Nutrients of the Estuary: Feeding Life
Life In The Estuary
Early humans lived in and around estuaries, where freshwater and seawater meet. Long before farming, tools, or fire, people survived in these environments because food and chemistry were already balanced there. Shellfish could be gathered and opened by hand. Seaweed provided minerals and halides. Bird and reptile eggs supplied life giving phospholipids and nutrients in their yolks. Cruciferous and shoreline plants grew naturally in salty soils and brackish water. The nutrients contained in these foods are necessary for the body to stay healthy.
Archaeological evidence makes this clear. Shell middens line coastlines across the world. Roads were paved with shell. Salt roads crossed continents. Grease trails - fish oil - stretched from the Pacific northwest over the rockies and deep into North America. Native peoples carried essential fats and minerals inland for thousands of years. These were not accidents of culture. They were intuitive responses to biological need.
Salt, minerals, iodine-rich foods, and essential fatty acids were not luxuries; they were anchors. They maintain fluid balance, nerve signaling, membrane integrity, immune regulation, and microbial control. Without them, living systems became fragile.
When an Estuary Is Degraded
A healthy estuary is defined by rhythm. Roughly every six hours the tide moves in, carrying salts, minerals, and oxygen from the sea, and then recedes as fresh water flows back through the system. This steady exchange prevents stagnation, maintains chemical balance, and keeps plant and animal life in proportion. Because water is constantly moving and being renewed, nothing remains trapped long enough to decay or dominate.
Difficulties arise when human activity begins to interfere with this natural cycle. When forests are cleared upstream, soil erodes into the waterways and sediment gradually settles into the estuary. When shorelines are overbuilt or treated as convenient dumping grounds, waste accumulates faster than the tides can disperse it. At first the estuary appears resilient, because the water continues to move and the damage is not immediately obvious. Over time, the accumulating sediment begins to restrict the natural exchange of water, slowing circulation, reducing oxygen delivery, and weakening the balance that once kept organisms in proportion.
What follows is not sudden catastrophe, but a gradual loss of coordination within the ecosystem. Species that once existed in balance may begin to shift - some overgrow while others decline. In warm, slow-moving pockets of water, mosquitoes hatch quickly and can spread disease through the surrounding populations. The problem is not the mosquito itself, but the loss of circulation and proportion that allowed it to take over.
The Liver: An Internal Parallel
The liver functions in a similar way inside the body. It can store years’ worth of essential nutrients, including up to a decade of vitamin B12. These reserves help maintain internal rhythm — supporting circulation, membrane strength, and chemical balance.
When saved nutrients are steadily depleted, internal rhythm weakens. Alcohol, refined sugars, and nutrient-poor calories can directly drain them, and chronic stress, environmental strain, or sustained physical overexertion can do it too.
What follows is not immediate collapse, but gradual dysfunction. Systems lose coordination. Organisms that were once contained may gain advantage. Inflammation rises. Disease and dysfunction follow.
The pattern is the same. When rhythm is disturbed and nutrients are depleted, balance gives way to disorder.
What follows is rarely immediate collapse, but gradual strain within the body. Circulation becomes less efficient, organs work with less resilience, and inflammation increases. Over time, this weakened internal environment can lead to dysfunction, bacterial overgrowth, and disease.
The pattern mirrors the estuary: when rhythm is disrupted and essentials are not restored, the living system’s health degrades.
Egg Yolk and Membrane Construction
Egg yolk is rich in lecithin, a natural mixture of phospholipids that form the structural foundation of cell membranes. These phospholipids are the same class of molecules that build and maintain the membranes in the human body. The color of the yolk reflects the hen’s overall diet, and while pigment itself is not fat, yolk color often gives a visible clue about the nutritional environment in which those membrane-building fats were formed.
Phospholipids are molecules made of two fatty acid “tails” attached to a phosphorus-containing head. This structure allows them to assemble into membranes that hold shape while remaining flexible. The types of fatty acids available to the hen determine how those phospholipids are built. Grain-heavy diets tend to produce yolks richer in omega-6 fatty acids, while pasture and insect-rich diets provide more omega-3 precursors.
Omega-3 fatty acids create membranes that are more fluid and responsive. They allow better signaling between cells and greater resilience under oxidative stress. Omega-6 fats are not harmful in themselves, but when they dominate without balance, membranes can become more rigid and more prone to inflammatory signaling.
For this reason, yolk color is not a direct measurement of omega-3 content, but it can serve as a practical indicator of dietary diversity. A pale yolk often reflects a narrow, grain-based feed, while a deeper orange yolk suggests a broader nutrient input and, frequently, a more balanced membrane profile.
Nutrients of the Estuary
Krill oil
Naturally rich in phospholipids, offering structural lipids in a biologically familiar form. Contains good omega-3 fatty acids on the tails of the phospholipids. Contains DHA.Whole foods rich in B12 and phosphatidylcholine
Eggs, oysters, and liver remain among the most efficient and complete sources.
Unbleached sunflower lecithin
Naturally rich in phospholipid, supporting digestion and membrane repair. Contains omega-6 fatty acids on the tails of the phospholipids. No DHADHA from fish or algal sources - Cod Liver Oil - Has Vitamin A and D Needed supply for healthy cell membranes and signaling. Definitely needed if only supplementing seed oil lecithin. Does not contain phospholipids.
Green leafy vegetables and legumes
Provide folate and complementary cofactors necessary for one-carbon metabolism. Also includes cruciferous vegetables.Unprocessed seaweed
Supplies iodine balanced by bromine and trace minerals, closer to ancestral intake patterns than isolated iodide.Iodized salt
Not salt avoidance, but salt balance. Sodium and chloride are essential for fluid movement, nerve signaling, stomach acid, and immune chemistry. •A high-quality multivitamin
Choose a capsule, not a pressed tablet. Capsules dissolve reliably; compressed tablets often do not.Vitamin C
Supports redox balance, connective tissue maintenance, and immune function.Magnesium
A core cofactor for energy metabolism, membrane stability, and neuromuscular regulation.Zinc and copper Complementary trace minerals needed for proper enzyme activity, red blood cell function, and metabolic balance. Smell, Sight, Sound and Thinking.
Cruciferous Vegetables - broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale and others Contains lucosinolates or cyanogenic compounds, which your body converts into thiocyanate during digestion.
Innate Immunity and Halide Balance
A balanced immune system does not rely on a single antimicrobial pathway, but on a coordinated spectrum of reactive compounds. In healthy epithelial and mucosal tissues, immune defense arises from multiple halogen-based systems acting together—each derived from a specific dietary halide and activated locally as needed.
Hypochlorous acid (HOCl)
Generated from chloride, the primary anion supplied by dietary salt. Chloride provides the backbone of fluid balance, gastric acid formation, and neutrophil-based microbial control.Hypobromous acid (HOBr)
Derived from bromide, naturally present in seaweeds and marine foods. Bromide modulates iodine activity and contributes to epithelial and mucosal defense without excessive tissue damage.Hypoiodous acid (HOI)
Produced from iodide, also abundant in seaweeds and coastal foods. Iodine participates in antimicrobial defense, redox regulation, and signaling, particularly at barrier surfaces.Thiocyanate-based systems (OSCN⁻)
Generated from thiocyanates, supplied by brassica vegetables and other sulfur-containing greens. These compounds support lactoperoxidase-mediated defense, especially in saliva, airways, and mucosal secretions.
Seaweeds naturally provide iodine and bromine in biologically compatible ratios, while land-based greens contribute thiocyanates that complete the system. None of these pathways is sufficient on its own. They are designed to operate together, locally and proportionally, producing antimicrobial effects without provoking widespread inflammation.
Albert Wilking
Gentle Membrane Immunity
https://www.vancoction.com/news/gentle-membrane-immunity
Nutrients of the Estuary: Feeding Life
https://www.vancoction.com/news/nutrients
Lecithin and Feeling Good
https://www.vancoction.com/news/lecithin-feeling-good
Balancing Oxygen, Blood Glucose and the Immune System
https://www.vancoction.com/news/balance-oxygen-sugar-immune