Green superfoods

If you choose green superfoods, you might like them so much that they become your partners during a detox, or as a quick vitamin supplement, for example when you can’t eat enough fruit and vegetables during the day. They contain a big amount of necessary nutrients and, at the same time, help the body with cleansing. They can also be popular for vegans and people with dietary restrictions. The most popular green superfoods include young barley, spirulina and chlorella.

What are green superfoods

Green foods are superfoods from green plants, rich in chlorophyll. The dye that gives plants their green colour is involved in blood formation in the human body, which can be beneficial for vegans or people with dietary restrictions such as celiac disease, food intolerances or digestive disorders. Superfoods are also rich in micronutrients, e.g. substances that may not fill you up, but your body needs in order to function properly. These include minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. You can include algae chlorella, young barley or spirulina in green foods. All three are very similar from a nutritional perspective, but each works a little differently. Their effects are complementary and synergistic.

How to use green foods (hints and tips)

You can find them as dietary supplements in tablet or powder form. The convenience of taking tablets is advantageous if you don’t like the taste. Green superfood powder can be blended into vegetable juices or smoothies to add valuable nutrients and fibre to your smoothie.

Since it is a dry food, it is always a good idea to think about drinking enough so that the fibre and valuable substances can be dissolved and absorbed.

The powder should not come into contact with metal so that it doesn’t lose its properties, and you should also take care not to heat it above 45 °C so that the vitamins and enzymes contained in it aren’t destroyed.

Chlorella

Chlorella is a unicellular dark green freshwateralgae with a high content of cellulose, which cannot be absorbed by the intestines, but is important for packing up unnecessary substances and toxins and then eliminating them from the body. For this reason, chlorella is often recommended for detox and to promote correct digestion.

From a nutritional point of view, it contains mostly easily digestible vegetable protein and can be a good addition to the diet.

In addition to its cleansing ability and quality nutritional value, it is rich in a large number of micronutrients, which are substances that, although they won’t fill you up, are important for many reactions in the body, including immunity. Chlorella contains large amounts of iron and magnesium, which will be appreciated even by vegans who don’t take iron from meat. In order to absorb valuable substances from chlorella, they must be extracted by disrupting the plant’s cell envelope. You can find it in tablet or powderform, which can easily be added to vegetable juices or smoothies.

Effects of chlorella

Antioxidant
Supports natural defences
Strengthens immunity
Helps the normal function of the intestinal tract
Normal liver function
Proper function of the heart and blood vessels

Spirulina

It may surprise you, butspirulina is not a plant. It is classified as a cyanobacteria. Compared to chlorella, which is dark green, spirulina has a blue-green colour. Like chlorella,it contains a lot of protein and micronutrients. It is particularly rich in vitamin B12 and iron. Spirulina is recommended for weight loss, as it contains a large amount of high quality, low calorie nutrients that will fill you up, reduce the feeling of hunger while boosting metabolic processes and helping to maintain appetite control.

Effects of spirulina

Antioxidant
Normal blood sugar levels
Natural defences
Tone, vitality
Weight loss
Body weight control

Young barley

A nutritionally rich grass that is harvested when young barleyhas its first shoots. At this time (when it is not yet forming seeds), it contains a large amount of valuable nutrients that are a rich source of vitamins, minerals and many bioactive substances. It is rich in magnesium, calcium and potassium. Since green barley is harvested young, it doesn’t contain gluten. It is thus safe even for those who can’t include it in their diet. When choosing, it is important to pay attention to its form. Barley can be found in the fibre form, which has a lighter shade and the amount of nutrients is in a less concentrated form. The second option is young barley from dried juice, which lacks fibre but contains all the more valuable substances and enzymes, and is completely soluble in water. Young barley is alkaline and, like chlorella or spirulina, contains large amounts of chlorophyll.

Effects of young barley

It acts as an antioxidant
It contains a natural source of vitamins

In conclusion…

If you decide to lose weight and need to get some easily digestible protein, spirulina is the right choice. If you mainly want to cleanse and enrich yourself with large amounts of chlorophyll, which is involved in blood formation, you’ll appreciate chlorella, and if you don’t get enough vitamins and minerals naturally, young barley, which also has an alkaline pH and acts as an antioxidant, can be beneficial. All green superfoods are exceptional in their rich micronutrient content and if you want to multiply their effects, combine them together. They will be more effective and you’ll get better results.