Seaweed

Seaweed can shrink your waistline. Grow your hair. Bring down your blood pressure along with your blood sugar. Build up the strength of your bones and your brain. Make your joints stop aching and your bowels get moving. Give cancer short shrift, and give cellulite and wrinkles the old heave-ho. That is, if you believe the hype - only some of which is backed up by reliable evidence. The data are strongest that seaweed can reduce inflammation, premenstrual syndrome symptoms and even the growth of tumors (in animals)

Coral under attack from toxic seaweed can actually call for help, recruiting fishy bodyguards to fend off an attacker within minutes, a pair of scientists has found. When poison-producing algae make contact with coral, the coral can send out a chemical signal that alerts goby fish to come and eat away at the weed, according to a paper released Thursday by the journal Science. The platoon of gobies provides a last line of defense against toxic seaweed. The seaweed emits harmful chemicals that damage the coral, which it competes with for resources.

Curious about seaweed but not ready to jump into the waves? Here are a few ways to get your feet wet. Roasted seaweed. A low-fat, low-calorie snack food, sometimes with added flavoring, that some find yummy and others, not so much. Comes in packets that go easily into school or work lunch boxes. Seaweed bath: A seaweed-based formulation to be added to the water in your tub. Said to rejuvenate your skin and your spirits. Dried seaweed pieces: A garnish for salads or warm vegetables or, alternatively, a substitute for table salt.

In a powerful piece about global hunger , Kenneth R. Weiss shows readers the landscape in Dadaab, Kenya, where people are suffering and dying from chronic undernourishment and hunger-related conditions. In this third installment of a five-part series about the global population explosion, Weiss writes: "Across Africa and in parts of South Asia and Latin America, hundreds of millions of people live on the edge of starvation. A drought, flood or outbreak of violence can push them over the brink.

  Total time: 1 1/2 hours, plus proofing time Servings: Makes 8 large crackers Note: Dough recipe adapted from Breadbar. Preparation and toppings by chef Noriyuki Sugie. 1 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast (1/2 envelope) 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided 1 1/2 generous cups (8 ounces) flour 1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt 1/4 cup powdered nori (Japanese seaweed) 2 tablespoons shichimi powder (Japanese seven-spice mixture)

Bacteria in the guts of some Japanese people may have acquired the ability to digest seaweed because of the sushi their human hosts consume, researchers have reported. The evolved trait enables their human hosts to digest carbohydrates found in edible seaweed such as nori, whose tough cell walls the human body cannot process on its own. The finding, published Thursday in the journal Nature, was stumbled upon by biochemists at the National Center for Scientific Research and Pierre and Marie Curie University in France while seeking enzymes that could digest carbohydrates in the walls of certain red algae.

Bonito flakes and konbu seaweed dashi Total time: 40 minutes Servings: Makes about 7½ cups Note: The primary dashi is called ichiban dashi, which is used for clear soups and seasoning food. It's enjoyed for its fragrance and clean flavor. The secondary dashi made with used konbu seaweed and bonito flakes from the primary dashi is called nibanashi. This is also a multi-purpose dashi that is used for miso soups and seasoning foods, but the flavor is blander than the first one. The used konbu can be sliced and eaten straight, in soups or seasoned with soy sauce.

A chemical assault on an invasive seaweed that threatened marine life along the coast appears promising, marine researchers said. An initial treatment of concentrated chlorine has killed patches of the plant and much of its roots. The plant has been flourishing in a half-acre of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon, 20 miles north of San Diego. Scientists estimate it will take at least three months to completely rid the lagoon of the plant.

Two drug companies have allied to sell an experimental diabetes treatment derived from seaweed that could reduce or eliminate the need for insulin injections. The treatment, which involves transplantation into the body of pancreas cells that produce insulin, was developed by Santa Monica-based VivoRx Inc. VivoRx gave the right to sell the treatment in North America to Mylan Laboratories Inc.

Tropical algae is choking part of the Mediterranean and threatens to cause an ecological disaster, French scientists said Tuesday. "It's spreading like cancer," said Alexandre Meinesz, director of Nice University's marine environment laboratory. The bright green weed with the scientific name of Caulerpa taxifolia is gathering in luxuriant banks stretching over nearly 75 acres off the exclusive beach resorts of the French Riviera.

Curious about seaweed but not ready to jump into the waves? Here are a few ways to get your feet wet. Roasted seaweed. A low-fat, low-calorie snack food, sometimes with added flavoring, that some find yummy and others, not so much. Comes in packets that go easily into school or work lunch boxes. Seaweed bath: A seaweed-based formulation to be added to the water in your tub. Said to rejuvenate your skin and your spirits. Dried seaweed pieces: A garnish for salads or warm vegetables or, alternatively, a substitute for table salt.

Seaweed can shrink your waistline. Grow your hair. Bring down your blood pressure along with your blood sugar. Build up the strength of your bones and your brain. Make your joints stop aching and your bowels get moving. Give cancer short shrift, and give cellulite and wrinkles the old heave-ho. That is, if you believe the hype - only some of which is backed up by reliable evidence. The data are strongest that seaweed can reduce inflammation, premenstrual syndrome symptoms and even the growth of tumors (in animals)

Bonito flakes and konbu seaweed dashi Total time: 40 minutes Servings: Makes about 7½ cups Note: The primary dashi is called ichiban dashi, which is used for clear soups and seasoning food. It's enjoyed for its fragrance and clean flavor. The secondary dashi made with used konbu seaweed and bonito flakes from the primary dashi is called nibanashi. This is also a multi-purpose dashi that is used for miso soups and seasoning foods, but the flavor is blander than the first one. The used konbu can be sliced and eaten straight, in soups or seasoned with soy sauce.

A cow's head. Lots of truck tires and shattered wooden pallets. Fresh fruit. Even, rarely, human remains. Each morning the city's beach cleanup crew heads out on a daily pre-dawn sweep of Fort Lauderdale's famous beach. They never know what has washed up overnight. "Mostly what we find is seaweed," said parks department supervisor Mark Almy. "But there are always surprises that make you ask, 'How did this get here?'" Florida has 663 miles of beaches, and over the years the sands have been repositories of everything from stranded ships to messages in bottles.

Just as France's holiday season reaches its peak, the carcasses of wild boars are appearing on Brittany's celebrated coastline, raising fear that a potentially lethal algae is at work that could threaten the health of humans as well. The bodies of more than 30 of the animals have been found in the sea or on the slimy, seaweed-covered beaches around the bay of Saint Brieuc, where some coastal areas have been sealed off. Environmentalists believe the potentially fatal algae is the result of a buildup of nitrates from fertilizers used by the region's farmers, many of whom raise pigs, seeping into the sea. July and August are the busiest months for France's seaside resorts as the country's schools close for vacation.

June gloom might not be the only thing keeping people away from beaches in the South Bay this weekend. Swarms of black kelp flies — scientifically known as Coelopa frigida — have invaded beaches in Torrance, Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, covering trash cans and lifeguard stands and annoying visitors. Though the flies are typically found in Redondo Beach near the rock-laden Topaz Street jetty, lifeguards said, there are definitely more this year.

Sometimes a walk on the beach is not as harmless as it seems. A talented high school student has won the top honor at the state science fair with a study finding that people who go tide-pooling or rock scrambling along Southern California's shores might inadvertently be hurting marine life. Marin McDonald, recently selected Science Student of the Year at the state science fair, spent almost two years studying how humans' recreational use of the shoreline affects a form of seaweed.

Scientists donned scuba gear and dove into a murky lagoon Monday to try to kill the dreaded Caulerpa taxifolia, an exotic seaweed that could create an ecological nightmare in Orange County's coastal waters by killing off indigenous sea plants. Just weeks ago, hundreds of patches of the algae were found in a three-acre pond off Huntington Harbour. Monday's dive marked the beginning of a $300,000 effort to eradicate the stubborn bloom.

It was a gamble when Southern California Edison crews pushed basketball-size chunks of rock from a barge off San Clemente three years ago. Eventually, the utility company hoped, the artificial reef it had assembled 50 feet below the waves would support a new kelp forest and fulfill state-imposed requirements to offset the damage its nearby nuclear power plant causes to marine life. Photos: Thriving kelp forest rises from a rock reef But no one expected the 174-acre Wheeler North Reef would thrive the way it has. Or as quickly.

Bacteria in the guts of some Japanese people may have acquired the ability to digest seaweed because of the sushi their human hosts consume, researchers have reported. The evolved trait enables their human hosts to digest carbohydrates found in edible seaweed such as nori, whose tough cell walls the human body cannot process on its own. The finding, published Thursday in the journal Nature, was stumbled upon by biochemists at the National Center for Scientific Research and Pierre and Marie Curie University in France while seeking enzymes that could digest carbohydrates in the walls of certain red algae.