Most of the initial interest in seaweed based food originated from studies of the people of the Okinawan island of Japan. Researchers found that the Okinawans had the highest consumption of fucoidan in their diet and that this along with other social and lifestyle factors may be responsible for Okinawa having an unusually high number of its inhabitants living well past 100 years. In addition, the older population generally was more mobile and self-reliant. Scientists have known for some time that the fucoidans in the Okinawan diet were important for health, the problem was to get other populations in the west to consume the large quantities of seaweed that is consumed by the Okinawans on a daily basis.

Another problem for scientists was that the fucoidan was difficult to extract from seaweed without the use of solvents which end up degrading the quality and properties of fucoidan. Until recently this had been a major stumbling block – and then an Australian company in Tasmania came up with a patented system to extract fucoidan from seaweed using water based technology that was so efficient and clean that they have managed to extract the higest quality fucoidans from seaweed and also gain full organic registration for the process. The special seaweed varieties are harvested sustainably in the most pristine and isolated regions of the pacific and the the fucoiden is extracted to a concentrated powder form that can be easily included in your diet.