Spirulina Benefits

Health Benefit's Spirulina  

Everyone wants to be healthy right and all kinds of promoters out there suggesting herbs drugs foods of all kinds here's an interesting one spirulina and note that's organic what is it well it's a type of blue-green algae better termed cyanobacteria others derisively call it pond scum because it really does grow on ponds it grows on lakes and the Spanish conquest Dolores were introduced to this in America when they came to South America by the Aztecs they were gathering this stuff and making cakes out of it and eating it well in those days of course it was not regarded as any kind of a health food it was just regarded as a food well today spirulina has become a wonderful if you listen to its promoters it's good for everything it contains antioxidants it boosts your immune system which is that list is a meaningless claim this idea of boosting the immune system it's high in protein which is true but there are far better sources and cheaper sources of protein than spirulina there are some studies that suggest benefit particularly in allergic rhinitis or hay fever typically as as we call it and there actually have been some placebo-controlled double-blind trials which show a modest effect a spirulina on those symptoms but still the price does not compare to antes de means which have been clearly demonstrated to be beneficial in in allergies but there is one interesting thing about spirulina and that's the color its blue-green algae but and there are several compounds in there they're responsible for the color one of them is chlorophyll and spirulina is algae and these are very important in the world because they produce about 50% of our oxygen through photosynthesis and algae all over the world on lakes and ponds etc. produced all of this oxygen so chlorophyll is a green coloring matter this is what stores the energy of sunlight to be used in photosynthesis but there's another compound in here called phycocyanin and that is the bluish color so chlorophyll and phycocyanin together give you this blue green and the reason that this is interesting is because the coloring now is extracted and is used commercially where believe it or not in candy is like Smarties Smarties was challenged when they decided to go quote natural with their colors they didn't want any more artificial colors in there not that that is really a big problem bigger problem is just eating the sugar in the in in the candy but blue dyes are available but they weren't natural they were synthetic and people these days on one synthetic although there's no real reason not to want them there's no difference between synthetic and natural doesn't matter where you get it it's not the ancestry of a molecule that determines its safety or its efficacy however extracting the cyanobacteria blue color is now what is used in Smarties blue and this has been a godsend for the company because for years they weren't able to produce the blue Smarties because there was no natural equivalent so there are some interesting things about cyanobacteria and spirulina I don't think it's a miracle I think it may be worth a try if you have allergic rhinitis however one thing to consider is the price which is exorbitant as you can see this about $26 which is far more expensive than and histamines would be and as a protein source well there are numerous proteins whey protein for example that are far cheaper so you may want to experiment with spirulina if you have allergic rhinitis but don't buy into the other hype about it treating Lou Gehrig's disease or cancer or heart disease which some promoters suggest and next time you eat a blue smarty well you'll be smarter because now you know where the color comes from.