In 2011 Research Councils UK, Britain's co-ordinating body for the main research institutions, reviewing innovation in all aspects of life over the past 5 years, selected Seagreens to represent 'Healthy Living' for a compilation of 'Big Ideas for the Future - research that will have a profound effect on our future' - see page 58.

We took the time to research the market and review the science, then learned to harvest and produce the first properly certified human food quality seaweed in Europe.

We successfully married artisan knowledge and skills with the technologies of industrial scale harvesting. As a result we have put a new British and European industry on the map.

Now with our own wild harvesting in Scotland as well as Norway, we can do in Europe what the Japanese have done for centuries.

This may even be a more hopeful picture than in Japan, where the vast majority of seaweed is now farmed in sea water tanks, already at least once removed from Nature. In Europe we have more, suitable coastline and very clean waters - which at all costs, we must keep clean!

To establish and uphold best practice in human food quality seaweed, infood and healthcare applications in Great Britain and Europe, we have set up the not-for-profit Seaweed Health Foundation to provide an independent forum for seaweed research and education based in Scotland and England.

Seagreens is "the UK's leading seaweed supplier"
- Organic & Natural Business magazine, October 2009

“Seaweed mirrors land vegetation in a number of ways. The best seaweeds grow in cooler climes; the best land plants in warmer. A balance of nutrients is only obtained from the land in a wide variety of foods; in seaweed, from a single or a very few species. It is not a matter of 'either, or' but of seeking their combination to balance out the whole. This is why in Japan, in one of the world's most traditional and sophisticated diets, a very small amount of seaweed turns up in almost every meal. Once again, our focus might turn to the relationship between things, rather than to the things themselves, to find our own balance” - S. B. Ranger, 'Feeding the foundation of health', Seagreens® 10th anniversary article in Star & Furrow, Journal of the Biodynamic  Agricultural Association, pp. 10-14, Issue 109:1472-4634, Summer 2008

The Seaweed Health Foundation obtains funding for its research and education agenda from public and private sources including 20% of Seagreens' ingredient sales. It is guided by its commercial and academic members who include Seagreens® Brand Partners.

The Foundation is responsible for the dissemination of accurate, timely information about its activities to its members, the appropriate media and to Seagreens® University, and in this way also to the public.

There is an extensive research agenda, because although there is a long tradition of use in many food and health applications, much of the evidence is either anecdotal or for seaweed extracts and ‘test-tube’ studies which do not truthfully extrapolate either to seaweed in its natural, whole food form or to its actual efficacy in human nutrition.

The scientific data is nonetheless impressive and we keep this under continuous review. Much of this you will find in Seagreens® Healthcare Summary, an alphabetical list of indications for the use of Seagreens®, with useful additional information about the nutritional background, daily intakes. We welcome your own contribution to this document.

In the scientifically proven macrobiotic approach to a balanced diet - rooted in oriental culinary  traditions - “a small volume of sea vegetables, about 2%, is taken daily, eaten as a condiment, in soup, cooked with grains, beans and vegetables as a seasoning to supply minerals, (and) as a small side dish about twice aweek” - M. Kushi, A. Jack, The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health, Ballantine Books, pp. 9-11, 2003

Please click here to contact the Seaweed Health Foundation.

“Modern science confirms seaweed as one of Nature’s all-round pharmaceutical miracles that can accomplish everything from warding off and treating several types of cancer, lowering blood cholesterol and blood pressure, thinning the blood, preventing ulcers, killing bacteria, even curing constipation” - J. Carper, The Food Pharmacy, Simon & Schuster, 1989

“Its high concentrations of zinc and vitamins A, B, C and E make it a potent remedy for poor skin conditions. I personally became convinced as to the genuine health benefits of seaweed during my first attempt at eating nothing but foraged foods back in 1995. Seaweeds were my daily staple and sped me along (cycling) at 70 miles a day with energy and enthusiasm. Last July on a high seaweed 100% wild food diet I managed to halve my bad cholesterol in a month” - wild food celebrity Fergus Drennan, 2008

We are keen to obtain research assistance or requests for studies especially in preventive healthcare, cardiovascular disease, autistic spectrum, attention deficit and hyperactvity disorders, cancer management, detoxification, inflammatory and metabolic disorders including obesity, neurological and degenerative diseases, and other areas where existing research or the anecdotal evidence indicates the likely efficacy of our products.