Spirulina vs AFA part 2

M I C R O A L G A E
First & Finest Superfood

by Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
(Note: the following article appeared in Body Mind Spirit Magazine in May 1995, and has been reproduced in its entirety. We have added three tab pointers below for your convenience.)
1. Discussion of AFA in this article begins.
2. Reported Benefits of taking AFA.
3. Discussion of AFA and Alzheimer's disease - 2 case studies.
Blue-green algae have been around for three and a half billion years. They are primitive foods which contain the highest food energy highest nutrient values, and use up the least amount of the planet's resources. I have been using spirulina for nineteen years and the blue-green algae called Aphanizomenon Flos Aquae (AFA) for thirteen years. Because of this and my clinical experience with both of these wonderful algae, almost every time I give a lecture people tend to ask me about every aspect of them. This article is an opportunity to share my clinical experience as a physician as well as provide the consumer report-type information about these algae that so many people seem to be requesting. Collectively, algae supply 90 percent of the world's oxygen and potentially 80 percent of its food. Another advantage of the blue-green algae is their position at the bottom of the food chain. The higher up on the chain one eats, the higher the concentrations of herbicides, pesticides, and radioactivity. Flesh food, for example, has 14 times more herbicides and pesticides than fruits and vegetables.
People have understood the importance of blue-green algae as a food source for at least four thousand years; Chinese herbalists have been taking it to treat vitamin deficiency diseases for thousands of years. The Mayans and Aztecs regularly ate freshly harvested algae. The Kanembu natives living near Lake Johann in Chad in the deep African Sahara are still making and eating algae cakes. In the last 30 years people in the United States have begun to explore the use of the blue-green algaes as a high nutrient food,
The two main classes of blue-green algae; that have drawn my attention are spirulina and AFA, the blue-green algae grown in Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon. I was first introduced to spirulina when I was working as a holistic physician with many people, including my family, who were spending long periods of time in India. Those on prolonged stays who took one tablespoon per day of spirulina were physically healthier than those who did not take