I have an addiction to seaweed and I don’t know if it’s a bad thing or not.

[jennan]

This sounds really weird but I have a ADDICTION to eating itsu seaweed thins.
ive never been overweight and barely ever snack on foods but i started eating itsu seaweed thins about two months ago arfter i saw them in Tesco.
ive started to eat 3-4 packs a day and cant help myself. Im not sure how to stop and I don’t know if it has any health risks. Weird post but please could I have some help with my queries.

You can help yourself - just stop buying them. In the grand scheme of things though there are far worse foods to be addicted to, I’m sure you will be fine!

Seaweed snacks do have benefits but don't overdo it, OP, as it has high levels of iodine.

I bought some of these the other day the salted ones. Ate one bite thought they were absolutely disgusting and chucked the pack in the bin. I do not know how you are eating them daily?!

But eating anything to excess surely isn't good, even lettuce wouldn't be good. Try to pick a healthy varied diet.

Maybe your body is lacking in some nutrients and that’s why you are eating a lot of them.
I found them disgusting when I tried them 😀

You might find it wears off. I go through phases with food
Kale in the oven until crispy with Nando's peri peri salt was one that lasted for months (might work as a replacement actually! It tastes like crispy seaweed takeaway

Lasagne and salad lasted ages
Currently on a Wagamama house salad dressing fixation which is a bit... out of season

In fact I actually posted on here if you could eat too much kale

Nobody has ever come to harm through eating too much lettuce - the calories and nutrients it contains are negligible.

You'll be getting minerals such as iodene which can be hard to get in other areas of a diet. It's generally a healthy snack and far more nutritious than most.

You can bulk buy seaweed snacks on Amazon which are a fraction of the price of itsu, You also get nice flavours like wasabi or kimchi.

It doesn't answer your health question but I can easily eat a couple of packets a day.

You might just want to be careful about how much iodine is in seaweed. Too much iodine can trigger thyroid problems.

You are probably really a mermaid😁

A couple of years ago I developed an obsession with tamari roasted almonds. It was the first time in my life I had a food fixation - hadn’t had any cravings during pregnancy. I later discovered I was very anaemic due to a serious health condition. Once I got the anaemia under control I have never craved almonds again.

Too many nuts is definitely not healthy so I only allowed myself to eat a certain number at the same time every day.

Yes if you are really worried go and get a blood test for deficiencies - bearing in mind the NHS bar is set very low indeed and you actually need to be physically ill before they will give you supplements because they do not do preventative medicine. Worth doing and asking for a copy of them though, then you can pick through them and compare online.

Just posting as I have the exact same problem - I am also addicted to these. I’ve never had this experience with anything else, so bizarre. I thought it may be because I’m deficient in iodine of vitamin B or because I’m anemic? Did you get to the bottom of it?

Sounds like a vitamin deficiency to me! Go and get bloods drawn.

I had this with ice for a while, could happily eat two or three trays of ice cubes of an evening. Turned out I was massively low in iron and the craving went away when that was sorted. Unfortunately a few months later I discovered I'd cracked a tooth and had to shell out for a crown. Get your bloods done asap.

I was going to mention potential low iron

It's called pica - the weird cravings

I think you might be short some mineral. Take a multivitamin and see if it helps.

They have msg on them, that's why.

Doesn't sound too bad to me

I’d watch that it isn’t the msg you’re hooked on.