Health or Hoax: What is Sea Moss?

February 1, 2022/Healthy Hood/Comments Off on Health or Hoax: What is Sea Moss?
St. Lucian Sea Moss

It’s 2022! We know a new year means new resolutions for your health, wellness, fitness and all the likes. Unfortunately that means the rise of many fad diets and “get-in-shape-quick” schemes, along with so many “superfood-must-haves”. With all these options on the market, how do you know what to start with?

Well, one supplement to a healthy diet and exercise is Sea Moss and yes…it’s a type of seaweed. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Gross, seaweed! Who willingly agrees to eat this without sushi?” and I’m going to be honest, it’s not always the best tasting BUT the benefits of it force me to suck it up and stop whining. There are ways to make it more tasty by adding fruits to the sea moss gel recipes or even having the actual sea moss in salads. If you’re a vegan, sea moss can help to add the taste you may miss from actual fish.

Sea Moss gel is extremely popular in the Caribbean, everybody and their grandmothers use it as a cure-all and even as a power punch/dessert by adding cinnamon, milk, rum and so much more goodness! (I’ll add that recipe at the end of this series)

As a result it’s also known as Jamaican Irish Moss or even by its scientific name, Chrondrus Crispus. There are different strains and colours that depend on temperature, water properties and exposure to sunlight since it grows naturally on rocky coasts. In Jamaica, it’s mostly reaped/grown on coasts in Portland, St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland.

Sea Moss is the powerhouse of “anti’s”: anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, anti-bacterial, and antiviral. Did you see that I said ANTI-AGING?! How much more can we ask from this beloved supplement?

We all know the saying that attracted us to sea moss gel in the first place; “it has 92 of the 102 minerals our body needs” and the statement is true but we can’t sit and list all 92 minerals…that would take up PAGES. So, I’m just going to tell you guys about the 10 most abundant minerals in a serving of sea moss.

  1. Calcium
  2. Magnesium
  3. Phosphorus
  4. Potassium
  5. Iron
  6. Zinc
  7. Sulphur
  8. Iodine
  9. Vitamin B12
  10. Silicon

In the next article of this series, we’ll go into depth about the benefits of Sea Moss!