Anti-obesity effect on rodents of the traditional Japanese food, tororokombu, shaved Laminaria.

Tororokombu is a traditional Japanese food made from edible kelp. The way to make tororokombu is characterized by shaving kelp very thinly. It was found that tororokombu decreased the serum triglyceride level induced by oil administration to rats and had an anti-obesity effect on obese mice induced by a high-fat diet. These effects were more powerful than those of non-shaved kelp.