Healthier seaweed bread could help beat the bulge

Trials on nearly 80 healthy but overweight men showed those fed scrambled egg on seaweed enriched toast felt so full they consumed 179 calories less a day.

The tests at Sheffield Hallam University are the first to involve adding the entire seaweed plant to the bread mix rather than breaking it down to extract various chemicals.

The bread did not include any salt. None of the men could tell the difference between an ordinary loaf and the slices seasoned with seaweed – which has far less sodium.

As well as cutting salt intake, the seaweed also acted a bulking agent so the men felt fuller and less hungry. The seaweed was sourced from the Scottish Outer Hebrides.

Dr Craig Rose from The Seaweed Foundation said: “It is just like eating normal bread. It rises just the same and looks just the same.”