Catharine Arnston: How To Build Better Immunity, Now | Wellness Force #Podcast

And we're live. We're live. It's Josh and it's also Katharine. We're going to introduce who Kathryn is, what she stands for. But first, I just want to tell everybody it's great to see you. We're doing this live. If you're listening to this podcast, let us know where you're listening to it from. Today we're talking about immunity. It's this kind of overspoken word in our wellness space. But what does it actually mean? Like, what does it mean truly to be immune, especially in this time of really craziness? There's a lot of crazy energy out there. Well, my guest Today is the CEO of a Boston based organic algae company. 30 years. Though she spent 30 years in the Canadian and British governments.

Yes, before I did this.

Before you did this. So we're gonna talk about that. And she's also a publisher of an international magazine and the founder of three startups. But here's the real situation as to how she got into this business. 2009, her younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her oncologist advised her to change her diet to be more alkaline because this would help her heal. Well, our guest heard about this. She put a career literally on pause. She pulled the E break on her career and then she found this nutrient dense alkaline plant which is called the algae. She knew algae would be this game changer and she just wanted to help Americans understand what algae actually is. Her name is Katherine Arnsten. The company is called Energy Bits. Today we, we're doing that deep dive into what algae actually is. So, Catherine, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, thank you for letting me share my 10 years of knowledge of algae.

Well, it's interesting to me because it's a very ancient food. I mean, we're talking 4 billion years ago that algae was on the planet. It is a food, not a supplement. Why is it a food, not a supplement?

Well, you're absolutely right. First of all, I want to just reinforce the fact that algae was the first, not only plant life, but the first life on earth, period. Almost 4 billion years ago, before algae, the Earth was just gas and water. I have no idea what caused algae to start growing, but it did and it's got fossils to prove it. So you have to say to yourself, there's got to be something special that was the first life on Earth and is still here. So. And you know, I want to remind. And again, the other thing I want to point out is, yes, algae is a food. It is a Crop? Well, it grows algae, grows everywhere. In fact, I'll back up a bit because I want to make sure people understand what algae is. It's a type of food. So you have fruits and you have vegetables. And algae is another food category, and it breaks down into two subcategories. One is called seaweed or kelp, and that's grown in the ocean. And they consider that a macro algae. And then you have something called microalgae, which is what we're talking about. And within microalgae, you have two main groups. One is called blue, green, and the other one is green. Now, these microalgae exist everywhere. They're in the oceans, they're in the lake, they're in our soils. It's what all the fish eat, it's what the whales eat. They are the most nutrient dense single cell organism in the world. And we couldn't survive without them because they provide 80 to 90% of the oxygen on Earth.

Now, wait, I gotta pause you. I gotta pause you right there. 80 to 90% of the air that we breathe is from algae oxygen.

Yes.

Okay, well, that's just a fun fact right there that we can all breathe into. Like, that's big. So this is literally the underbelly and the source of how we breathe on the planet.

And that's why there's life on Earth. Because after a billion years of algae growing, there was enough oxygen on Earth than other life forms could take hold. And then that's how evolution began. But before algae releasing all that oxygen 4 billion years ago, there was no oxygen on Earth, so nothing could live. And it's still providing us with a lot of oxygen. So, yeah, we need to thank algae for our deep breaths and our shallow ones too.

Well, let's officially thank algae and we're gonna talk about immunity a lot more on this because right now I think people are feeling a lot of fear. Let's just be honest. Like, you know, we talked before we started the recording here today that your team is remote and a lot of people are working remote. And everybody's at home. We're on quarantine life, right? Everybody's on quarantine life. But the reality, there's so many millions of people who aren't, and they're not working right now. And my heart goes out to them deeply. And I think the number one thing we can all do is A, we can control our state, and B, we can control the food and the water and the nutrients that we put into this beautiful vessel. And so I'd like you to jam on that just for a little bit because you're in an interesting position being in the health space. What do you see the role of algae, spirulina chlorella, specifically, when it comes to making people more immune, even to their own fear?

Yeah. Well, first of all, 80 to 90% of our immune system is in our gut. And the immune system is. I went on, you know, I just wanted. Went online before, and anyone can google this. They're the mucosal membranes of your intestines, your lungs, your mouth, anything that comes in contact with the earth, the outside world. And your immune system provides protection against pathogens. It's your first line of defense from these, from infection. And so anything that depresses your immune system will make you more susceptible to illness. So the key right now is to keep your immune system as healthy as possible. Now, stress is one of the things that depresses your immune system because stress causes the release of certain chemicals in your body and those increase inflammation and that decreases your, your T cells. And it's just, it's just, you know, a slippery slope. So the first thing everyone can do is take a deep breath. We've lived through situations like this. Well, maybe this generation, many in your viewership has not lived through this. But I just want to let you know, when I started this company 10 years ago, I had no background in nutrition. All I knew, I had this little voice in my head saying, you helped your sister. You, you can help more. Keep going. I had no idea what direction I was going to go in, how I was going to do this, but I knew I had to because this voice kept telling me I had to keep going. So I want everyone to know and say to themselves, I can do this. I can keep going. I will keep going. And you will, you'll be okay. We'll all be okay. But in addition to that emotional support and love, that this is self care, give yourself some love and you can also give yourself the nutrition that will support your immune system. And what I found by helping my sister was that algae is the most nutrient dense food in the world. That does build your immune system. And we started back a minute ago talking about why algae is food. And I don't know whether people can see this, but algae is a chronic.

You gotta hold it, like right in front of your chin so we can see the magic here. Okay, there it is.

So, so that's. This is a crop. This is a spirulina farm. We have two. Like I said before, there's two Types of microalgae. There's spirulina, which is a blue green, and chlorella, which is a green. And they do completely different things in your body. And we're going to talk about that. But both of them are grown as crops. This is no different than kale or cabbage or lettuce. It's grown in crops. It takes a month to grow. Then we air dry it into a powder. I don't know if you can see that, the powder. And then we put it into tablet form and then we put the tablets into bags like this. This is energy bits, this is spirulina. And then we have chlorella. Chlorella, which is a recovery bits. So it's a crop. It's basically a dried vegetable. But even NASA says that algae has a thousand times more nutrients than any other fruits and vegetables. A thousand times. I mean, that's a big number. So we put this really cool image together. I don't know if you can see that.

So what, one bag of the recovery.

Bits is what now equals 551 pounds of fruits and vegetables. And the same thing goes for the spirulina. It's just so nutrient dense. There's no sugar, no chemicals, no caffeine. And the reason I mentioned about the no sugar and there's no gluten, these are things that depress your immune system because sugar is an inflammatory. So that causes more what's called reactive oxygen species, which are free radicals. And that causes stress on your immune system. So things like algae, which have the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world, build your immune system. And chlorophyll is critical to your health. I'm going to show you another thing. This is a picture of your blood vessel, your hemoglobin, and this is chlorophyll, the chemical composition of chlorophyll. Notice how they're almost identical. The only difference is that hemoglobin has iron in the middle and chlorophyll has magnesium. But this is why chlorophyll is so critical to your health. During World War II, when they ran out of blood for transfusions for the injured, they would give them liquid chlorophyll because it would build their blood and help them heal just as fast as if they had had a blood transfusion. So when you're looking for ways to build your health and build your blood and build your immune system, probably the number one thing is chlorophyll. And if you go back to why I started all this 10 years ago when my sister had her breast cancer and she was going to go through chemotherapy and her oncologist wanted her immune system to be as strong as possible. While she was getting the chemo, she told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet which turned out to be basically one full of plants because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that build your immune system. Now we've always been told by our mothers to eat greens and that, you know, drinking green juices are cleansing. Well, what exactly does that mean? Well, I looked into it and I found out that chlorophyll is a fat based pigment. Now why is that important? Because your cells need healthy fats to keep them allowing nutrients in and toxins to go out. Because if you don't have healthy cell walls, you can eat all the green, all the food that you want, but the nutrients won't be getting in and the toxins won't be getting out because. Which causes the mitochondria to get damaged, which then leads to other, more free radicals, which leads to rogue cells, which can lead to other illnesses. So when you are eating things that are green. Well, I found out that chlorophyll, remember I just talked to you about chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a fat pigment, so it heals the cell walls. That's why it's cleansing. I say it's like washing your windows. You know, when you're driving and your windows are dirty, you can't see out and nobody and you can't let sunlight in. Same with your house. So think of chlorophyll as the window washers for your cell walls. This allows healthy nutrients to get in and toxins to get out. And this will keep your body and your cellular structure healthier. So that supports your immune system more naturally. It's just science, it's just biochemistry. And unfortunately none of us have been taught this in school. We've been taught things like, you know, how to work our cell phones and how to set up a computer, but.

Or how to follow our traditional doctor's orders. Really, like that's what the majority of people are taught. But this doctor seemed woke. The one that was working with your sister?

Yes, well, I was up in Canada and so they have a different medical system there. So I mean, I'm still stunned and so grateful that she mentioned this to her because it changed her life and it certainly changed mine as well. There are functional medicine doctors. It's a growing Area where they use help. People use food as sort of a regime to follow instead of drugs. Asians, the Japanese, they've been using herbs and plants for centuries. Centuries. Mushrooms. There's a whole history that we've ignored. The native Indians in America from way back, whether it was the country of India or African or Mexican or Asian, people have used food and herbs to heal themselves forever. It's just recently in the last hundred years here in America, we've been using drugs and surgery, which are very good for serious immediate crises, but not for prevention. And unfortunately, our MDs get very little or no nutrition education when they're in school. So it's really up to us to educate ourselves about how our bodies work and what we can give to them to help them function both mentally at our peak and physically at our peak. Fortunately, it's usually the same food groups like algae.

What are you seeing right now? So from your position, the founder and CEO of Energy Bits, this is is a company that produces organic. I want to say that loudly organic, because there are so many ways that people can grow these crops without the right intention. So how do you actually source them? I mean, do you have fields in Asia? Where are you getting this stuff from?

Yes, well, we grow ours in Taiwan. Taiwan is world renowned for having the highest quality algae. They have very high standards. Our algae is grown in triple filtered spring mountain water. You have to remember, I wasn't planning on building a company. I just wanted to help my sister. And then I thought, well, I can help a few more people. So every single thing I've done from the very, very beginning was just to help people. And so that meant that every decision I made was emphasizing people's safety. So we sell nothing else but algae, whether it's the strains of algae that we use, the growing techniques, the drying techniques, and I want to talk to you a little bit about that. We don't put any binders in, so it's 100% algae. We do third party lab tests here in the U.S. i think I'm the only company that does third party lab tests. We also even test for neurotoxins, which of course there are none because it's grown so carefully, because you can read a lot of stuff online and you can get worried about a lot of things. But none of that affects. None of those toxins are in our algae because we're so careful about how we grow it.

Do you mind me asking you about that? Because I think there's confusion about laws from food and things being grown overseas. Have you actually been to the place where they grow it? In other words, have you seen where your stuff comes from?

Well, it's a long. It's. You know, when I started this, I had a lot to learn and so I joined forces with a gentleman who's been helping me and has gone over to Taiwan probably 20 times. In fact, he's married to a Taiwan lady. And so he's gone over and he oversees it for me because I have not been able to leave because it's a good two week trip to go over there. But I'm hoping I can do that this year. So we import it in large bulk, so there's no irradiation, it's not done in packages. We import it in bulk and then we do all the packaging here at an FDA approved facility. So very clean rooms. Everyone's in full garb, covered head to toe. So everything is done with the highest safety standards. Now, if we can, I'd like to circle back to talk about the two different algae because one of the things we do and when we're growing them is quite unique, which helps confirm the safety levels that we've gone to, you know, to protect people. So we talked earlier about spirulina and chlorella. So spirulina is a blue green algae, which is technically a bacteria. It has no cellulose wall, so that's one of the reasons why it gets into your bloodstream so quickly. And that's why athletes love it. There's nothing for your body to break down. It never bothers your GI tract. It has the highest concentration of protein in the world. It has three times the amount of protein as steak. It's 64% protein and has 18 of the 20Aminos, including all the the complete aminos, which are the ones that your body can't create. So it also has 40 vitamins and minerals and it gives you energy because of the B vitamins, the very high amount of iron. That is what carries oxygen in your blood. It's what's called a vasodilator. It releases nitric oxide in your body. Nitric oxide relaxes your smooth muscles like your blood vessels, so blood can flow faster, which brings more oxygen and nutrients to your brain and to your body. And then it has that high protein in amino acids. So again, your body doesn't have to break down anything. So it satisfies your hunger, it gives you energy mentally and physically, and it's a really great thing to use for intermittent fasting or when you can't. And again, Remember, it's very efficient. So you could have, you know, have some tablets. I'll show you.

There's a little tablet right here on the screen.

That's right.

And this is the little powerhouse we're talking about. Is this little dot, all of that packed into. How many dots are we talking about in one serving?

Well, we used to tell people to take 30 tablets. That's when we were working with Olympic athletes and, you know, ultra runners. But now that we're working with consumers, you know, if you take three or four of the spirulina, only the spirulina, and we have two versions, we have energy bits and beauty bits, because we. We knew women like things that are pink and cute and also builds your skin and hair. But if you take three or four tablets, that alone will help satisfy your hunger. And probably those three or four tablets have the equivalent of three or four plates worth of vegetables and nutrients in vegetables. So it's very efficient nutrition and you can take it as often as you want. Remember, this is like a. It's like having a supercharged salad. It's very, very concentrated. It's just a dried vegetable, so there's really no upper limit.

I like it in the smoothie. I mean, it's a very strong taste. It's a very mineral taste. I mean, for those of you that eat a lot of vegetables, which obviously in this community we do, we listen to our moms, as you've mentioned before, But a lot of people, and I put this in a smoothie because it's something that really adds a punch. I feel like there's a nutritional punch when I drink it. And we were talking about the spirulina and the chlorella. Yes, there is the chlorella tablets. Here's what they look like. You can get them actually, right now, today. If you're inspired already by this conversation, just go to wellnessforce.com immunity. You get to save 20% off, by the way. Thank you, Catherine, for your generosity in this time, you know, giving us the discount. And then there's also the. There's also the spirulina. So they're both there for you. But the key difference in the chlorella and spirulina you were talking about, I personally feel the most in my body from the chlorella. Why is that?

Yeah, well, and I just want to. We talked about the wellforce buying, you know, where you can buy them? They can buy them@energybits.com and use the. Well, when you get to the coupon box, Put wellforce in the coupon box.

It's actually Wellness Force.

Wellness Force. I'm sorry.

It's all good. It's okay. We are right now, I would say, in our industry, there are so many different things going on. So I just want to make sure you guys and gals know, like, this is a product that I've personally tried myself. And the reason we're bringing Catherine on the show is to talk about the real benefits, the actual, tangible benefits of this algae, this spirulina, and chlorella. So. So the difference between the two is large. I'm. I'm still a little bit confused. Can you give us clarity on the difference?

Yeah. Yeah. So we. I just finished talking about spirulina, which gives you energy mentally and physically satisfies your hunger. It is still very good for your immune system, but it's not an immune builder like chlorella. So chlorella. Remember I said spirulina has the highest concentration of protein in the world? Chlorella has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. Remember that chart that I just showed you about the importance of chlorophyll because it's virtually identical to your blood and that it heals your cell walls? Well, there is nothing in the world with more chlorophyll than chlorella. It has 250 times more chlorophyll than spinach, thousand times more chlorophyll than Chinese greens. It even has 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll and way more even than wheatgrass, because. And most people use wheatgrass for the chlorophyll. But chlorella, that's why it's called chlorella, because of the chlorophyll.

So we'll say that three times fast.

Yeah, Right. So in addition to having the highest chlorophyll, that builds your immune system. That's what we're talking about here, ladies. And gentleme system. You need chlorophyll. And as I mentioned, chlorella, you know, recovery bits, has the highest chlorophyll in the world. In addition to that, chlorella has a very hard cellulose wall. Remember I said the spirulina had none, so it's technically a bacteria. It's called a cyanobacteria. Chlorella has the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom. And the reason why that's important is because it attaches to toxins, heavy metals, lead, mercury, alcohol, lactic acid, radiation it doesn't matter what it is. It detects it, and it will chelate it. It will pull it out of your body. And these heavy metals were all surrounded by toxins. I think there's been 80,000 chemicals released in our world since World War II. And our immune system, remember that immune system? Our immune systems were not built to sustain this heavy, toxic load. And even when they test chemicals, they test them in isolation. They don't, you know, they don't test them in conjunction with all the other toxins that are already in our body. So whether it's aluminum in our brain or lead in our organs, this stuff has to get out. And chlorella is known for pulling it out. They used chlorella at Hiroshima, they used it at Fukushima, they used it at Chernobyl to pull out radiation. An interesting side note is that when the Fukushim disaster happened about eight years ago, within 24 hours, the entire chlorella supply in the world was bought up, because everybody in Asia knows that chlorella is the only thing that pulls out radiation. So if it can pull out radiation, it can pull out other toxins that are in your body. You've got to get those toxins out. So that's the other reason.

Let's pause there. Just so that lands the difference between the chlorella and spirulina. So spirulina is for the mannose binding lectins that penetrate and break down the cellular walls of viruses and significantly reduce viruses. That's the spirulina component. But the chlorella is about fighting viral infections. So when it comes to the viral component of this. Tell us about the chlorella spirulina connection.

Yeah, they're both important. And fortunately, we have another product called Vitality Bits, which is a blend of the two algae. So you could either buy them separately if you wanted, or you could buy them blended. Normally, we emphasize spirulina for its energizing capabilities, but there was that research that came out about the spirulina. It's the phycocyanin, which is the pigment in spirulina. Remember, we talked about chlorophyll being a pigment. Chlorophyll is green. We all know that. Well, in spirulina, there is a second pigment, and that's why it's called a blue green algae is because this second pigment is blue and it's called phycocyanin. And it has a lot of interesting healing attributes. One of them is it has what's called Anti angiogenesis properties. Now, what is that you say as a mouthful, right?

You've been saying a lot of large words here. Yes.

Yeah, I'm sorry. I can nerd out on you. So angiogenesis is when tumors or cancers basically reroute your blood vessels to feed them because they need the blood supply to continue to grow. There are certain things that stop the growth of that process, and that's called antiangiogenesis, because when the tumors basically hijack your blood vessels, that's called angiogenesis. So anti angiogenesis is stopping that. And the phycocyanin, the blue pigment, and it's that color. If you put one of these on a plate and that's the color that comes out of it, that has healing capabilities. And apparently it also has a similar effect on the viruses. It's able to crack through. But normally spirulina is not considered sort of a healing algae like chlorella is, but in this case, it is. It has that one unique capability because of the blue phycocyanin. But in general, chlorella is your immune builder. It builds the cell walls, it builds your blood, it cleanses your liver. Only 10% of chlorophyll gets actually digested in your. In your stomach. The rest of it travels through your liver and down through your colon. And because chlorella also absorbs carcinogens, it's not only cleansing your colon while it's going traveling, it's also pulling out the carcinogens. So it's a very, very healing algae.

For the delivery, though. I'm curious on the delivery system. So there's tablets. Why not do a powder? Why are the tablets better for delivery?

Yeah. Well, because we wanted people to be able to carry them with them. We work with a lot of traveling teams, NHL teams, Olympic teams. People go to work. You can't. When you're sitting in traffic and you haven't had breakfast or you're in a waiting room for an airport, you can't mix up something with powder.

We've all had that accident where we spill powder on our clothes or in our car. It goes everywhere.

Yeah. So as a small company, I had to make a choice. It does common powder, but I wanted it to be available for a much larger group of people. Also kids. This is really great for your kids, for your pets. So moms who have kids going to play soccer, once that starts kicking up again, instead of giving them a sugary bar to give them energy for their workout, give them just a couple of tablets. Of spirulina and afterwards give them a little chlorella. We didn't really dwell on it, but there are a hundred thousand studies that document all of the different benefits from spirulina and chlorella. And the problem is the science has not moved out of the scientific world. And that's what I've been doing for the last 10 years, is digging through the science and trying to pull out little nuggets that help people. I don't say anything that I'm not backed up with in science. And we're starting to put more of them on our website so that people can understand it. And so, for example, here's a report that I found, and we'll put this on our website and I'll send it to you as well. Doing a study on chlorella, how it helps build the immune system for athletes, because, you know, athletes push themselves really hard and that puts a stress on their immune system. So they fed them chlorella and found out that their immune, what's called their mucosal immune function improved that. Remember, we talked at the very beginning. Your immune system is in your gut, is in your mouth, anywhere that your body is interacting with the environment. And it's where pathogens get stopped, where viruses get stopped. Of course, that's the number one issue on everyone's mind right now, is how do we stop the virus? And building your immune system is the way to do it. And there's lots of science that shows chlorella has been used for this purpose for decades. So I'm very eager to get people aware of this.

How long do you think somebody or have you seen any research to actually take the chlorella, the spirulina, the organic algae, before they feel or notice a immune boost? Because, let's be real, it's kind of hard to quantify. Hey, now my immune system is 25% better. Do you know what I mean? Like, the immune system is so unique for all of us. And you talked about, it's our mouth, it's our gut, it's a lot of things. It's our health overall. There's so many components that plug into it, like sleep as well, you know, and the foods that we eat. So how have you seen this? Do you have any stories? I mean, beyond, you know, your amazing sister? Do you have any stories that support this?

We have customers emailing us virtually every day. But I'll tell you a few of them. There's a gentleman by the name of Dr. Dominique D', Agostino, very well known in the keto community. He's also a scientist at the University of Florida and he works with NASA and he's been going on what's called NEEMO missions with them for the, I don't know how many years.

What's a NEEMO mission?

It's the submarine. They go down into in a submarine for a week.

Got it.

And so they're look, because in those controlled environments they're trying to identify the stressors on the astronauts who would be in a similarly confined environment with controlled oxygen and limited movement. And so they do blood work 24 hours a day and to find out how their inflammation is, what their oxygen uptake levels are, and consistently his immune function and his inflammation levels, his inflammation levels are as low as they've ever been. And his immune function and his hemoglobin counts and his white blood cell counts and his T cell counts, they're the highest they've ever been. And it's, you know, they attribute that to the algae. So in fact we mentioned earlier that NASA, one of the first foods they want to grow in space is algae. Not only because of, remember we talked about the, it releases oxygen. So they want to be able to have oxygen in the space whatever, but because it's so concentrated, you get so much nutrition from such a small amount. And it's efficient, efficient nutrition because the key thing is to keep your immune system. So Dr. D' Agostino is one of the, is a great example and he's, fortunately he likes us and he, he endorses us and actually recommends our product to everybody. So that's terrific.

I think it's fascinating that in outer space the one food they want to put in the top three is algae. And it also happens to be the oldest food 4 billion years ago that was on our planet. And I think, you know, a lot of the people in our world here, they subscribe to more of a paleo or a keto or just a whole food, natural, even plant based diet. You don't have to look too far for the clues because they've always existed in nature. In other words, like whole lean meats and whole plants and just whole foods in general. That's really what this is. But what's different about this is this is a building block. I mean this is like the undercurrent of all things because so many things actually eat the algae and then we eat those things as well.

Right? You can't get any further down the food chain than algae. And by the way, I'm glad you mentioned paleo and keto because it is keto, it is paleo, it is vegan, it's raw. The spirulina is actually live. The chlorella is not because we have to crack the cell wall in order for your body to absorb it, but it fits into every single lifestyle or food choice. So you don't have to worry about any of that. And there's no sugar, gluten or any of that sort of stuff. So. So Dr. D' Agostino is a great source. We work with cardiologists like Dr. Joel Kahn and we've also worked with some other cardiologists who've been recommending our algae for years because especially the chlorella, because it has not only does it reduce inflammation and it also reduces your cholesterol and it reduces blood pressure. But chlorella has your daily requirement of something called vitamin K2. Now a lot of people probably know about, it's what makes things green. And there is K1 in both Spirulina and Chlorella, but K2 is a variation on K1, and virtually everybody in America is deficit in K2. Well, what exactly does K2 do? Well, K2 moves calcium out of soft tissue. Soft tissue like your blood vessels, your brain, your skin, your organs. What they're learning is that 50% of heart disease is because of calcification of your blood vessels. That's what arteriosclerosis is, it's the hardening of your arteries. Guess what's hardening? It's calcium that's hardening. And why does people have a shortage of K2? Well, there's virtually no natural food sources of K2. It either comes from grass fed animal protein, a dish called natto, which is Japanese nobody eats, or it's in the chlorellas, a lesser amount in the spirulina. And why are we so short? Well, up until the sixt, everything was fine because all the animals were grazing on pasture. And animals have an extra bacteria in their gut that can convert the K1 that's in the things that are green like grass, it can convert the K1 to K2. So when we eat grass fed animal protein, we would get the K2. So everything was fine until the 60s. And then in the late 60s, early 70s, the farmers realized if they move the animals off the pastures and into enclosures and fed them corn, no, green and corn, they would get fatter faster. And that's what they did. And overnight the supply of K2 in our diet disappeared. And that's exactly when Heart disease started escalating at the same time when Alzheimer's started escalating because all this calcium, what happens is we have D3 and we take calcium, and it's not going to our bones. It's migrating into our body, soft tissue and causing health problems. So you need K2 to move that calcium out of your blood vessels, out of your organs. Kidney stones are mostly calcification. They're realizing Alzheimer's is partly calcification of your brain. So not only does someone like Dr. Kahn endorse algae in general and chlorella in particular, but also ours because we're so safe and pure. But one of the things it does is it moves that calcium out of blood, your blood vessels, and into your bones.

It's fascinating. It's fascinating to me. Sorry to interrupt you. It's fascinating to me to think about how many people don't even know that this exists, because I think most people might see it in the grocery store. Let's go to where people actually are. Somebody's in the store, they see, like, the wrapping paper around sushi, and they think that might be algae or seaweed. This is, like, further from the truth as anything could be, really. What we're talking about is one of the OG original foods. Not just a supplement, like an actual food that's whole that we can use to boost our immunity. So if you're just tuning in right now or if you're thinking, wow, I really would like to get ahold of this, go to wellnessforce.com immunity. You can get all the information there. It'll redirect right to the Energybit site. Catherine, when we look at the chlorella equation, is there some kind of delivery system inside of the chlorella where it really packs the punch? In other words, what are the actual nutrients, the micronutrients that are inside of the chlorella, that give us all this nutrition? Because it's not a caloric thing. It's not like people are eating a bunch of calories with this, right?

No. There's only one calorie per tablet. There's 40 vitamins and minerals. And I can send you the nutrient chart, but it's everything from all the B vitamins. It has all your electrolytes, magnesium, potassium, boron, all of vitamin A, iron. And the thing that everyone needs to understand is that supplements are made from extracts, and extracts don't exist in nature. And just to take vitamin C, for example, almost all your supplements are made with ascorbic acid. Well, if you actually dig into what Makes up vitamin c. There's apparently 222 components because there's things like enzymes and coenzymes and factors and co factors which most people wouldn't understand. But when you only have just that one piece that's an extract, nothing works as well. That's why the amounts in your supplements have to be so high, because your body only absorbs maybe 5 or 5% of it. And when you eat food, like, particularly like algae, Mother Nature in her wisdom especially, has put everything together so that work in harmony. It's the difference between listening to a soloist and an orchestra. Algae is the orchestra because it has every single thing that you need to live on. In fact, I was the one that discovered that the nutrient profile of spirulina and also chlorella are virtually identical to mother's breast milk. And I can send you the article about that.

Okay, how did you find that out? Like, where were you when you came to that?

Well, I was just going. I was reading, I'm always reading, trying to understand what's so amazing. Why does this stuff work so well? So I saw a chart from back in the 50s of the Amino acid profile of spirulina of mother's breast milk. And I thought, wow, that looks really familiar. And I checked back to my amino acid profile for spirulina, and wouldn't you know, it's exactly the same aminos in almost virtually exactly the same proportion. Because the proportions are really important. It's not just whether they've got them all, it's what are the proportions. So that made sense to me because I had learned that in Japan, if babies were born and they could not digest mother's breast milk, the only thing that kept them alive was the spirulina or the chlorella in water. And I always wondered what was it that was keeping them alive? And it was these nutrients. So mother's breast milk we all know is the perfect food. Well, you can't very well get any mother's breast milk after the age of two. So algae is your next best shot and you could live on this forever. I wouldn't recommend it.

I'm just. I think this is the coolest analogy is these superfoods, this algae is like the breast milk of Gaia, the breast milk of the mother, the Mother Earth.

Mother Earth.

I've never made that connection before.

That's so cool, the Mother Earth analogy. I just never. That's. That's brilliant. I've never made that connection. But it is. I mean, it's her wish for us to be healthy. And they work so differently. I used to say, well, you know, I thought Mother Nature had a sense of humor because she would give us the spirulina to give us energy for our day, and then she would give us the chlorella that we would take at night. Because your body goes through a detox cycle when you're sleeping. So we recommend you take this. You go to bed, by the way, it has the highest concentration of tryptophan in the world, so it also helps you sleep. But this will pull out your toxins for your day. And then you get up in the morning and you have your spirulina the next day. And when you go to bed, you have your chlorella like, this is it. This is your. This is your answer. This is from Mother Nature. We don't. You know, I can't take any credit for this. Yes, we just. We just market it. This is Mother Nature. She loves us. And if we would just show her a little more love and take care of her a little better, things would be a lot easier. But we're getting there.

I'm so appreciative that you mentioned that if we would take care of her better. And also that starts with how we take care of ourselves. So if we're taking really good care of us, then that's going to take care of the soil, that's going to take care of our systems and our economy and our brothers and sisters. And what we're all experiencing right now is we're all experiencing what happens when we treat our mother and when we treat each other poorly. I mean, that's really what this virus is. What happens, Catherine, when you and I get sick, our temperature rises, we start cooking off. Our immune system is there to protect us, to help us. I feel like the way we've been treating each other and the planet, the response of this corona or any virus actually. Is the planet actually being sick from us.

Absolutely. I completely agree. And, you know, like, remember I said at the very beginning, there's got to be a silver line. There's got to be a reason why this is happening. And I think this is the opportunity for all of us to step back, do a little self evaluation. The pace that we've been keeping up, the purchasing, you know, the needs, the things that we need, like maybe we don't need. In fact, it's ironic because I've just. We're just posting in a couple of days our blog for April, which is going to be. It's focused on environmental and mother earth and you know, self care. When you give yourself self care, you're actually also caring for the earth because when you are well, you will feel more love. You will feel more love not only for yourself, but for other people and for the earth. In Canada, we don't throw things on the ground. We're taught not to do that. We're just much, we're very respectful of the environment. And I think this is a moment for all of us to step back and say, you know, maybe, maybe this is what this is all about. We just eat better, care for ourselves better. What we put in our body affects everything. And maybe we just need to be making better choices. But don't also go down that blame thing because you only know what you know. And now that you know a little bit about algae, you can't unknown it.

You can't unknown it. So you're with us here and you've gone on this journey which Kathryn, I'm just so impressed by your science and the academic research and just the rigor. I mean NASA and many organizations studies. We're going to link in the show notes as well that there was a published study about nutraceuticals for boosting interferon response to RNA viruses, including influenza and the coronavirus. So basically what they're saying is there has been research that's shown this may actually help in people to recover faster or people to not even get the virus in the first place. Look, look, I'm not able to make medical claims and neither are you. But we all know the reason we have to say that is because there's a lot of companies out there that hold pharmaceutical drugs in the highest regard. This is not a pharmaceutical drug. This is a mother's milk that we can all actually eat from an algae source. And I'm just so impressed, I'm just so enamored with the way that you've been able to lead this conversation. Because to be honest, before a year and a half ago, I hadn't even really heard of algae. I hadn't really heard of the benefits. And I think so many people are in that same camp. My question for you is what do people get wrong when people look at algae and chlorella and spirulina and these types of foods? What do they typically think of and what do they get wrong that you wish they didn't?

Well, because we are all so set in our ways and if we were a little egocentric and we say, well, if I don't know about it, it can't possibly be important. But then I point out to people, well, 50 years ago, you didn't know about stevia, and it's everywhere now. 20 years ago, you didn't know about chia, but it. Chia seed. But it had been around in South America for decades or centuries, and now it's everywhere here. Flaxseed. There's a lot of things that have been existing and used in other countries for centuries. So I tell people, algae isn't new. It's just new to you. In Asia, they're so used to seeing farms of spirulina and chlorella and big trucks moving big supplies of algae off to get dried. Here in Boston, we're used to seeing Dunkin Donuts trucks drive by. So it's just a matter of familiarity. So when I learned about this, and I spent, like I said, four or five years by myself digging through the science, because I thought, if I'm going to do this, I have to be 100% sure that what I'm seeing and reading and saying to people is backed by science. And it used to be hurtful. People would call me names like, you know, snake oil salesman. It's like, no, you don't get it. You don't understand it. So when you ask me what's. What's been wrong, well, people just aren't familiar with it. So what I did was I. Instead of calling it spirulina and chlorella, which are two difficult names to spell or say. So that's why I picked really, you know, nice names like recovery bits. Helps you recover your health. Energy. Energy bits. Geez, I wonder what that does. So I picked things that were easy for people to say and to remember. I speak at conferences, I speak on podcasts. We're going to start doing webinars. I make it easy for people to learn the science that's taken me 10 years to aggregate, and I just share it with people. But the reason why it never got popular here is because there's no patent on this. Because it's just a food.

Exactly.

Like, you can't. You can't patent broccoli. Well, you can't patent algae either. It's just a vegetable. So the biotech companies wouldn't do. Takes a lot of effort to educate people. So the food companies, they don't take high risks educating people. It takes a small entrepreneur who's doing things with their passion and with their heart to, you know, to move the needle. And that's. That was me. I mean, I just decided that this was my path. And then I done everything I can visually with the website, with the names, the packaging, just to make it familiar. Because people don't like things that are unfamiliar. People think algae is pond scum. Well, yeah, it is, but not the stuff that we grow. This is the most nutrient dense, healthy food. I call it efficient nutrition. And if you take this every day, you probably. We have lots of people that are older and they don't even have health care anymore because they say you're my health care.

This is fascinating because did you ever even think like when your sister was going through her initial diagnosis, when the physician was smart enough, really just aware enough to recommend these alkaline sources, did you ever even think that 10 years, flash forward 10 years later that you'd be sitting here with me on a podcast talking about the algae, the spirulina, the chlorine?

Not in a million years. I just, and that was so, you know, I thought about that the other day and that's why again, I tell people, when you hear a little voice that says, you know, when something doesn't feel right or when something does feel right, but it goes against everything that you believe, if it feels right, if it feels truthful, it probably is. And just, you know, give your soul, give yourself some self belief that there's something that you can do and like, you can't deny the truth forever. And algae. That's why I'm so proud to be selling, you know, telling people about algae because I, I'd like to be very truthful and honest and high integrity and algae is, I'd say it's like your best friend, it will never disappoint you, ever. It's just so full of integrity and does everything that you want and more. It just, it stuns me and it's just this single cell organism, you know.

Well, I love again the science, but to shift into the emotional because we talk about em intelligence so much on the show. What have you seen in your own life in the way that you've consumed algae, the spirulina, the chlorella? Has it made you smarter? Has it made you more present? Is there things that we really can't quantify but that are anecdotal, that are real for you and real for the people that take your products?

I wouldn't say it's maybe smarter, but it's, you know, 10 years later, I'm just so glad that I had the confidence. I mean I was as fearful as anybody could be. I mean, here I was building a Company and I had that I had no background in, But it makes me feel clean. In fact, with the chlorella, I say it's like giving your body a shower from the inside. We all have a shower every morning. Well, this gives you a shower on the inside. And people just tell me that they just feel good. And people have to admit you just feel bad after you eat a really bad fast food meal, and rightfully so, because you know in your heart of hearts it was not the right decision. But know you, this is the right decision. And intuitively, your body knows it. And you're asking me how long it takes for people to start noticing? Well, the spirulina gets into your bloodstream within five minutes. So you'll start to feel a bit more energy, a little bit more focus. It's not a stimulant, so it's not like you're going to get a lightning bolt from the sky. You'll just realize you're not hungry, that you're alert. The best way to describe it is you feel fresh. Like, don't we all want to feel fresh? It's just that you just feel like you had a great night's sleep. And same with the chlorella. It does take an hour and a half because it has a hard cell wall to get into your system. But intuitively, and by the way, because there's so much chlorophyll, your poop might be a little green, but that, that's a badge of honor because it tells you that everyone poops.

Catherine, it's okay. We're all human beings here. Well, I've so enjoyed this. And the takeaway from me just in researching for the show and understanding, like, what this is all about is we all have many tools to build our immune system, but I think one of the most important ones is what we put into our system. You know, our sleep and our hydration are great. And this isn't a show about sleep and hydration. We know that if you're here with us, you're doing those things well, or you're doing your best anyways. But the reason why I wanted to talk about this is really, this is more than just a supplement. This is a food. So I didn't know all the NASA studies. I had no idea of the published research. Give this a test drive. You can go to wellnessforce.com immunity. There's a 20% discount code using Wellnessforce. Kathryn, we covered a lot of ground specifically in the science. Is there anything that you think we missed when it comes to these benefits.

I forgot to mention that in 1974, the United nations had a global conference and declared spirulina algae the answer to world hunger in 1974. So that was, like, almost 50 years ago. So 50 years ago, the United nations identified the remarkable nutrient value of algae 50 years ago. And I say to myself, okay, well, let's do something about it. I want my company to grow and be strong so we can help make a difference in the world. Give this stuff away to disaster areas, school lunches, nursing homes, and teach people around the world how to grow this because they can feed themselves forever. And by the way, it only takes a month to grow and then a couple weeks to dry. So the US government, in the Farm Bill of 2019, issued the very first Algae Agricultural act, because even they have realized the nutrient density of this stuff. And it's virtually all grown in Asia, and it needs to be grown here, and I want to grow it here. So there's so many organizations around the world that know about this, that endorse this, but it takes somebody like us to educate people so that we can build the momentum. And I'm in this for life. You know, this is my life path. And I just want everybody to be healthier, to protect themselves, their families, their pets. And this is the simplest, easiest, fastest way to do it.

Wow. Well, mic drop on that one. I mean, we've all felt your energy for this podcast, and I just want to thank you for what you're doing in the world, because right now, there's a lot of people that are trying to point fingers and trying to figure out, like, honestly, what the heck is going on. But so let's take a big breath and pull way back from that and just think, okay, what are the ways of being and what are the tools and the foods we can actually consume that will allow us to meet whatever demands are coming next? And I think this is really one of those tools, one of those foods. When we look at this being a source of our wellness, how would you actually define wellness for yourself? You know, in other words, how does Catherine define wellness? What does it mean to live a life well, to be well in this world?

Well, for me, so much of it is feeling that I'm on my life path, which I am, and then having the energy to do everything I want to do on my life path and to share the love that I feel for myself, my product, my community, my world, and do it in a way that's respectful, full of integrity, which means honoring the earth, Mother Earth. And everybody on it. We're all on this earth together. So for me, I'm so lucky. It's so funny because I haven't paid myself a dime in 10 years. So I'm probably the poorest I've ever been in my life. But I'm the happiest because I know that I'm doing what I'm here to do. So there's a remarkable satisfaction that comes from that. Eventually the money will come, but so I'm doing what I want to do. I have the energy, I have the health. I'm quite a bit older. I'm probably twice your age, so, I mean, I'm in that category. That should be that age group that should be worried.

That's great because I'm only 22, so.

Okay, well, you're 22.

No, just kidding. I'm 39. I'm 39.

Okay. Well, if you were 22, I'd be almost three times your age, so.

Well, it's a testament.

Yeah. So there you go. This stuff works and I'm testament to it. And so that's wellness for me. Being on my path, being full of love, wanting to share and being respectful of everybody and everything I come into in contact with.

Well, we're appreciative for you. Again, wellnessforce.com immunity. You can get 20% off of these incredible whole foods, not just supplements. We are all bombarded by supplements right now. This is a food. So eat real foods, love one another, take more deep breaths until we see you again. Kathryn and I both are wishing you love and wellness. Thank you for listening to the show.

Take care. Bye.