13 Health Benefits Of Wakame #1 Top Beauty Treatments

Still in the theme about health benefits, now we will talks about health benefits of wakame or Japanese seaweed. Do you know something about wakame? Yup. Wakame is one of the traditional Japanese food which has a thin shape, dark green and stringy. Wakame is a kind of seaweed that lives in Japanese waters. This type of seaweed is commonly used as green vegetables for Japanese people. Wakame is eaten in two ways: dry and wet. Wakame is not only used by Japanese, but also by Koreans and Chinese.

Wakame is known produce in Japan, especially on Japan’s beach. The wakame producing areas in Japan include Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, main production centers, Chiba, Kanagawa, Mie, Wakayama, Tokushima, Sado, Ishikawa, Hyogo, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Fuku. Wakame is usually cultured by Japanese people. Wakame is usually harvested from February to April.

Wakame is a vegetable which derived from brown algae, a species of Undaria pinnatifida, and a kind of seaweed that lives in Japanese waters. The characteristics of wakame are brownish green, thin, curly, and has long size. It is often consumed by Japanese, Korean, Chinese society. It was certainly salty, because his life alone in the sea. Usually they process it by pan-fried, made salad, and soup.

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Nutrients in Wakame” state=”closed

Nutrients in Wakame

Wakame has several nutrients that are good for human health. Here is a list of nutrients inside of wakame:

Magnesium
Magnesium is an important substance in the process of muscle contraction, energy production and production of enzymes that are important to the body.
Iodine
Iodine is important in the process of forming energy and controlling the formation of thyroid hormones that function in the growth of the human body
Calcium
Calcium functions in the process of bone formation so as to prevent the occurrence of bone loss disease or commonly referred to as osteophorosis.
Vitamins
Wakame contains several vitamins ie vitamin A, C, E, K, and vitamin B2 or commonly referred to as riboflavin. All these vitamins play a role in maintaining healthy skin, immune system, and others.
Folate
Folate serves to form new tissues and cells that are needed by women who are pregnant.
Lignans
Lignans have the benefits of counteracting cancer cells especially breast cancer.

Wakame Value in 100 gram Serving

Here is a list of nutrients inside wakame per 100 grams:

Energy 188 kJ (45 kcal)
Carbohydrates 9.14 g
- Sugar 0.65 g
- 0.5 g of food fiber
Fat 0.64 g
Protein 3.03 g
Tiamina (Vit B1) 0.06 mg (5%)
Riboflavin (Vit B2) 0.23 mg (15%)
Niacin (Vit B3) 1.6 mg (11%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.697 mg (14%)
Folate (Vit.9 B9) 196 μg (49%)
Vitamin C 3 mg (5%)
Vitamin E 1 mg (7%)
Vitamin K 5.3 μg (5%)
Calcium 150 mg (15%)
Iron 2.18 mg (17%)
Magnesium 107 mg (29%)
Manganese 1.4 mg (70%)
Phosphorus 80 mg (11%)
Sodium 872 mg (38%)
Zinc 0.38 mg (4%)

After we talk about nutrients in wakame, later we will talk about health benefits of wakame. All the nutrients that we were talk about is all very important for the body, and useful to provide many benefits. Here we will present the description of the benefits of wakame vegetables for health:

1. Rich of Fibers

It’s no stranger if Wakame is rich in natural fiber. So people often use it for food everyday. The goal for the digestive system to be smooth, not experiencing constipation. In addition, this vegetable is also recommended for consumption of people who are dieting so that weight loss runs optimally. So if you want to diet, prepare to consume it. Also read: Health Benefits of Apricots Seeds

2. Prevent Breast Cancer

Vitamin C that exists in Wakame is able to act as an antioxidant in the body and lignans that exists in Wakame is able to fight against breast cancer. So the nutrients inside wakame can prevent various cancers, especially breast cancer. This is why Japanese women the number of people with this disease is smaller, when compared with American women. It turns out the secret because they often consume this vegetable.

Also read: Symptoms of Osteoporosis

6. Treating Hypertension

Hypertension is a high blood pressure that can cause a person to feel excessive dizziness. If there is something like this, Wakame is needed by humans. Because the content of nutrients in it can stabilize blood pressure, in order to get down and recover as usual.

Based on research Sato et al., Published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry (2002), isolated and identified 7 peptides that could inhibit the action of the enzyme angitensin I-converting enzyme (ACE); An enzyme responsible for an increase in blood pressure. They also succeeded in proving the activity of the peptides as components that can work to inhibit ACE activity through experiments using spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR); Species of genetic hypertensive rats.

By using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), successfully identified the amino acids that compose the peptides. The 7 peptides are valine-tyrosine, isoleucine-tyrosine, alanine-tryptophan, phenylalanine-tyrosine, valine-tryptophan, isoleuusin-tryptophan, and leucine-tryptophan. The 7 peptides have IC50 values (35.2; 6.1; 18.8; 42.3; 3.3; 1.5; and 23.6 micromol). The value of IC50 is a value indicating the ability of the peptide to inhibit 50 percent of ACE activity.

The mechanism of the hypertension is through the formation of angiotensin II from angiotensin I by ACE. ACE plays an important physiological role in regulating blood pressure. Blood contains angiotensinogen produced by the liver, which by the hormone renin (produced by the kidney) will be converted into angiotensin I (decapeptide is not active). By ACE present in the lungs, angiotensin I is converted to angiotensin II (a very active octapeptide). Angiotensin II is what has a key role in raising blood pressure through two main actions.

Whenever that research test using animals, but the obtained data can extrapolated to humans. And can be next research to check the usefulness of wakame in human about cooling down the blood pressure.

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7. Help Lose Weight

Wakame is a healthy food because in wakame contained compounds that can help the expansion of fat, so this food can help people who have problems with fat. Are you have problems with fat? Or you want to doing diet? Wakame has a high nutritional value, low fat and calories so good for people who are on a low-fat diet and calories. For that reasons, some people who make Wakame as a menu diet while on a diet. And the texture is very rich in natural fibers that are useful to lose weight. It is also useful to prevent excessive fat deposits.

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8. Reduce Inflammation in the Body

The presence of fat acid, omega 3, in Wakame, making it able to reduce inflammation in the body. It is also useful in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and increasing HDL cholesterol levels. Therefore, you need to consume it, and preferably even more oftenly so that the body is always healthy and fit.

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Wakame Benefits for Beauty Treatments

Indeed, here are more health benefits of Wakame, for your daily beauty tricks.

9. Helps Reduce Acne

Acne often appears in both men and women. Given this skin problem often makes a person less courage, and his face looks less beautiful. But do not worry, because Wakame is able to help reduce the numbers of acne. To get maximum results, you should also regularly doing face wash and reduce foods with contain much oil.

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10. Treating Skin Itching

Itchy skin is often experienced by humans, this is felt in the body caused by bacteria or fungus that attaches to the skin. Patients are usually less hygiene, and often wear clothes that are not dried in the sun. When happens a symptoms like that immediately take Wakame, to cure the itch.

11. Make Skin Healthy

For Japanese people, Wakame is one of the key ingredients to improve skin health. No wonder Wakame is often found in various skin care products considering the benefits are so amazing. This material can be consumed while fresh, dried, in extract form, or in pure form known as Phytessence Wakame.

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12. As Anti Aging

The very high antioxidant content makes Japanese Wakame can help fight free radicals that damage skin tissue is very effective for use in various skin care products, especially as anti aging. Can be spelled out if the shape is pure, that is Phytessence Wakame is more effective than other forms because it can sink deeper on the skin.

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13. Looks Youthful

Japanese Wakame also contains a special compound known as sulphated pilyfucose that can protect the skin from the dangers of UV rays and pollution. What makes this type of seaweed good for true skin care is its ability to inhibit the activity of the hyaluronidase enzyme, an important enzyme in the body that can help to destroy the hyaluronic acid that is so important to the body, because if its availability in the body does not exist it can lower the strength of collagen fiber and elastin in the skin. The higher the hyaluronic acid in the body, your skin will look younger.

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Indeed, there are many health benefits of wakame (Japanese seaweed). So, you may know consume it in routine and get many health benefits from it. Thus, it has tasty and yummy flavored.

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