LS 138 - The Benefits of Eating Algae with Catharine Arnston

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Hello everyone, this is your host Fernando Aries in partnership with the Hartment Media Company. Today I have a pleasure to welcome Kathryn Arnston. Kathryn is the founder, the CEO and the Chief Scientific Officer of Energy Bits. Energy Bits specialize in plant based protein snacks for increased energy, increased focus, hunger control and health improvement. Katherine grew up in Canada and now lives in Boston where she's been focusing on her business after founding three previous startups. She's a board Certified Health Counselor from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition from State University of New York, my alma mater by the way, and a Reiki Master. In addition, she has been a marketing executive and magazine publisher. She has even been an international attache for the Canadian and British governments. So Kathryn, welcome. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. Thank you for having me on your show.

You're welcome. I mean, you have so much energy. I met you@Paleo FX earlier this year and I just love talking to you and learning about your products. We wanted to make our audience aware of how important your products are and how they can help with their longevity and certainly feeling healthy overall. I know you love introducing algae to pretty much everyone you meet. Now let me ask you, is it true I'm looking at your information on the web. Do you take 75 of your energy bits for focus and energy and 75 of your recovery bits for detox and anti aging? Do you take these every day or what's your regimen?

Well, yes I do is the short answer. Heck, I'm the founder and I've been using this algae for six or seven years and I certainly don't expect everybody to take that much. Although I will tell you, the NHL teams and players that we work with do also have that much prior to a game because they need very high energy from the energy bits, which is spirulina, and they need to pull all that lactic acid, which chlorella does. So the recommendation we make for people is much less. It's a single serving every day and a single serving is about 30 tablets. We sell the algae in large bags of a thousand tablets. So you would get like a good month's supply from a bag. And we also now sell single servings pre packed through wellness practitioners, nutritionists, chiropractors and increasingly retailers. It makes it really easy. Now the reason why we came up with 30 is because when I started the company, you know, seven or eight years ago, we were first suggesting 10 and then 20 and then it wasn't until we got to 30 that everybody felt an increase in their energy. But we do point out that everyone needs to listen to their body. And if you are a petite build or maybe you're in, you might well get the energy that you're seeking. And there's hunger control that you need with a smaller portion size. So we just want people to be aware that there is no upside. I mean there is lots of upside, but there's no maximum number because algae is just a plant that's a type of plant that's grown in water, fresh water tanks and we press the water out of them into these little tablets. Most people swallow them because they're quite green and chewy, but they're totally chewable. So I do chew mine. Most people swallow them, but they're just, it's no really different than eating kale or, or raisins or broccoli or peanuts for that matter. They're just tiny little bits. We call them bits because they're bits of food. So yes, I do take a lot, but I also have a bunch of 20 year olds working for me and frankly they can't keep up with me. And I give a lot of my energy, I give it credit to the algae and it keeps me healthy. And I want to help your listeners understand.

I know, I've certainly seen that. And I mean you're beaming with energy. But let me ask you, as far as your health, your well being, your longevity, have you seen results from your products and maybe you want to speak to that?

Oh sure. Well, maybe if it's okay, I'd like to help your listeners understand the difference between the two algaes because they do function quite differently. And one is better for longevity and health and one is better for energy. So there are about 15,000 strains of algae. Almost all of them are poisonous. So please don't stick your head in some pond or your swimming pool and lick the side because you will probably get sick. Our algae is harvested, it's a food crop. And there are really only a couple of algae that you can eat for nutritional purposes. And one of them is spirulina, which is a blue green algae. And it was the first plant life on Earth three and a half billion years ago. And the other algae is Chlorella, which is a green algae. And it showed up on Earth about a billion years after spirulina. We call our spirulina energy bits because that's what spirulina does. It gives you energy both mentally and physically. And the reason it does that is because it has 40 vitamins and minerals. It is the highest concentration of protein in the world, all of which is already in amino acid form. So your body does expend any energy to break down the protein to get access to the amino acids. It's already in amino acids. It's 18 of the 20aminos. So it's a complete protein, has all the branched chain aminos. That's why the athletes love it so much because it has all of the aminos that they need to perform at their peak. Anybody who wants to be at their peak, mentally or physically, you want to add spirulina to your diet for sure. Spirulina also is loaded with B vitamins, which is what gives you energy. It's a nitric oxide based algae, which. Nitric oxide opens up your blood vessels so you get all the. It's easy for the oxygen and the nutrients to reach your brain and your muscles. It's also loaded with essential fatty acids. So this includes Omega 3 DHA and also another one called GLA, which is Gamma linic acid, which is actually an Omega 6, but behaves like an Omega 3, so it reduces inflammation. So all these things combined and many other nutrients. It also has the highest concentration of iron in the world. And iron carries oxygen in your blood. These are the things that give you energy mentally, physically and satisfy your hunger. So that's all Spirulina, a blue green algae. First plant life on earth and we call ours energy bits for the reason I mentioned it's full of energy. The other interesting thing, I used to hesitate to mention this, but now bacteria is like the very popular and accepted and understood entity. Spirulina is technically a bacteria it has no cellulose wall on the exterior. And this is why it gets into your bloodstream so quickly. There's nothing for your body to break down. And that's why if you chew it, although we, most people like the flavor, if you do chew it, it's in your bloodstream literally in seconds. And if you swallow it, it takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes. But that's why it gives you that steady lift, not a lightning bolt of lift, but just a steady lift, but very, very quickly. Now, spirulina is quite different from chlorella, so I'm going to switch over to chlorella now, which is a green algae and it is indeed a plant. It has a cellulose exterior and in fact it has the hardest cellular exterior in the plant kingdom, which is why it has to be cracked to production. It has a nucleus, unlike Spirulina chlorella, which we call ours recovery bits because it helps you recover from anything, Chlore health based algae, as opposed to spirulina, which is an energy. So one of the things it does is it has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. And I want to address chlorophyll later on. Chlorophyll is so critical of a nutrient. You're going to hear more about chlorophyll in a while. And chlorella has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. It has a thousand times more chlorophyll than any greens, 50 times more than wheat grass, 50 times more than liquid chlorophyll. And chlorophyll is the one, one of the few antioxidants that can penetrate the cell wall and help it be healthy. And as any of your listeners, as they're going into biohacking and learning more about this, all of your health issues start with your cellular wall health and your mitochondria health. And so chlorophyll is one of the essential nutrients that makes that all happen. So chlorella, our recovery bits, has a very high concentration of that. The other amazing thing about chlorella is because it has that very hard cellular exterior, it attaches itself to toxins. This is anything from mercury, lead, fluoride. Athletes love it because it pulls out lactic acid so their muscles aren't sore the next day it pulls out alcohol. So if you any kind, wine, beer, liquor, in an hour and a half, it's out of your bloodstream and you will never have a hangover. So it's very important for and pesticides as well, right? Pesticides, pesticides, anything. And, you know, there's 75,000 toxins that have been released into our environment since World War II. And so our immune systems just are not built to sustain this kind of toxic load. And so I tell people, you know, you should be taking chlorella every day because it's like giving your body a shower from the inside. It just pulls out whatever's there in your bloodstream, your cells or your organs. Even dentists are recommending our chlorella because chlorella has been well known for pulling mercury out. And mercury and AMM grams is a really growing concern. So you'll get rid of all that stuff from the chlorella.

Now, I want to do a deep dive into the different products and unpack a little bit of what you've mentioned. A lot of data for these different compounds, but mostly you're using two ingredients, which is Chlo spirulina. For different reasons, obviously, but for the benefit of our audience, a lot of the people listening, they follow the paleo diet or ketogenic type diet or bulletproof diet, which is, in my case, what I follow. Why would someone that follows one of these diets, which are similar in many ways, why would they want to take your products? Are your products particularly important for them because of the diets they follow? Can you expand on that?

Thank you for asking that. And yes, first of all, it's important that your listeners understand there is only one ingredient in these ellagio tablets. So in energy bits, which is spirulina, there is nothing else in there except spirulina. And in our recovery bits, which are chlorella, there is nothing else except the chlorella. There's no binders, there's no caffeine, there's no sugar, there's no gluten. It's not a processed food. So it's very. It's as clean as you can get for a food. And it is a food. It's not a supplement. Supplements are made in labs and we just. This is a crop. So it's the cleanest foods you can get. And you don't get down the food chain than algae. I mean, it was the first plant life on earth, and it's loaded with protein and it's loaded with fats. So it's both keto and paleo. But the reason why it's so important for those two particular lifestyle groups is because, you know, paleo emphasizes meat and the keto emphasizes fat, and neither of them are emphasizing greens. Keto people don't want to get kicked out of ketosis. And the Paleo people are really more looking at the primal food groups. And as I alluded to earlier, chlorophyll is essential for everybody's. And if you're not eating greens, and trust me, there's very little chlorophyll even in our greens now because the soils are so depleted from the monocropping that's going on. So even if you are eating greens, you're not getting enough. And chlorophyll is one of these key ingredients. Not only does it help with the health of your cell wall, where all health and longevity issues begin, it is one of the few nutrients that actually are not fully digested in the stomach. It is the rare nutrient that actually stays in your lower intestinal tract. It goes through your liver, all the way down through your intestine and down through your colon. And the reason why this is important is that chlorophyll absorbs carcinogens. And so it's healing all that lower intestine and cleaning out any carcinogens in that process. So if you are not digesting a lot of chlorophyll in the rest of your diet, this is an important and really essential component to add to your diets to protect yourself, protect your health, and make sure you're getting rid of all those toxins. So chlorophyll is really remarkable nutrient. And just by adding one single serving every day, people should be covered. You certainly don't have to eat as much as I do. And actually, most people like the chlorella tablets. They taste like a soy nut. So people use it as a garnish on their salads. Or Ben Greenfield eats them as a snack every night. His wife is eating popcorn, he says, and he eats a handful of these things. And so do I. I eat them all day long.

I do. Whenever I have soup, I put a little bit of both, actually, chlorella and spirulina and some cayenne pepper. And just. And I just gotten used to the taste. But you're right, most people will find it a little bit. It takes a little getting used to.

Well, the folks that all follow are definitely deep into the biohacking. The other interesting thing about chlorophyll is that if you have a lot of chlorophyll in your system and you expose yourself to sunlight, they've found that chlorophyll in our bodies, remarkably, when those two conditions are met, generates ATP. Now, ATP is what provides energy to your cells and your mitochondria want clean ATP. And what they found is that this is ATP production because it doesn't throw off reactive oxygen species which is a type of free radical which damages your cell walls. So when you're getting your energy from the chlorophyll being generated at the cellular level, it's a much cleaner energy and far less, well, virtually no cellular damage, which of course preserves the signaling at a cellular level and helps prevent any metabolic disease. So it is truly a remarkable nutrient that we all need in addition to being an anti detox or blood cleanser. Your listeners and I'll get off chlorophyll but I want to tell you one interesting little nugget. The chemical composition, the atomic composition of chlorophyll is absolutely identical to the atomic chemical composition of your hemoglobin with the exception of one atom. And in chlorophyll it's magnesium and in your blood it's iron. But other than that they are identical. And this gives you an indication of how important chlorophyll is. It's so important for your blood. And in fact in World War II when they didn't have enough blood transfusions for the injured, they used to give them liquid chlorophyll and they would heal just as fast. So that just gives you a taste of how important chlorophyll is. And there is nothing that has more chlorophyll than algae.

Now let me ask you, before we move away from chlorophyll or chlorella, let me ask you a couple questions. So first of all, one comment. I mean I'm not one bit surprised when you mix sunlight with chlorophyll that you get ATP generation, which is a process for generating energy. That's how plants generate their energy and that's how they survive. So that makes a lot of sense. I know in researching chlorella there's been quite a bit of research projects in USA and in Europe that prove that chlorella can aid the body in the breakdown of all of these metal toxins. Essentially, you know, ddt, pcb, mercury, cadmium, lead and it streng immune system. I mean there's, there's a ton of literature on this and I know that in Japan they really concentrate on the detox properties of chlorella and it basically neutralizes the poisons. But the question I have is it seems like this detox process of these heavy metals and other chemicals and so on, they take a little bit of time to happen. What should People expect is it weeks, months, years, what's, what's your experience? There's.

Well, it takes about an hour and a half to detox your blood. That's why if you take it after you drink, you'll notice that in an hour and a half or two hours you're sober. So that one's pretty fast. Your cells will take, you know, about two weeks and then your organs will take about a good six months because it's the density of the cellular structure, but it's not something that you just want to take and temporarily. Because the problem is in our society, whether it's the air, the water, the food that you're eating, there are pesticides and toxins everywhere. So this is something that you really should be planning on taking every day. But the good news is there are so many other nutrients in the chlorella, which is ours as recovery bits and certainly also in the spirulina. There are so many nutrients that they would be a food based replacement for your other vitamins. Spirulina has so much essential fatty acids you wouldn't need if you were taking it. You wouldn't need any fish oil, for example, you certainly wouldn't need a multivitamin, you wouldn't need a Coq 10. So a lot of people find that they're much happier taking the algae because it is a food based, sour, completely safe. We do all the testing here in the US at an FDA approved lab and we share those lab results with doctors and nutritionists so they can feel comfortable recommending us. We are the only algae actually that is endorsed by doctors and Olympic athletes. So you would want to take this every day. The other thing I do want to mention, however, is that all algae is not equal. It's just like, you know, people say, well, you know, what's the difference? You know, you can get a cheap burger at McDonald's and then you have grass fed beef or Kobe beef and there's a huge range in the quality obviously of those two things. The same occurs with algae. You want to be very careful who you buy your algae from because there are lots of nuances. And one of those nuances, for example, is related to chlorella. And with chlorella, as I mentioned, it has the hardest cellular wall in the plant kingdom, so it has to be cracked to production. Virtually everybody except us uses the original technique because it's very inexpensive. And the technique was patented to crack the chlorella because if it wasn't cracked, your body couldn't absorb any of the nutrients they crack it by tumbling it with glass beads. But the problem is there was always worry and concern that glass, as it heated up, would leak lead into the chlorella. So here you're taking something to remove toxins and you're actually putting something back in. So the company that patented the technique that everybody uses, they denied that this was happening for decades. And then finally, about 10 years ago, the state of California tested this particular company's algae, which I'm not going to say their chlorella. And they did find that the lead levels exceeded what the standards were. And so the company was forced to put a warning on their packaging saying that there's an excess amount of lead in their product. And it's been known, which is known to cause birth defects and brain disorders. And I tell my team how much lead is too much lead, and so any lead is too much lead. I found out about this issue being a possible problem when I started the company nine years ago. And I decided when I started the company, everything we did had to be absolutely 100% slam dunk safe for my customers. So I found a more modern technique to crack the chlorella, which is it's passed through a sound chamber into the vibrations that actually crack the chlorella. So there's no heat, no lead, and nothing. But that's just one of the many nuances that people need to be aware of that all algae is not equal. The way you dry it, the way you package it, the strains that you use. We spent two years researching all of this before we even began getting into production.

I think it's important to mention that. Catherine, I'm glad you brought that up, because as we mentioned, one of the main roles for chlorella is for this elimination of mercury. And there's so much mercury in our fish. I mean, you definitely don't want to buy a product that is. Is contaminated itself with.

Right.

A heavy metal with anything.

Right.

You know, we want that mercury to be eliminated through our stool through the aid of chlorella.

Right.

And then the other body tissues we also eliminated through the intestines, and chlorella should help it eliminate it there. And we definitely want a high quality. I think that's always true. Right. We want a high quality. I've always found that to be the right answer.

Well, we're not the least expensive algae, but the reason for that is the purity, the density, the safety. We went the distance to be sure that everything we did was absolutely 100% foolproof. This is so safe, you could give it to your babies. In fact, we have customers that do give it to their 34 month olds. You can give it to your pets. There is no safer food in the world. It's non GMO and grown organically. And, you know, let's face it, our food supply is not what it used to be from 50 years ago. And to show you how powerful chlorella is, they used it at Chernobyl, they used it at Hiroshima to pull out radiation. So if chlorella can pull out radiation, they can certainly pull out mercury or anything that shouldn't be there. And it's what we call an adaptogen. So it won't pull out minerals that need to be there. It can detect what should be there and what shouldn't. It's very clever. In fact, I call it two things. I call it efficient nutrition because you, you get so much in a small, tiny little packet, sort of like a diamond. I also call it intelligent food because it knows what to do in your body and you have to be really smart to take it.

Well, that's the thing that. I'm so glad you brought this up because when people take prescription drugs. Okay, let's take that as an example. My favorite comment, I guess, related to prescription drugs. These are like ETs to our body. These are foreign substances. So our body has no idea. That's why my audience should know this by heart. This is why there's so many side effects to these drugs.

Right?

They might address one narrow portion of the disease, but they will create a ton of other things. When you compare any of these drugs that are synthetically produced in very narrow focused. When you compare any of them with a holistic healing from algae, from spirulina, from chlora, from plants that have been around for millions of years, I mean, you talk about spirulina, I know that it was a food source of the Aztecs in Kanembo people in Central Africa. I mean, this is not something that your body doesn't know what to do with it. It makes a huge difference when you take this.

Exactly. That's why we're so proud to be the one telling the world about algae, because it is straight from nature and it's grown organically, so it's not grown in the ocean. A lot of people think that's grown in the ocean. That's seaweed. And while algae is related to the seaweed family, this is harvested under strict conditions so that that's pure. But the synergies that you get when you take food in with all the factors and co factors. Everything works synergistically. And algae is 99.9% bioavailable. That means that it gets into your bloodstream very efficiently and everything works in harmony. So for example, a single serving of spirulina may only give you five grams of protein. Some people are happy about that. But to your body it's the equivalent of 50 grams of maybe chicken or beef. Because when you eat chicken or beef, it takes takes two or three days for your body to break it down into amino acids. And we all are missing all the factors and CO factors. So you end up absorbing about 10% as amino acids. That's kind of like an average. So 10% of 50 is 5. So with algae you get 5 grams and you get it all at one time. You don't have to wait three days. So that's why I say it's efficient nutrition and there is virtually nobody in the world that can't digest. In fact, the United nations in the 70s held a global conference on spirulina and declared it the answer to world hunger. That was 40 years ago. So my dream is to build the company and get spirulina and algae into the mainstream here in North America so that we can facilitate something to get this dream moved out into the world and help other people learn how to grow this so they can feed themselves. We have a very big mission that.

Is awesome and I think it's a very valid point I was going to ask you about that is even though spirulina is 60% protein, I mean, how much do you need to eat of it in order to be equivalent to, you know, something that is good for you, let's say grass fed beef, but you provide a good evidence that you know, it's much more efficient. And I know you can't talk about this or you can't explicitly say it, but I can. There is a ton of research because I don't sell the products. There's a ton of research that shows that spirulina in particular can help prevent or treat, treat numerous health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, world crisis, especially in the western world, cardiovascular disease, the second world crisis and neurodegenerative disorders. It drastically lowers your chances of developing cancer, heart disease or stroke, or contracting a life threatening virus such as hiv. This is unbelievable. It's one of the most nutritious and concentrated food sources on the planet. It is just phenomenal what you can accomplish by taking spirulina in particular.

And thank you for raising that because I think the funny Thing about algae is one of the reasons maybe it hasn't caught on is there's actually almost too much science about it. It is the most studied food in the world. There are a hundred thousand studies, about 60,000 on spirulina and about 40,000 on chlorella. And they're in the NIH database. And there are studies that I can reference where it's been shown to stop cancer, it's been shown to lower blood pressure. We're not allowed to make these claims, but I can refer people to the studies that have shown these things have occurred. So in fact, we were invited by a group called the Angiogenesis Society a couple of years ago. They're a cancer research organization. They called us and they said, did you know that the blue pigment in your spirulina, it's called phycocyanin. Did you know that it stops cancer? And we said, no, we didn't know that because what it does is it prevents the growth of blood vessels to the tumor or cancer. So they invited us to set up a table at their conference. And you know, they're a very big organization. I joke about them. You know, they have Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. All the bills are a sponsor of their organization. And if anyone's interested, again, it's the angiogenesis.org but it does a remarkable number of things and that's why it's considered a functional food. And functional foods are things that you take for both the nutrient perspective, but also the medicinal perspective.

Now, Kathryn, I know we're, we're running out of time. I wanted to have you briefly, briefly go through your products and just explain the different products that you have. I think you have at least four different kinds here that concentrate on energy recovery, vitality and hunger, so on. But please go through that and then I'll give you a chance for one last opportunity to talk about any other links, any other URLs that you want people to go to where they can find more contact.

Fantastic. Well, first of all, our website is energybits.come n e r g y b for boy its.com and we sell our algae in large bags, bags through our website. You can also purchase them through Amazon as website as bags or as single servings. If people just want to get a small serving for $4, test it out before they make a commitment. And before I also go through the products, we have a discount code. The word is bits B for boy. Its that will always give you 20% off on our website. It works on Everything, all the time. So we encourage people to use that and benefit from the discount. So we do have four products, but there's only two algae. So Energy Bits and Skinny Bits are both spirulina algae. And this is the algae that gives you energy, satisfies your hunger, helps you with focus. They use it for everything from, you know, athletes to children have ADHD or adults. And the reason we have two that are Spirulina is I started the company. Actually, I wasn't planning on building a company, but my younger sister, you know, nine years ago, developed breast cancer. And she's fine now, but her oncologist told her to change to an alkaline diet and I helped her figure out what that was. It's basically plant based foods. And all of which is to say is women's health is very important to me. And when I first started the company, I noticed that women weren't buying our spirulina. So I honestly asked my girlfriends and said, what do you think that is? And they said, well, it's not pink and it doesn't have a fun, flirty name. So I thought, okay, I can do that. So I created Skinny Bits. But it is exactly same as Energy Bits. And on the website we make it clear this is exactly same, but we promote it more for skin and hair health because your hair will go twice as fast, your skin will clear up because it's alkalining. We didn't even talk about that. So Energy Bits and Skinny Bits are the same. They're both blue green algae, they're both spirulina. Energy focus healthy skin and hair and satisfy your hunger. So that's Energy and Skinny Bits. The other one is Chlorella Algae and we call ours Recovery Bits. And that's got the green packaging and that helps you recover from anything. So it builds your immune system so you won't have colds, it pulls out toxins, so you won't have aging. It has the highest concentration of RNA and DNA in the world, which is also anti aging. So it's very much a recovery algae and we recommend people actually take both, but it's certainly up to your choice. And then for people that only want one bag, they want a little bit of the benefits of both of them. We have a fourth product which is Vitality Bits. It's a dark pink packaging and that's 50% spirulina, 50% chlorella. So you get a little bit of the energy, you get a little bit of the focus and a little bit of the immune support and it makes it, it simplifies it for people. And we generally recommend this for people who have a pretty predictable lifestyle. They're not racing around at work, athletics, and they want simplicity. So you just take one serving of that and you're good to go. You get a little bit of both of the algae because they are extraordinarily different. So it's just the four products and just the two algae and they're all sold on energybits.com well, very good, Kathryn.

Thank you very much for sharing your vast knowledge on algae, spirulina and chlorella with our audience. It's been great. Again, Kathryn Arston from energybits.com she's been on ABC Shark Tank. She's been chosen or her company has been chosen, one of the America's top women led sports companies. And we had the pleasure of talking to Katherine. Katherine, you have a great day, okay?

Okay. All right. Thank you very, very much and I'm so excited to be here. So we'll share the word.

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