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Benefits of Spirulina, One of the World's Most Nutritious Foods
Nutritional Content and Benefits of Spirulina. Blue-green algaes contain significant nutritional content, including polysaccharides, antioxidants, nucleic acids and peptides. Spirulina contains about 70% protein, vitamin E, vitamin C, beta carotene (more than any other food, ounce for ounce) and B complex, a number of minerals and chlorophyll.
Especially important for vegetarians, one tablespoon of spirulina provides about 300% of your RDA for vitamin B-12.
Spirulina also contain essential fatty acids, chlorophyll, B vitamins, carotenoids and minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium and zinc.
Benefits of Spirulina: Easily Assimilated Protein. One of the most significant benefits of spirulina is that its predigested protein is absorbed almost immediately, without the energy-draining side effects of meat protein, and its simple carbohydrates yield immediate yet sustained energy. Its protein-bonded vitamins and minerals, as in all whole foods, assimilate better than the synthetic variety found in other protein supplements. Many world-class athletes recognize the incredible benefits of spirulina for anyone who has to perform at their peak physical ability on a daily basis.
What is spirulina? Spirulina is one of a family of blue-green algae, along with chlorella. They are usually found in warm and alkaline waters all over the world, predominantly in South America, Africa, and Mexico. The name "spirulina" is derived from the Latin word for "helix" or "spiral"; reflecting the physical configuration of the organism as it forms swirling, microscopic strands.
Have You Improved Your Health by Using Spirulina?
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No other foods offer anywhere near the health benefits of spirulina (and chlorella): Among them are the following:
inhibits the infectious power of many viruses including HIV, flu, mumps, measles, and herpes helps diminish allergies such as hay fever helps protect the liver from toxins helps reduce blood pressure and cholesterol helps control symptoms of ulcerative colitis exerts strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects helps boost the immune system
Spirulina is widely used as an antioxidant supplement, anti-viral agent and weight-loss aid.
Spirulina has been found to have significant positive effects on people suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Studies show that spirulina has the ability to reduce fasting blood sugar levels in the body after 6 to 8 weeks of intake.
Spirulina has long been established to have cancer fighting ingredients.
Spirulina contains the essential fatty acid gamma-linoleic acid, which can help prevent conditions such as heart disease, arthritis, diabetes, and even cancer.
Spirulina helps support the healthy pH balance of the body. Western diets tend to be highly acidic, due to the heavy reliance on foods like animal proteins and grains. These acidic foods can be effectively countered by the alkaline nature of spirulina.
Benefits of Spirulina: Protein Content. Spirulina is the worlds most digestible natural source of high quality protein, far surpassing the protein bioavailability of beef. The protein absorption is four times greater than the protein in beef.
The protein found in spirulina is complete, containing all eight essential amino acids, unlike beans and other plant foods that typically lack some of the essential amino acids.
Spirulina is the ideal food source for people looking to get more protein into their diets:
people on low-carb, high-protein diets like the Atkins Diet or the South Beach Diet.
people who workout vigorously or engage in strength training.
people who have trouble gaining weight or are generally malnourished.
Benefits of Spirulina: Gives You Important Essential Fatty Acids (EFA). Blue-green algaes especially spirulina are some of the best sources of gamma linolenic acid (GLA), which is usually only found in mother's milk. GLA is an omega-6 fatty acid with many healthful properties, and is missing in most people's diet.
GLA is important for growth and development. We know that the consumption of these healthy fats produces astounding health benefits in the human body.
Benefits of Spirulina: Cleansing & Detoxification. If youre engaged in intense physical training, youll find the chlorophyll in spirulina to offer valuable support. When you put your body under stress, toxins and free radicals are released from your tissues. The chlorophyll in spirulina helps eliminate these waste products, and cleanses your liver, kidneys and blood. When the liver and kidneys are working more smoothly, everything else in the body works better, too.
This cleansing effect is also important if you're on any sort of low-carb diet (Atkins diet, South Beach diet, etc.) since such diets can place a heavy burden on the liver and kidneys. (Eliminating excess ketones puts your body under additional stress.)
The cleansing effect of spirulina is also of great benefit in protecting you against environmental toxins, air and water pollution, and other contaminants that you're being exposed to every day.
Benefits of Spirulina: Spirulina is a Whole Food. Think of spirulina as a nutrient-dense green food, rather than a nutritional supplement. The more of it you can fit into your diet, the better.
Start out with about a teaspoon a day and increase the amount gradually you can't eat too much. One tablespoon has the nutritional value of 3 or 4 servings of common vegetables. This is a great way to ensure that you get enough phytonutrients into your diet, especially if you avoid dark green leafy vegetables.
Benefits of Spirulina: Cost-Effectiveness. Because spirulina is available as a bulk powder, it can be very economical to use. One tablespoon gives you the same amount as 20 or more 500mg. tablets, and costs less than sixty cents a day. Tablets or capsules are convenient to take with you, and you can swallow them quickley to avoid the taste. They do end up costing more than twice as much as an equivalent amount of powder, though.
Choosing Spirulina Products
I personally use spirulina (and chlorella) daily, for two reasons. First, I know how important dark green leafy vegetables are to my health, but I just don't like them enough to eat them every day. Spirulina and chlorella both contain concentrated, easy-assimilated nutritional benefits not found in any other foods, including dark green leafy vegetables.
Secondly, spirulina and chlorella both have outstanding detoxification properties that are so important these days because of the number of toxins that we're being exposed to from our environment. These superfoods have the unique ability to bind themselves to toxins like mercury and eliminate them from your system.
How I Take My Spirulina. The strong algae taste of spirulina makes it challenging to find a tasty way to take it. My favorite spirulina recipe uses almond milk, a frozen banana, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves (all potent antioxidants), two raw organic eggs or protein powder, and a tablespoon of spirulina combined in a blender. Bananas seem to blend well with spirulina and take the bitterness down a bit especially if you use very ripe ones.
If you want to give spirulina a try, I suggest starting out with a half-teaspoon or so at first, and gradually increase the portion.
The finest quality spirulina I've found is made by Nutrex-Hawaii.
Nutrex is the brand name of the Cyanotech company, which has been growing spirulina for over 20 years. They spare no expense to produce the most nutritious and freshest spirulina in the world. At its 90-acre facility located on Hawaii's pristine Kona Coast, Cyanotech uses patented and proprietary technology, harvesting and processing techniques to produce the purest, most powerful spirulina in the world.
What's truly unique about Hawaiian spirulina is that it's grown in large aquaculture farms using ultra-pure, mineral-rich ocean water drawn from a 2000-foot depth off the Big Island. That means that the water is completely pristine and unpolluted by modern civilization. This vital resource provides a rich mixture of calcium, magnesium, and trace elements 92 different minerals in all.
No other spirulina is grown with water that has such a rich source of naturally occurring nutrients. In fact, every other producer of spirulina uses either river water or irrigation water another reason why Hawaiian Spirulina is the purest and highest quality in the world.
Cyanotech's Ocean Chill drying process flash-dries the spirulina, preserving the delicate phytochemicals that give spirulina many of its most remarkable health properties. Cyanotech also uses glass packaging with oxygen absorbers and sealing caps to ensure the maximum freshness and potency of the spirulina.
In short, you won't find a higher-quality spirulina product anywhere, at any price! One 3-gram serving of Hawaiian Spirulina provides more antioxidant activity than 5 servings of fruits and vegetables!
Here's a video introduction to the Cyanotech company:
Read some great testimonials about spirulina on the Nutrex-Hawaii website.
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Other Green Superfood Options
There are other green food supplements that blend spirulina with other superfoods in order to give you a wider variety of nutrients and improve the taste. You can find more details about them at my page on
If you have any story about how your health improved by using spirulina, would you like to share it with my readers? Your submission will become a page on this site! Tell us how you took it, how much and how often. Do you have a favorite recipe using spirulina?
Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...
Better Health after 3 Months on Spirulina
I don't eat right due to physical struggles and certainly don't get enough of the "greens." A friend recommended that I try spirulina, so I did. I'm amazed ...
Spirulina Saved Me From Dorm Food!
When I first came to college and was living in the dorms, I had to survive off of dorm food. I typically ate a modest amount of fruit and vegetables at ...
Spirulina Helped with Autism
Andrew, my autistic son (college drop-out and no hope for the future) began taking this product in January 2007, after I read an article about our government ...
