Zero Waste Imperfectly
Welcome to Zero Waste Imperfectly, the podcast where we embrace the journey towards a greener lifestyle, one small step at a time. Hosted by Sheila, each short and unedited episode is designed to fit seamlessly into the busy lives of families looking to make a positive impact on the environment without the pressure of perfection.
In just a few minutes, we provide practical tips, simple swaps, and inspiring stories that make sustainable living accessible and achievable for everyone. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your eco-friendly habits, Zero Waste Imperfectly offers easy-to-implement advice for reducing waste and living more sustainably.
Join us as we explore topics like reducing household waste, sustainable shopping, eco-friendly pet care, and much more. Perfect for families on the go, our episodes are packed with actionable insights that make it easy to incorporate zero waste practices into your daily routine.
Tune in, get inspired, and remember: every little bit helps, and it's okay to be perfectly imperfect on your zero waste journey.
Zero Waste Imperfectly
Uncovering the Truth About Sea Moss: Benefits, Risks, and Sustainability
Embark on an insightful expedition into the world of sea moss with me, Sheila, at Zero Waste Imperfectly. As the proprietor of Life Essentials Refillery, I'm daily faced with questions about this oceanic superfood's true benefits and potential risks. Our conversation will peel back the layers of health claims and unveil the complexities behind the nutritional value of sea moss, providing clarity amidst the sea of misinformation. We'll navigate through the murky waters of environmental contaminants like cadmium, lead, and arsenic that may taint the purity of this celebrated alga. This episode promises to arm you with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about incorporating sea moss into your diet.
Discover the critical differences between the Irish variety thriving in cooler waters and its warm-water Caribbean counterpart. Not all sea moss is harvested equally, and it's essential to understand sourcing and growth conditions if you're considering consumption. We'll also tackle the contentious debate over pool-grown versus ocean-grown sea moss, and why supplier transparency and testing—such as those conducted by Main Coast Sea Vegetables—are paramount. Join us for a robust discussion that seeks to enlighten both the health-conscious eater and the natural product enthusiast intrigued by sustainability's challenges.
Hello, lovely listeners, and welcome to Zero Waste Imperfectly. I'm your host, sheila, and I'm the owner of Life Essentials Refillery, a sustainable grocery store in Wesley Chapel and in Tampa, florida. Today I want to talk to you about sea moss. It has been a very popular item and there's so much information out there about sea moss and I'm still trying to cipher through it all and see what's fact, what's fiction, which source you can actually believe, and it's just overwhelming. And I know people are coming in saying it's such a good, healthy thing to eat. I need to eat a lot of it. And then you read about what could potentially be in it and the Proposition 65 warnings that come with it say hmm, I don't know, is it really good for me or is it not good for me? So I went through.
Speaker 1:The company we buy our sea moss from is Main Coast Sea Vegetables and their products are labeled with a Proposition 65 warning, and that's because they do sell to the state of California. So if they were to sell their products not in the state of California, they would not need to put this label on here, but they do, and what they test for is cadmium, lead and arsenic, and so the reason that they have to label. It is because sea moss is grown in the ocean and seaweeds in general absorb. They're very good absorbers. That's why they're so nutritionally dense. But not only do they absorb the good stuff, they absorb the bad stuff, and in the ocean you have no control over what's being absorbed. You can't tell the plant, hey, or the seaweed please don't absorb this, but do take this. So that is a concern. And so it's funny when you go to certain websites. I was on Dr Axe's website and he says that it's great.
Speaker 1:Irish sea moss is great for fertility. And then I go back to Maine Coast Sea Vegetables and said they have found levels of cadmium that, even though they're still in a safe harbor limit that can affect fertility. So it's really hard to say is it really healthy or is it not healthy? Should I take it or should I not take it? And then there's the big debate. Everything's labeled as Irish sea moss, but they're not all Irish sea moss.
Speaker 1:Irish sea moss comes from Ireland or the Atlantic coast and it's grown in cooler water. So if you're getting Irish sea moss from, let's say, the Caribbean, it's not actually Irish sea moss, because it wants temperatures under 70 degrees, ideally. So then you're getting a Caribbean sea moss or a St Lucian sea moss, but they're all different and the nutritional content. So if you're buying sea moss from a vendor that doesn't analyze their product, you don't know what you're actually getting. So that's what I love about Maine Coast they test everything and do it once a year, so you know exactly what you're getting in your sea vegetables, which is really good, because typically people buy something and eat it for a specific reason. And if you are assuming that maybe the St Lucian sea moss has the same benefits as the Irish sea moss, you might be mistaken because it wasn't ever tested, so you really don't know.
Speaker 1:And another thing that I had found is there's so much information online saying don't buy pool grown sea moss, and I spent a good hour looking I think I'm pretty good searching the Internet. I couldn't find any company that claims to grow their sea moss in a pool. I see a lot where they are growing it in shelves or racks or nets in the ocean, but they're still grown in the ocean, but I didn't find anybody that specifically grows them in the pool. And the reason I was thinking about this is because I know with seafood or fish in general general, you can have farmed or wild seafood, and there's pros and cons to both. I personally thought that if you could get sea moss that's grown in a pool which I would assume would be fairly simple to replicate the conditions of the ocean, because we do it in our aquarium every day but you could make sure you don't have the lead and the arsenic and the cadmium in it, which would be a tremendous asset. But when I was looking at fish that are grown tradition in traditional methods well, not traditional methods, I should say that are farmed they also have pollutants in there and that's coming from the containers they're in and the medications are given, but seaweed, hopefully, wouldn't need any medications, so maybe that risk would go away. So maybe it is better if you farm your sea moss.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but those are the things I was thinking about today and there's so much information out there. Check out main coast sea vegetables. It's seavegcom. They have a lot of good facts on it, yeah, and then really think about why you're taking sea moss and if the levels of the supplements that are in there that you're trying to, or the the vitamins and minerals that you're searching for, they may actually exceed the levels of what you're taking, or, based on what you're taking, you may be getting too much of what it is.
Speaker 1:So let's say they're really high in iodine. Maybe you shouldn't have as much iodine as you're actually taking from your sea moss and maybe if you're buying your gel already pre-made, you have no clue how much iodine is actually in there because they didn't test it. So just be careful. Because there's so much out there and it's such a hot commodity right now, everyone thinks they should be making it and selling it and you really don't know what you might be getting. So take some time to investigate, do your research and make sure you're really comfortable with the sea moss that you have and that it is what you're looking for. Well, thanks for listening and I hope you have a great day and you can find us on all.