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Spirulina, Chlorella, Maca, and Cacao

Spirulina are floating filamentous cyanobacteria with cylindrical trichomes in left-hand helix. Spirulina grows naturally in tropical and subtropical lakes with high pH and high concentrations of carbonate and bicarbonate. The first Spirulina manufacturing factory was established in 1970s. Chlorella is a single-cell green algae which is part of Chlorophyta family. There is an obvious mis-spelling: chorella.  Maca is an herbaceous biennial plant or annual plant in Bolivia and Peru. Mostly it is known as Peruvian Maca. Cacao is also known as Theobroma cacao. It is a tall evergreen tree, and native to the tropical area of Amazon in America.

The Cacao Tree grows in lowland tropical forests with little seasonality. Naturally it grows under heavy rainforest canopy, it is cultivated underneath Banana or Casaca (Tapioca) or other large leaf, tree-like, grasses. It needs a consistent climate: temperatures of 21 to 32 degrees Celsius year round - never lower than 15 C, and 100 to 250 cm of rainfall, well distributed throughout the year with no month less than 10 cm. It grows only below 1000 meters of elevation, and usually below 300 meters. All of this means that it grows only in the tropics - almost exclusively within 10 degrees latitude of the Equator and only in places that are not too mountainous and do not have monsoons or droughts. It is commonly used as food supplements. For centuries Aztecs have been eating Spirulina. The earliest record reveals that it grew in Lake Texcoco, and was collected and sold as food. It is spherical in shape, about 2 to 10 ?m in diameter. Chlorella contains a fibrous and indigestible outer shell and inner nutrients. The dried Chlorella contains about 45% protein, 20% fat, 20% carbohydrate, 5% fiber, and 10% minerals and vitamins. Maca grows on high mountains, and grows well only in very cold weather and in poor soil. It has been discovered that hypocotyls is one of the major constituents of naturally grown and organic maca root on mountaineous area. As hypocotyls do not form in greenhouses or in warm climates, cultivated maca in other areas than Andean mountains don't have same content of hypocotyles and other nutrients as the naturally grown and organic maca root. People grow it for its root. Maca root can be used as vegetable or medicinal herb. Biologically maca root is rich in sugar and protein. It contains 60% carbohydrates, 10% protein, 8.5% dietary fiber, and 2.2% fats. Therefore many people believe it is an attractive food source because it is high in protein and other essential nutrients. More importantly many of its health benefits have been discovered by researchers around the world. Chlorella can carry away metabolic wastes from our blood because its fibrous material can bind with heavy metals and pesticides which can accumulate in our blood. Recent years it has become a popular thing in the world, and has been approved by the FDA, WHO and other medical authourities as health food. Spirulina is rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals. It contains Lysine, Cysteine, Methionine, Phenylalanine and Threonine, which are important amino acids that can only be acquired by human beings through food. Spirulina is also a very rich source of Vitamin B-12. It has much higher iron content than Spinach. It contains much higher amounts of Beta-Carotene than carrots. A clean bloodstream with an abundance of red blood cells to carry oxygen is essential for our body to function properly. In addition Chlorella is rich in Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is very similar to hemoglobin, a protein found in the red blood cells.

Posted in Health on Sunday 22nd of June 2008 07:03:12 PM