We keep Modifilan in our Emergency Kit - a brown seaweed concentrate. Modifilan was developed after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe as a treatment for radiation poisoning.

I also use different types of seaweed on a regular basis in cooking and consider it a food storage must. High protein, high minerals, more vitamin C than oranges, natural form of iodine for normal thyroid function, rich source of calcium....

-Grainlady

I keep a lot of dried seaweed (most of it from Japan) on hand and use it in soups but not in smoothies. I also frequently buy the wakame salads. I wonder if the price of Japanese food is going to go up. I should go to my Japanese market and stock up on a few things. I could use some more dried wakame. I have plenty of nori on hand.

Lars

So, I have picked up 2 pounds of konbu. No shortage at the Japanese market. Apparently those rushing to buy KI pills have not figured out the dietary sources of iodine. Yet.

Perhaps the Japanese people need it more than you!

Right now, no-one needs KI, other than those relatively close to the Fukushima Daiichi plant. However, the situation seems to be deteriorating there, and the deterioration seems to be accelerating, certainly not decelerating.

I suspect it is not physically possible for the situation to get bad enough that anyone on my side of the Pacific would ever need KI, even in an absolute worst-case scenario. But I am not completely sure.

People in the area of the reactors will not be relying on konbu. If the need arises, they will, I would hope, be either evacuated or getting KI pills.

I don't know too much about this. Is it true that KI only protects the thyroid gland?

What about all the other organs?

dcarch

Only protects the thyroid.

From the (limited) reading I've done on Chernobyl, the most common injury from radiation exposure of ordinary residents in the affected area after a nuclear plant accident is childhood thyroid cancer. But, you have to be really quite vulnerable and quite severely exposed (e.g. children drinking milk from cows feeding on grass contaminated by that huge accident) to be significantly injured. Most of the 5 million residents of the areas of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine that were most contaminated have not suffered much, if any, measurable increase in cancer (solid or hematological), according to the World Health Organization's investigation. The greater injuries were psychological and economic/social (from trauma and mass displacement). For some of the on-site responders, who were very severely exposed, the story is different. As for the population of Western Europe, I've read that epidemiological studies suggest maybe 2,000 excess cases of cancer due to Chernobyl - which, in a 300 million population, is a very small number, I mean not to the few unlucky individuals but on an overall scale.

Here is a readable summary: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2006/9241594179_eng.pdf

And the link has a much longer WHO report. Another long report is here
http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/chernobyl/en/

Bottom-line, a few (relatively speaking) people in Japan may need KI now, some more may need it later, in the US we don't and probably won't. As I'm not completely sure, and I do have kids, and I like Japanese food, I now have konbu.

Here is a link that might be useful: WHO report, 167 pg

Bananas are a good source of potassium and are inexpensive and readily available. Trouble is, the potassium they contain is radioactive.

Jim

Here is a link that might be useful: BED - Banana Equivalent Dose

The iodine (or iodide) is what you want.

Anyway, did some experimenting. With orange juice, a banana, several strawberries, 6 oz of soaked konbu (about 1 oz of dry, maybe?), and 1 tbsp sugar, you can make a serviceable smoothies. Two problems. First, it is green until you add the strawberries, then it turns into an unpleasant stomach content color. No problem if you have a couple drops of red food coloring. Second, the smoothie connoisseurs here tell me it has a teeny weeny aftertaste. They didn't say teeny weeny, I added the adjective, because I can detect none. Maybe I should say teeny weeny whiny.

So, step one in my evil plan to accumulate the kids and SWMBO to seaweed smoothies has been carried out. Now I have to gradually raise the concentration of konbu, by about six fold.

You could try adding frozen blueberries and it'll make it into a more purple-y color.

I don't know how old your kids are but the trick to address the color that works for me is to call them "zombie smoothies" and kids and zombie-obsessed adults of all ages love them. :P

Thanks for the idea. I've never tried seaweed in non-savory applications, other than my green powder, but I'm going to try it in a smoothie now. I don't mind aftertastes for good nutrition.

I'll go get some frozen blueberries today and try.

It feels like the smoothie needs some ''tangy'' note to mask the alleged aftertaste. I don't know smoothies - first one I've made in at least 10 years - so I may be talking out of my hat.

Also, my blender will not puree the konbu into undetectable little bits. I may have to try pulverizing the dried konbu in the food processor, or something.

Pomegranate juice is good for tangy tartness. It's a strong flavor so it really helps cover other things. I usually add a few ounces to mine.

You said you already used bananas but maybe add a few more. They do wonders to sweeten things up and smooth out the consistency.