The Health Benefits of Seaweed

Seaweed describes plants and algae that grow in oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water.

Some kinds of seaweed are too small to see. They float in the water and are the food base for most ocean life. Other kinds are huge, such as giant kelp. Their roots grow from the floors of lakes, rivers and oceans. Medium-sized seaweed wash up on beaches and shorelines all around the world. They are colored red, green, black and brown.

The most common kind of seaweed that we eat is brown, such as kelp and wakame, and red, such as nori. Nori is the seaweed used to make sushi, the popular Japanese food.

In fact, many people may think of seaweed as an Asian food product. After all, China, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines are among the largest producers of seaweed. 

However, seaweed grows all over the world and people worldwide eat seaweed.

Norway, Chile, France and the United Kingdom are also major producers of seaweed. Scandinavians add seaweed to soup and salads.

In Ireland, people have been eating seaweed for hundreds of years. It helped Irish people survive a severe lack of food in the country during the 1800s. The Scottish culture has also eaten seaweed for many, many years. And records show that ancient Romans used seaweed to treat wounds, burns and rashes.

Now, the taste of seaweed may not be for everyone. Naturally, it can taste fishy. For those who do not like the taste of seaweed, dried and powdered seaweed can be added to foods without changing the flavor. And researchers at Oregon State University have developed a seaweed that tastes like bacon when fried.

That is good news for vegetarians. Also good news for people who don’t eat meat is that many types of seaweed, especially those colored red, are high in protein.  

Many health benefits

Besides being a non-meat source of protein, seaweed can provide other health benefits.

Several nutrition websites say that women in South Korea often drink seaweed soup after giving birth. It is thought to help to return nutrients and minerals to new mothers.

But this simple soup is good for anyone. The health and nutrition website Mark’s Daily Apple gives one recipe for this easy-to-make soup. Cook wakame seaweed, mushrooms, sesame oil, garlic and tamari seasoning in a pot of water over a low temperature.

Nutritionists at University of California, Berkeley, say seaweed is a “rich source of several minerals, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, and iron.” A report on the Berkeley Wellness website lists many reasons to eat seaweed.

For example, seaweed, especially the brown type, is high in iodine. Iodine is a necessary element for good health. But it is not found in most foods. Iodine helps keep the body’s thyroid gland healthy, among other things.

Iodine levels differ greatly among different kinds of seaweed. One source says that brown seaweed can contain five to 50 times the amount a body needs. The amount of iodine depends on the water in which the seaweed grows.

If you are on a low-iodine diet, health experts suggest talking to your doctor before eating seaweed. 

Seaweed can help you lose weight.

Seaweeds are a good source of soluble fiber. This type of fiber helps you to feel full. It also helps to lower the amount of bad cholesterol.

One kind of seaweed may help to limit the body’s absorption of fat.

Researchers at Britain’s Newcastle University studied alginate, a seaweed used in food and cloth production. The scientists say they found that dietary fiber in alginate could reduce the amount of fat absorption by around 75 percent.

Despite all these health benefits, some experts warn that the health benefits of seaweed are exaggerated.

For example, seaweed may contain vitamins A and C, as well as calcium. But you would need to eat a lot of seaweed to get enough of any of those. In other words, seaweeds should not be your only source of vitamins and minerals.

Nutritionists also warn that seaweed can block B12 vitamins. So, if you eat a lot of seaweed, they suggest taking a B12 supplement.

And before you eat seaweed, know where it comes from. Seaweeds easily absorb and store whatever is in the water in which it grows. Possible dangers include arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals.

So, seaweed can be a healthy vegetarian addition to your diet. Just get it from a clean water source. And understand its limits and benefits. 

Missing Colorado toddler dies hours after being found

A GoFundMe page has been created on behalf of the family of a Colorado toddler who was the subject of an Amber Alert and died hours after he was found.

Nain Dominguez, 2, died at a hospital after being found in grave condition after his disappearance Saturday.

“This was an unfortunate and very devastating accident for little Nain’s entire family,” the GoFundMe page’s creator Yannel Rascon Valles wrote. “Nain had a smile and personality that would put the saddest person in a great mood.”

Valles established the page to solicit funds to help pay for Nain’s funeral.

The Colorado Springs Gazette reported Monday that a nearby resident said the boy’s shoes had been found in Fountain Creek, suggesting the death was accidental.

“We can’t confirm that right now,” a spokeswoman for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News.

Nain was with his family near the Stratmoor Valley Park Trailhead in Colorado Springs when an older sibling reported him missing Saturday evening, the paper reported.

Authorities initially feared the boy had been abducted.

The Amber Alert was activated Saturday at around 5:40 p.m., according to KRDO-TV.

The alert said El Paso deputies were looking for a white van in connection with the boy’s disappearance.

The Amber Alert was canceled about two hours after it was issued.

The 24-year-old billionaire heiress to the Dell fortune left social media after exposing her family to security risks - here's her advice for teens on apps

Alexa Dell, 24, is the daughter of tech billionaire and entrepreneur Michael Dell. She grew up in Austin, Texas on a sprawling estate called "The Castle" with her parents and four siblings, and her father gave her an at-home masterclass on building world-changing technologies.

But as tech royalty, Dell quickly learned that she couldn't use social media apps the way most teenagers do. Business Insider caught up with Dell at SXSW to hear the whole story.

When she was 18, Dell posted a photo to Instagram. Her younger brother, Zacahary, sat in the window seat of what appeared to be a small plane. A spread of fresh fruit, vegetables, charcuterie, and, of course, a Dell laptop, was laid before him  

"Snachary en route to Fiji @zachdell by alexadell #dell #privatejet," Alexa Dell's caption read.

Then the internet descended.

Rich Kids of Instagram, a popular Tumblr site that documents the adventures of the world's wealthiest offspring, circulated the image. Within a week 0f the posting, Dell and her brother, Zachary, disappeared from social media.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek broke the story that Dell had been documenting her every move on Twitter, complete with GPS locations from her phone. According to BusinessWeek, Dell's father's security detail had her Twitter and Instagram accounts suspended. The article cited concerns over the family's safety, singling out fears of kidnapping for ransom. 

It's worth noting that Gawker's now-defunct Valleywag reported that Alexa Dell shut down her social media accounts without the Dell company's intervention after the photo went viral.

Dell was an 18-year-old Columbia University student and "W" magazine intern at the time.

She told Business Insider her first response to the Rich Kids of Instagram posting was panic.

"That obviously took me completely by surprise. I didn't even realize that account, or that blog-Tumblr-thing, was a thing," Dell said. "It's unfortunate because it obviously put my family at risk and our safety. It's a shame that there are people out there who just are having fun exploiting others."

In 2012, BusinessWeek reviewed proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commision that showed Michael Dell spent $2.7 million annually on his family's security. His company provides the security detail, and Dell reimburses the company for its protection.

But the computer magnate didn't know to check his daughter's social media accounts.

"[Social media] wasn't there when I grew up. It wasn't something that I was taught how to do. It was something that we sort of taught ourselves how to use, and it sort of grew with us and became what it is now over time," Dell said.

Dell returned to Instagram only two days after the BusinessWeek article posted, with a photo of the college student sitting poolside in a tropical location with a grove of palm trees behind her.

Her posts to Instagram are no longer tagged with her location.

Today, Dell runs a tech consulting business, and counts dating app Bumble as a client.

Dell said the experience of making it onto Tumblr's Rich Kids of Instagram — and the safety risk it created — taught her a lesson that teens on social media platforms can learn from.

"I would advise younger people new to social media to be weary ... everyone's not so nice," Dell said.

She encouraged teens to "think twice" and "be careful" before sharing personal information on the internet. She also warned that a person's tone of voice can be lost in translation on apps.

"If you think you meant something in a fun and lighthearted kind of context, someone may spin that and take it from you," Dell said.

Hillary Clinton says she never meant to cause offence by claiming white women voted Republican because of their husbands

Hillary Clinton has been forced to publish a lengthy explanation for recent comments that attracted the ire of Republicans and Democrats for suggesting that white women often voted the same way as their husbands.

During a trip to India, she also described how her voters tended to come from more wealthy areas than Trump voters.

Her candid views were reminiscent of the moment during the election campaign when she described Trump supporters as “deplorables”.

She took to Facebook at the weekend to say: 'I understand how some of what I said upset people and can be misinterpreted. I meant no disrespect to any individual or group.

“And I want to look to the future as much as anybody.”

The White House had earlier criticised her comments.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s spokeswoman, said last week: “She is completely disconnected from the American public and certainly I think shows her disdain for the millions and millions of Americans who came out and voted and supported President Trump and still support him today.”

Some Democrats also expressed concern that she had spoken out at a time when they needed to win over Trump supporters ahead of November’s mid-term elections.

In particular she said the the party struggled to attract married, white women because of "a sort of ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should".

However, in her explanation, Mrs Clinton said she had been asked whether Mr Trump was a “virus” or if his election was a symptom of some deeper problem in the US.

Her response, she said, was simply part of an attempt to analyse the election results.

“Like most Americans, people overseas remain shocked and dismayed at what they are witnessing daily,” she wrote. “My first instinct was to defend Americans and explain how Donald Trump could have been elected.”

People doing better economically tended to vote Democrat, she wrote, while those with less faith in the future tended to go Republican.

“That doesn't mean the coasts versus the heartland, it doesn't even mean states,' she said. 'In fact, it more often captures the divisions between more dynamic urban areas and less prosperous small towns within states.”

She continued to say that there was some research to suggest that women can be swayed more by men than the other way around.

“As much as I hate the possibility, and hate saying it, it’s not that crazy when you think about our ongoing struggle to reach gender balance – even within the same household,” she wrote.

Timeline of teenager's relationship with 45-year-old man, journey to Mexico and back

While missing Pennsylvania teenager Amy Yu was found safe over the weekend in Mexico with 45-year-old Kevin Esterly, whom she was allegedly having a romantic relationship with, the case stretches back farther than the 13 days she was missing.

From interviews with family, friends, police, attorneys in the case, as well as court affidavits, here's what we know:  

-- 2009 to 2010, Yu and her mother, Miu Luu, meet Esterly, a construction contractor, at a church in Lowhill Township, Pennsylvania. Amy is about 7 or 8 years old.

-- November 2017: Yu signs documents at Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania, describing Esterly as her stepfather, which allows him to check her out of school.

PHOTO: Amy Yu age 16 and Kevin Esterly age 45, have been reported missing and could possibly be traveling together in a 1999 Red Honda Accord, 2 door bearing PA vehicle registration of KLT 0529. (Allentown Police Department) 

-- Feb. 9, 2018: Yu's mother goes to pick up her daughter at Lehigh Valley Academy Charter and learns that Esterly had already picked her up and that Yu had listed him on school documents as her stepfather. The mother also discovers that Esterly had signed out her daughter from school at least 10 times. Luu confronts Esterly that same day over why he had been secretly picking up her daughter at school.

-- Feb. 15: Allentown police investigators visit Esterly and his wife, Stacey, at their Allentown home and advises them both to stay away from Yu and that the girl's mother didn't want them to have any further contact with her.  

-- March 5: Luu drops Yu off at her bus stop, but the teenager doesn't take it to school. On the same day, Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his wife's bank account. Luu reports her daughter missing to the Allentown Police Department.

-- March 7: Allentown police issue a missing person alert for Yu and obtain a warrant for Esterly's arrest.

-- March 8: Police discover that Yu and Esterly boarded a one-way flight from Philadelphia to Cancun, Mexico, which briefly stopped in Dallas.  

-- March 10: Luu speaks to ABC News, saying, she was "waiting and waiting and praying, and I don't know if they can catch him [Esterly] or not." She also says Esterly's daughter "is a friend and just one year younger than Amy. I never thought he would act like that."

-- Thursday: Authorities in Mexico issue an Amber Alert for Yu.

-- Friday: Esterly's wife, Stacey, issues a statement through her attorney, saying she and her husband fought over his relationship with Yu and she pleaded with the teenager to come home.

-- Saturday: Authorities in Mexico find Yu and Esterly at a Puerto Moreles resort near Cancun and arrest Esterly on suspicion of child custody interference. Both Esterly and Yu are flown back to Miami, where he was awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.

Trump to unveil opioid plan seeking death penalty for drug dealers: White House

Trump will outline his proposals at an event in New Hampshire, which has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. 

 President Donald Trump will unveil a plan on Monday to combat the opioid addiction crisis that includes seeking the death penalty for drug dealers and urging Congress to toughen sentencing laws for drug traffickers, White House officials said on Sunday.

The White House plan will also seek to cut opioid prescriptions by a third over the next three years by promoting practices that reduce overprescription of opioids in federal healthcare programs, officials told a news briefing.

Trump will outline his proposals at an event in New Hampshire, which has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.

The roll out of the plan will be the latest White House action aimed at addressing a U.S. drug abuse crisis that is causing thousands of overdose deaths a year. Trump has said the United States will need "toughness" to reverse these trends.


"The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it`s appropriate under current law," said Andrew Bremberg, director of Trump`s Domestic Policy Council, in the briefing detailing the plan.

The White House did not offer any specific examples of when it would be appropriate to seek the death penalty for drug dealers and referred further questions to the Justice Department.

Current federal law allows for the death penalty in certain drug cases including murder related to a drug trafficking offense and murder committed during a drug-related drive-by shooting, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit capital punishment monitor.

It is unclear how this new plan will affect federal prosecutions.

Trump raised the issue of using the death penalty for drug dealers at a rally in Pennsylvania earlier this month. He has repeatedly said individual drug dealers are responsible for thousands of deaths.

The White House is also asking lawmakers to lower the amount of drug possession that triggers mandatory minimum sentences for certain opioids "to match the new reality of drugs like fentanyl, which are lethal in much, much smaller doses," Bremberg said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016, the latest year with publicly available data.

In addition to pursuing street dealers, the plan directs the Justice Department to aggressively go after criminally negligent doctors and pharmacies and to take criminal and civil actions against opioid manufacturers that break the law.


The proposals will also seek to help those addicted to opioids by expanding access to treatment facilities.

Hilarious Quotes From The School Yearbook (21 Pics)

Most people have something a little cheesy to put in their quote for the school yearbook but not these people. There's so much win here with these quotes.