Key Ways to Identify Sea Moss
Sea Moss is quickly becoming a fan favourite and being recognised as a sustainable, natural way to stay on track with a healthy lifestyle. Creating delicious gels and convenient capsules help us get the most out of this nutrient-dense sea veggie and makes it easier for our community to create long-term healthy habits.
To receive optimal benefits of this powerhouse, it’s important to know where your Sea Moss is coming from and if you’re consuming the highest quality possible. If you’ve never had this nutrient-rich algae before, it can be challenging to determine what type of product you’re getting. If it’s being sold and raved about worldwide, it should all be the good stuff, right? Unfortunately, some suppliers tend to go ‘profit over quality’ and produce a product with no nutritional value.
The Sea Moss Journey From Pure Waters To Yours
At Natures Farmer Sea, we source only the best raw Sea Moss from the pristine waters of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean and the North Atlantic Ocean in Ireland, ensuring you get the most nutritious, natural, and high-quality product to support your health goals.
In this article, we’ll dive into the story of Sea Moss, its benefits, and how you can spot the difference between the real and fake stuff.
The history of Sea Moss
If we had to summarise, Sea Moss is truly nature’s most nutrient-dense powerhouse and has been used for its potent healing powers for around 14,000 years, dating way back to 600 BC. It was especially crucial during the Irish Potato Famine in the 1800s when people needed to supplement essential nutrients to survive.
Back then, the Irish believed this naturally growing algae would cure sick calves, human colds & flu, and congestion. Today, it’s still being enjoyed worldwide for its nutritional benefits and natural properties that nourish the body and mind.
What is Sea Moss?
It’s a tiny, spiny edible sea algae that can be found worldwide, naturally growing and thriving within the warmer, tropical waters of the Caribbean and cooler waters of the North Atlantic Ocean in Ireland and Canada. It comes in Green, Gold, Purple, and Red varieties. Due to its wide range of health benefits, humans primarily use it as a natural supplement to support a healthy lifestyle.
Each colour variety is potent, pure, and reported to contain a multitude of essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need to function at optimal levels. The combination of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids includes:
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin K
- Iron
- Magnesium
- Manganese
- Zinc
- Selenium
- Potassium
- Iodine
- Calcium
- and so much more!
There are three main types of Sea Moss species, all of which are closely related with similar benefits but slightly different tastes:
- Eucheuma Cottonii
- Gracilaria
- Chondrus Crispus (Irish Moss)
After years of testing and trying the best taste combinations, we found that the darker the moss, the stronger the flavour – making it difficult for people to consume Irish Moss and the purple variations of Gracilaria regularly. We use Euheuma Cottonii gold, which creates a tasty Sea Moss gel every time, making it easy to maintain healthy habits. With this variety, you get all the nutritional benefits without the strong, earthy marine flavour!
Reported benefits of Sea Moss
People around the world are obsessed with the results they‘ve seen from the combined vitamins and minerals found in Sea Moss.
Here are just some of what they’ve experienced:
- Increase in energy & focus
- Supports skin health & collagen production
- Immune support
- Improved gut health
- Improvement of menstrual pain & PMS symptoms
- Improved thyroid issues
- Mood support & help decrease symptoms of anxiety/ panic attacks
- Plus, so much more!
Real vs fake Sea Moss
Real: This moss is naturally ocean grown, rich in vitamins & minerals and safe to consume. Real Sea Moss can only be found in the oceans of the world, flowing with the currents and pulling the natural minerals from the waters around them. This nutrient-dense Sea Moss can be sourced from either warmer tropical waters or cooler waters of the Atlantic Ocean, like the Irish Sea Moss Detox (Chondrus Crispus.)
Fake: This Sea Moss is pool grown, and while it’s produced with a real piece of sea algae, it’s then placed in a large metal or plastic tub, filled with water and synthetic or table salt (not ideal for those with blood pressure issues) and uses a device to mimic sea waves. Because it’s not in its natural habitat, there will be zero nutritional benefit with this moss – which may be why some people have failed to experience the positive health effects of Sea Moss.
What to look out for
Appearance & texture
Real: Thin, soft, tentacle-like stems (or plant body, thallus) with minimal sea salt attached, is on the drier side with a sponge-like structure, has an ocean or marine smell and is a golden, purple, or greenish-blue colour.
Fake: Can be up to 3x larger than naturally occurring algae, thick, incredibly salty, slightly more organised stems (similar looking to sour punch straw lollies). Fake moss may also be extremely slimy and slippery and produce a chemical-like smell.
Taste
Real: Ocean grown moss will be richer in ocean flavour, but can easily become virtually taste-free when soaking thoroughly (we like to add natural lime juice for extra freshness) and cleaning off sea debris before consumption.
Fake: Unnatural Sea Moss will taste and smell strongly of synthetic chemicals.
Sea debris & impurities
Real: Contains sand particles and other ocean debris, which can easily be washed off during the soaking process.
Fake: For obvious reasons, pool-grown moss will have no sand, sea rocks, or debris.
Other key details to look out for: when purchasing from a company, ensure their product is ethically and sustainably sourced, and they're not labelling all varieties as Irish Sea Moss.
That wraps up Sea Moss 101! We hope you learned heaps and will use your new moss education to seek only the best product for yourself.
(Psst…we might know where you can find the most nutrient-dense, delicious-tasting Sea Moss around. We know a guy – or two. Check out our Sea Moss Products today.)
Article by Natalia Florczyk.