One of the reasons that I moved back to New York City a few years ago was because I knew I could have easy and quick access to a ton of fantastic organic restaurants.

Yet, now that I am here, I find myself cooking at home more and more, and eating out less and less. Why is this?

Eating at home not only saves me money, but it gives me complete control over the foods that I eat and how my meal is prepared.

Last night, my organic dinner consisted of quinoa with black sesame seeds, sauerkraut, tomatoes, Field Day hot salsa that I profiled the other day, sprouted sweet pea shoots, and kelp.

Three items of note:

- Sauerkraut is a fermented food, which has beneficial bacteria and assists in digestion.

- Kelp is a sea vegetable rich in minerals and nutrients, particularly iodine.  All I did was soak the kelp in water for about ten minutes and then drain.

- Sprouts have great quantities of enzymes, which help the body to detox and build its immune system.

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The cost of this dinner? Right under $13.

While it may not be apparent from the picture, it was A LOT of food and probably enough for two people.

For these exact items, an organic restaurant would very easily have charged double what it cost me to make in my apartment.

As John Mackey, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods, said the other day, “the most inexpensive way to eat healthy is to cook at home.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

That being said, there are some organic foods that have higher nutritional value than others – often referred to as superfoods – and I try to incorporate them into my diet on a regular basis.

While the following superfoods are by no means the only ones you’ll find in my kitchen, I have been consuming these four quite frequently as of late.

WHEATGRASS

Throughout the years, I have gone in many different directions looking for the best thing to put into my body but I always seem to end up in the same place – wheatgrass.

Wheatgrass may very well be the most nutritious food in the world, largely because of its high chlorophyll content.

The primary health benefits include:

- Phenomenal for the blood: purifies it, cleanses it of debris, increases red blood cell count, lowers blood pressure, and restores alkalinity to the blood.

- The enzymes and amino acids in wheatgrass protect us from carcinogens, strengthens our cells, and detoxes our liver.

- Stimulates the thyroid gland.

I will normally drink four ounces (two double shots) of wheatgrass per day several times a week, and my body just doesn’t feel the same when I don’t have it.

Here is a picture of me making it at home with my Green Star juicer.

MAQUI BERRY

While other berries are more well known, such as acai, maqui berry is arguably the best of them all. Key highlights include:

- Has an ORAC score (which measures antioxidant activity) of 616. This is 3x the amount of acai (which scores 185) and almost 20x the amount of blueberries (which scores 32).

- Tremendous anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is highly correlated with many chronic illnesses such as cancer, fibromyalgia and heart disease.

- High in iron, calcium and vitamin C

Putting a tablespoon of maqui berry powder in my smoothies is something that I love to do, and it tastes fantastic.

KELP

Sea vegetables might be the most important food that so few people incorporate into their diet.

I’ve been trying to change that by eating kelp several days per week. Kelp is loaded with:

- Iodine, which is essential for the proper functioning of the thyroid. Also, eating natural sources of iodine helps to fight off radiation.

- B vitamins

- Minerals such as magnesium, boron and calcium, which are good for muscle function and strong bones.

The only kelp that I have been buying is from Maine Sea Vegetables and their kelp is harvested in the Atlantic Ocean, far away from the problems in Japan with the radiation spill at Fukushima.

ROYAL JELLY

Royal jelly is the thick milky substance – consisting of honey, bee pollen and enzymes – produced by the worker bees to feed the queen bee.

Since queen bees have incredible stamina and longevity, it is widely believed that what they eat is indeed a true superfood.

The benefits of royal jelly include:

- Strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

- Excellent source of B vitamins, particularly pantothenic acid, niacin and riboflavin.

- Beneficial for the immune system.

I will take a quarter-teaspoon of royal jelly in the morning when I wake up several times per week.

As I have written about before, there are no federal guidelines when it comes to USDA certified organic honey.

Therefore, you have to find a brand of royal jelly that you believe to be the most “clean”.

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The key thing that I do with these four superfoods and the others that I buy is not to overdo them.

Moderation is paramount, and I rotate them into my diet on a regular basis, so my body is getting a full range of minerals, nutrients, and amino acids.

(Before taking any of the superfoods listed here, particularly the royal jelly, one should consult a medical doctor or nutritional professional because they may cause allergic or other negative reactions. The post provided here is for informational purposes only.)

Last night, I stayed in to watch LSU-Alabama (I’m a huge college football fan, by the way) and prepared this organic meal to eat while the top two teams in the country went at it.

I cooked quinoa, cut up an avocado and a cucumber, and added in some cherry tomatoes.

On the right, that black looking stuff is kelp. I have been trying to incorporate more sea vegetables into my diet, kelp in particular.

A source of many trace minerals and nutrients, kelp is especially praised for its iodine content, plays an important role in maintaining a healthy thyroid, and helps absorb toxins from the bowel.

Since eating kelp right out of the bag is pretty harsh, I soak it in water, drain and then cut it into slices. If you want it more flavorful, add some olive oil, lemon or other seasoning. You can also put kelp into soups.

I get most of my kelp from Maine Sea Coast Vegetables.

In the left of the bowl are Japanese yams. I sliced them, brushed them with Artisana’s raw coconut oil, and then roasted them for about 12 minutes.

Coconut oil is one of the few oils that you can safely heat. Despite what many people think, olive oil is not one of them.

This dinner was easy to prepare and very satisfying. Plus, it cost me less than $10 to make.

It is hard enough to get kids, or adults, to eat their greens.

Well, multiply those difficulties by 100 and that is how hard it is to get people to eat their sea vegetables. I am guilty of that as well and don’t eat them nearly as much as I should.

Sea vegetables, such as kelp, nori, wakame and dulse, are incredibly important for our diet because they are a tremendous sources of minerals, vitamins and nutrients.

Much of the world’s supply of sea vegetables comes from the waters off of Japan and with the recent earthquake there, many people are concerned that they have been tainted with radiation.

As I have written about before, all of the sea vegetables that are currently available in stores or restaurants were harvested last year.

This will become more of an issue later this year or early next year when the 2011 harvest goes on sale. And as soon as I get more information about the purity of this harvest, I will be sure to keep you all informed.

Now, back to the product at hand.

Kelp is one of the most beneficial sea vegetables because of its iodine content, and iodine plays an important role in regulating our thyroid.

Given that kelp doesn’t have the greatest taste to it, Maine Sea Vegetables has figured out a nifty way for us to consume it while also enjoying a sweet snack.

Kelp Krunch is an organic energy bar made from kelp (harvested off of the coast of Maine), whole sesame seeds, brown rice syrup and Maine maple syrup.

This bar is heavy on the sweetness, light on the saltiness, and extremely crunchy. When I finished eating Kelp Krunch, I thought to myself “Wow, this was really good. It was much better than I thought it would be.”

Aside from the fact that Kelp Krunch is gluten-free and vegan, part of the proceeds from this bar are donated to ALLIED WHALE, one of America’s oldest whale research, conservation and educational organizations.

If you’ve been wanting to start experimenting with sea vegetables or are looking for a healthy and sweet energy bar, definitely give Kelp Krunch a try.

Kelp Krunch can be purchased at retail locations nationwide and online.

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On a side note, I have been purchasing dulse and kelp from Maine Sea Vegetables for many years and respect this brand a lot. Click HERE to read about their testing and purity.

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The other day I did a post on the fantastic organic Nutty Nori Chips by Food on Purpose. When I bought the chips, I figured that the nori had been purchased many months before the earthquake in Japan and that there wasn’t much cause for concern.

Yet it did bring up an important issue, one that many readers have since contacted me about.

Given that so many people eat sushi or vegetable sushi rolls, is it safe to eat nori?

A Primer on Nori

Nori is a sea vegetable that is almost exclusively grown in the waters off of Japan, Korea and China.

Sea vegetables are widely eaten because of their ability to absorb important minerals from the sea, such as magnesium, calcium, iron, and iodine.

However, since they do act like a sponge, the sea vegetables also absorb toxic material, such as heavy metals and contaminants.

So, the quality of the sea water will determine the quality of the sea vegetable.

The Effect of the Japanese Earthquake

At first, many experts did not seem gravely concerned about the radiation levels in the ocean near Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors. This is because the sea is enormous and would have diluted any toxic material that made its way into the water.

However, in early April workers started to dump as much as 3 million gallons of contaminated water directly into the ocean. Obviously, this was much more worrisome.

Sushi restaurants could easily switch their purchasing of fish from Japan to fish that comes from other parts of the world. With nori, they do not have that flexibility.

The main concern now is that nori will easily absorb, and concentrate, plutonium and cesium, both of which are harmful to humans.

How much radioactive material the nori picks up remains to be seen.

Current Situation

I contacted Food on Purpose and asked them about their nori. What I heard was the following.

All of the nori that they have now and for the next several months is already here or has been shipped. In other words, it was harvested before the disaster.

Going forward, the distributor will be doing independent batch testing for radiation on all products harvested after the tsunami. In about 6 months time is when the company will be closely monitoring the quality of the nori. At the present moment, it is not an issue.

Something else to consider here.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors are on the northeast coast of Japan while many of the sea vegetable beds are on the southwest part of the country. And from what I have been hearing, the winds and currents are blowing more towards the continental U.S. and Alaska, away from southeast Japan and China and Korea, the two other primary producers of nori.

My Take

According to Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food & Water Watch, “there is simply not enough information on radiation’s effects in Japanese seaweed imports to deduce whether or not they are safe following the Japanese nuclear disaster.”

I agree with her. We cannot be sure if it is safe but unless I know the exact situation of where my organic nori is coming from, such as the Food on Purpose example I gave above, I am not going to take a chance.

Now, this is very easy for me to do since I am not a sushi eater and rarely eat vegetable rolls that have nori in them.

I have been eating very little fish these days and if I do, I will make sure it is (a) not from Japan and (b) not on the Dirty Dozen of fish.

For many years, I have purchased my dulse from Maine Coast Sea Vegetable and will continue to do so. They are certified organic and do testing for all heavy metals, contaminants and pesticides.

At the end of the day, I wonder if this horrible incident in Japan will make people much more aware of the safety of ALL of the food that they are putting in their body.

I really hope so.

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After I wrote the original post on April 22nd, I have since received responses from three companies who sell or distribute nori. Here is what they had to say.

From Brian Bowers, Chief Operating Officer of Sunfood

I’ve spoken to both Maine Coast and Goldmine Natural Foods, our two sea vegetable suppliers. They both assured us that all of the current inventory we have was collected before the Fukushima incident and is free of radiation. They also assured us that future shipments will be tested before they are shipped from the source and again when they arrive in the US. We have requested that we be provided with these reports before we accept any sea vegetables that were harvested after the incident.

From Marnie Mikell, Public Relations Executive from Great Eastern Sun, Distributor of Emerald Cove Organic Nori

1. Emerald Cove Organic Nori is grown, harvested, and packaged in China, not Japan. As we all know, winds and ocean currents move from west to east, so because China is on the west side of Japan, any radiation fallout would circle the globe before arriving there.

2. All Emerald Cove seaweeds currently in our warehouse and on store shelves is from the 2010 harvest, which occurred in the winter and therefore happened before the March 11 Japanese disaster.

3. As an organic product, Emerald Cove nori is tested for heavy metal and microbial contamination as a requirement for certification. When the 2011 seaweed crop is ready to harvest, which will be in the coming winter, additional testing may be done to determine if there is any abnormal level of radiation, however it remains to be seen what testing will be done and who will do it.

Our customers can rest assured that we have not, do not, and will not sell unsafe food products. With more than thirty years in the natural foods industry, we are committed to providing the highest quality natural and organic foods we can provide, for the health of ourselves and our planet.

From Paul Pennell, Founder of Food On Purpose

For many many months, probably up to nearly a year, the Nori we use in our Nori Chips was harvested well before the terrible events in Japan. We, and our distributors, are stocked up for many seasons ahead with Nori. However, at the point that any products start coming in from Japan (post-earthquake), all ingredients will be tested, marked and stamped so our customers know exactly what is going on. I will eventually be creating a sticker that guarantees the safety of our Nori.

For those who don’t know, kelp is a sea vegetable. If you’ve ever had sushi, the black edible “paper” on the outside of the roll is actually seaweed – nori.

If you are eating kelp dry and right out of the bag, like I do, then you will find it very, very tough and very, very salty. I mean ridiculously salty. Naturally salty, that is.

When using kelp in soups or stews, it will expand and become much more tender and easily-chewable. Kelp can also be roasted, boiled, sauteed or marinated.

I am adding kelp into my diet because I want to increase the amount of iodine I consume. Kelp is also rich in minerals and trace elements, including calcium, potassium and magnesium, and it offers substantial amounts of some of the B vitamins.

My preferred brand of choice of kelp is Maine Coast Sea Vegetables. Not only does the company have organic certification but it also harvests the seaweed sustainably and tests extensively for chemicals and PCBs.

This brand of kelp is sold nationwide and can be purchased online HERE.