Vegetables don't have much vitamins or minerals per se, i.e. not RDA levels. So I wouldn't count on it. They're only useful for phytonutrients and fiber.Maddy wrote:MK et al., would you comment on the idea of using kelp as a one-stop source of dietary minerals?
They also have a nasty habit of accumulating toxic minerals like thallium. There was a story a few years ago about that and kelp. Apparantly there's a county in Northern California where people are health nuts and eat way too much kelp in smoothies every day so were devloping symptoms of thallium poisioning.
Personally, I've found my self-grown organic raw kelp to overstimulate me and give me a fatique crash the next day. Don't know if thats a sign of toxicity or there's just something stimulating in it (I'm very sensitive to stimulants though I would get a rebound headache to indeed indicate it was that afterwards). Cooked kelp seemed better but it still kept me up way past my bedtime. It wasn't a wired feeling just lack of being tired.
EDIT: Ooops, my bad! I was thinking of kale not kelp. Sea vegetables are the most concentrated source of minerals so they would work for trace minerals. However, I don't recall seeing any were ever dense enough to meet the RDA, so look into it. Kelp is essentially used for getting a naturally concentrated source of iodine.