Realfoodology - Algae and Mitochondria with Catharine Arnston

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

113: On today's episode we talk all things Mitochondria.  Mitochondrial health is something that is being thrown around a lot in the health and wellness space, and today we have Catharine Arnston to break it down for us.  Catharine Arnston of ENERGYbits joins me to talk about algae, how it can help improve your mitochondrial health and why we should care so much about it. Topics Discussed: Macro algae vs. micro algae  Spirulina Chlorella What are Mitochondria How many mitochondria there are in your brain, heart, women’s eggs  Refined carbs Sugar  Types of antioxidants  What happens if you take Melatonin in the day  Spirulina and Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders  Check out Catharine: Energy Bits Online code REALFOODOLOGY saves you 20% and FREE shipping Energy Bits on Instagram Sponsored By: Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off Magic Mind http://www.magicmind.co Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% off  Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening: The Organic Watchdog

on today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. Algae has everything that your mitochondria need to survive and thrive, and we can turn around the trajectory of disease. You don't get any more paleo, ancestral, organic, original than algae. And for health, you can't get any further down into what causes health or disease than mitochondria. Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan, and I'm excited about today's episode. I'm always excited about these episodes, but this one I find very fascinating because we really go into mitochondria and why we should care about our mitochondria.

I think it's safe to say that we all learned in like middle school that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and it acts like the battery for our bodies. But I don't think that at the time when it was explained to us that it was really reiterated just how important the mitochondria is and how big of a role it plays in our overall lives and our overall health. Well, now we know the mitochondria in our cells do far more than just generate ATP, which is energy for our body. They also control all of our health, our cell signaling, our metabolism, longevity, brain, gut, energy, sleep, digestion, and like pretty much everything. But sadly, as you age, you have fewer mitochondria and the ones that do stick around get damaged or die from toxins and poor dietary and lifestyle choices. Now that's not great, but the cool thing is, is that we can actually reverse this damage to our mitochondria. And one of the ways we can do that is by taking spirulina and chlorella algae.

And this is why I'm super stoked about today's episode with Katherine Arnston of Energy Bits. She created Energy Bits, which are spirulina and chlorella tablets that you can take every single day. And she dives into mitochondrial health, how these can help our mitochondrial health. She also talks about what microalgae are exactly. So like what spirulina and chlorella are, what all the different benefits of them are outside of just her mitochondrial function and overall health. And we just dive into the science of all this. It was super fascinating. And if you could stick around for the very end, she shares a discount code with you that you can use to get your own spirulina and chlorella.

Personally, I take them both every single day. And I talk about this in the episode a little bit. I used to not be able to even choke down spirulina because I was taking it in a powder form. And I just, I can't, I can't stand the taste of it. This is why I really like these tabs because you just swallow them with water and you never taste it. I do want to address one thing before we go into the episode because I really believe in nuance and not everything is so black and white as we try to make it out to be. She mentions collagen and it being a lower quality protein. I do want to say I still take collagen and I take spirulina and chlorella. You don't have to be so black and white. You don't have to do one or the other. I truly believe that collagen is really good for our joints, for replenishing our collagen stores as they diminish when we age.

It also still is a great source of protein. So you don't necessarily have to trade one for the other. There is room to take it all. So I just felt like it was important to say that. And also it is incredibly important that if you're consuming collagen to get it from organic pasture-raised grass-fed beef sources. That's a really important component of this because you want to be getting a really good high quality collagen protein if you do decide to take it. So personally, I'm a big fan of collagen protein and there's space for us to take it all. We don't have to choose between them. Okay, I have a huge announcement to make that I am so excited about. We are doing a podcast giveaway

and I'm giving away five things, a higher dose sauna bag, an AquaTrue carafe. This is AquaTrue's water filter. It's their brand new one that comes with a glass carafe. Also the AquaTrue water filter classic, the AromaTrue,

and then one Air Doctor 3000, which is an air filter for your home. If you guys follow me on Instagram, you know how much I love my AquaTrue. This is the water filter that I use for my drinking water in my home. It filters out all the toxins from your tap water, like pharmaceutical drugs, birth control, heavy metals, fluoride, chlorine, et cetera, all the stuff that you want to get out of your tap water. The higher dose sauna bag is amazing. I've been using this for years and it's great for if you have a smaller space and you don't have a room or a budget to buy an actual sauna in your home. This is like, I always joke and I call it my sauna burrito bag because it's just like wraps you in like a little like sauna, like sleeping bag. Getting a daily sweat in is

incredibly important. I don't use the sauna bag every single day, but I do exercise and move my body every single day. But it's incredibly important that we focus on sweating more than ever because we're being exposed to so much toxins in our environment, in our food, in our water. So I love the higher dose sauna bag for that. What else? The Aromatru is an essential oil diffuser, and it's from the same people that make AquaTru and the Air Doctors. So you know it's really good high quality. And if you like to burn essential oils in your home and have your home smell really good, this is a great option for you. And then last but not least, the Air Doctor 3000 is a amazing air filter for your home. I actually have two in my house. I have the 5000.

I have one in my bedroom and one in my living room. Just like it's important for us to filter out all of the toxins in our tap water, it is also incredibly important for us to make sure that the quality of air in our homes is safe and free of toxins. And we're just getting bombarded with stuff from the environment, off-gassing from furniture, from clothing, from our bedding, from candles. Hopefully you're not still burning fragrance candles.

Cleaning products, even the off-gassing from cooking. So all of these can sabotage our indoor air. And so this is why having a good high quality air filter is really important. And I am a huge fan of Air Doctor. Okay, now that we've gotten through what all the prizes are, there are five winners. And each of those winners is gonna win one of these things.

And the way that you enter, you guys, is so freaking simple. All you have to do is go onto Apple Podcasts, leave a rating and review for the podcast, and then email in a screenshot of the review that you left to realfoodologypodcast at gmail.com. That's it. That's going to be your entry. And then we're going to announce the winners on November 2nd. If you follow me on Instagram and you want a bonus entry, just reshare any of my reels on your stories on Instagram. Just make sure that you tag me and then I would also do a little screenshot of that and

then send that into the email as well just to make sure in case that it gets lost in the mix, I don't want your bonus entry to get lost. So yeah, and my Instagram is at realfoodology if you guys don't follow me. That is it. That is the giveaway. Thank you guys so much for your support. Thank you for listening. This is my little way of giving back to you guys. And with that, let's get to the episode. We really don't talk enough about the importance of liver health. And I think a lot of us don't think enough about all of the things that we are being exposed to on a day-to-day basis. Pesticides that show up in our food and water, not to mention chlorine and farm runoff and pharmaceuticals in our water. Additives in our food, lotions that we put on our body on a day-to-day basis, makeup, any sort of cleaning products that you're using in your home.

There is so much stuff in this modern world that we are being exposed to on a day-to-day basis. And our bodies have to filter that out and get it out. And our liver plays a huge role in that. This is why it is so important that we do things to protect our liver and make sure that it is functioning at optimal levels. So I take something every single day to protect my liver, and that is called Liver Reset from Organifi. It has tryptophan in there. It also has organic dandelion extract,

organic milk thistle, and of course, artichoke leaf. All of these help to support the detoxification pathways of the liver, and they also just work really hard to protect the liver itself. You know, another little hot take that I will tell you as well, when I was struggling really hard with acne, something that helped me finally eradicate it once and for all was starting to take things that supported my liver. And one of them was all of these properties that are in this liver reset. If you would like to get liver reset, make sure you go to Organifi.com slash realfoodology. You're going to save 20%. That is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. Or you can also just use

the code realfoodology at Organifi.com. Well, let's just start there. That was the first thing that I wanted to ask you is what is algae? And then let's also go into mitochondria and the role that algae plays in mitochondrial health. So most people don't realize that algae was the first life on earth 4 billion years ago. So before algae, there was nothing on earth. There was just gas and water, nothing lived. And not sure exactly why algae started living, but it did. And the first life was spir spirulina which is a cyanobacteria and later on chlorella and i mentioned that because algae is everywhere and there's two main types there's what i call macroalgae and microalgae macroalgae is basically seaweed and it's only found in the sea hence hence the name, also known as kelp or dulse. And it's very

high in fiber and iodine because it's from the ocean, but virtually no nutrition. You can eat a whole bag of kelp noodles for five calories because there's nothing in it. And that's not what we're talking about today. We're talking about microalgae, which are microscopic in size. There's about a million of them could fit on the head of a pin. That's how tiny they are. And unlike macroalgae, which is only in the sea, microalgae is everywhere. The lakes, the rivers, the streams, the soil, your swimming pool, your aquarium. And there are tens of thousands of strains of microalgae. Two that most people are familiar with are a blue

green and a green algae. And one strain of blue green algae is spirulina. And one strain of green algae is chlorella. Now I mentioned that because some people may go to the internet and read about a toxic blue green algae closing their favorite beach. And we are not talking about spirulina. That is just another strain of algae, of blue-green algae. And by the way, when algae shows up, it's only as the cleanup crew because algae kills bacteria. So the reason the algae is showing up as a bloom in your beach is because somebody has put some toxins in there. And you don't see them, but you do see the algae, which is the cleanup crew. And algae does do the same thing for your body. So spirulina and chlorella, which are the two algae we're going to talk about today, are the two, only two, that are harvested as food crops

in fresh water, not from the ocean. So number one, it's not a supplement, it's a food crop. And number two, it's grown in fresh water. So number one, algae is a food. And that's really important because just like your name of your real foodology, it does fit the category. Your body recognizes food, knows what to do with food. When you take supplements, they're made of extracts that actually don't exist like that in nature. Hard for your body to recognize, absorb, and use. But not with algae because it is food. And all we do is we grow it. Ours is grown in triple-filtered spring mountain water.

Then we air dry it, which is a very important thing to know because we don't use high heat. And we've talked about the mitochondria and some important enzymes that protect it. High heat kills enzymes so you could be buying most other algae companies use high heat because they're lower quality higher volume and they have to get to market quickly we have never used high high heat so we have all of our enzymes intact and then we just press them into these little tablets that you can swallow, you can chew or add to smoothies. Here's the tablets. This is spirulina, which is a darker color because it's got two pigments in it. It's called a blue green algae because it has two pigments, a blue one that's called phycocyanin and the green one

is chlorophyll. And this is chlorella, which is just a green, has just a green pigment, but you see how tiny they are. Now, each one of these tablets has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. And you think, yeah, right. How did she come up with that? Well, we have a quote, and I can send you the article. It's a scientific paper, quote from NASA that says, one gram of algae has the same nutrition

as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables. One to a thousand. And again, when you think of how microscopic these things are and like a million could fit on the head of a pin. And you start consolidating, consolidating all of that nutrition into this tiny little tablet. You start to understand, like you don't get the fiber. I don't want to mislead you, but you do get the nutrition. Algae has the highest concentration of protein in the world. NASA, sorry, United Nations endorsed it and had a global conference in 1974 for spirulina and declared it the answer to world hunger because it's three times the amount of protein

at stake and all the protein is already in amino acids. We'll talk about that in a minute. Is it the full amino acid profile though? Because I know that is... 18 of the 20. 18 of the 20 and has all nine of the aminos that your body can't make. So it is a complete protein. Unlike collagen powder, which is missing tryptophan. So it's not a complete protein. So it has the highest protein in the world 40 vitamins and minerals that's why nasa endorses it as the most nutrient-dense food in the world and feeds it to the astronauts it's the first crop that they want to grow in space and while we're talking about protein here's animal protein it's all bound up and your body can take up to three days to break down through those bonds

to get it down to aminos so your body can absorb it. Then you have peptides, which are found in collagen, which get absorbed faster, but collagen is not a complete protein. It's also not sustainable. It's made of melted down animal bones and skins and whatever. And then you have algae, which are individual aminos. So it's very easy for your body to break down. Now, in fact, spirulina, and we'll segue in a minute to the two algae, spirulina is a bacteria. It does not even have a cellulose wall, zero fiber, no cellulose wall. So that's why athletes and people who are doing intermittent fasting love it so much because it gets into their bloodstream so quickly, it literally bypasses

digestion. By the way, it is ketogenic, zero carbs, one calorie, 40 vitamins and minerals. You could have 10 or 15 for breakfast or lunch for 15 calories and get all of your nourishment that you need literally for the day in seconds. But spirulina and chlorella are quite different from one another. The profile looks similar, but what they do in your body is completely different. Spirulina, as I mentioned, is the highest protein in the world, and it's loaded with B vitamins. And all those Bs turn the energy into glucose. And because there's no cellulose, it gets into your bloodstream so, so quickly. It's also a vasodilator, which means it opens up your blood vessels. So you get more oxygen and nutrients to

your brain. It has a lot of high essential fatty acids, including omega-3, which reduces inflammation, is really good for your brain and for your cellular wall. And also boron, which helps with your synapses. So overall, spirulina is an energizing algae. That's why we call ours energy bits, to help people understand that. And it's both mental energy, physical energy. And when we get to mitochondria, I'll talk about how it's also energizing the mitochondria because it facilitates the production of ATP. And ATP is the energy currency that your body uses for everything. Sleeping, walking, talking, heartbeats, elimination, thinking, lymphatic system. When you are missing, as you age, you have fewer mitochondria and they get damaged,

because, and we'll tell you why. So it's harder for you to have healthy and lots of mitochondria. And this is what contributes to aging and disease. So we can help reverse that trajectory down with all the antioxidants that are only found and actually found in the highest quantity in the world in algae. I want to talk about mitochondria because I think this is something that's really important and I don't want to just skim over this. So I think everyone has an understanding of what mitochondria is just from basic science. When we were in elementary school or middle school, they told us that it's the powerhouse of the cell, right? So it's the battery. It's what makes all of our cells work.

But why should we be more focused on our mitochondria outside of that? What are the role that mitochondria play in our body outside of just the ATP energy? And why should we care about it? Well, if you don't have ATP, you basically are dead because nothing works. I came up with this great analogy when I was speaking at Dave Asprey's conference. I came up with it the day of my talk. Think of your body as a skyscraper, and your name is at the top of the building instead of MetLife or something. And in the building are offices. Those offices, think of them as your cells. in the offices you have light bulbs those light bulbs think of them as

your mitochondria now when you are born and when the building is first opens you've got lots of support you've got some you know cleaners window cleaners all kinds of staff to help you you know make sure the office is working and those are your antioxidants that keep the lights on in the building. And as the building ages and it starts to deteriorate, people start leaving, those lights start going out and they go out and they go out and they go out. That's your mitochondria as you get fewer and fewer antioxidants to protect them, are dying, are becoming mutated, and can't function. They can't have cellular communication. They can't subdivide. And when you have fewer and fewer mitochondria, you have less and less people and activity in the offices until eventually the office is dead. And the great

thing about algae, and we're going to show you how it works, we can turn those lights back on one at a time because your body is constantly regenerating itself. And so every single day we can facilitate more lights coming back on in your building, which are basically your mitochondria and help your cells start growing and being healthy again. So whatever illness you have or might be sliding into, any kind of brain fog, digestion issues, chronic disease, they're realizing all disease is a mitochondria disease. And here's why. The highest concentration of mitochondria are in the parts of your body that have the greatest energy needs. The place where you have the most mitochondria is in your brain. They have realized, you're going to flip out when I tell you this, there are 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain.

Per cell. And so when the lights in your brain in your office start to dim, your brain is the first place that experiences it. They're realizing Alzheimer's, dementia, ADHD, autism, it's all a mitochondria disease. So if we can get those mitochondria functioning and being protected, we can turn those lights back on. The second highest concentration of mitochondria are in women's eggs. There are 600,000 mitochondria per cell in a woman's eggs. Why? Because it takes a lot of energy to make a new human. By the way, you know, we get our regular DNA half from men, from the sperm, and half from women. Mitochondria DNA come all from the women, exclusively from the women.

Very, very interesting. Did you know that stress actually plays a huge component of your productivity? I recently had the founder of Magic Mind on my podcast, James, and he brought up such a great point that I've actually seen in my own life, but I had never really put two and two together, that the more stressed out you are, the less focused and productive you're going to be because your brain's going to be scattered. Oftentimes with me personally, when I'm really stressed out,

I become very complacent and avoidant, so I will avoid some emails and avoidant. So I will avoid some emails and just not be fully on my game. And ironically enough, most of us reach for coffee when we want to be productive and we want to be on point. But coffee also raises cortisol levels and can really actually amplify your stress. I mean, I've personally seen this in my own life. If I have more than one cup of coffee, my heart is racing out of my chest. I can't focus because I'm so stressed out.

My cortisol levels are so high. So there has to be a better way. And there is a better way. This is why I'm so excited that I found Magic Mind. So Magic Mind is the world's first productivity drink that can either be taken alongside your morning coffee or your morning caffeine, or you can completely replace it if you want. What I'm doing, because I love my coffee so much, I love the ritual, I love the taste of it, so I've cut back on my coffee consumption and then I drink a Magic Mind alongside it. Because there's so many components of Magic Mind, like the matcha and the adaptogens

and the nootropics that really help with your cognitive function. And it really helps with my productivity and just turns my brain on. I get more work done now than when I was in college on Adderall. I'm just going to say it. I cannot speak highly enough of Magic Mind. I am such a fan of it. They also gave me a code to share with you guys. So if you want to try it, you can save 20% off when you use the code realfoodology. Just go to magicmind.co, use code realfoodology and try Magic Mind today. I hope you love it. The third highest concentration of mitochondria is in your heart. It's anywhere between 5,000 to 7,000. And then your organs and your muscles which have five thousand compared to a fat cell or a skin cell that only averages about a hundred mitochondria so when you start to realize that these mitochondria power absolutely everything in your body particularly your most important organs

you realize that they are the key to everything so i want. And most people don't realize that mitochondria have their own DNA. And there's only 37 of them. But it turns out those 37, and there's 25,000 regular DNA, those 37 control the other 25,000. They control all cellular communication. They control everything. I make the analogy of your mitochondria DNA being like an air controller at an airport. If your air controller is sick or not paying attention, planes crash. When your mitochondria DNA get damaged or mutate or sick, your health crashes. It's really that simple. So why is this happening? Here's your cell. And in the cell, you have a nucleus and you also have mitochondria, right? These little peanut shaped guys. Okay. And think of it, 2 million of these per cell in your brain.

Yeah. That's hard to imagine. It's so hard to imagine. In the mitochondria is where the ATP is produced, okay? But a byproduct of ATP are free radicals. Think of free radicals, you know, if you've ever been to a fire or a bonfire, free radicals are like sparks. They're flying out when the ATP is produced. And because the mitochondria DNA are located exactly where the ATP is produced and exactly where the free radicals are produced, they are getting fried every single second.

Meanwhile, your regular nucleus is over here in the cheap seats, nowhere near where the ATP is produced or the DNA is being the mitochondria DNA or the free radicals are. This is why your mitochondria DNA average lifespan is 10 to 20 days. Your regular nucleus lasts a lifetime, but these guys get killed all the time. Now, because they are like the air controllers that control everything in your body, all communication with everything. When they get mutated, they send wrong signals, they start mutating, they start dying, and it's just a downward spiral from there. So the key to life is protecting your mitochondria DNA. They're a life force.

They are a life force. So the way the mitochondria work and generate this ATP is they take the food that you eat and there's something in the mitochondria, it's called the electron transport chain, and they convert the food into this form of ATP. But the problem is when you eat carbs or sugar, they generate the highest amount of free radicals, which of course cause the greatest damage. When you go on a keto diet, which uses fat for fuel, it releases fewer free radicals, which is good because fewer free radicals means less damage to your mitochondria. But the best is fasting. It doesn't matter whether it's intermittent fasting or water fasting or algae. These create virtually zero free radicals. Now, you'll never get to zero, period, because there's always just stuff going on in your body, but you want to minimize it. So this is one strategy that

you can employ. You could cycle in and out of keto. In fact, you don't even have to go keto. Just stop eating sugar and carbs. That alone will go a very long way. I have to give a caveat here because as a nutrition expert and I went through my master's in integrative health, I don't want to say that everyone has to stop eating carbs entirely. No, refined carbs, refined carbs. So we're talking white things, white rice, white bread. Industrial food is another way to say it. Hyper processed carbohydrates is what we want to avoid. So whole real foods in their forms that we're meant to consume is what we want to avoid. So whole real foods in their forms that we're

meant to consume is what we want, like starchy vegetables, rice, if it's organic, etc., stuff like that. Yeah, it's the processed, refined, industrial foods that are generating excess free radicals. So that's one way to help reduce the damage to your mitochondria if you did nothing else, and that's free. So, that's number one. Number two strategy is to remove the free radicals. Now, we know all about antioxidants. We know about blueberries and all kinds of fruit. They have the Orox. But here's the problem. Here's a close-up of that mitochondria, right? Now, all of our cells, including the mitochondria, have a membrane, and it's made of lipids, which are basically a fancy way of saying fats. And in the cell membrane

are these things called porins. They're basically channels that allow antioxidants and proteins in and out of the cells. And that's what's around all of your cells in your entire body, including the mitochondria. However, the mitochondria have a second membrane, an inner membrane, no porins, no traditional antioxidants can get in there. You could eat a the age of 30, your body makes fewer and fewer and fewer of them until you have virtually none. So what are those antioxidants? One is called glutathione.

Another one is called superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD. Third one is melatonin. And I can talk for another little bit about melatonin. I just want to make sure people know they have realized it is way more than just something that controls your circadian rhythm, which helps you sleep. It is a key antioxidant.

And no, it will not make you sleepy during the day. It's only at night because it's triggered by night. And so that's the third. So there's superoxide, dismutase, glutathione, melatonin, and chlorophyll. Now your body doesn't make chlorophyll, but as you get older, people tend to eat fewer and fewer vegetables because they have fewer and fewer enzymes. And lots of times vegetables give them stomach distress and it takes a lot of time and older people just don't have the time or interest to cook for themselves. So when you were young, I'm telling about the age of 30, I mean, you could go out

partying, you could stay out late, no problems. But that's because you were loaded with all these fantastic antioxidants that were protecting your mitochondria and making sure that you had lots of ATP. So when you got up, you could go on with your day. But as you hit 30, you start dropping in all of them and the number of your mitochondria start dropping. And at the same time, your body is accumulating and accumulating more toxins. Your inflammation level goes up and this is the cause of disease. You don't have the natural protection that you used to have and you have more toxins. And this is the tipping point point but the good news is we can change that trajectory we just have to get those antioxidants but the problem is glutathione melatonin superoxidism

are virtually impossible to find in high enough quantities in any food of any kind and you can buy supplements but they've been doing studies that say that they most of them get damaged in the stomach digestive process well here's the good news algae has the highest concentration of all four melatonin superoxidismutase glutathione and chlorophyll in the world and i have the lab test to prove it and because algae gets absorbed so quickly especially spirulina and we'll talk a bit about super prove it. And because algae gets absorbed so quickly, especially spirulina, and we'll talk a bit about superoxidismutase, it gets absorbed instantly

and gets directed to the mitochondria. So we can flatline that inflammation. You can literally start reversing back, you're aging backwards. We can stop disease. We can protect your mitochondria because when they aren't being damaged by all those free radicals they're able to survive which means they can multiply they can function properly

they can give correct directions and one of the most powerful is one called superoxide dismutase although they they do you know they all do pretty much the same thing. But this one called superoxide dismutase literally changes the free radicals into water. And the most damaging, I was reading about it, and just yesterday, the light bulb went on and I found out about why the most damaging free radical is called superoxide. And it is generated during this process of ATP. And I kept wondering, well, what's so damaging about this particular free radical?

Well, it turns out most free radicals, what happens is you have protons on the inner part of your molecule and you have electrons. And what happens is if your molecule is imbalanced, it steals from other molecules, and that damage is a free radical. It causes damage. But usually, it's just stealing one electron. The superoxide, and you can check this out if you go online, it has three electrons that it steals. Three. So it's three times as damaging as any other free radical because it steals so many from all the other molecules and just causes

three times as much damage so this superoxide dismutase provides the electrons and basically and turns that that free radical into water, harmless water. So your body is protected, your mitochondria are protected. And by the way, there's 100,000 studies documenting all the benefits that we haven't even started talking about algae. This stuff has been around for decades. But I read a quote years ago that said, when something is discovered, it takes an average

of 18 years for the science to get down to the practitioner level and another 18 or 28 years for it to get to consumers. So the fact that superoxide dismutase has been around for 50 years and nobody still knows about it in the consumer world, and that melatonin about 20 years ago was discovered to be an antioxidant, not just made by your pineal gland, but by all of your mitochondria. It's finally getting there. Algae has everything that your mitochondria need to survive and thrive. And we can turn around the trajectory of disease. You don't get any more paleo, ancestral, organic, original than algae. And for health, you can't get any further down into what causes health or disease than mitochondria.

Absolutely. So chlorella, I know that chlorella can eradicate toxins. And is that why it's called an internal deodorizer? Because I know a lot of people take chlorella and then they say that afterwards they don't really have, it gets rid of their BO. Yeah, it's a, the reason why it does it is two reasons. The body odor is because it has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Spirulina is the highest protein, chlorella is the highest chlorophyll. Now, it also pulls out toxins, not just bacteria, and it pulls out the toxins like heavy metals, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, alcohol, lactic acid, because it has the hardest cell wall in the plant kingdom. It catches the toxins and chelates them. Spirulina, no cell wall, cellulose wall. Chlorella has the hardest cell wall. So most people take spirulina in the morning or in the afternoon because they want energy and they're hungry. And you could take 5, 10, 15, 20. If you took 20, it'd be like a meal replacement. And they take chlorella mostly

at night, I recommend before bed, because when you sleep, you go through a detox repair cycle. So this will facilitate the sleep, the detox, the repair. Both of them are loaded with melatonin. They'll also super charge your sleeping so is there one that you say that we should take in the morning and the other we take at night or does it matter you can take them both in the morning well you know you can take them whenever you want with food instead of food by themselves we even have a brand so we call our chlorella recovery bits because it helps you recover your love those and spirulina is the energy uh because it energizes you but we do have a brand actually called vitality bits which is a blend of the two

algae um so you really could take them whenever you wanted for but I I you know just know that you're only going to get your hunger satisfied and your energy and your focus from spirulina. And you will only get heavy metal detox from the chlorella. But you could take, I mean, I eat the chlorella all day long. I have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Most people swallow spirulina for sure. Chlorella tastes better because it's drier, has less essential fatty acids. So it tastes delicious with pistachio nuts or macadamia nuts.

So if you can- You sprinkle it on top of the nuts? I have a brand, it's called Wonderful, and I just salt and vinegar flavor. I just mix them up. We're going to do a trail mix hopefully next year. But if you can learn to like eating the chlorella, again, called recovery bits,

it's much more enjoyable because you know you're eating food, but there's nothing you can really do to improve spirulina. It's just very earthy, very chewy, but you can chew it if you want. I mean, it is food. We call them bits, by the way, because they're bits of food, just very nutrient dense bits of food. Yeah. So outside of mitochondrial function, what are the benefits? Let's dive into what are

the more granule benefits of spirulina and then the benefits of chlorella that people will see in their everyday life. So we talked about the toxin elimination, helps with hunger cues. What are some other things that people will see? Well, we're so busy and people don't have time to eat a proper meal all the time. So spirulina can fit in that gap because we also sell them in small little pouches, but even if you took the big bag. So they're meal replacements. They're fantastic for intermittent fasting. If you're trying to lose weight or get off of any sugar cravings. They cut your cravings. They satisfy your hunger. So weight loss, intermittent fasting is fantastic. Great for kids, children, pets, grandparents. So it's the easiest, safest, fastest, nutrient-dense food

in the world. Like I said, I call it fast food. So, and it's used by athletes. We fuel NHL teams, Olympic teams, much better for you for performance at work or in sports than a Luna bar or any of those sugary stuff, because it gives you the nourishment that you need instantly. And it also has no carbs or sugar, so it doesn't upset your stomach. So in general, spirulina is what you would use for hunger, athletics, performance, focus, any kind of energy. And if you have any children on the spectrum, or you have any family members who have any kind of brain issues, whether it's Alzheimer's, dementia, because it facilitates that mitochondrial health so easily. Spirulina has so much superoxidismutase.

So it's really, you get the benefits within 20 minutes in terms of the energy and the hunger. I just want to set expectations. It's not a stimulant. So it's not like a lightning bolt from the sky. The best way to describe how you feel is you'll feel fresh. That's it. You might not even notice it, but you'll suddenly realize, oh, I'm not hungry anymore. Or, oh, I was able to get through those last three hours of work. Or, oh, I ran faster. I didn't even notice it. You won't even notice it. But that's what I love

about it. It's very quiet energy. Now, chlorella won't give you energy and won't satisfy your hunger, but it's very cleansing. I tell people, you know, we take a shower on the outside every day. Taking chlorella, you take these every day, you will see a change in your life, your skin, your digestion. Chlorella, because it's so cleansing with the high chlorophyll, helps with bowel movements. It's loaded with what's called vitamin K2, which moves excess calcium out of soft tissue. So your skin will be clearer. They both have high protein, so your hair will be thicker.

It has more collagen than collagen powder, and yet it's sustainable and eco-friendly, so it has no toxins in it. So chlorella is very cleansing. It pulls stuff out of your body um and you know people don't realize this we have 30 trillion cells and they literally duplicate each other eat themselves every day so you have like 30 trillion dead cells every day on top of all the other toxins so you got to get rid of those dead cells because they clog up your lymphatic system attract bacteria so that's why chlorella is

really good for that. Chlorella, as I said, if you have any kind of constipation, chlorella is your girl. It helps with that. It helps with sleep because it has the highest tryptophan in the world as well as the high melatonin in the world. As you said, it kills bacteria. This is why it's great for your pets, your dogs, your cats. Their breath will be fresh. Their eyes will be bright. And as I said, it's very tasty. Now with the spirulina, because it's so loaded with essential fatty acids and so many vitamins and minerals, it can replace your supplements, your fish oil, your CoQ10, your Biotin, and probably a bunch more. So there's five supplements you can get rid of, including some of your minerals, although I'm a big fan of minerals. So I usually

can't see anyone overdoing on minerals. And with chlorella, if you're not a fan of vegetables, this is your go-to. It doesn't give you the fiber. Well, it has a little bit of fiber, but it will give you all the nourishment from vegetables. By the way, they also use it for Crohn's disease, IBS, any gut issues of any kind, chlorella is your go-to. So they both work, like your brain, spirulina, think of up top, chlorella down below. Oh, that makes it easy.

I love that. So is there any concern of overdoing it? Can you overdo it? I have over 100 a day and half for 12 years. And last weekend, I turned 66. And I have not had any Botox and I have great skin and I have great mental acuity and I need to work out more, but it is unbelievable. But most people we we say well at least try to get five or ten ten ten would be kind of a good number but five any amount will be uh good if you're you know anemic we had people who are anemic have taken two and they said they had more energy than they've had in the last year and by saying five for people listening you mean

five the bits each right yeah of each one and you get the blended, then you'll have to double because you're only getting half of each one. For children, we say one or half of one for their age. So if they're 10, give them five, no more than five. They're 12, give them six until they're a teenager. And if you start eating a lot of them, if you have a health condition, if you're trying to correct anything, definitely double up. I met a number of people at the conference last week who have cancer and we were trying to get them to take twice or three times. You can grind them up in a coffee grinder and put it in a smoothie if you want, just swallow them down. And older people, because they generally have a very compromised uh digestive tract and diet

again even if you just gave them they're almost like children you know just just give them two or three two or three tablets these tiny little tablets is probably more nourishment than they've had all week um and anything will help uh and again remember it's. It's not a drug. Spirulina has zero contraindications, absolutely zero. And it is the easiest thing to digest because it gets absorbed so quickly. There's literally no digestion. and vaccines have heavy metals in them just take them two hours before or after your medication i don't know truly whether they will interfere with the medication but just to be on the safe side uh and on the other hand if you're getting a vaccine and you want to you know protect yourself definitely load up on the chlorella again it's the chlorella the the green one uh which is a green algae that's the one that's the that's the detox and wella, the green one, which is a green algae. That's the detox. And we work with biological dentists to pull up mercury.

Night Nations used it to pull out radiation after Chernobyl. So, I mean, it's validated in science. But you think of energy bits, you want energy in the morning. And when you're sleeping, you're recovering from your day. So, a.m. and p.m. That's another sort of go-to, sort of head and gut. And is there a concern for pesticides on chlorella and spirulina? And we do, thank you for asking. No, not for ours. We do third-party lab tests here at FDA approved lab. I think we're

the only company that does because we don't sell through general retail stores. We only sell on our website, energybits.com and through doctors, chiropractors, wellness centers, biohack centers. And they need to know that there are no heavy metals and pesticides. There are none used in growing them because they're grown in water. And we use triple filtered spring mountain water. We grow ours in Taiwan. We import them on cargo ships in large quantity, and then we package them here in the United States. But we are well known for our high quality because of the triple filtered spring mountain water because algae absorbs whatever's in the water. We do not use high heat to dry it which preserves those enzymes that you need to protect your mitochondria we've had some

people say well you know your stuff is a little expensive so i love it but then they go try a lower quality or lower price point they always come back because they said i didn't feel it and partly is because you're missing some of those important nutrients. High heat also, as you know, changes the nutritional composition in certain ways. So with no high heat, we preserve everything. Ours is a raw food. In fact, spirulina is a live food. It's not just raw. It's a live food. Chlorella, because we have to crack the cell wall, it's not technically live anymore, but it's still raw. So we went over a lot of the benefits, but if someone is suffering

from a very specific health condition, whether it be cancer or maybe an autoimmune disorder, I imagine that there's probably some sort of benefit to taking these with those kinds of disease. Are there studies that back this up or? Oh, endless. There's 50,000, probably 60,000 on spirulina and about 40,000 on chlorella.

I've personally read about 3,000 or 4,000. I mean, these are scientific papers, not just blogs on the internet. These are NIH peer-reviewed. And they date back 50, 60 years. It's just that the science, I'm the only person in America or North America, or frankly, outside of Asia, explaining algae to consumers. It's a multi-billion,

that's with a B, multi-billion dollar agricultural crop in Asia. In Japan, they don't leave their house without taking chlorella. They don't even know how to explain it to people. It's like air to them. It's just so natural. But that's where it's all grown. 99% of algae is grown in Asia. 99% of it's consumed here. You don't know it. I tell people, algae isn't new. It's just new to you. It's not grown here. So why would you know about it? We grow corn and wheat, which are not very healthy. And yet in Asia or Japan, you can't ride your bicycle or drive a car without going by an algae farm. They're everywhere Asia or Japan, you can't ride your bicycle or drive a car without going by an algae farm. They're everywhere. And just like you didn't know about chia seed or CBD

or matcha or any of these other indigenous nutrients that have been used for centuries in other countries, you didn't know about algae because nobody told you about it, but it's there. It's incredibly powerful. And so this is more a personal question, but I can imagine people listening also would have a similar question. I can't really deal with the taste of spirulina. I used to put it in my smoothies and I just, I couldn't, I was like choking them down. And this is one thing that I do love about your tablets. So maybe you can explain that a little bit for someone maybe that's like,

ooh, I don't know that I can do this. I can't with the taste of spirulina or even the smell. Do you have any tips and tricks for someone that... Well, just swallow them. And the great thing is it's not like fish oil. I tried for years to take... I tried every brand, every flavor. I was burping that stuff up for hours. It made me sick.

I can't. There is no repeat. Zero. When they go down, they stay up. No flavor at all. Zero. So if you can swallow water, they're so tiny about the size of a baby aspirin.

You can take five to swallow them. Five to swallow. Done. And you just eliminated five or 10 of your other supplements and saved yourself a lot of money. Fish oil usually goes rancid after you buy it anyways. Algae never goes bad. By the way, we have to put an expiry date on it. It's usually two or three years, but technically algae never goes bad. You could have

it for five years. Not that I'm encouraging you to, but it will never go bad because algae also never dies when it's growing. It will go dormant until the growing conditions return, unlike any other plant. This is unlike anything else you've ever seen. That's why I was on Dr. Stephen Gundry's podcast twice. I met him at Dave Asprey's conference. I've got pictures with him. He loves algae. Why?

Because it has so many phytonutrients, but more importantly, it has no lectins and oxalates. Dr. Gundry's all about damaging profile of lectins and oxalates. Dr. Gundry is all about damaging profile of lectins and oxalates. And he's right, because they are sharp proteins that puncture your stomach lining if you're sensitive to them. And then food gets into your bloodstream and causes autoimmune. The reason why plants have lectins and oxalates is to protect themselves from bugs and predators who might come up to their plants and start eating them and that they taste bitter. So the plants and the bugs or the bugs and the animals go away. Algae is not a land plant. Never had to develop lectins and oxalates. It's in the water. So

no lectins and oxalates. I used to eat almonds. I would eat almonds all the time. They are loaded with lectins. I mean, people are listening. Stop eating almonds. Pistachios are very low in lectins and oxalates, and so are macadamia nuts. And they're also much softer, so they don't damage your teeth. I cracked three crowns. I have three crowns thanks to almonds. I feel like algae is like a child prodigy.

You may want to take it for energy, and you'll find out that your stomach is healing because it has so much melatonin. They're realizing your stomach has 400 times more melatonin in it than your pineal gland. And that's why melatonin is so important for sleeping because that's when your body is taking all the nourishment and getting it into different parts of your body for repair. But if you're not sleeping, you're not getting the repair. That's why older people, their melatonin levels are like 20% of what they had when they were 30. They can't get to sleep, and so they can't repair. And that's one of the reasons why they get more disease.

Their immune system is so weakened. So even if you, as I i said took five or ten of these just swallow them down chlorella if you're adventurous and wanted you know and by the way you don't have to buy we sell them on our website in large bags and i'll give you a discount code in a minute but you do you can get them on amazon for six dollars there's 30 of these little tablets in a little pouch for six dollars if you have any doubt just buy a couple of the pouches and you have prime shipping free shipping very small investment to try them out and we really urge people to do that because we want people to be really to experience for themselves

whether or not it's right for them some people do better on spirulina some chlorella others like myself love them both because they do quite different things in your body but um it's going to change the world and and it's been changing asia for five decades and it's just time that people outside of asia start being informed about what this is uh and why it works so well and um i had to know because i started the company just because my sister had breast cancer and her oncologist told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet. They didn't tell her what it was. So I helped her research what that was, which led me to plant-based nutrition and then found out people don't like to eat vegetables. And so then I

decided I had to find something that would help them get the nourishment of vegetables without all the headache and the work and the taste. And eventually I found algae and that was 12 years ago. So I'm glad that you said that because that was my plan as I was originally going to ask you the very beginning how you started all of this, but then we got down the mitochondrial routes. I just wanted to help my sister. And then as I learned more, I felt a responsibility to help more people. So that's why I didn't start the company to build, you know, I'd like to be a billion dollar company, but I started it to help people.

So I never had a profit motive of, you know, get the stuff to market so we can sell, sell, sell. It was, you know, what can we do to ensure the quality and the safety of this? Because, you know, people are giving it to their mothers, they're giving it to their newborns, they're taking it when they're pregnant. I mean, I feel very responsible for what they're putting in their bodies. And fortunately, I have a very safe and concentrated nutritional product that I don't think,

and I eat it all day long, I don't know what I would do without it. Well, I love the energy bits. I found them last summer when I was living in Colorado and I eat it all day long. I don't know what I would do without it. Well, I love the energy bits. I found them last summer when I was living in Colorado and I was hiking every day and I was taking both the, or I'm still taking them every day, but taking the spirulina and the Cruella every morning before my hikes in Colorado. And I'm a huge fan. I take them every day and I'm grateful for the bits because like I said, I couldn't with the spirulina powder. I mean, I was just trying to choke it down and I couldn't do it. Yeah. Well, and also powder, if you're traveling, you know, what if the lid comes out and they got green powder everywhere, it's just messy. And, and if you don't like the flavor and I have yet to meet a person who can say, I love the taste

of spirulina. I've never met anyone who said that. So you don't have to worry about it. It's just very, very easy. We sell them in boxes with little pouches so very easy for traveling going to the gym going to work um and you were you were i'll just tell you i know we're running out of time i'll tell you a funny story you're talking about you know you're hiking so we had this customer contact us many years ago and they said you know they were hiking through the appellations and in the middle and they were camping in the middle of the night a bear broke into their camp and they scurried off and they came back two or three later hours later and all the baggies with supplements had been ripped open but they were all still there the bag of energy bits ripped open and licked clean not a bit to be seen so that's funny well

even the animals know something that's good for them. Yeah, they recognize it as real food. And this is something that I talk about all the time. It's so important that we get all of our vitamins and minerals from real food sources, not from these synthetically made vitamins and minerals in labs. And this is a great way to get in those essential nutrients. Yeah. Micros, macros, minerals, and enzymes. There's 6,000 body processes that require enzymes and you need those enzymes. So yeah, I'm very lucky. I didn't pick algae. It picked me and I'm glad it did. Sort of like we're married forever. A love I mean- A love affair with algae. I can definitely tell that you're doing something right. And it's, you know,

it sounds like it's the chlorella on the spirulina, which is really cool. I ask all my guests this, and I feel like I probably already know your answer, but I'm gonna ask you anyways, what are your health non-negotiables? So these are things that you do no matter what, no matter how busy you are,

that you prioritize for your health. Yeah, well, first thing I do when I get up is I have a couple of big glasses of spring water, filtered water with lemon. And then I have a tea. It's called Yerba Mate, which is the national drink of Argentina, very high in antioxidants. And then I have both my spirulina and algae. And then I do some stretching. If I have more time, I do more stretching and maybe some weights, but if not, at least some stretching. So that's my morning routine. Well, and sitting comfortably, semi-meditating.

I can't say I'm seriously meditating, but I aspire to. And getting some kind of fresh air out in in the sunlight even if it's just 10 minutes got to get outside i i'm canadian by birth and you i've got to get outside morning light is the best for your eyes to get that circadian rhythm kicking in um and then uh sleep man i yeah i i'm in bed at 10 o'clock i'm no party girl anymore i. I do get up at six, but I make sure I, and I use all my biohacks. I use a mask and I have a grounding sheet. And I listen to, I use BrainTap.

And so getting good sleep, that's your repair cycle. You've got to, and then I eat a very, very healthy meal. Virtually no sugar, virtually no processed foods. I'm not perfect, but virtually none. And my algae for me, you know, and some animal protein, grass fed beef, if I'm going to have beef, eggs. But it's just, it's not exciting. These little things I do every day, but I do them every day. And the one thing that has slipped, I'm going to try and get back on is my fitness routine. I do love yoga. I used to do like four times a week and some high intensity and I just

got so busy working, but I'm bringing that back. So I feel blessed that I've gotten this far with this body and this brain and so far everything's working. It seems to be working really well. So it's great. Are there any last things that you want people to know about algae? And then please let them know where they can find it, where they can find you

if you want to be searchable. And let's give them the discount code too. Yeah, well, I'll do that first. So the website is energybits.com, E-N-E-R-G-Y, B for boy, I-T-S.com. And for 20% off, you can, when you get the shopping cart, type in real foodology, all one word, as you know, and that will get you 20% off of everything, anytime, all the time. So don't panic. We have the, again, the spirulina. We actually have two brands of spirulina. And the reason for that is because I started because of my sister and women didn't

like the packaging and it does build your skin and hair because of the high collagen. So I'm not trying to trick anybody. There are just two spirulina. Someone said, you got a boy spirulina and a girl spirulina. Well, I want to get that girl spirulina. It's so pretty. Yeah. Well, we'll get you some. Chlorella is the one that pulls out toxins and builds your immune system. So down there, spirulina is up here. And then the vitality bits is the blend. And we do sell them, as I mentioned, on Amazon. So if you want to just try them in little pouches for $6. But I just want to let everyone know that we are surrounded by people with chronic illnesses and it looks like we're in a downward spiral. It doesn't have to be that way and it doesn't have to be complicated either. It can be easy. The basics are water, good nourishment, sleep, fresh air, exercise,

and love. That's it. I can't do anything about the love and the exercise, but I can give you the nourishment. And just swallowing these five or 10 a day, honestly, it doesn't get any simpler. It's true food and it's fast food. And it's unprocessed. And I encourage people to Google a few, just come to our website.

We write blogs every month loaded with science, but just educate yourself. But algae is not new, as I said before, it's just new to you. So I'm delighted to help you get on the algae train. It'll change your life. It certainly changed mine and we're going to change many more. I love that so much. Well, I really, I'm grateful for you and this amazing product that you created and for all the nourishment that you're providing for people. So thank you so much, Catherine. You're very well. Thank you, Courtney, for all that you do. And we'll get you some, we'll get you some of those beauty bits. Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Real Phenology Podcast. If you liked this episode,

please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie, spelled with a J. Love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first.