Episode 91: How to Replace Many of Your Supplements and Detoxify Your Body with Catharine Arnston

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha. I want to share something with you that I believe God is doing right now in women's health. We're in the middle of a massive movement and most people don't even know it. Every single day, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause. That's over 2 million women a year, and by 2030, that's more than 1.2 billion women worldwide. So here's the thing, most of these women feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, disconnected from themselves, and the medical system is Doctors are handing out prescriptions and quick fixes, and no one is helping women heal from the root cause of their issues. That's where Fast to Faith coaches come in. As a certified coach, you'll be equipped to help midlife women balance their hormones, heal their gut, regain their energy, and reconnect their faith, the foundation that so many of us have been missing. And from a business standpoint, woo, this is one of the most lucrative untapped opportunities in the entire health coaching world. The global health coaching industry is expected to reach over $33 billion by 2023, and midlife women are the fastest-growing, highest-spending demographic in that space. Most importantly, these women stay with their coaches. They invest deeply because they are desperate for lasting transformation— body, mind, and spirit. So if you've been feeling that pull and that whisper that you're meant to do more, This is it. Now is the time to rise, to serve, and build a purpose-driven business that not only changes other women's lives but transforms your own in the process. Because when you help one woman heal, you help her family, her marriage, her faith, and her future. That's the ripple effect that we're creating with Fast to Faith. So join me, click the link to come watch this webinar. It might be the one thing that really moves the needle for you in this Next season. I can't wait to see you in there. Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Functional Gynecologist. I'm a board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, Then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist, so welcome. Hi ladies, welcome back. So I'm really excited for this week's guest because we are talking about how nutrition impacts women's health. But the cooler thing is, is how to get all the nutrition you need in a tiny little package that's easy to take and get. So it's algae. That's right, you hear— you heard it, it's algae. So the benefits of algae are Numerous. And we're— my guest today is going to talk about all of that. It's pretty amazing how much protein, B vitamins, omegas, immune support— like, it's all in algae. And she has figured out how to get it into a compact little form that you can take as a tablet. You can chew it, you can swallow it, it can replace a meal. Like, it's incredible. So this is an awesome episode. And the reason that this is important is It impacts us as women. We have heavy periods, we lose iron. Algae is full of iron. We have bone loss that starts, you know, in our late 20s, early 30s. Algae is full of minerals that keep those minerals in our bones so that we don't start stealing minerals from our bone and having thinner bones and leading to osteoporosis. You know, as we age, our muscle mass declines and we require more protein in our diets just to keep the muscle mass that we do have. And algae is full of protein. Oh my gosh, my guest today is amazing. She's so excited about all the benefits of algae and she's going to share her beautiful story of how she even got into this because of her sister having breast cancer. So So I love supporting women who are on a mission to help other women reclaim their health and be their best selves. And my guest, Catherine, is doing all of that. Like, her mission in life is now to help all of us women. So I'm really excited about this episode because she's going to explain, you know, why God created algae and why we should be ingesting it and why it's going to help us reclaim our health and be our best, amazing themselves. So stay tuned for the rest of this episode and share it with everybody you know. Share it with your girlfriends, your moms, your sisters, daughters, everybody. Because the way for us to be our best selves is to reach out and be a community of women supporting each other, right? We need to talk to each other and be there for each other and share our stories, share what we know, our wisdom, Create companies that support each other. Like, it's so beautiful. And I just love highlighting women who, you know, are doing their thing. And I would encourage you to do the same because I think we all have a purpose in this life. I think we— or multiple purposes, right? I think once you can really support other women on their journeys, It softens your heart. It opens your heart up to what God has created for you in your life, and those doors start to open. Opportunities come knocking, and if you're in tune and your heart is soft and open, you will see them and you will embrace them. So, you know, that is my goal in life, is to help you figure out What, what your goals are, what your mission is. Why are you on this health journey? Why are you listening to this podcast? And hopefully something will trigger an idea, a dream, anything that will help you move forward in the right path. You know, maybe you need to turn around and go the complete opposite direction. Maybe you need to veer off the path you're on. You know, maybe you need to find new people to walk with on your path. I just think that life is such a beautiful journey and it matters who you're going down the path with. So I'm here for you. I'm here to try and bring you information that will help guide you to make smarter, safer, healthier decisions about your body, what you put in it, how you move it, what you do with it, what you don't do with it. I want you to have a voice and a choice in your healthcare and in your life. And, you know, I talk about health topics, but how we treat our bodies, how we interact with each other, how we interact with the environment and the world, it's all impacting your health. And so I really do need to talk about all that stuff. You know, you need to have a strong spiritual presence and connection with the universe and with the people in your lives. You don't necessarily have to believe in God or anything else, but I do think that we need to think about our higher purpose and why we're here. Because what I see a lot in my patients is sometimes that internal struggle of, you know, I, I've taken care of everybody else, I've done all the right things, I've checked the boxes, I have the house, I have the job, I have the clothes, but something is still, you know, stirring in me. Something's not satisfied. There's still something I need to prove or do, you know? And that really does impact your health. It can create inflammation in your body. It can create bad neurotransmitter dysfunction, and you can end up with mood disorders and all these other things. So I love the idea of just seeing you as a whole woman— mind, body, and spirit— and really addressing all areas to reclaim your health. And, you know, my guest today, she's talking about algae and nutrition and getting your health back on track with algae, but her passion really comes through and her drive and her purpose. And I want you to, like, Take that energy that she's giving off and help spark what else you need to do to drive your own passion in life and light that fire under your butt. So this is a great episode. I am so honored that you're here and you're listening. Please send me your questions, your comments, your topics, what you want to hear about. You know, I do this for you. Honestly, this is the only reason I do it.

Thank you.

So please stay tuned. You know, hit me up a review or a comment. That helps Apple and iTunes and everybody know that you want to hear more of this. So if you'd leave me a 5-star review, that would be incredible. I'd really appreciate it. Um, but here we go. Let's get on with it. Here is Catherine. Well, welcome Catherine to the Functional Gynecologist Podcast.

Thank you so much. I'm so thrilled to be here. I started the company because of my sister, so women's health is very, very, very important to me.

Yeah, I would love for you to share that story with my listeners because, you know, this product— I, I've heard you on other podcasts and you talk about how it's like for athletes and, you know, major workout buffs and biohackers, but honestly, this is like for everybody, right?

Especially Especially women. It should be a foundational food for women, period. So yeah, so I'm based in Boston, Massachusetts, but I'm actually Canadian. And I've lived in Boston 33 years. But I mentioned Canada because I have an MBA, and I was minding my own business with a corporate career. And then my younger sister in Canada, 13 years ago, developed breast cancer. Now, I first want to assure everyone, She's completely healed and cancer-free, which is the best news.

Yeah.

But, um, as she was preparing for her chemo, her oncologist, which is a cancer specialist, recommended she change her diet to an alkaline diet. Now, they didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was or why it was good for her. So the first call she made was to me because I'm her big sister who loves her, and I'm also just a really good researcher. And I said, I have no idea what this alkaline diet stuff is, but I will find out. And I did. And it was predominantly a plant-based diet because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that have been proven for years, decades to build your immune system. And when you go through chemo, you want a strong immune system. So I did a lot of research for her, suggested foods to eat. She did change her diet. She did go through chemo. She completely healed and is 11 years cancer-free. But in the process of helping her, I started reading more about plant-based nutrition. Now you have to remember, this was 13 years ago. And nobody was talking about plant-based nutrition 13 years ago. Thank God they are now. And it's mainstream now. But as I read more and more, I must have read 200 articles, and I bought, you know, 15 or 20 books. And geez, someone needs to tell the rest of the world about this. And even though I had no science background and no nutrition background, I'm very passionate. And I'm a woman of action. So that, well, I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do something. So I gave up my corporate career, went back to school, studied nutrition. I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which gave me a 1-year certificate in health coaching. So it gave me something, a base. And then I taught plant-based nutrition at corporations and hospitals. And, and this is what really truly led me to algae. Because as I was teaching people about the importance of eating more vegetables, I learned that I wasn't telling them anything they didn't already know. Our mothers God bless them, have been telling us to eat our veggies since we were kids, right? But what I did learn is that even though people knew what they should do, there were too many obstacles. Let's face it, vegetables weigh a lot. They're heavy to carry home from the grocery store. Kids and men are notorious for not eating their veggies, and French fries don't count.

Yeah.

They take a long time to clean, to cook, to eat. So when I realized that people knew what they should do, but there were too many, you know, it was just too hard, I thought, okay, I have to find an easy, fast way to get the green nutrition of vegetables into them, but it doesn't require any work. Didn't know again what I would find, how I would do it. Back to the internet I went. I just researched everything I found for my sister in a much more complex way, and nothing was working until I got to algae. And that's when the miracle happened. I was like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole.

Mm-hmm.

Because as you're gonna find out on this podcast, algae is the answer to just about everything that ails us and the world. So first of all, algae is the most alkaline food in the world. And that's what got me started on this. And we can talk about the alkaline issue later. It's also the most nutrient-dense food in the world. And that's not my opinion. I have a quote from NASA that says 1 gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of vegetables. 1 to 1,000. Because as you're going to find, algae, microalgae, which is what we're talking about, is so tiny. It's A million cells could fit on the head of a pin.

Wow.

So when you concentrate all of that nutrition into these tiny little— from these tiny cells into what we, we've created, these little tablets that you swallow or chew, which are about the size of that baby aspirin. Each one of these tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables that you didn't have to cook, clean, or eat, right? So anyways, alkaline, nutrient-dense. It's been endorsed by the United Nations since the '70s as the answer to world hunger because it has 3 times the amount of protein as steak. It has the highest concentration of protein in the world. It's also the most studied food in the world. So I don't make any of this stuff up. Everything I'm telling you today is documented scientifically, is available in the NIH library or other scientific libraries around the world. 100,000 studies have been done on algae. Spirulina and chlorella are the 2 we're going to talk about today. But the scientists like to talk to other scientists. So 90% or 99% of this knowledge has not made its way out to consumers. So I'm one of the first people, and probably it's good that I didn't have a science background, but I have a science mind because I take all this complex science and I try to interpret it so that people, normal people like us or me, can understand it. So alkaline, nutrient-dense, endorsed by international agencies for high protein, well documented, and It's been used safely for 75 years in Asia. It is a multi-billion— that's with a B— agricultural crop, multi-billion-dollar agricultural crop in Asia. It's as big as the beef industry is here. Now, that may— a couple of important things there. One is that algae is a crop. It is a vegetable. It is not a supplement. Supplements are made in labs from artificial ingredients using high heat. And they're poorly absorbed nutrients. Algae is no different than kale or broccoli, except we pack it into tiny little tablets that you can swallow and equals, you know, an entire plate of vegetables. So it's A, not a supplement. B, it's not grown in the ocean. It does, it does grow in the ocean, but spirulina and chlorella are harvested as vegetables in fresh water. So no ocean toxicity. So I just want to make sure people understand that. Whoops.

That's awesome. I didn't realize that.

So when I found all this, and it's been, you know, in Japan, they don't leave their house without taking chlorella algae. So it's been safely used. It's just in America or Canada or anywhere outside of Asia, it's not been explained properly. The quality has been poor. The packaging has been weird. So I decided 12 years ago, I would devote my life to helping people understand algae because it replaces your need for vegetables. It replaces most supplements. It's easy to take in seconds. You get all the nutrition that you need in seconds without any work. And it is the most sustainable crop in the world. So it's good for the Earth as well. So it's pretty cool stuff.

That is amazing. So you went on this path because of your sister's illness, trying to help her, you know, reclaim her health and do everything that she could possibly do. I would love to talk about specific benefits related to women's health, you know, breast health, our immune system, exactly, anti-aging a little bit, keep us young looking, all that good stuff. So why don't you explain to my listeners the 2 different types of algae that you work with? Sure.

Well, first of all, as I mentioned, algae Is everywhere. It's in the oceans, the lakes, the rivers, the streams. And but all of those other things, the places where you find algae, the algae is toxic. The only ones you do want to consume are the 2 we're talking about today, which are chlorella and spirulina. And this— it's 99.9% of any algae you buy, whether it's Target, Walmart, or from us, are these 2 algaes, spirulina and chlorella, which are farmed, not from the ocean. So spirulina was the first life on Earth, and it is well known for having the, as I mentioned, the highest concentration of protein in the world. And it's known to give you energy. Now it gives you energy because the protein is in amino acid form, which means it's easy to absorb. Spirulina is technically a bacteria, has no cell wall, so it's rapidly absorbed because there's nothing for your body to break down. And it contains all the B vitamins, which convert the Aminos into energy. Now, women, we're, we are always multitasking, and we always need more energy. When you're pregnant, you need more energy. When you're, you have your period, you need more energy. So, so number one, it's really great to give you energy. And by the way, while we're talking about it, each one of these tiny tablets that I showed you, because that's what you take them, either you swallow them or you chew them or you add to smoothies. They only have 1 calorie. Now they have lots of protein and 40 vitamins and minerals, but only 1 calorie. So they can be a meal replacement. Take 5 or 10 or 15 for a meal replacement. You just, for 15 calories, you can be full and nourished. That's a combination. Like you can be full with a crappy bagel, 300 calories and no nutrition. And then you'll have an insulin spike and you'll probably break out and Have stomach gas from the carbs. But with algae, 15 calories gets you full, and it gives you energy, and it gives you nutrition, and it's zero carbs, zero sugar. It's just good for you. Number 2 is when we have our periods, we lose a lot of iron. Algae has the highest concentration of iron in the world. Iron is what carries oxygen in your blood. So, so that's important. But we always need iron. And I would urge people not to take iron supplements because supplements can reach— you get toxicity, certainly from iron supplements. So, but with algae, because it comes from food, if you don't need it, you just don't absorb it. But it's really great for carrying oxygen and replacing that iron, especially after your periods. It's also loaded with essential fatty acids, including omega-3, and it's loaded with all of the important minerals like magnesium. And so it has been shown to also help reduce cramping during your period. The magnesium release is— what magnesium does is it relaxes your muscles, things like your blood vessels open up with magnesium. Also, it's also a vasodilator. So It really helps with that. So between the essential fatty acids, which help with your brain health and reducing inflammation, the 40 vitamins and minerals that nourish you, the high protein that convert to energy. And also, by the way, let's, let's talk about beauty. Because spirulina with that high protein helps build your collagen. I just finished a big, a little bit of research on comparing algae to collagen powder and algae Has up to 430% more of the essential fatty acids, essential aminos than collagen. So you need amino acids to build your collagen. And also it builds your elastin, which can be damaged by sugar or free radicals. So algae helps preserve your skin health. Because of the protein, antioxidants, vitamins like K2. So that's spirulina. Very nourishing, helps with energy, whether you're pregnant or just a busy mom or just busy lady, and really replaces a lot of nutrients you may need regardless of what stage of life you're in. Postmenopausal. I'm postmenopausal. I'm way post.

You look fabulous, and it must be from the algae.

Well, I will say I, I feel I am the poster child for algae because I just turned 65. And I sleep well, I digest well. And I have way more energy than most people I know my age or even millennials. So I promise you that this stuff works. So anyways, as I said, spirulina, and we have 2 brands, we have one called Beauty Bits and one called Energy Bits. And the reason why there's 2 is because when I first started, it was with— we had the blue spirulina, and I packaged it in blue because it's a blue-green algae. But I found that women weren't buying the algae. And I know how important this is for your health. So I asked my girlfriends, why do you think women aren't buying the spirulina? They were buying the other one. They said, well, you need to make it pink and give it a cute name. Because it builds your skin and hair. I did. I created a second brand of spirulina And called it Beauty Bits, but they are absolutely identical. But this just makes you happy. It makes me happy. It's a pretty package. And I want people to, you know, feel happy buying it, using it. Because once it gets into your body, trust me, you'll be very happy with it. So that's spirulina. Chlorella is a different algae. It is a green algae. And remember I said spirulina has the highest protein in the world. Chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Now, you may ask yourself, well, what's so important about chlorophyll? Well, first of all, chlorophyll, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. And I'm going to show you a chart to prove that. This is a chart that shows your red blood cells. And this one shows chlorophyll. Notice that they're virtually identical. The only difference is that in your hemoglobin, you have an iron atom. That's what carries oxygen. And then in chlorophyll, it's magnesium. Chlorophyll builds your blood. When you have healthy blood, you're going to have a healthier body. You're going to have more oxygen. You're going to have better digestion. Everything works better. Of course, during your period, you're losing blood. You need to constantly be building that blood back. After a baby, you've lost a lot of blood. You need to build your blood. You need to build your blood at any time. Number 1 is that chlorophyll builds your blood. Number 2, chlorophyll is also known to build your immune system. And it does that because of the phytonutrients. And chlorella has all the top nutrients that are needed for your immune system, zinc, vitamin C, the chlorophyll, 40 other vitamins and minerals. So right now we're still struggling with immune issues because of COVID So Chlorella and the chlorophyll in it builds your immune system. Chlorella— the other important thing about chlorophyll is that it's a fat-based pigment. Now, you may say, well, what's so important about that? Well, all of your health issues start at the cellular level. And so your cells need healthy permeable cell walls so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And healthy fats do that. Now, the analogy I make for people is that when you have dirty windows, you can't see out and sunlight can't get in. And that's not a good scenario either. So think of chlorophyll as window washers for your cell walls because it's a fat-based pigment. The blue pigment that's in the spirulina is a water-based pigment, so it doesn't do the same thing. Now, so number one, chlorella has the highest chlorophyll compared to spirulina that has the high protein. Chlorella is basically known as a health and wellness algae, not just because of the chlorophyll, also because it has the hardest cell wall in the plant kingdom. Remember I said spirulina has no cell wall? Chlorella is the complete opposite. And that hard cell wall attaches to toxins of any kind. Lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, alcohol. Athletes use it for lactic acid. So the sad reality is we are surrounded by toxins. It's pesticides, glyphosate, chemicals, our cosmetics, our clothing. And each one has incremental small amount of toxicity. But when you, over time, It builds up into your body, and our immune systems were not built to support that. And women in particular, we are— we all take care of our families. We are the caregivers. And so—

Oh yeah.

You know, we will— our health often gets run down as we look after other people. And I remind people that self-care is not selfish. Self-care is a requirement. It's part of self-love. And so you need to be looking after yourself and protecting yourself. And I consider chlorella algae as your health insurance, your nutritional health insurance, because the high chlorophyll, the ability to remove toxins, the ability to build your gut, it just manifests in a way that makes your body healthier and stronger. When you're a mom, there are no days off. I'm an entrepreneur and I have no days off either. I'm not a mom, but my company is like my baby. But chlorella is definitely a way to ensure your health and the health of your children. And it's so, again, easy to take. Now, we generally recommend you take chlorella at night, because when you sleep, your body goes through a detox and repair cycle.

Mm-hmm.

And so it's like having the cleanup crew while you're sleeping, right? And so if you have chlorella in your body, While that's happening, you get a much better detox. It also has the highest RNA and DNA in the world. So it helps rebuild any damaged RNA and DNA, and it helps rebuild any damaged mitochondria, which by the way, start dying off as we age. It helps rebuild your skin cells. So it's very much a wellness algae that can work in the background while you're sleeping. I mean, how fabulous is that? Yeah, I love that beauty sleep. You know, you got somebody, uh, it's like having someone doing your hair and your nails at the same time.

Yeah. And is this something that you can take all the time?

All the time, every day. And so spirulina, usually you're hungry and tired, uh, or want energy in the morning, afternoon, um, you know, classic 2 o'clock slump, or before a workout, or before your kids, you know, Go to soccer practice or before you go to work. You can take either one of them any time of day, alone instead of food, with food. It doesn't matter. There's no contraindications, zero for spirulina. And for chlorella, the only thing I mentioned is that because it pulls out toxins and because some medications contain metals, we just suggest you take it 2 hours away from any medication, either 2 hours before or 2 hours after. I have no proof that it will intercept your medication, but I just like to err on caution. But both of them are so nutrient dense. Spirulina will replace food. It will replace about most of your supplements, your multivitamin, your fish oil, your magnesium, CoQ10. And chlorella, Can do the same, except it won't satisfy your hunger like spirulina will. But the one, as I said, spirulina, which we call Energy Bits or Beauty Bits, very nourishing, great for kids. Kids are notorious for not eating vegetables. Same with guys. Just have them swallow 2 or 5 or 10, and they are off the hook for eating vegetables ever, ever, ever. Seriously, it won't give you the fiber, but it gives you all the nutrition. So no more arguments at dinnertime about eating your vegetables. And even, you know, people like me, I love vegetables, but I have a difficulty with fiber. And so I get all the nutrients I need from the green, from the algae, and not without any stomach distress at all. So it's great whether you're ketogenic, paleo, vegan, low-cal, low-carb, it works with every single lifestyle, food choice. So when, you know, lots of times you have people over for dinner and you have to ask them, well, what are your food sensitivities? Algae, there are none. Not that I'm saying you would have dinner with algae, but I will show you a funny slide that I put together. So if you don't have time or can't, don't like vegetables, you know, if you can't eat that, you just have one of those tablets equals that. Right.

Wow.

That's amazing. Yeah. And I made that calculation based on that quote from NASA that says 1 gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of fruits and vegetables. So I took the weight of our bag and the weight of each tablet. And so it's not just something I made up. It's actually science. It's science-based. So, so, I mean, it just is effortless. My goal was to make good nutrition effortless. Now you can still make all the meals that you want, but now you can enjoy them for their taste or their creativity. And you don't have to worry about getting the nutrition that you or your family need to stay healthy.

So yeah, and these bits, they are chewable or swallowable?

Yes. Now I will say, however, most people do not like the flavor of the spirulina. And the reason for that Is because it has, remember, the highest concentration of protein in the world, and it's loaded with essential fatty acids, both of which make it really chewy. So it kind of sticks to your teeth and has a very earthy flavor. So, you know, you can chew it. I chew them. But most people swallow them or add them to smoothies. Now, most people do enjoy chewing the chlorella, but they taste better when you add some sea salt or Have them with nuts or use them as a garnish on your salads, add them to trail mix. And they don't stick to your teeth because they don't have as much protein or essential fatty acids. I eat them all day long. I think that's one of the reasons my skin is so good is because they have vitamin K2 in them. And what vitamin K2 does is it pulls excess calcium out of your soft tissue. your skin, your organs. And this is important because they're realizing that a lot of heart disease is because of calcium solidifying in your blood vessels. That's what arteriosclerosis is, the hardening of your arteries. Guess what's hardening? It's the calcium. So K2 will move that excess calcium into your bones, which is also important for women to know because 80 to 90% of osteoporosis issues Affect women. Women. And the reason is because our bones are smaller, they're thinner than men. So they're already more porous. And so, so not only by taking the, especially the chlorella to remove the K2 from your blood vessels, and from your skin, because it also is calcium damages your collagen and elastin, it will at the same time help prevent you from having osteoporosis. Now, I just want to dwell on osteoporosis a bit more because it is classic, a classic disease of women experienced by women. So the strength of your bones isn't really based on calcium. It's where most of your calcium is stored. But your bone strength actually comes from minerals and from protein matrix, both of which are— of the algae are rich in protein and rich in minerals. And you may not know this, but when you have an acidic diet, you know, sugar or processed foods, your blood would have turned a little bit acidic because those are acidic foods, except your body is so intelligent and it knows that this is not a good thing for you. So what it does to neutralize that acidity is it withdraws minerals, which are alkaline, from places like Ta-da! Your bones.

Yeah.

To neutralize that acidity. But when that happens over and over and over again, it draws out the minerals stored there and can cause those holes, which are osteoporosis, are basically holes in your bones to occur. So if you have had— if anyone listening has had some bone density tests and have been told that you are, you know, you either have osteoporosis or you might be a candidate for it, please start taking the algae. Because even if you didn't change anything else, it would start beefing up the minerals and protein in your bones. And I promise you, if you went back 2 to 6 months later, your bone density tests would show an improvement. I just, I know for sure. So the thing I like about algae so much is that, first of all, and certainly ours, we're the only algae endorsed by doctors and sold nationwide by doctors. But it is the most nutrient-dense food in the world. You may take it for one reason, but it gives your body 1,000 other reasons. It's like, it's just, it's a, it's almost a miracle. People sometimes, they called, told me they should call it, you know, Miracle Bits or something because, but it, you know, and I can't take credit for it. It's just Mother Nature at her best. It was the first life on Earth. And Mother Nature, I mean, she's a gal too, right?

Yeah.

You know, she's looking after us and we just have to listen to our mothers. And I certainly listen to Mother Nature. She's my mentor. People often ask me who, who my mentor is, and I always say Mother Nature.

Oh, I love the way that you're saying that. That makes so much sense because, you know, we just, we need to look back to our Earth. It's providing everything that we need to.

Yes, it does.

Keep our bodies balanced. And coffee. And I think we've gone so far in the other direction, and it's time to get back to that and respect Mother Nature and tap into all that wisdom that, you know, God created on this earth and for our bodies to interact with it. Oh my gosh, I couldn't agree more. That's so awesome.

Yeah. And, and, you know, when I first started this, I couldn't believe what I was reading because again, I didn't come from a science or nutrition background. So that's why Took me so long to, you know, because I'm very thorough. But I can tell you that your body, that your pets, your children, you'll just feel so great because algae is probably— is the original food. I tell people you don't need fish oil because, you know, a lot of people take fish oil because of the omega-3. And I remind them, well, where do you think the fish get the omega-3 from? They get it from algae. You cannot get any lower on the food chain. than algae. It was the first life on Earth. And intuitively, you just feel good taking it. You start craving it because it's nourishing you. And, you know, I will get on a sort of the Mother Nature theme. I recently— well, not recently, a while ago— I saw a chart that showed the amino acids and the nutrition found in mother's breast milk. And I thought, gosh, that looks awfully familiar. And sure enough, it's virtually the same As the nutrients and the aminos in the same proportions found in spirulina. And so because spirulina and chlorella were the first life on Earth given to us by Mother Nature, and because it has virtually the same nutrients as mother's breast milk, I consider algae Mother Nature's breast milk for us.

Wow.

Because it's, it's It's almost spooky the way it, you know, how healthy it is and where it came from.

So, um, that makes total sense, you know. I mean, the earth is trying to provide for us and keep us sustained, and really everything we need is right there.

So if we look for it, um, I feel every day I go out and I apologize to the earth, you know, what we've done to it. So when you look after your care and your health and your family's health with something as nutrient-dense and natural as algae, you are also helping Mother Earth because it supplies— algae supplies 80% of the oxygen on Earth. It gives us 200 times more protein per acre than animal farming. It has zero carbon footprint, zero. And it is just the most sustainable crop in the world. So You know, you can use it instead of fish, instead of fish oil, save the oceans. There's nothing I can find negative about algae. I have tried, trust me. Nope. No, it's, it's like your best— it's like your, your, your best girlfriend. It's there for you every step of the way. So—

Wow.

I'm very proud to be part of the algae story. And I encourage other people to try it because, um, it's the one thing that, um, if you did nothing else, it alone would make your health, your energy, your skin, your digestion better.

Well, I just love that you have put so much research into this and you've come out with all of the information and you make it so easy and understandable because, you know, I'll tell you, I was in medical school, undergrad, functional medicine training. I did that, you know, for probably totaling 15 years, and I never felt excited or that interested in algae. But, you know, I understood the concepts and how it helped you be healthy. But you're kind of tying it all together and you're making it so doable and easy, and I just love all the work you're doing. So I really appreciate that. And, you know, you talked a little bit about how you eat it all the time. Some people just take 1 tablet for a meal. What is the general consensus on how much we should be consuming?

Well, you know, I always don't— when people try something new, they're cautious. So if you want to be cautious, which is good, you could start with just 2 or 3 tablets a day. But to really truly Enjoy more benefits. You know, I think 5 or 10 a day would be better. You know, even 20 would be even better.

Okay.

But it's food. You know, some people, they're satisfied with a small salad, and some people need 2 or 3 huge salads. So it's really what works for you. If you're not feeling energy— and the type of energy, by the way, that you'll feel, it's not like lightning bolts from the sky because it's not a stimulant. There's no caffeine or sugar. The best way to describe how you feel is you'll just feel fresh. That's it. Nothing more. No drama. I love it because there's no drama, right? No, no rise, no crash. You'll just feel like you had a great sleep. You'll feel alert. You'll feel ready. And if you're not feeling that, then you aren't taking enough.

Okay.

So, so, you know, I think 5 or 10 is a good number if you can aim towards that. And You know, I don't want people to be horrified by that, but remember that it's food. It's like having five. You know, one nut won't satisfy your hunger. You'll have like a handful, and if you start to enjoy the flavor, you know, as I do, I have three or four handfuls a day. First, you know, I don't even want to tell you how much I eat. It's amazing. So, so that's why we have them. We do sell them in large bags on our website with a thousand tablets, and I don't want people to. get sticker shock. Because— oops, I'm just going to show you something else. I have a chart that I took that calculation from NASA that said 1 gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of vegetables.

Yeah.

In one bag of algae, there's the equivalent nutrition as 551 pounds of vegetables, not fiber, but the nutrition. So at $3 a pound, that would've been $1,500. And that's 551 pounds of vegetables you didn't have to carry home or cook or clean. Right. But so we do have a 20% discount code for your listeners. The code is Dr. Tabatha, all one word, no dot between Dr. Tabatha, just Dr. Tabatha. So that brings a bag down to $96. So it's now a bit more— you know, affordable. But if you aren't ready for a large bag, we do sell small pouches on Amazon for $5 each, and there's 30 tablets in a pouch. $5 is a very small investment to try to see if you like it or not. And we also have a sample pack on our website. So a pouch, if you took— there's 30 in here and $5. So if you took, you know, 10 a day, that's— there's 3 days Of, you know, nutrition, right? If you had, you could take 30 all at one time if you wanted, or you could take 5 a day, and that would be 6 days. But again, I want to stress how easy they are. If you could swallow water, you can nourish yourself easily, effortlessly, get all the nutrients that you need. And, you know, the numbers may not be as high as on your supplements, but remember, it's from food and supplements. are very difficult for your body to recognize and absorb when you absorb 99% of the nutrients from algae. So, so yeah, it's, it's, um, a fast, easy, convenient, great for traveling if, if and when you ever travel again. Yeah, right.

So you mentioned with the chlorella that it pulls out the toxins. You know, we often use the chlorella for that. Do you notice people having any digestive discomfort or changes when they eat your product?

Well, sometimes, not everybody, but some people do have a detox. Now, it's a good point. I'm glad you mentioned that because if you want the wellness benefits of the chlorella, 5 or 10 tablets a day would do that. But if you want the detox, you need to take more, probably closer to 20 tablets.

Okay.

So, and 30 would be better. But so if you have some cocktails for dinner, And you want to feel good the next day, be sure you take 20 or 30 of the chlorella tablets, Recovery Bits. That's what we call them, Recovery Bits. You recover the next day before you go to bed. Now, if you have— so some people, what they'll do is they, they, they don't want to detox all the time. So they might take the 10 a day for a month or 2 weeks, and then they'll do maybe a detox for a week or 2, and then they'll go back to, you know, just the regular wellness.

Okay.

But some people have detox symptoms, which can be breakouts, headaches, a little stomach distress, but they will go away. And it's not from the algae. What's happening is it's pulling the toxins out of your cells. And while they're circulating in your bloodstream, that's what's causing the, the reactions.

Right.

So I tell people, look, it's better to go through a few days of discomfort And get them out of your cells than to let them sit there and contribute to silent inflammation or, you know, doing different, you know, damaging things to your cells. But not everybody experiences that. Also, because they're both very high in protein and your body needs water to digest protein, the first thing I would say is, well, just also drink more water. at least an extra glass of water when you take them. So that will help nourish your stomach. But chlorella has actually been used for IBS and Crohn's disease because of the chlorophyll, which is very cleansing, the ability to pull out toxins.

Yeah.

So it helps with a lot of gut issues. We work with biological dentists who use it when they take out fillings because they're loaded with mercury. They take the chlorella as well as give it to their patients. But there is no detox effect with spirulina. It's just with the chlorella.

Okay. And that's just at the higher dose of 20 to 30. So that is great to know because I think you made a great point. Like, do that for a few days and really pull the toxins out, and then you can just go to a maintenance amount of 5 or 10. Don't keep you healthy from there. I think that's a great plan.

Yeah. Although I will, I will point out that it's not just the external toxins that are causing problems for us. You know, I read recently that we have 30 trillion cells that die in our body every day. That's a big number. And dead cells are toxic. What happens if you don't pull them out is they, they start congesting your lymph system. And when there's congestion in your lymph system, then that attracts bacteria because there's not enough flow. And that starts causing more acidity, which then causes the cells to stop communicating properly because there's not enough oxygen in there. And it just causes lots of health issues. So that's why I tell people, here's the great way to think of chlorella. You take a shower out every day to wash your body right on the outside. Taking chlorella every day is like giving your body a shower from the inside, and it's effortless. So, um, I— you— it's just we have to protect ourselves. We have to be more proactive these days because the world today is not the same world our grandparents were in, you know, 50 or 75 years ago. It is what it is. And so we just have to be smarter to find ways to protect ourselves. And I These 2 algaes seem to be the best way that I have found so far and the most natural.

So good stuff.

Awesome.

I love it. I'm so excited to offer this to my listeners. So we'll have the links in my show notes. They can try it with the discount code Dr. Tabatha. Um, where else can we find you and all the amazing things you're doing, Katherine?

Well, thank you. Well, our Our website is energybits.com. That's E-N-E-R-G-Y-B for boy, I-T-S dot com. And we're very active on social media. Most of our handles are just @energybits, but on Instagram we have a second handle which is @beautybits, and it's very girly and all about beauty and health. So it's it's a lot more fun than the @energybits. So come visit us there. We have a lot of science. On our website, there's much more. As I mentioned, there's 100,000 studies. I've got links probably about to two to three thousand, which is a lot of research. Yes, I've written about 500 papers and I've been published nationwide. I was on 150 podcasts last year. I I'm doing everything I can to help people understand this beautiful gift to us from our our our mother Mother Nature. And I do want to help women in particular. I started this because of my sister, and I'm going—I just kept going to help other people. But in fact, this is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and we just wrote a blog post that went live yesterday about how algae helps protect you from breast cancer. So please read that as well. It's you know same website, just. Click on our blog. I think you'll find it very helpful.

Oh my gosh. Well, I am so appreciative of all the amazing work you're doing. And, you know, women need all the support. We need to support each other and absolutely remind each other to take care of ourselves, right? Yeah. So yeah, thank you so much.

Thank you. And thank you for your work and for having me here. I appreciate it. It takes time. If we all work together, we'll, we'll make it— we'll not just survive, we'll thrive.

All right, that was super informative, and I'm like all pumped up about algae now. You know, like I was mentioning, I've learned about it, I've studied it, I know how to use it for detox purposes and this and that, but I never really thought of it as like a daily nutritional food supplement or whatever you want to call it to add to your daily regimen. So I really like that idea because it's such an easy way to, you know, put that into your day. And so I, I loved this episode. I'm really excited, and I hope that you got some information that like resonated with you, some golden nugget that you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, yeah, I really need some algae for You know, to help with my bone health or to help with my heavy periods or to help, you know, detox. And really start incorporating that into what you're doing. I would love to hear some feedback, what you guys think about the Energybits and the Recoverybits. Check them out. The links are in the show notes. And then don't hesitate to reach out to me. I want to hear from you guys. So I'm licensed in over half the country if you need a functional gynecologist. So what does that mean? I see women virtually. We have at least an hour-long consultation appointment where we get to the root cause issues of what you've got going on. And oftentimes we do testing that your traditional doctor has not done. And we take all the pieces of the puzzle, which I find, you know, a lot of you have gone to this doctor or that doctor, this specialist or that, but nobody has actually taken each specialty, each piece of the puzzle, and put it all together to look at you as a whole. And that's where medicine can fall short for us. So being able to spend time with you and really ask you questions that no doctors have probably ever asked you and trying to put, you know, figure out what does that picture look like of your entire life and how it's impacted your health, that can be such a game changer for really figuring out the root cause of your issues. And then, like, doing something about it, as opposed to how I used to practice, which was either, here's your birth control pill, or, here's your surgical option. Now I am like full— my toolbox is full. Like, I am here to help you with so many things because now I know what diet works for what type of person in what stage of their life. I know what lifestyle interventions need to happen. I know the psychology behind that stuff. I know how to test and interpret vitamin and mineral deficiencies and toxic burden and so many things that could be impeding you from feeling amazing and being the woman that you need to be and want to be, right?

Right.

So like I said, I'm here for you. Don't hesitate to reach out if you want to work one-on-one. That's what I do. So you can go to my website, drtabatha.com. The link's in the show notes. You can email me, you can call my office at 616-227-0445. You know, just reach out to me and we'll figure out what the best thing to do is and how to get you feeling amazing and be the awesome woman that you are. So, all right, go have a kick-ass week. Thank you so much for hanging out with me, and I will see you soon. Bye, ladies.

Bye.