Fat Loss & Performance Benefits of Raw Spirulina (food not powder) - Thomas DeLauer

I want you to forget everything that you have ever heard about spirulina.

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 a 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 that's going to taste absolutely terrible, but when you hear me out and I reference some of these 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.

This study that I want to reference was published in the Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise, and it took a look at the effects of spirulina supplementation in exercise in nine moderately trained males.

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 at usually like 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.

So researchers ended up finding that the time to fatigue after the two-hour run was significantly longer after spirulina supplementation.

68 minutes versus 79 minutes in the spirulina group.

But 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 byproducts of what's called lipid peroxidation.

So spirulina supplementation ended up weakening the exercise-induced increase in lipid peroxidation.

And 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.

You 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.

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

Now, what this means is essentially when we look at how the body uses fats.

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, really simple, here's a hypothetical example.

Let's say, for example, you have 10 units of fat.

Okay, simple hypothetical example.

10 units of fat that can be used for energy, normally when you're going through any kind of metabolic process, of those 10 units of fat, you may have five units of fat that are actually 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 that hypothetical number to be something more like eight or nine units of fat used for energy.

And one or two used as waste.

That's what I mean when I say that it cleaned up the efficiency of fat utilization.

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

Because what's happening is now the body can use fat as a fuel source for the duration of the activity.

But only tap into the stored carbohydrates when absolutely necessary for extreme wattage or extreme output.

So meaning you're not exhausting all your carbs right out the gate and falling on your face.

Your body has an alternative mechanism now by using fat.

So you use fat for the bulk of your workout and then your body uses carbs only when you're pushing it at maximum intensity.

Now the other thing we have to look at is the linolenic acid content.

Okay, normally when you're looking at spirulina, we don't have a whole lot of linolenic acid because usually it's been put in a powder form.

But the linolenic acid in a raw form is really, really powerful.

And linolenic 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 for turning fat into energy.

So this is a very important thing when it comes down to spirulina.

Now through a lot of my research in spirulina and through the research in the whole world of greens and detoxing in general, I've become really good friends with the guys over at SP2.

Now SP2, these are the guys that are actually harvesting spirulina.

These are the guys that are growing the algae and harvesting it into a food form.

And these guys do it right, so what they do is they have a complete vertical integration where they have closed source facilities.

So micro farms where they actually build structures and they completely isolate them from the rest of the world.

And they control everything that's going in there, they control the water, the clean, clean water.

They control whatever microorganisms are added to the water to grow the algae properly.

They're harvesting it in-house with their own closed source facilities.

So that means you're actually having pure raw algae.

Now normally what ends up happening with spirulina processing is it ends up getting what is called heat sprayed.

That's how it ends up in a powdered form.

And again, although that is okay when it comes down to just getting the chlorophyll aspect of spirulina.

It kills off a lot of the performance attributes that we want.

So it kills off a lot of the phycocyanins and it kills off a lot of the linolenic acid.

It burns them off.

So you're not really getting the full spectrum performance attributes that you want.

Now the guys over at SP2, since they harvest their own, it's actually a raw food versus a powder.

Are able to harness that power.

And I'm going to keep on going on this, but I do want to definitely say that you can click on the link in the description and check these guys out.

Because these guys are the real deal when it comes to research.

And honestly, I talk about products frequently on my channel, but it's not every day that I work with a company that's actually pioneering some of the science.

When it comes down to spirulina, when it comes down to sustainable living and sustainable performance.

Not only from an earth standpoint, but from a true human element and a true performance utilization standpoint.

Now, you also might be thinking spirulina in a raw algae form is probably going to taste like.

Well, raw algae.

Well, here's the thing, normally what ends up happening and the reason spirulina normally tastes bad, like if you get it in a supplement and stuff like that.

Is because it oxidizes.

But in this case, since SP2 flash freezes everything as soon as it's sourced, we don't have that problem.

We don't have the oxidation occurring.

So the oxygen isn't reacting with the very fragile algae and isn't making it taste bad.

When it's truly in its pure form, it shouldn't taste bad.

That's why you can eat spirulina from SP2 with a spoon or you can mix it in yogurt and it has practically no taste.

In fact, it has a really smooth texture.

So it's a way to get all the performance benefits of spirulina without the nasty swampy taste.

Well, all performance stuff aside, spirulina has some amazing attributes when it comes down to just its 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, it is so high in all the amino acids that you need for proper recovery.

You're literally looking at probably the best food when it comes down to initiating recovery.

Which again, is another reason why it boosts performance so much.

It can help you recover not only at a micro level, minute to minute, but at a macro level, day over day.

So that you can get back in the gym, get back on the track, get back on the field as fast as you possibly can.

So I do highly, highly recommend that you go ahead and check these guys out.

Because what they're doing in the world of research is unreal.

And what they're doing in the world of changing how we look at algae and how we look at sustainable ways to increase performance is just out of this world.

I've seen some of the independent studies that they've done with their triathletes and with some of their athletes and it's off the charts.

Like literally, some of the wattage increases in their performance and their overall endurance are literally starting to go off the charts.

So I highly recommend checking them out.

And as always, still some good educational content for you either way.

So as always, keep it locked in here on my channel and I'll see you in the next video.