Dietary Fibers From Algae Help Weight Loss

Hard to believe you can lose weight from eating something that looks so yummy.

Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE) at the University of Copenhagen have established that dietary fibers from brown algae boosts the body's sensation of satiety, so that people eat less and lose more weight.

Earlier studies have demonstrated that a fiber-rich diet is easier for maintaining weight. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have now discovered in a new PhD project that alginates (dietary fibers) from brown algae, are superb at creating an 'artificial feeling of fullness' in the stomach.

Scientists have categorized the numerous different types of seaweed into three main groups, such as brown algae (Phaephycecae), red algae (Rhodophyta) and green algae (Chlorophyta). The researchers of this study based their study primarily on palm seaweed fibers obtained from the brown algae.

PhD student Morten Georg Jensen says:

"Over a three-year period, we have studied the effect of taking different alginate doses. We are able to demonstrate that the healthy subjects who took alginates and were also allowed to eat as much as they wanted felt less hungry and ate less than the subjects not drinking fiber drinks with alginates."

Jensen and his team conducted a 12-week study involving 96 overweight men and women. They assigned 48 participants to consume a specially designed drink containing alginates three times daily before each main course, whilst the other 48 received drinks containing placebo without alginates. The drinks were administered as a supplement to an energy-reduced diet.

They discovered that of the 80 participants who completed the study, those in the alginate group achieved a significantly greater loss of weight loss on average, i.e. 1.7 kg, compared with participants in the placebo group. This weight loss has been primarily achieved because of a reduction in body fat percentage.

The difference is a whopping 0.3 pounds or 4.8 ounces per week of additional weight loss.

Probably resulted from the vomited Calories.



Isn't it better just to eat fewer Calories?