cells, like all organisms on Earth other than bacteria. Seaweeds also photosynthesize, like plants.

Seaweed

Nature’s Secret to Balancing Your Metabolism, Fighting Disease, and Revitalizing Body & Soul by Valerie Gennari Cooksley, RN

Dakini Tidal Wilds is listed on page 188 of the book SEAWEED under Resources from the Deep Sea Vegetables (Reputable, ethical harvesters of natural seaweed)

For more info and to order the book SEAWEED go to Flora Medica Natural Health Books

Harvesting Alaria, 8 months pregnant with my youngest daughter, Nesika…there were orcas in the Strait that day and Mahina (my oldest daughter who was 1 ½ years then) was watching from the beach