Harvesting plants from the sea may be the wave of the future, but many varieties of sea vegetables have been enjoyed since before the development of agriculture.

Properly prepared, high quality sea vegetables, such as arame, are delicious and provide a concentrated source of nutrition as well as several important health benefits.

Arame is virtually fat-free; low in calories; and rich in essential minerals, vitamins, protein, and important trace elements that are often lacking in land vegetables due to soil demineralization. Arame and other sea vegetables contain more minerals than any other kind of food. Analysis has shown that a wide range of minerals account for up to 38 percent of their dry weight.

According to Seibin and Teruko Arasaki, authors of Vegetables from the Sea, “All of the minerals required by human beings, including calcium, sodium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, iron, and zinc are present in sufficient amounts. In addition, there are many trace elements in seaweeds.” It has been said that the thick, black, lustrous hair of the Japanese is partly due to their regular diet of brown sea vegetables such as arame. Research has shown that minerals are important to healthy hair growth, and arame has a high mineral content.

Edible plants from the sea also contain important vitamins including vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), B1, B2, B6, niacin, vitamin C, pantothenic acid, and folic acid. Analysis has shown trace amounts of vitamin B12, which rarely occurs in land vegetables.

Besides their impressive nutritional profile, high quality sea vegetables offer other important health benefits. Sea vegetables classified as “brown algae”, including arame, hijiki, kombu and wakame, have been shown to cleanse the body of toxic pollutants. Specifically, scientific research has demonstrated that these plants, which are abundant in alginic acid, bind with any heavy metals in the intestines, render them indigestible, and cause them to be eliminated from the body.

Dr. Tanaka, leading a team of researchers at McGill University in Montreal, showed that the alginic acid in sea vegetables actually helps bind and draw out toxins such as lead, cadmium, mercury and radioactive strontium that are stored in the body, thus “lowering the body’s burden.”

For centuries, Oriental medicine has recognised that sea vegetables contribute to general well being and especially to the health of the endocrine and nervous systems. In recent decades, medical researchers have discovered that a diet that includes sea vegetables reduces the risk of some diseases.

In fact, surveys show that people living in areas where sea vegetables are regularly included in the diet tend to live longer, healthier lives.

For example, the residents of Oki Island in Japan, where people eat an abundance of sea vegetables, enjoy the longest life expectancy in the nation, and tend to be healthy and active into old age.

Arame is harvested along the Ise peninsula on the east coast of Japan’s main island where it has been used as a sacred offering for a thousand years. The mild climate of Ise is ideal for this sea vegetable, which flourishes along the rocky tideline. Clearspring arame is harvested and prepared according to traditional methods used in this part of Japan for centuries.

In late summer, local fishermen wade out to gather the young, tender plants at low tide, or dive into shallow waters and cut the arame from its holdfast and bring it into the shop. After it is washed, the entire plant is steamed in its own juices for six hours. At this point, the plant has softened considerably. Left overnight to cool, it is then finely shredded and thoroughly air-dried before being packaged.

The traditional process used by the Clearspring suppliers differs from the methods typically used to prepare commercial arame. In the traditional process more care is taken not to damage the plants during harvesting, and cooking methods are modified in an effort to retain their full nutritional value.

by John and Jan Belleme, authors of Japanese Foods That Heal, Tuttle Publishing, 2007