Fucoxanthin: This may sound like a character in the latest videogame, but this compound is the future of weight loss. Some of you may know this already but fucoxanthin is found in seaweed, yes, seaweed. According to this article from Irish Health, wakame is a brown seaweed commonly used in Asian soups and salads. Fucoxanthin is the compound in wakame that promotes weight loss and even has anti-diabetic effects.
Dr. Kazuo Miyashita from Hokkaido University told the American Chenical Society National meeting in San Francisco that significant reductions in fat tissue were reported in rats and obese mice fed the edible seaweed carotenoid fucoxanthin.Translation? You watch, wakame cafes will take the country by storm (How do you pronounce that kind of cafe?). Soon, one will be near you. They will be serving the "Seaweed Soup and Salad Special." (Say that three times fast) Fucoxanthin will be shortened to "F-thin," and the marketing will be huge. "The F-thin Factor" will be a best selling book, etc. Remember, you heard it here first.Fucoxanthin induces expression of the fat-burning protein UCP1 that accumulates in fat tissue around the internal organs. Mice fed fucoxanthin showed clear signs of the fat-burning protein in fat tissue, whereas mice fed a control diet showed little sign of this protein.
Or, this research will be proved wrong, and you can go back to eating donuts and drinking diet coke again. I'm not a big seaweed fan anyway. Calamari, maybe...