Transcription of Treasures from the Sea #161
Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast recorded at the studio of Maine magazine at 75 Market St., Portland, Maine. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine. Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine magazine. Here are some highlights from this week’s program.
Michael: We’re growing what is arguably the healthiest vegetable you can eat with no fresh water, no arable tillable land, no fertilizers or insecticides. What I see is an industry that should continue to grow, create jobs in this state and help the Earth while feeding people well into the next century.Speaker 1: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast recorded at the studio of Maine magazine at 75 Market St., Portland, Maine. Dr. Lisa Belisle is a physician trained in family and preventative medicine, acupuncture and public health. She offers medical care and acupuncture at Brunswick Family Medicine. Read more about her integrative approach to wellness in Maine magazine. Here are some highlights from this week’s program.
Wendy: One thing led to another and we started talking about skin cancers and photo protection and why can’t someone come up with the product that really is a multipurpose, multitasking product that people will use on a daily basis like a moisturizer that actually nourishes the skin but also protects it.
Tollef: I began real research for about a year and a half of different marine ingredients. We ended up with five very good ones that hydrate and rejuvenate and there are other things out there that we’ll still keep looking for.
Speaker 1: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary by Design, Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX heritage, Tom Shepherd of Shepherd Financial, Harding Lee Smith of The Rooms and Bangor Savings Bank.
Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 161, Treasures from the Sea, airing for the first time on Sunday, October 12, 2014.
Maine is home to miles of inviting coastline which gives us proximity to our prolific ocean whose treasures are many. The benefits of the sea go beyond swimming, sailing and fishing. Today, we speak with Dr. Mike and Wendy Taylor, developers of Ocean Elements skin care products and Tollef Olson, whose company, Ocean Approved, harvest nutrient rich sea vegetables for eating. Listen to our conversation and understand what treasures the sea has to offer. Thank you for joining us.
On today’s show, we have two individuals who discuss things that are really very close to my heart as a physician and as an individual. They wrapped together things like community health, public health but also environmental health and physical health. Today we have with us Dr. Michael Taylor, who is a retired dermatologist, who’s had a career long interest in public health, international health and community medicine. His wife, Wendy Taylor began her career in long-range planning, market research, marketing planning and marketing management in large financial institutions in Chicago and Colorado.
The husband and wife team later founded Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership more recently and the reason why we have them on the studio today, they founded Bright Water Bay Science LLC, a Maine-based company whose focus is on skin health. Ocean Elements is a Bright Water Bay Science brand and in May of this year, they introduced the first product, a daily moisturizer with an SPF of 30. Welcome into the studio.
Michael: Thank you for having us. Thanks Lisa.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve had a chance to speak with Nate Nickerson of Konbit Sante and also Deb Dietrich has spoken about your organization as well, so I wanted to start with that because it’s something that I’m fascinated by. You’ve done this for quite a long time. As a dermatologist and somebody who does work in marketing and long-range planning, I wonder if you can tell me why was that you thought that this was important to you?
Michael: It was 2000 that we founded Konbit Sante. It grew out of a belief that we had resources here in the greater Portland area that would be useful and willing. To help out in underdeveloped areas of the world if we could put together a structure that would support the volunteers as they provided their services.
Both of us had had experiences in medical missions being dropped in for a week, taking blood pressures, getting some medicines and feeling as though we had done wonderful things and then abandoning our patients there. They went back to the way they were before. What struck us during one of our missions was a nurse, a very caring nurse who ran up to us and said I just diagnosed a woman with diabetes. She had a blood sugar of 400. Wendy and I looked at one another and said, “Have we done anybody any good by being here?”
This was in the Dominican Republic because there are no needles, there are no syringes, there are no public health nurses to train individuals on how to take care of their diabetes, no strips to check the urine, really nothing. We thought wow this really isn’t very useful. We have to, if we’re going to do anything and use our time and resources, we have to develop a method that’s sustainable. We have to partner with a community over the long haul to support them so that the individuals, the professionals who live in that community can provide better services.
Actually, trying to create a sustainable program rather than just dropping in and leaving feeling that we’ve done some good. We gathered thought leaders in the community, not just the sessions but Dominic Towell who was then president of Maine Medical Center, Jim Moody, who was president of Hannaford, Dom Nickel who is a planner and had worked originally with Ed Muskie.
We really tried to get people who would give us honest, good advice as well as several physicians. We met in our dining room for seven or eight months on a monthly basis and got things going and found not to our surprise that I mean Portland is a wonderful community. I could just talk about Portland but we found not to our surprise that there were many people who wanted to participate and would participate if the structure were such that they could be supported which required finding a hotel, transportation, making sure about immunizations, forming the relationships but it’s really been successful. I suspect you know Eva Lathrop. Eva was one of our first volunteers and she’s incredibly involved.
Wendy: Eva Lathrop has been really instrumental in getting a women’s health program going in Cap-Haitien, working with a powerful OB/GYN there where they formed a fast friendship as well as a collegial relationship of which has resulted so far in bringing local healthcare workers into the healthcare system. The matrons who delivered 85% of the babies at home in the community had no training to speak of. They were the ones who people trusted and they didn’t know what to do if they ran into a problem delivering.
Eva and Dr. [Telemark 00:09:28], her colleague, developed a program to bring those people in and train them and connect them to the medical community so that they would improve birth outcomes and they’ve continued to do that to take healthcare out into the community. As you probably know, Eva was a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi and she still travels to Haiti as well as to Africa. She does it on a regular basis. She has taken her little baby girl with her since she was less than a year old.
Dr. Lisa: It sounds like doctors are continuing to want to do good things in the greater global community and you set up a structure that enables them to do this and feel supported.
Michael: Yes.
Dr. Lisa: How did the two of you … I know this is somewhat personal but how did the two of you meet and come to understand that you both were able to offer something in a relationship that would really be of benefit to the greater good.
Michael: You can talk about how we met.
Wendy: We met like most people meet. We were introduced and found out we had mutual friends. It wasn’t till we had been married for a while.
Michael: We were introduced by her mother. I was preapproved.
Wendy: He was preapproved by my mother. But it was later, I think I’ve worked briefly in Michael’s office when he was between office managers and I quickly realized I did not have the skills or the background to do that for very long but we did hire someone else who stayed with the practice for years and was wonderful. The Haiti project, I guess we just decided over the dinner table that we were going to put a toll on the water and try it, get some people together, talk about it and see what happened. We have a good working relationship. We have interesting dinner conversations.
Michael: We work well together. We were married when we went to the Dominican Republic on a medical mission. I think both of us concluded after that experience that there were really wonderful human beings who wanted to give of themselves but it required a structure for that to happen in the proper way. I mean Iris isn’t the only one. There are several but there are many more that are dead ended. We decided together at that time that we were young and foolish. We said well I think we can do this better. I think we can set it up so that it’s sustainable, so that it has broad community support. I mean, we’re a sister city. We’ve had the priest from the cathedral, Father Jim. Do you remember father Jim?
Dr. Lisa: I do.
Michael: Father Jim came down with us to Haiti. He then brought up the priest from Cap-Haitien who gave mass and sermon at the cathedral. We felt that not just medical professionals but the whole community would probably want to participate in a helpful way if there were mechanisms so we did this together after that experience. I think it had occurred during a conversation. We said well we could probably do this so we gave it a try.
Dr. Lisa: You’re on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast. We’ve long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepherd of Shepherd Financial.
Tom: Sometimes I meet with married or partnered clients and when we get to talking about their financial lives, a cultural divide bubbles to the surface. One person feels one way about their money and the other seems to be on their own financial island where the set of beliefs and rules that have created unnecessary borders and boundaries. It’s not an uncommon thing.
When I hit those situations, I do my best to help both people understand that neither is 100% right or wrong, that they simply have to take a step back and look at their own financial life in a new light. It is also true in politics and economics. What we need to do is see money as a living thing that can be used to grow our lives together without disagreement or so-called border issues. It’s a great feeling for me. It’s like I’m helping people negotiate peace treaties with their money. Be in touch if you want to know more, tom@shepherdfinancialmaine, we’ll help you evolve with your money.
Speaker 1: Securities offered through LPL financial member FINRA SIPC. Investment advice offered through Flagship Harbor Advisors, a registered investment advisor. Flagship Harbor Advisors and Shepherd Financial are separate entities from LPL Financial.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is brought to you by Bangor Savings Bank. For over 150 years, Bangor Savings has believed that the innate ability of the people of Maine to achieve their goals and dreams, whether it’s personal finance, business banking or wealth management assistance you’re looking for, at Bangor Savings Bank, you matter more. For more information, visit www.bangor.com
Dr. Lisa: Let’s talk about your newest endeavor which I know is going to be successful because the other one was. Why wouldn’t this one be?
Michael: Well, each has its own challenges.
Dr. Lisa: Of course it does but this is very exciting to me. This is Bright Water Bay Science. You’re focusing on skin health which of course is your background, Dr. Taylor, in dermatology. Ocean Elements is part of the Bright Water Bay Science brand and you now have a daily moisturizer with an SPF of 30. There’s an interesting story behind this and there’s an interesting Maine connection. I want to ask Wendy about this.
Wendy: Well, Michael retired from his dermatology practice several years ago and I think spent one month collecting the books he intended to read going on road trip with a guy friend and doing a little meditation. At the end of a month, he said I have to do something else. That was the brief retirement of Dr. Taylor.
One thing led to another and we started talking about skin cancers and photo protection and why can’t someone come up with a product that really is a multipurpose, multitasking product that people will use on a daily basis like moisturizers that actually nourishes the skin but also protects it. We were saying people have such bad attitude about anything that’s called a sunscreen because they assume it’s going to be sticky, smelly unpleasant, it’ll creep and itch and get into your eyes and that was sort of the beginning of the conversation.
Michael: When I was in practice, I suggest to individuals that they try a couple, go to pharmacy and try a couple and first of all determine which one they would use and then check what was in it and so forth. For us, that became a primary thing. We wanted to based on our experience during the screening, wanted to use marine ingredients as much as possible if they would provide legitimate benefit to the product. Being in Maine, we were really fortunate to have access to information.
Dr. Lisa: Tell me about that and why it was important to use Marine ingredients.
Michael: They’re ubiquitous, they’re available. We wanted to promote Maine. That was a side goal for us was to promote Maine and we haven’t done that yet. Truth right out there, the marine ingredients that are in our product are sourced by the manufacturer. We are a small start-up and we don’t have the financial or historical clout to persuade the manufacturer to look beyond their traditional sources.
Our intention was to use Maine sources and it will be in the future if we continue going, we’ll have enough ability to do that. If you look around at how natural products are discovered, most of them are close by. People look at rosehips and say okay vitamin C. We haven’t explored the ocean for all of the possibilities and there is a treasure trove out there. When I started doing my research, it became clear that there were tons of effective antioxidants. There is a coral that actually creates a photo protective barrier and you find it only on the highest points of the coral closest to the surface of the water. It has an effect of SPF value. There are many things there and the more research we did, the more we found out.
Dr. Lisa: Wendy, can you talk to me about some of the trends that you seen in skincare?
Wendy: Sure. There are several things that we’re seeing right now as trends in skincare. First and foremost, I think people are becoming more concerned about what’s in a products they use and what’s in the products they use in their children. Secondly, people are becoming increasingly aware of potential damage from sun exposure, aware of skin cancers but also aware of photo aging, potential damage, wrinkles, fine lines, dark spots.
That’s interesting to people of all ages, not just to older people who are already experiencing them but also the younger people who would like to avoid the problems. A third trend we’re seeing that as people mature, they’re increasingly concerned about the appearance and the health of their skin and they become interested in antiaging products and routines. This translates into a growing interest in antiaging products but not just among older women. We’re seeing it among younger women now too. The other thing that we’re seeing is that this interest in antiaging products is not just among women. We’re starting to see more men.
Michael: I just wanted to comment on one thing and that is and this would interest you as a family physician. There was a recent study of teenage girls. They showed a movie of the effect of sunlight in creating skin cancer to one group. They showed some pretty awful erosive lesions on the face. Then they took a separate group of teenage girls and they showed them a movie on the effect of aging of sun exposure with blotchy skin, wrinkles, sags. Then after that, they gave them sunscreen and watched. It was an observer study who use sunscreen. Guess who? Not the ones who saw the skin cancer. Their use stay the same but the teenage girls who saw aging consequences, their use went up. As a dermatologist who has preached about the risks of skin cancer for years and while not ignoring certainly not emphasizing the antiaging, I’ve been headed in the wrong direction for decades.
Dr. Lisa: I think that that’s a very important point and one that in medicine, we are only just starting to understand is that people don’t want to get cancer. They don’t want to get heart disease. They don’t want all these bad things but at the same time they want to see some benefit to what they’re doing and they want to know that there’s going to be some physical positive impact so as opposed to avoiding things always which is a very fear-based approach, I think embracing things that enable us to be healthier and more well longer. That’s something in medicine that’s really a fairly relatively young idea. This is something that you’re trying to do with your moisturizer. What are your plans for other products?
Wendy: We have several products that are on our possible wish list. The one that is coming up next is a night product that rejuvenates and repairs. We’re in the process and it also has some marine ingredients in it. We are in the process of finalizing that formula and doing some testing. We’re doing both scientific testing in California in a scientific laboratory there. We’re also doing some consumer testing here.
Dr. Lisa: One of the reasons that you became so interested in marine products, do I understand this correctly, is that you are noticing that the hands of people who worked around the water, fishermen for example tended to be nice and bright and free of aging.
Michael: I was doing a skin cancer screening up at the Fishermen’s Forum. They have them every February at the Samoset. Actually the nursing school at USM has promoted this. I was just one participant with them. But during that, one of the wives who was with her husband said when he harvests seaweed, his hands are nice and smooth and moist and his friends who are fishermen and lobster men have rough hands with cuticles that are broken. They admitted that harvesters of seaweed have smooth hands.
I began to research it and Laminaria digitata which is a seaweed common to Maine, it’s the brown, long, flat seaweed, has a moisturizing components. It’s actually hydrophilic so even after you put it on, it absorbs moisture from the air and maintains that. It’s a great moisturizer. There is a gentleman by the name of Tollef Olson who farms laminaria digitata off Chebeague Island. He came in and confirmed that and demonstrated it.
As I did more research, there was one plastic surgeon New York who used it for wound healing successfully. That really … I said, well if there’s something like this that’s legitimate, it’s effective and people will use it, has scientific evidences to why it should work, there must be other things so I began real research for about a year and half of different marine ingredients, many dead ends, many wonderful ingredients that I just couldn’t obtain. They aren’t manufactured but we ended up with five very good ones that hydrate and rejuvenate. One of them has a photo protective feature about an SPF of five. It’s not high enough but it supplements. There are other things out there that we’ll still keep looking for.
Dr. Lisa: Meanwhile, the proceeds from your moisturizer and other things that are yet to be put together in your brand, 50% of them are going to go to benefit environmental and public health nonprofits.
Michael: Correct.
Dr. Lisa: So 10% will be Konbit Sante.
Michael: Correct.
Dr. Lisa: 10% will be the sister organization down in Haiti, is that right?
Michael: Correct.
Dr. Lisa: Then other ones I think are still …
Michael: Sure. We’re going to have the equivalent of a little foundation to support environmental and health nonprofit organizations. It probably eventually will be more than 50%. But at the moment, quite truthfully, we’re self-funded and we’ve made very little money so far so we really do want to pay ourselves back or at least pay a part of it back before we go off saving the world with our resources. But you’re right, 50% of it right off the top and one of the consultants in San Francisco, Peter Elias has been head of our scientific advisory board, he’s giving 5% which is all we would’ve given him to nonprofits. It’s sort of the ethos of the organization.
Dr. Lisa: I’m excited to try this myself. I haven’t yet but I’m excited to. I know that people who are listening will want to try your new moisturizer from Ocean Elements which is your Bright Water Bay Science brand. Also, we will want to learn more about Konbit Sante. How do people learn about all of these things that you two are doing, all of these wonderful things that you’re bringing to the world?
Wendy: We have a website at oelements.com and that website has the background story of how the product and future products3 developed, has tried to be very open about what’s in the product, what’s in our packaging and what isn’t in our packaging which is important and it also lists where the product can be bought. We love it when people buy online but we have some excellent retailers who are doing a great job of helping us get the word out.
The product is now available in Maine at 19 or perhaps 20. By today, retailers from York to Boothbay Harbor including the Cape Arundel Inn, Blackpoint Inn in Scarborough, the Inn At Cuckolds Lighthouse in South Port Maine, Migis Lodge in Casco, Mim on a Whim in Ogunquit, Allen Sterling & Lothrop in Falmouth, Apothecary By Design in Portland and Nine Stones Spa in Portland. There are several here. I’m sorry if I’ve missed anybody. We also have Spoil Me in Falmouth and one of our favorite places on the weekends, the North Creek Farm inPhippsburg.
Dr. Lisa: How do people find out about Konbit Sante?
Wendy: Konbit Sante has a great website at www.konbitsante.org.
Dr. Lisa: I’m impressed with all the work that you’ve done. It sounds like you’ve been very thoughtful about not only the products that have … Not only the things that have gone into your products also the packaging surrounding the products and where the proceeds which because I know this will be successful and I know that you will have lots of proceeds because everybody who’s listening is going to go out and buy some of this product so where the proceeds will go to.
I appreciate what you’re doing and really trying to use all of your skills and talents as individuals and as a couple to bring this great work into the world. Thank you. We’ve been speaking with Dr. Michael Taylor and his wife Wendy Taylor about the Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership and also their newly founded Bright Water Bay Science, a Maine-based company and their Ocean Elements Bright Water Bay Science brand. We are very appreciative of your coming in.
Michael: Thank you.
Wendy: Thank you.
Dr. Lisa: As a physician and small business owner, I rely on Marci Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: When asked, most of my clients say the same thing about what keeps them up at night, money. Making certain cash flow is there to meet day-to-day operational needs. Oh my gosh, is payroll going to be able to make it? When we dig deeper, we understand that those sleepless nights are symptoms of poor planning and forecasting. More often than not, the reasons for not doing it are a lack of time and a lack of resources. So here’s a suggestion, Instead of living in fear of the numbers and losing sleep over them, make peace with them by paying closer attention to the financials and creating positive cash flow. I’m Marci Booth. Let’s talk about the changes you need, boothmaine.com.
Speaker 1: This segment of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is brought to you by the following generous sponsors: Mike LePage and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage in Yarmouth Maine. Honesty and integrity can take you home. With RE/MAX Heritage, it’s your move. Learn more at ourheritage.com.
Dr. Lisa: It’s always a pleasure for me to have the chance to meet people that have created products I enjoyed long before I knew I was going to be on the radio and long before I knew there was ever a chance I would meet them. One such individual is Tollef Olson, who is the founder of Ocean Approved, a Maine-based health company. Ocean Approved is the first company to commercially raise kelp in open water farms in the United States. We’re very fortunate to have you for today. Thanks for coming in.
Tollef: Thank you Lisa.
Dr. Lisa: Tollef, you’re featured in Maine magazine because you do really interesting things. I’m not sure people think about kelp as something that you can eat.
Tollef: Kelp has been eaten worldwide in coastaled communities for millennia. The problem is it’s a marine vegetable. It does not want to be in the atmosphere and so traditionally, it’s been dried which is very healthy presentation and a good way to eat it but it limits the uses of it. Think the difference between a dried pea and a fresh pea for taste, color, texture, ease-of-use.
What we’ve done is found a market form. I’ve made a market form that’s much easier for people to enjoy.
Dr. Lisa: When I first started eating your product, I found it in I think was a freezer, I think it was Browne Trading when I was way back when. Is it still the way that you are producing it?
Tollef: That is. What we do, it has to be stabilized as soon as you bring it out of the ocean, it doesn’t want to be exposed to the atmosphere. We found that by cutting it, blanching it and freezing it immediately, it stabilized it in its best possible state to eat it. Kelp is unique. It’s designed to freeze on the low tides and the winter time. The cell structure doesn’t breakdown when we freeze it. The frozen is indistinguishable from the fresh.
Dr. Lisa: Let’s back up a little bit. Kelp is one of many sea vegetables and if I’m out looking at seaweed. Let’s call them seaweed because that’s what most people think all of as sea vegetables, what does kelp look like when it’s sitting on the shore?
Tollef: We’re focusing on the Brown macro algaes right now which are the kelps. Kelp is actually a generic term that came out of Europe years ago. There’s almost really no such thing as kelp. They even called rock weed kelp sometimes so we’re working with, the brown macroalgae. Kelp seaweeds come in various colors. You’ve got the reds, the browns and the greens. They all look slightly different. We’re working with the broader banded laminarias because they are the best known in the market at this point. It was easier to extrapolate knowledge from Asia to convert it to our systems here. That said, there are many different seaweeds and most of them have great nutritional value.
Dr. Lisa: So kelp would be sort of one of these broad, flat things that you would find as you’re walking along the beach?
Tollef: That’s what most people would think of, yes. The one you see predominantly on the beach is the sugar kelp which are the great big flat blades with the ruffles on the edges. You will see some digitata also especially after storms. That’s a big plant that looks a lot like your hand, that’s the digitata designation and we also have alaria here which is the equivalent of andaria which is the Wakame that most people are familiar with from seaweed salads. You will see that on the beaches after big storms also.
Dr. Lisa: In the article that Susan Connelly wrote about Ocean Approved in Maine Magazine, you mentioned to her that kelp and seaweed are not true root vegetables.
Tollef: That’s correct. They don’t feed from the root system like terrestrial plants do, they actually feed from the blade undulating through the water and it’s the surface area with the water flowing over. That’s how they collect the nutrients. They’re very efficient at removing nitrogens and phosphorus and also taking in carbon dioxide and releasing the oxygen.
It’s a wonderful plant in that respect. The ocean is so efficient at mixing all these elements that the kelp can really capitalize on that and we’re growing what is arguably the healthiest vegetable you can eat with no fresh water, no arable tillable land, no fertilizers or insecticides. I can’t say much more than that. It’s a great way to grow a vegetable.
Dr. Lisa: Yeah I’m in the fact that it already just grows on its own and if you can find an uncontaminated water source, then you can be able to harvest it.
Tollef: The beauty of that is Maine does a really good job of monitoring the waters so we know where the clean waters are and of course the majority of water in Maine is absolutely pristine compared to most of the world. We have so much coastline, a relatively small population and not a lot of industry on the waterfront. There were problems back in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s with the factories up the river but a lot of that has been alleviated now so we’re fortunate in the fact that we’ve got a great medium for raising the product. There’s a lot of wild kelp available but by moving in into aquaculture, we are able to control our source to keep pressure off the wild beds and ensure a more uniform product.
Dr. Lisa: Where are you raising your kelp currently?
Tollef: We have three sites, the farm sites here in Casco Bay in the outer calendar Islands. We have a small site up in the Blue Hill Salt Ponds. We’ve been experimenting up and down the coast to find the best areas. We are working with other folks in helping them to learn how to farm it to produce products for us or for themselves literally from the New Hampshire border to the Canadian border.
Dr. Lisa: You talked about kelp being used or all sea vegetables being used for hundreds of years in different cultures. I think what I’m remembering in reading about my own family’s Irish background, there’s a lot of use of specific types of sea vegetables, kind of things they have available in Ireland. Is this true of all of the ocean going countries around the world?
Tollef: It is. There was a dual fold purpose in Ireland. The folks were lucky enough to have rack rights doing the potato plight where the families who stayed in the rack rights meant that you could scavenge the beach basically and you could eat mussels and seaweed. You had food because the problem was lack of food. Hawaiian royalty four, five hundred years ago actually had private seaweed gardens.
Indigenous communities along the Mexican coast use an eelgrass type equivalent to make flour. Every coastal community throughout the world has used to seaweeds as a component of their diet. In Iceland, you actually have hereditary rights to certain seaweed beds as a family unit because of course you don’t have the ideal growing season for vegetables there.
Dr. Aisa: I was talking to Dean Lunt who was the publisher at Islandport Press and he was saying that up where his family is from, French borough, they take and dry sea vegetables on the shore and then they keep that throughout the winter for various uses so it becomes a nutrient that you can use all year round.
Tollef: One of the seaweeds he’s probably working with is one of the red algaes, it’s called dulse and as we go up into the Maritimes and towards Canada and into Canada, it’s a very popular snack item. It’s actually consumed the way a lot of people eat potato chips or peanuts. It’s just a regular snacking item and you’re literally taking a multivitamin with fiber anytime you eat any of these seaweeds.
Dr. Lisa: As part of the work that I’ve done in Chinese medicine and acupuncture, I have encouraged people to eat seaweed and I usually send them towards dulse or I’ll send them towards this very popular now snack called sea snacks, where they have these little sheets of seaweed and people really like that. But yours is a slightly different product and you use it in slightly different ways.
Tollef: Yes what we’ve done is instead of drying it, we actually present it as a whole vegetable product which makes it very easy to use. It’s extremely palatable. It’s mild. It’s green when left in the form that we do. It’s not strong when you dry it, it can concentrate the flavors and become a little bit overpowering for some people. In the snacks, they moderate that by adding other items but in our presentation, you’ve got a mild green vegetable that can be used across the board.
I do everything from a lobster Benedict to a carrot cake and anything you can think of between with the kelps. It makes it a very easy way to take advantage of the nutritional benefits. Kelp is loaded with selenium, silicium, magnesium, 30 or 40 trace elements and minerals that are extremely difficult to get from terrestrial plants because the soil leaches and you try to replace those nutrients but it’s not cost effective and since we quit using Morton’s iodized salt, kelp is the place to get your iodine.
Dr. Lisa: I think I’ve had your Ocean Approved product at maybe Linda Beans in the kelp pea slaw.
Tollef: That’s correct. She does a kelp pea slaw. She also does a wonderful salmon and poppy oat. I actually do a version of it but I call it [alkelpyoat 00:43:38] and it tastes like traditional fish. They used to be done in a parchment paper and a brown paper bag, instead you wrap it with kelp so instead of cutting the paper open and leaving it on the plate, you’re actually consuming the vegetable as you eat the fish and it’s a beautiful presentation.
Dr. Lisa: Some people also use, I know this is not your product but some people use dried seaweed granules and I’ll put them almost like a protein powder into a smoothie.
Tollef: They do. We’ve actually been playing with smoothies a lot. Our kelps go wonderfully into smoothie, they leave a nice … because of the fiber green [inaudible 00:44:10] in your smoothies. Protein is an interesting one. There’s been a lot of studies on that with the kelps and seaweeds and one thing that has been proven the more seaweed you eat, the more protein you derive from it because you actually change the microbial count in your gut and it takes a certain microbe to really get, derive the protein benefits.
Dr. Lisa: I believe that help and other sea vegetables were very helpful after World War II?
Tollef: Especially in Japan with the nuclear disasters over there. Kelp once again is a great source iodine and iodine is extremely important if you’re exposed to radiation. Of course we are all exposed to radiation everyday so kelp is an integral ingredient to help keep you balanced in that respect.
Dr. Lisa: I also think that I remember reading about a recent nuclear reactor accident after may be a tsunami and one of the things that sea vegetables are doing is actually helping clean up the water around that nuclear reactor.
Tollef: That’s correct. It’s something else too that altered the market. Japan, the Fukushima disaster, Japan had had the lead position in the industry the kelp industry as the best number one product worldwide. We’re kind of moving into that niche a little bit. Now people are afraid of the Japanese kelps a little bit now. China is the largest farmer of kelps but there are some questionable waters over there so people are starting to lean towards our American kelps.
Dr. Lisa: But it does say something really good about kelp in general and maybe you don’t want to be eating the kelp that’s from near Fukushima but you certainly eating kelp is going to be helpful for your own body because it can help clean up some of the things that you might normally ingest or be exposed to yourself.
Tollef: Kelp is fantastic for that. The fiber in kelp as a matter fact two different studies, one in Great Britain and one in Japan, preliminary studies have found that marine fiber 75% more efficient at removing bad fats among other things but they do carry out many of that baddies with them while leaving you with a good source literally, a multivitamin with fiber of selenium, silicium, magnesium, the list just goes on and on and on. But as far as we’re cleaning up the water and it’s a neat thing and farming it is we’re taking advantage of excess nutrients, excess nitrogen phosphors that washes down from uphill.
That’s one of the reasons we don’t have to add any fertilizer in the ocean is extremely efficient in mixing all these. Salt water is composed of the same elements in minerals as our blood basically and so kelp is a real easy vegetable for the body to assimilate and take advantage of.
Dr. Lisa: I will often tell my patients who have thyroid issues or have a family history of thyroid issues that they might enjoy some sea vegetables because of the iodine.
Tollef: My generation grew up with Morton’s iodized salt which was done intentionally with the assistance of the government because iodine is really hard to derive from terrestrial plants or meats. You don’t get adequate and there’s no commercially viable way to add iodine to the fertilizers and get enough. Kelp is the source for that and as things have evolved, this is something that should be added to pretty much everybody’s diet.
I think it’s 43% of the people in this country are iodine deficient right now. As you said, applying that to the thyroid, it’s one of the key parts of your body that requires and regulates your iodine.
Dr. Lisa: In micro-biotic circles, there are different types and Chinese medicine, different types of sea vegetables are used for different things. Some of them are more cooling, some of them are more warming. They have different properties but in general these vegetables seem to be very good for hair and skin and nails.
Tollef: Absolutely. I can take that to a direct correlation. I had a horse back in the 1980s that I took over who was in trouble nutritionally. I used source products with kelp in them and one of the problems we had was to get her to grow hoofs and her hoofs grew. It took almost a year but with constant use of the source products with the iodine, I mean in the kelps, we grew beautiful fur and hooves.
We feed our cat kelp and we literally noticed a difference in the fur. We are working out some topical applications too as opposed to the internal and they worked fantastic too. I work outside year round on the water. I pulled in 3000 feet of line yesterday and that’s when I showed up here, you commented, your hands aren’t rough. It’s from handling the kelp.
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Dr. Lisa: Why are you so passionate about kelp? How did you come to be … I mean you’re clearly very enthusiastic about it and I love this. Why is this so important to you?
Tollef: I’ve been intimately involved with the ocean my entire life. I’ve circled the globe, I’ve crossed the Indian Atlantic and Pacific oceans. I’ve worked in the water. I’ve worked with food and the writings on the wall for the future, our current food model does not work. The FAO brand to the United Nations has flat out stated that at the current population ramp up, we cannot feed the earth past about 2035. We need new ways. I’ve actually been fascinated with this since I read Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when I was about 11 or 12 years old and it stuck.
Dr. Lisa: Were you raised on the ocean?
Tollef: Yes. We’ve started in South Portland, we moved to Auburn Maine and from the time we moved to Auburn until I firmly planted my feet on the beach, all I ever wanted to do is get back to the ocean. I surf. I dive. I sail. I motor boat. The ocean is a huge part of my life.
Dr. Lisa: What about your family? How does your family feel about your dedication to the ocean and also Ocean Approved and the kelp farming that you’re doing?
Tollef: I think they like it. I think sometimes maybe they’re even embarrassed. I’ve been a little bit fortunate in the press that I’ve received but it’s a unique approach to some age old problems. It’s taken a combination of modern technology and known practices and I think they do enjoy the fact that there will be a tad of the legacy here. It’s fun to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.
Dr. Lisa: You’ve actually recently received not only some acclaim from people in the media world but you’ve also recently received $470,000 worth of grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Maine Technology Institute. This a big deal that you’re actually getting money to do the type of work that you’re doing.
Tollef: Well it’s been a fantastic boost for the company for a small close funded company, it’s really hard to get through the R&D stage and those grants allowed us to move through the R&D stage and create a model that we see as a first step towards a new industry here in Maine and the United States.Shep Earhardt from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables has done an absolutely wonderful job with dried sea vegetables in Maine since the 1980s and a couple others also have but the market like most markets is evolving.
This is a chance to evolve the market in a way that we can integrate the entire coastal community. We see this as a model for … There are many boats that sit unemployed in the winter time. Our crop is cyclical to lobsters, one of the largest marine crops in Maine and so we see this as a job creator. Last year or the year before aquaculture in an area of the size of the Portland Jetport generated $110 million. That’s aquaculture not seaweed, but we see this as a growth industry and we see seaweed as a brand-new component of it.
The best year I can find on record, there were 17 million metric tons of kelp farm worldwide. None of it in the US. This would’ve been about 2005 or so. This has a huge potential for the state of Maine and it has ramifications for the rest of the US also because there are seaweeds, different seaweeds available on all the coastlines.
Dr. Lisa: How is what you’re doing with the kelp and the aquaculture, how is this impacting the ecosystem of the coastline?
Tollef: The beauty of it is right now, we have adequate wild stocks and if they’re carefully harvested, we could maintain them but I’m 58 years old and in my lifetime, I’ve seen so many fisheries go boom and bust and have been a part of them.
Right now, we are carefully using the proper husbandry, maintaining wild beds as we move more and more into farming but moving into farming, we are probably the first company that has ever preemptively gone into aquaculture, fishing industry before there was a shortage of the wild product but this will allow us to move gracefully into the farm product before the native beds are damaged but it also allows us from watching what happens in the wild to pick the best spots to learn how to grow it properly where it really wants to be. We get a more uniform source of our product and we got a guaranteed source of the product into the future instead of counting on mother nature to keep up with us and our demands.
Dr. Lisa: Some of your companies, institutional customers include Mercy Hospital, Gould Academy, Portland Public Schools, Bowden College, University Maine, University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, that’s a pretty prestigious group of people are following you and believing in what you’re doing. How is this been so possible?
Tollef: It’s been really fascinating because it’s not only the quality of the food and the health benefits that these institutions are enjoying and especially amongst the students. I’ve been real excited to realize just how socio-economically aware they are. Not only are you getting a product that is being grown in a very sustainable fashion that can perpetuate jobs into the future, the combination of this is exciting.
Then when you look at the nutritional value of this product and how little … little as three or 4 ounces of this kelp a week will give you your iodine needs, not to mention all the trace elements and minerals and it’s also a good source of calcium. It’s a good source of fiber. It’s a good source of so many vitamin A. There’s so many different components to this that it’s really not that surprising these institutions are interested.
Dr. Lisa: What do you see in your future? Your company’s been around since 2006 so you’re heading into 10 years doing this. What is it that you’d like to accomplish?
Tollef: We’d like to keep seen the industry involve and see it become a true industry and not just a novelty. When I opened the company by myself in 2006, even people that respected me were laughing. Some of the scientists at the DMR, they’re like Tollef, what are you thinking? Now, these same people are actually going out and eating kelp and taking it home to their families. What I see is an industry that should continue to grow, create jobs in the state and help the earth while feeding people well into the next century.
Dr. Lisa: How do people find out about Ocean Approved or where can people buy your kelp?
Tollef: The easiest way is to go to oceanapproved.com. Just hit the Internet and you can buy it direct from us online. We do have some retail presence. Harbor Fish downtown Portland is a great place if you want to pick some upper Browne trading as you mentioned earlier. We really haven’t been pushing the retail side right now. As a small company, we found it behooves us to chase the institutional side because these then become our educators. I actually go down to Johnson and Wales University every trimester now for three days and teach seaweeds which the first year I went, people kind of raised eyeballs. The second year it was two times and now, I’m a regular. I’m almost an institution down there.
Dr. Lisa: I must admit, I was at Hugo’s last night and a very interesting dish they created with seaweed. It was something I had eaten before actually at the same Earth at Hidden Pond, they also use seaweed so I think that what you’re doing must be sort of be seeping out there. People are definitely paying attention.
Tollef: When I wrote my business plan, the first paragraph was the biggest hurdle in this industry is going to be the education of the consumer because we have a dedicated group that like seaweed but to move from that dedicated group to a larger segment of the population is a difficult move and the way that we’ve made that is by changing our market form by not drying the kelp. We actually put it in a form that’s extremely easy to use. You open the package and you can eat it right out of the package which you can with dried but it’s very versatile and you can use it anyplace you would use a mild green vegetable and some places you wouldn’t think of. I literally use it from lobster Benedict in the morning to carrot cake in the evening.
Dr. Lisa: I encourage people to go online, find Ocean Approved. Try out your product. I have. It’s quite good. Learn more about sea vegetables and the benefit of sea vegetables and what sea vegetables can do for an individual’s health but also not only an individual’s health but also the health of really the state of Maine and the ecologic systems that exist off the coast so I appreciate your coming in today.
Tollef: Thank you very much.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been speaking with Tollef Olson who is the founder of Ocean Approved, a Maine-based kelp company and you can read more about Tollef in Maine Magazine’s article by Susan Connelly.
You’ve been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast show number 161, Treasures from the Sea. Our guests have included Dr. Mike and Wendy Taylor and Tollef Olson. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit doctorlisa.org. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on iTunes.
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