Spirulina vs. Chlorella - What's the difference?

TRANSCRIPT:

All right, today's question of the day is what is the difference between Chlorella and Spirulina?

So, you guys have probably heard of both of these and you probably purchased them at some point either in tablets or in powder form and kind of left them at the back corner of your cabinets and not really knowing what to do with them or what the difference was or what the benefits of these are supposed to be and they probably sat there for years. And so, today I wanna talk about what these have in common, what separates them, and why should be having them all the time.

They're something I have just about every single day. So, what do they have in common? Chlorella and Spirulina are both algaes They both are very high in protein. Chlorella has about 60% protein. Spirulina has between 65 and 71% protein. Spirulina is actually the highest naturally occurring protein source of any food. Now, you have things like that are like a brown rice protein that's like 80% protein, but that's been extracted from the brown rice. Spirula the original this is 65 to 71% protein which is huge. And then, so these are also both gonna deduct some heavy metals, but Chlorella much more effective. The chlorella really binds up the heavy metals very effectively and draws them out of the body.

The chlorophyll in the Spirulina is able to do that to an extent, but it's not in the league of Chlorella. Now, I said these are both algaes, but they're different kinds of algae. Chlorella is a single celled green algae whereas Spirulina is multicelluar, that's a hard one to get out, and it grows actually in a spiral formation. That's where the name Spirulina comes from. And, it's not just a green algae, it's a blue-green algae. There's the green pigment chlorophyll that you also find in Chlorella, and then it also has a blue pigment phycocyanin. And, when you hear people talking about or making these beautiful creations on Instagram with what they call blue Spirulina there is not a kind of Spirulina out there that is just blue like that. What that is is they extracted the phycocyanin from Spirulina, taken the blue pigment out and that's what people are using, which is wonderful 'cause phycocyanin actually promotes stem cell production in the bone marrow, so it's fantastic for anti-aging. So, Spirulina is blue and green Chlorella is just green.

Chlorella is the highest natural source of chlorophyll, 10% by weight. So, if you compare that to something like wheat grass which comes in at 0.25% that's a huge difference. You have 40 times the levels of chlorophyll that you would find in wheatgrass. So, we said both of these are complete proteins. And then, Chlorella is interesting in it's high levels of nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. You get that in Spirulina as well, but Chlorella is really on a completely different level.

So, back in a couple decades ago people would always think that sardines are the highest natural source of nucleic acids that you can find, specifically of RNA. They thought sardines are the one and they come in at 0.59%. Then, they had some Japanese researchers that were looking at Chlorella and they found Chlorella is 10%. So, you're looking at nearly 40 times the level. So, what do these nucleic acids do? They give our bodies the right ingredients to be able to create new cells that are very healthy and do this at a good rate, right? If you are not creating new cells fast enough you're gonna be aging 'cause the old cells kind have to stay around for longer and they can start to not look so good. And, it's also giving our bodies just the right building blocks to do everything with. These are very basic compounds RNA and DNA, it's what you body uses essentially as instructions and building blocks to do everything that it does.

So, that is something that's really special about Chlorella and also Chlorella contains a unique property to it called Chlorella Growth Factor that scientists really don't know quite how to explain yet and this make Chlorella the fastest growing food crop in the entire world. It will quadruple in quantity every 48 hours. And, this also has interesting implications when it gets into your body because it allows the lactobacilli bacteria in your gut to multiply at four times their normal rate. So, Chlorella is just incredible.

Now, both Spirulina and Chlorella are great for B vitamins, that's another commonality they have. But then, when you look at Spirulina it has very high levels of what's called GLA, gammolinoleic acid. This is a special kind of omega six because most omega six is inflammatory. GLA is a special kind of omega six that's actually anti-inflammatory, particularly an anti-inflammatory that targets the nervous system. So, as we're aging we wanna make sure we keep inflammation down in general and especially that we keep a very healthy nervous system. So, that gives you kind of an idea of where these two go.

What do I like to do with them everyday? Well, I love making some thin slices of Grindstone Bakery Quinoa Millet toast. And, one top of those I will put this mix and what I do is I take an avocado, a tablespoon of ghee, a tablespoon of caprylic acid MCT oil, which is a more potent kind of MCT than the regular MCT oil. It's just C8 instead of C8 and C10 so really good for producing ketones in the body and getting into a state where you're getting energy from fat as well. And then, I put about four to six tablespoons of hemp protein and a tablespoon of Chlorella and a tablespoon of Spirulina and I mash this whole thing up. If you're not into the flavor of Chlorella and Spirulina you won't enjoy it. But, if you're like me and a couple of rare people that I know you will really enjoy this. So, it's something to try at least once. And, so that's how I take these everyday.

Occasionally, I'll do something like a smoothie or if I'm having a salad I'll put a tablespoon of each of these on top of my salad. But, I'll say at first, for the first couple years of having these I wasn't crazy about the flavor. I did it for the benefits and they were incredible tools for me in terms of getting in protein as I am on a vegetarian diet. And, well I guess now my diet isn't necessarily 100% vegetarian I do have fish oil and occasionally some polyrhachis ant. But, at the time I was completely actually a vegan at the time. So, and for a vegan both of these are also really good, specifically Spirulina is really good, because of their high levels of iron that's bioavailable. So, another thing to consider there.

So, these are really great foods. It's good to know the difference, it's good to know what each different one does and how you can use them. And, I hope you guys are using them and will continue to use them for the rest of your lives. Let me know what your experience has been with these two or if you're trying one of them for the first time what you think. Thanks so much for joining me and hope to see you guys again soon.