AFA, A powerhouse of nutrition.

I consider AFA a remarkable food. This is a photo of the algae I took from a dock in Upper Klamath Lake. This algae is a one cell (unicellular) organism. The cells organize themselves into colonies of the tiny delicate leaf-like structures you see below.

These filaments circulate independently through the water. They rise to the surface of the lake when they need sunlight and sink when they need to pick up minerals from the mineral-rich sediment at the bottom of the lake.

AFA is a rich vegetarian source of protein and has the same amino acid (protein) profile as human breast milk. AFA contains readily absorbable vitamin B12, the only useful vegetarian source of this vitamin. There are other plants which contain compounds that have the same structure as vitamin B12 but they do not aid in human health. AFA is a rich source of omega-3 essential fatty acids and contains a blue pigment, which a number of cancer researchers have suspected, is a potent anti-cancer agent.

AFA is one of the exciting nutritional "discoveries" of the 20th century. The discovery was however made by many indigenous peoples millennia ago.

AFA or Aphanizomenon flos aquae used to be found in a number of freshwater lakes around the world. One, Lake Chad in Africa, used to have clean water and was a wonderful source of AFA. Anthropologists tell us stories about the peoples of this area harvesting AFA and adding it to their daily diet. The peoples there were healthier and possible more advanced than many of their counterparts (possibly due to the protein and the Omega-3 oils found in AFA). They are said to have been the first people who used written pictograms early in history.

Similarly, AFA from Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon has been present in the lake for millennia and is thought to have survived the last ice age. It has been eaten by the local indigenous people for thousands of years, who scooped algae out of the lake and dried it on lakeside stones, for their use in the harsh winter months when green vegetables were impossible to obtain.

Upper Klamath Lake is protected to the west by the Cascade Mountains to the West and, to the South, by legendary Mount Shasta and by spectacular Crater Lake to the North. (Map and photos )

Set at about 4200 feet in what is otherwise a high desert. The watershed feeding upper Klamath Lake depends greatly on the winter snows which often reach over sixty feet at Crater Lake.

Springs, like the one pictured above, gush from the earth, between boulders at the feet of the mountains and feed, ice cold and rich in minerals, into sparking rivers like the Jameson and Sprague.




Downstream, they wander, crystal clear, into Upper Klamath Lake, pictured below.


This lake is vast, covering about 240 square miles and is about 32 miles long. The water is clean. There is no industry in the watershed except a small sawmill. The farms in the fertile soil around the lake are fertilized by the algae when irrigation provides water which is drawn from the lake. There are cattle, but they range freely and in numbers which do not threaten the purity of the water. Boating is mostly wind powered. Because the algae is so prevalent in the lake, when you swim, you come out green, thus the lake is not sought after for lakeside residences and there are virtually none around the lake.

AFA 'blooms' best in cool water and is harvested by several companies. Only one uses state of the art equipment, designed by them, and in at least in one case, patented by them. Simplexity Heath has designed, and patented, specialized barges which use paddle wheels for propulsion. Propellers would break up and harm the algae. The barges are large and contain very sophisticated equipment. The algae harvest is gently lifted out of the water by revolving screens which sieve out the algae. The harvest then drops onto a collection system which feeds into specialized pumps. These pumps are unlike the high speed pumps with which we are familiar but which would injure the algae, and are more like the pumping action of the heart.. The wet products are then rapidly cooled and transported cold for cleaning and processing. This method of harvesting is done by only one company and I would encourage you to only use algae from this company. For more information.

The barge also contains a laboratory in which a quality control expert examines the harvest several times per hour.

If you would like more information about the other freshwater algae, please see this page.

One caution

AFA has the effect of activating immunity. In the case of people with hyper stimulated immune systems like those with lupus, rheumatoid arthritis etc. this might be a problem. Also, for people with a history of gastric or duodenal ulcers, or who have H. pylori, there may be an increase in symptoms of hyperacidity when they take AFA.

For information about obtaining AFA, please click here.

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