Whenever I tell someone the story of fucoTHIN, there is almost always the same reaction. I tell them that the product is a fat burner†, and they roll their eyes. After all, there are hundreds of products that tout their ability to burn fat or raise your metabolism. The vast majority of them don’t work or are extremely dangerous. Maybe you have had that experience yourself? In fact for the past seven years I have resisted completely the urge to launch a fat burning product. I have researched all of the ingredients used in these products, and frankly I found that they didn’t meet my standards or the standards of the doctors and scientists that I collaborate with. While the market for weight management products exploded, I was happy to not be a part of it.

I felt that most of the products were unsafe or ineffective. I could understand then why people would roll their eyes when I started telling them about Garden of Life’s new fat burning product fucoTHIN.

But something funny happened as I continued the story. You see, the story of Fucoxanthin, the main ingredient contained in fucoTHIN reads like an action adventure novel. There are exotic locales, cutting edge science, stories of ancient cultures, a dedicated Russian Doctor, and even a sad, tragic and untimely death. All of a sudden, people were becoming more and more interested. Of course every story has a climax, a resolution that both grabs and satisfies the person hearing the story. For fucoTHIN it is this: It works. It burns fat,† and it is clinically proven to do so without all of the harm that other fat burning formulas cause. This is the story of fucoTHIN.

The Russian Doctor

Dr. Zakir Ramazanov was a good friend of mine. More than anything we shared a passion for finding whole food ingredients that promoted vibrant health. Dr. Ramazanov was a classically trained biochemist and plant physiologist who graduated from university in Russia at the top of his class. After a stint in the Russian army, he served as the Head Engineer at the Institute of Solar Energy of the Soviet Union. It was there that he began experimenting with solar bioreactors and how they affected the cultivation of certain marine vegetables and algae, including spirulina and chlorella. As his career advanced and eventually took him to the United States, Dr. Ramazanov continued  to develop cultivation methods that allowed for the human consumption of sea vegetables more commonly known as seaweed.

Why seaweed? Why not look at beets, or cherries or apples? Dr. Ramazanov focused on seaweed based upon epidemiological data from some of the longest lived and healthiest cultures on the planet. Scientists have found compelling data that links the consumption of seaweed to the long-term health of many Asian cultures, most notably the Japanese.

It is amazing to me how often we ignore data like this. Instead of following the health secrets of the longest lived people in the world, we opt for convenience foods such as greasy fries and mocha lattes and then why we are getting fatter and sicker. We even feel hopeless as to why. The answers are right in front of us! Dr. Ramazanov understood that key components of the Asian diet, namely seaweed, contributed to their extraordinary health. He wasdetermined to bring this message to the world.

Eventually, Dr. Ramazanov would move to the Canary Islands where he would work for the Institute of Technology and Marine Sciences. While living there, fucoxanthin and it’s ability to burn fat caught Dr. Ramazanov’s attention, which would ultimately lead to it becoming the main ingredient in fücoTHIN.

Fucoxanthin Discovered

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that fat burners are in such high demand. 66% of all American adults are overweight. Total health care costs associated with being overweight are over $90 billion a year. 59% of Americans do not exercise at all. Only 9% of Americans eat the recommended 5 – 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. In 1970, the average person consumed only 2 calories a day from high fructose corn syrup. In 2005, that number was 200 calories a day. We don’t exercise enough. We overeat. We eat more of the foods that are horribly unhealthy, and we are getting fatter because of it.

As a result, we have seen the proliferation of some unsafe and unhealthy products designed to aid weight management and burn fat. Unscrupulous companies tout the benefits of their “magic pills” that supposedly help you shed pounds without even trying. As I mentioned before, most of these products are completely ineffective. Worse still, many of them contain chemicals that cause very dangerous side effects. What is needed is a completely natural product that is clinically proven to work.

That is where fucoTHIN comes in.

Fucoxanthin, contained in FucoTHIN, is a compound that is found in several different types of seaweed. Fucoxanthin is a carotenoid (similar to lutein and lycopene), which is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from free-radical damage.† It is the pigment that gives brown seaweed its characteristic color and also participates in photosynthesis (the conversion of light into energy). While all of that makes fucoxanthin interesting, when fucoxanthin was studied in the laboratory, it revealed a quality that makes it unique.