How much spirulina should I take to start with?

A teaspoon of spirulina powder is 3 grams and each capsule contains half a gram so starting with a teaspoon of spirulina and up to 6 caps a day is a good way to start (in general, 1 - 5 grams a day is a good starting dose). Once you get going, it's quite common to consume up to 10 grams a day.

What is the nutritional content of spirulina?

For a detailed analysis of spirulina's nutritional value, please visit a spirulina section of an excellent NutritionData website.

Can I cook with spirulina?

No! It loses important properties when cooked so always add it to food, drinks and smoothies uncooked.

What if I don’t like the taste of spirulina?

Then either buy the capsules, or mix honey or some other taste changer in with the water. Buying powder or crunchy is better value, as you get more spirulina per gram per cost than you do with capsules. Powder is also assimilated quicker by the body. A lot of people find they adapt to liking the taste.

Does it affect animals?

There are anecdotal results that spirulina helps animal health, notably their fur.

Why isn’t it organic?

Aurospirul spirulina doesn’t use chemicals and pesticides. Our spirulina is being produced by simple eco-friendly methods made possible by the highly alkaline PH level of the spirulina culture, without the use of herbicides or other materials harmful to the environment. However, Aurospirul is a small-scale producer, and as such cannot afford the high cost of international organic certification which larger commercially competitive farms can.

Production of Spirulina requires a large amount of Sodium Bicarbonate (baking soda). There are two reasons for this:

• Maintaining pH levels in growing water in order to avoid wild Algae growth with Spirulina in ponds (not all algae are good for human consumption and some wild algae are even toxic).
• Spirulina requires a high pH level environment to grow. Spirulina cannot grow well in low pH levels.

Sodium Bicarbonate is extracted from saltwater. According to our regulations, we are not eligible to claim our product is organic since Sodium Bicarbonate powder is in a chemical form.

(This information for this answer has been partially taken from here.)

What are the social, ecological and ethical benefits to buying Aurospirul spirulina?

Aurospirul does not take much water from what is a decreasing water table in Southern India, using solar panels for pumps rather than nuclear power or fossil fuel derived power. To produce 1 kg of spirulina less than 2000 liters of water are needed.

The sales go towards supporting the spiritual community of Auroville, promoting in turn socially responsible, spiritually motivated and ecologically sound projects. By supporting a spiritual community the money will go round more as Aurospirul in turn supports Auroville projects which in turn create more employment locally.

Aurospirul provides free spirulina to local schools and the community of Auroville. Additionally the workers are treated and paid relatively well and given free spirulina on site.

The organic farmers at Auroville have been credited as one of the spirulina pioneers, experimenting with its production way back in the early 1970s.

Auroville (http://www.auroville.org) is a UNESCO recognised universal city in the making in South India, backed by the government of India. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity – in diversity.

What else is unique about this product?

Our spirulina is sundried and therefore creates a live vibrant taste which draws customers back to buying Aurospirul.

What about safety?

Aurospirul is constantly checking the quality of its spirulina with laboratory testing on the nutritional value, micro biological and heavy metals analysis. Click here to view a copy of their lab test certificate (the link will open in a new window/tab).

Should you have any question that is not answered here, feel free to email to us. We'll be more than happy to answer it and include it in this list for the benefits of others.