Watch the full interview below or listen to the full episode on your iPhone HERE.
Stu: This week we welcome Catharine Arnston to the show. When a family health issue sent Catharine researching the benefits of an alkaline diet, she quickly discovered algae and knew she had discovered big. As Catharine dug into the science of algae, she learned it had 64% protein, 40 vitamins/minerals and was endorsed by the United Nations and NASA as the most nutrient dense food in the world.
Catharine knew algae could be a game-changer for our health, our children and our world if she could only convince people it wasn’t weird. And so ENERGYbits was born. In this episode we talk about Catharine’s journey, the importance of an alkaline diet and how algae can help take our health to the next level, enjoy 🙂
Audio Version
Questions we ask in this episode:
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What are alkaline foods and how can they impact our health?
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In terms of nutrient density which algae offers the best bang-for-buck?
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What’s the difference between spirulina and chlorella?
Get More of Catharine Arnston
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Full Transcript
Stu
00:03 Hey, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and welcome to another episode of The Health Sessions. It’s here that we connect with the world’s best experts in health, wellness and human performance in an attempt to cut through the confusion around what it actually takes to achieve a long lasting health. Now I’m sure that’s something that we all strive to have. I certainly do.
Before we get into the show today, you might not know that we make products, too. That’s right. We’re into whole food nutrition and have a range of superfoods and natural supplements to help support your day. If you are curious, want to find out more, just jump over to our website. That is 180nutrition.com.au and take a look.
Okay. Back to the show. This week, I’m excited to welcome Catherine Arnston. When a family health issue sent Catherine researching the benefits of an alkaline diet, she quickly discovered algae and knew she had discovered big. As Catherine dug into the science of algae, she learned it had 64% protein, 40 vitamins and minerals and was endorsed by the United Nations and NASA as the most nutrient dense food in the world. In this episode, we talk about the importance of an alkaline diet and how algae can help us take our health to the next level. Over to Catherine.
Hey guys, this is Stu from 180 Nutrition and I am delighted to welcome Catherine Arnston to the podcast. Catherine, how are you?
Catharine
01:29 Hello. I am great. I’m hailing all the way from Boston, Massachusetts today to talk to you.
Stu
01:34 Wow, okay. Boston, Massachusetts [inaudible 00:01:37] by Australia, so we have connected.
Catharine
01:40 There you go.
Stu
01:40 Good to talk to you, super intrigued as to learn a little bit more about your story and your thoughts as well on what we’re going to get into shortly. But first up, for everyone out there that may not have heard about you or your work, I would love it if you could just tell our listeners a little bit about yourself please.
Catharine
01:59 About me and or how I started the company, or…
Stu
02:02 Yeah, just about you and your story.
Catharine
02:05 Sure. Well, I am Canadian, although I’ve lived in Boston for 20, oh, 33 years, so don’t do the math to figure out old I am, please. I’ll reveal it later on I guess if I have to. But I had to spend all my time growing up in Canada, did an MBA, was doing international business and I’d started a couple other companies not related to nutrition. I was the publisher of an interior design magazine. And then out of the blue, my younger sister in Canada developed breast cancer. This was 10 years ago. And her oncologist in Canada told her she needed to change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help her with her healing. So they didn’t tell her what it was or why it would help her. So she called me because of course she’s my baby sister. Of course I’m going to help. And also just because I’m a really good researcher.
So I said, “Oh, I have no idea what an alkaline diet is, but we will find out.” And it turned out to be mostly a plant-based diet and it was because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients in the plants that would build her immune system and she was going through chemo, so she needed to keep her immune system strong. So she did change her diet and eliminated acidic foods. And 10 years later she’s still cancer free, so I’m very excited about that.
And in the process of helping her, I started reading about plant-based nutrition. Now in America and possibly in Australia as well, plant-based nutrition is pretty much mainstream now. All the research in new foods is pretty much plant-based. But 10 years ago, nobody was talking about it. And as I read the science I thought man, somebody has to get this knowledge out there. So I thought, okay, well why don’t I give it a shot?
So I had no nutrition background. So I gave up my career, went back to school, I got a one year certificate from a place called the Institute for Integrative Nutrition so I could get us a health coaching certificate. When I graduated I thought, well now what? So then I taught nutrition for free at corporations and hospitals, just trying to teach people how to incorporate a plant-based nutrition diet to be healthier. And I learned a very important lesson. Pretty much everybody knows that they should eat more greens to be healthier, but they either don’t like them, their kids don’t like them, their husband doesn’t like them, too much work to cut, carry them, cut them. So I thought, okay, if you, if I’m going to help people I have to find something that’s got the green nutrition but it has to be fast, easy and maybe not even taste green.
So back to the drawing board, which that basically it was the internet and I just started researching powders and then I stumbled across the algae, which I had found for my sister but hadn’t really taken a close look at it. So I started digging deeper into the knowledge and the science behind algae and I was like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole because it was incredible.
Algae has been used for 50 years around the world, mostly in Asia where it’s a multibillion dollar crop. It’s a crop by the way, algae is not a supplement and I need to be sure your community and anyone I talk to understands that it is not a supplement. Supplements are made in labs and manufacturing plants from extracts. Algae is a crop that’s grown in water similar to tomatoes, so it’s an aquaculture. So anyways, it’s almost as big as the beef industry is here in America. That’s how big an industry is. And it’s been studied. It’s the most studied food in the world. There are close to 100,000 studies on the various attributes and benefits of algae, whether it’s athletic benefits, a mental benefits and longevity benefits. It just goes on and on and on, but none of the science has made it out of the scientific community.
I was just at an algae conference, which was basically a scientific algae conference and nobody there knows how to communicate their research to consumers. That’s one of the reasons why the knowledge of algae has never really taken off here. It’s mainstream in Asia because there’s algae farms all over the place. People take it in Japan like we take vitamins here. They don’t take vitamins in Japan, they only take chlorella. So I decided when I started reading about all these benefits of algae and how it was so misunderstood… aren’t we all… that I would devote the rest of my life seriously to helping people understand algae, getting through the science, getting the credibility out there, taking the weirdness out of it by giving it consumer friendly names, packaging it properly, making sure I had the safest, purest algae possible and educating people so they know what to look for. So that’s how I became the algae lady.
Stu
06:45 My word. My word.
Catharine
06:47 I have to say, after 10 years of spending my time researching algae, which is hilarious because I’m a bit of a glamour girl and I’m the last person you would think would be so intrigued by algae, but I think I’m also a science geek. After 10 years, I’m still discovering amazing nutrients and benefits of algae. It is the gift that just keeps on giving and I can’t, I love telling people about it. It’s incredible. So there I am. Thanks for asking.
Stu
07:20 Well, now what an intro. No, I’m intrigued now. So just to backtrack a little bit then it’s, well first up, I guess, thumbs up for the oncologists for saying you need to change your diet.
Catharine
07:20 Yes, exactly.
Stu
07:32 That’s rare.
Catharine
07:33 Well that’s it. That’s Canada. We have national or they have national healthcare. So that would never have happened in America. Certainly not 10 years ago.
Stu
07:42 No, no. Absolutely. So, very rare. So that’s fantastic then. So alkalinity, so just mentioned it’s important to get more alkaline foods. So just for those people that are, have heard that term but not really too familiar. So just tell us a little about alkaline foods versus acidic foods and where we might find that balance. So you mentioned in the algaes are fantastic for alkaline. On the other end of the scale, so where are the acidic foods then?
Catharine
08:14 Yeah. The acidic foods are any processed foods, dairy, animal protein, sugar obviously is the most obvious one and the fruits tend to be neutral, various, some fruits are slightly alkaline, some are slightly acidic and it’s not how they would test. For example, lemons test acidic, but in your body they are alkalining. So it’s the effect that it has on your body and I’m just blanking on the scientist’s name right now, and hopefully I’ll remember it. But back in the… oh, Otto Warburg. Back in 20s, there was this dividing two groups of thought what caused cancer and Otto believed in the one group, which felt that it was the acidity that caused the cell to have too many toxins in it, which caused it to not be able to communicate with the other cells. And it became basically a rogue cell and would not go through what’s called apoptosis. Usually when a cell is healthy… well, actually it’s ironic.
When you have a healthy cell and it knows it’s sick, it basically kills itself. That’s what apoptosis is. But when you have these acidic cells that have gathered so many toxins that they no longer can communicate with one another or themselves, they don’t know to kill themselves. And so they start multiplying in a unhealthy fashion. And ultimately this then leads to cancer and damage to your DNA and all that sort of stuff. So maintaining the proper pH balance of your blood is very important both from a performance basis as well as overall health. And most people don’t realize, I certainly didn’t realize, that we all know that we need to be, our body temperature needs to be 98.6 but you’re… the pH of your blood also needs to be, I believe it’s 7.36 or 7.4. and if it migrates the most small amount you would die because it is so sensitive.
So when you eat a lot of acidic foods or you’re very stressed, which causes acidity in your bloodstream and actually when you exercise, because you release lactic acid, it changes the pH of your blood for just a not even a millisecond. I mean, it’s such a small amount. So your body is so intelligent that it knows, “Oh my gosh, too acidic. I need to balance this out and bring it back.” So what it does is it withdraws minerals from where, which are stored in your bones or your organs to your blood to balance that out. But if that happens over and over and over again, that leads ultimately to osteoporosis because you’ve lost all those wonderful minerals out of your bones and or it depresses your immune system. So because you’re pulling it out from your cellular structure or from your organs. So that’s why when my sister’s oncologist advised her to eat an alkaline diet, it was so none of that would happen and her body would have the best support that it could maintain. So that’s sort of the story about the alkalinity issue.
Stu
11:32 No, that’s great. That makes perfect sense. And I had heard that about the calcium or minerals at least leeching from the bones as well. But of course you just realize if you’re not feeding your body the raw materials that it desperately needs to thrive, then it has to get them from somewhere else because it’s very much self-protective mode I guess.
Catharine
11:50 Exactly. Exactly.
Stu
11:52 So alkalinity then, if… are there any common telltale signs that might point to us being a little bit out of whack in terms of, I don’t know, skin issues, dull hair, brain fog, all of that kind of thing?
Catharine
12:09 Oh, sure. Well, it’s not just the acidity, it’s also the source of the acidity. So I mean I look at someone, I look at their skin and I can tell what kind of diet they have because sugar and dairy are acidic and that changes the pH, because you have to realize the pH that your bod… you have different pHs that are required on different body parts. Your skin needs to be a particular pH. And so the sugar or dairy changes the pH and that will lead to more inflammation and more bacteria gathering, which causes breakouts. So the easiest way to clean your skin doesn’t come from a topical thing. It comes from a change of your diet and you eliminate the most damaging foods, which sugar is right at the top of my list, highly refined carbs, so anything that’s white and it comes in a bag, any processed food of any kind that comes in a box or a tin. That would eliminate probably 80% of one of the, some of the worst offenders of acidity or what’s causing health issues.
I don’t want to come too hard down on the sort of the animal protein community because it’s all about balance. I say I pretty much have a plant-based diet. I’m almost vegan but I’m not perfect. And I do like a little bit of grass-fed animal protein occasionally, but I eat very little of it. And I, in Europe, back in the old days, they treated, they had to have animal protein once a week. And now in America at least it’s two or three times a day. And that’s very acidic and also increases your homocysteine levels and your mTOR pathway. And so it’s just not a good thing. And also the quality of the meat here in America is very low. So there’s all kinds of hormones and pesticides and they feed the animals corn, which is very acidic.
Do you know that most of the environmental, the ozone layer issue is from animal, excuse my language, but animal farts? And the reason why they’re having gas distress is because they’re fed corn, which is acidic, which is an irritant to the stomach. And that causes gas and that’s, so get the animals back to eating grass, that’ll all go away.
It’s the same with us. If we could take the acidic foods out of our diet we’ll have a much better biome, we’ll have a much more balanced digestion, and you won’t be bloated and you won’t be gassy and you’ll just have better digestion and better elimination.
Stu
15:05 Yeah, the body certainly has a way of telltale signs, doesn’t it, of letting us know that we’re not very happy at the moment. Few nasty smells coming out and and there we have it. So I’m intrigued then. So the… you’re an expert on algae and algae can be confusing for many people. Now I, when I think of algae, I think of the ocean and the seaweed that’s kind of flopping around on the top and you can smell it when you go down to the ocean. Is that… tell us about algae. What… how is it-
Catharine
15:44 Sure. [inaudible 00:15:45] I’m really glad you asked that question because I’m realizing, what happens when you become an expert in something. You forget what it was like not to know anything. And so I’ve come up with some really easy ways to help people understand this because I truly am in love with algae. I don’t know if you know that I was on this TV show called Shark Tank and they didn’t invest in and I didn’t want their money. But at one point Mark Cuban said, “Well, we don’t think you’re in love with being an entrepreneur. We think you’re just in love with algae.” And I had to say, “Well, you’ve got me there. I am in love with algae. You would be too if you knew what I knew.”
So here’s the thing about algae. Algae is a food group, just like you have vegetables and fruits. Okay? So it’s a food group. And then just like within fruits, you have categories. You have banana, we have apples and oranges. So within algae you have categories. And there are four main categories. Two are seaweeds, which are the brown and the red seaweeds. And two are what’s called micro algae. One is blue green algae and one is green algae. And just like with fruits, so you had now a category, if fruit is a category, and then you have types, like apples. And then within apples you also have subcategories. You have green
Catharine 17:00 … apples, Granny apples, Macintosh apples, Braeburn apples. So within micro algae, because that’s what we’re going to talk about. And within the blue green, we’ll take blue green algae as a… It’s like a type of apple if you want to say or it’s a category.
Then you have thousands and thousands of blue green algae, of which one is spirulina. But there are thousands of them. And just like green algae, there are thousands of green algae, but only one of them is chlorella. And the reason why it’s so important for people to understand this is because sometimes it’ll be on the news. Or if you go online and you hear about toxins being in blue green algae, that’s if it’s grown in the ocean, or a swamp, or your swimming pool, or your aquarium.
I tell people it doesn’t work when you have algae like spirulina and chlorella that are agriculturally grown in safe conditions in clean water. Because what happens is algae absorbs whatever’s in the water. So if you’re, I tell people, well, it’s like taking a cup to a swamp and taking and testing the water in the swamp and saying, “Oh, there are lots of toxins in that cup of water. Don’t drink water.”.
Stu
18:17 Yeah, yeah.
Catharine
18:20 If you say all blue green algae is toxic, yeah, if it comes from the ocean. Because guess what? There’s toxins in the ocean, and then they apply it to spirulina. You can’t compare them because it’s like saying don’t drink water.
So, I want to clarify that spirulina is just one type of a blue green algae. And it is the type that is grown primarily in Asia as a food crop. And I’m going to go into some details about what you want to look for when you buy your spirulina or chlorella to be sure that you’re getting the safest, purest, cleanest. Because not everybody is as careful as we are.
I decided… I only wanted to help my sister when I started this and then I thought, well I can help a few more people. And then before I knew it, I’m four years, five, now I’m 10 years down the road. It’s like, I have a company.
So I have to be 100%, 110% sure that what I’m putting in people’s bodies is clean, pure, toxin-free, and it’s going to help them, not hurt them. Not everybody is as careful as I am. But in general, you need to understand algae is a food group. You have those, you have the seaweeds, and then you have the micro algae. Within micro algae you’ve got blue green, and green, and then within blue green, spirulina is one.
Stu
19:37 Yes.
Catharine
19:38 And within green, chlorella is one. But they’re the only ones that are really large agricultural crops.
Stu
19:45 Then what, so I’m confused then as to the difference between spirulina and chlorella in terms of [crosstalk 00:19:52] what each algae actually offers me and why would I take it?
Catharine
19:57 Exactly. That’s the best question of the day or night. Whoever’s listening, wherever you are. So they are as different from each other as night is from day. And I’m so glad I’m here to help you understand this.
First of all, spirulina was the first life on earth almost four billion years ago. And they have fossils to prove that. And separate from everything else, you have to say to yourself. There’s got to be something special that was the first life on earth and is still here, right?
Stu
20:28 Yeah.
Catharine
20:28 It outlived the ice ages, the dinosaurs, and it’s still frigging here. So that’s just an aside.
So, Spirulina, first life on earth, is technically a bacteria. Now the reason this is important is because spirulina does not have a cellulous wall or nucleus. The cellulous wall is what I want you to focus on. And the reason why this is so important is because spirulina has the highest concentration of protein in the world. It has three times the amount of protein as any animal protein, at 64%. Ours is 64% protein by weight.
So, and all that protein is already in amino acid form. So your body doesn’t have to work at all to break it down to get access to it, because it’s already in amino acid form. And there is no cellulous wall for your body to break down to get access to it. That’s why it gives you, one of the reasons why it gives you energy. And that’s why we called our algae, our spirulina ENERGYbits.
Our first customers were actually triathletes, marathon runners, Olympic athletes. And they love the fact that it would give them steady energy without upsetting their stomach, because they were taking all these goos and gels and bars which are loaded with sugar and carbs. And when they would take them, it would cause stomach distress and diarrhea. And none of that ever happened with the spirulina.
First of all, there’s no sugar, carbs or chemicals in there to irritate your gut and your GI tract. But, separate from that, there’s no, it gets into your bloodstream so quickly that there’s no digestion required. And that’s because the spirulina has no cellulous wall and because it’s loaded with so much protein, that’s 99% bioavailable, if you chew it within seconds and if you swallow it within minutes.
The rest of the energy, again, spirulina is known as an energizing algae both mentally and physically. And it comes from the fact that it has a very high amount of all the B vitamins, which convert glucose into energy. It’s a nitric oxide based algae. So what that does is it helps the body release nitric oxide, which relaxes smooth muscles. Your blood vessels are smooth muscles. So what happens when they relax, they open up, which allows the blood to flow to bring more oxygen and nutrients to your brain and to your muscles. And that gives you energy.
It also has a very high amount of essential fatty acids, both Omega 3 and another one that’s technically an Omega 6, which is GLA. But because it’s unprocessed, behaves like an Omega 3. And your brain is mostly fat. So you need healthy fats for your brain to be alert. And so because the spirulina has all this readily available essential fatty acids, that also helps with your energy and your mental focus.
Spirulina is also loaded with iron, plant-based iron. So it doesn’t cause any constipation. Iron carries oxygen in your blood. I’m not sure if you realize, you know but, and of course it has a very high amount of chlorophyll which is a very, very alkalining.
Stu
23:42 Yeah.
Catharine
23:43 Chlorophyll, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. The only difference is that your hemoglobin has an iron atom in the middle and chlorophyll has a magnesium atom in the middle. But the reason I want to mention that is because the iron is what carries, the iron atom is what carries oxygen. And there’s a lot of iron in spirulina. So that means your body and your blood can carry oxygen and that gives you energy.
I used to talk at triathlon clubs and they used to always pepper me with these questions. How could something with just one calorie per tablet give them energy? And so I had to walk them through. And I’ve got a sheet, a summary that I can send you that just itemizes all the biochemical reasons and nutritional reasons about why it does give you energy.
And there’s also the anecdotal evidence and experience that you have. And not to mention the tens of thousands of NIH articles where they tested VO, VO testing to see about the oxygen output and the endurance rate. There’s nothing that compares to the endurance and focus and energy from spirulina. There’s nothing else that comes close to it. So it’s pretty exciting stuff.
Stu
24:59 Well, I want to try some right now. I’m so intrigued.
Catharine
25:02 Yeah, yeah, I know.
Stu
25:04 So, is that… You wouldn’t want to take that then late at night then for instance. Would that-
Catharine
25:11 Well, it’s interesting that you say that because some people actually do, because it has so much protein and it also balances their blood sugar.
Stu
25:20 Okay.
Catharine
25:20 So the sympathetic and the parasympathetic system also start to balance and it cuts the little edge off of their hunger. And a lot of people use it for intermittent fasting because it’s [inaudible 00:25:30] and vegan. We work a lot with Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, and he takes our algae with him on his NASA missions. And he does all his blood work and he sees that his inflammation levels are the lowest ever when he’s using them. He stays on his keto diet. He stays on his intermittent fasting because intermittent fasting, particularly when you’re in transition, you’ve got the keto flu and you’re fatigued. So this helps you get through that transition without interfering with your keto state at all.
Stu
26:04 Yeah, that’s fascinating. We’ve had Dom D’Agostino on the show as well, and-
Catharine
26:10 Oh, have you.
Stu
26:11 We have, yeah. So, talking about all of that stuff. So we’re very intrigued. But, boy, oh boy.
Catharine
26:18 Yeah. We’ve been working with him for almost three years. Yeah. And Ben Greenfield, we’ve been working with him for six years.
Stu
26:22 Yeah.
Catharine
26:22 And he’s very big on longevity and I’ve done a couple of podcasts.
Stu
26:24 I’ve had Ben Greenfield on the show as well.
Catharine
26:26 Yeah, you know my buddies, I know. We all go to the same conferences and we see each other. And I’m honored because Dr. D’Agostino is so knowledgeable about ketogenic-
Stu
26:37 Yes, he is. Absolutely.
… and therapeutic benefits of it and, and he’s just a wonderful person as well. And so to be part of his sort of tribe is very rewarding. And he’s very generous in recommending us to other groups. Because, and I just also, just to segue a little bit, he was always worried, as are a lot of people about algae, about BMAA toxins. Because there’s some stuff on the internet saying again, blue green algae has toxins in them. And I’ve always said, we don’t have them in ours because we grow it so carefully. But I didn’t have the lab tests to prove it.
Catharine
27:15 Right.
Stu
27:16 Testing for BMAA is a very highly specialized test. And I only knew of two labs in the entire world that did it. And one was in Norway and one was in Canada. And I could never get their attention.
I finally found one. It took me two years in America. Got the tests back a week ago. First person I sent them to was Dom, and he was impressed because it took me two years to find a lab. But I needed the science to show him our stuff is safe.
So he was impressed that I was like a dog on a bone. Because I need to, my job is to show people the science of whatever I’m telling them about. I don’t want to be just a voice. I want to be a respected voice. And one that has evidence, science-based evidence.
No, that makes perfect sense. Well, so it really does sound so potent in terms of bang for buck. So then versus chlorella then. So tell me about chlorella.
Catharine
28:15 Okay. So chlorella showed up on the earth about a billion years after spirulina. Remember, spirulina was a bacteria, single cell organism. Chlorella does belong, it’s kind of, again, an odd thing. It’s really a plant because it does have a cellulous wall and it does have a nucleus. But it’s technically not a plant because it doesn’t have any oxalates. It doesn’t have any of the anti-nutrients that plants have, like spinach and kale. And again, somebody asked me so I went and had it tested, and we came up basically zero. Almonds or kale have way more oxalates. We have virtually zero.
So, but let’s consider it a plant for this conversation. So, remember spirulina was energizing because of the high protein and the B vitamins and all this other stuff. Chlorella is a wellness algae, a recover, that’s why we called it RECOVERYbits, our chlorella.
Stu
28:15 Right.
Catharine
29:11 Because it helps you recover your health and it helps you recover from sports, or recover from parties, or recover from basically anything. So how does that work? Well, spirulina has the highest concentration of protein in the world. Chlorella has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world.
Remember I was mentioning about chlorophyll with the atoms being very similar to your blood. The fact that it’s very similar to your blood has to be a tip off that it’s got to be something important about chlorophyll. And in fact it is. And during World War I, it was either I or II, I can’t remember. In Europe when they ran out of blood transfusions for the injured, they used to give them liquid chlorophyll, because it would help them heal just as fast as if they’d had a blood transfusion. And they would use it topically because chlorophyll kills bacteria.
Stu
30:00 Right.
Catharine
30:00 So, and I mention that because chlorella has the highest concentration of chlorophyll. It has 25 times more than liquid chlorophyll or wheat grass. A thousand times more than, I think it’s Chinese cabbage or something. But very high amounts. And this is again hearkening back to why my sister’s oncologist told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet, because of all the healing benefits of the chlorophyll in these plant based diets.
So the way I describe chlorophyll to people is two-fold. First of all, chlorophyll is a fat based pigment. And the reason why that’s important is because your cell walls need healthy fats to stay healthy. And your longevity, your disease issues, all your health is all focused on really your cellular health. So you’ve got to keep those cell walls healthy.
So when they talk about greens and chlorophyll being cleansing, well, what exactly does that mean? Well, it keeps the cell walls healthy so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And the analogy I like to make is that, well, if you have dirty windows, you can’t see out and sunlight can’t get in. So, pretty inefficient. Same thing happens if you don’t keep your cell walls healthy. And because chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment, it helps you do that.
So this helps the mitochondria to stay healthy. This helps the toxins to get out so that you don’t get into that acidic state that I mentioned that Otto Warburg pointed out that disease can only occur when there’s acidic cells. All these toxins contribute to that acidity.
So, that’s why chlorella is really terrific for just general cleansing. It also has the highest concentration of RNA and DNA in the world. And that’s important because as you age, your RNA and DNA get damaged, so this helps your cells to grow back healthier rather than damaged.
It also has a very high amount of K2, vitamin K2. I don’t know if you’re familiar with K2. Most people in America are short of K2 because the only sources for it naturally are grass fed animal protein or algae, particularly chlorella algae.
What K2 does is it moves calcium out of soft tissue like your blood vessels, your brain, your skin, your organs, and into your bones. Because if it’s left in your blood vessels, it causes arteriosclerosis, which leads to heart disease. If it stays in your brain, it leads to Alzheimer’s. Kidney stones are basically calcification.
So it’s very important that people get K2 in their diet. And other than grass fed animal protein or algae, and there’s a dish called Natto that the Japanese eat, which is very disgusting, there’s really nothing else naturally. You can buy K2 supplements, but it’s a different form of K2. It’s called M, it’s M7 instead of M4. Only M4 is in food. And your brain can only absorb M4 versions of K2. So a daily requirement is found in the chlorella algae.
But I’ve left the best part about chlorella to the end. Remember I said spirulina has no cellulous walls, so it gets absorbed very quickly?
Stu
33:18 Yes.
Catharine
33:18 Well, chlorella has the hardest cellulous wall in the plant kingdom. So hard that it has to be cracked at production. But here’s the great thing about that hard cellulose wall. It attaches to toxins of any kind, heavy metals, radiation. It also pulls out, it identifies lactic acid. So the athletes use it as a post-workout. They use the spirulina as a pre-workout or during workout, and the chlorella as a post-workout to pull out the lactic acid. It pulls out alcohol, wine, beer, spirits. Because when you drink alcohol, it converts into almost a toxin. I can’t remember the name of the [inaudible 00:33:59]
Catharine 34:00 [inaudible 00:34:00] I don’t know the name of it. Anyways, the algae detects it as a toxin. So it pulls that out. You’re stone sober in an hour and a half, if you take the Chlorella after you drink, it works every time. We’ve had people go to Vegas after their bachelor party and say that’s the only thing that saved them.
So algae, when the Fukushima disaster happened, the world’s supply of Chlorella was bought up within 24 hours because they know it’s the only thing that can remove radiation. They used it at Chernobyl, they used it at Hiroshima. People use it for pulling out extra chemotherapy, if they have cancer after that so they’re not as sick. Chlorella has this unique ability to chelate heavy metals. It takes about an hour and a half to get it out of your blood, up to 10 days for your cells and it can be anywhere from three to six months to pull out toxins from your organs because it’s the cellular depth and also how tight the cellular structure is.
So it’s unbelievable. Some people use activated charcoal to pull out toxins, but I caution people with that because it will pull out all minerals, not just the bad stuff. It pulls out the good minerals and Chlorella doesn’t do that. It only pulls out what it perceives to be a toxin. So it’s what’s called an adaptogen. It knows what to do. I call it an intelligent food because you have to be intelligent to take it, number one, and it knows what to do in your body. And I’ll give you an interesting example. I don’t have the science reference for this, but I did read it.
Some scientists were experimenting with using Chlorella as the agent for delivering chemotherapy treatments because the trouble with chemotherapy is that it kills everything, not just the cancer. So I don’t know whether they gave it to the patient orally or they injected it, but they injected the Chlorella with the chemo treatment. The Chlorella found the cancer cells and attached to them and was able to deliver the chemotherapy treatment without disturbing or injuring any other cells. How does it do that? I kind of [inaudible 00:36:25] bigger and we can meal fund research like this because it’s fascinating to me that this stuff does this. It’s crazy powerful and very, very important.
So anyways, so back to Chlorella being a wellness recovery, as I say, the athletes use it to pull out lactic acid. It pulls out heavy metals, it helps your cells. It has something called Chlorella growth factor. If you know anything about biofuel, almost all biofuel research has been with Chlorella because Chlorella is the fastest growing organism in the world. And there is something called Chlorella growth factor which causes that, but it also stimulates your own cells to grow faster. So you heal in half the time from surgery or injury because of that and the RNA and DNA and the chlorophyll which makes your body and your cells healthy because of the healthy chlorophyll and the cleansing and that pulls out toxins, I say it’s like having a doctor in your back pocket.
Stu
37:27 Absolutely. Yeah. Unbelievable. So two very different algaes and I’m so pleased that you touched on the detox angle as well because that was a question. Chlorella at least over here is very well known as being one of the gold state supplements for detoxification. So great to hear. So then I wanted to ask about usage, but then I thought perhaps I’ll approach it in a slightly different way. I’d like to know how you personally use the elements because I’m guessing that you’re dialed into the best way and I’d love to know what that is.
Catharine 38:05 Yeah, well it’s the best way for me and it’s the same and I caution people whether they’re taking the algae or they’re trying a new food or trying anything, listen to your body. That’s the number one rule. Just because your friend down the street is working out 10 times a day or taking whatever, it may not be right for you. So what I do is right for me because of my lifestyle and my taste buds and my age and whatever. So I’m going to give you the general and then I’m going to tell you what I do.
In general, people like to have energy when they get up in the morning, when they go to work, when they go for a workout, if they’re doing something that’s requires a lot of concentration, whether they’re driving a truck or doing brain surgery. And we have surgeons and truck drivers who are both regular customers. So I would recommend Spirulina for all those reasons. In the morning, in the afternoon, before a workout, during a workout, we fuel five NHL teams, hockey teams here in North America, and they put 75 Spirulina tablets into their smoothie before a game and then they do it again after the game. But with Chlorella to pull out the lactic acid from all that skating on the ice.
So Spirulina is anytime you want focus, energy, if you’re doing intermittent fasting, it doesn’t interfere with your fast because there’s no sugar, it doesn’t increase your glucose or decrease your ketones. So it’s terrific for intermittent fasting. If you’re trying to lose weight, there’s only one calorie per tablet and it’s loaded with 64% protein. So you’re stuck in traffic, you’re in between meals, you’re on a plane, you get into your hotel late, anytime you need any kind of nourishment and you need it quickly and you need it in your system quickly, some people are… I used to be very low blood sugar and I’m not anymore because I started using Spirulina a lot. So, anytime you’re hungry or need energy or focus, that’s your answer for Spirulina. And so that’s generally in the morning and the afternoon or when you’re working out.
Chlorella in general is something that you would take after a workout or after drinking or after a chemotherapy treatment or every evening, we recommend it every evening because your body goes through a natural detox cycle when you’re sleeping, so it will facilitate that. And I forgot to mention it has the highest concentration of tryptophan in the world. Tryptophan is a precursor to melatonin and serotonin. Melatonin is what helps you sleep and serotonin is the happy transmitter. Now, it won’t make you sleepy but it just helps you get to that stage.
So in general we suggest you take it in the evening because if you get into a habit of having it every day before you go to bed, then when you do have a few cocktails or you have worked out or whatever, then you’ll feel really great the next day. It also helps with digestion and peristalsis. So if you’re on a keto diet, there’s not a lot of roughage. A lot of constipation is a big issue. This will really help with that, again, without interfering with your keto state. So we suggest people have it after something rather than in the Spirulina as before.
Now that being said, two things. First of all, the way you feel from the Spirulina, the best way I describe it is you feel fresh, you feel like you’ve had a great night’s sleep or a walk in the fresh cold air. You’re just alert, no lightning bolts from the sky because there’s no stimulants. Your focus and your energy is strictly from nutrition. So it’s a very gentle, you may not even notice it in fact except for the fact that you aren’t tired anymore or you aren’t hungry anymore. Or maybe you just ran more than you thought you were planning on or you lifted more than you were planning on and you didn’t even notice it. It’s this very quiet, energizing effect. So you just feel fresh.
And with Chlorella you feel clean. I describe it as giving your body a shower on the inside. We shower every day on the outside. But let’s give our body a shower on the inside. So instinctually, your body knows and you can muscle test this. Ours always turns out positive because it’s so clean and toxin free.
And one more thing I’ll mention. Most people, because Spirulina has so much protein and so many essential fatty acids, it’s very chewy, the tablets are very chewy and it’s very earthy flavor because of that extra pigment in there called Phycocyanin. So I will be honest, most people do not like the flavor of the Spirulina, so they swallow it. The Chlorella has a very nutty flavor. It’s not chewy, it’s like a sunflower seed or a soy nut. And I love it. So it is my favorite food and I urge you to try it, at least ours anyways with sea salt, almonds or if you really want to up your game, macadamia nuts. You have Chlorella with macadamia nuts. It’s a game changer, period. In fact, we’re going to do a trail mix next year with the Chlorella and the macadamia nuts. I’ve got to call it Mac and bits.
Stu
43:40 I like it. Fantastic, so-
Catharine
43:42 So I eat a hundred or more of the Chlorella every day because I love it. I’m not recommending it necessarily because remember, I don’t have to buy mine. So that’s number one. But it’s just my favorite food and I have it with sea salt for breakfast. I have the snacks when I need it. I have it in the evening. I have it after I drink, I have it after I work out. Seriously, I eat a ton of this stuff and I have for nine years and I feel great. Again, I’m not going to tell you how old I am, but I’m about three times the age of most of my team.
Stu
44:18 Yes. Certainly have lots of energy, that’s for sure. So we’re just about coming up on time then. So I’m keen then to understand, you guys have obviously tapped into a super clean source of two of the most powerful algaes on the planet. So where can we send people if they want to find out more specifically about what you have discovered and what you offer and if they want to try some of this stuff out themselves?
Catharine
44:51 Sure. Well we sell everything in large bags on our website at energybits.com. E-N-E-R-G- Y-B for boy, I, T for Tom, S for Sam, .com and we actually have a 20% discount code for your listeners. It’s 180nutrition, 180 as the number nutrition. So when you buy anything and you go to the shopping cart, just put the 180nutrition into the coupon box and you’ll get 20% off and it works on everything all the time.
I will mention that we currently are not shipping to Australia, so if someone is in Australia, they’re going to need to email us at customercare@energybits.com and we’ll find a way to get it to you. It got really complicated with the import duties and whatever, so we sell large bags of a thousand tablets on our website.
And if just want to experiment, again, if you live in the United States, you can also buy single servings. There’s 30 tablets in a serving from Amazon and they’re $4 each. We really like people to try them out first. Feel very comfortable with them. We are the only people selling our products on Amazon. We have somebody who manages it for us. So you could try them on Amazon, see how they go. And then once you’re comfortable and you like how you feel, come back to energybits.com.
I will mention, so just as a recap, we call our Spirulina ENERGYbits. But when I first started the company, I noticed that women weren’t buying it. It turns out they didn’t like the packaging. So my friend said, “You got to make it pink and give it a cute name.” So we have a second Spirulina, which is called BEAUTYbits because it does the high protein and the alkalinity helps your skin and hair health. So I’m not trying to fool anybody. Women’s health is very important to me. So there are two Spirulinas, ENERGYbits and BEAUTYbits.
By the way, ENERGYbits, which was the original package is in a blue bag because Spirulina is a blue green algae. See? I’m trying to make it easy for people. And then the Chlorella is called RECOVERYbits and it’s in a green bag because it’s a green algae. And then we actually offer another product called VITALITYbits, which is a blend of the two algae. So if you want just simplicity and you’re not an athlete and you don’t have a hectic life where you might need more energy at one part of the day and you don’t need any recovery issues, that’s a nice solution for people. They get a bit of health benefits and a bit of the energizing benefits, but it’s all sold on our website or Amazon.
Stu
47:40 Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, Catharine, we’ll ensure that we put all of the links that you’ve mentioned today and all of the information about you and the company in the show notes. So everybody that accesses this information will know exactly where to go, but-
Catharine
47:56 Excellent.
Stu
47:57 So thank you so much for the chat. I’m so intrigued and-
Catharine
48:02 It is pretty amazing, I have to say.
Stu
48:04 I have to get some to try it out myself, just-
Catharine
48:07 We’ll get you looked at. Don’t you worry.
Stu
48:12 Fantastic. Okay, well look, thank you again. Really appreciate your time and really look forward to sharing this with our audience as well. I know they’re going to get so much out of this.
Catharine
48:19 Excellent, excellent. Well, they know where to find us. There’s lots more science, hundreds and hundreds of articles, thousands in fact.
Stu
48:25 Fantastic. Okay. Thank you. And hopefully we’ll speak to you sometime soon.
Catharine
48:30 Thank you Stuart. Okay, thank you.
Stu
48:30 Bye bye.
Catharine
48:30 Bye bye.
