Wakame Offers Health Benefits and Weight Loss

As a kid growing up by the sea in New England, seaweed was thought of as gross stuff that floated in the ocean, not as healthy food.. It was something we threw at each other in fun or put on our heads, pretending to be sea gods. It wasn’t until I traveled to Japan as an adult that I discovered it is an edible vegetable chock full of health benefits.

For many centuries, wakame seaweed has traditionally been used as healthy food in Oriental medicine to purify the blood and strengthen intestines, skin and hair. It is loaded with calcium, thiamine, niacin and vitamin B12. This particular seaweed has a rich, green color and is slippery to the touch. Its sweet flavor is easy to acquire a taste for, as long as you don’t mind the texture.

Studies from Hokkaido University in Japan have found that wakame seaweed holds a compound, fucoxanthin, which burns fatty tissue. Studies in mice have shown that fucoxanthin triggers the fat-burning protein UCP1. This shows that eating wakame is an excellent healthy food choice for weight loss.

Wakame seaweed can be found at any health food store, and some grocery sotres that have health food sections. Sold typically in dried pieces, wakame is commonly used in Asian-style soups and salads.

You can reconstitute the dried seaweed by soaking it in warm water for 15 minutes, or you can add it directly to a cooking pot . Keep an eye on the amounts you use, however, since it exapnds when wet.

For soup recipes, such as miso soup, it’s a god idea to reconsitiute it first. But for the easy recipe shown below, you just throw the seaweed in dry. Also, you can experiment with the ingredients amounts - the original recipe called for 1/3 cup of lentils, 2 cups of rice and 5 1/2 cups of water. This made a huge pot of rice, and the other ingredients got lost, such small amounts compared to the rice. But everyone has their own preference.

The recipe below is not really an Asian recipe but it’s a great comfort food with lots of healthy ingredients. If you’re looking for a simple, healthy recipe when you’re busy or trying to overcome a sickness like a cold or flu, this is worth making.

One Pot Lentil Dinner with Wakame

One 6-inch strip of wakame (or 1 - 2 tsp. of the dried pieces)
1/4 cup brown or green lentils ( red ones get mushy)
1 carrot or parsnip
1 small stalk of celery
1 onion (small or 1/2 of a large)
big pinch of sea salt
big pinch of rosemary or thyme
2 1/4 cups water

Wash the lentils and rice. Chop up veggies. Layer everything in an oiled baking dish with a tight cover. Add water, bring to a boil on the stove top, then bake at 375 degrees for one hour. Relax until dinner's done!

This one pot dinner is easy to cook in a toaster oven with a tin foil cover. Variations are tasty, too, like adding fresh ginger or garlic. Left-overs can be eaten cold as a salad, adding a little rice or balsamic vinegar and olive oil for flavor.