Eat algae, she says, meaning it nicely

From time to time, readers are so moved by my screeds that they feel compelled to offer their own health and fitness suggestions. For instance:

"Eat pond scum, Art!"

The other day, Holly Myers of Moorestown called and made more or less the same recommendation. Except she was dead serious.

Myers, 46, is a social worker with a voice that sounds like sunshine. She calls herself a community activist and says she has a passion for "social justice." She has all sorts of grand plans for saving the world, or at least making the planet a better place, beginning in her own backyard. In fact, she's Moorestown's official "Random Acts of Kindness Coordinator."

Myers is a Unitarian Universalist, so she has a direct pipeline to God, unhindered by pomp, ceremony, pretension and bureaucracy. But the real source of her messianic energy and optimism, she says, is blue-green algae.

Yes, Myers eats algae. Not the mustard-colored stuff that grows on the side of the pool if you're delinquent in applying chlorine, but a special kind of algae that thrives in only one place in the world.

In this job, I'm bombarded with pitches from all manner of kooks, quacks, hustlers and phonies. To say I was a tad skeptical when Myers began touting the virtues of eating algae would be very fair indeed. To be honest, I thought she was a wackjob. Then Myers sent me a whole batch of propaganda, including a promotional videotape starring Dan O'Brien.

Art Carey Body Language

Having won the decathlon at last summer's Olympics, O'Brien can reasonably lay claim to being the world's greatest athlete. I'm in awe of decathletes, so when O'Brien testified on the video that eating blue-green algae was crucial to his success, giving him the pep and staying power to finish all 10 events with a flourish, I was impressed that I actually put aside a book I was reading to peruse the paper back manifesto Myers sent me, Algae to the Rescue! Its author is a chemistry professor named Karl Abrams. On the down side, he lives and works in the altered state of California, which discounts his credibility by at least 20 percent. On the plus side, I talked to him on the phone and he sounded crisp, alert and intelligent, not at all like someone who's been marinating in a hot tub in Marin County.

Three years ago, when Abrams was 47, he was feeling mopey and listless, cynical and pessimistic (sort of like a lot of newspaper people I know). " I just thought this is what happens when a chemistry professor gets older. I was dragging my feet to the classroom. I was tired out. I had lots of aches and pains and was getting frequent colds."

A friend, ex-Philadelphian Leonard Buschel ( now living in Marin County, natch), showed up with a fishy-smelling bottle of pills. Take this stuff, he urged. It's blue-green algae. It'll do wonders.

Abrams, who had been to macrobiotic camp, who dutifully subsisted on brown rice and organic veggies and popped an array of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidant nostrums, put the bottle on a shelf in his kitchen. Just another hokey cure-all, another snake-oil panacea, he thought.

A week later, his friend called: Have you tried it? Abrams promised to get on the stick. He took the bottle off the shelf and began eating algae. "After 10 days, I noticed a mood transformation. I was feeling better, less depressed, " he says. " I had more stamina and energy, more bounce in my step. I was surprised."

In short order, Abrams went from skeptic to convert, especially when he saw what happened to his father.

Three years ago, Abrams' father was diagnosed with Iymphatic cancer. He underwent one course of chemotherapy. Doctors were fearful he wouldn't survive to the next treatment. Abrams decided to take matters into his owns hands; he began feeding his dad blue-green algae. Seven months later, Pop Abrams went to his oncologist. His cancer was in complete remission. Says Abrams: "He's now 83 and a vibrant young man."

So what's with this algae, Professor Abrams? And why is it so miraculous?

Well, first of all, it's not pond scum, Abrams says. That kind of algae is inedible, often poisonous. This is blue green algae and it grows in only one place in the world, Upper Klamath Lake in the Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, a pristine body of water rich in volcanic minerals, where the physical and chemical conditions combine to create a unique and perfect environment.

The technical name of this algae is Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, or AFA for short. It's a Latin mouthful that means "Invisible Flower of the Water."

Blue-green algae, part animal and part plant, floats in the lake like fine strands of rootless grass. Abrams calls it "the heartiest food on earth," a pure and wild "primal food," a freeze-dried, nutrient-dense "superfood" that improves overall health and vigor, aids digestion, boosts energy and stamina, brightens mood and outlook, revs up the libido, makes the skin glow and regulates appetite.

The reason blue-green algae is so potent, says Abrams, is that it's two-thirds easily digestible protein and one-third vitamins, minerals and essential fatty oils. Altogether, it contains over 70 micronutrients required by the body.

What's more, blue-green algae is a close cousin, in size and chemical makeup, of mitochondria, the "energy factories" in your cells. "We already have blue-green algae inside us," says Abrams. "The mitochondria are made of the same stuff blue-green algae is made of."

Today, the need for an ancient and restorative "first food" like blue-green algae is critical, Abrams believes. The over-processed, chemical-laden junk that most Americans eat is "nutritionally equivalent to cardboard."

Even those who are conscientious about what they ingest, shopping at health food stores for organic fruits and vegetables, are eating worse than their ancestors did, Abrams says, because farmland has been so stripped of minerals, and the air and water are so polluted. Little wonder so many Americans are dependent on alcohol, Prozac and Thorazine to get them through the day, or prevent them from jumping off a bridge.

Both Abrams and Myers are so passionate about the benefits of blue-green algae, it should be noted, that they're not only promoting and proselytizing for the stuff, they're both now selling it . To their credit, they do not claim that blue-green algae, for all its marvelous properties, will guarantee perpetual health, happiness and immortality. Although they believe in it fervently, blue-green algae alone, they concede, is not the Way, the Truth and the Light.

" Blue-green algae is a wake-up call to the body," says Abrams. " The minerals activate your internal enzymes and stimulate the body to take care of itself. When the body is working properly, so is the brain. The result is a sense of well-being that inspires you to better your health in all dimensions. It gives you a sense of having a second chance, and the energy to pursue it."

Holly Myers credits blue-green algae for the energy that allowed her to skip afternoon naps and take up in-line skating.

For her part, Myers calls blue-green algae "just a piece of the puzzle," along with diet, exercise and attention to matters of the spirit and relationships with others. Since she began eating algae, she says, she sleeps better and she no longer naps to counter an afternoon energy drop. She's even taken up in-line skating. "It's hard to be alive in the 1990's and not know that people are tired, stressed-out and overwhelmed, and that there's an enormous increase in the number of degenerative and chronic diseases, " she says. "Blue-green algae is not a magic bullet, but if we don't feed our bodies what they need to function optimally, we won't have the energy and vitality to give back to our families and communities, to share ideas and fool; for ways we can improve this rather troubled society we live in."

Frankly, my main hope is to be a superjock like Dan O'Brien, and the only thing I really desire to be connected to, next to a Hummer, is an Olympic gold medal. For a minimum of 30 bucks, or about twice what I spent on last night's meal at Burger King (mmmm, those delicious Double Whoppers), I could buy a month's supply of algae, Myers told me. (Of course, you can always spend more for additional verve -- as much as $90 a month.) It would help offset what I'm doing to my body by devouring such tasty staples as Spam, cheese curls and Reese's peanut butter cups, she said, though she'd make no promises about what it would do for my time in the 100 or my performance in the pole vault.

Holly Myers of Moorestown is an avid promoter of blue-green algae, which she sells.

 

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