The unique thing about Spirulina Algae is that it’s actually not a type of seaweed as many have described it to be. It’s actually a form of cyanobacteria. It often gets confused with Algae because it grows in both freshwater and saltwater and has a green color to it too. That’s all well & good, but why is it so beneficial for your energy? Because the unique thing about Spirulina is that because it’s still technically a plant, it can produce energy from sunlight through the process you probably learned about in the sixth grade called photosynthesis. We’re going to dive into more of what the special nutrient has to offer but let’s take it all the way back. Where did Spirulina come from?
History
A lot of historians believe that Spirulina was a staple food source for the ancient Aztec civilization in the 16th century. When Cortes’ soldiers came over, Spirulina was one of the food sources they saw the Aztec’s eating the most. That along with literal human beings (most of the Aztecs were cannibals). So before Cortes’ men decided to wage war with the cannibalistic Aztecs, they took some Spirulina and made it into cakes, which is commonly seen today in parts of South America. Got to love age old Capitalism & Colonialism. Other parts of the world really enjoyed Spirulina as well, as is seen in the country of Chad during the Kanem Empire in the 9th century. Where the Chieftains used to take their many, many African slaves and force them to take Spirulina out from the ocean. Like I said, history is ugly, but it’s important we recognize it and move on. (1)
1. Spirulina is packed with nutrients
Spirulina is also another plant that is rich in various kinds of nutrients. One single tablespoon of Spirulina contains about 4 grams of protein. That may not sound remarkable but 100g of Broccoli contains 10g of protein. 100g of Spirulina would contain 57g of Protein. WOW!
Here’s the rest of it’s nutritional make-up that’s worth taking a look at:
Protein: 4 grams
Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 11% of the RDA
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 15% of the RDA
Vitamin B3 (niacin): 4% of the RDA
Copper: 21% of the RDA
Iron: 11% of the RDA
Spirulina also contains important minerals such as magnesium, potassium, manganese. That’s not all though, Spirulina also has a decent amount of omega-3 fatty acids & Omega-6 fatty acids, even though it doesn’t have a particularly high fat content. Some say it’s even a 1.5:1 ratio of how much Omega-3 fatty acids are in there. (2)
2. Spirulina is filled with antioxidants
Like I said in my Acai post, antioxidants are incredible for reducing the amount of free radicals in your body. Free radicals cause immense damage to your cells and then in turn leads to dangerous chemicals building up in your body, like lactic acid and may even lead to cancer in severe cases. Why Spirulina is so special is its ability to fight those free radicals with it’s special antioxidant called phycocyanin and in turn helps to stop inflammation, which presents you with muscle soreness and muscle pain among the like.
3. Spirulina helps to protect Bad LDL from oxidation
Lipid peroxidation remains a terrible killer of your energy and I’ll tell you how. You see, fatty structures in your body, when under intense exercise leads to oxidative damage. This becomes a serious problem because when fat becomes oxidized, especially the bad LDL cholesterol, it can lead to heart disease. Antioxidants like phycocyanin also helps to reduce markers of oxidative damage and increase antioxidant enzymes. There was a study published in the National Library of Medicine that proved exactly that. In a study of 25 participants with type 2 diabetes, they had tested 2g of Spirulina each day and had reported they had reduced their Triglyceride and LDL content by a rapid 16.3%, while also reducing markers of oxidative damage and increasing antioxidant enzymes in the blood. (5). (6)
4. Spirulina also helps to reduce blood pressure
Another contributor to low energy levels is blood pressure. I know this mainly affects most of the older population but it’s important to be weary about it. It leads to terrible things like heart & kidney disease and of course, diabetes. But Spirulina comes in and because of its phycocyanin and it’s plant sterols, it helps to increase production of nitric oxide which opens up the walls of the blood vessels and instead of it shrinking because high blood pressure, it allows your body to relax. (7) (8)
5. Spirulina also helps to improve exercise performance
As I keep mentioning, the biggest thing that Spirulina has going for it is phycocyanin and it’s like a jack-of-all-trades or swiss-army-knife. This antioxidant carries properties that improve muscle strength & endurance, and there is some evidence to back up that claim.
In one study, it had observed 9 pretty athletic males over a 4 week period while taking Spirulina to see if it would improve their performance. The test was to take place two times. One where there VO2 max was ran at 75% for 2 hours, and then once again 95% VO2 max at 95%. What they had found was that with Spirulina, the time to fatigue out was significantly longer after a 2 hour run compared to no supplementation without Spirulina.
The second study was a little bit different. It was taken from the European Journal of Applied Physiology, and it had observed 16 students supplementing with Spirulina Algae over a 3 week period while the exercise performance was measured by running on a treadmill. The results showed that negative blood plasma such as lactate dehydrogenase and malondialdehyde were significantly reduced after supplementing with Spirulina Algae. (9) (10)
Looking at all these benefits of Spirulina, it’s no wonder why we use it in our supplement, SUNFIRE.
It’s the 1st ever, all-natural & Paleo-friendly pre-workout made exclusively for those just starting out in CrossFit & those who want to take their workouts to the next level.
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Sean James is a passionate and driven young CrossFitter from Toronto, Ontario.
He created Apollo Essentials with a guiding vision.
That anyone from anywhere could become an athlete. That's what his company strongly believes and he'll do whatever it takes to see it through.
Throughout his life, he's always enjoyed fitness and nutrition. You could even say it saved his life. With him being over 200 pounds in the 12th grade. But he took a long look at himself and became a dedicated fitness enthusiast. Who knows where he'll go?
After many, many months of research, he decided to hop into the supplement industry and started to create his own supplement, SUNFIRE.
The 1st, all-natural & Paleo-friendly pre-workout made exclusively for CrossFit beginners & driven athletes.
Are you ready to see what SUNFIRE is all about?
Then visit our website: https://apollosupps.com/sunfirefree
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