Super Food Chlorella

This wonderful freshwater green algae is definitely a super food. I am not any medical professional, below are just knowledge that I organized about this super food that I have collected for a while through the internet.

Detox Properties:

Chlorella is comprised of 20% fibrous, indigestible outer shell and 80% inner nutrients. The vitamins, minerals, amino acids, chlorophyll, and other substances that the chlorella contains helps to detox our body. But it is the fibrous outer shell that has been proven to bind with heavy metals and other synthetic chemicals that have accumulated in our bodies. As a matter of fact, chlorella detoxes all known toxins, so this includes mercury and aluminum that we worry so much about in children’s vaccines or our aluminum containing deodorant; lead, PCB, dioxin, etc. that we worry about our children ingesting through toxic products, or even our breastmilk; and even radiation that the recent Japan incident have us worry about. Chlorella is often combined with cilantro for heavy metal detox. Cilantro can better release toxins from our nervous system and bones into our bloodstream so that chlorella can then bind with them and take them out of our system through our digestive track. Chlorella mainly detoxes through the digestive track, so taking it before meals is ideal so that it can get to the toxins before reaching the bloodstream, but as the chlorella takes out the toxins in our digestive tracks, it does also free up more opportunity for the bloodstream to pass the toxins to the digestive tracks.

Chlorella Growth Factor:

CGF is a nucleotide-peptide complex of substances found only in chlorella and is what makes chlorella reproduce very rapidly. It causes children and young animals to grow at a much faster rate and promotes healing of damaged tissues. I remember reading that there were these Japanese studies that found children taking chlorella ended up taller and healthy with no cavities. And another study about dogs having perfect dental arches after taking chlorella.

Boost Immune System:

Research in Japan again showed that mothers who took chlorella during pregnancy had significantly less dioxin in their breast milk, but an added bonus was that the breast milk also contained higher level of IgA, which reduces the risk of infections in nursing infants. Chlorella is a strong antioxidant therefore also has cancer fighting properties.

DHA:

A friend of mine has weaned her daughter and wanted to supplement DHA to her daughter asked me if chlorella has any DHA. I always heard that chlorella was a good brain food, but I didn’t really connected why. Therefore I decided to look up this question and found that chlorella to be an excellent source of DHA. As a matter of fact, the fishes got their DHA from eating chlorella and/or algae in the water. Then I found out many vegetarian source of DHA are also made from algae. DHA is critical for the optimal development and function of the brain, eyes, and central nervous system during infancy and childhood. 

Boost Iron Level:

While chlorella removes the heavy metals, it does not do the same with iron. Quite the contrary, it actually raises your iron level, so it is a good iron supplement. If you have problems with high iron level, this might not be a good idea to supplement more with.

How to Take Chlorella:

I have read various sources with different information on this. The general consensus seems to be to take it before or with food, and start out slowly and reach to 6 grams, but some say you can go higher or to the point that your stool turns green, and it seems like there is no upper limit. I have no idea what is the optimal amount, I don’t really take it every day due to forgetfulness, and never took any high detoxing amount because of the fear that I might detox into my baby through pregnancy and breast milk. If you are taking vitamin C as well, it is recommended to take it as far from chlorella as possible. Vitamin C counters the detoxing effect of chlorella by loosening its bind with toxins. Also, some people’s stomach cannot tolerate chlorella, but I heard that spirulina, another algae might be more tolerable. It is also very important to find chlorella that is not already polluted with heavy metals and toxins. Since chlorella act like sponges with toxins, the ones that are grown in nature no matter where they claim it to be will be polluted. Your best bet will be the ones that are cultivated indoor facility with clean water and tested by third party independent labs.

Conclusion for me:

After reading all these seemingly exaggerated benefit claims about chlorella, I just can’t risk passing it by. It is a food, so I am not that worried about it, since in Asian culture we eat and snack seaweed quite often also. I started supplementing a tiny bit of chlorella to my daughter ever since I started solids with her. She actually likes the taste of it and will drink the powder mix in water straight up; me on the other hand can’t stand the fishy seaweed taste and prefer the tablet form.