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By Laurel Kallenbach

Years ago, eating "greens" meant we consumed a lot of iceberg lettuce and string beans. Today, we can choose from dozens of chlorophyll-containing foods including the algae spirulina and chlorella. These green foods are fantastic sources of vitamins, minerals, protein and other nutrients, making them some of the most beneficial foods you can eat.

    Chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that helps plant cells capture and convert sunlight into energy, may be beneficial to humans, although scientific evidence to support this is sketchy. Yet, anecdotal and popular use of foods containing chlorophyll shows it helps cleanse the bloodstream, deodorize bad breath and body odor, deactivate carcinogenic substances and halt tooth decay. In addition, inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and stomach ulcers respond well to algae supplementation, writes Paul Pitchford, author of Healing with Whole Foods (North Atlantic Books). Chlorophyll may also help decrease cellular damage caused by environmental carcinogens by acting as an antioxidant, writes chemist Karl J. Abrams in his book, Algae to the Rescue! (Logan House).

    Pitchford and others theorize that chlorophyll mimics human hemoglobin. "The ability of chlorophyll to enrich the blood and treat anemia may be due to a similarity in molecular structure between hemoglobin (red blood cells) and chlorophyll," he writes. "Their molecules are virtually identical except for their central atom: The center of the chlorophyll molecule is magnesium, whereas iron occupies the central position in hemoglobin."

    Chlorophyll, which you can take in supplements derived from green micro-algae and wheat grass, may also help detoxify the body.

    "Because it absorbs and inactivates toxic materials, people have traditionally taken spirulina and chlorella for their high chlorophyll content," says Ron Klatz, D.O., president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in Colorado Springs.

    Spirulina, a blue-green alga sold as a supplement, is an excellent source of chlorophyll and disease-fighting compounds called phytochemicals. Phytochemicals (phyto is Greek for "plant") are compounds in plants and fruits that imbue them with color and protect them against cellular damage caused by free radicals. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health are studying phytochemicals to understand their role in disease prevention.

    Mouth cancer is one disorder that may be treated or prevented by phytochemicals, especially beta-carotene, which is found in abundance in spirulina. This may explain why the alga slowed and even stopped the growth of cancerous cells in scientific studies. Padmana-bhan P. Nair, Ph.D., a scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recently demonstrated that spirulina is a particularly potent inhibitor of mouth cancer. Nair and his colleagues gave daily spirulina supplements to volunteers in southwestern India for 12 months. The volunteers were alike in many ways: All chewed tobacco and had precancerous lesions in their mouths called leukoplakia. After taking the algae for one year, 45 percent of the volunteers had recovered, and the thick, white, precancerous patches in their mouths completely disappeared. Another 12 percent of the volunteers showed significant improvement, raising the figure to 57 percent who benefited from spirulina supplements (Nutrition and Cancer, 1995, vol. 24).

    "Spirulina is an inexpensive source of beta-carotene and other carotenoids, and it's also easy to digest," says Nair. "Incidence of cancer of the mouth and the cervix—which have the same kind of mucous membrane is rising around the world, and spirulina may help many people."

    Beta-carotene is just one of the many nutrients in spirulina. This alga also provides iron and is the most concentrated plant source of garnma-linolenic acid (GLA), according to the World Review of Nutrition and Diet (1995, vol. 77). GLA, an essential fatty acid, is key to the body's ability to make vital prostaglandins, substances that control body functions and help alleviate health problems such as arthritis and heart disease, according to one preliminary report (Journal of Applied Phycology, 1993, vol. 5). GLA supplementation results in blood's becoming more "slippery" since prostaglandins reduce blood platelet adhesion so that cholesterol deposits in arteries have less chance to build up and create arterial blockage, according to Prescription for Nutritional Healing by James Balch, M.D., and Phyllis Balch, C.N.C. (Avery).

  Wheat Grass

     One study involving 30 male patients with mild hypertension and high cholesterol showed a significant reduction of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol) in the men who took the spirulina supplements for four weeks (Nutrition Report International, 1988, vol. 37).

Protein from Algae

Probably the best-known use of spirulina is as a protein source. Used as food by Africans in the region of Lake Chad and by the ancient Aztecs of Mexico, spirulina was collected from the bottoms of ponds and shallow lakes by both cultures. Spirulina and chlorella, a singlecelled, watergrown green alga, are two of the richest plant sources of essential amino acids and protein, according to the World Review of Nutrition and Diet. One advantage of eating spirulina and chlorella is that they're low in fat and high in fiber, compared to some other protein sources such as meat. Chlorella is approximately 58 percent protein, and spirulina is 60 to 70 percent. In addition, they make ecological sense since they produce 20 times as much protein as soybeans growing on an equal-sized area of land, say the Balches.

    Also of interest with regard to spirulina and chlorella is their levels of the blood-building vitamin, B₁₂ _ among the highest of any food. However, recent evidence shows the majority B₁₂ of the found in these algae are B₁₂ analogs, which don't contain the same properties of the real vitamin (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1982, vol. 248, no. 23). Still, even with the B₁₂ analogs, both spirulina and chlorella seem to fulfill the body's B₁₂ requirements and can both be used to improve the health of people with anemia, according to Pitchford.

    Spirulina is often touted as an appetite suppressant, reportedly because it contains the amino acid phenylalanine. However, notes Varro Tyler, Ph.D., a pharmacognosist and author of The Honest Herbal (Haworth), "there's no evidence phenylalanine is effective in reducing the appetite," echoing a 1979 Food and Drug Administration statement that a panel of scientists found no reliable scientific data to demonstrate spirulina was an effective appetite suppressant.

    Also, there's one interesting note about spirulina's possible protective action against radioactivity. About 50 children who were victims of radiation poisoning during the Chernobyl tragedy in the Ukraine were given spirulina. As a result, the 3- to 7-year-old children showed T-cell stimulation and an 83 percent reduction of radioactivity in the urine (an unpublished report by T. Belooklaya, chair of the Byelorussian Committee of "Children of Chernobyl" as related in the Journal of Applied Phycology, 1993, vol. 5).

    The single-celled chlorella alga has become popular because it's high in chlorophyll and because of its nucleic acids, which may strengthen immunity. The Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF) was isolated in the 1950s and indicates the level of chlorella's nucleic acids, says Pitchford. Nucleic acids—RNA and DNA—in the body direct our cellular growth and repair, yet they decline as we age, and they're depleted by stress, pollution and poor diet. The nucleus of chlorella appears to be a good source of RNA/DNA, which is why the alga is credited with strengthening immunity including the increased activity of T- and B-cells (part of the immune system), reports Pitchford, citing several studies done in Japan in 1984 and 1985 regarding chlorella and its antitumor effect.

    This research seems at best preliminary, but it's reinforced by another Japanese study done with AIDS-infected mice that showed some increase in immune function when the mice were fed chlorella (International Journal on Immunopharmacology, June 1995).

Are Algae Safe To Take?

There have been reports that Upper Klamath Lake in Klamath Falls, Ore., is contaminated by the microcystis alga, which produces a potentially fatal liver toxin. Growing in these same waters is the wild blue-green alga Aphanizomenonflos-aqune (AFA), which many companies harvest for their bluegreen supplements.

    The discovery of microcystis contamination in the lake prompted Wayne Carmichael, Ph.D., a professor of aquatic biology and toxicology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, to warn companies in September 1996 that microcystis could contaminate the AFA. Two companies reportedly stopped harvesting AFA, but another one continued harvesting because significant concentrations of microcystis in the lake have not been verified recently.

    Spirulina is a cousin of the bluegreen alga AFA, but it's not harvested from Oregon's Upper Klamath Lake. Companies grow spirulina in concrete or plastic ponds in a solution of water mixed with salt and nutrients. Under these controlled conditions, spirulina remains pure. Chlorella is also grown under controlled conditions.

Hyssop

Reprinted with permission from the April 1997 issue of Delicious! Magazine, a publication of New Hope Communications, Boulder, CO.