Ep 427: Green Gold: Microalgae for Sustainable Energy and Supercharged Living With Catharine Arnston

Having trouble getting your veggies in?  Looking for a way to boost your energy and nutrient intake? Do you have fatigue, low iron, ferritin or anemia and nothing seems to work long term?  While Catharine Arnston was looking for solutions to help her sister with an alkaline diet when she was diagnosed with cancer she discovered the benefits of microalgae. Wanting to share the benefits of microalgae with the world she created her own microalgae company, ENERGYbits®. In this episode of The Health Fix Podcast, Dr. Jannine Krause interviews Catharine Arnston on the many benefits of microalgae. 

Resources From The Show:

• ENERGYbits® – code: Healthfix
• @energybits – Instagram
• Youtube version of this podcast

Our Partners

Podcast Transcript:

JANNINE: [Intro] Welcome to the Health Fix Podcast, where health junkies get their weekly

fix of tips, tools and techniques to have limitless energy, sharp minds and fit

physiques for life.

Hey health junkies, on this episode of the Health Fix Podcast, I’m interviewing

Catharine Arnston, and we’re going to be talking about spirulina, chlorella,

these micro algae and their benefits for health and longevity.

Now, Catharine is a wealth of information, and boy is she going

to drop a whole bunch of information on you in this podcast. Catherine is the owner of energy

bits, the company that sells spirulina and chlorella. And gosh, does she have a lot of information?

I learned quite a few things about microalgae that I had no idea, like our benefits for energy,

benefits for detoxing and more. So sit down, buckle up. This is going to be a really good one

for a whole bunch of information. And you guys are gonna learn a ton. So let’s introduce you to

Catharine Arnston, energy bits, spirulina, chlorella, and the powers of microalgae.

Hey, health junkies. I have Catharine Arnston on today. And my goodness, we are having a good

laugh already about her company, energy bits, not bites, not to be confused with bites. So,

we’ve got that out of the way. Catharine, welcome to the Health Fix Podcast.

CATHARINE: Well, thank you for having me here. Yeah, it’s always fun to talk with knowledgeable folks like

you and get to share with the things that I’ve learned over the last 15 years. 

JANNINE: Well, I am looking

forward to learning about the, I mean, let’s put this way, you said it so perfectly earlier,

that people are afraid of what they don’t know. And when you’ve got little bits that are green,

like chlorella, and like spirulina algae, folks are like algae and that stuff that we had to get

rid of in our fish tank, you know, what isn’t that what we don’t want? Why would we want to put it

in our body? So today we are going to talk all about why you do want it in your body and all those

things. So of course, like with every podcast, I do like two seconds of how the heck did you come

to think about algae? How did you become the algae expert? 

CATHARINE: Yeah, I know it is a crazy thing. So

I tell people I didn’t choose algae, it chose me. It was an act of the universe.

I lived in Boston, Massachusetts, although I’m Canadian and all my education was in Canada.

I did an MBA in international business. And I mentioned that because my whole algae journey

started in Canada when my younger sister, who I’m very close to 15 years ago, developed breast

cancer. Now, I want everyone to know that she’s completely healed and we celebrate her being

cancer free every year. But 15 years ago, as she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist,

which is a cancer specialist, told her she needed to change her diet to an alkaline diet,

because it would be important for healing. Now, they didn’t tell her what an alkaline diet was or

what specifically it did. So the first call my sister made was to me, her big sister who loves her,

and I’m just a good researcher. I knew nothing about nutrition. So if you don’t know anything

about nutrition, I was exactly in your shoes 15 years ago. So I said, I have no idea what this

alkaline diet stuff is, but I will find out. And I did. It was basically a plant-based diet because

of the phytonutrients and the chlorophyll that have been proven to help build your immune system.

so I did research on what she should eat, what she shouldn’t, she should go through chemo and she

completely healed. Meanwhile, I discovered PubMed, never heard of something called PubMed before,

it’s now my happy place, and after reading about 100 or 200 of these articles about

plant-based nutrition and the importance of how important they were for your health, I thought,

“Man, somebody has to get this out to the world because 15 years ago nobody was talking about

about plant-based nutrition.

So I just thought, well, I’m gonna give it a try.

I have no nutritional education.

I did go back to school.

I got a health coaching certificate

from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition,

also known as IIN.

I taught nutrition for a year, help plant-based nutrition.

But what truly led me to algae in a big way

was when I was teaching these,

giving my lectures at corporations and hospitals,

trying to get people to eat more vegetables,

everyone said, it’s too much work.

They’re heavy to carry over the grocery store.

You know, they give me gas or they take too long

to clean, to cook, to eat, my husband won’t eat them,

my kids won’t eat them, they go bad early.

So I thought, okay, if I can’t get people to eat

more vegetables, I have to find a way

to get the nutrition of vegetables into them

without any work.

And I had no idea what I was gonna find,

but I was determined to find it.

And I just dug into everything I’d found for my sister.

And when I got to algae, that was when the miracle happened.

’cause the first thing is it’s the most algae

is the most alkaline food in the world.

And I can talk, we’ll talk a little bit if you want

about the importance of alkalinity

at the P at the cellular level.

So that box is checked.

Turns out algae is the most nutrient dense food in the world.

Yes, first of all algae is food, it is not a supplement.

And B, it has 1,000 times more nutrition

than anything else in the world.

And that’s a quote from NASA, 1 to 1,000.

That’s pretty, that’s pretty powerful.

Also algae is the most studied food in the world.

There’s almost 100,000 studies documenting

all the health benefits.

We’re not, this goes way beyond giving you energy

and satisfying your hunger.

This is things like stopping chronic disease

and improving longevity, helping with brain health,

reducing inflammation, like 100,000 studies.

You can’t argue with that.

That’s not, that’s more than a footnote for sure.

Then I found out algae’s been used daily

for 60 to 70 years in Asia.

It’s one of the biggest agricultural crops, again,

food in Asia. It’s as big as the beef industry is here. And they take it every day. By the way,

the Japanese have the best longevity, lowest cancer rates and lowest obesity rates. And then

the best part of it all is that I found out that you could get algae. It grows in. We will tell

you about ours. We go out and triple filtered spring mountain water. Then we air dry it without

heat, which is very important because it preserves all the nutrients. And there’s a couple key

ones that you really want that stop heart disease and cancer. But the most important thing is it

comes in these tiny little tablets that are about the size of a baby aspirin. And each one of these

tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. So while I’m talking to you right now,

I just had to plate the vegetables. How easy is that? Now I will admit most people swallow the

spirulina because it’s very chewy, very earthy, and I have very likes of flavor, but the chlorella

does is very chewable. But now in seconds, if you can swallow water, you can get all the nutrition

that you want effortlessly. We’re talking highest protein in the world. The United Nations has

endorsed spirulina as the answer to world hunger for 50 years, because it has three times the

amount of protein to state. And it’s the highest chlorophyll in the world. And you’re going to find

out how critical chlorophyll is for your health, because it builds your blood among other things.

It has 40 vitamins and minerals so we can eliminate many of your other supplements, including your

multivitamin, your fish oil, your cocoa tin, your bio tin, and if you don’t like vegetables,

you never have to eat another one again because you’ll get all the nutrition, not the fiber,

but you’ll get all the nutrition that you need from algae. So when I found all that out,

I realized that’s the answer. That is the answer to just about everything because as you’re going to

find out that health benefits are literally endless, but they’ve never been explained to you,

and also the quality has been very poor up until now. Most algae up until now, because it’s been

sold here for 60 years, has come from Asia for China, rather, not a lot of controls on the growing

techniques. And no one’s ever explained the science of what exactly it is. So people put it in their

smoothie. They know it’s a superfood, but they’re not really sure what it does. So I’m going to tell

you today, exactly what it does. And there’s so much science behind it that I want you to

understand it, because when you understand your body and how, and what it needs, and how

algae gives your body and your mitochondria, because we’re going to deep dive on mitochondria

today, you’ll see that algae is the key that unlocks everything. And the reason is nobody’s gone

after it, or, you know, it started really endorsing it, because the A, they don’t know about it,

because it’s not grown here. And B, it’s not very sexy. I mean, all of biohacking that’s going on

and you know, red light therapy and cryotherapy and hyperbaric therapy, you know, and cool new

supplements set stem cell therapy. That’s all the hot exotic stuff, right? Algae. I mean,

it was the first life on earth 3.8 billion years ago. And you think of it as pond scum. So,

Nobody’s really helped you understand that this thing that was the first life on earth a gift to us from mother nature the universe

God whatever you want to think about it. It’s here for a reason and it’s here to nourish us

And so I– I actually design all the packaging and I try to make it really attractive

So I can help you get over the barrier of what it is

Because I can’t help you if I can’t get it in your mouth

So, so you’re gonna find out algae is a rock star and if if you want to live long and live well

Just you’re gonna want this stuff every single day for the rest of your life like I do. 

JANNINE: Oh my goodness

Well, I mean, there’s two things I’m thinking of right away

You know, of course one a lot of people are gonna be like, okay

So how are you growing it if you’re not getting it from Asia?

How are you growing it?

And then the other one is three times the amount of protein that is in a steak please explain

So yeah, turn over you. 

CATHARINE: Okay. Well, I’ll just start with how we grow. We grow it in Taiwan

most of it the cheaper algaes come from China. Taiwan is

Known for having that gold standard for algae sort of like Kobe beef is the gold standard for beef

So here’s a couple of pictures of our farms. Here’s a spirulina farm

And here’s a chlorella farm. It’s called hydroponic and a lot of vegetables are grown hydroponically tomatoes lettuce

And the reason why this is really important is because algae will absorb whatever’s in the water

So you never want algae. It’s the only thing that you don’t want grown wild

There is algae in the lakes and the rivers and the streams and by the way

Let me help define what algae is because it’s its own food category and there’s two main types of algae one is

Macro algae and the other one is micro algae

Macro algae is that stringy stuff that washes up on shore,

also known as seaweed or dulce or kelp.

Now it’s only in the sea,

which is why it’s called seaweed.

Now it’s also good for you

because it has lots of fiber, lots of iodine,

but has virtually zero nutrition, high fiber, zero nutrition.

You can buy a bag of kelp noodles

and there’s like five calories in there

’cause there’s virtually no nutrients.

Micro algae is the complete opposite

and that’s what we’re talking about today.

It’s microscopic, so you can’t even see it.

In fact, something like a million cells of microalgae

could fit on the head of a pin.

And it has virtually either has zero fiber

or virtually no fiber.

Spirulina has zero fiber.

But it is the most nutrient dense food in the world

and it is everywhere.

Sea weed, it’s only in the sea

and high fiber, no nutrition.

Microalgae, the sea, the lakes, the rivers, the stream,

the soil, your aquarium, your swimming pool,

but the most nutrient-dense food in the world,

if it’s grown carefully, like ours is.

Frankly, almost everybody who does sell

spirulina or chlorella, whether it’s from target or from us,

grow it in fresh water too,

’cause you just can’t grow it in the ocean.

There is a company that does grow it in Klamath Lake,

I won’t name who it is, but you do not want that

because the wild bodies of water have microtoxins in them.

And algae will absorb the microtoxins

because it’s impossible to keep them out.

And we’re the only company I know

that does third party lab tests here in the United States

at an FDA approved lab, because we sell our algae

through doctors’ offices, naturopaths, homeopaths,

chiropractors, and so they need to be sure

that the nutrients we say are in there are actually there

and that there aren’t any heavy metals

and there’s no microtoxins.

So we do full sets of labs, it costs us tens of thousands

of dollars, but we do them every batch,

which is pretty much every year.

We’re about to do another set of tests now.

And of course, we never have microtoxins

because the algae is grown in fresh water.

So you need to be very careful

about where you source the algae from.

And as you’ll find out, well, I’ll mention it now

because as I say, we grow it in fresh water,

then we air dry it, 15 seconds air dry,

but without high heat into a powder.

And then we just press them into these little tablets

that are called, we call them bits

because they’re bits of nutrition.

But the point that we don’t use high heat is so important,

I can’t under emphasize it,

because high heat will kill enzymes.

And oops, I knew when I started the company

that enzymes were important,

I didn’t know how important,

but I only recently learned about one called

superoxide dismutase, which is a mouthful,

also called known as SOD.

And you’re gonna find out it is a critical antioxidant

for protecting your mitochondria from free radical damage.

and as you’re gonna learn today,

your mitochondria determine everything

that has to do with your health, good or bad.

So you wanna preserve those mitochondria

and SOD is the way to do it,

except you can’t get it in any other food

and your body stops making it after the age of 30.

So this is my theory of why aging happens

after the age of 30 and 40s

’cause our poor little mitochondria

don’t have any protection anymore.

They’re exposed to all these free radicals,

which I’ll tell you where they come from,

But that’s why algae is like your superhero, it jumps in there

and protects them and gets rid of them.

But superoxic dismutase is an enzyme.

And a high heat kills enzymes.

So if you buy a lesser expensive algae

where they use high heat like most of them do,

you don’t get the benefit, the SOD is deactivated.

So this high heat thing is more important than you think.

And when we talk about the two algae,

I’ll explain the two different algae.

spirulina is a blue green algae,

chlorella is a green algae,

but the blue pigment that’s in spirulina,

it has a male– amazing healing properties as well,

including proven to kill cancer cells.

I’d say that was pretty important,

but it too is deactivated by high heat.

So unless you’re getting an algae like ours

that is raw, so it has not been exposed to high heat,

the only other place you can get these preventative nutrients

is from frozen spirulina,

because it has not been exposed to high heat,

but frozen spirulina is that it’s expensive,

hard to travel with, expires quickly, is messy,

and you can’t avoid the flavor, like with ours, the tablets.

You can swallow them if you don’t like the flavor.

So that’s why there’s places like the Hippocrates Institute

or the Gershon Institute,

and they use frozen spirulina

when they’re treating people who are quite sick.

But they want to start recommending us

because it’s hard for people to get the frozen spirulina

when they go home.

But unless you have raw spirulina,

you’re not getting those protective nutrients

like the SOD and the blue phycocyanin.

So we’re very proud of, I’m very proud of,

’cause I chose all the production capabilities.

And there’s other nuances about the production process,

but you have to remember,

I didn’t plan to start a company.

I just wanted to help my sister.

And then I thought, well, I can help a few more people

when I started lecturing.

And then that led me to algae.

Algae’s just turned out to be the best and easiest way

for me to accomplish my goal,

which was to help people preserve, protect,

or regain their health in a way that’s effortless.

Because let’s face it, here in North America,

and it’s probably the worldwide.

If it’s not fast and easy, it’s not sustainable.

we’ve worked for years with chiropractors

who try to give nutritional coaching to people.

And I’m sure you do too.

And getting people to stay true to the recommendations

you give them is really hard.

So this way, 100% of people can swallow water

so they can swallow the tablets effortlessly

and that way they can maintain a program

and get their health back or protect it.

JANNINE: Absolutely.

I mean, you’re right.

It is probably the number one thing

You know, when I tell folks, you know, they’re like,

how many cups of veggies do I really need in a day

to make an, you know, a dent in what, you know,

my health and things of that nature.

And then when I give them the answer that I truly believe

it’s like six day cups or more a day,

the eyes get wide and then, you know, the excuses come.

So, you know, having something like the energy bits

is quite, quite useful here because it’s packed nutrition.

Now, you know, one of the things you mentioned toxicity

And using, you know, in my industry,

we use the algae for pulling out toxins.

And in particular, mikotoxins, things of that nature.

So this is a huge, huge concept.

And I first saw your product with Dr. Jess in California.

And that’s where I first came to see, oh, energy bits, okay.

Okay.

(laughing)

She’s talking all about it.

So let’s talk a little bit again

about binding up toxins, carrying them out of the body.

And then let’s move into the mitochondria

Because I think for folks longevity and slowing down the aging process, my idea is where it’s

at.

CATHARINE: Well, so as a segue into that, I think you probably agree that I think there’s two main

reasons why people are not aging well, or just living well.

We don’t get the nutrition that we need because our soils are so over cropped that they don’t

have minerals anymore.

So even if you are eating organic, even if you are eating those five or eight cups of

vegetables a day, you simply are not getting the nutrition that your grandparents had.

It’s just this state of our world.

They’ve done studies that show that the ozone layer has deteriorated and in the process,

the plants are now producing more sugar and carbs and fewer, less protein and fewer key

minerals or nutrients like chlorophyll.

So number one, we simply are not getting the nutrition that we need to live optimally.

Number two, the average adult in America

now apparently has 700 toxins in them.

700 toxins, our immune systems were not built

to sustain that kind of load.

So as you’re gonna find out,

spirulina answers the question,

the problem of not getting proper nourishment

and chlorella, which we’ll talk about right now,

addresses the issue of pulling out toxins

because while spirulina is cleansing

because it has the chlorophyll, it’s not detoxing.

Chlorella is the detoxing algae.

It’s a wellness algae.

That’s why we call our chlorella recovery bits

’cause it helps you recover your health.

And it does that in a couple of ways.

Number one, and usually I talk about spirulina first,

but we’ll do the chlorella first.

Chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world.

And if you’re wondering, well,

how important is chlorella is chlorophyll?

Here’s a chemical comp picture

of a chemical composition of a hemoglobin.

And here’s the chemical composition of chlorophyll.

Notice that they’re virtually identical.

The only difference is in your blood,

there’s an iron atom in the middle

and that’s what carries oxygen

and chlorophyll’s magnesium.

But the iron atom, oxygen is critical for health

’cause that’s what keeps everything going.

And chlorophyll, because it’s so similar

to the hemoglobin structure, builds your blood.

They’ve used chlorophyll for centuries.

Whenever people had surgeries or injuries,

they would give them liquid chlorophyll,

even as recently as World War II because the patient

would heal just as fast.

So number one, chlorella,

because that’s so much chlorophyll, build your blood.

By the way, it has 500 times more chlorophyll

than arugula and 25 times more chlorophyll

than liquid chlorophyll.

And these numbers come from the Linus Pauling Institute

on their website, so I don’t make this stuff up.

So in fact, chlorella is called chlorella

because of the chloreophyll.

And my arugula goes yellow after day three,

So I’m sure yours does, it was well,

because there wasn’t enough chlorophyll in the beginning.

So that’s number one, build your blood.

Number two, chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment.

Who knew?

Why is that important?

Because your cells are made of lipids.

That’s a fancy way of saying fats.

That’s why we take omega-3, D, in E,

because those are healthy fats

that keep the lipid membrane porous

so that nutrients can get in, toxins can get out.

And so because chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment,

it does the same thing.

Lots of people go on cleanses, cleanses,

and I think a lot of the cleansing

is because of the chlorophyll that’s helping nourish

that cell wall because you want to keep your cells porous

to allow the nutrients in and toxins out.

And that keeps the pH slightly alkaline.

There’s a range of zero to 14 for alkalinity and acidity.

And 7.1 is just slightly alkaline.

Why is that important?

Because a scientist back in the ’30s, Otto Warberg,

who won a Nobel Prize, he was a German scientist,

he’s dead now of course.

Anyways, he discovered that cancer can only exist

in an acidic environment.

So as long as you can keep your cells of your pH,

the pH of your cells rather, slightly alkaline,

that will ensure there’s oxygen in there

and you can help prevent a cancer from taking hold

because it generates energy

through a process called fermentation.

So anyway, so Chlorella has highest chlorophyll,

which builds your blood,

which keeps your cells pH slightly alkaline,

’cause it’s the most alkaline food in the world.

It builds your cell walls,

and here’s the best part.

It has a hard cell wall.

It’s a hard cellulose wall,

hardest in the plant kingdom

that pulls out heavy metals and toxins.

We’re talking lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum,

anything, spores, microtoxins, alcohol,

anyone, we’re getting into the festive era.

So we know there’s gonna be a few cocktails,

a few glasses of wine.

This is going to be your godsend.

You wanna take 30 of these before bed

because it will pull out all the alcohol

in your bloodstream.

You’ll be sober in an hour and a half

and you will never have a hangover.

I promise you, I promise you, it works every single time.

So, and because it has that hard sell fiber,

It has a feature gut biome so you can nurture and nourish

your healthy bacteria and has all of the nutrients

that your immune system needs.

And remember, 80% of your immune system is in your gut.

So all of these combined to make chlorella,

a wellness and detoxing algae.

It’s very much a gut health algae,

which you’re gonna find out is completely different

from spirulina, which is a mitochondria and brain health.

It energizes you and nourishes your mitochondria in your brain.

But chlorella is very much a healing algae.

Now, you can take chlorella anytime of day,

I snack on it all day long, but at the very, very least,

I recommend you take it before bed.

And why is that?

Because when you sleep,

this is when your body goes through a detox repair cycle.

By the way, chlorella has the highest tryptophan in the world,

which is precursor to melatonin.

So it helps you get into a deep sleep.

And it also stimulates periostalsis.

Fancy word for saying bowel movement and you know,

getting good stuff in and bad stuff out

is part of the process.

So you want to get rid of that junk in your trunk

and chlorella will certainly help you do that.

And you know, constipation is a very big issue,

particularly as you age.

Partly because people are eating very processed foods

which slow down your digestion and cause you to be

constipated very often you don’t have the enzymes

to help you digest if you’re taking any medication.

Those are very constipating.

So this is your answer and it’s food.

So you still get 40 vitamins and minerals,

60% protein, highest chlorophyll in the world.

You’re getting rid of the junk in your trunk.

You’re cleaning out while you’re getting your beauty rest.

You’re getting all the, you know,

it’s like having a scrub a dub in your brain

pulling out aluminum.

So, and you’ll get wellness benefits

from just 10 tablets a day.

But if you want detox,

do need closer to 30 tablets because if you don’t have enough of the chlorella, it will not hold on

to the metals and pull them out. And if you are doing a detox, I take that much at least every day

anyways. But if you don’t want to take 30 every day, take it for a month and then dial down to 10

a day and then maybe go back to 30. But honestly, you’ll feel so great with 30 that you’ll probably

We love it, but 10 will give you the wellness benefits for sure with all the chlorophyll and all the cleansing and the it has a daily requirement of K2

Which is a very important and at 10 tablets a day

We’ll talk about this later on

Because we have a 20% discount code for your your your community. It works out to ten a dollar a day

Yeah today cost you a dollar a day and I didn’t mention this earlier

But each tablet has the same nutrition, whether it’s chlorella or spirulina, as an entire plate of vegetables.

Yes.

One tablet gives you entire plate of vegetables.

So you were talking about trying to get people to eat five or eight cups of vegetables a day.

Here’s your answer.

Take 10 of these a day, and that’s like 10 of those problem solved and you can travel with them.

You can put them in lunch bags, you can put them in your car, your handbags.

They’re great for snacking, they’re great for all your family.

It doesn’t matter what age, your pets will love them too,

but very, very cleansing, very healing,

build your immune system, protect you.

You’ll probably never have a cold again

if you take these every single day.

For a dollar a day, I tell people these two algae,

especially when you find out about what spirulina does,

this is like a trust fund.

This is your nutritional health trust fund.

Would you ever turn a trust fund down?

I don’t think so.

What does a trust fund do?

Give you money so that you can live your life as you choose.

So do these, these are like money.

You can’t, more money, it gives you more options

and more choices.

And so do these, this will give you more energy

so you can have more cellular energy

so you can do more things.

Your trust fund right here, $1 a day,

you’d be crazy not to take them.

And I personally have taken them every single day

for 13 years and I don’t know what I would do without them.

JANNINE: Oh, it makes sense.

I mean, there’s so many benefits

that I think a lot of people had no idea

The one thing you mentioned, which is intriguing to me with the chlorella is the iron, like

how it looks like the iron, or the hemoglobin molecule, no, I can’t remember, but here’s

where I’m going with it, folks, is that so many people struggle with getting iron into

their liver and storage of iron.

So they’re either slightly anemic or they’re not storing iron within their liver.

And so having the chlorophyll look just like that, I’m going, “Is this the missing link

there?”

And does it help with circulation into the liver?

CATHARINE: Totally.

Well, great question.

And the answer is yes, yes, and yes, and I’ll tell you why.

So first of all, both algae have the highest iron in the world, but it’s organic iron.

Please, please, please.

Anyone is listening.

Do not take iron supplements.

They are so bad for you because you can reach a toxicity state and the same thing with calcium.

and we can talk about calcium separately, but because this is organic, remember algae is food,

and also I call algae intelligent food for two reasons. You have to be intelligent to take it,

and it knows what to do in your body. So if you for one reason don’t need the iron that’s in the

algae, your body simply won’t absorb it, but it’s a really great source of natural iron for you,

and iron is what carries oxygen in your blood. So back to the blood, and how this improves

circulation. And it gets back to this alkalinity state thing, which is what got me on this whole

journey, because that’s what my sister’s oncologist. So this is not just some random person on the

street saying, “Hey, you should try an alkaline diet.” This is her oncologist. So this is an MD

specializing in cancer. And I’m sure she knew about Otto Warburg, whose research showed that

a slightly alkaline cell keeps cancer out of the cell. That’s pretty important. But how do you do

that because so many people are eating acidic foods. Sugar is very acidic. Processed foods

are very acidic. Anything that’s white is very acidic. And meat sadly is also acidic,

but you want to balance that out. So back to the blood. So yes, the chlorophyll builds your blood,

and it’s partly because the chlorophyll is virtually identical to the hemoglobin itself.

But here’s the interesting thing. Your blood has to be even more alkaline than the pH of your cell.

your pH of your cell is 7.1, your blood needs to be 7.34. And if it becomes too acidic,

your body is so intelligent, what it does is it pulls out minerals like calcium, magnesium,

potassium, out of your bones, out of your organs, out of your cells that deplete them

to balance out the acidity that’s in your blood. And if it didn’t do that, you would die. But if

But if you do that over and over and over again, it wears down your immune system.

It turns your cells more acidic.

It pulls out minerals from your bones, which leads to osteoporosis.

People think calcium is what makes your bones strong.

It’s minerals and protein.

So by having two acidic blood, and also your blood can get acidic from too many emotions,

too much exercise.

It’s not just from food.

a lot of things toxicity can make your your blood more acidic and here’s the interesting thing

about this alkalinity. So your blood again mother nature is you know a god as well as mother nature

and god are the same as far as I’m concerned. So if you ever hold held magnets up and you know how

they repel one another right? Yeah. So the hemoglobin is the same way. They and they hold the oxygen

inside with that little iron atom and you need to keep them nice and round in order to hold

that oxygen atom. So the way they do that is they have a negative charge around them,

so they repel one another. But when your blood becomes too acidic from too much emotion or too

much acidity from exercise or too much acidic food, they lose that negative charge and they

clump because they’re no longer repelling one another. And so what does that do? They’re so big

now, they can’t get into the capillaries. So the circulation is dropped, right? You’re not getting

oxygen into all those little tiny capillaries. And they’re so distorted, they can’t carry the

oxygen anymore because the iron atom is now messed up. So by restoring the alkalinity and chlorophyll

and algae are the most alkaline foods in the world, you restore the negative charge to the

hemoglobin. So now they’re nice and round again. You can do live blood tests if you want to check

this out. And I’ve got examples of live blood tests of this, different blood disorders,

the blood changes shape or it clumps, it becomes long and skinny, but the bottom line is it can’t

carry oxygen very well and it cannot be distributed, distributed the oxygen effectively to throw

at your bodies, which interferes with circulation.

So again, all roads, as far as I can serve lead to algae.

There’s so many roads, it’s just like,

wow, where do I even start?

So yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Now, spirulina does have chlorophyll in it as well,

not as much as chlorella,

because it has that second pigment called phycosine,

and I do wanna talk about spirulina,

but so yeah, it’s pretty cool for building your blood,

improving your circulation and preserving your bones,

not to mention your immune system

and the pH levels at the cellular level.

So pretty cool stuff.

JANNINE: All things that we experience as we get older,

you know, all things that do start to show up.

So this is huge, this is huge.

CATHARINE: Yeah, it is really.

And again, effortless, everyone can do this.

You don’t have to buy an expensive membership

at a red light therapy center.

can if you want, you don’t have to go for stem cell therapy, you can if you want, but you can do

this in the comfort of your home for a dollar a day. So, you know, or add it to whatever else

you’re doing. So, anyways, that’s clearly, that’s chlorella, very detoxing, cleansing, and very

healing to your gut and to your blood. The other algae is spirulina. Now, more people actually know

about spirulina, and it’s a blue-green algae. Now, I want you to know that there are tens of

thousands of strains of algae, particularly blue green algae. So if you ever read about

a blue green algae closing your favorite beach, we’re not talking about spirulina. It’s just another

strain of algae. And I tell people, poor algae gets the bum wrap, because here’s the deal about

algae. It kills bacteria. And so when it shows up at your favorite beach, it’s because there’s

bacteria there, or there’s toxins there. Now you didn’t see the bacteria, or you didn’t see the

toxins, so you didn’t know they were there, but the algae will show up because that’s

what it does.

It kills them.

Now, you still don’t want to get near the algae because now it’s absorbing, it’s like

a sponge.

It’s absorbing all the toxicity to pull it all out, so you don’t want to get near it.

But it does the same thing in your body.

It pulls out toxins and it kills bacteria, but it’s not the stuff that’s closing your

beach.

This is grown again as a hydroponically as a vegetable, although technically it’s not

vegetable. In fact, I hesitated to tell people this until recently that it’s starting to learn that

there’s a difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria. spirulina is a bacteria.

It’s called a cyanobacteria. It was the first life on earth 3.8 billion years ago.

Just to put that in context, mankind has been on earth 2 million years.

cyanobacteria, spirulina has been here for 3.8 billion. It predates us by 3.4 billion years.

And it’s still here, so it’s obviously doing something right. Anyways, so the blue-green algae

that we’re talking about, spirulina, harvested as a food crop. What it’s claimed to fame is it

gives you energy. And we all know as we get into menopause, perimenopause, menopause,

you start to lose energy mentally and physically. It’s horrifying. And I have the answer for you.

It’s spirulina. And why does it do that? Well, let me tell you, it does it in both the immediacy

and also long term. So let’s let’s separate the two of them. The long term one has to do with

mitochondria health and we’ll get to that in a minute. But in the short term, spirulina has the

highest protein in the world. It has three times the amount of protein a steak. This is by weight.

So ours is 64% protein, just to put in context, animal protein is about 32%, so 3 times as much,

and all of the protein in spirulina and chlorella are in individual aminos. What does that mean?

Well, when you eat animal protein, it’s all bound up, okay? And your body can’t absorb it like that,

so it has to break it down into individual aminos. Now that can take two to three days,

and sometimes if you don’t have what’s called the factors and co-factors,

You may have eaten 50 grams of chicken, which is about the size of a fist,

but you may only end up absorbing 10% of it, which means you get five grams of aminos,

even though you ate 50 grams of protein. So it’s very inefficient way to get your aminos,

and as you get older, you need protein for sure, because lack of protein

causes a lot loss of muscle. You have to work out as well to weight-bearing

exercises, but you know, I’m just dealing with the nutrition piece. But animal proteins all bound

up. Then you have what’s called collagen powder. These are peptides which are clusters of which

are smaller groups of aminos. So they get absorbed faster. But algae protein is individual aminos.

So it’s the fastest, most bioavailable protein in the world. It has 18 of the 20 aminos and has all

nine that your body can’t make. So it’s the perfect protein. And because spirulina is a bacteria,

there is no cellulose wall, which means your body can get access to the aminos instantly.

No time delay. What if you chew them, it’s in your bloodstream in seconds because it goes

sublingually through your mouth, although I will admit most people swallow this because it’s very

chewy. So you get all that protein, it’s loaded with B vitamins. If you’ve ever looked at any

energy drinks. They’re loaded with B vitamins. B vitamins convert the aminos into energy for

you so that you get more energy in the moment. So you get a lift mentally and you get a lift

physically. Now, this is different than a stimulant. Caffeine, sugar, and chemicals are stimulants.

So if you’ve added cup of coffee or chocolate bar, you would just finally, you would just wake up

and it’s because the stimulants speed up the speed of the molecules from your brain

to your body. But they’re like throwing paper on a fire. It’s like whoosh, you get this burst,

which also, you know, often if it’s sugar, you get a spike in your insulin, and then you have

a crash later on. If you have a glucose monitor, you know that that’s not good for you.

Algae, the energy you get is like putting a log on the fire. It’s not a burst, because what it’s

doing is improving the energy at the cellular level. And we’ll talk about that in a minute.

So it’s very steady energy, not a stimulant. That’s why you could have spirulina before bed

and it wouldn’t keep you up because it’s cellular energy. When you have more cellular energy,

it’s like having more money. Your body decides what to do with that cellular energy. So let’s say

you have, you know, 15 of these spirulina tablets before a workout, you’ll have a great workout.

you’ll have more energy and you won’t even notice it or maybe you’re gonna go driving,

you’ll just have more focus, or maybe you’re gonna go to bed. You’re just gonna have a better

sleep because it’s your body deciding what to do with that energy. It’s which is different from

the stimulant, which is a spark. This is the log. This is the trust fund because this gives you

what you need. And it also satisfies your hunger. We have so many people using this for intermittent

fasting because there’s zero carbs, it’s ketogenic, so it does not decrease your ketones or increase

your glucose. I really encourage people, you’ll find out later in a moment why I encourage you

to do intermittent fasting and sometimes it’s difficult to get into that because you’re hungry

and tired. If you have to delay eating until like noon or one o’clock, this solves the problem.

It keeps you in a fasted state, but it does not make you hungry. If hunger is gone, we have people

using losing weight with this because each tablet is only one calorie and yet it gives you 50% of

your or 64% protein. It gives you all the 40 vitamins and minerals. Lots of times when you’re

dieting, you’re eating less and you’re eating fewer choices of foods. And so you end up missing

important nutrients. Anybody who’s carnivore, you are missing important nutrients. This is great

for carnivores, by the way. A lot of people go carnivore because they found plants like

the nightshades had lectins and oxalates in them, which upset their stomach. And of course,

so they go carnivore so they can heal up their stomach lining. There are no lectins and oxalates,

and for those of you who don’t know what lectins or oxalates are, they’re tiny, sharp proteins

that plants, land plants, have developed evolutionarily to protect themselves from bugs and predators.

they don’t want bugs and so they taste terrible to the bugs and they upset their stomach too so it

keeps them away so the plant can you know continue to thrive. Well algae started in the ocean

so it never had to develop lectins and oxalates to protect itself so there aren’t any. So whether

you’re carnivore or vegan you can enjoy the benefits health benefits of spirulina or chlorella algae

and still stay true to whatever your lifestyle choice is. So you get energy in the moment,

Satisfied your hunger helps you lose weight. We have a lot of people actually

saying that this is Mother Nature’s ozempic because ozempic is a drug that kills your appetite.

This kills your appetite too, but it nourishes you at the same time. When you’re taking ozempic,

you’re not eating and honestly, I don’t know what’s going to happen with a lot of these people when

they come off ozempic and they’ve been missing all these nutrients. Your body is constantly changing.

There’s a great expression, an Asian expression that says you never step in the same river twice.

your body is the same way. You have 30 trillion cells and every day 30 trillion

die and every day 30 trillion grow back. Well, if you’re not giving your body the

nourishment it needs to grow back those cells in a healthy way, you’re going to run into some

trouble. So this will help stop your hunger without stopping the recycling, the regrowing of

your cells in a healthy way. So I think it’s much more, it can help you if you’re our own

an ozemic or if you we have we work with doctors whose patients have stomach staples and gastric

bypass because they can’t get the nourishment they need from food they can’t eat enough food

here’s your answer there you go right in these tiny little tablets just take a few of them every

day so very nourishing in the moment it’s loaded with essential fatty acids which are important for

your brain which help stimulate your brain functioning and in fact as you’re going to find out when we

get to the mitochondria because spirulina is so helpful for your mitochondria. And because your

brain has the highest mitochondria in your body, there’s two million per cell in your brain.

It heals your brain. There’s a great book called Brain Energy. I encourage people to get Dr. Chris

Palmer as a psychiatrist and a physician at the Harvard Medical School. And his whole book is

about how all brain issues, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, are due to

damaged mitochondria. And because spirulina heals the mitochondria, it definitely heals your brain.

And I mentioned this to somebody earlier today, and I held the book cover and the spirulina,

“Oh my gosh, like that. Who knew, right?” It was meant to be. So very nourishing,

spirulina, very nourishing, great for a pre-workout, great for intermittent fasting,

to satisfy your hunger, gives you the nourishment that you need. And speaking of nourishment, we do

sell the bags, the algae and large bags of a thousand tablets. And there’s so much nourishment

using that quote from NASA. Each bag of a thousand tablets has the same nutrition as 551 pounds

of vegetables. Just let that sink in. That’s about 30 grocery carts of vegetables. Do you want to buy

one bag of algae? Or do you want to drag home 30 carts of vegetables and throw half of it out

and still not get the nourishment you need. This is why I call it efficient nutrition.

And again, for adults, if you took 10 tablets a day, that would cost you a dollar a day. Now,

most people take the spirulina in the morning or the afternoon because that’s when you’re tired

or hungry or you want to snack in the afternoon. It’s food, ladies and gentlemen. It’s not a drug,

it’s not a supplement. You can have as much as you want. We fuel NHL teams. They have

75 spirulina before a game because they need lots of energy on the ice, they need lots of focus,

and they take 75 chlorella after a game because it pulls out lactic acid, so it helps them recover

from all that activity. We fuel NH– Olympic teams as well, so it’s, as I say, you can have as much

or as little as you want, great for kids, anyone who has a family, give the children, they actually

like to chew them because it turns their tongue green. But you give them one or half a tablet

per their age. So if there’s six, give them three spirulina a day and three chlorella. If they

take chlorella, honestly, they will probably be the only kids at school without colds. But again,

there’s no upper limit pets. Your pets are going to go gaga over the stuff. So that’s the true test

if your pets love them. 

JANNINE: Let’s talk about pets first thing. And because I do get a lot of

questions. I call myself a pseudo. I’m not a veterinarian by any means, but I end up being

a step in sometimes when it comes to people asking me, well, if I’m going to do this for myself,

can I do it for my pet? And of course, you know, while I am generally making recommendations,

you’ve seen some results for pets. So give us a little scoop on like, say you’ve got a dog or cat

or, you know, those are typical animals. Let’s go with how do you give them to them? What do you do?

CATHARINE: Yeah.

Just give them as a treat.

Give them depends on the size of the pet.

Again, they’re like humans.

There’s no upper limit and I’ll give you a funny story.

So many people worked with me have had pets

and so even customers write us all the time.

And this one time this woman shed a lap dog

and she left the bag.

She’d been giving her dog the tablets and the dog loved them.

And she just bought a new bag

and just left it on the counter, forgot about it.

this little lap dog jumped up to the kitchen counter,

ate the entire bag.

So it’s a thousand tablets.

She called me in a panic.

Oh my God, is he gonna die?

Oh my God.

And I said, no, he’ll just throw up probably a little bit

and his poop will be green, he’ll be fine.

And exactly what happened.

So because it’s food, you know,

we know that you can’t give chocolate to dogs,

but this is just food.

But for your, you know, you give your,

if it’s a small pet, you know, maybe three or four tablets,

a larger pet, 10.

Another funny story, we had somebody who was hiking

and in the White Mountains.

And they, when they, one night the camp

was invaded by some bears.

So everybody got out of their sleeping bags

and ran off and they came back a couple hours later.

And they had baggies of supplements.

Now the baggies of supplements had been ripped open

and all the supplements were still there.

The bag of Energy Bits had been ripped open and licked clean.

So even the bears know what’s good for them.

And the reality is our pets are suffering

from the same diseases that we are.

They’re getting cancer, they’re having immune issues.

They’re just lethargy, it’s unbelievable.

And one of the great things, by the way,

because there’s so much chlorophyll

and chlorophyll kills bacteria,

your pet’s breath will be so much better,

their poop will be so much better,

their coat will be shiny because our hair and their fur

is predominantly keratin, and that’s a protein.

So, and by the way, it will, especially spirulina,

it will help your hair grow longer and faster.

This is all my own hair.

We used to have guys,

a lot of young interns working for us, a lot of guys.

And they kept saying,

“Oh my God, I have to get my hair cut twice as often

“because it just grows faster.”

So, cats and pets absolutely love this stuff.

just be forewarned one, they’re gonna want more of it.

So don’t leave it lying around on the counter

because they will do anything to get it.

It’s like catnip, except it’s nutritional catnip.

And it’s really catnip for yourselves too

because it’s so incredible.

Your mitochondria going, whoo, whoo,

finally guys what we need.

So it’s pretty amazing.

I don’t know any animal that wouldn’t like it.

JANNINE: Oh my goodness, how fun, how fun.

CATHARINE: Yeah.

JANNINE: Gosh, so many things.

Yeah. So many things with the algae and, and, and you know,

spirulina, chlorella, there are two things that I think a lot of people, you know,

now have a better, but are going to have a better sense of what they are.

And they might be thinking, Catherine, oh, hey, so say I need all the things that you’ve,

you’ve described throughout this podcast. I want to slow down, AJ, I want to get my energy.

I want to help detox. How would someone get started? Should they start with one versus the other?

Can you start with both? Because their food, what’s, what’s the typical recommendation?

CATHARINE: Yeah, and I do want to give you a little bit of a deeper dive or a dive period into the mitochondria, because we understand what they are.

So, we actually have a brand called Vitality Bits, which is a blend of the two algae. So, I generally try to start people with spirulina.

And the reason for that is you will notice it within half an hour, because it gives you energy.

So the chlorella is a wellness and detox, so it’s more like a preventative algae.

And so you’ll just notice that you don’t have colds if you’re taking 10 a day.

You’ll notice it if you take the 30 after you drink alcohol, that you don’t have a hangover

the next day or your muscles aren’t sore if you took it after you exercise.

But it’s not as noticeable as the spirulina is and just to prepare you, the kind of energy

you’re going to get is not like feeling you’re going to jump off a tall building in a single

bound. It’s quiet energy because it’s cellular energy. It’s not a stimulant. You might not even

notice it. There’s no drama with algae. It’s just steady eddy. What you will notice is that you’ll

say, “Oh, I’m not hungry.” Or, “Oh, I can focus now. I don’t feel tired like I used to at 2 o’clock

or 3 o’clock.” Or, “I can get home and have a proper dinner at 7 and not feel like I have to

chew my arm off because I’m so hungry. So it’s a stop gap. Like we’re, you could survive on this

and forever. We’re not suggesting that, but it’s great to have in the morning to get you out the

door nourished and energized with a little perk up. The way you feel is you’ll feel like you just

had a great night’s sleep. That’s it. No more dramatic than that. But if you take it before a

workout, you’ll notice that you work out. Your workout is better. If you take it before

you write an exam or you need the focus, or you take it in the afternoon, your focus will come back,

and you don’t need to take more and more each day. It doesn’t work that way. It’s just

take the same. Whatever amount works for you, take it. Sometimes it’s 10 tablets, sometimes it’s 15.

We had someone who was so anemic. They took two tablets and then they wrote us and said, “Oh, my God,

I’ve never had so much energy.” They lived in the country and it came in the mail and

and their mailbox and they ripped open the package

and took them on their way, walked back to their front door.

And by the time they got to their door,

they said their energy was improved

and they painted their kitchen that day.

Like the stories we get is crazy.

So if you’re anemic, a smaller number might work for you,

but if you’re not feeling better and energized

and more alert, just take more.

Like I said, our NHL players take 75

and I take quite a few myself.

So there’s no limit, and again,

you can take it anytime of the day.

I came up with an analogy ’cause I travel a lot

and speak at a lot of conferences.

And I thought, you know,

spirulina, so energizing and nourishing

and the morning gives me what I need

to get me off my day.

I thought, hey, it’s kind of like room service.

You know, room service at your hotel,

get you fed for the day, you’re happy,

you’re ready for rock and roll.

And then later in the day at the hotel,

housekeeping comes in and cleans out all this stuff

in your room that you don’t need.

And I thought, well, that’s kind of like chlorella,

kind of cleans out all the junk in your trunk.

So think of spirulina as a room service

and chlorella as housekeeping.

Or as you’re gonna find out,

spirulina is brain food and chlorella is gut food.

And on the brain food,

we all know that things like salmon and fatty fish,

cold water, fatty fish are brain food.

And partly it’s because of the omega-3.

Well, I tell people,

where do you think the omega-3 comes from?

Comes from algae.

So the fish just consolidated in their body,

but you can cut out the middleman

and get it straight from the spirulina,

which, again, it’s no surprise that this book Brain Energy

is the same color as my spirulina.

That was pretty funny.

Just noticed that today.

So it’s very much brain food.

And we actually did, and all the research proves that,

there’s a whole book full of it.

But we did our own clinical trial this year,

’cause we thought, well, you know, let’s give this a go,

’cause we’re very small, so we did a small clinical trial

with a group called The Gray Team.

It’s grayteam.org, they’re based in Florida.

And their main goal is to stop the suicide rate

of military veterans, which is at a heartbreaking 35 to 50%.

35 to 50% of military veterans are killing themselves.

That’s just, I can’t even just have that sink in.

So they’re trying have anything they can to change this.

So we did a small trial, we had a group of five veterans

who’d been discharged for like 12 years

and they’d had continued anxiety

and post-traumatic stress disorder,

one had multiple sclerosis.

And all we did was give them a pouch

of the spirulina tablets a day,

30 tablets in a little pouch, nothing else.

We did a brain scan before they started

and we hooked them up to a device called the WAVI

which measured their heart rate availability

and some other things.

So for a month, this is all they did.

We said, don’t change anything else.

Just take these every day.

The first brain scan showed all of their brains were completely inflamed, and after 30 days,

inflammation completely gone.

Pretty powerful stuff.

And it was food.

And it improved their sleep.

Some people had heart rate availability, improved 50%, which is almost unheard of.

So even with our own small little clinical trial, it showed how powerful it was for

the brain.

Similar studies and we’ll do similar studies for heart and other purposes, but it’s the gift that keeps on giving honestly

Maybe you’ll take it for energy, but you’re gonna end up having better

Cognition you’ll protect your heart. You’ll have better skin no wrinkles

Better digestion. So it’s it is as close to a miracle food as you’re gonna get except no one’s ever explained to you how it works until now

JANNINE: Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s the thing. That’s the thing

So tell us about the mitochondria. Let’s dive into the mitochondria and we’ll round out the podcast with understanding the mitochondria

CATHARINE: Alright. Yeah. Well, I told people I never eat alone. I eat with my mitochondria now that you’ll know about it

You you’ll be aware of it too. So what are the mitochondria?

They’re little organelles that are inside all of the all your cells and they generate cellular energy for everything now

We’re talking when we say cellular energy. This isn’t energy just to run to the store or go for a great run

this is what propels everything in your body. We’re talking breathing, heartbeat, lymphatic

system, digestion, cell turnover, everything requires cellular energy. And it’s called ATP.

And it’s all made by your mitochondria. But you would know about that. Now your mitochondria have

their own DNA. And in fact, those DNA are what control everything that goes on in the mitochondria

and all of your other DNA and all of your cellular communication. So they’re very, very important

to the health of your mitochondria. The problem is they get damaged by free radicals during this

process of ATP because they’re located exactly where the ATP is being produced. And in fact,

there’s only 37 mitochondria DNA compared to your 22,000 regular DNA. Your regular DNA

lasts a lifetime. Your mitochondria DNA lasts an average of 10 days. It’s because they’re

they’re constantly getting damaged.

So let’s find out why.

So here’s your cell, okay?

Inside your cell is your regular DNA

and then you have all these little mitochondria.

Now think about it,

there’s two million of these little peanut shaped things

in each cell in your brain

’cause your highest number of mitochondria

are where your greatest energy needs are.

Inside the mitochondria is where your ATP is produced.

That’s cellular energy.

But what people don’t realize

is that a byproduct of ATP are free radicals.

And your mitochondria DNA are located exactly

where the free radicals are.

So they’re constantly getting bombarded by free radicals.

Now your regular DNA is way over here in the cheap seats.

It lasts a lifetime because there’s nowhere

near where all the action is.

Think of when you create ATP

and you have all those free radicals,

it’s like sitting too close to a fireplace or a bonfire

and sparks would fly and you might get burned.

So that’s what’s happening to your mitochondria DNA.

They’re so close to where the action is.

They’re constantly getting burned

by all these free radicals.

And what is a free radical?

It’s a molecule with an unpaired electron

and nature strives for harmony.

So if you have an unpaired electron,

this is what antioxidants are for.

They donate an extra electron to balance it out

so that it won’t steal,

otherwise it steals a free radical steal electron

from the next molecule.

And now that molecule is unpaired

and it will steal an electron from the next one on on,

it goes so you get tissue damage.

Think of it like if you were a kid,

you went to the cafeteria and someone stole your lunch.

So maybe you go and steal someone else’s lunch

and then they steal someone else’s lunch.

So it’s just like havoc everywhere.

So in your mitochondria,

where the ATP and the free radicals are being produced,

this is where all the damage is occurring, right in here.

The trick is, and I’ll explain why in a minute,

your mitochondria have two membranes.

all of your cells have a lipid membrane,

as I mentioned earlier,

but your mitochondria is a second one.

It’s an inner membrane.

And I’m gonna tell you where that came from

and why it’s impenetrable to buy most antioxidants.

You could eat a room full of blueberries

and not a drop of antioxidants will get in there.

And I don’t know how geeky you want me to get,

but the production of the actual ATP

is molecules that are embedded in that inner membrane.

And so what they do is they take the electrons

from the food that you eat, and they pass them along

from one another, and the final stage is ATP production.

It’s sort of like a relay race.

You ever watched a relay race, you have a runner,

and they pass the baton to the next runner,

and then that runner takes the baton,

and goes to the next runner,

and then the goal is to cross the finish line.

Well, the same thing happens in the production of your ATP,

except instead of a baton being passed along,

it’s an electron.

And instead of crossing a finish line,

the goal is ATP production.

– But when you have damaged mitochondria,

this process starts to become damaged.

I’m gonna show you what happens.

Now, that picture I just showed you.

So here’s your molecules embedded in a mitochondria.

See how close they are?

So that allows them to pass the electrons quickly.

That allows you to generate ATP.

That gives you cellular energy.

And it keeps the number of electrons that leak out

to a minimum.

So there’s fewer free radicals.

However, when your mitochondria get damaged,

the mitochondria starts to expand

and those molecules start becoming further and further

apart from one another.

So it’s harder and harder for them to pass the electrons

from one to the other.

Two things happen.

You get fewer ATP,

which is fewer cellular energy being produced

and you get increased leakage of electrons,

which become free radicals.

So as you, your mitochondria get more and more damaged,

more and more of this is going on,

which causes less and less cellular energy

and more and more free radical damage.

And on the cellular energy thing,

think about it, we just had Thanksgiving.

Now, if you had a hundred guests to your house,

I’m sure you didn’t have quite that many, but if you do,

and you only had one pie to share with a hundred guests,

nobody would get much pie, right?

They would not be very happy with you.

Well, your body is the same way.

If you aren’t creating enough cellular energy,

you have like the equivalent of a pie

and only small amount of that cellular energy

is being diverted to your lymphatic systems,

your neurotransmitters, to your heart,

to your cellular renewal, to your digestion.

So nothing works well and nobody is happy.

When you start to increase your ATP production

and reduce your free radical damage of your mitochondria,

it’s like having a hundred pies.

Now everybody’s getting the cellular energy they need.

Now you’re able to think a little bit better.

Now you’re having more energy.

Now your digestion is improved.

And that’s what algae does.

And I’m gonna tell you how it does it.

But I just wanna show you a real photo

of a real healthy mitochondria

and a damaged mitochondria.

See all that empty space in the middle?

That’s where all those little molecules have been spread out

so they can’t pass the electrons easily.

And so they get damaged.

So the good news is if you have mitochondria damage

and everybody does, and it’s getting worse and worse

as we get older, there are two solutions

that do not require drugs or surgery.

And they’re just lifestyle and dietary changes.

The first one is to reduce the number

of free radicals being produced.

And I’ll tell you how to do that.

And the second one is to remove the free radicals.

But remember, virtually no antioxidants can get in there,

but there are a few.

One is called glutathione, the other one is chlorophyll,

and the third one and the most important one

is called superoxide dismutase.

And guess what?

Algae has the highest concentration of all three of them.

But we’ll get, I’m jumping ahead of myself.

Let’s talk about how to reduce those free radicals.

Easy peasy, just reduce the number of carbs,

processed carbs that you’re eating.

Carbs generate the most free radicals,

cause the most damage to that ATP production process

and cause the greatest leakage of electrons

from that ATP process.

Keto or low-carb diets reduce the amount of free radicals,

because it’s a much more efficient way

to process energy, the ATP.

But if you do fasting, intermittent fasting,

or long-term fasting, and algae,

you get virtually no free radical production.

This is why I really encourage people

to try intermittent fasting.

When you’re not eating, your body isn’t having to digest things.

And so the energy can be directed to more things like cellular renewal or cleaning up

with healthy programmed cell death, which is called apoptosis or autophagy.

And you want that sort of stuff.

But it can only happen when you’re in that intermittent fasting stage and not generating

a lot of free radicals.

So number one, just try to eat fewer processed carbs, less sugar, and try to introduce intermittent

fasting, even just gradually, if you can.

Okay, so that’s one.

That reduces the free radicals.

Number two is to remove the free radicals.

But remember, I said, your mitochondria have that inner membrane that nothing virtually

no antioxidants could get in, they’re not vitamin C, not vitamin E. And why is that?

your regular cell membranes have things called porens. These are little openings. They’re like

windows that allow nutrients, proteins, adioxins in and out, but there aren’t any porens

in the inner membrane. But fortunately, things like suproxidismutase, glutathione, and chlorophyll

can get through that inner membrane. And suproxide is the most important one. And why is that?

here’s the answer. The most damaging free radical of all is called superoxide. And it’s created

in the mitochondria. Why is superoxide so damaging? Remember I said free radicals usually have one

unpaired electron and so they steal from another tissue if they don’t get an antioxidant donating

the electron? Well, superoxide has three unpaired electrons. So it’s three times as damaging. That’s

That’s why this antioxidant called superoxide dismutase is so powerful because what it does

is it neutralizes the superoxide and turns it into water, harmless water that mitochondria

saved.

It’s like having the firemen in there, hosing down all those sparks, damaging your mitochondria

and bringing you back to life.

Turning back on the light, the lights in your mitochondria, it’s like going from a 20 watt

bulb to a hundred watt bulb. When your mitochondria are able to survive and thrive, they are more

efficient at generating ATP, which gives you more energy, more cellular energy to do absolutely

everything. So you definitely want to stop the free radical damage of your mitochondria, because

they will look after you. You just have to look after them. The trick is, unfortunately, well,

fortunately, when we are born, our body makes superoxide dismutase from the moment we are born,

through our childhood, through our teens, until we’re about 30.

After about 30, your body stops making it just like it slows down making melatonin,

it slows down making glutathione, it stops making superoxy dismutase,

and by the time you’re 40 or 50, you have virtually none.

So now your mitochondria have no protection

from that free radical damage because other antioxidants can’t get in there.

Most of you aren’t eating many vegetables, so you’re not getting chlorophyll.

which can also get in there. Most of you aren’t eating other nutrients that can get in there,

but algae has the highest concentration, especially spirulina. So this is why it’s so helpful,

a spirulina and chlorella generate the fewest free radicals, as few as intermittent fasting,

and it has all the antioxidants that you are now missing and can’t find in any other food.

By the way, superoxide dismutase is an enzyme, so at the very beginning, I mentioned how we do not

use high heat to dry our algae, and this was, you know, I decided this at the very beginning,

this is before I even knew about SOD. When you use high heat to dry your algae,

you kill the superoxide dismutase, you deactivate it. So you may be getting all the other benefits

of spirulina, but you’re not getting the protective nature of superoxide dismutase because it’s

has been deactivated. So because we do not use high heat, that’s one of the things that

makes our work so well, because it does get into the mitochondria to stop that free

radical damage. So it’s pretty, pretty cool. And I want to show you why the final piece

of why spirulina and chlorella are so perfectly matched to your mitochondria health. Because

if you can look after your mitochondria, now you know how important they are and what they

they need to thrive, hopefully it’s like having an operating manual because we know

that our cell phones need to be plugged in to get recharged with electricity and we know

our car needs gas, well your body needs certain nutrients too and this SOD is one of the critical

ones and we’re missing it after the age of 40. So why can’t all those other antioxidants

get in there? Why can’t drugs get into the inner membrane of the mitochondria? Well I’m

to tell you why. Remember I said at the very beginning that spirulina is a

cyanobacteria and it was the first life on Earth? So before cyanobacteria,

Earth was just gas and water, no oxygen, no life. Nobody really knows why this

little anaerobic cell started growing but it did and it generated ATP and it

released oxygen as a byproduct. So a billion years later, now there’s a lot of

oxygen on Earth, but it’s struggling because it does better without oxygen and larger cells

that were aerobic cells started growing. But they didn’t generate ATP as well. So I imagine

the conversation between the bigger aerobic cell and the little anaerobic cell going something

like this. The big cell says the little cell, hey little guy, I see you’re struggling there

with all this oxygen. How about we join forces? I’ll protect you from the oxygen and you come

and make ATP for us, because we’re not doing so well.

And that’s basically, you know, I don’t know if the conversation happened, but that’s basically

what happened.

So the original cell, which was a cyanobacteria, like spirulina, got absorbed by the larger

cell, but it didn’t digest it, it coexisted and that became mitochondria.

Your cyanobacteria became your mitochondria.

And this is why your mitochondria have a second inner membrane, because when it got

absorbed by the first one, that first membrane didn’t disappear. It just got covered with

a second membrane, a lipid membrane that all of your cells have. But this is why algae

and your mitochondria are so perfectly suited because they’re family. Your mitochondria

evolved from cyanobacteria. It’s called endosymbiotic theory. You can Google it online. There’s

hundreds of articles, thousands probably, in the PubMed, documenting this. It was a theory that

was discovered in the 60s by a female scientist at MIT. She was ridiculed for 10 years and then her

peers all realized she was correct. And so anyways. So that’s why everything that’s in

algae can get through that inner membrane because they basically came from the same place. So if

you ever had any doubts that they’re perfectly suited for one another, I hope that helps you

understand. 

JANNINE: Awesome. That was, I mean, more than I have ever known about mitochondria

connections, spiralinga, chlorella, great stuff here, great stuff here. So I’m sure folks are

going to be wondering, okay, so how do we get a hold of the Energy Bits? How do we get a hold of

this stuff? And of course, we do have the code HEALTHFIX guys, it’ll be in my podcast notes at

it’s doctorjkrausend.com as well. So give us the scoop. Where can we find you

on social? All the things. 

CATHARINE: Yeah. So our website is where the main action is. It’s energybits.com

E N E R G Y B for boy I T for Tom S for Sam. And we sell large bags. We sell canisters.

The canisters come with a little bag. You only buy canister once. And then when it comes to the

bag inside it. And then when the bag is run out, then you just restock with new bags. Don’t buy.

you only say you only buy the bag. Now this is the spirulina. We have two brands of spirulina

because I found women didn’t like the packaging in the first one and I started the company because

of my sister and has more collagen than collagen powder. So it builds your skin and hair. So these are both

spirulina. The green one is chlorella. That’s Recovery Bits. And then we have a blended one

called vitality bits. So if you just don’t want to have to think about taking them separately,

again, try to take 10 spirulina a day in the morning or afternoon. You can have more and at least 10

in Clarilla a day before bed or more for detox purposes.

And if you do that, they only cost you a dollar a day.

So it’s pretty efficient.

Now, if you aren’t ready to buy anything large,

you want to test it out.

I completely understand ’cause this is probably

all new stuff for you.

So we sell on Amazon little pouches of 30 tablets.

They’re only $6.

If you have prime shipping, you get them shipped for free.

So try it out on Amazon.

If you have any questions and then come back

to energybits.com and use your HEALTHFIX

for your 20% discount.

We’re also very active on Instagram and Facebook

and our handle is @energybits.

But even if you don’t wanna buy anything,

just come to the website energybits.com.

We write a full blog every month,

full of science references.

We’re really here to educate people

because if you don’t know something,

it’s really hard to understand what’s going on.

It can be very scary and there’s so much information

that’s existed for almost 75 years,

but you wouldn’t know about it

because scientists like to talk to other scientists.

The medical community or the pharmaceutical industry

doesn’t want you to know about this sort of stuff.

So it’s naturopaths and homeopaths like Dr. J

who’s helping you understand your body

so that you’re not be afraid of it.

And all these things are, as I said, science-based,

it’s food, it’s not from the ocean, no toxins,

just be careful of where you buy it from

because you won’t get as many benefits

if it’s not grown carefully.

I can’t take credit for algae, that’s mother nature,

but I can take credit for delivering something that’s safe

and has the maximum nutrients for you.

So I couldn’t live without it myself.

but I’m 67, just in case anybody was wondering.

So I’m proof that this stuff works.

JANNINE: My goodness, my goodness, you look fabulous.

It’s, you know, it’s impressive stuff.

I’m excited to talk about it further with my folks

because I think definitely it is one of the things

that is overlooked because we just don’t understand

and today you’ve definitely cleared up a lot of things

and a lot of questions for myself included.

So thank you so much, Catharine, for coming on.

I really appreciate it.

CATHARINE: Well, thank you for all your great work.

takes all of us to help people, right? 

JANNINE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

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