
Spira: a complete meal supplement you can grow in your home - tommynicholas
https://medium.com/@elliotroth/spira-a-complete-meal-supplement-that-you-can-grow-in-your-home-96afeb36091d
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tommynicholas
While I do actually drink Soylent occasionally as a replacement for Oatmeal
when I need a quick breakfast, I'm not a "food replacement" guy. Still, I find
this project fascinating and Elliot is a passionate scientist and entrepreneur
who would probably love any feedback HN has.

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nikolay
Isn't the neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) an issue with Spirulina
[0], though?

[0]:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4130116/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4130116/)

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DrScump
But that study didn't seem to find a problem in procured supplements:

"Using two advanced LC-MS/MS techniques, we were _unable to detect_ BMAA to a
level of 80 ng/g in any of the product samples. Although reassuring, the small
sample of pure spirulina and spirulina-containing retail products can only be
considered as a preliminary step toward larger investigations..."

~~~
nikolay
I liked that as a background for the BMAA concern, but from here [0], it looks
like BMAA is actually caused by contamination and is not directly produced by
spirulina itself, which I didn't know.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_(dietary_supplement)...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_\(dietary_supplement\)#Quality-
related_safety_issues)

