The Discoveries of Green Lipped Mussel Studies

This article is about the discoveries brought to light by green lipped mussel studies. You might know what green lipped mussels are. Then again you might not. You might have heard of them but never seen them. And you might have already seen them but did not know what they were. If you have a couple of minutes, allow me to enlighten you a little. You may find what I have to say useful anyway.

Green lipped mussels, or perna canaliculus for the science geek, are a shell fish commonly found around the coast of the island country of New Zealand. They are named so because of their brown to green shell with a green-lined outer rim. It is served as a traditional food and enjoyed immensely by locals and visitors alike.

The Maori’s who are the native peoples of New Zealand, as revealed through historical research, surprisingly had no documented accounts of people suffering from arthritis.

They widely attribute this astounding piece of information to their diet consisting mostly of green lipped mussels.
Having mentioned the New Zealand natives let me take you back in time. During the 1960’s, scientists interested in finding a cure for cancer conducted a broad search of marine life. They were particularly interested in green lipped mussels.

According to green lipped muscle studies, this particular species of mussel is the reason why arthritis was never a problem for the native people of New Zealand. Naturally, they are now exported to other countries as both a food, and supplement.

Even NASA, which made their own research of highly nutritional foods for astronauts, confirmed that the green lipped mussel is beneficial to our physical health because of its anti-inflammatory components, as well as many other important nutrients it contains. You can imagine the buzz it made for nutritionists worldwide.

After awhile, more research was carried on and scientists were able to extract the rich oily substance called lipids from these shellfish. These lipids contain the highest source of anti-inflammatory properties and so green lipped mussels were made available for distribution in this oil form. For quite some time, this is how it was sold and it worked wonders as an alte
ative for treating arthritis.

But brilliant and eager minds are never satisfied. More green lipped mussel studies surfaced, and looking back at the history of the natives of New Zealand, it was then considered that the lipids alone do not contain all the essential nutrients the green lipped mussel has to offer. It contains all the anti-inflammatory properties, but the entire mussel had so much more to offer in terms of health improvement.

Looking back again (and I mean way back), roughly a thousand years ago, the indigenous people of New Zealand, a tribe called the Maori consumed green lipped mussels raw. And as mentioned earlier, no one suffered from arthritis during those times.

Returning to the present, we have to acknowledge that the world is different now. It’s not as clean as it used to be, and is exposed to more harmful pollutants. We can’t always risk eating seafood fresh off the sea. It could contain toxins and harmful chemicals not seen by the naked eye.

However, given all the available information gathered from green lipped mussel studies, we now have available technology responsible for a more efficient way of processing and converting green lipped mussels into different forms that are safer and suit specific needs of consumers. We can still celebrate the wonderful discovery that is green lipped mussel.