The Secret That Is Seaweed - How This Slippery, Slimy, and Squishy Ocean Plant is a Key to Combat Climate Change
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While many perceive seaweed as the disgusting, slimy ocean gunk they squeal and sprint through to get to the waves, seaweed is actually pretty badass. Why? It has the power to both make you healthier AND solve a whole host of environmental issues. Like I said, pretty badass.
So how exactly does it do this? Well, in the words of Elyse Myers - That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You.
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1.) Seaweed makes you pretty.
Seaweed beauty products have skyrocketed in popularity recently as scientific evidence shows the plant boosts skin hydration, supports elasticity (bye, bye, Botox!), soothes redness, and due to its detoxifying nature, is used in many full body spa treatments.
Wrap me up like a burrito and say less.
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2.)
Seaweed is healthy AF.
It's stupidly nutritious, bursting with with magnesium, iron, iodine, calcium, folate, and the alphabet soup of vitamins - A, C, E, K, and B. It also improves metabolic, immune, thyroid and gut health. Brands like Nora Snacks are using the plant to make salty, crunchy, yummy snacks for you. And has anyone heard of this Asian delicacy called sushi?
Move over Santa, seaweed is coming to town. 🎅🏼
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3.) Seaweed is compostable.
Super smart peeps are turning seaweed into compostable consumer products. The company Sway, for example, engineered an alternative to conventional plastic packaging using seaweed. Our favorite Sway product is a bioplastic film that replaces non-recyclable plastics like Saran wrap. You wrap your Thanksgiving leftovers in Sway's bioplastic film, then when you unwrap those leftovers two hours later, you throw the bioplastic in your compost bin and BAM it decomposes and becomes soil. Plastic that decomposes rather than exists forever killing birds?
BRB - fan girling over here.
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4.) Seaweed sequesters carbon.
Sequesters = taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and holding it in another form so it doesn't heat up our planet as much. So while seaweed naturally floats along in the water, it actually also does us all a solid by simultaneously sucking in CO2. Because it's a regenerative plant (regrows without human intervention) geniuses like the people at at SeaGraze harvest seaweed to create climate solutions, like a seaweed additive that farmers sprinkle into cow feed which lowers the amount of methane cows emit when they fart. Because yes, when cows pass gas they release a greenhouse gas ~80x more potent than C02, low key bringing about the demise of our planet.
And you thought your dad's farts were bad.
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That's seaweed in a nutshell! The climate change fighting, skincare revolutionizing, nutrition packed alternative to plastic packing. Hopefully you learned something so we can call reading this blog post proactive procrastination. 💅🏼