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"Gram-for-gram microalgae may be the most nutrient dense food on Earth." 1 The primitive character of microalgae’s cellular organization gives it a number of advantages over higher plants and animals as a food source. For starters, practically the entire organism can be nutritious, with minimal indigestible structures. By contrast, typically less than half of the dry weight of plants and animals has nutritional value. Primitive blue-green algae are composed almost entirely of nutritionally useful and uniform cells. Furthermore, microalgae exhibit superior photosynthetic efficiency, using light approximately three times more efficiently than higher plants. 2 Microalgae are among the most productive organisms on the planet.
"Why does Aph. flos-aquae [Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, a blue-green algae]—small and simple as it seems to be—contain more micronutrients than any other known food?…Aph. flos-aquae cells are about 20 to 30 times smaller than the cells within the food we usually eat. Because of this, Aph. flos-aquae contains 20 to 30 times the membrane surface area." 3 Aph. flos-aquae’s smaller cell size means a larger ratio of cell membrane surface compared to the rest of the cell. In the case of blue-green algae, the cell membrane is where some of the most important nutrients are concentrated. Aph. flos-aquae algae produces more cell membrane material without getting larger by creating a vast system of membrane inpouchings similar to the brain’s infoldings. In other words, if the cell membrane were ironed flat, it would be many times the apparent size of the cell.
30,000 different species of Microalgae
By some estimates there are more than 30,000 different species of microalgae. Microalgae make up half of the plant kingdom-chiefly a separate and unexplored kingdom, as unknown and potentially valuable as the rainforests.
