Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences or LIFE at University of Copenhagen after a recent study has claimed that dietary fibers found in brown algae make people less hungry and that in turn make people to shed some weight. The dietary fibers found in brown algae are known as alginates. Those dietary fibers, according to the researchers, generate a feeling of fullness in people and prevents people from eating much and repeatedly.

Some researchers have mentioned that they continued a study for three long years and during that period they tested different doses of alginates and their effects on human body. A PhD student who was involved in the study, named Morten Georg Jensen has asserted that the completely healthy and fit participants who drank alginates potion felt less hungry and ate less in quantity and frequency than participants who did not take the alginates drink.

In the recent study researchers selected 96 men and women who were overweight. They assigned 48 of those participants to drink the alginates potion three times a day before breakfast, lunch and dinner. The rest 48 participants drank a placebo drink instead of alginates potion. 80 of the participants completed they study. Among them those who took the alginate potion significantly reduced weight than people who did not drink the alginate potion. Specifically people from the alginate drink group lost 1.7 kg extra weight in average than people from the placebo drink group. The researchers have made it clear that people who lost their weight also reduced their body fat amount.

Morten Georg Jensen has explained that alginate creates a gel that stays in stomach and makes it full or in other words it supports the gastrointestinal satiety signals which make the brain feel that the stomach is full. That is why people do not feel the urge to eat more and thus they lose weight.