SPIRULINE ET CHOLESTEROL
Un excellent article ...SPIRULINE ET CHOLESTEROL
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If you're worried about your heart health, the best thing you can do is take steps to keep your cholesterol count within the healthy range. The best thing you can do to accomplish this is to understand how foods and dietary supplements -- like spirulina algae -- can affect your cholesterol count.
Spirulina Basics
Spirulina, or blue-green algae, is a dense nutrition source sold as a dietary supplement. You can find spirulina in powder, pill and capsule form. The dietary supplement industry makes wide claims of its effectiveness as a health product, some of which are even supported by independent study.
Cholesterol Basics
Your body produces two different kinds of cholesterol. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, is vital to your tissue health but in large amounts can increase your risk of problems like high blood pressure and heart disease. HDL, or high-density lipoprotein, actually improves your heart health by cleaning the LDL out of your system. Your body makes LDL when you eat saturated fat, and HDL when you eat unsaturated fat.
Spirulina Nutrition
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a 1-cup serving of spirulina algae contains 3 g of saturated fat and 3.1 g of unsaturated fat. It also contains about 4 g of dietary fiber per serving.
Spirulina and Dietary Cholesterol
The equal amounts of saturated and unsaturated fats in spirulina mean that, from a fat standpoint, it's fairly cholesterol-neutral. It will stimulate your body to produce good and bad cholesterol in roughly equal amounts. However, the content of dietary fiber will also help your body clean LDL out of your system, meaning the nutrition may help reduce your total cholesterol count.
Spirulina Cholesterol Research
A 2010 study at the Chungnam National University of South Korea found that spirulina algae reduced LDL cholesterol in rabbits while simultaneously increasing HDL cholesterol in the subjects. As of 2011, this work has yet to be done on humans -- and no work has been done to investigate the causes of this effect. It's hopeful research, but as yet incomplete.
Bottom Line
There's reason to believe that spirulina may help reduce your levels of harmful LDL cholesterol. However, the effect isn't strong enough that you can use spirulina alone to take care of your heart health. Like other dietary supplements, you should view spirulina as an adjunct to a holistic approach to your circulatory health.
- US Department of Agriculture National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference
- CDC: About Cholesterol
- U.S. National Library of Medicine; Spirulina Prevents Atherosclerosis...; M.Y. Kim, et al.; 2010
- UC Berkely Wellness Letter: Wellness Guide to Dietary Supplements
Article reviewed by Eric Broder Last updated on: Jul 10, 2011