Healthiest Sea Vegetables

Sea vegetables are becoming more part of our life as it helps in weight loss, cellulite control, detoxification, beautiful hair and skin, and more. Sea vegetables can transform your health! Following is a list of the healthiest sea vegetables and their rejuvenating properties:

Kelp

 Kelp proteins are comparable in quality to animal proteins.Kelp is arguably the best-known sea vegetable, and for good reason - it's packed with more vitamins and trace minerals than probably any other seaweed. Aside from containing impressive quantities of vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K (effectively covering the entire vitamin spectrum), kelp is also loaded with protein, fiber, iodine, and sodium alginate, the latter being a chemical compound that helps remove radioactive particles from the body. A regular consumption of kelp - preferably raw - has been linked to improved thyroid function and digestive health, and it is also an effective blood purifier and demulcent.

Hijiki

Hijiki is a mineral-rich, high-fiber seaweed, with 20% protein, vitamin A, carotenes and calcium. Hijiki has the most calcium of any sea green, 1400mg per 100gr. of dry weight. Trailing just behind kelp in the nutritional department is hijiki, another seaweed that contains just about every trace mineral our oceans can provide. Like kelp, hijiki also contains iodine, fiber, protein, sodium alginate, and vitamins A and B, albeit typically in lower quantities. One area in which hijiki excels, however, is its calcium content. In fact, hijiki contains more calcium than any other sea vegetable on Earth, making it an excellent bone-builder and protector against osteoporosis and other bone diseases. It also contains respectable levels of magnesium, phosphorous, iron, and potassium - important trace minerals that work in tandem to aid our bodies' natural processes.

Kombu

Kombu has a long tradition as a Japanese delicacy with great nutritional healing value. Kombu is an excellent 'all around' seaweed that contains robust quantities of almost of the major vitamins and minerals due to its high mineral salt content. Aside from being rich in vitamins B, C, D, and E, iodine, calcium, fiber, protein, iron, and potassium, kombu also contains a rare nutrient called germanium, which has excellent skin healing properties.

Thanks to certain characteristics in their nutritional composition that set them apart from the rest of the crowd:

Nori 

Nori is comprised of between 30-50 percent protein, making it an excellent natural protein source for vegetarians and vegans..Nori's fiber makes it a perfect sushi wrapper. Nori is rich in all the carotenes, calcium, iodine, iron, and phosphorus.

Agar

Although it doesn't compare to the brown seaweeds in nutritiousness, agar - a gelatinous matter that accumulates around the cell walls of red algae - is nonetheless an ideal weight loss food. Agar swells in the stomach due to water absorption, thereby inducing a feeling of fullness that discourages overeating. It also contains no sugar or fat, and only 14 calories per tablespoon. Therefore, if you're seeking a healthy dessert that won't compromise your weight loss plans, consider purchasing some agar jellies.

Diabetics can eat right after using insulin

 Diabetes is a disease in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.

People with type 2 diabetes are sometimes told to wait after using insulin for the drug to work its way into the body before they can begin eating, but a new study from Germany says that's not necessary.

In a group of about 100 diabetics, researchers found that blood sugar levels remained steady regardless of whether or not participants left a 20 to 30-minute gap between using insulin and eating a meal. The diabetics overwhelmingly preferred being able to eat right away, too.

"It's a very promising result. It will lead to better adherence and satisfaction," said Dr. Aaron Cypess, a staff endocrinologist in the clinic of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston who was not involved in the study.

Insulin gives glucose - or blood sugar - access to the body's cells to be used as fuel. But in type 2 diabetes cells are resistant to insulin or the body doesn't make enough of the hormone, so glucose remains in the bloodstream and can climb to dangerously high levels.

Injectable insulin is available for diabetics in a newer fast-acting form, but it's expensive and many still use human insulin, which takes some time to become active in the body. So doctors often recommend waiting to eat after using human insulin to prevent blood sugar spikes.

Not all experts think waiting is necessary, though, according to the researchers led by Nicolle Mueller of Universitätsklinikum Jena. To see what difference it makes, Mueller and her colleagues randomized type 2 diabetics into two groups.

For four weeks, one group of 49 people waited 20 minutes to eat after using human insulin. Then they switched to eating immediately after injecting insulin for another four weeks. A second group of 48 diabetics did the same in reverse order, eating immediately after injection for the first four weeks, then observing a waiting period for the next four.

Using a blood test that measures average glucose levels over time, the researchers found that all the participants had generally higher than ideal blood sugar levels - but the difference in those levels between periods when they waited or didn't wait to eat after insulin injections was a negligible 0.08 percent.

The participants also reported about the same number of high-blood sugar episodes between the two time periods, and about 87 percent of them said they "significantly preferred" doing away with the 20-minute wait altogether.

Cypess said people should talk with their doctors before making any sort of change to their insulin routine.

"What would I do with a patient who is moderately adherent to what I recommend? I'd say give it a shot," he said, because it's better for people to eat closer to the time they use insulin.

"This is really useful, because you get into a problem if people are supposed to take insulin so many minutes before. That's where adherence goes down," he said.

These results may also allow some people to switch from the fast-acting insulin analogs to the less-expensive human insulin, said Cypess, but he added that more studies would be needed to compare the two.

He also warned that people shouldn't assume these results apply to people with type 1 diabetes, whose bodies produce virtually no insulin.

"Talk to your doctor," he said.