Spirulina , Odd-looking But Healthy Food

I am trying out a bottle of spirulina capsules as part of the Amazon try/review project; so I have been reading more about the health benefits of spirulina.
Apparently, it has been used as an actual food for many centuries in some countries, and was one of the main plant foods of the Aztecs in Mexico centuries ago.
Spirulina has a lot of good protein; but since we mainly use it as a supplement, most people would only take a spoonful or so each day...... so not enough to consider it as an actual protein source.
It does include all of the amino acids though, and also is being used by most of the body builders as part of their health regimen.
It has a lot of important vitamins and also phyto-nutrients that are good for the skin, and as an anti-aging product.

Spirulina comes in both tablets/capsules and powder form, and the powder can be added to smoothies, providing you do not care if they are the ugliest green in the world.
I tried that once, and think I added it into something like a chocolate protein drink, and the result looked like greenish-brown slime...... YUCK ! ! !
I drank it with my eyes closed ! ! (I only tried that once, even though it did not taste as awful as it looked )
So, this time, I am taking the capsules, and if I try drinking more of the powder, It will maybe be with lemonade, which does not look so bad if it is green, and is not thick like a smoothie. And I will start with a small amount of spirulina added at first, to see how it goes. Since it is so healthy, I would like to find a palatible way to include spirulina in my diet.

 

As I mentoned, I actually had some powdered spirulina that I had bought, and then stopped using after that one horrible "experiment" with the chocolate protein drink. After reading more about it, I now realize that I also put in way too much of the powder, at least for first time starting to take it.
This time, I am easing into the Spirulina Experience.
Today, I took my capsule along with my other morning vitamins and supplements, and then added just a bit of the powder into my kefir-flax smoothie. It IS an odd color of green; but does not taste bad, and this time I can drink it with my eyes open ! !

I do know that spirulina can help people.
When I was married to my ex, he was a Viet Nam vet, and one who had terrible flashbacks and nightmares at night where he thought we were being attacked. He would dive out of bed and go for his guns, and it could take up to a half hour for me to get him awake and back out of the nightmare sometimes.
It was awful !
My farrier at that time was also a Nam vet, and he said that he had stopped having nightmares when he started taking blue-green aglae (spirulina) that came from Klamath Lake in Oregon.
It helped him so much that he signed up as a distributor, and we decided hat if it helped him that much, it was worth Parker at least trying.

He had only taken the spirulina for less than a week, when the nightmares stopped completely ! !
We were both shocked, and immediately we signed up as a distributor so we could get the product cheaper, too.
Everything went fine, I was feeling more energy, and my ex was not having nightmares. When he went to see his doctor, he could hardly wait to tell Dr. Newell the great news !
The doctor listened to Parker's testimony about the nightmares being gone, and then said words to the effect of , "You mean to tell me that you are eating POND SCUM and you think it is helping your PTSD ........ That's crazy ! ! "

Of course, that stopped the spirulina eating for us; my ex wouldn't even touch it after his doctor said that to him.
But all of these years since then, I have thought about this, and believe that it had to do something that helped him. He certainly had those awful nightmares before and after the spirulina, just not when he was taking it.
I have no idea any more what the name of the company was, looked online and didn't see anything familiar; so it might have gone out of business, or changed the name.
In any case, I am going to try taking it again and will report back in with any changes that I notice, @Patsy Faye .

 

I think that the seaweed snacks or chips are probably from kelp, @Chrissy Page , although I have never tried any, so I do not know for sure. Where kelp is a large ocean plant (you have probably seen some washed up along the beach ) , the spirulina is a form of algae, so it is very tiny.
The kelp only grows in the ocean, whereas algae can be either saltwater or freshwater, from what I have read. Both are very healthy, and the kelp contains natural iodine, which most people lack in their diet and that is why we have the epidemic of thyroid and prostate probems nowdays.

Spirulina IS a quality protein, @Texas Beth ; however, at only a spoonful per day as a supplement, it would not qualify as enough protein to count.
You would have to eat it like the Aztecs did (see @Joe Riley 's post and picture) in order to have enough protein from spirulina. As for the taste, it is not a lot different than kale or other greens; but I am not eating this for the taste, rather for the health benefit it offers.
You are right about spirulina being one of the foods of the future, @Corie Henson , and even NASA uses it in the Space Program because of the condensed nutrients. You would have to eat about 10 times the volume of regular food to get all the nutrition found in spirulina, and it is easily processed; so an ideal survival food.

As far as using supplements goes, the very word "supplement" means to add to something else, and not to replace something else.
We also do our best to eat healthy natural foods, get enough exercise, and try to be more fit; but learning about healthful foods and supplements is a good way for us to give our health (and hopefully our lives) a boost in the right direction.
If a person has NO health issues, then they are probably eating all of the right foods and taking proper care of their body; but it seems that most of us have some sort of health issues or pain that we deal with, and taking a supplement is then a step in the right direction, in my opinion.
Both @Bobby Cole and I spent a lot of years of our lives living to eat, and eating the foods that were most pleasurable to our taste buds; but now we are learning to eat to live, instead, and feeding our body the foods that will bring us the most health and prevent pain and disease in our senior years.