Kelp tablets are a rich source of iodine, a mineral that is crucial to your health.
Kelp, or "laminaria digitata", is an edible sea algae belonging to the family of brown colored seaweed. This sea vegetable is more than 10 times richer in minerals than any available land crop. According to the World's Healthiest Foods website, kelp is the richest source of naturally available iodine, a mineral that is essential for the healthy functioning of the body. Kelp has a salty taste and can be used as a salt substitute or as a food flavoring. If you do not like the taste of kelp, you can still gain the nutritional benefits by taking kelp tablets, which are used to treat a wide range of ailments, including goiter, weight loss and gastrointestinal health.
Goiter
A goiter is a thyroid dysfunction that causes the thyroid gland to enlarge owing to an iodine deficiency in the body. Goiter is characterized by a soft swelling at the front of the neck. The thyroid produces two hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), which regulate cellular metabolism and ensure smooth physiological functioning of the body. The thyroid gland must supply iodine to the amino acid tyrosine in order to produce these two hormones. A deficiency can result in goiter and associated health consequences including fatigue and weight gain. Iodine-deficiency can be overcome by supplementing the diet with iodine-rich kelp tablets. The University of Michigan Health System website states that iodine supplements can halt the growth of a goiter if it is caused by iodine deficiency. Thyroid disease is rare in Japanese populations, who consume kelp regularly.
Weight Loss
Iodine-rich kelp tablets can prove to be an effective anti-obesity treatment, as it optimizes the body's metabolic rate by regulating the thyroid. A normal functioning of the thyroid gland can effectively aid weight loss. According to the website of The Mirror newspaper, biochemists working at the Newcastle University are creating foods that aid weight loss, and have added kelp fiber to bread, in an attempt to understand its effectiveness. Researchers successfully tested an artificial gut to ascertain the ability of dietary fibers like kelp in preventing the body's absorption of fat. They discovered that alginate, a natural fiber available in sea kelp reduces the body's fat intake by 75 percent.
Gastrointestinal Health
The Flora Health website states that alginates, which are complex polysaccharides and found in kelp tablets, soothe and cleanse the digestive tract, and also prevent absorption of toxic metals. In fact, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission recommends that you consume two tablespoons of alginate supplements daily in order to avoid the intestine's absorption of strontium-90, a toxic metal. Kelp tablets also work better than conventional laxatives, as the alginates work as hydrosorbents, which are compounds that swell to around 20 times their original volume by absorbing water. This makes kelp tablets more effective than other laxatives like psyllium and bran. Alginates also act without irritating the digestive tract, unlike other over-the-counter pills.
Tags: thyroid gland, digestive tract, functioning body, iodine deficiency, iodine mineral, iodine mineral that, kelp tablets