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Health conscious individuals know that eating seaweed is good for the mind and body. In fact, seaweed has been deemed by many experts as an excellent source of anti-oxidants, calcium, and various vitamins and nutrients at a lower calorie. Currently, seaweed is hailed as one of the superfoods people should include in their diets. But is seems seaweed has made its marked since and the beginning of time and a recent study have suggested that eating seaweed had helped pushed the human evolution.

According to the study conducted by researchers from the University of Southern Denmark, highlights the influence of the consumption of seaweed to the health and development of the human brain. In addition, the study includes theories in which the access of early humans to seaweeds contributed to the development of the modern human brain.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Phycology, emphasizes the impact of the consumption of different types of seaweed with regards to brain health and in particular, looking into the impact of the eating of seaweed to early Homo Sapiens.

The study suggests that in order to have developed the human brain, essential nutrients played a role in its becoming what it is today. Specifically, nutrients like Taurine, Magnesium, Zinc, Vitamin B12, Iodine, and Poly-unsaturated fatty acids which are needed by the brain and likewise can be found in seaweeds.

Tracing the survival and behavior patterns of the early human, the researchers explains that around five to seven million years ago, the early humans diverged from the chimpanzees, the closest living relatives of the human species, due to drying out of the African savannahs between 2 to 2.5 million years ago. In order to survive, the early members of the genus Homo developed the foraging behavior.

It is believed that due to this foraging behavior, early humans developed bipedalism and a different body structure from our closest living relatives due to the long distances traversed in order to find food and sustenance. By traveling long distances, the early primitive ancestors of the human beings encountered coastal areas and its corresponding abundant resources.

From bodies of water, the early humans were able to include in their diet foods like fish, snails, crustaceans, some bird eggs, occasional dead marine vertebrates, and seaweed. But since the early Homo Sapiens had no knowledge regarding cycling tides and the instability of resources taken from the sea, the primitive human ancestors turned to the consumption of seaweed due to it being a stable source of food and nutrients.

Moreover, the harvesting of seaweed can be done by either women and children and the vitamins and nutrients it gives helped in pushing the evolution of humans, specifically the human brain.