Is eating kelp every day good for your health?

Kelp is a very popular food and can often be seen on ordinary people’s tables. So is it good for the body to eat kelp every day? In fact, specific problems need to be analyzed specifically. If you have no disease and are in good physical condition, eating kelp has many benefits. However, patients with coagulation disorders cannot eat kelp every day as it will accelerate the disease. This article introduces several situations in detail, let’s take a look.

There are many ways to eat kelp, it can be eaten cold, stir-fried, or stewed into soup. It is for this reason that kelp has become one of the most common foods on people’s tables. In fact, kelp is also known as the "longevity vegetable". Eating some kelp on a daily basis is very beneficial to promoting good health.

"Bencao Gangmu" records that kelp "can cure water-borne diseases and goiters, with the same efficacy as seaweed." This actually refers to the powerful health-promoting effects of kelp. Of course, modern nutrition science also shows that kelp contains various nutrients and trace elements needed by the human body, especially iodine, whose content ranks first among many foods. In addition, the content of rich B vitamins, calcium, iron, alginate, laminarin and other nutrients needed by the human body is also quite high. Therefore, Chinese medicine believes that eating kelp regularly can nourish the liver, nourish the kidneys, eliminate phlegm and promote diuresis.

Because kelp is rich in iodine, which is an important raw material for synthesizing thyroid hormone, eating more kelp can prevent iodine-deficiency thyroid disease. Especially for some areas where iodine consumption is too low, more attention should be paid to iodine intake.

Kelp also has anti-tumor effects. The rich laminarin in kelp can activate macrophages. It can also inhibit the spread of tumor cells and reduce the occurrence of tumors, thereby preventing cancer.

Lowering blood pressure. Eating kelp regularly can also help lower blood pressure, especially for middle-aged and elderly patients with hypertension, they should eat kelp regularly in daily life. Studies have found that the laminin and thiaminic acid found in kelp have the effect of lowering blood pressure. At the same time, because kelp can effectively excrete fat in the esophagus from the body, eating kelp regularly can help reduce fat and lose weight, keeping you young.

The study also found that kelp is a food with anti-coagulant effects, because kelp is rich in rock algae polysaccharides and fucoidan, which have certain anti-coagulant effects.

To reduce the harm caused by radiation, people who work in places with severe radiation for a long time should eat more kelp on a daily basis to utilize the active substances in it to reduce the harm of radioactive elements or metal elements to the human body. Studies have found that a certain substance in kelp can also excrete insoluble compounds from the body, reducing various harms to the human body.

Of course, in addition to these health benefits, eating kelp regularly can also help improve the body's immunity and lower blood sugar. Especially for those with high blood sugar, they should eat more kelp on a daily basis.

So does it mean that eating kelp has many benefits to the body, and we can eat kelp every day? The answer is of course no. We say that everything has its limits. If consumed in excess, it will also have some adverse effects on human health.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that kelp is cold in nature. Therefore, people with weak spleen and stomach should not eat kelp in large quantities, so as not to aggravate the problem of weak spleen and stomach. In addition, although kelp is rich in iodine, if consumed too much, it may induce goiter, which is called "hyperthyroidism" in daily life, causing the heart rate to accelerate, which increases appetite and is not conducive to weight loss, etc.

Therefore, you need to pay attention to the amount of kelp you eat. From a health point of view, it is best for adults not to consume more than 50 grams per day, 15 to 50 grams is appropriate, and children should reduce it by half. In addition, please be reminded to wash the kelp thoroughly before eating it. It is best to rinse it. At the same time, because kelp contains arsenic, it is best to soak it for 24 hours before cooking to comply with national food hygiene standards.