Spirulina and Chlorella belong to a family of tiny organisms, many millions of years old, and generally classified as algae. They are the two most commonly, commercially cultivated algae produced for today’s health food and health supplement market.

Spirulina and Chlorella are perfect whole foods, true superfoods . They have perfect compliments of protein (60%) carbohydrates (19%), fats (6%) bio-available minerals (8%). They are not extracts, concentrates or amalgams of vitamins and minerals that look good on paper such as the vitamin and mineral supplements that people generally believe to be healthy. In reality, the body does not absorb 90% of these vitamin supplements because they are dead, void of enzymes. On the other hand, eating Spirulina or Chlorella is like eating any other whole food such as a banana, apple or broccoli.

Health benefits of Spirulina

Spirulina is extremely high in protein as well as essential fatty acids, vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, B12, C, D and E and minerals such as calcium, potassium, iron and zinc. Spirulina assists with muscle building, weight loss and as treatment for certain types of cancer.

Health benefits of Chlorella

Chlorella is rich in many of the same nutrients, yet chlorella also acts as an antioxidant. Chlorella is one of the highest forms of chlorophyll and has been used to prevent cancer. As a dietary supplement, chlorella is used to cleanse the body. Chlorella is also used to rebuild nerve damage in the brain.

Which one to take

Spirulina is a nitrogen based blue green algae and has the predominant odour of seaweed. Chlorella is oxygen based green algae that have the predominant odour of fresh grass. Chlorella gets its name from the high amount of chlorophyll in it, up to 10 times that of Spirulina which is itself quite high in chlorophyll. Chlorella belongs to a class of algae called chlorophyta.

Spirulina is an extremely high energy food, great before or after a workout and is very good for the treatment of arthritis. Chlorella is excellent for digestion, heavy-metal detoxification, and is a immune system builder. Therefore, the answer to the question as to which of these two algae should you take is that you should definitely have both of them in your diet.

You are what you eat. Your health and well being depends largely on what you put into your body and how you use your body. A balanced diet, regular exercise, and no nasty habits like smoking, drugs or excessive alcohol, and you are likely to enjoy good health.