When you initially think of algae, you probably think about how it grows in water, not how it can be beneficial for health.
While many parts of the world have actually been using microalgaes for health purposes for a long time, it is only recently in the last few decades that it has been brought to the attention of those in the US.
Algae may be small, but it is packed full of nutrients and is considered to be a "superfood". Our guest today, Catharine Arnston, will be teaching us all about the health properties of algae.
What To Expect From This Episode
- How was algae used to help with cancer treatment
- What makes algae so nutrient dense
- What are the differences between Spirulina and Chlorella and how do you use each one
- How can algae be used to remove toxins from the body
Shownotes
- [2:30] How did Catharine's sister find an oncologist who recommended looking into diet solutions for cancer
- [7:00] NASA says that algae is the most nutrient-dense food in the world
- [9:30] If there have been over 100,000 studies done on algae, why has it taken so long for us to start utilizing it
- [14:00] What about algae makes it so nutrient dense
- [16:15] The two algae crops that are grown and harvested are Spirulina and Chlorella
- [26:30] The way that the algae is grown makes it so they aren't absorbing heavy metals and toxins from the environment
- [33:00] Can Chlorella bind up good nutrients and do you have to take it away from food
- [38:30] Are the human GI tracts designed to break down algae or do we need some other animal to break it down for us
- [45:45] How does Catharine normally use algae
- [49:00] Final thoughts on Algae, Chlorella, and Spirulina
- [52:00] If you use the coupon code SUMMIT then you can get 20% off of your purchase of any algae options
Resources From This Episode
Some of these resources may contain affiliate links, which provides a small commission to me (at no extra expense to you).
- Get 20% off on your order of Energybits by using the coupon code SUMMIT
- Get a Single Serving Pack of Energybits from Amazon- Try it Today
Transcript For Episode (Transcripts aren't even close to 100% Accurate)
Bryan Carroll: [00:00:14] Have you ever heard of the superfood spirulina or chlorella? If not, you are not alone. Even. I knew very little about them. But after you learn what they can do for your body, you'll probably be wondering why you aren't taking them every single day.
What's up everyone. I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people move more, eat well and be adventurous. And today I have Catharine Arnston on the show to talk about the health benefits of algae. I'll admit. I had a lot of questions for her, because I was wondering why we are now hearing about it.
Superfood properties in a, how are we not being exposed to heavy metals and other toxins. If we are consuming them since they do help to clean up the environment and the hint, the ones for consumption, aren't being harvested in the ocean. So I think you'll be surprised by some of the information that she shares in this episode.
And I was able to score you a great discount on some algae. If you plan on getting some, all you have to do is use a coupon code summit to receive twenty percent off your order at energybits.com. The coupon code is easy to remember. It is summit, which will take 20% off at checkout. Now let's dive into my conversation with Catharine Arnston.
Catharine. Arnston had a life altering moment in 2009, when her younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and advised by her oncologist to change her diet, to be more alkaline, Catharine, put her career on hold to help her sister and discovered algae as the most alkaline, nutrient dense plant in the world.
From then she, she built energy bits to provide algae to the rest of the world. Thank you for coming onto the show, Catharine.
Catharine Arnston: [00:02:00] Well, thank you, Bryan. I'm so excited to be here.
Bryan Carroll: [00:02:03] Yeah. And, you know, right from your bio, I am actually impressed that, your sister had an oncologist that recommended changing her diet because that alone is pretty rare to see.
So can you tell us a little bit more about, you know, just your background and then how did she find an oncologist back in 2009, which was talking about.
Catharine Arnston: [00:02:21] Exactly. I know I'm still stunned myself. Well, part of the reason I think was, well, because this was in Canada and the Canadian medical system is national nationwide.
So, so there's a different kind of emphasis on different, outcomes. And. So, so that was one and number two, her oncologist was a woman and women tend to be a little bit more open to more nutritional, solutions and just interested in learning what the leading edge. sort of, treatments are, so I think those two combined, what was a grateful, I'm still so grateful that she, that she made these recommendations.
So, I think that's the main thing. I don't think, I couldn't imagine an oncologist, even 10, you know, even now wow. Suggesting nutrition, but slowly that medical community is learning about the. Benefits of a good, nutritional outcome and, and, steering people away from processed foods and white foods.
So, anyway, so I am Canadian. I've lived in the United States for 30 years, but, when my sister got sick and of course, you know, I love my sister and I'm also a very good researcher. I have an MBA and was doing international corporate work, but, when she got sick and her, her doctor told her to. Change to an alkaline diet, cause it would help with her healing.
she called me and I said, of course, you know, I'm, I'm in, you know, well, whatever it takes, we'll we'll find what this, we didn't, I didn't know what an alkaline diet was. So, I just went to the internet like anybody and found out that an alkaline diet was mostly a plant based diet because of the phytonutrients and the chlorophyll.
you know, this is why people are always told, eat greens. Well, there's a lot of reasons to eat greens, but these are the two main ones. So anyways, I did a lot of research. I found foods, things that she should be eating, eating, or, and not eating. And she did go through chemo and she did change her diet.
She's still, eating a, primarily an alkaline diet. She did heal from her breast cancer, and that was almost 12 years ago. And in the process of helping her, I started, you know, I had to read a lot about plant based nutrition cause I needed, I was intrigued by all this, because remember this is back in, you know, 12 years ago, people weren't talking about plant based nutrition like they are now.
So when I discovered all the science behind it, I thought to myself, this is pretty powerful stuff. You know, somebody should tell the rest the world about this. And I thought, well, I have no nutritional background, but I know I'm a really good communicator. So I thought, well, if I help my sister, I can help more people.
So I gave up my corporate career of about 25 years and I thought, well, now what? I don't know any nutrition. So I enrolled myself into a school called the Institute for integrative nutrition, just to get a certificate. As in New York city is now all online. and I graduated in 2009 with the, with the certificate, cause it was actually 2008.
My sister got sick. But, so when I graduated, then I had this ability to coach people on healthy practices, nutritional practices. So I set up a, created a curriculum to teach. Plant based nutrition. And I gave these courses for free actually to corporations and hospitals, encouraging their employees to eat more of a plant based nutrition.
And then if they wanted counseling, they could hire me. So I learned a very valuable lesson. That was the lesson through this process that got me to go into a deep dive in algae, which I'd found for my sister, but it was just one of many things. Because when I taught these classes, I found out that everybody knows they should eat more greens.
Everybody knows they should eat more vegetables. However, they're heavy to carry from home from the grocery store. Maybe you don't even live near a grocery store. They take a lot of work to clean. They take a lot of work to cook. They take a lot of work to clean up their husbands. Won't eat them, their kids won't eat them.
So I thought, well, how can I help people? Be healthier with all these wonderful chlorophyll and phytonutrients and a short chain fatty acids that you find in vegetables and plants. If I can't get them to eat them so that okay. Cause I'm a very determined person. I've got to find something. That's fast and easy and green, and maybe it doesn't taste green.
It doesn't take any work. I didn't know what it was going to be, but I was going to find it. I just knew I was going to find it. So it took me about a month or two of more research. I kept going back to the things I'd found earlier, just turning over every rock I could find. And then when I got to the algae, I started researching it.
And that's when I had the epiphany and I was like, Alison Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole because it turns out LG is the most alkaline food in the world box checked. It's the most nutrient dense food in the world. That's according to NASA, NASA says one gram of algae has an equivalent of a thousand grams of nutrition from fruits and vegetables, one to a thousand.
So. Nutrient dense. It's the most studied food in the world. It's got a hundred thousand studies. We're going to talk about the two main algae, which is spirulina and chlorella. but there's about 60,000 on spirulina, but 40,000 on chlorella. So it's all science-based evidence-based lock solid. The trouble is the science.
Hasn't moved out of the scientific community and into the consumer world. So I'm going to work on that. It's been used in Asia, in Japan, for example, they don't take vitamins. They only take chlorella algae every day. And they have the lowest cancer rates, the best longevity, great skin and hair. It's a multibillion dollar industry in Asia.
It's just like wheat in America or, you know, soil or something or in the Northwest it's like logs or, you know, forestation. Yeah. So, so it's a huge agricultural crop and yes. LG is a crop. It's not a supplement. We're going to talk about that too. So it's, it's massive. And the only problem, well, it seems with algae is that nobody in North America knew about it.
Didn't know about what it was. Didn't know what it did, why it was good for you, why it was good for the earth. Cause it's also the most sustainable crop in the world. It's been endorsed by Nat. United nations since 1976 is the answer to world hunger because it has the highest concentration of protein in the world has three times the amount of protein as animal protein, like steak.
So, and it's, and the packaging's been weird and the quality has been poor. So back in 19, 2010, when I discovered all this about algae and how amazing it was and how it was endorsed by all these international organizations and well researched and used in other countries, I thought, okay, that's it. I'm spending the rest of my life.
Helping people understand LG, making it easy for them to take because it gives them all the nutrients that are missing from their diets and that's, and because there's all these missing nutrients, that's why we're getting sick. so then I'm going to package it in a way that's friendly and easy to say and easy to remember.
And, so that's what I've been doing.
Bryan Carroll: [00:09:08] You've been busy.
Catharine Arnston: [00:09:09] I have thank God.
Bryan Carroll: [00:09:14] 100,000 studies. Why do you think it took so long for it to get to?
Catharine Arnston: [00:09:19] Well, so it has been sold here for 50 years, but it's just never taken off like kale or chia seed or, you know, Or Stevia, all of which were food groups that were used for centuries in other countries, but it took somebody in America to explain them and package them in a way so that Americans could understand them.
So, so there's a number of reasons why it hasn't taken off. Number one is algae is a, is a crop. It's no different than broccoli or kale. So there's no patent. So the biotech companies aren't interested. So that's number one, number two, it's all grown in Asia. So it's not like you can, you know, here I live in Boston and, you know, Dunkin donuts is a big corporation here.
And so we're quite used to seeing big transport trucks going by with Dunkin donuts on the side. And then in the, in the Northwest where you live, I'm sure it's quite normal for you to see trailers going by with big logs on their way to the, you know, the paper mills and in the Midwest, they see big trucks driving by with wheat.
Well, there's no algae driving by here. Like there is an Asia, so it's, you would never, it's not part of your routine. It's just not. So I told people I will do is not new. It's just new to you. So, so that's the other thing is part of our law, you know, just general daily existence, and also not only is it all grown in Asia, it's China, Japan, Taiwan, India.
that's where all the market is. And that's, it's a multibillion dollar industry, as big as the beef industry is here. So there's no incentive for the Asian algae companies to sell it here because they're selling all that they can grow already in Asia and all the packaging, even though it has been sold here has been really weird.
I mean, it made it look like it contained worm guts or something. It was just the most unattractive. It would be on the bottom shelf. At at, you know, some health, food store maybe covered in dust and no explanation about what it is, because it was usually just packaged the way that the Asians were packaging it for themselves.
Cause they know what it is, so they don't need anything fancy. So it was a combination. And one last thing is the quality has been always very poor. Most of it up until we started, came from China and, the PA and w there's no guarantee that you're getting what they say that you're, you're supposed to be getting.
So doctors, and because we only sell through functional medicine and chiropractors, and that's because we do third-party lab tests that we supply them with. We do all the science. we grow ours in Taiwan, which is the highest quality LG in the world. So, so no one had educated the practitioners or provided them with a safe, pure nutrient dense source of algae.
So, so they couldn't sell it to an explain it to their patients. So the consumers would didn't know what it was cause it's. Just invisible on, in our, in our economy. It's invisible on the bottom shelf of some health food store covered with dust. And there's no incentive for a biotech company or even a food company.
Cause people like Pepsi sicko or, or Quaker oats or any of these big companies. They don't develop new markets. They wait until some entrepreneur with a passion and a vision has discovered an opera, you know, solved a problem and addressed it and started growing. It's exactly what happened with college.
And nobody knew about college and until vital proteins came along, nobody know about GSE and until a health warrior came along, nobody knew about G Stevia until Sweetleaf came along. So. So that's the role of entrepreneurs like myself. And there's lots of us. I'm not the only one we have. We usually have a problem we personally experienced, or a family member has experienced and were dissatisfied with the options.
And so we look for a better solution. And then when we find one, then we want to share it with the world and then that's what we do. And that's how we grow. And then eventually some of us get noticed by bigger companies and that's when things start kicking in. So I'm 10 years in and we're finally starting to get noticed.
We're getting the message out about algae, but it's taken a long time.
Bryan Carroll: [00:13:26] And it's interesting because you've mentioned multiple times that is most nutrient dense, plants the world over. Right. So why, like, what about algae makes it such a powerful superfood? Why does that have so much nutrients in it?
Catharine Arnston: [00:13:41] Yeah. so that's a great question. And so what I'd like to do is explain what LG is, and then the two different main groups, because each one have different nutrients. So they do different things in your body. is that, is that, is that, is that OK? Okay. I want the permission. so algae is a food group.
As I mentioned, other food groups are things like vegetables or fruits. So algae has its own food category and then it breaks down into two sub categories. One is called macro, right algae. So that's C we dose kelp. That's the big stringy stuff that you see in the oceans on the, on the seashores. Yeah, it has a lot of fiber and it has iodine cause it was grown in the ocean.
Not a lot of nutrition, but a lot of fiber that's macroalgae, that's not what we're talking about today. The other category is micro-algae. That's what we're talking about. Micro algae is called micro algae because it's microscopic size. You cannot visibly see it. This is, and micro algae is in everything.
It's in the oceans, the lakes, the rivers, the soil, your swimming pool, your aquarium. And there are tens of thousands of. Strains of micro-algae, but there's two main groups of micro-algae. One is called blue, green algae, and one is green algae. Now this is what feeds the whales. This is what feeds the fish, by the way, we're going to talk about the fact that, you know, everybody's buying all this fish oil to get a mega three.
And I tell people, well, where do you think the fish get the mega three from? They get it from algae. Right? So, so there's all this blue, green and green algae growing everywhere. And it's fine for the animals. Fine. Nine for the fish, not fine for humans. The only tea there is toxic. So please don't stick your head in your swimming pool or go to your local swamp or, or Lake and scoop up.
It looks like some algae, cause that will not be healthy for you. So the only two that you want to consume are the two that are grown as agricultural crops in fresh water. So this is not grown in the ocean. It was a very important point because right now our oceans are pretty toxic and who knows what you're going to get when you get something from the ocean.
So the two that are harvested as crops are spirulina, which is a blue, green algae and chlorella, which is a green algae. Now, they're all grown pretty much as I said in Asia. So that's Japan, China, Taiwan, India. and in fact, it's on that side note, as you're going to learn how the nutrients are even the American government, I realized the nutrient value of algae.
And then it's all grown in Asia. So last year as part of the 2019 farm bill, they wrote the very first LG agricultural act to encourage farmers in America to grow algae. We can talk about that later on. So let's circle back spirulina and chlorella. Spirulina is a blue green algae. It's called blue green because it has two pigments in it.
One that everybody knows about, which is the green pigment called chlorophyll. And the other pigment is called FICO sign in, which is a blue pigment. Now they both have healing properties and we'll talk a little bit about them, but the thing that spirulina is best known for. Is the fact that it has the highest centration of protein in the world.
Ours is 64% protein. Now, just to put that in comparison, animal protein like steak or chicken is 22%. And that's why the United nations endorses spirulina as the answer to world hunger. Because anytime you see children with those distended stomachs, That's a protein shortage. So there's nothing in the world that has more protein than spirulina.
So that's number one. Number two is that the protein is already in amino acid form. Now, when you eat animal protein, your body can absorb it that way. So it needs to break it down into what's called amino acids. Now it can take up to two to three days for your body to do that. And because we all miss a lot of the factors and cofactors, you end up absorbing only about.
10% of it. So you could eat 50 grams of animal protein, but you only absorb about five grams with spiritual Nina, and also chlorella because it's already an amino acids. it's, there's no work for your body to do so you absorb all of the nutrients instantly, right? Ah, so it's like 99% bioavailable. I call it efficient nutrition.
So in addition, in addition to the protein, spirulina also has a very high amount of B vitamins convert, amino acids into glucose and energy. It has a very high amount of iron that care. Our air is what carries oxygen in your blood so that you can have energy. It's also, releases, nitric oxide, nitric oxide, Opens up relaxes smooth muscles, like your blood vessels.
So, so more blood can flow bringing more nutrients to your brain and to your body. So basically, and on top of all that spirulina has 40 other vines and minerals. So it's all the calcium potassium, all the electrolytes, vitamin a very high in vitamin yeah, all the antioxidants. So spirulina basically satisfies your hunger.
cuts. cravings is great for intermittent fasting and both of the algae are both ketogenic. So it doesn't decrease your ketones. It gives you energy mentally and physically because of the high protein, which convert because of the blue, the B vitamins and the highest central fatty acids that give you focus and the nitric oxide.
So it's a very energizing allergy, both mentally and physically. That's why we call ours energy beds, because I think energy bits is a whole lot easier to remember and say then spirulina. so, so that's, that's clearly not. And if anybody's listeners, I encourage you to either come and visit our website.
We'll talk about it more later on energy bits.com or just Google it because. Everything I tell you is science-based I have access to at least 3000 of those hundred thousand studies, but once you know about spirulina and you're going to learn in a minute about chlorella, it's sort of like. You know, you don't notice red cars until you have one.
Now that you know about spirulina, LG and chlorella, LG, you're going to find out that there is, Oh, well there's a hundred thousand, the studies about it. So there's tons of science about this and are just off the charts. But I mean, I'm just giving you a few of them. So that's spirulina the only downside of it.
Purely and it is, it doesn't taste very good because it has so much protein and so much essential fatty acid. So it's really two eight. So most people end up swallowing it, but you can to it, I, to mine, you can put it into a smoothie. but it is what it is. It's probably the healthiest food you'll ever put in your body.
At least ours is because we grow it so carefully in triple filtered, spring mountain water. And we'll talk about are what distinguishes us. From other LG providers, but that's spirulina. The other algae is chlorella, which is a green algae. now, so the only pigment that chlorella has, and it's even harder to spell, is chlorophyll.
Now, remember I said, spirulina has the highest protein in the world. Well, chlorella chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. It has so much chlorophyll. It has a thousand times more chlorophyll than. Things like Chinese greens, it has 200 times more chlorophyll then spin it. Then spinach and chlorophyll is critical to your health.
It's both alkaline and it's a fat-based pigment. And the reason why that's important is because your, all of your health starts at the cellular level. And so in your cells, You have these things called mitochondria that generally, you know, energy for your body. And you need to be sure that your cell walls are healthy so that nutrients can get into them and toxins can get out.
But if you don't have enough chlorophyll, that's very difficult because the way I explain chlorophylls is sort of considerate, you know, like dirty windows. If you have dirty windows at your home or in your car, especially your car, you can't see out. And sunlight can't get in. If you're in a dirty window car with a dirty windows as an accident waiting to happen.
So chlorophyll consider chlorophyll is like the window washers for yourselves. It makes sure that they're healthy so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And that's, what's so cleansing about greens. That's, what's cleansing about juicing that's what's cleansing about. chlorophyll in general is, is, is this, this process that's going on?
And just to show you how important chlorophyll is I'm I know I'm probably beating a going over this a little bit deep, but it's very, very important. Two things I want to tell you, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your blood. There's only one Adam, that's different and there's like about 80 different, you know, compel components to this.
And the only add on that's different is in your blood it's iron in the middle and in chlorophyll. It's magnesium go online and you'll see that I'm telling you the absolute truth. So I look at mother nature. She's no stupid lady. There's a reason why they look the same. It's because they're so bene chlorophyll, so beneficial to your blood.
And just as an example of how beneficial during world war two, and they used to run out of blood for transfusions, for the injured. That you would give them liquid chlorophyll and they would heal just as fast as if they'd had a blood transfusion. So, so it is crazy good for you from the cleansing perspective.
So chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. So, man, right there, that's enough for me to get you excited cause you don't need to eat greens anymore. Just take a few of these tablets. But as if that wasn't enough, chlorella is the only thing that natural thing that will pull out toxins, pull out everything led mercury radiation.
athletes use it to pull out lactic acid after their workouts, your muscles aren't sore. The next day. You'll love the fact that it detects alcohol as a toxin. So if you take it after you drink one beer or, any kind of spirits within an hour and a half yours. Sober and you never have a hangover. So it's amazing what, the stuff that they used at the United nations used it at Chernobyl to pull out radiation after the disaster there, after the Fukushima disaster, eight years ago, the entire global supply of chlorella was bought up because everybody in Asia knows it's the only thing that pulls out radiation.
So, so it, and what, the two reasons why we're sick these days is because we're not getting the right nutrients. And we have too many toxins. So, I, I generally recommend spirulina for the nutrients piece and I recommend chlorella to pull out the toxins. Although if you had to choose one, you know, it depends on what your needs are.
So, and chlorella also has 40 vitamins and minerals that has the highest concentration of RNA and DNA in the world. It has a high concentration of vitamin D. Okay, too. and it's just, it's a wellness algae. Spirulina is an energizing algae. Chlorella is a health and wellness do. That's why we call ours recovery bits.
Cause it helps you recover your health. It helps you recover from your day and helps you recover from sports. So recover from drinking. So, everybody in the world I think should be taking chlorella, LG. Every single day, cause we have eight, I think something like 200,000 talks have been released in our world since world war II and they aren't going anywhere except in our bodies.
So, so there you go. They, they both, they, spirulina is very chewy because of that high protein and such a fatty acid. So most people swallow it. Chlorella is very dry, very nutty it's actually, I love them. especially with sea salt. Or eating with macadamia nuts or almonds there. So that way, if you can enjoy eating them, it's much more satisfying.
But I tell people, especially with chlorella is not just a healthy snack. It's a healing snack. It's truly a healing moment for your body. So, so they're, you know, they're completely different.
Bryan Carroll: [00:25:34] Yeah. One of the questions I was going to ask you is about the process of, You know, harvesting these allergies because I assumed if they were grown in the ocean, then you're going to be, it's going to buy into all the different toxins that are out in the waters, which is not going be, be good.
But you mentioned that, there, these big, fresh water, batches with filtered water. So I'm assuming you've figured out some way to keep the toxin load. Way down so that you're not ingesting all these
Catharine Arnston: [00:26:02] toxins zero. That's why we're so highly regarded worldwide because not only do we get all the tests from our, we have a contract, a company that grows it for us, and they provide us with all the lab tests, but we do a whole another set of like 25 pages of lab tests showing, and we even test for 'em.
Neurotoxins. And we always come up zero because, and, and we're all the only company that I know that does all this third-party lab testing, because we sell, we want people to feel safe with our product. And also because we sell through doctors and so they need to know that it's a clean food cause trust me, most algae companies.
Do companies who sell algae, I should say. Cause I'm thinking, I think we're one of the few companies that actually just, all we do is LG. Most other supplements companies include algae as one of their 50 or a hundred or a thousand products. And I can guarantee you, they have not spent the time or care on all of their growing techniques that, that we have because I have personally selected.
Everything in our company for those strains of algae, the way we grow it, the way we dry it, the way we package it, I've done it because this is all we do. And the company not to make money. Cause in fact that I've never even paid myself a, but to help people guys started this different in a different way.
Most other supplement companies are doing it, you know, to make a profit, but I'm doing this to make a difference in solar. So it informs all of my decisions. And so to make show you the difference. Ours has grown in Taiwan most algae for high volume. If you go to Walmart or probably even whole foods, it's pretty much all grown in China.
So I would urge people to stay away from algae grown in China. and up until recently until the Fukushima disaster. I would have been very supportive of LG chlorella, LG coming out of Japan, but there's still some radiation in the waters. I'd be say, you'd be careful of Japan. India is very, very potent.
It smells, it doesn't smell very good. So I'd say stay away from India. Taiwan is world renowned for having the highest quality LG highest quality standards. The company that grows ours has been doing it for 50 years. They have GMP certification, ISO 9,000 certification. We grow it in triple filter, spring, mountain water.
It doesn't get any cleaner. They're tested every day. Then when we dry it again, which distinguishes us from other companies, because we're not a high volume, we're a high value company. We don't use high heat to dry it. Almost everybody else uses high heat. What does that do? Well, it kills the enzymes. It also changes the nutritional value when you don't have high heat.
Our algae is still a raw food. In fact, spirulina is a still alive food. So, so that's different. We don't put any, when we, when we press them into these old tablets, the tablets are about the size of a baby aspirin and we call them bits. Because they're bits of food because it is a crop. So when we press them into the tablet, we don't use any binders.
We don't put anything, no coding, nothing other companies. Do put binders in, sometimes you who knows you get like 5% algae and the rest of it's field crushed up rock or something. I've just got pictures of examples of that. And then when, and then we import it in large quantities on freighters. So there's no irradiation when companies are importing it prepackaged, that could be irradiated as well.
It goes through customs that doesn't happen with ours. And then we package it here in the United States in UV protected bags. So they have 99% cause sunlight. UV, like we'll pull the, the green, we'll pull the chlorophyll out of the algae. So I encourage people. Please don't put your allergy tablets in, in a clear bottle because you'll lose some of the chlorophyll, so we don't do it.
And then we package it in a FDA approved, clean facility that has all the servers that you need. So there's no contamination at any point in any of our process. It's the cleanest, safest purist. Thing that you'll ever put in your body. And just to show you how nutrient dense it is, We have this quote from NASA that I mentioned that says one gram of algae has the nutritional value of a thousand grams of fruits.
So we sell our algae and tablets. There's a thousand tablets in a bag and it weighs a little bit over a half a pound, and it's $120 for the bag, but we have a discount code for you guys. So not to worry. one bag of our ELLs thousand algae tablets has the equivalent using that quote from NASA. We did that, the math, it has the equivalent attrition.
Of 551 pounds of fruits and vegetables. So one bag equals 551 pounds of fruits and vegetables. Each tablet has the nutrition. Imagine this little tiny tablet size of an aspirin has the nutrition of one or two heaping plates of vegetables. That 551 pounds of vegetables. Are vegetables that you didn't have to carry home from the grocery store, put in your fridge, clean cook, eat clean up the most efficient way to give your body what it needs to be at its optimal health.
That's it full stop. It doesn't get any easier. It's either seconds like open your mouth and throw down a few tablets or hours of cooking. Like if you love eating them and you love cooking and you've got all that time and you've got all that money. Cause around here in Boston, 550, one pounds of fruits and vegetables at $3, a pound would cost about $1,500 or organic.
Greg says because chlorella is certified organic, the other. Our spirulina is organic, but it's not certified. But, so, so it's very efficient nutrition and it doesn't get any easier. Remember when I said I was teaching and people knew they needed more greens, but they, you know, they didn't like the flavor and it was just too much work.
This is no work, I guess it's just like a get out of jail card. Yeah. So you can see why I get so pumped out about it. Cause it's man, I know what's causing people to get sick and I know what we can do to help them get better. And we haven't even addressed the whole immune benefits in COVID-19, which is a whole another discussion, which we may or may not have time for.
But anyways, it's pretty rock on. Amazing.
Bryan Carroll: [00:32:22] Yeah, one of the questions I have for you, in regards to chlorella, are you taking chlorella as separate from other foods because it is a binder and it could bind up to nutrients and strip those out of the body. or are you taking them whenever?
Catharine Arnston: [00:32:37] Well, I'd take them whenever, but that's a misunderstanding about chlorella, which I wanted to correct.
Clara chlorella does not bind to nutrients. If you do activate a charcoal, it will pull out anything. Any minerals in your body, not chlorella, chlorella only takes out toxins. It does not eliminate anything that should be there. Magnesium, potassium, iron, none of that gets removed only the toxins. Only the.
Heavy metals, the lads, the mercury and irradiation. If you haven't, if you have been Bose to mold those release toxins. So, fungus it's, it's unbelievable, but it only pulls out it's what's called an adaptogen. It's chlorella is the LG in general. Is the most intelligent food in the world to be intelligent, take it, but just, I'll give you two examples.
They, the one scientist, you know what, when you do chemotherapy, the problem with chemotherapy is killing not only the cancer, but everything, your entire immune system gets shot. So they were doing some experiments using, I think it was chlorella algae and they injected the chlorella. With the chemotherapy.
And I don't know whether they gave it intravenously to the patients, but anyways, the chlorella was able to detect the cancers, cancerous cells attached to it and deliver the chemotherapy just to that isolated area, without touching anything else in the body, the stuff is this crazy, amazing. Another sort of interesting story is that, you know, in the growing conditions for any agricultural crop deteriorate.
Like no sun or no rain, you know, whether it's corn or wheat, the, the plant dies because the growing conditions aren't, they're not LG. LG just goes dormant forever, if necessary until the growing conditions return. That an example of that was I read in the national geographic, sent a team up to the Antarctic and they bought, they brought some.
Chips of ice back that they carbon dated to 3 billion years and they found some allergy on the ice. So they put it into a Petri dish and put some water on it. And when Genos starts growing again, LG is its own species. It was the first, I don't know if you know this, but it was the first life on earth for almost 4 billion years ago before allergy.
Earth was just gas and water. No life form, but he releases oxygen wilds growing. So after a billion years, there was enough oxygen been on earth that other life could grow. And so algae moved started growing in the ocean, but it's also the intermediary between ocean. life and land. And I think that's why I developed this ability to basically go dormant if the growing conditions, as it was moving from the water.
It's, it's fascinating. I've studied algae now, 11 years and every day I find something new about it. So, yeah, it's, it's amazing, but it's yeah, you can, it does not pull out, anything except stuff that shouldn't be there so you can eat it. It depends on what you want it for. Most people want energy and they have hunger in the morning and the afternoon or before a workout.
So most people take spirulina, in the morning when they get up or maybe for lunch or a snack or mid day when they've got that, you know, if they're fatigued. So, but you could have it any time of day. Some people even take it before they go to bed. Cause it helps balance their blood sugar and chlorella.
Because it pulls out toxins and because when you're sleeping, your body goes through a detox. Most people take the chlorella, which we call recovery it's at night to facilitate the detox, but you can have it any time of day. I have it for breakfast. I have it for snacks. it helps with digestion and helps with bowel movements.
There's a lot of people that are on keto diets. and paleo diets and they not, they're not getting a lot of fiber. and we have a lot of happy customers that write me and tell me that, you know, it's a happy, it's a happy, they're having happy times now in the bathroom because the chlorella stimulates periostosis it.
It has that, it feeds your biome, the essential fatty acids. So it can release the B. It gives butyrate to your, to your gut biome to facilitate. absorption of nutrients and bowel movement. So I hope we're not getting too graphic, but I mean, seriously, the stuff is, pretty amazing and it's all natural.
We don't do anything to it. It's not processed. It's just nutrient dense. I know it's called a superfood, but I call it a super duper.
Bryan Carroll: [00:37:11] So you had mentioned earlier about them. I got three content with a fish, which brought up a question in my mind about, you know, when you're looking at like grasses and ruminants are very good at breaking down grasses into different nutrients, because that's how their digestive tracks are designed.
our humans digest subtracts designed in a way to actually break down algae. And fully optimize all those nutrients or do we need like a middleman to be able to do that for us? So we do get those types of new.
Catharine Arnston: [00:37:42] Yeah. Well, that's a great question. And there's a part too about I'm going to talk about, because LG has none of the what's called anti-nutrients.
So the first question is yes, we do. first of all, spirulina is technically a bacteria. It does not have a cellulous wall, so it gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Almost instantly if you chew it and within about five minutes of five, maybe 10, if you swallow it. That's why when we first started our first customers for the first four years were ultra runners, Olympic athletes, triathletes, because they had been using previously, carbon sugar based bar gels and bars and drinks.
And of course, when you're out there doing exercising, there's no N your enzyme labs are doing what they need to do, and there's nothing left then your stomach to digest them. So they were having stomach distress and cramps and diarrhea. And none of that happened with the allergy, because of course there's no sugar chemicals or caffeine or carbs in them, and it would get into their bloodstream so quickly.
So algae is so safe that in Japan, when babies can't digest, mother's milk when they're born. So we're talking about brand new babies. The only thing that keeps them alive is the spirulina and water. And I used to wonder about that until I saw a chart that identified all that nutrients, particularly with the amino acids in mothers milk.
And I thought, gosh, that looks awfully familiar. And it's exactly, exactly the same aminos in spirulina in exactly the same proportions. And so we all know that mother's breast milk is the perfect food. Well, spirulina. Is pretty much almost identical that even has something called GLA, which is gamma linolenic acid.
The only place that has more GLA than spirulina is mother's breast milk. And that's because it helps the baby's brain develop cause it doubles or triples in size in the first two years. So it is so safe. For humans in 50 to 60 years of use, there's not been yet single negative outcome from, from spear land, nothing.
That's one of the other reasons why the United nations endorses it because it's going to help these children that have such shortages of nutrients, and it's eco friendly and sustainable. So nothing was spirulina. Absolutely. Your pets, your, your one-year-olds, your newborns, your grandparents. This is the safest, fastest, easiest.
Food for them to digest. and it also helps improve your, your biome. Chlorella is interesting because spirulina is a bacteria. So fast absorption into your bloodstream. Virtually no digestion. Chlorella is quite the opposite. It has the hardest sell the planking then, which is what pulls out toxins. And in fact it has to be cracked at production for you to absorb it.
But there are, there's a very similar, small number, not many, but there are a few. Yeah. People that cannot digest spirulina or chlorella. so you want to, that's why we sell them on Amazon so you can try it out, but it's a very, very, very small percentage, but nonetheless, it does exist. so, so, and, and with, because chlorella detects.
Toxins. If you are on any medication, we just encourage you to take your chlorella either two hours before or two hours after your medication, prescription drugs, because there is a possibility, and I don't know for sure, but we want people to be safe. Excuse me. There is a possibility it might detect the prescription drugs as a toxin because they are made of toxic substances.
I will point out while we're talking about medications and things. Cause. And this is a very, I know, sensitive topic vaccinations. there's a lot of aluminum in vaccinations and I, and of course, chlorella we'll pull out aluminum. So if you find you and your fine family, find yourself situation where you are re having to get vaccination, please take chlorella immediately afterwards.
Because that will remove the aluminum. And there's a lot of studies that show about autism being triggered after these, you know, vaccinations. And I don't want to get down to that rabbit hole. Right. But at least now, you know, there's a way to help protect yourself. If you do have to go through the vaccination process and even with, if they find a COVID vaccine, You know, there's probably going to be aluminum on that too.
So we want people to know there's a way to protect themselves, at least from the aluminum. So that's the only thing with chlorella is that it does pull out toxins and some of them are in medications. On the other hand, we have also found that when people start taking our LG very often, they feel so good.
That, and it helps with their biome so much that, they write us and tell us they don't need their depression medication, or they don't take their, they don't, they don't have money longer. They don't have, allergies. So, so we don't want you to drop anything and check with your doctor. And I'm not recommending anything in particular, but I'm just making you aware that these things do happen.
and while we're talking about the biome chlorella, because it has that hard cell wall, it does feed the. the, the, the bacteria in your lower intestine, the important, essential fatty acids that they need particular butyrate. and if you don't know anything about butyrate, please go online and Google it for educate yourself.
This is a recent discovery while recent being the last 10 years. And they're finding that the biome, the bacteria in your gut. Controls so much as that relates to your health. It controls not only your digestive digestion and your elimination, but your immunity and your mental, you know, depression and, and your, your energy.
And if you've got to keep those, those bacteria in your lower gut healthy, and that comes from. Fiber, but a lot of people can't eat fiber. I'm one of them. So the solution is chlorella because it has just enough fiber in it that it converts to this butyrate without giving you all the gas that you might have from, from, from fiber.
So that, so there's, it's so both of them are amazing, but, the other thing I want to point out is that a lot, there are some people that are not very big on plants. Especially things like spinach because it has, what's called anti-nutrients even right. phytic acid oxalate. and there's a, and these are things that prevent your, your stomach lining from absorbing either absorbing the nutrients or it causes irritation.
And the greatest news is because algae is not technically a plant. It has none of those we'd have the lab tests to prove it. So almonds have a huge amount of lectins in them, and that's very damaging to your stomach lining if you have a sensitivity to that. And so there's no lexicons, no oxalates, none of that.
So again, it solves so many problems with caught without causing any other
Bryan Carroll: [00:44:35] ones. So, how do you normally take them?
Catharine Arnston: [00:44:39] Oh man. Well remember I don't have to pay for mine, so I thank God because when I started the company, I had no money and the only thing I could eat was my LG. so I, I have, I drink a tea in the morning.
It's called Yerba Mati. It's very high in antioxidants. I love it. and, it actually is imported from a company in Oregon. So I usually have a small handful of spirulina with my tea to satisfy my hunger, but I'm a big fan, the chlorella. So I shout it out, probably a good 30 or 40 for sure for, with my breakfast and tea, but I always eat them with sea salt.
And then throughout the day, as I get busy, I sprinkled, I have chlorella throughout the rest of them. I put it on my salads. I have it with almonds. And before I go to bed, every single night, I have probably another 50 or 75. So I rock up at least a hundred chlorella a day now. I have pretty good skin for my age.
I'll admit I'm, nobody can see me, but I'm sorry, almost 64 and I have no wrinkles. And, my drives my family crazy. Cause I have two sisters who one's younger, one's older, but I. I look a lot younger than, and part of the re I attributed it to the allergy for a couple of reasons. One is that because it has so much protein, it builds your collagen in your skin.
In fact, that's why we have a second spirulina product called beauty beds. Cause it does that also it's loaded with antioxidants, which, you know, get rid of free radicals. Added ha chlorella in particular has something called vitamin K too. Now, if nobody knows about K2 again, I encourage you to go online and read about it.
It's one of those nutrients that is just, it's only 20, only 25 years old. So it's relatively unknown. But what it does is it moves calcium out of soft tissue and into your bones where calcium should be. We're all taking calcium or we're taking D three to absorb the calcium, but the calcium is not being absorbed.
In your bones, it's going into what's called soft tissue. Well, what's that? That's your blood vessels. It's your skin. It's your organs at your brain? They're realizing almost half of heart disease is basically calcification of your blood vessels. That's what arteriosclerosis is hardening of the arteries.
Guess what's hardening, it's calcium. That's causing the hardening. if you have, kidney stones, guess what it is. Calcium. Right. And so for your skin, if you have too much calcium in your skin, it damages your elastin. Elastin is like this, the scaffolding that keeps up, holds up buildings, it holds up your skin.
And so when it gets damaged collapses, so your skin collapses and causes wrinkles. So because I, how much chlorella I have to think. That's why. I have no wrinkles. I mean, I also don't go out in the sun and I drink a lot of water and I eat very healthy and I try to work out when I had a gym to go to. But, but it, but my sisters do that too.
The only difference is that I take so much chlorella. so anyways, it's, it's pretty cool stuff.
Bryan Carroll: [00:47:47] Do you have any final things you want to touch on when it comes to algae and spirulina and chlorella?
Catharine Arnston: [00:47:53] Well, Yeah, we're in a difficult time right now with COVID want to go to our website energy bits.com.
You can read there's a little, I wrote a couple of very long papers about how it builds your immune system. We all need to strengthen our immune system and the easiest way and all of the nutrients. That your body needs to build an immune system are in the algae. So, so I, I encouraged people. If you looking for something that's simple and natural and healthy and toxin-free, and not complicated, all you need to do is add algae to your diet.
We're not suggesting that you change anything. You don't have to go buy. A thousand vitamins or start cooking up a thousand new kinds of foods. It's just, it doesn't get any simpler. It's just one and done, just pop a few tablets. And because it's food, you could take as few as three or four days you want, or, you know, we, we feel NHL teams and they.
75 and they're smoothing before a game. We feel, yeah. Olympic athletes. We have 50 and, Olympic athletes endorse us. So, so my, my counsel to people regarding LG is that it's proven it's, science-based, it's been used. It's not new. It's just new to you, right? be careful where you buy your, get yours from tr you know, we're a trustworthy source energy bits.
but it will make a difference in your health. I can promise you that. And, and it does it in a most natural way. That's that's yeah. LG is a gift to us from mother nature. It's that's about the best way to describe it and who you don't want to turn a turn down a gift like this. So
Bryan Carroll: [00:49:27] then. usually I ask people, what do they do each day to improve their own health?
And I know you're going to say algae, but is there anything else that you also do?
Catharine Arnston: [00:49:36] well, I, I, I, I T in the mornings, when I get up, I read for about an hour, I'm just blanking on the book. of course in miracles, I'm reading it for the third time. If anyone's never read the book, I encourage you to, it's hard going, but it's amazing.
So it really helps my mental state to be very calm. And, in the evenings, I either go through a three, three mile walk or I do yoga. So I, I make sure I moved my body, as much as I can and for an hour and a half. in the evening and, and sort of wind down. So I started slowly, with my sort of meditative reading.
And then I pretty busy during the day and then I wind down slowly. So, so it's, it's, it's, you know, it's self care, self care is, critical, especially right now. treat yourself with love, and your body will feel it. And then, and so will everybody around you? So it's it's so that's, that's my routine.
Bryan Carroll: [00:50:35] Awesome. Well, people can find more about the algae and everything that you [email protected]. We also have a coupon code. It is summit. Can you tell us what that coupon code gets people?
Catharine Arnston: [00:50:46] It gives you 20% off of anything. That's on our website. So as I mentioned, we have two brands of spirulina. One is called energy bits, and the other one is beauty, but they're exactly the same.
But we found when I started the company, women just didn't like the blue packaging of our spirulina. So my girlfriend said, you gotta give it a cute name and make it pink. So women's health is important to me. So someone said recently, Oh, you have a boy spirulina and a girl spirulina as Oh, pretty much.
That's it. So, so the, those are the two spirulina chlorella, which is the one that pulls out toxins. build your immune system. That's called recovery that's and then we have a fourth brand called vitality bits, which is a blend of the two algae. So, it's 50% spirulina, 50% chlorella. And so the coupon summit will give you 20% off.
any of those products. Now, if you're not ready, cause they're $120 for a bag, but remember. That bag has the nutrition of 551 pounds of fruits and veggies. But if you're still not ready for that, are you nervous about the chlorella? go to Amazon. We sell them in single servings. There are only $4 each.
And, you get, yeah, if you have prime shipping, you free shipping. So, so try them first. It's a very low entry point to try them out. And then when you feel comfortable, Come back to the website and buy the larger Bay is a much better value on our way. So I know if you buy at least four bags, we have free shipping for that too.
We're also very active on social. So Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, our handle is at energy bits. We actually have a really great contest running right now where we're giving away $4,500 worth of healthy products and food and stuff. so if get yourself over to energy bets, Instagram, and enter our contest.
so we're, we're just, we're here to help people. We have lots of science. If you have any questions, just go on our website and shoot us a note at customer care at energy bets. we, we want to help people be healthy naturally, with, you know, mother nature. She's a, she's still a mother. Right. And she it's about us.
So yeah. It's and. Like I said, people want things that are fast and easy and it doesn't get any better than that than the LG tablets,
Bryan Carroll: [00:52:58] Catharine. Well, you shared a ton of great information. I learned a lot more about algae, which is awesome. and like I said, people can find more information that energy bits.com.
So thank you Kathryn so much for coming on.
Catharine Arnston: [00:53:10] You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
Bryan Carroll: [00:53:13] So what do you think is algae worth testing out? If you want to try some out, then take advantage of the 20% discount I scored for you with energy, but use a coupon code summit to get your 20% off at checkout. Next week, I have Adam Marindy on the show.
Let's go learn who he is in a way he will be talking about. I am here with dr. Adam Rinde. Hey Adam, what is one unique thing about you that most people don't know?
Adam Rinde: [00:53:41] one of the things that people don't know about me is that, most of my medical education, you know, that came from taking care of a son who had pediatric cancer and, end stage renal failure, Jordan, my first son.
And so, people don't know that about me, but I actually learned. More about medicine and health and healing through him. And then I did through medical school. and so, yeah, I don't talk about that a whole lot, but that's one unique thing about me that really has shaped who I am.
Bryan Carroll: [00:54:15] Yeah. And especially at that age, you can see a lot of different responses to different treatments very quickly compared to an adult.
Adam Rinde: [00:54:24] Exactly. Yeah. It's and you know, the, the, And also to work with just very complex conditions and illnesses where I'm in to see and learn from not only him, but also his doctors, to take kind of taught me how, you know, how to deal with complexity.
Bryan Carroll: [00:54:44] What will we be learning about in our interview?
Adam Rinde: [00:54:48] Yeah. So we're going to take you through, some information on small intestinal, bacterial overgrowth. What it is, how you get it, how to potentially treat it and just to kind of understand its importance, and, you know, gain some traction on, you know, helping people who might be dealing with us.
Bryan Carroll: [00:55:08] And what are your favorite foods or nutrients that you think everyone should get more of and then, yeah.
Adam Rinde: [00:55:13] Yeah. So I'm really big on two things, I'd say, the Greenleaf fees. is a big part of what I think is important and try to get into my daily diet in more abundance. And then also the culinary spices, you know, such as Rosemary oregano, a niece and all the different prices, because in fact, they have a very good way of helping our microbiome, along with helping reduce inflammation.
So I really liked the combination of greens and culinary spices.
Bryan Carroll: [00:55:47] In what are your top three health tips for anyone who wants to improve their overall wellness?
Adam Rinde: [00:55:53] Yeah. So first in second and third, I'd say, learn how to sleep well and make, a foundation of. Sleep and rest is number one. number two is that you don't have to do everything.
you know, on any given day, you can focus on one area of wellness and just do well with that. Try not to overdo it with. Now 10 different things in a day, pick one area of wellness, whether it's movement hydrating, good nutrition, and kind of master that on any given day, you can sort of build off that.
The third is self awareness is to listen to your body and listen to what it's telling you. Sometimes it's telling you, you need to move more. Sometimes it's telling you, you need to slow down. Sometimes it's telling you that there's pain and you need to address it, but just not to ignore what, how your body's talking to you and signaling you.
Bryan Carroll: [00:56:50] If you have had gut issues and sometimes looked seven months pregnant just from bloating, that will be an episode you'll want to listen to. So until then keep climbing to the peak of your health.
Learn More About Catharine Arnston
Website: Energybits.com (use code SUMMIT to get 20% off)
