Research · Randomised controlled trial
Iron status of adolescents as influenced by daily supplementation with spirulina
Kapoor & Mehta · 1998 · Plant Foods for Human Nutrition
Key finding
Even at the low dose of 1 g/day, spirulina supplementation significantly improved haemoglobin, serum iron, and serum ferritin in anaemic adolescent girls. The improvement was statistically comparable to an iron tablet group at the same total elemental iron dose.
Why this matters for consumers
This study is important because the dose is very low — closer to real-world consumer use than 10 g/day studies. The comparison to iron tablets is striking: spirulina delivered equivalent haemoglobin improvement at its natural iron content. This supports food-matrix bioavailability arguments for spirulina iron.
Study limitations
Small sample; Indian adolescent girls only; tablet comparison group had different form factors.
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New research, when it matters
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