Arame, not a word you hear everyday… It’s also not a food you eat NEARLY as often as you should, in fact there’s a good chance you’ve never even heard of it. Well, if you haven’t heard of arame, it’s about time for you to learn more about it… Today, my mission is to teach you all I can about arame, it’s health benefits and make you want consume more of it by the end of the article. Just in case you weren’t already aware, arame is little seaweed that is commonly harvested along the coasts of Japan and South Korea. It’s used in copious amounts in lot’s of Japanese and Korean cuisine, especially when compared to how much it’s actually used in the United States, which is very rare at the moment. That’s really quite a shame though, seeing as how healthy it can be for you and also considering the fact that it’s fairly easy to obtain and not super hard to prepare.

Onto the health benefits, strap in your seat belts…

Lots Of Protein, Especially For A Vegetable – 50 grams of aramehas somewhere around 5 grams of protein, while that’s a lower number than most other seaweeds, it’s still quite the high number and is appreciated by your body a great deal. Since arame is sweeter-tasting and easier to manipulate and use than other seaweeds, the trade-off definitely works.

Tons Of Iodine – Out of all foods in the entire world, many sea vegetables notoriously have lots of iodine within them, this is due to their high sea sodium content and, seeing as arame is one of these sea vegetables, it’s no exception to this. 50 grams of arame contains more than 100 percent of our recommended daily intake (RDI) of this essential trace mineral. Iodine deficiencies are quite common where we live and can result in nasty things like hyperthyroidism or goiter, so it’s important that we don’t neglect iodine-rich foods.

Improves Your Skin – Thanks to arame’s trace minerals, which all work in tandem to aid the body’s natural processes, this seaweed is fantastic at invigorating and nourishing our skin. Indeed, many beauty products (including facial masks) are made from grounded seaweeds like arame. Simply apply the grounded powder (or arame-containing beauty product) onto the desired area, relax, and allow the minerals to absorb into the skin.

Weight Loss – Like all sea vegetables, arame is a great weight loss food for three reasons: it is low in calories, contains no fat at all, and is high in dietary fiber. In fact, one 50 gram serving of arame contains between 20 and 40 percent pure fiber. Fiber helps to asborb water from the intestine, invoking a feeling of fullness that prevents overeating. It also helps to relieve the colon of accumulated matter and can help cure constipation.

Lignans  – Studies have shown that arame is a good source of lignans, which are phytoestrogens usually found in plants that act as antioxidants. Antioxidants help neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals (unstable molecules that can wreak havoc in the body), thereby guarding us from a myriad of degenerative diseases such as cancer.