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Chemical Addiction said:
how does spirulina taste? I just looked it up, apparently its a dietary supplement which kinda made me laugh since dietary supplement is the code name I use for blow.

Edit Btw, I made soft tacos for breakfast out of leftover chicken (diced up),scrambled eggs with a diced jalepeno (from my dad's pepper plants), salsa and garlic salt (my favorite seasoning of all time). I'm far from a chef a lot of my meals are multiple food groups mixed together. A common dinner is grilled meat diced up and added to rice-a-roni. It's cheap and tastes good

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i take it in tablet form.  Its super alkaline and basically a mulivatimin/ superfood/ detoxer

Makes me feel like a million bucks!






when you first start taking it it makes you feel sick and fatigue, this is just your body detoxing... in a week or 2 you feel GRRRRRREEEEEEAAAAT

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P-O said:
i take it in tablet form.  Its super alkaline and basically a mulivatimin/ superfood/ detoxer

Makes me feel like a million bucks!

when you first start taking it it makes you feel sick and fatigue, this is just your body detoxing... in a week or 2 you feel GRRRRRREEEEEEAAAAT

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I don't mean to burst your bubble PO, it's great that you value your health and put the time and money into using healthful products.
But as a scientist these infographics really grind my gears. Not only are they misleading but contain blatant misinformation.
And misinformation serves no one... except for those trying to profit by it, and that is insidious.



This infographic says at the bottom in small print to do your own research. It's good that the author encouraged that, because you will soon find many problems with their claims. I'm going to touch on a few to illustrate this.

Claim #1: Spirulina contains 96 trace elements

False

As you can see in this periodic table, there are at the very most 29 dietary trace elements.



Somehow the author has 67 trace elements that are unaccounted for. What were they thinking?

Claim #2: Spirulina has 100 times the beta-carotene as papaya

False

Spirulina contains 342 ug/100g¹ beta-carotene while papaya contains 274 ug/100g², amounting to only a 1.25 difference.
Therefore the estimate of difference has an error of a whopping 80 times than the actual!

Claim #3: Spirulina contains 26 times more calcium than milk

False

Spirulina contains 120 mg/100g¹ calcium, while milk contains 113 mg/100g³ calcium, amounting to only a 1.06 difference.
Therefore the estimate of difference has an error of 24.5 times!

Claim #4: Spirulina is the #1 whole food source of vitamin B12

False

The surprising thing here is that spirulina actually contains no true vitamin B12 at all!

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Microbial assays for B-12 are unreliable. A common misconception in vegan circles is that fermented foods and spirulina contain B-12. This claim may, at times, be supported by lab tests for B-12 based on the USP (U.S. Pharmacopeia) assay methods.

Unfortunately, as explained in Herbert et al. [1984] and Herbert [1988], the USP assay method for B-12 is unreliable. The assay measures total corrinoids--that is, true B-12 plus analogues (forms of B-12 that are not metabolically active in the body)--and the analogues have the potential to block the absorption of true B-12 by occupying B-12 receptor sites. A preferred, reliable test that can differentiate between true B-12 and corrinoids is provided by differential radioassay. The assay problem must be considered in evaluating "old" studies on B-12.

Spirulina and tempeh contain mostly analogues of B-12. Herbert [1988] reports that tests on tempeh, a fermented soy product, and spirulina revealed that they contained almost no true B-12, i.e., the "B-12" they contained (per USP assay test) was predominantly analogues. Herbert [1988, p. 857] reports:

    We suspect that people taking spirulina as a source of vitamin B-12 may get vitamin B-12 deficiency quicker because the analogues in the product block human mammalian cell metabolism in culture [i.e., in the lab] and we suspect that they will also do this in the living human.

The presence of analogues, rather than true B-12, in fermented foods makes them unreliable sources for B-12.⁴

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Nutrient and vitamin content

Protein

Dried spirulina contains about 60% (51–71%) protein. It is a complete protein containing all essential amino acids, though with reduced amounts of methionine, cysteine and lysine when compared to the proteins of meat, eggs and milk. It is, however, superior to typical plant protein, such as that from legumes.[2][9]


Other nutrients

Spirulina's lipid content is about 7% by weight,[11] and is rich in gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), and also provides alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), linoleic acid (LA), stearidonic acid (SDA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (AA).[9][12] Spirulina contains vitamins B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (nicotinamide), B6 (pyridoxine), B9 (folic acid), vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin E.[9][12] It is also a source of potassium, calcium, chromium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, sodium and zinc.[9][12] Spirulina contains many pigments which may be beneficial and bioavailable, including beta-carotene, zeaxanthin, chlorophyll-a, xanthophyll, echinenone, myxoxanthophyll, canthaxanthin, diatoxanthin, 3'-hydroxyechinenone, beta-cryptoxanthin and oscillaxanthin, plus the phycobiliproteins c-phycocyanin and allophycocyanin.[1]

Toxicological studies

Toxicological studies of the effects of spirulina consumption on humans and animals, including feeding as much as 800 mg/kg,[16] and replacing up to 60% of protein intake with spirulina,[17] have shown no toxic effects.[18] Fertility, teratogenicity, peri- and post-natal, and multi-generational studies on animals also have found no adverse effects from spirulina consumption.[19] Spirulina intake has also been found to prevent damage caused by toxins affecting the heart, liver, kidneys, neurons, eyes, ovaries, DNA, and testicles.[19] In a 2009 study, 550 malnourished children were fed up to 10 g/day of spirulina powder, with no adverse effects. Similarly, dozens of clinical studies in humans have shown no harmful effects from spirulina supplementation.[citation needed]
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