Spirulina 6.0 - Evolution to Revolution
One of the first life forms on earth, spirulina terraformed our planet and defined nutrition for thousands of species. Today, spirulina 6.0 is set to revolutionise human health and nutrition.
How did we get from Spirulina 1.0 to Spirulina 6.0?
Spirulina 1.0
PRIMAL FOOD
Setting the World’s Nutritional Standard 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Tiny microalgae appeared on earth long before fish, birds, dinosaurs or humans.
Among earth’s first living cells, spirulina absorbed C02 and minerals from the alkaline sea and harnessed sunshine to create living cells with an incredible variety of nutrients — releasing oxygen as a by-product.
Microalgae quickly became the most numerous life forms on earth — and were soon the main source of nutrients for new forms of life.
These early microalgae set the nutritional standard for life on earth — to survive and thrive, new life had to consume the nutrient mixture they provided.
Spirulina 2.0
TERRAFORMING EARTH
Giving Earth Blue Skies and Oxygen 2.5 Billion Years Ago
Archean Earth’s atmosphere consisted of tiny methane droplets with no oxygen. It offered no protection against harsh solar radiation.
If we time travelled back to that time we would die in minutes.
2.5 Billion years ago microalgae became so numerous that the oxygen they released started to change earth’s atmosphere.
Over a period of 350 Million years oxygen released by spirulina and other microalgae pushed oxygen levels from zero to 20% — creating a blue skies atmosphere that shielded earth from extreme solar radiation, allowing the development of oxygen-based life forms including green plants, animals and humans.
This crucial stage in earth's history is known as The Great Oxidation Event
Today microalgae still absorb C02 and produce half the oxygen we breath.
Spirulina 3.0
FEEDING THE PLANET
Supporting Oxygen Based Life - 2 Billion Years Ago
Sitting at the bottom of the food chain, spirulina microalgae was - and remains today - the most nutrient-diverse, nutrient-dense, and bioavailable food on earth.
Sixty percent protein by weight, spirulina sits at the bottom of earth’s food chain – living in water and using sunshine to convert minerals and CO2 into living cells with a complete nutritional profile.
Spirulina provides the omega fatty acids that fish eat and store, almost every vitamin and mineral including trace elements that humans need to thrive, a host of powerful natural antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, and many bioactive and healing compounds that counter many diseases including cancer.
Their soft gelatinous cell wall – different to the hard cellulose walls of plant cells – almost instantly releases nutrients that are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and body.
Spirulina 4.0
MAN DISCOVERS SPIRULINA
Spirulina Harvested in Baskets, Sun-Dried and Treasured
We don’t know when man first made baskets to filter spirulina from alkaline waters and sun dried it to preserve the precious nutrients.
We know the Aztec civilization treasured spirulina - they dined on it, used it medicinally, and the runners that criss-crossed their empire with news carried spirulina biscuits for fuel.
We know that people in Africa harvested spirulina, ate it, traded it and stored it for use during periods of drought – it is still harvested in baskets and widely consumed in Chad today.
There is some evidence that dried spirulina was traded across Asia and the middle-east and has been used by many ancient systems of medicine — including Chinese, Ayurvedic, and Unani — to treat illness for more than 5,000 years.
Spirulina has a distinguished history in the healing arts in ancient Egypt, Babylon, the Roman empire, Persia and India, and is today still prescribed in a wide range of treatments by recognized medical disciplines in areas of Asia, China, India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
Spirulina 5.0
INDUSTRIAL SPIRULINA FARMING
Industrial Spirulina Farming & Processing - 80 Years Ago
Cortez and his conquistadors observed Aztecs eating spirulina in 1519, but it was not till the 1940s - when a French scientist noticed people along Africa’s Lake Chad harvesting spirulina and making it into sun-dried cakes called dihé - that western civilization 'rediscovered' and started learning about spirulina.
The first industrial scale harvesting was started in Mexico in the 1960s at Lake Texcoco.
Spirulina quickly became a sought-after supplement, and industrial spirulina production - using 'raceway' farms open to the elements and exposed to bird waste, air pollution, nuclear fallout, ash from fires and volcanoes and air and water pollutants - quickly spread to Asia and around the planet.
Today ten thousand tons of dried spirulina is industrially grown and processed — around half in China — and traded to all corners of the world.
There is no control over nutrients used in spirulina farming. Toxins — especially heavy metals — are quickly absorbed and pass into the dried powder that is traded as a commodity then packaged as powder and pill supplements
Industrial drying processes used today heat spirulina up to 120 degrees C, destroying or damaging up to 90% of spirulina's natural nutrients — especially water based vitamins, omega fatty acids, active enzymes, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and the bioactive and healing compounds.
Recent research shows that ambient storage of spirulina powder and pills can destroy a further 50% to 75% of the remaining nutrients within 6 months.
While modern spirulina supplements still offer some health benefits, they provide a pale shadow of fresh spirulina's powerful nutrition and healing powers.
Spirulina 6.0
NEW AGE SPIRULINA REVOLUTION
Clean Farming & Frozen Product Revolution — Past 10 years
A new generation of spirulina farmers started working to produce a better, safer, cleaner and more health-giving product.
They moved farming out of exposed open raceways into enclosed bioreactors and use clean water and nutrients — free of pollutants and toxins — to grow clean spirulina that provides the full nutritional and healing power — and can safely be taken, even by infants and pregnant mothers.
They take care to preserve fresh spirulina’s treasure house of living proteins, active enzymes, organic vitamins, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, and bioactive molecules.
A few farms sell fresh spirulina, but it has a very short shelf life. This is common among small-scale farmers in France where customers visit the farm, and buy recently harvested spirulina pâté that is then consumed within a day or two.
Others sun dry or freeze dry spirulina, but the first is unreliable and the second is prohibitively expensive. ALL DRIED SPIRULINA can lose 75% of important nutrients within 2 months of storage.
The best solution so far is freezing fresh spirulina quickly after harvest — this process preserves virtually all the nutrients and active compounds.
The widespread market for frozen food has created worldwide distribution networks that can be utilized to deliver fresh, frozen spirulina – that is never heated, never dried – to customers everywhere.
SPRU is proud to be an international pioneer in clean spirulina farming and frozen spirulina products.
SPRU
HOW WE GROW SPIRULINA
Clean-Farmed Sun Grown Spirulina - Never Heated, Never Dried
Our proprietary spirulina clean-farming system was developed by a team of specialists with more than 100 years of design and scientific knowledge and experience.
Step 1. Strain Selection. Arthrospira platensis – a 3.5 billion year old immortal microalgae.
Step 2. Growth Media Formulation. Our proprietary blend of filtered water and clean minerals provides all the nutrients Spirulina needs to thrive.
Step 3. Growth. Farmed in sealed and environmentally controlled proprietary bioreactors to eliminate contamination.
Step 4. Separation. Micron-level filtration to remove growth medium, pure water washing, centrifugation to remove last traces of growth medium.
Step 5. Packing & Freezing. Stix are dose-adjusted, blast frozen and hand-wrapped in paper twists. Shots are blended with pure juices, bottled and frozen.
SPRU is currently grown and sold only in South Africa.
SpiruLiving Institute
SPRU clean-farming technology and frozen spirulina products have been developed by SpiruLiving Institute - an organization led by Dr Melinda Griffiths PhD (UCT & University of Cambridge), a leading algal biotechnology scientist with 20 years of international spirulina research and farming experience.
Our mission is to make fresh frozen spirulina products - never heated, never dried - available to a global population increasingly in need of healthy nutrition, natural healing, and food security.