Summary: 

Catharine Arnston, an algae expert and former corporate executive, shares her journey into the world of algae on the Wellness YOUR Way podcast. She explains how her sister’s breast cancer diagnosis led her to discover the benefits of an alkaline diet and the importance of phytonutrients like chlorophyll for immune support. She found algae to be the most nutrient-dense food, packed with vitamins, minerals, and protein. Catharine discusses the alkaline properties of algae and how it can help maintain healthy cells. She emphasizes the benefits of spirulina and chlorophyll  including improved digestion, boosted energy, and enhanced overall well-being the ease of consuming algae through tablets.

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Full Episode:

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Transcription:

Megan Lyons: Thank you so much, Catharine Arnston, for coming on Wellness Your Way. I am very excited to have you here.

Catharine Arnston: Well, I’m so thrilled to be here. So thanks for sharing some time with me and anyone who’s listening. Thank you also for spending some time to want to learn about how your body works and how algae can make it work better and effortlessly. And that’s the key, right? Who wants something that’s going to take so much work and so much time and so much money and none of that applies to algae. And so I’m here to tell you about it.

Megan Lyons: Oh, well, I’m so excited. Give the audience a little update of how you got so interested in algae and what wound you up here today.

Catharine Arnston: I know it’s crazy. You think, how could somebody become an algae expert? And I’ve been studying algae now for 14 years and I tell people I didn’t choose algae, it chose me. And I’m actually Canadian by birth and I mentioned that because all my education was in Canada. I did an MBA in international business. My family’s still in Canada and I had a corporate career for 25 years. Everything was working fine. And then 15 years ago, my younger sister in Canada, who I’m very close to, developed breast cancer. Now there’s a happy ending because she did completely heal. And I we have a girl’s weekend. I have two sisters every year. I just saw her, it’s two weeks ago, celebrating her being cancer free. But as she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist, which is a cancer specialist and who happened to be a woman, and I mention that because women tend to be a little bit more open to nutritional issues. Anyways, her oncologist told her as she was preparing for chemo she needed to change her diet to an alkaline diet. Now they didn’t tell her why it was important for her or what it was. So my baby sister called me and you know, I knew nothing about nutrition. I was an MBA marketing person. But I love my sister and I’m a good researcher. So I said, I will find out what this is. And it turned out to be mostly a plant based diet, which of course, now 15 years later, everybody knows about the value of plant based diets. But at the time nobody did. And I think there were two main reasons why my sister’s oncologist wanted her to have this alkaline plant based diet which is still apply to anyone who’s listening now. First of all, plants have phytonutrients and pigments in them like chlorophyll that have been proven to build your immune system. And when you do chemo or you know, the stress that we’re experiencing every day today, this wears down your immune system. So these phytonutrients are proven, especially chlorophyll, proven to help support your immune system. So that’s number one. Number two, there’s a German scientist by the name of Otto Warburg who won a Nobel prize back, he’s German, he’s passed away, but back in the 30s for discovering that cancer, or actually any disease, cannot exist in cells that are slightly alkaline. We can talk about this later on. There’s a range from 0 to 14 for acidity to alkaline. So your cells need to be right slightly more in the middle like 7.1 pH. And so when they’re slightly alkaline, that indicates there’s oxygen in the cell, that all the toxins are getting out, that they’re communicating properly. And cancer cannot exist in an alkaline cell. So having an alkaline diet would help the cells to establish and maintain that alkalinity to prevent future cancer growth. And things like sugar and processed foods and dairy, these are all acidic foods. And so she eliminated all of those from her diet, did adopt a plant based diet, did go through chemo and completely healed. So in of helping her, I learned about plant based nutrition. I did find algae as one of the things for her. But my true dive into algae came. So then I thought, well, I need to tell more people about this. So I gave up my 25 year corporate career. I’m sorry the story story is so long. I went back to school, I studied nutrition, I went to a place called the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. I got a health coaching certificate, I taught plant based nutrition for a year at corporations and hospitals. And this is what truly led me to algae. Because as I was teaching people the importance of eating more vegetable, everyone said, oh, it’s too much work or I can’t digest them or I throw them out. My kids won’t eat them, my husband won’t eat them, they’re a mess. They take blah blah, blah blah. So I thought, okay, I need to find something that gives people the nutrition of vegetables without any of the work, none of the digestive distress, nothing that would prevent people, husbands, kids or anything to, for, for to stop eating them. So I look at, I looked at everything I’d found for my sister and when I got to algae, that’s when the miracle happened. Because first of all, it’s the most alkaline food in the world. It’s the most nutrient dense food in the world. It’s been studied for 75, almost 100 years as being the most nutritionally dense food in the world. There’s 100,000 studies documenting it. It’s an agricultural crop. Yes. It is not a supplement. It’s been grown in Asia for over 60 years where they take it every single day. And the best part of it all is that it comes in these little tiny tablets that we call bits because they’re bits of nutrition. They’re about the size of a baby. Aspirin. The darker one is spirulina. We’ll talk about that in a minute. The lighter one is chlorella. These are two microalgae. But each one of these tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. So while I’m talking to you, I just had a plate of vegetables. Yes. How easy is that? Highest protein in the world. 64% protein. 40 vitamins and minerals. Highest collagen in the world. Highest chlorophyll in the world. Algae tablets are a rock star. Your kids can take them, your pets, your. Your grandparents. We Recommend, you know, 10 tablets of spirulina in the morning and maybe 10 chlorella at night. I’ll talk to you about the differences later on. But algae has been endorsed by United nations for 50 years, NASA for 50 years. You just don’t know about it because it’s not grown here. And no one’s shared any of those 100,000 studies documenting all the health benefits of algae. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 14 years. I am more in love with algae now than I was 14 years ago. The science is crazy. What it does for you is crazy, and it’s effortless. One calorie, zero carbs, zero sugar. Spirulina, as you’re going to find out, gives you energy and satisfies your hunger. Chlorella pulls out toxins and builds your immune system. The two of them will keep you healthy, protect your health, regain your health. And it’s effortless. If you can swallow water, you can get the nutrients that you need. That’s how I got to algae.

Megan Lyons: Well, I love it. I’m so thrilled to hear about your sister. I love someone who is as passionate about their work as you are. And I know you’ve sold the audience by saying one plate of vegetables in one tablet. Now I’m going to throw in a caveat to the audience. Don’t give up. On eating your vegetables. This is a wonderful compliment. And I still think eating our vegetables is going to be the best case scenario.

Catharine Arnston: Absolutely. But what happens is people, they travel a lot or maybe they’re on. Maybe they’re older and they don’t have digestive enzymes that can digest vegetables, or they’re on medications and they’re constipated or the, the kids won’t eat them. We’ve had mothers send us emails saying, oh, thank God for your algae tablets. I don’t have to argue with my 11 year old every dinner to eat her vegetables, she at least takes. I know she’s getting the nutrition that she needs. That’s why I call spirulina. We’ll talk about the two of them in a minute. Your nutritional insurance, because it does give your body everything that you need. And then everything else is extra, whether it’s vegetables or animal protein or eggs. And then chlorella, which pulls out toxins and builds your immune system and has the highest chlorophyll in the world, 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula. So if you aren’t eating vegetables because either for digestive reasons, taste reasons, travel reasons, you again, you’re getting the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that your body needs to be healthy. So it’s. So I call this your health insurance. Chlorella is your health insurance. Spirulina is your nutritional insurance.

Megan Lyons: Excellent. Really love that. And you’re doing an amazing and enticing job of dripping in. Okay, benefits of this, benefits of this. We will close or get to all of the differences between them. But I want to z back a little bit because your focus recently has been on mitochondrial health. And this is something that I talk a lot about to my clients, but we’ve never had a podcast on mitochondrial health. So I’d love to get some of your insights here. But let’s just start with the basics. What are mitochondria for those who don’t know?

Catharine Arnston: Sure. And we can do mitochondria now or. But I do want to explain at some point the difference between the different algaes and what they do differently because one of them is really better for the mitochondria than the other.

Megan Lyons: Sure. If you want to start there, you can start there.

Catharine Arnston: Well, let me maybe, maybe I can just to give you kind of an overview. You know, high level. So algae is its own food category. It’s not technically a plant, although it was the first life on earth. And there are two Main types of algae, macroalgae and microalgae. Macroalgae is actually that stringy stuff that washes up on shore, also known as seaweed. Now it’s called seaweed because it’s only in the sea and it’s still good for you because it has high fiber, but it has virtually no nutrition. It also has high iodine because it’s from the sea. That’s macroalgae. What we’re talking about today is called microalgae, which is microscopic in size, which is why it’s called microalgae. And it’s the complete opposite of macroalgae. It either has zero fiber, like spirulina has zero fiber, or virtually no fiber. And it has the highest concentration of nutrition in the world, a thousand times more than any other vegetables. And that’s a quote from NASA. So macroalgae is stringy. No, no nutrition. Microalgae, no fiber, massive nutrition. And also, microalgae is everywhere. Seaweed is only in the sea. Microalgae is in the lakes, the rivers, the streams, the soil, your aquarium, your swimming pool. And importantly, it is grown especially spirulina and chlorella as a farmer crop.

Megan Lyons: Oh, wow, I did not know that.

Catharine Arnston: Yes, so there is. So with micro, with macroalgae, the stringy stuff, there’s only a few strains. There’s brown seaweed, red seaweed, green seaweed, microalgae, there’s tens of thousands of microalgae. One strain is blue green and one strain is green. Now, one strain of blue green algae is spirulina, and it’s the one that’s harvested in fresh water. So whether you buy it from us, where we grow ours in Taiwan, and we have special growing techniques that make it safer and more highly efficacy and safer. But whether you buy spirulina from us or Whole Foods or Target, they’re all grown in fresh water, not from the ocean. Yes, there is blue green algae in the ocean, but it’s not spirulina. Spirulina is grown in freshwater. It’s called hydroponic leaf. And then chlorella, which is one strain of green algae. Same thing. There is green algae in the ocean, not chlorella. Chlorella is harvested in what’s called fresh water. You’ll see that the ponds, they’re called ponds or chlorella is circular and spirulina is long and narrow because spirulina grows like this. But anyways, the first thing you need to know is that Algae is a food crop. It’s as big an industry in Asia as the beef industry is here. That has to really stun you because you think. And you’re going to find out all these health benefits from algae, and you think, well, why don’t I know about it? Why doesn’t my nutritionist know about it? Why is my doctor. Because it’s not grown here. 99% of spirulina and chlorella are grown in Asia. That’s Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, India, not grown here. I hope to grow it one day, and then there’s no incentive for anyone to tell you about it because you can’t patent it, because it’s like broccoli. It’s a vegetable. So the food industry isn’t going to tell you about it, the pharmaceuticals. So anyways, I’m here to tell you about it because this will change your life. Honestly, it certainly changed mine, and it will change many more. So we grow it in fresh water, then we dry it into a powder without high heat, which is very important when we talk about the mitochondria, because there’s a nutrient in the spirulina in particular called superoxide dismutase. I know that sounds geeky. I’m very sorry. You can refer to it as sod, but this sod, as you’re going to find out, protects your mitochondria from damage. And that means you have more mitochondria that work better. And when they work better and you have more of them, they protect you from aging, from disease, from inflammation, from everything. So we’re going to want to protect those mitochondria. And the best way to do it is with this enzyme antioxidant called sod, but it’s damaged by high heat. And mostly all the other algae companies use high heat to dry their algae. We don’t. You could also get raw or frozen spirulina, because, again, it has not been exposed to high heat. So it’s. SOD is preserved. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. So we grow it in fresh water, air, dry it without. Without high heat, and then we press them into these cute little tablets that we call bits, because they’re bits of nutrition, bits of food. Nothing extracted, nothing added. One tablet has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. And that’s using that quote from NASA. So if you can’t digest vegetables, you aren’t. You don’t. You can’t make a trip to the grocery store. You’re traveling. You’re in between Meals, you want a snack, you don’t want crappy carbs. This is your answer. Because they come in little pouches that are very convenient to tuck into your handbag or your gym bag, or if you buy the canisters, we’ll talk about them. They come with little tins that you can fill up. And each one, remember, contains 40 vitamins and minerals and 64% protein. There is nothing in the world with more protein than spirulina algae. And you don’t need fish oil anymore because it has all the, it has Omega 3 and other essential fatty acids. And I tell people, where do you think the fish get the fish oil from? They get it from the algae that’s in the ocean that they eat. So you can save the ocean and save yourself. Because also fish oil, as hopefully you’re learning, is usually rancid by the time you get it. And so it’s actually inflammatory, not anti inflammatory, which is why people take it. So that’s sort of like the scoop on spirulina and chlorella being two important food crops that are grown in fresh water. And they’re quite different. And we’ll talk about the difference in a minute. Spirulina is called a blue green algae because it has two pigments in it. The blue one, which I’m sure you’ve never heard of before, it’s called phycocyanin. I’m going to spell that out for you. P H Y C O C Y A N I N and the reason why I want you to know about it, because phycocyanin has really important health benefits, including killing cancer cells. And we’re going to talk about that today because I want you to be able to Google phycocyanin and cancer treatments and you’ll see that what I’m telling you is absolutely the truth. But the problem is this phycocyanin is also deactivated by high heat. So when you go to Target or you go to Costco and you buy your spirulina, you’re not getting these cancer killing properties because I can almost assure you they used high heat to dry it. So you’re missing the sod which will protect your mitochondria and you’re missing this phycocyanin that will protect your cells from cancer. So spirulina is a blue green algae. If you took some of the tablets and put it in a plate of water, that gorgeous blue is what would come out of it. That’s the blue Phycocyanin. The second pigment is called chlorophyll, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Chlorophyll is a green pigment that makes plants green. Now chlorella is a green algae because it only has that one pigment which is called chlorophyll. Now I want you to take a look at these two pictures because you’ll see the blue from the, from the spirulina dispersed beautifully through the water, right? But in chlorella, see how it clumps and doesn’t disperse. That’s because chlorophyll turns out is a fat based pigment. And the blue phycocyanin is a water based pigment. And the reason I want you to know that is because chlorophyll builds your cell walls just like an omega 3, just like a vitamin A, just like a D3, it’s a fat based nutrient. And also chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. This is the chemical structure of chlorophyll and this is the chemical structure of your red blood cells. The only difference is your blood cells have an iron atom in the middle and your chlorophyll have what’s called a magnesium atom. And the reason why I need you to know this is because our food, our vegetables, don’t have much chlorophyll in them anymore. Chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world, As I mentioned, 500 times more than arugula, 25 times more than even liquid chlorophyll. So even if you are eating vegetables, my arugula goes yellow after day three. And that’s because there’s not much chlorophyll in it in the beginning. So you’re missing all the blood building capabilities of chlorophyll because our vegetables, our soil, are damaged. So our vegetables simply don’t have as much chlorophyll anymore. So chlorophyll, as you’re going to find out when we talk a bit more about chlorella, is a health and. Well, partly because a of that high chlorophyll, which has phytonutrients and immune building capabilities and because it heals your cell walls, your cell walls need to be healthy. So nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And chlorophyll does one of those things for you. It also kills bacteria, which is why I want to let you know, you may only know about algae as something that closes your favorite beach and poor Algae gets the bum wrap because the reason why algae showed up is because there were toxins and bacteria in the water. Now, you couldn’t, you couldn’t see those toxins or bacteria, but you can see the algae. So you think, oh, you know, algae is making a mess of my bacteria. No, algae is the cleanup crew because it kills bacteria and absorbs toxins. Now, you still want to stay away from the algae on the beach because it has absorbed all those toxins, but it’s not the bad guy. In fact, you may not know this. Every single water treatment plant in North America, probably in the, in Europe as well, pass all of the water through algae. Why? Because it kills bacteria. So if you ever get a little ring of water green on a plate, if you put water from your tap onto it, that’s from algae. So algae. And it kills bacteria in your body too. The chlorophyll kills it in your mouth, in your colon, and everywhere. So again, algae in particular, chlorella is very much a cleansing, detoxing, wellness algae. So, which is a great sort of segue into the. More of the differences between the two of them. Because spirulina, which is the blue green algae, is known for being energizing. It energizes your brain, your body, your mitochondria. We’re going to get to the mitochondria in a second, but it’s not a stimulant. We think of energy as something you get from caffeine or chemicals or sugar. And what cat. And what they do is they speed up molecules. What you get from spirulina and why it’s called energy is because it creates energy at the cellular level. This is what mitochondria do. They create cellular energy. And when I talk about cellular energy, I’m not talking about energy just to use, to have a great workout or go to the, you know, run to the grocery store. Your body uses cellular energy for everything. It’s for your neurotransmitters, for your skin, cell turnover, for your heartbeat, for your lymphatic system, your elimination, your digestion. And so cell think of cellular energy like electricity. It keeps everything in your body working. And spirulina not only creates more cellular energy, it protects the mitochondria that make that cellular energy for you. Think of this if you had a stimulant like a coffee or a candy bar. It’s like putting paper on a fire. You get a big burst of energy, but then you get a crash. Think of spirulina as putting a Log on the fire. It’s very steady, you might not even notice it because it’s quiet energy it cellular energy at the cellular level. So no drama with spirulina. And so if you took 10 in the morning, you would get out the door in seconds. You’d have your nourishment, you’d have some brain power, your hunger would be gone. People use this for intermittent fasting because there’s zero carbs and it gets so absorbed so quickly so it doesn’t interfere with your fast. And it gets absorbed because spirulina, as I mentioned earlier, has no cellulous wall, zero fiber, is technically a bacteria. And spirulina has the highest bioavailable protein in the world. When you eat animal protein, it’s all bound up in something called amino acids. Your body can’t digest protein as is, it has to break it down into amino acids. And so it can take up to two or three days. And if you don’t have the factors and co factors, you might only absorb 10% as Aminos. Then you have something called collagen, which is in peptides, which are clusters of aminos. But then in algae all the amino acids are already individual, so there’s no work for your body to break down to get access to the protein. Both algae contain 18 of the 20aminos, including the nine your body can’t make. So it’s really good for vegans, paleo, even carnivores. A lot of people go carnivore because they have had some digestive issues from eating plants. Because some plants like kale or spinach or the red, the nightshade plants have high lectins or oxalates. These are sharp proteins that the plants have developed to protect themselves from bugs and predators because it upsets their tummies too. Well, algae doesn’t have any lectins or oxalates because it’s not a land plant, it came from the ocean. So if you’re a carnivore and you’re missing all the great phytonutrients and chlorophyll that, that you would find in plants. And maybe you don’t want to eat them because they cause you stomach distress. Well, algae is your answer. That’s why spirulina is good for everybody, for at any age, for any reason. Great for a pre workout. As I said, it’s great for satisfying your hunger. You could take a pouch of 30 for lunch and you wouldn’t be hungry for hours. And it’s only one calorie Per tablet. So very energizing, very nourishing, both for your brain, your body, your skin. Higher, more collagen than collagen powder. So. And that’s why actually I made a second brand of spirulina and called it Beauty Bits because I found women didn’t like the packaging and has so much collagen for your skin. This is the one I have on my countertop. They are identical, just branded and packaged differently for you. So that’s spirulina, really energizing, satisfying for your hunger and great for your mitochondria, which we’ll get to in a minute. The other main microalgae is chlorella, which I’ve already told you has the highest chlorophyll in the world, which kills bacteria everywhere in your body, particularly your colon and your breath. So that’s why it’s great for pets. If your dog has bad breath, give them some chlorella or even spirulina, because it has chlorophyll in it as well. That high chlorophyll builds your cell walls. But the true claim to fame for chlorella is because of its hard cellulose wall. That hard cellulose wall attaches to toxins, heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticide, alcohol, lactic acid, and chelates them, which means pulls them out. So it’s very, very detoxing. It’s cleansing, but also detoxing. And also that hard cell wall has fiber in it. Remember, spirulina has none. And so the fiber feeds your, what’s called your gut biome. And where there are bacteria, your bacteria need fiber to create these things called short chain fatty acids, which generate really healthy bacteria in your gut. And 80% of your gut, of your. Of your immune system is in your gut there. It’s generated by, you know, the bacteria down there. So this is very healing for immune system, very healing for your gut. Very cleansing, very detoxing. And it has the highest tryptophan in the world, which is the precursor to melatonin, which helps you get into a deep sleep. So this is one of the reasons, because it’s so cleansing and detoxing and nourishing. And it has something called chlorella growth factor, which speeds up your cells. And also it helps stimulate stem cells, which are also used for recovery of at the cellular level. This is why we want you to take this before bed. You can have it any time of day, but definitely before bed, because when you are sleeping, that’s when your body goes through A detox and repair cycle. So while you’re getting your, your beauty rest and the, and the tryptophan helps you get into that deep rest. While you’re getting your beauty rest. This is like having the cleanup crew in there pulling out the aluminum from your brain, pulling out the toxins from your cells, getting rid of any of the alcohol that maybe you had a cocktail before bed. And here’s the great thing. It stimulates what’s called peristalsis, fancy word for bowel movement. And spirulina is very nourishing. Getting nutrients into your body is really critical. And actually it’s absorbing nutrients which makes the difference. And because there’s no cell wall, this gets absorbed in. Is Bio 99 bioavailable. But if you don’t get rid of what I call the junk in your trunk and this is what you do with bowel movements, people, so many people are constipated if they’re on medications, if they’re traveling, they’re eating dairy, if they’re eating processed foods. Let’s face it, you’re not having that good bowel movement in the morning. This is your answer. And it will, you know, it helps as much as any fiber does. But because you can swallow them in little tiny tablets or chew them, chlorella actually tastes pretty good. I eat mine with pistachio nuts. Most people, I will admit, swallow the spirulina, but this makes it effortless. So you can have that bowel movement in the morning. If you eat more than 10. You, you do need 30 for detox purposes is good for just your regular chlorophyll healing wellness. And if you take the 30, which is also a therapeutic dose, or if you’re doing detox, I just want to forewarn you. Your poop will be a little green, but it’s a badge of honor. So don’t worry about it. Because only a portion of the chlorophyll gets absorbed by your stomach. The rest of it travels down through your digestive tract and through your colon where it can do all that cleanup for you. So those are the two differences. Spirulina generally in the morning and afternoon for nourishment, energy focus, pre workout chlorella before bed or after a workout, to pull out or after drinking, pull out lactic acid or alcohol and also to help you get into a deep sleep and to help with the removal of toxins and repair cycle. So you can see that they work differently. This is very much an immune gut health. Algae, spirulina Is really a brain algae. And I’ll tell you why is because we’re going to get to next, the mitochondria. Your brain has the highest concentration of mitochondria in your entire body. There are 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain because the mitochondria, the highest concentration, are located where the greatest energy needs are. And so your brain is uses up 20% of your entire body’s energy. So the fact that spirulina affects and improves the mitochondria. This is why this immediate removes brain fog. Ladies over 40, I know as you get into perimenopause and menopause, I’m way past menopause. This will improve your brain fog because of the mitochondria effect. Also, mitochondria affect your hormone production and the drop of hormones affects the quality and efficacy of your mitochondria. So again, this improves that. So very good for mitochondria health in your brain. Brain fog, Alzheimer’s, any dementia. We did our own clinical trial that proved that. But. But this is very much brain food and this is very much gut food. So. And another way to think about it is because spirulina gives you energy and nourishment that you need for the day. And I stay at a lot of hotels when I’m speaking, oh, well, that’s sort of like room service. And then I come back to my. My hotel room and it’s all cleaned up and I thought, ooh, that’s for like, chlorella cleans all the junk in your trunk. So think of spirulina as room service and chlorella as housekeeping. And that will help you understand the difference between the two of them.

Megan Lyons: Oh, amazing. You’ve packed so much information in there. So spirulina is energizing. It’s nutrient rich. It really gets us going for the day. Chlorella, clearing out that junk, detoxifying, helping support digestion. Really, really enticing. I know people are already running to get their hands on some of it, but what I heard in there when you’re talking about spirulina is mitochondria are like the energy producing factories of the cell. And where we require more energy, like our brain, we have more mitochondria. Yes. So I. You were going there, but I would love to take it a step further. How does this relate to all the things we care about, Disease and aging and all of that? How do they relate to mitochondria? And how does spirulina support.

Catharine Arnston: Right. So Think of your body like you would make the comparison of your body to a big office tower. So when you’re born, everything’s nice and shiny, just like a new office tower. Now, in the building, office building, all the work gets done in the offices, right? Well, in your body all the work gets done in the cells and in the offices, the thing that allows the work to be done are the light bulbs. Because you can’t very much, you can’t do any work if the light bulbs are out, right? Well, in your body, what allows the work to be done in your cells are the mitochondria. Now there’s another distinction because now in the, in the building when the light bulbs go out, maintenance crew just come and replace them them. But as you get older, the mitochondria, which are the equivalent of your light bulbs, when they go out, there are no maintenance crew. And so over time, as you get older, you have fewer and fewer mitochondria. So the lights in your body are going out and the, and it gets even worse because in the building you have electricity that keeps the light bulbs going. Well, your mitochondria are not just the light bulbs. They’re also the electricity itself. They generate the electricity that allows the work to be done in your, in your cells. So as you get older, now the thing that happens, and this is, I’m going to have to get into some geeky science so you can understand how the mitochondria work. So. Oops, that’s not the right, that’s not the one I want. I wanted to show you the cell. Oops, I must have grabbed the wrong slide. Well, I’ll do it a different way. It I’ve got. Here we go. In your body you have your cells and inside the cell you have your nucleus. There’s 22,000 of those. And then you have these little peanut shaped things. These are the mitochondria. Now in the mitochondria, this is where cellular energy is created and cellular energy is called ATP. Now you may have heard of ATP. Now what you may not know is that a byproduct of ATP are things called free radicals. And free radicals are very damaging. Now the real problem is your mitochondria have their own DNA and they’re located exactly inside the mitochondria where a, the ATP is produced, but also so are the free radicals. Your mitochondria are like air controllers at an airport. They control everything in your body. They control cellular communication, they control all of the other DNA. There’s only 37 of them. But when they get damaged by the byproduct of free radicals being release by the cellular production of ATP, they get damaged and they die. And as you have fewer mitochondria, DNA or damaged mitochondria, DNA, this is what leads to disease. This is what leads to aging. This is what causes brain fog, weight gain, bad sleep. Everything is caused because of damaged mitochondria because there just aren’t enough lights in your building anymore to allow the work to be done. Think of cellular energy like you would if you were giving a dinner party and you forgot. You forgot to get dessert and you had one little old cupcake from the last dinner party and you shared one cupcake with all of your guests. Nobody’s going to be very happy. That’s what happens when you have fewer mitochondria generating less energy. No body part, no part of your immune system, your neurop, nothing is getting enough cellular energy. They all have to share that one little tiny cupcake. So when you get more mitochondria or when they are working better, it’s like having that huge buffet of desserts. Everybody gets something. Your brain is working better, your digestion working better, yours, everything works better. And you don’t age. So here’s the great thing. The way to do that is you can’t. You need to stop the damage or the death of your mitochondria. And how do you do that? Well, we. The main thing that’s killing the mitochondria or damage them are free radicals. You may have heard of something called antioxidants. So first of all, free radicals have an unpaired electron around them, which, and nature doesn’t like things that are unbalanced. So what happens with a free radical is it steals an electron from another molecule to balance itself out, but then that one’s unbalanced, so it steals another one. This is what leads to inflammation, tissue damage and aging. These things called antioxidants have what’s called extra electrons. It’s like having your friend at school who brought extra lunches for all their. For everybody. It donates an extra electron, so it calms down the free radical. No tissue damage, happy ending. So you think, well, why don’t we just have antioxidants going in there and stopping the free radicals? Well, there’s. We do. But I’ll tell you, there’s only a specific one that can really get in there because most antioxidants like vitamin A and vitamin, or sorry, vitamin E and vitamin C can’t get into the mitochondria because they have two membranes. All of your other cells, including mitochondria, have a lipid membrane. Your mitochondria have two membranes, and most antioxidants can’t get in there. But the good news is there are a few that can. They are chlorophyll glutathione, and the star of the show is an antioxidant called superoxide dismutase. Now, algae has all three in the highest quantity in the world. But let’s talk about the star of the show called superoxide dismutase. Why is superoxydesmutase the star? Because the type of antioxidant, a free radical that is produced in that mitochondria, is called superoxide. It has three unpaired electrons. So it takes a very special antioxidant, a superhero antioxidant, to reduce that, calm down that free radical, and turn it into water. And that’s done by something called called superoxide dismutase. Now, your body, Mother Nature is so smart, you, she gave you superoxidismatase from the moment you’re born. So your mitochondria are protected from the moment you’re born, through your childhood teens and into your 20s and 30s. It’s sort of like, think of superoxide dismutase as a big golf umbrella. The free radicals are being released because they’re a byproduct of creating that cellular energy. But you’re protected. Your mitochondria are protected because they have this big golf umbrella called superoxidismutase. You’re laughing because, hey, you know, knock yourself out. I don’t. I’m not getting hurt because I got superoxidismata. It’s getting rid of all those free radicals. So you’re protected from the moment you’re born until about the age of 30. After the age of 30. And, ladies, listen up. This is what happens. Your. Your body slows down the production of superoxidismatase, just like it slows down melatonin and hormones. By 40, you have virtually no superoxidase. By 50, virtually gone. So that big golf umbrella that was protecting your mitochondria all of your life until 30, when you hit 40, it’s now about the size of one of those Totes City umbrellas. You know, it’s sort of protected. Not, not a lot, but a little bit. By the time you’re 50, it’s about the size of a cocktail umbrella. No protection by 50. And so we’re talking in your 40s. This is exactly when chronic disease hits. This is when weight gain hits, this is when brain fog hits. And I believe it’s because this is when your body no longer is making that superoxide dismatase. It’s super. Could be because it’s super duper protecting you. And there’s no food source of superoxygen taste. Supplements get damaged in your, in your gut with superoxygen taste. But algae, spirulina in particular, chlorella to a lesser degree, but particularly spirulina, has the highest concentration of superoxidase mutase in the world. And because it’s a bacteria with no cellulous wall, it gets absorbed instantly and directed directly to your brain. And if you had any doubt about the importance of this stuff called superoxidase, there are 25,000 studies in the scientific libraries around the world proving superoxidizing taste reduces inflammation, protects mitochondria, start stops heart disease, stops Alzheimer’s. It’s all because superoxydissmutase is necessary to get rid of that free radical called superoxide. And superoxidism. Taste is the only thing that does it. This is a life saver. This will save your skin, your digestion, your brain, your thinking, your neurotransmitters, everything. But the world doesn’t know yet that spirulina. But here’s the trick. Superoxidesmutase, as I mentioned at the very beginning, is also not only an antioxidant, it’s an enzyme. And all enzymes. Enzymes are deactivated by heat over 214 Fahrenheit. And virtually all the other algae companies use high heat to dry the algae, which deactivates that superpower. You could also be okay with spirulina that is frozen or fresh. They taste terrible and they’re messy and they expire quickly. But we’re a raw food. So this has all the active superoxide dysmorphia. So it gives you back the big golf umbrella. That’s it. And all you have to do is take a. You know, we recommend 10 tablets of spirulina in the morning. You could take less, you could take more, particularly more if you. For therapeutic purposes because there’s other nutrients in here I want to talk about. But now by having these super. The superoxide disemb is going to work. It’s like having a fireman in there hosing down all the free radicals, right? Protecting your mitochondria from the fire, the rain of free radicals that are going to be produced anyways because they’re A byproduct product of ATP. It’s just the way it is. But now you don’t have to be damaged by them. Your mitochondria can flourish again because everything in your body is constantly dying and growing back. Now, if you have something that protects the mitochondria, when they grow back, they will grow back stronger, more plentiful, and healthier, and that’s what you want. So whatever health condition you have, maybe it’s good, maybe it’s not, but it’s not permanent. It’s because we are constantly evolving and changing. And so let’s give our bodies the best shot at getting a renovation. This is sort of like a renovation and a restoration from the inside level. And it even affects your skin, because think about it. Your skin is your largest organ. We can see it. But it’s fed by the blood vessels, just like your heart is or your brain is. And so I can tell when I look at someone’s skin whether they’re healthy or not, because do they have breakouts? Do they have wrinkles? And you have free radicals damaging your elastin and your collagen, just like you have free radicals damaging your heart. So this is why I’m so in love with spirulina. But it has to be untreated with high heat to have all of these amazing benefits. But it still only has one calorie, 40 vitamins, mineral, 64% protein. And it does amazing things, but it protects the mitochondria in a way that nothing does. And when you get older, because you’re getting less and less of this, this superoxygenase, this is when inflammation happens. This is when heart disease, skin cancer, anything. And in the meantime, at the meanwhile, you’ve been absorbing more toxins right here. This is the trifecta. This is the perfect storm of disease between 40 and 50. And if you know anybody, you know, most people, even my sister, when she was. Got cancer, she was in her 40s. It’s just. It’s sort of. It seems to be like a life sentence these days. And I’m so determined to help people understand there’s a way to correct or protect you from this. This situation. And the reason why your body stops making all these great protective antioxidants or hormones after 30 is because, you know what? For millions of years, we died at 30. Our biology thinks we’re dying at 30. Thanks to our lifestyle changes in the last 150 years, we’re now making it to our 80s or our 90s. But evolutionarily, our Bodies have not caught up and I tell you they’re not going to. So it’s not that it’s a bad joke, it’s just that this is what happens and we all know the certain protective nutrients that we’ve had all that’s why when you’re 20, I mean you can stay out till 5 o’clock in the morning, bounce back, good to go. Not when you’re, you know, in your 40s, honestly. And so this is the answer. And I, I don’t know. You know, I do share on with sometimes with my age, with people. So I’m turning 68 in a month. Amazing. My brain works. This is all my own hair, there’s no extensions, I don’t have Botox, I’m proper weight, I don’t take any medications. 90% of people in my age group are on at least five medications. I take zero. I don’t take any other vitamins. I do eat proper meals, but I take spirulina and chlorella and have every day for 14 years. I usually intermittent fast until May about 2 then I have a full meal. I eat eggs, I eat meat, I eat, you know, only grass fed beef, I eat a lot of vegetables, I love salads, I love arugula. But honestly I couldn’t survive without spirulina and chlorella. So I’m just trying to help other people understand how amazing this is because we have so much illness, advanced disease, aging, rapid aging, it’s unnecessary. And whether you do red light therapy, this work makes the red light therapy work better because it stimulates the ATP production. If you do cryotherapy, this improves the cryotherapy, whatever other device or technique that you’re using, this improves it so you get a better, deeper, longer result. IV drip therapy. But even alone, and here’s the great thing, you know, you don’t, you want stuff that’s easy to do and affordable and we have a 20% discount code for your listeners. But which brings a full bag of 1,000 tablets down to $104 and you think oh my God, $104. But there’s 551 pounds of vegetables. Wow, that bag. And if you took 10 a day like we’re recommending, it works up to a dollar a day. A dollar a day. And you don’t have to go to any clinic. You can if you want, but it’s very high value nutrition and effortless. Like I said, just, just pop them in your hand, throw them back with a glass of water. If you like the earthy, chewy nature, chew them. I do. I chew. My tongue’s always green. And actually, kids love to chew them because I think it’s funny that their tongues turn green. So moms, if you have kids, encourage them to chew them. They’ll think it’s hilarious. If you drop a few on the floor, your pets will love them. They’re great for pets because they have all the same health conditions. So. So now I’m just going to chew one right now.

Megan Lyons: Pop another one. This is amazing. And you yourself are such a great example of the power of this because your brain is clearly firing on all cylinders. You have given us so much information. I hope the audience has been furiously scribbling notes. I’d love for you to end just by telling us the difference between your four products. You told us already. The beauty bits are kind of a mimic. But take us through where people might want to start. If they just want to start with one.

Catharine Arnston: Yes. Well, I generally recommend spirulina. If you could only pick one, I would go with spirulina. Because newborns, grandparents, teenagers, pets, this is the easiest food because it’s food to digest in the world. And so. And you’ll notice it within if you. If you had 30 for lunch, in 15 minutes, your hunger will be gone. Your energy will be steady, not crazy. You won’t feel like a. You’re going to jump off a building because it’s, again, it’s cellular energy. It’s not a stimulant. So. And the reason why, again, there’s two is because I started the company because of my sister. Women’s health has always been my number one. And I noticed women just when I, after two years, just weren’t buying spirulina, my girlfriends literally told me, you got to make it pink and give it a cute name. And that’s why I also found it had more collagen than collagen powder. So I’m not trying to trick anybody. I just want women to feel comfortable and happy pulling this out of their handbag. This is what I have on my countertop. So spirulina, very nourishing, energizing at the cellular level. Helps your skin, helps your hair. Good girl. So that would be. If you could only pick one, this would be the one for sure.

Megan Lyons: Great.

Catharine Arnston: Then chlorella is the wellness detoxing algae. This is one we recommend to take at night. You can take it any time day, but definitely at night. Now, a very small portion of people can’t tolerate chlorella. And so it’s very, very few. We hear from one customer maybe once a month or something. But I just want to forewarn people about that. Spirulina, not a, in a hundred years of use, not a single negative anything. So this, and so part of it might be because it’s detoxing you of toxins and so that could cause some distress. So if you have any doubts about chlorella, you can go on Amazon, buy a single pouch for $6, try it out and then maybe come back to the website where we sell everything, which is energybits.com and I’ll tell you about the discount code in a minute. So chlorella, really great for cleansing, detoxing and healing your gut. And then we have a fourth brand which is called Vitality Bits, which is a blend of the two algae. And the reason why we did the blend is because some people just want simplicity. They don’t want to think about spirulina in the morning, chlorella at night, but they want both the wellness and the detox and the energy. So that’s with this one. However, I urge people not to start with this one because you may be one of the people that do better with spirulina than chlorella. And you will never know if you start with a blended algae. So if, and so if you wanted the blended one, you would take 10 of this in the morning and 10 at night instead of 10 of the spirulina in the morning and 10 of chlorel at night. So please start with them separately because you may even just want one but you won’t know which one if you start with the blended one. And everything’s sold through our website energybits.com E N E R G Y B I T S and we have a 20% discount. Code Lions L Y O N S. It works on everything. We have really cool canisters that come with a bag inside them. You only buy a canister once you open the bag, put it into the canister and then you shake out your tablet tablets through the hole. And then when you run out of the tablets, then you just go back to the website and buy the larger bag that has the thousand tablets. The thousand tablet bag is the best value. This is the one that works out. It’s normally 130. With the discount it’s 140 or 104. And this is where you get the dollar a serving pricing. But we also have them in the little pouches also the, the canisters by the way come with a cute little travel tin inside that you can fill up and carry with you. But you all can also buy them in boxes of the pouches. There’s 30 tablets in a pouch and 30 pouches in a box. And even if you don’t want to buy anything, just come to the website because we write a full blog every month. Women’s health, brain health, gut health. Everything’s science referenced. We’re all about science. Everything I say is science reference referenced. In fact, I pretty much, I call myself a citizen scientist because I’ve taught myself everything. Although I am writing my PhD exams this summer, so congrats. Well, let me, I gotta pass first, but I’m hoping I will. But if I don’t, I’ll just write them again. But anyways, I just want to assure people algae isn’t new, it’s just new to you. And just like you didn’t know about Chia or Kiwa or Matcha or maybe bone broth until, or collagen powder until somebody introduced it to you. Algae has been used for centuries. The Aztecs, the Egyptians, and most recently the last 60 years in Asia. They take it every single day. The Japanese, by the way, have the lowest obesity rate, lowest cancer rate, best longevity, and I attribute some of it to algae. So why should they be the only ones benefiting? They’ve been using like for this length of time. So try it out. Algae is the answer for so many issues for prevention or correction. It’s food, not a supplement endorsed by international agencies. And we pride ourselves on having the highest quality. We do third party lab tests. We’re the only algae sold through doctor’s offices. So don’t cheat yourself with the, with the less quality ones because you’ll miss that, that superoxidismatase protection and you’ll also miss the, I didn’t go into it, but the phycocyanin, which kills cancer cells. So, and you can google that online. But yeah, algae is, it needed a, it needed a bit of a makeover because everybody thinks of it as pond scum and it’s, it’s a nutritional rock star and we’ve done everything we can to make, take the weirdness away from it, provide you with a really high quality, safe version of it and you, you know, just start using it and take it every day and you’ll, you’ll use less supplements, your grocery bill will go down. It’s, it’s pretty cool.

Megan Lyons: You’ve done an amazing job at giving that makeover. I will say I did not follow the protocol because I didn’t know. I started with the vitality bits and it felt great. I loved it. I am going to use the code lions, which you and your team have so generously offered to get one of those big. Probably two of those big canisters. I’m going to go for Spiralina and Chlorella. And I know everyone listening will be so interested as well. So that code is lions. You can scroll on down to the show notes to get that link to energybits.com and I cannot thank you enough, Catharine, for just spewing out so much. Fantastic.

Catharine Arnston: It was a bit of a brain dump. Sorry about that.

Megan Lyons: Well, it was great. That’s what the audience is here for. We all very much appreciate your time and your wisdom today.

Catharine Arnston: Thank you. Thank you, Megan. I appreciate you. It takes all of us to turn this ship around, right? But it can be turned, I promise you.

Megan Lyons: That’s right. We’re turning it.

Catharine Arnston: Thank you.

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