Superfood questionable: Everyone eats seaweed - why?
Text: Karina Sembe
Algae - not new among superfoods, but every year a new round of popularity happens to it: yesterday brown, today blue-green, first in the form of food additives, then as an ingredient in dishes. The celebrities from Madonna to Gwyneth Paltrow whimper salads and algae supplements with might and main, followers of a healthy diet attribute them an anti-inflammatory effect, improved bones and skin, and a beneficial effect on the immune system. We tried to figure out what is marketing from this and what are real facts, and is it true that sea plants are useful for everything at once.
Some manifestations of the fashion for healthy food are not as simple and accessible as we would like, and do not imply half measures. We are told that a balanced diet is not enough - you need to follow certain rules and trends. There are more and more of them, and after paleodiet and macrobiotics, the spirulina boom surprises no one. Moreover, the arguments in its favor seem convincing. It is believed that today's popular blue-green algae is rich in proteins, iron, calcium and all sorts of vitamins and at the same time absorbed by the body for one hundred percent. Spirulina, chlorella and other varieties are bought at sites from iHerb to Amazon - in capsules and powder, in dry or frozen form. Seaweed is added to smoothies, freshes and main dishes, sold in eco-shops and advertised in vegan restaurants, and Skinny Confidential blog author Lorin Evarts says that he drinks "green" shots of a certain company instead of tequila.
However, it was not spirulina and chlorella that were the first to establish a healthy diet, but brown algae. Probably, each of us at least once managed to try the "healthy" sea kale (kelp) - it is valued for its high content of iodine, iron, vitamins A and C. Nori, which is used in sushi preparation, is also praised for its universal utility, and undariy, or Wakame is considered to be rich in calcium. And it would be okay if it was in nutritional properties (however, in nuts and broccoli there are not less useful substances). Algae lovers claim that fucoxanthin is a part of wakame - a substance that promotes fat burning and increases the rate of formation of proteins in the body. It is not clear how much algae a day should be eaten for a tangible fitness effect and whether it will be safe.
The current boom in algae fell on the blue-green. The aforementioned spirulina, without which no menu in the juice bar can do today, gained popularity in the late 90s. Then more and more people began to switch to a vegetable diet and the question arose about a reliable source of protein and vitamins of group B. But the real hype among fans of healthy eating today occurs around the alga AFA (afanisomenon flos aqua). Afanisomenon, the most popular on the market, grows in the volcanic lake Klamath in Oregon, USA. Manufacturers of these dietary supplements claim that the finest herbaceous fibers are characterized by a high concentration of 65 vitamins, minerals, amino acids, complex carbohydrates and fatty acids. In the 90s they fed racehorses with these algae, and then Tamera Campbell, director of food additives manufacturing company E3Live, decided to sell the product to people.
A serious lobby is built around the beneficial effects of marine plants on immunity. Superfood lovers often reinforce their beliefs with research results, such as, for example, data from Dr. Eric Gershwin of the University of California, published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods. Dr. Gershwin writes: "We have found that the nutrient alga Spirulina increases the production of interferon gamma by 13.6 times, and interleukin-4 and 1 beta - by 3.3 times." These are markers of the immune system, in other words, some scientists believe that spirulina strengthens the immune system.
The immune system is a complex system; it is unlikely to be able to “strengthen” it with algae alone. With regard to scientific research, the fact is that the test of Gershwin and many others of this kind are preliminary basic studies aimed at identifying the fundamental qualities of a substance. It is like a "spherical horse in a vacuum": such data very poorly reflect the real effect of algae on the human body. The history of science proves that of the multitude of substances that show promising effects in laboratories on artificially grown cages and experimental rats or pigs, not all of them prove to be just as useful for people (we recently talked about this in a material about the dubious benefits of wine). Extensive clinical trials are required according to the method of double glare - when neither the subjects nor the one who evaluates the results, do not know which group of people takes the active ingredient, and which group takes the placebo. In addition, all status markers of the subjects should be considered. Our physiology is too complex to extrapolate preliminary data so blithely.
Today, many doctors agree that spirulina and AFA in the form of food additives contain negligible - that is, quite insignificant - the amount of nutrients, so you can rely, rather, on the placebo effect, as is the case with homeopathy. True, placebo, which, if inattentively chosen and carelessly used, can cause allergies, disorders of the kidneys, liver and nervous system, as well as rare dangerous diseases, is not the best choice. In its raw form, it is difficult (and not necessary) to consume a lot of spirulina and AFA. In addition, these algae do not contain any nutrients that cannot be obtained from regular food.
And while scientists are talking about negligible amounts of nutrients in dietary supplements, the properties declared in the advertisement continue to mislead people. Convincing evidence of benefit requires time and expense for proper laboratory research and clinical trials, but by registering questionable capsules as dietary supplements, it can be argued that they promote health by "stimulating the body to heal itself." According to the FDA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act) dietary supplement act, the pattern is this: as long as the manufacturer does not declare that afanisomenon flossa-water or spirulina treat a specific disease, it is absolutely “clean” and can advertise its supplements as much as necessary. In turn, people perceive them as a panacea, hear about "stem cell nutrition" and prefer supplements to the doctor. In Russia and many other CIS countries, the situation is no better than in Western Europe and the USA: we have no FDA, but homeopathy and herbalism are flourishing.
The development of a new trend in the market is also due to the excessively tough, orthorexical view of healthy eating. His followers recommend consuming only “organic” foods, certain portions of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, as well as the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals. In fact, the norm for each organism is different, and you should focus only on the conditional range of permissible quantities for different age and level of physical activity. In addition, there is very little evidence that large doses of vitamins and minerals give the body something “from above”, in addition to preventing the deficiency of these very vitamins. But it is known that exceeding the norm can seriously harm.
Seaweed salad and fruit smoothie with spirulina are unlikely to be harmed, and some may be helped to feel healthier. True, there is evidence that some blue-green algae can be toxic and cause massive flowering of the lakes in which they grow. It is usually not about algae in the reservoirs where they are grown for food, but nutritionists still recommend using AFA, spirulina and other marine plants with caution and finding out their origin. “No need to replace spinach and blueberry with algae smoothies,” says nutritionist Stephanie Clark in The Cut. “Today the question is even whether to add them to the basic diet.”
Photo: Jenifoto - stock.adobe.com, koosen - stock.adobe.com, Andrey Starostin - stock.adobe.com, iHerb