Red seaweed has been a staple of the Asian diet for millennia—and it’s about time the West joined in. It’s a superfood that can protect against cancer and it populates the gut with good bacteria.
Eating this mineral-rich sea vegetable could be one reason why the Japanese have such low rate of several cancers, including colon, colorectal and breast.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have analysed the sugars from red seaweed to understand their health-giving properties. They discovered it contains six different sugars, and three of them have probiotic and anticancer qualities.
One of the sugars acts as a prebiotic; it encourages the growth of probiotic bacteria in the gut. This could explain why the Japanese generally enjoy better health and longevity than people in the West, said Yong-Su Jin, one of the researchers.
Another sugar, AHG, has cancer-fighting qualities. “AHG inhibits the growth of human colon cancer cells and yet does not affect the growth of normal cells,” he added. It seems to trigger apoptosis, or cell death, a necessary process that stops cancerous cells growing.
(Source: Marine Drugs, 2021; 19: 213)
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