The Hour

Shifting the pounds is a tough thing to do, but scientists have stumbled across a possible natural fat fighter – seaweed.

Recent research has shown that consumption of the algae might stop fat absorption by up to 75 per cent, which is no doubt news that will delight dieters desperate to shed the pounds.

Herbalist Anna Hill explained: “What they’re saying is there’s a fibre inside the seaweed and that just prevents the absorption of fat. These things have been used for many years, but we’re only really finding out how they actually work.”

Seaweed isn’t something often found in western diets these days, but it used to be a popular ingredient in the past.

Anna said: “It’s not something that we tend to eat nowadays. We did eat it in the past. We have so much shoreline in Scotland and it is something that people used to go (and eat). It was a cheap food - people would go and forage and pick the seaweed and eat it.”

Following the latest findings, more of us might think about adding the algae to our diets. There are various different seaweeds, including kelp which people sometimes use to make puddings with, Iceland moss which is known to be good for sore throats, and bladder wrack which is good for weight loss and is often used in herbal teas.

Seaweeds come in all forms and shapes, from its raw state, to gels, powders and teas, and some even use it in place of salt when cooking because of it’s naturally salty flavour.

It’s available from good health food shops, or if you fancy you can pick some up from your local beach, as long as you make sure you’re picking good quality seaweed.

Anna explained: “You can go and pick things from the seaside just make sure you’re getting it from a clean beach. You might find that you’re grandparents can tell you where they used to pick it from.”

Anna Hill is a medical herbalist, working for Woodland Herbs. If you’d like to find out a bit more about herbal medicine or Anna’s therapies, you can do so on the centre’s website www.woodlandherbs.co.uk.