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Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

smithsonianmag.com

191–200 of 268 posts

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#191

Sushi 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... .

Also Japanese people regularly eat mozuku, mekabu, and include seaweed in just about everything in the cuisine at least through dashi but also in many other forms. Seaweed is and always has been huge in Japanese cuisine.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think our ancestors had the luxury of being vegan.

Our ancestors didn’t abuse animals on the scale we do now.

Ancient people did not see animals are beings with feeling, they were seen as useful production machines.

It's only in modern times that we have the luxury of taking the animal's feeling into account at all. I'm sure you would want even more consideration for the animals, but it's much better today than it was.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#193

Seaweed is one of those incredibly delicious items[1] that for some strange reason isn't more popular. I'd love it if it became more common, and more cuisines (outside Japan) incorporated it into their existing dishes. I'm imagining like an Indian curry with seaweed mixed in, or an Italian pasta with seaweed mixed in (in addition to existing ingredients)..... [1] if you buy it from a good brand, so YMMV.

> in Italian pasta with seaweed mixed All the rage at Italian/Japanese fusion joints (and honestly in Japan too - Japan loves pasta)

> All the rage at Italian/Japanese fusion joints

Im going to take a wild guess and say this is not in Italy.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#194
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our ancestors didn’t abuse animals on the scale we do now.

Ancient people did not see animals are beings with feeling, they were seen as useful production machines. It's only in modern times that we have the luxury of taking the animal's feeling into account at all. I'm sure you would want even more consideration for the animals, but it's much better today than it was.

How do you know that "ancient people" never thought of animals as having feelings? Seems an extraordinarily broad claim given all the cultures and ages that encompass "ancient people"

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#196

Earlier 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…

Why do you think people in North America no longer see offal (or seaweed) as edible food for humans despite the opposite? It's because of hyperindustrialization has distorted how these people view food ingredients.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of funny it's salty but it's called dulce/dulse (Spanish for 'sweet'). I'd love to know the pronunciation for 'Duileasg'

The etymology is completely distinct tho, not a cognate. From Old Irish duilesc (compare Scottish Gaelic duileasg), from Proto-Celtic doliskos, duliskos (compare Welsh delysg), from Proto-Indo-European dʰelh₁- (“to bloom, be green”) (compare duille (“leaf”)). Whereas Latin 'dulcis' comes from PIE dl̥kús ("sweet") Actually probably cognate with Latin 'folium' (Italian foglia, French 'feuille'). EDIT: Actually no. Not…

It sounds OK to me if dʰelh went through some thenanigans to Latin. Fun fact: zelen is one of common roots in Slavic languages for green/leafs.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#198

Makes a lot of sense. It's packed with vitamins and minerals, is presumably a decent way to get salt, and is captive/passive/non-attacking prey! For Bay Area people, there are companies that teach seaweed foraging: what types to look for, where to look, healthy versus "on the toilet all day", etc. Always nice to have another excuse to go to the beach, especially at unusual hours (such as before dawn to catch a low ti…

The most important benefit might have been the high content of iodine, which is usually insufficient in terrestrial food. Obviously they did not have iodized salt, like us, to provide the required iodine. They might have noticed that eating a little amount of seaweed will prevent illness. For omega-3 fatty acids, they had much better food sources in bone marrow or in fish (the multicellular algae have very low conten…

I agree with you. I want to mention Sea salt has iodine very often and was a very common source for other kinds of salts besides sodium chloride. We started iodizing salt in response to electrical methods for extracting pure NaCl becoming popular.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#199

Seaweed is one of those incredibly delicious items[1] that for some strange reason isn't more popular. I'd love it if it became more common, and more cuisines (outside Japan) incorporated it into their existing dishes. I'm imagining like an Indian curry with seaweed mixed in, or an Italian pasta with seaweed mixed in (in addition to existing ingredients)..... [1] if you buy it from a good brand, so YMMV.

It's just the name. "sea" and "weed" are both unappetizing. Needs a PR firm to rebrand it.

Re: Early Europeans ate seaweed for thousands of years

#200
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ancient people did not see animals are beings with feeling, they were seen as useful production machines. It's only in modern times that we have the luxury of taking the animal's feeling into account at all. I'm sure you would want even more consideration for the animals, but it's much better today than it was.

How do you know that "ancient people" never thought of animals as having feelings? Seems an extraordinarily broad claim given all the cultures and ages that encompass "ancient people"

Because I read some of their writings? The concept of a "Pet" was foreign to them. Animals - even dogs, were there to work.

The concept of how an animal was feeling simply didn't occur to them. An animal was a tool, and you took good care of the tool, but not because of the tool, but because then it was more useful.

It was the 18th century when animal rights started becoming a thing, which exactly corresponds with the industrial age when things became less scarce and people could worry about animals, and not just themselves.

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