Spirulina is touted as the best source of protein

These studies seem exciting, but they are far from the conclusion that Ganoderma lucidum or its extract can cure a certain disease These studies are basically only in vitro cell or animal experiments, to the human body is still useful? How much is needed to be useful? Is there any other adverse effect under the effective dose? These studies are still in short supply There is more than one TV campaign mentioning that Spirulina is "the most ideal food in the 21st century" But there is no such praise in the 2008 report on Spirulina issued by the food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Spirulina is not a specialty of China As early as the 16th century, Spanish explorers in Mexico found that the local people used this kind of thing growing in the lake as food In the 1940s, French algal scientist Dangeard reported that people living on the Lake Chad in Africa ate the algae More than 20 years later, scientists understood its biochemical composition, and it attracted wide attention Spirulina entered the field of vision of Chinese researchers in the early 1980s A few years later, spirulina entered the market and achieved great success According to the data provided by FAO, the production of Spirulina in China exceeded 40000 tons in 2004 Many years ago, a CCTV hostess once joked about herself and said, "when I take off my makeup, I will scare you to death." The spirulina in front of the public is just like the beauty in the art photo If you take off the costume, what will it look like? Health care products in the Chinese market like to talk about the FDA For example, Baidu Encyclopedia's entry says that the FDA believes that Spirulina is the "best source of protein" The FDA's functional approval of food and dietary supplements is completely public In the list of "health declaration" or "limited health declaration", there is no sign of Spirulina From the point of view of biochemical composition, spirulina does have its special features Its protein content is very high, the highest can account for 70% of the dry weight, and the amino acid composition of the protein is also close to human needs In the fat it contains, the proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids is very high Its vitamin content is also very high, especially B vitamins and vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E and carotenoids It is also rich in minerals, such as potassium, calcium, chromium, cobalt, iron, manganese, selenium, zinc and so on In addition, it also contains more pigments Because these ingredients are meaningful for human nutrition, people do have high hopes for it, saying that it is an excellent food One of the core technologies in the production of "attire" of Spirulina is to change the concept For example, it was originally a "good food", which was unconsciously hyped as a "magic health care product" The key difference between food and health products is that food needs to be eaten in large quantities The protein in Spirulina is relatively "high quality", but it is compared with most plant proteins, and slightly inferior to the protein in eggs and milk Moreover, this "high quality" actually refers to the effect of eating a protein alone to meet the needs of human amino acids Because we have to eat a variety of food, and a variety of not so "high-quality" protein cooperative operations, the results can also well meet the needs of the human body In reality, the "high quality" itself does not have much significance Replacing "high protein content" with "good protein source" is even more deceptive The protein content of Spirulina is higher than other foods, but as a "health food", Spirulina is not used as a vegetable It costs a lot to eat 5g of spirulina powder every day The protein contained in it is only about 3G, which is equivalent to 100ml of milk, not as much as 50g of tofu, and the human body needs dozens of grams of protein a day Therefore, both FDA and AICR believe that the protein contained in Spirulina products can be completely ignored considering the dosage of Spirulina products The advocacy of polyunsaturated fatty acids is even more contradictory.