Seaweed is actually delicious. I grew up in New England, as kids we'd eat that stuff straight out of the ocean.
Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
181–190 of 268 posts
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#182We still eat laverbread [1], a gelatinous paste made from seaweed, in parts of Wales. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverbread
In Nova Scotia dulce a type of seaweed is common you can even buy it in grocery stores. I don't think it's as popular as it was many years go.
I think one of the reasons for people not liking it is western diets tend not to like rubbery textures in food.
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cheese and milk products in general are popular because it keeps well in winter, and large swathes of the country would get flooded on occasion; only grass would survive, which cows eat, and cows produce milk. Hard to build underground cold storage as well in case of flooding or just a high water table. Cheese will save us all.
> Cheese will save us all. Except vegans, of course.
When you're starving to death in the middle of winter everyone is an omnivore.
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#184Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#185Not sure about the seaweed, but I can taste some of the accent in these comments!
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#186Sushi rolls (Japan) and Kimbap (Korea) are wrapped with Nori (seaweed). Historical accounts as far back as year 702 mention the taxation of seaweed. https://marutaka-nori.co.jp/en/nori1.html#:~:text=The%20hist... .
And Wakame and Kombu in miso soup.
'Sea grape', also in (South East) Asia, is quite delicious in salads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_lentillifera
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Igor Limansky, from Alone Season 9, didn't do well living off of just seaweed. He grew very weak and developed heart palpitations from malnutrition. Including seaweed in one's diet may have worked for people but living exclusively on seaweed seems to have problems.
My understanding is that there are very few foods that are fine to live off of exclusively, especially vegetarian ones. Potatoes are the most famous example where it is possible, but even there it only works if you eat both white potatoes and sweet potatoes, which come from quite different plants from different taxonomic families.
Acorns come pretty close. Protein, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as calcium, phosphorus, potassium & niacin. Just leech those tannins!!
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#188Watch your doses !
I thought I loved seaweed, then one day ate a large amount on an empty stomach, and it was some of the worst nausea of my life.
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before. This is a trend that started in the U.S. and gradually spre…
> It's the consequence of the food industry becoming hyperindustrialized in which uncommon ingredients and "off-cuts" no longer fit with the goal of pursuing economy of scale. Ultraprocessed food is efficient to produce and distribute and formulated to specifically target innate human cravings (high sugar/sodium/carb/fat) in ways that were not possible before. Hyperindustrialization has done the exact opposite! The m…
I gather the GP's point was we that previously we'd eat kidneys or livers or tripe etc. in "unprocessed" form, whereas now they're all only used for pet food or gelatin etc. Whether that's true because steak is now so cheap and most people prefer eating it instead I'm not sure, but seems plausible. But that steak is cheap because of hyperprocessing of off cuts seems more contentious - I'm fairly sure we're able to more cheaply raise, slaughter and butcher cows in general, and the beef industry would still find a way to be profitable even if offal etc. was still widely consumed in unprocessed form.
It is odd that I remember regularly tucking into things like beef liver as part of a meal as a kid (30 odd years ago) but virtually never hear of it these days. I still do see steak & kidney pie in bakeries etc. but it's not super common. Oh I did have tripe in phở not too long ago (and still see it on menus regularly), though I can't admit to being a fan.
Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which makes me think that seaweed was staple food at some time right? We wouldn't have evolved to need more iodine than we can get in our environment otherwise...
According to WHO estimates [1], a quarter of Africans have goiters so I think it's safe to say that archaic humans suffered from chronic iodine deficiency. Evolution works through reproduction so any condition that doesn't impact survival until sexual maturity is unlikely to face any evolutionary pressure. Since humans are tribal and took care of their offspring in group settings, survivability after procreation also…
> any condition that doesn't impact survival until sexual maturity
Diseases that impact even just appearance can surely make you less attractive as a mate though. And larger goiters can impede breathing or swallowing. So I'd be suspicious of the idea that we've been significantly deficient in iodine for extended periods of our evolutionary history.