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Posted by azteclizard on January 22, 2003 at 23:34:00:
In Reply to: more..(looong) posted by mikecoscia on January 22, 2003 at 18:28:20:
Mike,
I'm glad that you got this info from a source that we both agree is reliable, it will make proving my point easier. The point being that spirulina is not a practical souce of Protein for reptiles or humans. I agree it has a nice protein profile and i think that it is a great source of other nutrients, but we need to now take the data you provided and look at it in a practical way. I will prove my point using two examples. First i need to prestent my own data. My data is taken from Cheryl's(my girlfriend) advanced nutrition text (Nutrition:Science & Applications, third edition, by Smolin and Grosvenor.). The data is part of an appendix in the text titled Nutrient composition of food. All the information contained in the appendix was obtained from government sources including the USDA. I'm only providing data pertaining to protein, because that is the focus of this debate. I will use two examples to illustrate my point after the table.
Food item , Quantity, Measure, Weight(g), Protein(g)
Beech-nut chicken BF, 1, Jar, 71, 8
Chicken breast skinless, 1, breast, 86, 27
seaweed, spirulina, dried, .5, cups, 8, 4
roasted
OK, let's look at a realistic reptile example first. Baby food mix, 2:1 (fruit,meat) right. If we take 1 jar of peach baby food and half a jar or chicken baby food, we wind up with a total of 4 grams of protein in that mix. To get that same amount or protein, we would(according to the data in the chart) need to mix in .5 cups of dried spirulina to that one jar. Try that and see what you get. I would suspect something close to a ball of dough. Not practical at all as a dietary source of protein in this case.
Next example is human. If you take the protein content of the chicken breast(27 g) and divide it by the protein content of the spirulina(4 g) you get a factor of 6.75. If you multiply the rest of the values in the spirulina row by that factor you get 54 g for the weight and 3.375 cups for the quantity needed to consume to equal that 27 grams of protein in the chicken breast. I have never taken spirulina, but i don't think that over 3 cups is something that can be practically consumed. I don't know what form the sirulina tracy takes is in, but if it is a tablet I'm pretty certain that the wieght of the suggested dose is so small as to make the protein content insignificant. If it is a drink mix of some sort, you can't go by the protein provided on the label, because that is a combination of all the protein contributed by all the ingredients. There would be no way of knowing how much protein the spirulina is contributing to that number. But i suspect it would not be much. The health food industry is just as guilty of marketing deception as the mainstream food industry. It is not false advertising, it is deception, and it is legal. Protein percentages and amounts are all fine and good, but you need to look at what a practical portion is. What can be realistically consumed. Incidentally 100 g of spirulina would amount to 6.25 cups that would need to be consumed to get that 91.2% of the RDA. I could eat two chicken breast and get pretty much the same. Well, i hope you can see my point now. I fairly certain though that you will find a way to still argue, even though my data was obtained from the same source as your reliable data. If you want to see hard copy of my source, i will copy and fax it to you. I still believe that spirulina is a great natural source of nutrients other than protein, and would recommend and use it as part of my reptiles diet.
:Bill I understand these people are selling a product, but spirulina is a great protein source. I have raised healthy dart frogs on it that had strong back legs and no deformities, that’s enough to prove its value to me…lol. But seriously I don’t blame you for being weary, because im weary of the supplements you use. However for every website you find out there, there is always going to be one that says the opposite. In this case im going with the majority saying spirulina is an excellent nutritional supplement. While at work I remembered that Tracy being the total health nut she is, used a database at the USDA’s (a very reliable source) website for figuring out her nutritional intake and what to eat. So I figured I would compare the two to find out exactly what is in meat baby food (ran chicken other meats where similar) and dried spirulina. Here are the results for 100 grams of each:
:Nutritional Data for 100 grams of SEAWEED; SPIRULINA, DRIED
:Mean value per 100.00 grams edible part; 0.0% refuse
:Portions: 100 gm = 100.00 gm, 100 gm = 100.00 gm
:17.7% Cals from fat, 59.9% Cals from protein, 22.4% Cals from carbs.
:
:Name, Unit Amount, %RDA(male), %RDA(female)
:Food energy KCal: 290.000 10.0% 13.2%
:Protein Gms : 57.470 91.2% 114.9%
:Total lipid (fat) Gms : 7.720 8.0% 10.5%
:Carbohydrate, by diff. Gms : 23.900 5.1% 7.1%
:Total saturated fat Gms : 2.650 8.2% 10.9%
:Ttl monounsaturated fat Gms : 0.675
:Ttl polyunsaturated fat Gms : 2.080
:Cholesterol Mg : 0.000 0.0% 0.0%
:Sodium Mg : 1048.000 209.6% 209.6%
:Total dietary fiber Gms : 3.600 14.4% 14.4%
:Vitamin A Re : 57.000 5.7% 7.1%
:Vitamin A IU : 570.000
:Ascorbic acid Mg : 10.100 16.8% 16.8%
:Thiamin Mg : 2.380 158.7% 216.4%
:Riboflavin Mg : 3.670 215.9% 282.3%
:Niacin Mg : 12.820 67.5% 85.5%
:Vitamin B6 Mg : 0.364 18.2% 22.7%
:Folacin Mcg : 94.000 47.0% 52.2%
:Vitamin B12 Mcg : 0.000 0.0% 0.0%
:Potassium Mg : 1363.000 68.2% 68.2%
:Calcium Mg : 120.000 15.0% 15.0%
:Phosphorus Mg : 118.000 14.8% 14.8%
:Magnesium Mg : 195.000 55.7% 69.6%
:Iron Mg : 28.500 285.0% 190.0%
:Zinc Mg : 2.000 13.3% 16.7%
:Pantothenic acid Mg : 3.480 69.6% 69.6%
:Copper Mg : 6.100 305.0% 305.0%
:Manganese Mg : 1.900 54.3% 54.3%
:Ash Gms : 6.230
:Water Gms : 4.680
:Food energy KJ : 1214.000
:Myristic acid (14:0) Gms : 0.075
:Palmitic acid (16:0) Gms : 2.496
:Stearic acid (18:0) Gms : 0.077
:Palmitoleic acid(16:1) Gms : 0.328
:Oleic acid (18:1) Gms : 0.347
:Linoleic acid (18:2/n6) Gms : 1.254 19.6% 25.6%
:Linolenic acid(18:3/n3) Gms : 0.823 51.4% 68.6%
:Histidine Gms : 1.085 114.2% 142.8%
:Isoleucine Gms : 3.209 406.2% 509.4%
:Leucine Gms : 4.947 445.7% 562.2%
:Lysine Gms : 3.025 318.4% 398.0%
:Methionine Gms : 1.149
:Cystine Gms : 0.662
:Methionine+Cystine Gms : 1.811 175.8% 220.9%
:Phenylalanine Gms : 2.777
:Tyrosine Gms : 2.584
:Phenylalanine+Tyrosine Gms : 5.361 483.0% 609.2%
:Threonine Gms : 2.970 540.0% 337.5%
:Tryptophan Gms : 0.929 331.8% 422.3%
:Valine Gms : 3.512 444.6% 557.5%
:Arginine Gms : 4.147
:Alanine Gms : 4.515
:Aspartic acid Gms : 5.793
:Glutamic acid Gms : 8.386
:Glycine Gms : 3.099
:@Y: 2.382
:Serine Gms : 2.998
:Protein Score: 100, 32% ideal. EAA score: 1.25.
:Limiting Amino Acid: Histidine
:
:Nutritional Data for 100 grams of BABYFOOD; MEAT, CHICKEN, STR
:Mean value per 100.00 grams edible part; 0.0% refuse
:Portions: 1 JAR = 99.00 gm, 1 OZ = 28.35 gm
:55.8% Cals from fat, 44.0% Cals from protein, 0.3% Cals from carbs.
:
:Name, Unit Amount, %RDA(male), %RDA(female)
:Food energy KCal: 130.000 4.5% 5.9%
:Protein Gms : 13.700 21.7% 27.4%
:Total lipid (fat) Gms : 7.900 8.2% 10.8%
:Carbohydrate, by diff. Gms : 0.100 0.0% 0.0%
:Total saturated fat Gms : 2.030 6.3% 8.3%
:Ttl monounsaturated fat Gms : 3.560
:Ttl polyunsaturated fat Gms : 1.920
:Sodium Mg : 47.000 9.4% 9.4%
:Total dietary fiber Gms : 0.000 0.0% 0.0%
:Vitamin A Re : 40.000 4.0% 5.0%
:Vitamin A IU : 135.000
:Ascorbic acid Mg : 1.700 2.8% 2.8%
:Thiamin Mg : 0.014 0.9% 1.3%
:Riboflavin Mg : 0.152 8.9% 11.7%
:Niacin Mg : 3.255 17.1% 21.7%
:Vitamin B6 Mg : 0.200 10.0% 12.5%
:Folacin Mcg : 10.400 5.2% 5.8%
:Vitamin B12 Mcg : 0.400 20.0% 20.0%
:Potassium Mg : 141.000 7.0% 7.0%
:Calcium Mg : 64.000 8.0% 8.0%
:Phosphorus Mg : 97.000 12.1% 12.1%
:Magnesium Mg : 13.000 3.7% 4.6%
:Iron Mg : 1.400 14.0% 9.3%
:Zinc Mg : 1.210 8.1% 10.1%
:Pantothenic acid Mg : 0.680 13.6% 13.6%
:Copper Mg : 0.045 2.2% 2.2%
:Ash Gms : 0.800
:Water Gms : 77.500
:Food energy KJ : 542.000
:Lauric acid (12:0) Gms : 0.000
:Myristic acid (14:0) Gms : 0.050
:Palmitic acid (16:0) Gms : 1.480
:Stearic acid (18:0) Gms : 0.420
:Palmitoleic acid(16:1) Gms : 0.290
:Oleic acid (18:1) Gms : 3.250
:Gadoleic acid (20:1) Gms : 0.020
:Linoleic acid (18:2/n6) Gms : 1.850 28.9% 37.8%
:Linolenic acid(18:3/n3) Gms : 0.040 2.5% 3.3%
:Eicosatetraenoic(20:4) Gms : 0.030
:Histidine Gms : 0.415 43.7% 54.6%
:Isoleucine Gms : 0.645 81.6% 102.4%
:Leucine Gms : 1.058 95.3% 120.2%
:Lysine Gms : 1.144 120.4% 150.5%
:Methionine Gms : 0.367
:Cystine Gms : 0.180
:Methionine+Cystine Gms : 0.547 53.1% 66.7%
:Phenylalanine Gms : 0.558
:Tyrosine Gms : 0.439
:Phenylalanine+Tyrosine Gms : 0.997 89.8% 113.3%
:Threonine Gms : 0.615 111.8% 69.9%
:Tryptophan Gms : 0.156 55.7% 70.9%
:Valine Gms : 0.689 87.2% 109.4%
:Arginine Gms : 0.957
:Alanine Gms : 0.871
:Aspartic acid Gms : 1.269
:Glutamic acid Gms : 1.982
:Glycine Gms : 0.913
:@Y: 0.707
:Serine Gms : 0.498
:Protein Score: 100, 53% ideal. EAA score: 2.01.
:Limiting Amino Acid: Histidine
:
:
:I just found this interesting, useful and def a good source. Just look at some of those values, for humans whose nutritional needs are higher it provides 91% for males and 114% for females of their daily protein intake, while the meat baby food is a measly 21% and 27%. A lot of the amino acids are well over the 100% range too. Vitamins are also much higher. I mean I knew the stuff was beneficial but honestly not this much. So the benefits are definitely large compared to meat baby food at least. It made think that I should be taking it everyday, maybe I could manage those high school kids better…lol. Anyway just some good old fashion debating =).
