Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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I am a seaweed fiend, descended in large part from coastal Europeans, and I'm pretty sure seaweed would have made up at least some part of the diet historically. In "Primal Minds, Primal Bodies" there was a blurb about people of Japanese descent being uniquely able to digest seaweed. My first thought was, "Well that's just freakin' racist!" But then I calmed down a bit, and thought about it more, maybe it is true, and somehow coastal people from the rest of the world who incorporate seaweed into their diets perhaps haven't been eating it long enough to truly adapt. Who knows? Do you?

flag	asked Sep 13 2011 at 21:52 Happy Now 25.6k●13●68

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Eating seaweed changes your intestinal flora due to its unique sulfated polysaccharides. The more seaweed one eats, the more the intestinal flora changes. – Jay Sep 14 2011 at 2:44

Ooh, interesting. So by eating seaweed, I'm adapting my body to eat seaweed? Sweet! – Happy Now Sep 14 2011 at 3:06

Jay- Changes how? – Dan Nov 9 at 2:35

Bread-Eating Beelzebub · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 22:11:16Z UTC

Yeah, they found that Japanpese gut bacteria had stolen a gene from some seaweed bacteria to be able to digest some special carbohydrates in seaweed. I freaking love seaweed and I wish I had that gene. The main consequence for not having it would probably be that some of the carbs in the seaweed might not be completely digested, which might lead to stomach upset. Indeed, I find an upper limit to what I can eat personally. Once I ate a whole package of laver and I was kind of gassy for a day.

It is possible some westerners have similar gut bacteria genes. The Welsh used to eat a fair amount of seaweed, for example. They haven't done very many studies looking for horizontal transfer of gut bacteria.

Travis Culp · Answer 2 · 2011-09-13 22:32:27Z UTC

Well the most important component in seaweed that you may not be sourcing from other food is iodine, but I haven't heard an argument that a particular people are better at absorbing iodine from seaweed than others. If anything, the differences would be along the lines of better absorption with greater deficiency.

Thumper · Answer 3 · 2011-09-14 00:20:19Z UTC

Many Coastal First Nations have been harvesting and drying seafood for tens of generations on the west coast of Canada and the US, so it would stand to reason that these people would also digest the seaweed better.

So your gut flora is specifically adapted to digest it more efficiently...I say eat it! It's delicious and good for you!

Nori · Answer 4 · 2012-11-09 02:23:07Z UTC

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How can a race have special bacteria in their stomachs? I was under the impression out stomaches are bacteria free till we are exposed firstly to bacteria via exiting the vagina.

answered Nov 9 at 2:23

Nori
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We do get a biggest dose of bacteria that colonizes our gut during birth, but it was discovered recently that the "sterile baby" thing isn't true, there is some transfer of bacteria from mother to child during gestation. – Happy Now Nov 10 at 2:24

Domtx008 · Answer 5 · 2011-11-10 20:57:01Z UTC

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any concern re the effect of radioactive fallout on the seaweed sources? I've been eating kelp and nori on a daily basis for the past couple of months and someone recently alerted me to the dangers of radioactivity.

answered Nov 10 2011 at 20:57

Domtx008
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I have been buying from this company in Maine lately theseaweedman.com – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Nov 10 2011 at 21:17

thanks for the info – Domtx008 Nov 10 2011 at 23:02

I'm pretty sure food leaving Japan is being screened heavily for radioactivity. I've become less paranoid thinking more about it considering the iodine in the seaweed makes our thyroids less vulnerable to radioactivity, wouldn't it make the plant itself less vulnerable too. I think overall I'd be more concerned about general pollution and heavy metals. – Happy Now Nov 11 2011 at 10:22

Digesting seaweed, does ancestry really matter?

5 Answers