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Algae to the Rescue
- the power of this blue-green superfood
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We are in the midst of a health revolution:
twenty-five years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find any scientific
papers highlighting the importance of our diet in relation to our health.
Today, the medical journals are filled with such references.
It appears that the scientific world is finally
recognising that the foods we eat play a key role in the health and disease
that we experience.
Most of us believe that if we are eating a
well-balanced diet, we are receiving all the necessary nutrients for optimum
health. However, according to a leading nutritionist, Patrick Holford, no
single piece of research over the past two decades has been able to support
this assumption. It appears that the concept of the "well-balanced diet"
is a myth; the foods we eat do not give us the
nutrition that we need.
The problem stems from today's practice of
overfarming and the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. These
chemicals exhaust the soil of its nutrients and kill off the micro-organisms
that change inorganic minerals into organic form. As a result, we can no
longer rely upon the nutritional quality of our food. Indeed, the vegetables
and fruits in our supermarkets can have only fractions of the vitamins and
minerals that they had earlier this century.
Some oranges have even been found to have
no vitamin C!
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It may be no coincidence that this
dramatic fall in the quality of our food is shadowed by the equally
dramatic rise in degenerative diseases and immune related problems.
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It is always a surprise for people when they
start to eat high-quality, organically grown foods, for only then do they
truly understand the importance of diet. They find that food not only sustains
them but can positively influence their health, lifting them to new levels
of well-being and vitality. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine,
recognised this fact over two and a half thousand years ago and wrote,
"Each one of the substances of a man's diet acts upon his body and changes
it in some way, and upon these changes his whole life depends, whether he
be in health, in sickness, or convalescence."
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One organic food that can dramatically
change people's lives is a blue-green algae from Upper Klamath Lake
in Oregon.
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Its scientific name is Aphanizomenon flos-aquae,
and today there are hundreds of thousands of people who include small amounts
of this wild food in their diets. Ask them why and you will hear a whole
host of reasons:
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increased vitality
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improved memory and heightened
mental clarity
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relief from physical and mental
stress
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loss of food cravings and excess
weight
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improved skin, nail and hair condition
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alleviation of yeast and digestive
problems
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reduced allergic responses
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overall boosting of the body's
resistance to disease
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Even people who have specific health complaints,
including the common degenerative diseases, are finding improvement in the
quality of their lives. A few might say that they do not know how it is
helping them, but somehow, when they stop taking algae, they really notice
its absence. Although these people each have their own experience, their
own testimony, they are united in their belief that Upper Klamath Lake algae
plays an essential part in a healthy lifestyle.
How can this algae offer such a range of benefits?
Although much research on blue-green algae has been undertaken in the US
and Japan over the last couple of decades, there is no single definitive
answer to this, as one might expect with something as complex as human health
and the molecular interactions in our cells. Rather, a combination of reasons
interweave in an intricate web, each reflecting the integrity of the whole,
and each containing a facet of the truth.
Perhaps the most obvious explanation for this
algae's potency is the fact that it is the most nutrient-dense food on the
planet. This means that, weight for weight, it has more nutrients than
any other natural food. And its broad nutritional spectrum allows a
small amount to supply the body with a little of almost every nutrient that
it needs:
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It is not only the nutritional composition
of food that is important, but also the amount of chemical energy
the body expends in processing it.
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Although food produces energy for the body
when it is burned or oxidised, this process requires the input of chemical
energy from the body in order to break down the food in the stomach, absorb
it into the cells, build up new proteins in the body, and expel or transform
the waste products or residues.
The energy released from our food is always
greater than that needed to process it - otherwise we could not live. However,
the modern diet has so little nutrition and is so enzyme deficient that
it requires an enormous amount of energy to break it down. This is why we
often feel drained after a meal. Further energy expenditure is also necessary
to break down and eliminate pesticides and other toxins from our food and
environment, and to curb the disruptive effects of high levels of mental
stress.
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AquaSource
Klamath Lake blue green algae is available in powder, capsules and
liquid (the liquid is suspended in apple juice and is popular with children).
Dr Gillian
McKeith's Liquid Nutrient Shot contains 50% Klamath Lake blue-green
algae, suspended in apple juice
When we are low on chemical or metabolic
energy, we feel sluggish, and instead of eliminating toxins and residues,
our bodies begin to store them in fat cells and other deposits. This
depletion of our energy reserves is thought to contribute to the fall
in immunity and the rise in degenerative diseases that we are now witnessing.
The blue-green algae from Upper Klamath
Lake gives us nutrients and energy at almost no cost to the body's reserves.
This algae is 95% assimilable, and any of the nutrients are in forms
that are directly usable. For example, the algae's 60% protein content
is of a type called glycoproteins, as opposed to the lipoproteins found
in vegetables and meat. The body, therefore, need not spend metabolic
energy converting lipoproteins into glycoproteins, as it does with other
foods. The same applies to the algae's 25% carbohydrate content, which
is in a form similar to the glycogen fuel in our bodies. The net
result of preserving metabolic energy is that it can be focused on detoxification
and maintenance of our organs. This energy surplus also means that the
algae's nutrients are used to maximum efficiency, which is why tiny
amounts can have such enormous benefits.
In addition to the building blocks of
neuropeptides, Upper Klamath Lake algae contains 9% rhamnose - the sugar
involved in transporting nutrients into nerve cells (or across the
blood-brain barrier). This is why it is so beneficial
to the nervous system: not only boosting normal brain function (hence
its status as a smart food) but also helping with nerve
and brain regeneration. The algae is also thought to enhance the function
of the body's master glands - the pituitary, the pineal and the hypothalamus.
As all foods reflect the environment in
which they are grown, the beautiful unpolluted Upper Klamath Lake -
one of the few remaining alkaline lakes on the planet - also holds a
key to the algae's remarkable potency. This lake has an astonishingly
high mineral concentration due to a massive volcanic eruption that occurred
in the vicinity over 7000 years ago, covering the area with millions
of tons of mineral ash.
Seventeen streams and rivers deposit into
the 140 square mile lake an annual average of 50,000 tons of the mineral-rich
silt from the surrounding 4000 square mile volcanic basin, making Upper
Klamath Lake one of the richest nutrient-traps in the world. The water
provides the algae with 60 times the nutrients needed for it to grow
to its full potential. And even if no more minerals pour into the lake,
the top one inch of the 35-foot mineral sediment is so nutrient-rich
that it alone could support the annual bloom for 60 years!
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Is it any wonder then, that this
wild food has generated so much interest and attention? Is it
really so astounding that so many health practitioners are claiming
it to be the nutrition of the 21st Century and
the ultimate life-support system?
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And is it really surprising that hundreds
of thousands of ordinary people have chosen to include Upper Klamath
Lake algae in their diets? In a world where the quality of food has
drastically fallen, it takes a food with this kind of pedigree to restore
balance to our biological integrity.
As quality control is important for wild
foods, harvesters implement strict processing procedures. These are
monitored by the USDA, and testing is also undertaken by independent
laboratories. This lack of compromise in quality control is reflected
in the purity of Upper Klamath Lake algae.
High-quality nutrition is the best insurance
for our most precious possession - our health. Today, there are growing
numbers of people who have the courage to accept this responsibility,
whether they eat algae, organic produce, a vegetarian diet or just low-fat
foods. These are not the pioneers, the trailblazers who have come to
know that this jewel called health is too valuable to be left in the
hands of ignorance and blind convention. The algae from Upper Klamath
Lake offers us a unique opportunity to experience the very real power
of food.
Miracle Superfood:
Wild Blue-Green Algae
 (more
of a fat booklet than a book really, but a quick and fascinating read
about Klamath Lake blue green algae, together with practical ideas on
how Dr Gillian McKeith uses it with her patients.)
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