Newcastle researchers claim that seaweed combats obesity .
Seaweed may hold the clue to tackling obesity, so say Newcastle University researchers.
This team discovered that alginate, sea kelp fibre, lowers the body’s fat uptake by 75% plus. This is better than the majority of anti-obesity treatments.
This fibre is being put into bread in an attempt to develop foods which enable you to lose weight .
Clinical trials are going to be conducted to discover how effective seaweed would be in a normal diet .
The research suggests that this natural fibre could be added to products eaten on a daily basis like biscuits, bread and yoghurts and nearly three quarters of the fat from the meal can just pass through the body.
The researchers have already added the alginate to bread and preliminary taste tests have been very encouraging.
The scientists used the aid of an “artificial gut” to test the effectiveness of more than 60 different natural fibres by measuring the extent to which they impacted upon the digestion of fat.
Obesity is of course an ever increasing problem, especially in the West and many people have difficulties sticking to a diet as well as exercise plans for weight loss .
“These initial findings suggest alginates could offer a very real solution in the battle against obesity,”
Chair of the National Obesity Forum, Dr David Haslam, stated: “This looks interesting, but we could only start recommending it if the scientists were able to provide good evidence based on rigorous trials.”
