How to Boost Your Immune System with Wakame Seaweed

[@moriken1234]

for those people that are concerned with pollutants, here's a comment from an ecologist who happen to be also a Japanese. Pollutants get concentrated higher up in the food chain, like tuna or whales, in a process called biomagnification. Wakame is pretty much at the bottom of the food chain, so I would worry with pollutants with fish before I would worry about pollutants in wakame.

[@cindyjones4190]

wakame is delicious in miso soup with soft tofu cubes, a little green onion, sprinkled with sesame seeds. 🌝

[@oonchneech2595]

Agreed !

[@JayNa886]

I'm Japanese...I loved how he said "Wakame~" !!😆😉😙

[@disconouvo3037]

Wakeme up before you go-go!

[@RonnieMinh]

My wife Minh has developed a most delicious "Seaweed Chip" made from Wakame. We sold thousands of bags of Minh's chips at Raw Food Expos, we spent a year trying to get anybody interested in helping us develop our chips for market but could not find any chip manufacturer to partner with us. We have a fantastic Seaweed Chip, but for now, I will be the only person enjoying them.

[@jbmop]

Ronnie & Minh Any advice on how to make seaweed salad or chips for home?

[@RonnieMinh]

We hope to put out a video on both in the near future.

[@Simnettnutrition]

Don't give up! It sounds like a great idea. Get on Dragon's Den!!

[@anarkitype4017]

There certainly seems to be a CORALlation.

[@reverieasmr1444]

They certainly seem to be KELPing.

[@SimpleStrongScience]

Big fan of the way you developed this video with an emphasis on actual evidence. Great work.

[@Catstache]

This is amazing because I'm obsessed with seaweed salad and homemade sushi lately

[@harryh3409]

Be careful with seaweed salad in stores, make sure you read the ingredients!! Also stay away from seaweed salads at Japanese restaurants because they buy it pre-made and it almost always contains high fructose corn syrup (among other ingredients that should be avoided). The best is when made at home.

[@Simnettnutrition]

Yes I was going to comment this too! So much food dye as well.

[@WeCelebrateEatingPlants]

Derek have you done a video on this? I would be interested in learning the ways restaurant foods can mess with us beyond the obvious having to remove dairy and animals. The other day someone mentioned salad bars putting stuff on lettuce too @@Simnettnutrition

[@carrietoo]

Recently fell in love with seaweed salad. Glad to hear how good it is for me.

[@PotatoStrong]

I bought the dried wakame recently as a potential source of iodine. It's very expensive here. Also, I tend to gag after a few seconds when the fishy/seaweedy or whatever taste kicks in.

[@RiseHeroic]

Potato Strong fish poop taste

[@janebovary3560]

Potato Strong try it with roasted sesame oil. omg so good. just like in the picture. wakame salad yum

[@peaches75x]

Note, the photo is of hiyashi wakame, a fresh form of wakame. It is shipped as a frozen premade salad.

[@neofilm]

I wonder if anyone has any suggestions other than adding oil to improve the taste

[@sowhat...]

neofilm you can add it to a salad and make a homemade dressing in a blender with whatever you want and that will mask pretty much anything. That being said I'm not so sure anything that doesn't taste good to you on its own is intended by nature to be consumed at all.

[@aluxbalum]

It seems all studies mentioned here where carried out on Japanese populations, how would a population that does not consume seaweeds cope with digesting and properly reaping the mentioned benefits? It is my understanding Japanese and other seaweed consuming populations produce enzymes such as alginase to help brakedown the seaweed cells membrane and reap the nutritional and medicinal benefits.

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

Great question.

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

Wouldn't the drying and powdering process naturally crack the cell walls though? The people outside of Japan wouldn't be eating fresh seaweed so then that issue wouldn't come up then.

[@Krillin1993]

Kombu Wakame Hijiki and Nori are very delicious in Soup the natural glutamat which belongs to the umami taste you definitely need no salt in it!

[@t.dianenguyen4320]

Hi Doctor ! Thank you so much ! Eating seaweed right away ! :)

[@は私です彼の名前]

I LOVE this guy!!!

[@remy7663]

Wow! I actually ate this the day I got the covid vaccine shot without even knowing of its benefits! I really liked the taste and went to the internet to search for it after, and found this! What a coincidence.

[@RobSpiderBJJ]

is it dangerous to have seaweed that was harvested off the coast of Japan? I'm thinking in terms of the radiation caused by fukushima.

[@lifebeginswithaseed]

RobSpiderBJJ I was just about to comment the same. Yeah, that would be a no-go.

[@RobSpiderBJJ]

yes I usually get dollar which was harvested in Atlantic.

[@lifebeginswithaseed]

Good to know!

[@RonnieMinh]

The oceans are pretty big, I think any radiation in the ocean has dissipated to all of t he oceans by now. However, I am not a scientist, I am a philosopher.

[@A_A828]

I've been worried about this too. I wish there was more information available on radiation in seaweeds. I can't find any conclusive answers, very annoying. I have some sushi sitting in my fridge right now with Japanese nori, I'm kinda paranoid about eating it to be honest. Why isn't this stuff constantly checked for radiation by authorities or something?

[@kayenacur]

So last night I met my dead grandma in a dream and she recommended wakake mushroom ramen soup to prevent pneumonia. Wakake appears to be an African singer, so I'm pretty sure she must have meant wakame (I didn't know about this seaweed before this dream). Low and behold, this video pops up in my feed today. Not sure what to make of it, but I'll be looking for wakame today...

[@Beanzer80]

I am surprised that dr greger hasn't done a video on natto yet. It's supposed to be super healthy for the heart and can even clear up blood clots.

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

I don't know if he would since for one thing, it would be hard to get very many people to eat it. I eat it and like it, but I like a lot of weird things (and it took me a few times to get used to it, also). The other thing is that it contains spermidine, which Dr. Greger has, in a previous video on luncheon meat*, implicated as a cause of cellulite (dimples on thighs). I haven't noticed any increase in cellulite since I started eating natto and I don't have much anyway. I think spermidine is a good thing since it induces autophagy and that's why I eat natto. *nutritionfacts.org/?fwp_search=spermidine&fwp_content_type=video

[@NGC6144]

Who cares if it is a miracle food, natto looks disgusting; Slimy, gooey fermented whole soybeans. I bet it smells like someone's... Aren't some foods just too revolting?

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

A chaqun a son gout, as they say. I was interested enough in the spermidine and K2 to give it a try, and now after adding in some spicy mustard or horseradish, I like it. Edit: I got tired of the styrofoam packaging so now I even make it myself in my Instant Pot.

[@hnavarro9504]

Rionra Bba Yep but it's probably the most repulsive fucking thing you could eat. Looks hideous, smells horrible and tastes worst than puking after binge drinking cheap vodka. When I ate meat I'd eat anything, even raw internal organs, insects and shit. I work as a fireman and I've seen dead kids, burnt bodies and teenagers crushed under trucks. I once got covered in feces and other body fluids of an unconscious 94 yo woman. I've got a very insensitive nose and I'm barely able to feel flavors, i really just see food as fuel for my body. When I was student and broke I tried freeganism for almost a year, I ate spoiled food from the trash around campus and my town, whatever it was no matter how it looked or tasted. But I'll never forget the day I tried natto. Never again. I don't want to be in the same building where that soybased crushed fetus rotten brain is being served.

[@laurieparis2203]

NGC6144 If you can't stand the gooey slime of natto, you can put it in a food dehydrator. This turns it into a krispy, rice cake texture biscuit. The flavor packets they include with it, really add a good flavor. Or you could put avocado slices on top, which will enhance the absorption of the K2.

[@turbonbc]

I sprinkle dulse and nutritional yeast on most of my food :)

[@peaches75x]

Note, the photo is of hiyashi wakame, a fresh form of wakame. It is only sold as a defrosted premade salad in restaurants.

[@andysmith7731]

Thanks Doc.

[@Justbemyselff]

The problem is sourcing Wakame that is sourced from unpolluted waters and not exorbitantly expenses. I live in Japan and still find this a challenge. Anything from China is worrisome and seaweed harvested in Japan can be quite expensive I've found...

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

There was some from New Zealand for a while there but it was super expensive. Now I see on amazon they are selling some from Iceland's coast.

[@eelkeaptroot1393]

Fascinating, but is that just with Wakame or any seavegetable? Or could it just be the high iodine content?

[@k.h.6991]

It's more likely to be the special seaweed fiber. Great for your gut microbiome. (In terms of iodine, wakame is on the high side)

[@saikat5109]

How mach we can eat daily?

[@laura-youtube1453]

Very interesting. I have some questions: Is there any difference between the effect of Wakame and Kelp in the immune system? Is it known what is the specific compound in Wakame that boost the immune system? Is Iodine related to this boost in the immune system? What about the autoimmune patients? If the Wakame boosts the antibody response (in general?), would it be safe for them to eat it? Thank you.

[@Me-mn4nw]

Seaweed is shown to help with covid.

[@earFront]

I'm glad to hear that my feelings about seaweeds are being confirmed here.

[@AndrewPawley11]

I love this channel!

[@leahbrum9971]

The seaweed salad he is talking about doesn't really taste fishy. The way they make it at Japanese sushi bars is delicious.

[@GreenGretel]

Does seaweed have any contamination issues, like from blue-green algae, etc.?

[@cookletsdothis]

What about your prior videos about BMAA in certain types of algae/seaweed possibly causing ALS? I hope there's no BMAA in wakame seaweed.

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

No, seaweed are macroalgae. The algae that make BMAA are microscopic / planktonic algae (cyanobacteria, diatoms and dinoflagellates).

[@StarFlower99654]

I wonder if kelp has a similar effect? I have some powdered kelp, but no wakame at this time.

[@patty-cf7jj]

StarFlower99654 dr. Greger doesn't recommend kelp or hiziki. There's a danger of getting too much iodine. See all his videos on iodine and/or seaweed. I forget which video.

[@remy7663]

@@patty-cf7jj wakame also has high iodine, though..

[@GENERALTIM21]

One thing that concerns me with each study that states "a decline in the elderly" as the majority of the current elderly population has spent the lives consuming a non-vegan diet. Is there a causation between certain declines in human function and lifestyle choices?

[@markdavid932]

I freezed the frame at 2.26 of the numbers in the study.. correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that a chart of different seaweed tested and a lot of them have just the same or even better scores then the wakame? So wouldn't most seaweed work? Why are you just talking about one? Look at "Hizikia Fusiformis" it's TWICE the score of "Undaria Pinnatifida".. Thoughts???

[@teesha123]

goign from memory i believe he doesn't recommend eating hiziki. hijiki, which tends to have too much arsenic, and kelp, which tends to have too much iodine. That's why he mentions wakame a lot. Nori is probably a good bet. It's great that it's so common (hello sushi!)

[@PrincepsComitatus]

Does it not have mercury in it just like the fish?

[@jakeandsarahhealthnuts3299]

problem is our oceans are so polluted now that I don't want anything from the ocean even if it's vegan

[@jac6726]

Amazing

[@tomjones6296]

Quarter cup of "sea weed salad?" Does that mean pure Wakame, or does it have other things mixed in with it in the salad? Could you give a more precise dosage?...1/4 cup of pure Wakame? Would that be crushed, dried Wakame?....unless this nutrition thing is doable, these studies only become entertainment. Also, Wakame is several dollars an ounce according to online prices which are probably way cheaper than health food stores...a daily consumption "weight" in grams of this stuff dried (as can be bought in a store) would be helpful. Or better yet, if somebody could just manufacture the pills like was used in the study...(Somebody honest of course, as most heathfood pill manufactures cheat and don't put the labeled ingredients in the products they sell at inflated prices.

[@ima7333]

Tom Jones well when you buy them, they’re in their dried form. You need to rehydrate them by soaking in water. A single ounce aka 30g of wakame would get you that quarter cup of seaweed that you’d slice thinly season w/ rice vinegar, salt & sugar/ a 1tsp of mirin (sweet rice wine) topped w/ crushed sesame seeds.

[@flowpom]

if it boosts immunity system, why using it before flu shot and not simply before flu season? avoiding gambling with overstimulation of immunity systeme throught years with unneacessaries virus, toxics and just reliying on long term protection ability only given by natural virus infection?

[@matthewgraham790]

He didn't recommend getting the vaccine, just that is what the study showed, make of it what you will

[@hereBDBD]

lol, "...ask them about their history...", indeed, those that forget the past are condomned to repeat it:-) great research and greater interpretation of the facts. Thanks Mike!

[@NoahNobody]

I've been looking for kelp powder locally, but nowhere seems to sell it :(

[@AndrewAshling]

Wakame has been very well known for over forty years in Macrobiotics. So has miso the subject of an earlier video.

[@emanuelporic]

Guys, can some of you recommend a brand with international delivery? Thank's

[@rhyothemisprinceps1617]

I see seaweed salad in the store and I want to try it, but then I read the ingredients and it is full of fake color and other questionable stuff. And, as others have mentioned, there's the whole contaminants thing. Perhaps the good would outweigh the bad? It looks awfully pretty... I used to make miso soup with wakame, but got bored of it.

[@patty-cf7jj]

Enfant d'Omelas yes that seaweed salad sold in stores and restaurants are horrible. You need to buy the dried seaweed and make it yourself.

[@jbmop]

patty 8873 Oh ya? Got any good links to share?

[@gcerpa]

what about inflammation after boosing the immune system?

[@veredictum4503]

Is it just the iodine (which means drops will do) or is there something else / combination in the seaweed? Now to look for some recipes!

[@NutritionFactsOrg]

Hi, Vere Dictum! As is the case with most plants, it is likely that a combination of factors, and not just one element, provide the benefits observed. For example, seaweeds are among several foods, such as oats and yeasts, that include beta-glucans, a type of fiber which is known to boost immune function. More on that here: nutritionfacts.org/video/best-food-to-prevent-common-childhood-infections/ You can find everything on our site related to seaweed here: nutritionfacts.org/topics/seaweed/ Everything related to beta-glucan may be found here: nutritionfacts.org/topics/beta-glucan/ I hope that helps! -Christine Kestner, MS, CNS, LDN, MPH, NutritionFacts.org Health Support Volunteer

[@Me-mn4nw]

Seaweed is nutrient dense!

[@lukewarren5222]

What about potential heavy metals being in the Wakame Seaweed from our polluted oceans?

[@HibiscusHigh]

WoW 😃

[@PaulGreen11]

Richie Cunningham had Mono.

[@Catstache]

Ebv is heroes???? I have Cebv great I had no idea good thing I'm eating lots of seaweed

[@Catstache]

Herpes*

[@Calchick7]

But you can get too much iodine if eating daily

[@nicolehoude6189]

I would like to have a translate choice on your site for the vidéo. ( English to french)

[@MIPlarsen]

But isn't there dangers by consuming Wakame since it has the functioning to absorb mercury from the ocean??. Sea weeds have the function to clean the ocean.

[@traumatizedwick1760]

But how do we know, seaweed doesn't contain radiation from the Fukushima incident?

[@disconouvo3037]

Why did the sunset blush? Because she saw the sea weed.

[@moviedude22]

I don't get it. -_-

[@jbmop]

The seaweed salad at Costco is really salty!

[@Hunt2EatWild]

Seaweed tastes like seal shit. That's the beginning and end to me. Can't eat it.

[@WaterspoutsOfTheDeep]

dried powder in capsules like everything else that is gross would logically be the answer. fish oil is gross too, thats why its in capsules lol.

[@waszka73]

eat seaweed now and you'll glow...

[@lake5pilot]

Is seaweed considered vegan? Technically they are protists right? Lol

[@williamw.2610]

w a k a me