They are found in food, cosmetics and dietary supplements. What has been on the plates of many Asian cuisines for centuries has long been neglected in this country: algae. Healthy, sustainable, the successor to kale, they say, a supposed superfood.
Eating algae is not new, even in Europe. Our ancestors were far ahead of the trend, show archaeologists from the University of Glasgow and the University of York. They have found clear evidence that people in Europe were eating algae and other native freshwater plants 8,000 years ago – right up to the early Middle Ages. The study is now in the trade magazine Nature Communications appeared.
The researchers found the clues in the tartar. They examined the dental plaque deposits of 74 individuals from 28 archaeological sites dating from about 8,500 years ago to the twelfth century across Europe – from northern Scotland to southern Spain, Sweden and Estonia. Chemical analyzes provided biomarkers, molecular evidence that most people must have chewed and therefore consumed red, green and brown algae or other freshwater plants. The scientists also found traces of meat and fish, dairy products and wild plants. The tartar analyzes provided evidence that some foods had been exposed to fire.
Seaweed is a healthy and sustainable food
The Neolithic period is considered to be the period in which people began to practice agriculture, grow crops and keep animals. Contrary to what was thought, however, agriculture does not seem to have displaced algae from the menu. Until now, it was assumed that people primarily used them as fuel, fertilizer or packaging material for food after the so-called Neolithic Revolution.
Today, seaweed is virtually absent from the Western diet, says Karen Hardy, a professor of prehistoric archeology at the University of Glasgow who led the project, according to a press release. She sees the results as an impetus to rediscover algae as a regional and sustainable food source to “combat the negative health and environmental impacts of over-reliance on a few commodity agricultural products that make up a large part of today’s Western diet.”
There are around 10,000 different species of algae worldwide. Almost 150 types of it end up on plates, mainly in Asian countries. In Japan alone, people eat more than ten times as many tons of algae as in all of Europealthough almost six times as many people live on this continent compared to the Asian country.
According to one United Nations International University Report 2016 Algae have long been a multi-billion dollar business. The value of the harvest already exceeds the value of, for example, lemons and limes worldwide. Seaweed farms are booming. But seaweed doesn’t just end up in sushi in the form of nori sheets: the market for seaweed-based cosmetics and dietary supplements is growing. The chemical industry processes algae components into adhesives, paints or plastic alternatives. Many trade them too as a new opportunity to reduce greenhouse gases in algae farms to bind. Because they absorb carbon dioxide in order to grow.