Actually, I would be careful eating seaweed now. It was once a kind of comfort food for me as a child but I was very sad to see this message on many packages of food recently in the store: "WARNING This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm."
I'm almost certain it is the seaweed that is triggering the warning but please let me know if you know more about it. My mom always told me never to eat seaweed you found on the beach too. There are many different varieties and some of the them are naturally toxic, and there is the issue of pollution.
But I still eat it once in a while, it is hard to resist those sushi rolls and other treats, plus it seems like California is very cautious about these types of things.
I never eat it off the beach - ever. It has not been sanitized in any way. I used to eat it as a kid too! We used it in all of our seafood we caught. It is very hard to resist!!
Kombu or the Laminaria named ones always seem to draw concern for the iodine toxicity. That may possibly be the kind you are seeing? Carrageenan, which is used in some products has been known to cause gastrointestinal inflamation. (It is a well-known thickening agent in organic foods)
And of course, the pollution factor in our oceans. So, I limit my intake, whereas we used to eat it on a regular basis. On a brighter note, seaweed that is eaten in combination with vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and soya, inhibit iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. Which happens to be the biggest deal.
Does that help? @lightsplasher
!tip
Thanks for the detailed answer. It is still a bit of mystery to me. It seems like I have seen the warning on things imported from Japan or Korea with any seaweed in them. Perhaps there is some other issue - it is tough to know what things are good to eat sometimes. I just thought I would chime in mostly just in case someone out there started self harvesting seaweed off the beach.
I really think it is the iodine and the pollution, so you can only eat so much or be at risk for heavy metal poisoning or thyroid.
Good thinking about the seaweed on the beach. It never occurred to me, but you are right. Thank you for that.