Wakame: Amazing Seaweed that Prevents Breast Cancer, Diabetes and Burns Fat

Related Articles

Wakame is most often found floating in your miso soup. It looks like slippery spinach. It is known to be a diuretic, meaning it helps in reducing the amount of water in your body.

Due to the fact that it prevents bloating and is filled with osteoporosis-preventing magnesium and calcium, wakame is sometimes called as the “women’s seaweed.”

But the benefits of wakame does not end here, this seaweed is also packed with important trace minerals and is known to be one of the few non-animal sources of vitamin B12. Get to know more of the amazing health benefits of this seaweed known as “wakame.”

Wakame: Amazing Seaweed that Prevents Breast Cancer, Diabetes and Burns Fat
wakame-benefits / pixabay

Health Benefits of Wakame:

1. Breast Cancer Prevention

Wakame can help protect your body from developing cancer. Iodine, which is a key part of any diet, is very high in all seaweeds, in particular wakame.

Iodine has been linked to lower levels of breast cancer. Also, the lignans found in wakame have also been associated to lower levels of breast cancer.

2. Bone Health

Calcium is one of the most essential minerals when it comes to protecting the durability and integrity of your bones. The high levels of calcium found in wakame can help your body increase bone growth and speeds up repair. This will therefore prevent the early onset of osteoporosis, keep you fit and active as you age.

3. Boost Your Energy

Magnesium is a very useful and extremely mineral in your body. The high levels of magnesium in wakame means that this variety of seaweed can help your body transfer energy efficiently, help your body produce and utilize protein and regulate hormones throughout the body. These are important for almost every bodily function related to growth or repair.

4. Burns Fat

Wakame contains fucoxanthin which helps in preventing the accumulation of fats within the body. Also, it helps to break down fat into usable energy, which helps with weight loss.

Fucoxanthin is not a common property found in green vegetables. Also, wakame is very low in calories and only has about 5 calories per 10 grams of seaweed. Just 1 tablespoon of Wakame contains 4 grams of protein. To lose weight, you can try some wakame seaweed salad.

5. Fights Diabetes

An essential component in wakame, known as fucoxanthin, exerts an anti-diabetic effect. A Japanese study conducted in 2009, examined the anti-diabetic and anti-obesity effects of fucoxanthin-rich wakame lipids on obese mice. When wakame was added to the high fat diet, it was reported that there was significantly suppressed body weight.

See also  Foods that are Bad for Your Belly

Before the wakame treatment, the mice showed signs of hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia and hyperleptinemia, but when wakame was added into the diet, the conditions were normalized. The researchers concluded that wakame has the ability to prevent diabetes, its related disorders and obesity by reversing insulin resistance that is an effect of a high fat diet.

6. Lowers Cholesterol

The fucoxanthin that is present in wakame serves as another purpose. It helps in stimulating the liver to produce DHA, which helps to reduce the amount of harmful cholesterol in your body. Wakame is a great cholesterol-lowering food.

7. Rich Source of Iron

Wakame helps increase your production of red blood cells due to the high content of iron. Iron is an important part of red blood cells, and higher levels means increased circulation in your cardiovascular system. This provides additional oxygen to important parts of your body, increases the health of your skin, boosts energy and speeds up the healing process of all the organs and tissues in your body.

8. Thyroid Health

Wakame are rich in iodine which is important for thyroid health. Many people are having thyroid problems nowadays.

Some people have moved away from iodized salt to sea salt which contains lower iodine, thus goiter and other thyroid diseases have become common. Consumption of wakame can help.

How to Cook Wakame?

There are many various ways of re-hydrating wakame, which you need to do before eating it. Just follow the instructions below:

Directions:
1. Soak the wakame in lukewarm water for at least 10 minutes. This will make the wakame swell and become a rich, glossy green.
2. Drain the water.
3. Plunge the seaweed briefly into boiling water.
4. Rinse immediately using cold water to intensify the color. Trim away any rough stems, then coarsely chop the wakame.

Wakame Recipe:

Ingredients:

Avocado
Baby Arugula
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Re-hydrated wakame prepared in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and lemon
Walnuts
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Put all the ingredients on a plate.
2. Drizzle some olive oil.
3. Squeeze lemon over it all.
4. Sprinkle salt and pepper for flavoring.

Read More:
1. 10 Healthy Sources of Calcium Other Than Dairy
2. 7 Food Items That Will Fill You Up
3. 5 Foods That are More Nutritious Than Multivitamin

More on this topic

Comments

Popular stories