As fellow athletes, we completely understand your determination to improve your athletic performance. We also know that many of you are actively scouring the web in search of a magical product that will help push your body to new limits. You’ll try just about anything if it’s guaranteed to give you the results you’re looking for, but before you start shelling out major cash, make sure you understand the ins and outs of this crazy new product.
ENERGYbits wants athletes to get pumped about eating algae. Yes, you read right, algae. This isn’t the first time that algae consumption was suggested. Specific strains of the photosynthetic organisms are packed with nutrients, which, during World War II, led some U.S. institutions to believe that cultivating it could minimize hunger. Unfortunately, algae were too expensive and difficult to grow and efforts to use it as a food source became mostly abandoned.
The Boston-based company has developed 2 strains of aspirin-sized algae tablets for athletes to consume before and after exercise in hopes of improving stamina and reducing recovery time. They recommend taking 30 spirulina tabs 15-20 minutes before exercise and 30 chlorella tabs after a workout. Whether you down each handful in a single gulp is completely up to you.
IMAGE SOURCE: ENERGYBITS
Why are critics less than enthused about this product? For starters, they don’t believe that consumers get the best bang for their buck in terms of protein. Each 30-tab serving of ENERGYbits’ algae product contains 4.6 grams of protein, which is the same amount of protein in half a cup of milk. The difference is that each 30-tab serving costs $2.80 making it a very expensive source of protein. Critics are also skeptical about whether or not B12, a vitamin that is plentiful in algae, is actually as energy-boosting as the company claims. The final criticism about algae supplements is that the high concentration of nutrients also contains high amounts of heavy metals like lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium.
There you have it, the ins and outs of algae supplements. Is this nutrient-rich product something that you’re willing to try or will you wait to see what other magical product hits the market in the near future?