Kelp for calcium?

[Shoshannah]

I read in Alissa's book that one teaspoon of kelp has a thousand more times calcium than a glass of milk. I know that it also has iodine and is helpful for thyroid issues, but I had a total thyroidectomy five years ago, thanks to cancer.

Question is: My bone scan revealed mild osteopenia and my doctor has recommended calcium supplements. Can I use kelp for calcium even if I have no thyroid? Will it mess up my Synthroid dose?

[pdx kris]

I'm not sure about kelp, but juicing kale (which tastes bad by itself but with an apple and a lemon added it, tastes great) is a great way to get calcium. Romaine lettuce is also a great source of calcium.

I know a lot of people here are fans of the green smoothie, but honestly most green smoothies are fruit smoothies with a handful of greens thown in (nothing wrong with that). If you're looking to add a lot of calcium to the diet, juicing is a great way to go!

Also, if you don't already, it's best to avoid coffee and especially any type of soda, they leech calcium from the bones.

[luckitri]

Anyone have palatable kelp? Or know how to make it palatable? I have some powdered kelp and it is nasty. I can eat a whole package of dulse or nori in 1 sitting but kelp - yecch!

I read that the kelp that has the bad flavor removed also has most of nutrient value removed as well.

Suggestions anyone?

Shoshanna, I have been looking up seaweeds for a couple of days and have not gotten too far. The US government entities recommend against seaweed use because it is not monitored and they say it can mess up your medication. True or false I do not know. Alternative health sites recommend it for thyroid but I have found no specifics yet other than I am getting the idea that kelp, dulse and nori are good for thyroid.

Ethically it is questionable to do seaweed because the harvesting techniques are not being monitered well and ecological balance is being harmed worldwide by overharvesting. 1 site that I read advocated that we start building seaweed farms. I bought some anyway.

My other question about seaweeds from my own personal knowledge is this. Older communities historically dumped their sewage into the ocean. Seaweed only grows in a narrow area of coastline between the shore and the deep. I remember as a child in Maine that the town sewage pipe dumped into the ocean right by my house. I bought the seaweed anyway - hoping that my body would go yuch if it is too polluted.

Monitoring of quality of product. My local HFS sells dulse for $6 a mouthful for me. I went to the Asian market and got the same amount of the same seaweed for 99cents. I know that I would rather buy US made but am not working right now. The seaweeds that I bought from China did not say what kind they were but I know it is dulse. The product is not as salty as the US one. Since both US and China are guilty of overharvesting I don't know that it is more ethical to buy one than the other.

Sesame seeds are very high calcium but most humans bodies do not digest them whole - they must be ground. Someone posted a kale chip recipe on here that calls for tahini coating which would be a good portable calcium snack. I plan on looking into it when I feel well enough.

[mershwista]

I cannot believe that a teaspoon of kelp would, alone, have 1000x more calcium than one glass of milk. Perhaps, though, I could believe that kelp, by either volume or weight, contains a higher percentage of many given minerals than milk. If someone can offer stats and a reliable source for them, I'd be interested to learn more.

[Bredelly]

A glass of milk has 250mg of calcium so a teaspoon of kelp would have 250,000 miligrams according to that 1000x figure. 250,000 miligrams equals 250 grams, which is over half a lb. Half a lb of calcium in a teaspoon? Maybe she meant it has 1000 times the calcium by weight. A teaspoon of dried kelp won't weight very much.

[Rawzula]

My kelp tablets contain 60mg of Calcium (as calcium sulfate)

150 mcg of Iodine (kelp)

[Pierre]

A glass of milk has 250mg of calcium so a teaspoon of kelp would have 250,000 miligrams according to that 1000x figure. 250,000 miligrams equals 250 grams, which is over half a lb. Half a lb of calcium in a teaspoon? Maybe she meant it has 1000 times the calcium by weight. A teaspoon of dried kelp won't weight very much.
I think someone misplaced a decimal point to arrive at that figure. I have a bag of kelp. It says that a serving is 7 g (there are several hunks in the bag and, except for the ones at the bottom, each is 7 g) and contains 7% of calcium. The Daily Value of calcium is 1 g, so 7% is 70 mg.

How do you prepare the kelp? I soak it in water until it has softened enough to peel the layers apart and look for snails. I have no problem with the taste. It's from MCSV.

[Shoshannah]

Quote from Alissa's book, page 159:

"Certainly most people do not know that one teaspoon of sea kelp mixed in a glass of water gives approximately a thousand times more calcium (without animal protein) than an eight ounce glass of milk" She does not list a source for her info.

I have kelp granules that I grind up and drink with orange juice. Doesn't taste too bad going down, but has a fishy aftertaste that I kill with a couple of dates :p

Luckitri, thanks for all your info on seaweed... you have really done your research! I may search for alternative means to increase my calcium. I love sesame seed milk, so that may be a better option for me.

pdxchris, thanks for the advice on juicing greens! I never have tried it before but I love kale and I may give it a whirl.

Thanks for all the replies... I am hoping my next bone scan will be a winner!

[mershwista]

Maybe most people do not know that simply because it isn't true: Alissa has given faulty information here. We can tell because if we look at the nutrition label on a package of kelp we see that 7 grams yields only 70% DV of calcium, and if this is so, a teaspoon of kelp, which weighs far less than 7g, has LESS than 70%...

A glass of milk contains 30% DV calcium. SO, unless Alissa truly has reason to believe that somehow 1 tsp kelp contains 30,000% DV of calcium (instead of LESS than 70%), she is giving false information.

[mershwista]

A glass of milk has 250mg of calcium so a teaspoon of kelp would have 250,000 miligrams according to that 1000x figure. 250,000 miligrams equals 250 grams, which is over half a lb. Half a lb of calcium in a teaspoon? Maybe she meant it has 1000 times the calcium by weight. A teaspoon of dried kelp won't weight very much.

That's what I'm thinking, too. She ought to word her book so that this is conveyed if in fact it is the case.

[exurb]

1 cup of whole milk = 276 mg calcium
1 tsp kelp = 2.83 mg of calcium

Check any nutrition database.

I find I have to watch my calcium intake, it was really low when I wasn't tracking it and eating raw, I really have to make an effort to get anywhere close to the required amount.

Some things that help keep it up are cabbage and other things in that "brassica" family, and sesame seeds. You can choose your nuts and seeds accordingly to try to get a little more calcium there, and some other veggies which are a moderate source of calcium can bring up the total a little.

Try recording what you eat and adding up the calcium by looking up your eats on a database. It is enlightening, and may affect how you choose your foods, especially if a deficiency has manifested itself for you.

There was a list posted here of raw foods with decent calcium content, maybe someone could post it if they have it.

[Bredelly]

Unfortunately it seems that claims such as these are not uncommon among ardent raw foodists. It's unfortunate because it erodes the credibility of the raw food movement, despite the fact that raw foods are logically ideal. It makes it seem more like people are in it to profit from it.

[mershwista]

Unfortunately it seems that claims such as these are not uncommon among ardent raw foodists. It's unfortunate because it erodes the credibility of the raw food movement, despite the fact that raw foods are logically ideal. It makes it seem more like people are in it to profit from it.

Agreed! False or exaggerated claims hurt the progress of every movement. It's too bad, really...people are so desperate to gain followers that they will make extreme (but exaggerated) claims in order to do this.

But, having said that, my commitment to raw is not entirely due to any ONE person--it's of my own personal experience! And I think that for anything that is how we should decide what is good and important to us. It's too bad that most of society IS so closed-minded that it TAKES thse extreme claims to even grab their attention.

[LightLover]

[QUOTE=exurb;263583]1 cup of whole milk = 276 g calcium
1 tsp kelp = 2.83 g of calcium

Check any nutrition database.

* that is not possible exurb 1 cup of whole milk can be 276 g milk,
but not 276 g calcium. That would make the claciumcontent 100%.


I think you mean miligram (mg) and not gram (g)
Nutritiondata says 1 cup milk (244 g) contains 290 mg calcium .
This can be different for different types of milk


LL

[exurb]

yeah, that was a typo, I meant to type mg. (milligrams not grams).

I will correct the above post.



1 cup of whole milk = 276 mg calcium
1 tsp kelp = 2.83 mg of calcium

[meinleben]

luckitri

kelp noodles are tasty....you can get them in refrigerated section in health food store...i think the brand is goldmine....

add them to salads...they are clear noodles...and "RAW"....they take on the taste of other things in the salad...and are satisfying...

[luckitri]

Thanks meinleben! I think I will stick with the nasty tasting stuff for now though because I do know that nutrients get left out when things get processed.

[mershwista]

luckitri

kelp noodles are tasty....you can get them in refrigerated section in health food store...i think the brand is goldmine....

add them to salads...they are clear noodles...and "RAW"....they take on the taste of other things in the salad...and are satisfying...

Where do you find these?

[Davylp25]

Kelp Noodles!

http://www.seatanglenoodle.com/index.html

[mershwista]

That's amazing---thank you!

[GreenPrince]

I read in Alissa's book that one teaspoon of kelp has a thousand more times calcium than a glass of milk.

Alissa writes "gives", not "has", thus:
"...gives approximately a thousand times more calcium..."
There is a difference.

It isn't about the content as such, but the assimilation and effect of calcium. Well, the difference is still high and I don't have any further source, but there are several well-known negative effects of milk consuming, among them this.

Consuming of processed cow milk is positively correlated to osteoporosis amnong human beings. There are likely several biochemical factors in the milk, among them the milk proteins.

Murray Rose, the Australian vegan and swimming legend with 4 Olympic Gold medals and 15 world records, was one of the first to point out negative effects of milk consuming, among them the mucus secretion, which impaired the breathing during physical performances. He was very fond of seaweed and got the nick-name ”The Seaweed Streak”.

The are good vegan sources for calcium.

[mershwista]

If we're talking about absorbability here, that makes sense--I wonder who has done the studies and investigated which sources of calcium are the most absorbable. That would be interesting to read about.

[LightLover]

* 1) Milk has to MUCH calcium (much more than mothermilk!)
and is 2) also to low in Magnesium (the Magnesium/Calcium ratio is disturbed)
3) also pasteurization damages the absorptioncapicity of the calcium


* Also: all milk has hormones from nature (estrogen and progesteron I think), even when not added by "Criminals". Bad fact...



LL

[mershwista]

So true, Lightlover! I was vegan before I was raw, and those are facts I like to tell my friends who still wonder why I refuse meat, milk, and eggs. And people wonder how we are not all calcium-deficient...and how it is that vegans in general have a lower risk of osteoporosis---imagine that, we milk shunners not getting osteoporosis...lol

Another thing to add to your point about the hormones...this is one reason why girls are beginning to develop at such a young age these days and are also reaching record weights and heights so young! This is not a sign of a healthy culture, rather, one that is undernourished and overfed.

[LightLover]

Mershwista, even in Japan now girls are getting their "period" much earlier, because of the natural hormones in the milk they consume much more than in earlier times.

LL

[mershwista]

That I can believe! When the Japanese started drinking cow's milk, they experienced a lot of new health problems.