Nutrition In, Toxins Out: The Case For Algae
3 days ago
- Two algae, two different jobs: Catharine describes spirulina as nutrition in and chlorella as toxins out. Spirulina is a cyanobacteria with no cellulose wall, so its protein is already in amino acid form and absorbs quickly, and it carries the B vitamins that turn that fuel into steady energy. Chlorella is a green algae with the hardest cell wall in the plant kingdom, which is exactly what lets it bind heavy metals, glyphosate, and other unwanted compounds on the way through.
- Why I keep coming back to the mitochondria: Cardiovascular disease starts at the cellular level, and making energy creates free radicals as a byproduct. Superoxide dismutase is the antioxidant that neutralizes the most damaging one, and Catharine explains that our own production of it slows down after about age 30. She points to spirulina as one of the few foods that carries meaningful amounts of it, which matters for the tissues with the highest mitochondrial density: the brain, women’s eggs, and the heart.
- How it is grown and dried decides what survives: Catharine estimates that the overwhelming majority of spirulina and chlorella sold worldwide comes from contract manufacturers in China and India, and that high-heat drying deactivates the enzymes and pigments that make algae worth taking in the first place. Her comparison is a sports car with no engine under the hood. Her farms in Taiwan use filtered spring water and low-heat drying, with third-party lab testing done in the United States.
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