The next time you dine Japanese and order a seaweed salad, maybe make it a double. A study from the University of Newcastle found that a fiber found in seaweed can potentially block more than 75 percent of fat uptake.
Instead of the body breaking down and absorbing dietary fats, a seaweed fiber called alginate appears to halt that process. Testing its effects in an artificial gut, the seaweed fiber also fat-blocked better than sixty other natural fibers and over-the-counter obesity medications.
Scientists now plan to design human trials, but study participants wouldn’t have to subsist on seaweed alone. Rather, they would eat alginate-enhanced foods, such as bread and yogurt, as part of their meals. Theoretically, those additives would allow around three-quarters of the total fat consumed in the entire meal to move through and exit the body without making any digestive stops along the way.
While the alginate study sounds promising, I can’t help but question whether it’s yet another sensational “miracle” nutrient joining the ranks of anti-aging resveratrol and diabetes-preventing naringenin. Both botanical extracts looked really great on paper and in animal studies, but any widespread human health benefits have yet to materialize. The Newcastle study’s press release does note that the three-year project is aligned with the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) tighter restrictions regarding food-related health claims, which might be a positive sign. When the new regulations began in 2008, for instance, the agency initially rejected 98 percent of requested food packaging health claims. Under the more rigorous scientific review, future alginate-enhanced food products would have to have actual fat-fighting benefits.
But even if alginate-enhanced bread hits grocery store shelves, I wonder what people would stuff between two pieces knowing they don’t have to worry about fat grams. Being able to have your cake (or cheeseburger or mondo burrito) and eat it, too, is a delicious proposition, but it’s also that type of dietary logic that feeds the growing obesity epidemic.
Originally published on HowStuffWorks
