Vegetables and everything else
Seaweed (nori) on a GLP-1: protein, portions and how to actually eat it
About 30 g of protein per 100 g (3.5 oz), dried nori sheets, for around 250 calories. One snack pack, about 5 g (0.2 oz), gives roughly 2 g of protein for 12 calories.
To reach 30 g of protein from seaweed (nori) alone you would need about 100 g (3.5 oz). On a small appetite that is often more than one sitting allows, which is why we pair it rather than chase the whole target from one food.
How seaweed (nori) sits on a GLP-1
Dried nori looks like a high protein food on paper, at about 30 g per 100 g (3.5 oz), and it is not one in practice, because a snack pack is 5 g (0.2 oz) and a sheet weighs about 3 g. It is salty, crisp, savoury and dissolves in the mouth, which on a GLP-1 makes it one of the few snacks people can face in the first days after an injection. Its better use is as a wrapper: a hand roll of nori around rice, egg or tuna is often the way a small serve of protein gets eaten.
When your appetite is small
Use a sheet as a wrap. A square of nori around a spoon of rice, a piece of omelette and a fork of tinned tuna is a hand roll of about 10 g that is small, salty and gone in a minute; three of them is a 30 g lunch. Seaweed is also high in iodine, so if you have a thyroid condition, ask your doctor before making it a daily habit.
Three ways to prepare it
Hand rolls with tuna and egg
A half sheet, a spoon of rice, a strip of omelette, a fork of tuna with mayonnaise, rolled into a cone. About 10 g each, and the format makes small serves easy.
A snack pack alongside a boiled egg
Seasoned seaweed snack and a boiled egg is a 9 g stop that fits in a pocket and needs no fridge.
Crumbled over rice with an egg and soy
Nori shredded over a small bowl of rice with a soft egg and soy sauce. The seaweed gives the bowl the savoury depth a flat palate needs.
What to eat it with
Tuna, egg, rice, salmon, avocado, soy, sesame. Nori is a wrapper and a seasoning; the protein goes inside it.
How it compares
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Energy per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seaweed (nori) | about 30 g | 250 kcal | this page |
| Miso soup | about 2 g | 25 kcal | See the page |
| Tinned tuna | about 25 g | 116 kcal | See the page |
| Eggs | about 13 g | 150 kcal | See the page |
All figures are typical values for the food as eaten, dried nori sheets, not laboratory figures for a particular brand.
Australian, US and UK names
Nori is the Japanese name for the pressed dried sheets used for sushi, and gim is the Korean version sold in seasoned snack packs. Laver is the same seaweed in Wales and the UK, sold as laverbread when cooked. Nori sheets and seaweed snacks are in supermarkets and Asian grocers in all three countries.
Questions people ask
Is seaweed high in protein?
By dry weight, yes, about 30 to 40 g per 100 g (3.5 oz), but a snack pack is 5 g (0.2 oz) and gives about 2 g. Treat it as a salty, savoury wrapper that helps tuna, egg or rice go down, and watch the iodine if you have a thyroid condition.
Your number comes first
Knowing what is in a food only helps once you know how much you are aiming for. The target is 1.2 to 1.6 g of protein per kg of your goal weight, not your current weight, which for most people is 90 to 140 g a day.
Work out your protein targetMore on eating well when your appetite is small: high protein foods for a small appetite, how much protein on a GLP-1, and every food we have written up. The whole system in five documents is the Keep Muscle Kit, A$47 / US$29 / £23.
EverStrong provides nutrition and strength coaching and education. It is not medical advice and does not replace your prescribing doctor.