Cleanse, Detox, and Energize with Spirulina & Chlorella, with Dr. Catharine Arnston

Foreign.

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Feel Freaking Amazing podcast. I'm Wendy Trubo. Star sighting today at Levitan and triple star sighting because we have a newly minted PhD, Katherine Arnsten. Dr. Arnston is an expert in algae nutrition, a wellness thought leader and an experienced entrepreneur and a sought after speaker. She has an MBA, ba, ons, is a board certified health coach and just got her PhD. So as we say in Boston, she's wicked smart.

Yeah, like that.

She has an algae company. So Catherine, welcome to the show. First of all, it's lovely to see you again.

So great to see you. I didn't realize it had been two years, so well overdue and I'm grateful to be back.

Agreed. So I guess the first question, you know you have this company where you do algae. How'd you get into it?

Yeah, I know. How does algae you think you know, what's that about? Well, I'm actually Canadian. I've lived in Boston for 35 years. But I mentioned the Canadian thing because gosh, 15 years ago my younger sister, I have two sisters, all my family's still in Canada. One of them developed breast cancer and her oncologist advised her to change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help with her healing as she was going through chemo. So the they didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was or why it was good for her. So her first call was to me, her big sister who loves her and I'm just a good researcher, hence the PhD. Right. So I just found out that an alkaline diet was a plant based diet. I did some deep dive on the research of the foods to eat. The deep dive to alkaline food led me to algae, which is the most alkaline food in the world, endorsed by the United nations and NASA as being the most nutrient dense food in the world. It's been, there's 100,000 studies that document all of the health benefits of algae. It's been used in Asia Daily for 60 years where it's a multi billion dollar agricultural crop. And it turned out that algae, the only problem with algae is nobody outside of Asia knows about all of its healing properties because of the dense nutrients that aren't found in any other food. So I decided I would change that. And at the time I had no nutrition background. But as you can see, I've spent 14 years now researching it, getting my different educational qualifications and I'm more passionate about help people understand algae nutrition than ever before because it is effortless, it's documented and it works.

So what are algae?

So algae. And what we'll talk about is how the reason why it's effortless is because we put it into tiny tablets that you can swallow or chew. So there's a couple of cool things about algae is. First of all, it was the first life on Earth. Not just the first plant, but the very first life, almost 4 billion years ago, and it's still here. And it was a cyanobacteria like spirulina. You're going to find out that spirulina is not even a plant, it's a bacteria, it's a cyanobacteria. So I tell people there's something spiritual about being the first life on Earth. I now call Spirulina spiritualina for that reason. Right. But in addition to that, algae is actually a food. It's its own food category, because it's not really a plant, certainly not an animal. And there's two main types of spirulina. There's that macro algae and there's microalgae. Let me tell you about macroalgae. We're going to be talking about microalgae today. But macroalgae is that big stringy stuff that you see washing up on shore, also known as seaweed. Now, it's good for you because it has lots of fiber, but it has virtually no nutrition. And it has iodine in it because it comes from the sea. It's only found in the sea, which is why it's called seaweed. Now, microalgae is completely opposite. It has virtually no fiber or no fiber. Like spirulina, it is everywhere, not just the sea, it's also in the lakes, the rivers, the streams, the soil, your aquarium. And it is the most nutrient dense food in the universe. You can get. You can't see it. It's called microalgae because it's microscopic in size. You can get something like a million microalgae on the head of a pin. So this is why it's when you consolidate it into these little tablets, this is how they take it in Asia. This is how we sell it. You can start to see why it's so concentrated with nutrients. It has 40 vitamins and nutrients, the highest chlorophyll in the world, the highest protein in the world. And there are tens of thousands of strains of microalgae, macroalgae. There's just a few. There's blue or, sorry, green, brown, red. But with microalgae tens of thousands. And the two main ones people are aware of is blue green algae and. And green algae. Now, I mention this because lots of people will go online and they'll read about a blue green algae closing their favorite beach. Well, we're not. That's not the kind of blue green algae we sell or that you find in Whole Foods or even Target, because one strain of blue green algae is spirulina and one strain of green algae is chlorella. And those two strains are harvested and as food crops in freshwater farms hydroponically. So while there is blue green algae in the ocean, it is not spirulina. So the important thing is for people to know that spirulina and chlorella, which are two microalgae, are food. They are harvested hydroponically in fresh water, so no ocean toxicity, no microtoxins. And then we're well best known because of the quality of our production processes that restore, retain all the nutrients and ensure there are no toxins. Because I tell people, growing algae isn't like growing broccoli or carrots. It's more like making wine. And when you make wine, the quality of the wine is affected by the angle of the sun. We grow ours in Taiwan, which is world renowned for having the highest quality spirulina, chlorella. And it's also the production processes. And so the way we grow it, we preserve all these nutrients so that you get the best value from taking it.

Okay, there's a lot to unpack there. And I have a question.

Okay, okay.

Really basic question. I think I missed this part. What's the difference between cholerella and spirulina? Is it just that they come from different yet?

So.

Okay, thank you. I was like, did I miss the tone?

Yeah, no, you didn't miss it. So I was setting the tone that there's algae as a food category, there's macroalgae and microalgae. Within microalgae, there's tens of thousands of strains, including blue, green and green. And strain of blue green is spirulina, and one strain of green is chlorella. Now, they are completely different, and what they do in your body is completely different. It's as different as night is from day, black from white. So let me walk you through the differences. Spirulina is a blue green algae. It's called that because it has two pigments. One pigment is chlorophyll, which people are probably familiar with. The other pigment is a blue pigment called phycocyanin. Now, most people will never have heard phycoc. It's spelled P H Y C O C Y A N I N. And I want you to know about it and I want you to be able to spell it because it is proven to kill cancer cells. So you can go on Google and Google phycocyanin and cancer treatments, and you'll see that they're already using phycocyanin for cancer treatments. So that's pretty important. But nonetheless, the main thing that spirulina is known for is providing the body with energy and nourishment. We call our spirulina energy bits for that reason. The way it gives you energy is because it's loaded with amino acids. It has 18, 20 of the 20, including the nine your body can't make. And it's loaded with B vitamins, which convert the aminos into glucose and energy. So you get an immediate increase in focus and physical energy. And it has nutrients that improve the generation of cellular energy, which is called ATP. This kind of energy is quite different from the kind of energy you would get from a stimulant. When you take coffee, sugar, those are stimulants. And what they do is they. It's like putting paper on a fire. You get a burst of energy, but also a crash. When you take spirulina for energy, it's like putting a log on the fire. You don't feel it immediately. It's at the cellular level because it's generating ATP, which then is directed to whatever energy needs you have in the moment. Maybe you're writing an exam. It will give you brain focus. Maybe you're doing a workout. It will give you more energy focus. So it's very cellular energy driven. So it's. Energy bits is what we call ours because of that. So very energizing and very healing to the mitochondria who generate all that cellular energy. Yes.

You have no idea where I'm going with this, but we were out. Where were we? Oh, Phoenix.

I was wondering when that I have.

To bring this up. So we were out in Phoenix and we were at a raw vegan restaurant, which I normally don't do that well with. I just. I don't know why. But that's not to say it's bad. I just don't do that well with it. But we got this drink. Catherine. I have not been able to find the drink. It was blue. It was the phycocyanin. I looked online to buy phycocyanin I cannot find it. So I'm hoping you can direct me to where to find. Because I don't want a green drink, I want a blue drink.

Yes.

That's not dyed.

Yes. Well, you will get, you will get phycocyan. Our algae has the highest concentration of phycocyanin in the world.

Will it make my drink blue if I blend it though?

That's the most important thing. Yes. And I'm going to show you something and I will send you these images in links because I want you to see the difference. I was looking for this. I have a picture of the different pigments. Sorry, I can't, can't seem to find it. But if you take some of our spirulina tablets and you put it in a plate, I'm going to show you. If you put it in a plate, that's the color that comes out. Blue. Blue. If you put chlorella in a plate with water, that's the color that comes out because it's just chlorophyll. Now you'll also notice that the blue pigment from the spirulina disperses evenly through the water. That's because phycocyanin is a water based pigment as opposed to chlorophyll, which is a fat based pigment. They are completely different. So spirulina, the energy bits does have some chlorophyll in it, but it's only chlorophyll's only in the green green algae. Chlorella and spirulina is the only place in the universe that has the blue pigment phycocyanin.

So I have some of your spirulina at home. So if I blend it in water, it's going to turn blue. Is this what you're telling me?

Well, yes, it should. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Okay, stay tuned. I'll, I'll do a little Instagram reel and I'll tag you once I go home and do it because I really want to drink a blue drink.

Well, because it will depend on what else you're putting in there. If, if you're mixing it with other greens, you know, the green could dilute the blue.

Touch that.

Yeah, yeah.

Just spirulina.

Yeah. But I do want to point out that, and this is what, you know, harking back to our high quality phycocyanin, the pigment phycocyanin is deactivated by high heat. And when you buy dried phycocyanin, which you can get on Amazon or if you get it from a lower priced algae. They usually use high heat to dry it so you'll get the blue. But when you deactivate the phycocyanin, it will no longer have the cancer killing capabilities if it was kept intact without high heat. So anyways, going back to Spirulina, nourishing 40 vitamins and minerals, heals the mitochondria, improves cellular energy, improves it satisfies your hunger. Both algae have zero carbs by the way, so they're great for intermittent fasting. A lot of people use the spirulina when they are doing intermittent fasting because it does not interfere with the fast and it satisfies your hunger and gives you energy. So you know, problem solved. So anyway, so very, very. So we that's with energy bits or spirulina. Very, very nourishing, very, very satisfying for your hunger. People are on the GLP1 drugs, of course they're not eating, so they're not getting nourishment, which can also help you know what will lead to muscle loss. Spirulina is also known for having the highest protein in the world. This is why it's been endorsed by the United nations for 50 years. In 1974 they had a global conference endorsing spirulina as the answer to world hunger because it has the highest protein in the world, 64% protein for our and it's a sustainable protein, it's a crop, it's not animal. So those are the key attributes of spirulina. Now this compares to chlorella which we call ours recovery bits because it's a health and recovery algae does not energize you, does not satisfy your hunger. Not used as much for mitochondria health. It's a detoxing algae. It has the hardest cell wall in the plant kingdom. So it does have fiber. Spirulina, which is a bacteria, has zero fiber, which is a why. And the reason that's important to know is because it gets absorbed almost instantly. There's nothing for your body to break down. Zero fiber to get access to all the nutrients. Chlorella takes about an hour and a half to be fully absorbed. Now that hard cell wall does two really great things. One is it attaches to heavy metals, all toxins, alcohol, lactic acid, alcohol, sorry, aluminum, all the metals, glyphosate, pesticide, anything and detoxes them.

So it's mycotoxins. Don't forget the mycotoxins. We all have them.

Yes, and there aren't Any in our algae, which there are in most of them because they don't pay as much attention to the way it's grown, but nonetheless very, very detoxing. Spirulina is cleansing, but not detoxing because it's this hard cell wall that attaches to the toxins and pulls them out. Chlorella al, that hard cell wall has fiber in it that feeds your gut biome. So the, you can, the bacteria will, the good bacteria will be increased to help any kind of restoration of any leaky gut and improves the population of the healthy gut. So that's really good. Also, chlorella has the highest concentration of glutathione in the world, which is also a detoxing antioxidant. So the hard cell wall removes toxins. The glutathione also helps remove toxins. The fiber feeds the gut biome. And chlorella has also 40 vitamins and minerals, but slightly different proportions. And they're the right nutrients that heal the immune system. 80% of your immune system is in your gut. And so you need to feed your immune system the nutrients that they need so it can defend you. Because your immune system, I tell people, it's sort of like your police force. It identifies invaders, removes them and makes sure that they don't come back. And so, but you, you know, or, or think of it as a fire, the fire department, it will protect you when a fire breaks out, but you got to give the firemen a hose with water in it. You've got to give your immune system the equivalent of a hose with fire with water, which is what the chlorella does. It gives your immune system what it needs to go to work for you. And that's all in the chlorella. So the other cool thing about chlorella is that it has the highest chlorophyll in the world. That's why it's called chlorella, because of the high chlorophyll. What's so cool about chlorophyll? Well, number one, as I mentioned, it's a fat based pigment, so it heals the cell walls. We take omega 3, vitamin E, all these healthy fats to heal the cell walls so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. Chlorophyll does the same thing, so that's important. Number two, the chemical composition. I'll show you an image of this of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin that's in your red blood cells. When you have healthy blood, you're going to have a healthier body. You need healthy blood to deliver nutrients and oxygen to your brain, to your cells, to your mitochondria. And the only difference between chlorophyll chemical composition and the. And your hemoglobin is that chlorophyll. I'm going to show you it anyways. Chlorophyll has magnesium in the middle, and your hemoglobin has iron. Otherwise, they're virtually identical. And I'll send this to you. So chlorella builds your blood, and that is very healing. Chlorella also has the highest tryptophan in the world, so which helps you get into a deep sleep. This is why we recommend chlorella, which we call recovery bits before bed, because this is when your body goes through a detox repair cycle. So if you have chlorella in your body before you go to sleep, while you're getting your beauty rest, you got. You got the cleanup crew getting rid of aluminum in your brain, toxins and pesticides from your cells. Oh, and I forgot to mention, chlorella also stimulates peristalsis, fancy word for saying a bowel movement. So I tell people it's not just what you. The nutrition that you put in, by the way. It's not just what you eat, it's what you absorb. But you also have to remove what I call the junk in your trunk. So that's what chlorella does. Because if you. This is why colon cancer is on the rise, because people don't like to talk about it. But if you're on medication, you're probably constipated. If you're traveling, you're probably constipated. If you're eating dairy, you're probably constipated. If you're eating processed foods, you're probably constipated. And what happens is all that junk in your trunk sits there and your blood circulates around and picks up the junk that your body didn't want, including toxins, and recirculates them. It's like having the garbage truck parked in front of your house forever. So chlorella stimulates that process of removing them. So this is how I tell people. Spirulina gives you the nourishment you need and the energy you need for your day. And chlorella is the cleanup crew. I came up with this analogy because I stay at hotels when I speak all the time, I realized spirulina because it gives you so much nourishment and energy for the day. It's like having room. Room service at a hotel. And chlorella, because it cleans out all the junk in your trunk and makes everything work and tidy. That's like chlorella. So spirulina is like room service. Chlorella is like housekeeping. And the two of them work beautifully and completely differently. And you want energy in the morning, and you're hungry in the morning. That's when you take spirulina. You want to get rid of the toxins and have a deep sleep and get rid of all the junk in your trunk, as I refer to it. That's chlorella.

Okay, I think we should not step over here, Catherine, because I'll say to someone, are you constipated? They go, no. I go, great. How often are you having a bowel movement? Every two or three days. Okay, that's constipation. If you are not having a bowel movement every day, you are constipated, and it should not be bunny poops. Bunny poops mean you're constipated.

Yeah.

So I just want to put a plug in for every day. It's called. I don't know if you remember.

I know there's a chart that shows you the different types of bowels.

The Bristol chart.

There's the wiener. There's the.

Yes. So look at the Bristol chart online. It'll show you what kind of poops you're having. But there's also something called the oro anal reflex, that when you eat, you're supposed to poop. And we have gotten away from that as a community because partly what we're eating, we sit a lot. We're not on the move. So at least once a day, three to four times if it's formed, is totally fine.

Yeah, yeah.

And, okay, so my second point is how much of this do you need for it to have the effect you're hoping for? Because I'm assuming for the spirulina that a. That a cancer prevention approach is different than a cancer remediation or treatment approach, Right?

Absolutely. Thank you for asking. So we tell people, because it's food, it's up to you how much you have, and there's no upper limit. But we do have a recommendation for people. So for the spirulina, for maintenance of your health, making sure you're getting all the nourishment that you need. And I do call spirulina nutritional insurance, because you'll get 40 vitamins and minerals, all the protein that you need to maintain your cells and your muscular skeletal needs. 10 tablets a day is sufficient. However, if you are in a situation where you are trying to correct or prevent a health condition, maybe you have diabetes, maybe you have a weight loss, you know you're overweight, maybe you have cancer or had cancer, heart disease, any kind of health condition, the protocol would be 30 tablets. Now, you can sort of, you know, vary it a little bit. They don't have to be all taken together. You can take 10 in the morning, 10 at lunch, 10 in the afternoon, or you can have all 30 in the morning or 15 in the morning and 15 at lunch. It doesn't matter. But for we call it therapeutic amount, 30 tablets would be sufficient. By the way, you could take way more than that. We fuel NHL teams, Olympic teams, triathletes, and the, the NHL players, they take 75 spirulina before every game because they need lots of focus and lots of energy on the ice. And then, by the way, they take 75 chlorella after the game because they want it to pull out the lactic acid so they don't have sore muscles. So just to recap, Wait, are they.

Swallowing them or are they chewing up?

Well, they're putting them into. In most cases, they're putting them to a smoothie. But that's a good question. Most people, I will tell you, swallow the spirulina because it's so chewy, because it has so much essential fatty acids, which I didn't mention, so high in protein. But I chew them. You can, but I will say most people do swallow them or add them to a smoothie. But if you like the chewy flavor and you're okay with them, stick, you know, feeling a little sticky to your teeth, completely chewable. Kids love to chew them. Why? Turns their tongues green. They think it's hilarious. So moms and for kids, by the way, both algae are particularly. Spirulina are great for children of all ages, pets, your grandparents. There's probably more nutrition in one tablet. One tablet, more nutrition probably than your grandparents are getting. If they're in a assisted living center, then they're getting all week. It's crazy what this stuff does. So any amount you can get into people. But we generally, for most adults between 18 and 60, we're suggesting 10 tablets a day. But for therapeutic dose, 30 or more.

So, Catherine, I've been taking chlorella for years because I've been dealing with my mold for years and metals. And I have it at home. I have it in my bathroom. And about what, two years ago, I think I was changing over the container, into a different container. And I threw the old container out and the. My cats went in the trash and pulled it out and started chewing on the bag. And I was like, oh, I think they like that. So we gave them chlorella and they snarfed it up. And then we gave them more and they snarked it up. And then it occurred to me maybe we should look and see if this is healthy for our pets. And it is, thank goodness. But every night when we get ready for bed, they come to our bed and it's like their snack. They're waiting for chlorella every night, the.

Cats and dogs in particular. And I have to tell you a funny story. There's a cardiologist who we're working with. He, he and his family, he sent me a little video because they had a pet raccoon visiting them from their neighbor. And they, they threw a couple of tablets on the floor. The raccoon, which is about the size of a baby, small kitten, again, snarfed it up right away. So then they put the bag on the floor and that raccoon went right into the bag, like instantly. And so the animals love it. Another funny story. We had a customer write us that they were hiking in the Appalachians and in the middle of the night a bear broke into their camp. And so everybody scattered and they came back a couple hours later. The baggie that had all the supplements in it had been ripped open by the bot, by the bear. But they were all there. The bag of energy bits, spirulina tablets, ripped open and licked clean. Not a single tablet left. So even the bears know that this stuff is good for them. So. So, yes, great for kids, great for pets. And you, we have dosage amounts, but you again, you can't give them too much. We have people telling us about how their pets had a couple and then they leapt up onto the counter and literally ate the entire bag. Like, that's a thousand tablets. And they were fine. They had some green poop and whatever. But yeah, this stuff. Because animals are getting the same diseases that we're getting because they're still, they're eating in most cases, the same nutrient deprived food, processed food, so. And even worse, they're walking on the grass that's been treated with glyphosate and pesticides. So they're even more at risk as our children.

I have a question for you because. So you're producing this in Taiwan.

Yes.

Is it like kombucha that you save a piece of it to make the next generation of it, or how does this work?

Yeah. And I'll send you pictures of the farms. They're quite different. And I want to go through the dosage of chlorella, which goes. Because we only covered the spirulina. So spirulina is actually relatively easy to grow. It grows in a spot spiral. So you plant it like little, you know, small starter. It doesn't have to be transferred from one to the next. And it just, it fills in the farm area. They're very shallow, they're about maybe two feet deep. And it starts, it doesn't. You can't see it at first. And then it fills in. It looks like seaweed. And then it gets onto a sort of like a conveyor belt that shakes all the water out and then it goes into a dryer. And what makes us unusual is we do not use high heat in the dryer to preserve all the enzymes. Because there's one I wanted to talk about a little bit called superoxide dismutase, which is a critical nutrient that protects the mitochondria. But it, and our bodies make superoxide dismutase until the age of 30, after which it slows down, and by 40 you have none. So that's why most chronic diseases kick in after the age of 40, because our mitochondria are no longer being protected by this, this antioxidant called superoxide dismutase. And you can't find it in food, but it's a. It's a. Also an enzyme. So it gets deactivated by high heat, which happens with most, most other algae companies. So anyways, that's. Spirulina grows relatively easily. And then we carefully dry it and, and then we import it and we press it into tablets without any binders. There's no binders. This. See how the color is different? This is spirulina. It's a blue green algae. This is chlorella. This is the green algae. So you can see the difference in colors. Now, chlorella is very complicated to grow. It took the Japanese 10 years to figure out how to grow chlorella for mass consumption. Because unlike spirulina, it does have to start with a little starter and they start it in a small test tube and then after 10 days, they move it to a larger test tube and then another 10 days later, a larger test tube. Then it moves out into the water farm, which is a small circular farm, because chlorella grows round, unlike spirulina, that goes that way. So it goes in A small farm, round pool, and then it gets transferred to a larger one. And then it's complicated, but then we do the same thing. We harness all the. It looks like seaweed, then it goes onto the vibrator to shake all the water out and then it goes into the dryer, which is again, we do not use high heat to preserve all the nutrients. Gets pressed into the little tablets with no binders. And then we import it in large container cargo ships and we package it here in the United States. Now, the interesting thing is, as I mentioned earlier, Taiwan is where we grow ours. And it's known as the gold standard for both spirulina and chlorella. Unfortunately, most algae that is available, whether it's at Target or Whole Foods, comes from China. And the quality is poor, the regulation is limited. We do, by the way, third party lab tests here in the United States at an FDA approved lab. So this is why doctors like our brand and our products, because we validate all the nutrients, all the fact that it's toxin free. But what I wanted to mention is I plan to grow it here in America because I drew a line from Taiwan, which has the perfect environment, climate for growing algae. I drew it across the globe and where did I get to? Florida. Anywhere in Florida, same tropical environment. And so I can't do it yet because I'm going to need, you know, a good $10 million to do this. And it will take.

Is that all?

Yeah, it'll take me about five years to get it done. But there is no reason why we cannot build an algae industry here in America. And I am going to do it.

And we are your witnesses. But you bring up a really good point, Catherine, because we say to people, you know, you want to be careful where the source of your particularly chlorella is because it's a binder. So if it's grown in a plastic test tube, if it's grown in conditions where there are toxins, it will absorb it. So if you're eating chlorella that's not clean, you're just basically toxing up while you're trying to detox. So it's really important.

Yeah, and. And the same thing, frankly, because this is why you never. Algae is the only food plant that I can think of. You never want wild. There's a company I won't mention who grows it in Klamath Lake. Please do not eat that, because you cannot keep microtoxins out of wild bodies of water. That includes lakes and the ocean. So if you see anything about growing it in a lake, Stay away, walk away, because I can promise you and I have scientific papers that prove that the algae from Klamath Lake contains microtoxins. It's impossible to keep the them out because algae will absorb whatever's in the water. That's why algae blooms show up on beaches. Poor algae gets the bum wrap because the only reason why algae shows up, it's the cleanup crew. It absorbs toxins and it kills bacteria. It does this and you can't see the bacteria or the toxins in the water, but you can see the algae because that's what it's doing. It will still be toxic. So you want to stay away from it. But I tell people it does the same thing in your body. It kills bacteria and it pulls out the toxins. It's the cleanup crew, particularly chlorella, because that's what the hard cell wall does, that's what the glutathione does. And on the. We didn't get to the dosage amounts for chlorella. Very similar as spirulina. 10 tablets a day will give you the cleansing nutrients like the chlorophyll and all the other K2, which is really good. Lots of very healing properties. Chlorella also has something growth factor which speeds up the growth of your of your own cells. So another reason why it's so healing. We've had athletes who have healed from surgery in half the time. We had people had Lasik surgery. They healed in half the time because of the healing properties and nutrients found in chlorella. So 10 tablets will give you the chlorophyll and the other healing properties. But for detox, same with. With the. The. The Therapeutic dose is 30 tablets. Same with Spirulina. Therapeutic is 30. And again, you can take it any time of day. You can take them together separately with food instead of food, with water, whatever you want. In fact, we even have a brand where they're blended. But definitely take the 30 for therapeutic dose. We have clients who are on chemotherapy, and one of the toxins this pulls out is radiation. So in fact, the United nations used chlorella after the Chernobyl accident back in the 60s to pull out radiation. After the Fukushima disaster In Japan about 10 years ago, the entire global supply of chlorella was bought up within 24 hours by all the Asians because they know it's the only thing that would pull out radiation. So there was no chlorella for almost two months. Because it's a plant, we had to wait for it. To grow again. So therapeutic dose is definitely 30 tablets, by the way, they both contain nutrients that also increase stem cell circulation. So as you get older, you don't have your access to superoxide dismutase, which protects your mitochondria. This is why so much chronic disease kicks in. You have fewer enzymes, which affects your ability to digest food. And so chlorella, because it has these nutrients that are very healing, they use it for IBS and Crohn's disease. There are no lectins and oxalates in either one of them. Those are often causing leaky gut because foods like spinach and kale and nut almonds have lectins and oxalates, which are sharp, pointy proteins that puncture your stomach lining and can cause autoimmune disease. Never happens with either algae. And chlorella in particular is healing for the gut for that reason. So that's why I call chlorella your health insurance and I call spirulina your nutritional insurance because again, they do different things in your body.

So actually I have a question.

You can go and then I do.

A lot of times I will recommend patients either do a three day fast water fast or if they can't tolerate that, do just as a reset to do some kind of protein powder just to make sure that they don't lose too much and that they have food in their bodies. Would, I'm thinking myself, for myself, just try out. But have you had people do like a three day algae only? And how do they, how do people do?

Well, we, we haven't had that particular test. Ella. We just finished a. I'm going to get the data next week. A 30 day mitochondrial test with a. There's a company called Mi Screen that now is, has a blood test, home blood test that you will test your mitochondria health. So we did the test and they had took spirulina every day for 30 days and we just finished the last test, but for just a sort of a nutritional purpose. We haven't done a clinical trial that. But Dr. Mindy Peltz recommends the spirulina particularly for fasting because if you take a food that has minimal amount of protein and no carbs, it does not interfere with the intermittent fasting. Now, if you're a purist and you want to do a three or five or seven day water fast, you know, I support that in terms of being a purist in getting the best benefit and kicking in your apoptosis and your autophagy that kicks in when you are doing that. But if you're not able to do that and you need some support, spirulina is the way to go. Even more so than a protein powder because it's absorbed so quickly, because no, no cellulose wall and the highest protein. Now I just want to put the protein in context because 30 tablets of spirulina gives you 5 grams of protein and you think, well, that's not very much. But think of it this way. When you eat animal protein, let's say you have a fist size amount of chicken or beef, that would give you an average about 50 grams of protein. But it takes 16 or more hours to digest animal protein. And then what happens is your body then needs to convert it to aminos and you have to have the factors and co factors and all these things to allow you to absorb the aminos. And in many cases you end up only absorbing 10% as Aminos because you don't have all these. And it can take three days. With spirulina, you take five grams of protein and you get, get five grams of aminos. With, with animal protein, you may have 50 grams of protein, but you only end up with 5 grams of Aminos. So it's very efficient protein. Remember, 18 of the 20, including the nine your body can't make. So it's, and it gets into your system in minutes, seconds, if you chew it like I do. So if you're hypoglycemic, this is unbelievable. I used to be hypoglycemic, so trust me, I, I know what it feels like. You break out due to sweat, your blood pressure drops, and this is better and faster than sucking on an orange slice. And also again, I mentioned the GLP one. Diabetics. This is unbelievable for diabetics. Balances your blood sugar, no carbs. It's been proven to reduce blood sugar or blood pressure. Your cholesterol, by the way, poor cholesterol gets a bum wrap. It's important because your body needs at least 2,000 milligrams per day to maintain cell wall integrity. And so, but if you get too much, then you have, then you have inflammation and you have, you know, you have issues in your, in your blood vessels. So this has been used. Spirulina has been used to reduce cardiac issues. Part of it for both of them, it has a nutrient called vitamin K2 that moves excess cal out of your soft tissue like your brain, your organs and your blood vessels. Because what happens is if you don't have that K2 and it's almost impossible to find in food other than grass fed animal protein or a dish called natto. It's also an algae most arteriosclerosis. What's hardening? Because that's hardening of the arteries. What's hardening is calcium. So this removes that excess calcium which restores the arterial functionality. No more arteriosclerosis, improved cardiac activity.

What's the timeline of something like that though? Is that a weeks and months, years?

It does not take long to. Obviously it depends on each individual how serious. All the plaque is. But just on that note, even with Alzheimer's and dementia, we've had clients who told us after 24 hours and they had terrible dementia. They couldn't figure out how to work their microwave and they couldn't remember their address. Within 24 hours, their brain activity was restored. Why? Because your brain has the most mitochondria in your entire body. There's 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain. That's the highest concentration in your entire body. So because spirulina has nutrients in it that protect the mitochondria, restore the telomeres, has high essential fatty acids, the first thing that gets repaired is your brain. This is why it helps with focus and attention. And it does not take long. A day or two, you start to see improvement. Absolutely. It's crazy. I know if it wasn't proven in science, people would think I would make these making this up. But a hundred thousand scientific papers is really hard to argue with. People just don't know about them.

I have two questions for you, Catherine. One is, I just wanted to clarify when you were talking about the algae grown in lakes or oceans, is it micro toxins or mycotoxins that you were Micro. Micro.

Thank you.

So small toxins, not Myco. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I was hearing properly. And then the other is, do you ever make this into a powder rather than pressing it into capsules?

Well, the main reason I got into this after helping my sister and then I became a health coach and I started trying to help people learn about the importance of plant based nutrition and found out they had. People either didn't like vegetables, that was too much work or they threw them out because they went bad or the kids wouldn't eat them, husbands wouldn't eat them. So my goal was to make it easy for people to get the nutrients found in vegetables. And without any of the work, without any of the gas, without any of the waste. Because by the way, our algae lasts three years. What vegetable lasts Three years. Right. So when I found out that in Asia this is how they use powder. Yes, but they, but the tablets make it so easy. We have them in little pouches too. You can take them to work, you can take them to the gym, you can throw them in your lunch bag. It's just effortless nutrition. So. Yes, and you can grind the tablets up to make a powder if you want. And as a small company, I couldn't do both powder and tablets. I had limited inventory, limited budget. So I chose the tablets because it made it so easy for people to feed to their. You know, you don't have to mix it, you don't need to be near a water supply if you've ever had a powder. And the lid came off, man, that's, that's.

I did, I actually dropped, I had a powdered spirulina that I dropped because I was ham handed and dropped it and it looked like a bomb went off in my house. It went across. I was like, wow, look how far it went.

I know you weren't home. I, and I just taped about 151 minute videos about what is algae, what is spirulina or what, when do you use them, how to use them? And I did one on why we do tablets. And I had a green powder and I said, this is what happens with green powder. And I just, I hit my hand and I was green from top to bottom and I had to throw the shirt out because it was so messy.

You know, you have to lean in and make it greener, like it's in for a penny, in for a pound. Now you have a green shirt.

That's right. We're going green all the way, the whole outfit. So that's why I didn't do powder. It's too messy. I'm going for, you know, helping people be healthy with the least amount of effort and the maximum amount of benefits. And that's what you get from the tablets. Each one of these tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables.

No effort.

Look up if you can swallow water or if you like to chew them. I just had a plate of vegetables while I was talking to you. How easy is that?

Right, I have to have a question because one of the, one of the major issues with long Covid is mitochondria.

Oh, I know.

Have you seen. Obviously there may not be studies yet out, but have you, have you had reports of long Covid people recovering with a spirulina?

Oh, man, you just hit my sweet spot. A report came out I think about three weeks ago. And I will send it to you. And it's a study done in. I think it was in Israel. And they. On COVID patients. And I don't have the. I've been away. I've been away for a month. So I'm trying to remember the details of the of. But anyways, they gave half of the patients with COVID spirulina and along with other Covid treatments, and half of the patients, no spirulina. The. The patients that got spirulina, virtually Nobody died. And 99% or 95% were, were released within five days. People that didn't get spirulina, the. What, what's the word for deceased? Whatever. There's a word. Mortality rate was like 40% and it took them, they stayed in the hospital like, like three times as long. This was a controlled study. And I'll make a note to send it to you because I had probably 10 people who know me and know that I'm in algae and spirulina sending me the link. Did you see this? Did you see this? Unbelievable. And just on that note, even the University of Pittsburgh, when Covid was still in rage 19, they developed a no spray vaccine. Why? Because the blue pigment in spirulina sits on top of the ACE2 receptor cell, which is how the COVID virus enters your body. And Most of the ACE2 receptor cells are in your mouth, your nose, your throat, and your lungs and your gut. So by using a vaccine that was based on the spirulina, which sprayed into your nose, it protected the cells from having the COVID virus enter through those cells. How incredible. Mother Nature has provided us with the answer to longevity, health, nutrition, nourishment. She's been waiting 4 billion years for us to notice the amazing healing properties. People know about spirulina. They put it in their smoothie, they know it's a superfood. They have no idea of the healing capabilities. And I will not leave this earth until everybody, at least in North America, is aware that they can protect their health. They can regain their health effortlessly from a gift that was given to us by Mother Nature. If it's grown carefully, with all the nutrients preserved, and 99% of it is not, but ours is. So I feel like I should say amen. Catherine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My moniker is the Algae Gal. In fact, I'm just. I wrote a little mini book and I called it the Algae Love Story. And I will send it to you because we're trying to make algae understood. It's just misunderstood or it's not known at all. And people think of as pond scum. And when you start to see the science, which is extensive, you'll, you know, and it will take me the rest of my life to do this. But that's okay. It's a, it's a mission worth, you know, people.

It's a worthy life's purpose.

It's worthy life purpose. Yes. So. So yeah, I just. And I'm grateful for you allowing me to share this with you and your community because we're in a crisis, we're in a health crisis, we're in a nutritional crisis, we're in an environmental crisis. And I know it sounds crazy, but algae is the answer for everything.

I think that's the point. To end. So before we end, I know that you had generously offered to provide a link.

Yes.

That we will put in the, in the show notes for people to get a discount on the product.

Yes.

And then where can people find out more about you?

Absolutely. So our website is energybits.come N E R G Y B for boy, I T for Tom. Sforsam.com by the way, we call our little tablets Bits because they're just bits of nutrition, bits of food. Nothing else in it, just 100% nutrition. So energybits.com is where you can learn more, you can buy the product. We have a 20% discount code, as you mentioned. The code is five journeys, all one word, no space in between. Five journeys. It works on all the products, not subscriptions, but all the other products. And we are very science based. So if you want just quick, quick videos or, or sound bites about nutrients, come to our Instagram handle, Energy Bits. We also do it on Facebook, Energy Bits. But that will give you a really fast visual on some of these facts about protein and chlorophyll and healing properties of mitochondria. Everything ultimately comes down to healing your mitochondria. And if we can just get these nutrients that are missing from all of our other food but found in algae and into you, you will protect your mitochondria. I tell people, I never eat alone. I always eat with my mitochondria because they're what generate life for you. They are your electrical system. Right.

All right, so we'll make sure everything goes into the show notes.

Yes.

And on behalf of everyone, thank you so much. For the listeners, this is Katherine Arnsten, the founder of Energy Bits and a newly minted PhD. Congratulations.

Thank you. I have my.

Thank you for Catherine. Thank you for. For being here for this episode and sharing this, because it's amazing information that everybody needs to know, so thank you.

I agree. Well, thank you for allowing me to share, and. And Mother Nature thanks you, too.

Amen to that. All right, have a great day, everyone. Thanks for joining us for the feel freaking amazing podcast.