Magic Bullet may be too strong a phrase but when Chris Lieto came to speak to our race club he brought one of his sponsors (maybe his biggest since he wears their team kit all the time) AstaVita. Astavita sells a number of products including something called Astavita Sport. They gave out bottles to each participant. I wish I’d snagged a couple more.

The claims they make for this stuff are absurd. The doctor they have representing them in my area sounded like a total quack. He was an OB/GYN who now pimps Astavita and his talk was rambling, boring and full of hoo-ha. The “official” medical professional of the group is the very fake Dr. Perricone of Cosmeseutical fame. You can read about Perricone and his BS credentials here.

The special ingredient in Astavita Sport is something called Astaxanthin which is a carotenoid extracted from algea. The sports sites claim that it is what gives Salmon that nice pink color, a claim backed up elsewhere. This link says it is what makes lobsters and crab turn red when you boil them. Astaxanthin is a powerful antioxident and we all know that antioxidents aid in recovery. Pomegranate juice and blueberries are favored antioxidents of athletes the world over.

Regardless of sketchy docs and crazy claims – the stuff seems to work. I have been putting in more hours in every discipline and yet my muscles are not so badly fatigued. My recovery seems much faster. I can get more antioxident with fewer calories and whole lot less mess in the kitchen by popping a couple of pills so that is what I’ve been doing. Astavita is not the only source for astaxanthin but it’s the only one I have used.

If you buy the product direct from their site it costs $18/bottle. If you buy it here without the word ‘sport’ on the bottle and minus a little zinc and fish oil it costs $9.24. I know what I’m going to do. (I know – how rude after they gave me free product. Oh well).

If you try it and you feel that it is working for you please let me know. I could be laboring under the placebo effect.