I want you to forget everything that you know. 

See, most of what you have heard about Spirulina talks about it in a supplement form. Now that's all fine and dandy, okay? It's not bad in its supplement form, you still get the chlorophyll side of things, you still get the detoxification process, but what I want to talk about today is Spirulina in its raw food form. 

I'm talking literally like eating algae. I mean, not literally going to the pond and scraping algae off and eating it, but essentially eating Spirulina in its raw state, where it can elicit some pretty darn powerful effects. 

Now you're probably thinking it's going to taste absolutely terrible but when you hear me out and I reference some of those studies that show you exactly how much fat loss can occur and how much in the way of performance increase you can expect, you're going to absolutely be blown away. 

So these are people that have done a little bit of exercise but they're not super athletes. These subjects were recreational runners that had trained for at least a year and they trained for at least a couple times per week, usually 45 minutes per session. 

Now each of these subjects received either spirulina or a placebo for about four weeks, and each subject ended up running on a treadmill for an intensity that was about 70 to 75% of their VO2 max and they did this for about two hours and then again 95% of their VO2 max all the way to exhaustion. 

Now what they ultimately found was absolutely crazy. 

Now what's even more impressive was that ingestion of Spirulina also ended up decreasing carb oxidation by 10.3% and increased fat oxidation by 10.9% during the two-hour run. 

What that means is that the body used less carbs and burned more fat by a significant degree just by having this algae in the mix. 

Now furthermore something that is known as thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances, yes, I know it's a mouthful, but we'll refer to it as T-bars, those levels increased after exercise after the placebo group but not the spirulina group. 

Now to give you some context, T-bars are by products of what's called lipid peroxidation. 

I know I sound crazy but all that really means is that spirulina was able to clean up the efficiency of fat utilization, making it a lot easier for the body to use fat and a little bit more difficult for the body to use carbs. 

Now these increases in performance that we talked about can happen for a multitude of reasons, but the main one is the fact that raw algae form spirulina contains something known as phycocyanins. 

See what these phycocyanins do is exactly what we talked about in that study. They help the body utilize more fat and a little bit less carbs. 

They help the body preserve more in the way of carbohydrates and use more in the way of fats. 

Now what this means essentially is that when we look at how the body uses fat, we have a set number of molecules that the body will burn and a set number of molecules that the body will calculate as waste. 

So to make it really simple here’s a hypothetical example. Lets say – for example – that you have 10 unit of fat that can be used for energy. 

Normally, when you’re going through any metabolic process, of those 10 units 5 units will be burned for energy and five units of fat that go through lipid peroxidation and turn into waste and don’t even get utilized. 

In the instance of adding Spirulina into the mix, we can expect the hypothetical number to be 8 or 9 units used for energy and one or two used as waste. 

That’s what I mean when I say it cleans up the efficiency of fat utilization. 

But then, when it allows carbs to stay in the muscle, it allows the body to have more performance over a longer period of time. 

Because what’s happening is that now the body can use fat as the fuel source for the duration of the activity, but only tap into the stored carbohydrates when absolutely necessary for extreme wattage or extreme output, meaning you’re not exhausting all your carbs right at the gate then falling on your face. 

Your body has an alternative mechanism now by using fat – so you use fat for the bulk of the workout then your body uses carbs only when you’re pushing it at maximum intensity. 

Now the other thing we need to look at is the linoleic acid content. 

Normally when you’re looking at Spirulina we don’t have a lot of linoleic acid because of the way it’s been put in a powder form. 

The linoleic acid in a raw form is really really powerful, and linoleic acid helps the liver convert more fat into energy. If you’re on a ketogenic diet or a low carb diet you know how important the liver is for creating ketones and converting fat into energy. 

So this is a very important thing when it comes down to Spirulina…[Its important to understand that fresh Spirulina is actually a raw food rather than a dried powder. While the powder delivers chlorophyll and some nutrients, the drying process can destroy the performance attributes like linoleic acid and phycocyanin that you want.] 

Well, here’s the thing. Normally what ends up happening, and when you get it in a supplement form it tastes bad is because it oxidises. 

But in fresh Spirulina that’s quickly flash frozen at source, you don’t have that problem, you don’t have the oxidation occurring – so the oxygen isn’t reacting with the very fragile algae and isn’t making it taste bad. 

So, it’s a way to get all the performance benefits of Spirulina without the nasty swampy taste [of dried powder]. 

Well, all performance stuff aside, fresh spirulina has some amazing attributes when it comes down to just general health and recovery in the first place. 

You see spirulina is literally the highest protein content food on the planet. It has the most abundant amino acid profile of any food that exists. 

Now I know you’re not going to be eating copious amounts of Spirulina, but the fact is gram for gram Spirulina is so high in all the amino acids you need for proper recovery you’re literally looking at the best food when it comes down to initiating recovery, which again is another reason it boosts performance so much. 

Credit: SP2 Fresh Frozen Spirulina