Although it is still a gray area in the fields of health, food and nutrition, there are already those who drink seawater and cook with it every day in Portugal. But do you do better than others or not?
Gapped between 7 volcanoes, 32 meters deep in the Cabo de Gata Natural Park, A is one of the brands present in the national market. Is in the English Corte and in the barn and sells about 2 million liters per year – 84% to drink, 12% to cookadvances the owner of the Spanish to. On the website of Dietimport, owner of the barn, the Sales in Portugal grew 600% In the last year.
A is another company that has done so since 1907: it extracts sea water in the Gulf of Biscaia, depths between 20 and 30 meters, to sell, in turn, in the form of ampoules.
The Spanish is also on the barn website, the 6.98 euros per liter. It is collected around the Atlantic Islands National Park, in front of the CIES islands-“a privileged place where ocean currents are renewed continuously,” reads on. It sells five different brands.
What are and what are they used for?
They are not equal to the waters “from the beach”. The version hypertonic It is pure seawater, but filtered and treated. Already the isotonic “It contains 25% seawater and 75% mineral water, which is the water we have inside our body,” explains doctor Manuel Pinto Coelho to the magazine this Thursday.
“These waters are harvested in depth and treated, so they do not pose a risk to public health. Going directly fetching sea water, that is a serious risk, ”he explains.
Maraqua, from Vimaraqua, presents itself as a “Complement for those who buy fish and seafood“.
Its seawater “is used for culinary purposes, increasing the taste and texture of food, especially in fish and seafood dishes because enhances the flavor by sea. Reduces the need for salt addition And it is rich in various minerals and trace elements, ”says the company’s source.
Do you better or not?
“It has 356 times more calcium, 442 times more magnesium and 1,685 more potassium than the average Portuguese mineral waters,” says Manuel Pinto Coelho. There are those who disagree.
“I see no advantage in terms of clinical nutrition,” he says to the same Flora Correia magazine, a clinical nutrition specialist: “The amount it has magnesium, for example, probably makes no sense to deficit patients, who will continue to need supplementation. ”
“In terms of studies, the benefits identified are for high competition athletes for physical recovery after very intense exercise. Only under these circumstances did evidence found. For the ordinary citizen, seawater consumption does not seem to bring any additional advantage over common water, ”says Gustavo Tato Borges, a public health specialist.
