Exploring Sea Asparagus: A Culinary Delight and Sustainable Superfood

What is Sea Asparagus?

Sea asparagus, scientifically known as Salicornia bigelovii, is a type of salt-tolerant plant that thrives in saline conditions such as salt marshes, coastal beaches, and mangrove areas. This plant, bearing a striking resemblance to miniature asparagus with its green, segmented, and succulent form, is not a relative of the traditional asparagus.

Sea asparagus (aka sea beans or samphire), is a cherished ingredient in upscale British and French culinary traditions. Renowned for its crisp texture and inherently salty taste, it frequently features in salads, as a garnish, or in an array of cooked recipes. It's also acclaimed for its nutritional content, including a range of vitamins and minerals, and is considered a healthy, low-calorie food. Due to its ability to grow in saline environments, it's gaining attention for sustainable agriculture practices.

 

Nutritional Powerhouse: The Health Benefits of Sea Asparagus

In addition being en vogue in cuisine, Hawaii sea asparagus is also famous for its full spectrum of bioavailable vitamins (A, B, and C) and essential minerals important in maintaining one’s health. It’s considered a super food by the science community and was even featured on the popular Dr. Oz Show as one of his top “age-defying foods” (along with Japanese sea cucumber and Irish moss).

Some of the important nutritional benefits unique in sea asparagus are highlighted below:

• Excellent source of B9 (folate), often deficient in meat-heavy diets. Promotes healthy brain development and red cell growth.
• Excellent source of B12 (Cobalamin), lacking in many vegan diets. Needed to prevent depression and all aspects of health.
• Contains the richest concentration (5% per dry weight) of a betaine called trimethylglycine (TMG), good for reducing hypertension and homocysteine. In comparison, the next richest sources of betaine are quinoa (0.63%), spinach (0.55%) and beets (0.13%).
• Good source of sodium and chloride minerals in separate forms, making it a good “salt-free” alternative for people with intolerance to NaCl in table salt.

Oral TMG is FDA-approved for treating high levels of homocysteine, which if not properly “methanized”, may lead to cardiovascular diseases, stroke, migraines, hearing loss, and hypertension, a condition that affects a third of the population. In daily life, diets heavy in red meat and dairy, coffee, alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity and advancing age all can contribute to increasing levels of homocysteine.

 

Sea Asparagus: A Safe and Healthy Alternative for Salt Sensitivity

A recent research also concludes that that sea-asparagus is good for salt-intolerant consumers. The vegetable tastes salty and contains the necessary minerals sodium and chloride separately, but not the toxic form of NaCl in table salt, the compound that causes allergic reactions in certain people, high-blood pressure, migraines, etc. This is because sea asparagus, which grows in salt-water, is able to naturally process sodium and chloride separately whereas other vegetable growing in salt and muddy coastlines cannot. Collectively, these benefits all make Olakai sea asparagus a likely candidate to become the next scion of nutritious and delicious superfood like acai, chia, and sprulina.