Brown Seaweed & Weight Loss
Brown seaweed is a vegetable from the sea and also an edible seaweed. It is also referred to as brown kelp, Undaria pinnatifida and wakame. Brown seaweed contains an ingredient called fucoxanthin that can help promote weight loss. Fucoxanthin is found in brown seaweed in high concentrations and is found in smaller amounts in red and green seaweed. Although brown seaweed contains fucoxanthin, there is no evidence that eating brown seaweed in large quantities will promote weight loss.
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Where It Can Be Found
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Brown seaweed is usually used to flavor food and can be found in Asian salads and soups. While brown seaweed is a major ingredient in Japanese miso soup, nutritionists have confirmed drinking the soup in large quantities does not promote major weight loss.
Several products are marketed as fucoxanthin natural weight loss supplements. Dietary supplements do not require FDA approval before they are marketed.
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Brown Seaweed and Weight Loss
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According to Zhion.com, fucoxanthin can target weight loss around the middle area of the torso. Extra weight in this area has been linked to heart disease and diabetes. In addition to its benefits related to weight loss, fucoxanthin also benefits the heart. Fucoxanthin is also an antioxidant, according to CBS News.com.
Brown Seaweed and Decreased Diabetes
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The ingredient fucoxanthin promotes production of an acid called docosahexaenoic. Increased production of docosahexaenoic acid in the liver has anti-diabetes properties.
Availability
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According to Kazuo Miyashita, a Ph. D. at the Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido University in Japan, it is impossible for a human to ingest enough brown seaweed to stimulate weight loss. However, the ingredient fucoxanthin in a pill form could be used as a weight loss technique.
Warning
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Individuals seeking to take larger amounts of of fucoxanthin should not ingest large quantities of seaweed. There is not enough research done at this time to determine what large amounts of brown seaweed or large amounts of fucoxanthin could do to a body.
References
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