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Kombu
Kombu is a type of brown seaweed, species Saccharina japonica, in the Laminariaceae family. It is widely used in Asian cuisine. And it also goes by the names dashima (Korean) and haidai (Chinese).
Kombu is cultivated on ropes in the seas around Japan and Korea, with the waters around the big island of Hokkaido in Japan providing the bulk of kombu cultivation.
Kombu is usually sold dried in sheets or pickled in vinegar. It is used in Japan to make dashi, a popular stock for soup. It is also commonly cooked with beans to add flavor and nutrients, and to make the beans more digestible, which allows greater absorption of those nutrients.
Kombu is also sometimes used to make a seaweed tea and can be used as a seasoning for rice. It’s a great source of glutamic acid, iodine, fiber, and numerous enzymes which are important for digestion.
Kombu Benefits
The nutrient content of kombu is pretty ridiculous. It’s high in fiber, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C. And the vitamin C increases the bioavailability of the iron. It’s also high in iodine, which most of us are deficient in, and which also helps transport oxygen to our cells – also a common deficiency. And it contains a little known mineral called vanadium.
As mentioned above, kombu contains numerous enzymes, one of which – haloperoxidase – helps to regulate blood sugar, and thus normalize body weight. Kombu is abundant in antioxidants like flavonoids and carotenoids, but also in more elusive alkaloids not found in other foods.
Kombu also contains a sulfated polysaccharide called fucoidan, which is a powerful anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, and anti-thrombotic, all of which provide cardiovascular benefits.
Besides its super healthy nutritional profile, kombu is able to …
- Provide radiation protection
- Lower LDL (bad) cholesterol
- Raise HDL (good) cholesterol
- Reduce hypertension
- Improve digestion
- Purify the blood
- Detoxify the body
- Stimulate weight loss
- Improve prostate function
- Optimize brain health
- Alkalize the body
- Fight cancer
This 2005 study shows kombu’s ability to help detoxify the body and “contribute to longevity” by removing cancer-causing environmental carcinogens.[64] Another study, which focused on the fucoidan content in kombu (Saccharina), concluded that it exhibited anticoagulant activity, displayed strong anti-thrombotic activity, and strongly blocked breast carcinoma.[65]
This 2013 study corroborated the results of the above study by concluding that brown seaweeds are cytotoxic (toxic to living cells) against breast cancer cell lines.[66] Another study, also conducted in 2013, concluded that the fucoidan content in brown seaweeds have anti-cancer effects and have “shown to induce cytotoxicity of various cancer cells.”[67]
There is no shortage of studies done on the cancer fighting capabilities of kombu and other brown seaweeds, and it seems that fucoidan’s anti-tumor actions are responsible for much of it.[68] As was the case in this 2012 study where f