Dr. Joel Rosen: Alright, hello everyone and welcome back to another edition of the truth about your health where we teach exhausted and burnt-out adults the truth about their health so that they can get their energy back quickly. And we’re joined by a friend and fellow present there Catherine Arnstein, who is the LG wellness expert and founder and CEO of energy bits.

She is in the wellness nutrition beauty biohacking mitochondria and longevity industry. She is nationally recognized as a thought leader, seasoned corporate executive, experienced entrepreneur, and most importantly, sought speaker. She’s got her NBA BA and is a board-certified health coach. Catherine, I can go on and on. But we want to get to the interview. Thank you so much.

Catharine Arnston: Algae is the star of the show. I’m just, I’m just a voice for allergy. But thank you Dr. Joel for having me here. And it’s great because when I keep seeing you at conferences, we’re going to all the same places, which is exciting. Yeah, information that we’re on the right path, so we can help others.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Well, yeah, and it’s nice to share our unique area of background so that we fill in the shades of grey with the things that we’re learning and it’s all tide lifts all boats if you’re out go I guess the same goes and and so I always like to start off Katherine with with your own personal story and how you got into from being an executive into being the LG spokeswoman and, and health coach. So tell us about your own.

Catharine Arnston: Yeah, well, it was it’s quite a transition, although I’m finding that just about everybody in the wellness industry has a great story about how they got there, and mine is no different. As you mentioned, I do have an MBA, and I’m Canadian, although I’ve lived in the United States for 33 years. I live in Boston right now. And I’ve been here for that length of time. But I mentioned Canada because I had a corporate career and was doing well enough as my younger sister who I’m very close to in Canada 13 years ago developed breast cancer. Now I want to assure everyone, first of all, that she’s fine and cancer-free.

But when she was preparing for her chemo, her oncologist who happened to be a woman recommended changing her diet to an alkaline diet because she said it would help with their healing. Now, they didn’t tell her what it was or why it was good for her. So the first call she made was to her big sister who loves her. I knew nothing about nutrition. But I’m a really good researcher, and I’m very motivated to make things you know, right in the world. So I said, I don’t know what this stuff is.

But I will find out and turned out to be mostly a plant-based diet because of the phytonutrients and the chlorophyll that builds your immune system. So I did a lot of research, and she followed my advice, she got rid of certain foods, acidic foods, like dairy and processed foods, and sugar for sure. And, and she went through chemo and she did heal. Now in the process of helping her learn what to eat and what not to eat. I did a pretty deep dive for the first time in my life in PubMed, and NIH articles. And I read about 100 of them. And I read about 10 books, and they were all talking about plant-based nutrition and nobody was talking about it in the mainstream 13 years ago.

So I thought, well, you know, I don’t have any credentials. But I’ve seen the writing on the wall. I think people need to know about this. So I gave up my corporate career of 25 years, and went back to school to study nutrition at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition was just a one-year health coaching certificate, but it gave me some background. And then I taught new plant-based nutrition for a year at corporations and hospitals. Anybody would let me in.

And this is where my true epiphany happened that led me to algae. Because as I was teaching people the importance of eating more vegetables, they laughed at me and said, Well, you’re telling me the news My mother has been trying to get me vegetables since I was a kid. But it’s too much work. They’re heavy to carry home from the grocery store. They take a long time to clean cook to eat. There are endless arguments at the dinner table with kids’ husbands.

So I thought okay if everyone knows the importance of the plants and the veggies and the nutrients in the plants, but it’s too much work for them to cook them and eat them. I need to find something that’s fast and easy that gives them the nutrition that they need. So back to the drawing board. I went I looked at everything that I had found for my sister and took months before I circled back to algae.

And that’s when the miracle happened. Because first of all, algae is the most alkaline food in the world, we can talk a little bit if you want about the importance of cellular pH and how it has to be skewed slightly to alkalinity or you attract cancer, which is why my sister’s oncologist and recommended an alkaline diet. Algae is also the most nutrient-dense food in the world. That’s not my opinion. We have a quote from NASA that says, one gram of algae has nutrition equal to 1000 grams of fruits and vegetables one to 1000.

And we’re going to talk about how that kind of concentration can exist because microalgae are microscopic, something like a million cells would fit on the head of a pin so you can start to see when you gather them together and these little tablets that we have that we make available. Why it’s so concentrated, so alkaline, concentrated nutrition. It’s got the highest protein in the world, the United Nations has endorsed it since 1974, which is almost 50 years as the answer to world hunger.

Because spirulina algae have three times the amount of protein a steak, and it’s a complete protein as 18 of the 20 amigos. Also, algae are the most studied food in the world. Two important points there. First of all, it’s food. It is not a supplement, it is grown in freshwater, I’m showing dual, some pictures of a couple of algae farms. This is the spirulina farm.

And this one’s a chlorella farm, which are the two algae we’re going to be talking about today. You can’t show me a supplement farm because they don’t exist. And the reason I mentioned that is because most supplements are made from extracts. And they’re made in factories using high heat. And the extracts don’t exist in nature that way, and I eat kills nutrients or scrambles them. So your body basically can’t recognize them and can absorb them. Whereas when you eat food, like algae, especially new, especially algae, which is the most nutrient-dense food in the world, your body recognizes it as it is bioavailable, and it gets to work.

So that’s number one. Number two, the fact there’s 100,000 This is a big number, we’re not talking 550 500. Even 5000 100,000 means what I’m telling you today is been validated and it’s on a rock-solid scientific foundation. This is science-based knowledge. The problem is in America, no scientists like to talk to other scientists. So none of this science is made its way out to you to the practitioner.

In Asia, but not in the next point, algae has been used safely daily in Asia for over 50 years. The Japanese don’t leave their house without chlorella algae, which is one of the allergies we’re going to talk about today is a multi-billion that with a B billion-dollar agricultural crop. So it’s almost as big as the beef industry is here. And yet nobody in North America knows what it is truly, or why it works.

I mean, you’ve probably heard of spirulina, maybe some of you put it in your smoothies, but you’re not sure why. Oh, you know, it’s good for you. But you’re not sure why. And you’re not sure exactly what it does. And I’m going to be here to tell you what exactly it does and why exactly you need to have it certainly at this time in our juncture in our society where our food is so damaged, and there are no nutrients and we’re covered with talk that you loaded with toxins.

So when I found out that it was endorsed by international agencies, studied and documented by scientists use safely in other countries for 5060 years, where it’s a huge industry and the only problem with algae, two problems. One nobody outside of Asia seemed to know what it was or why it worked. And the quality mostly was pretty poor. It came mostly from Chithe best part which I forgot even dimension is that when it comes in tiny little tablets, I’m showing Joel these little containers that have some of our tablets in them.

Spirulina which is a blue-green alga and chlorella, which is a green alga. These tablets are about the size of baby aspirin and each tablet has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. One tablet the size of a baby aspirin has the same nutrition as a heaping plate of vegetables that drumroll you didn’t have to carry on to the grocery store, clean cook, or eat because if you swallow five or 10 of these or even two or three if you want, you are getting all the nutrition, the plant-based nutrition that you and your family need to be healthy, and it’s effortless. If you can drink water, we have found the answer this is the ultimate fast food ladies and gentlemen.

It doesn’t get any faster and it doesn’t get any pure. And I’ll tell you a little bit about why our LG is considered the best because you know it is pure. We do third-party lab tests and we only sell through doctors like Joel Dr. Joel and functional medicine and chiropractors we don’t sell through retail. So it’s if you’re looking for an answer to give you the nutrition that you need, in a way that’s fast and pure and safe enough for newborns. This is it. Spirulina for nourishment and chlorella, for building your immune system and pulling out toxins, and we’ll go into greater detail. So I am just so thrilled to share these two algae with you and your community because other places around the world, like Asia, have been benefiting from them for 50 years, and it’s your turn, it’s your turn to benefit from them too.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Right? Well, the proof is in the pudding, you can’t say that the CEO of the energy bits doesn’t have energy with that answer there. So that’s, that’s awesome. As far as I want to rewind, though, I do want to go into what was it, Catherine, that I’m always amazed that you felt charged to help your sister when the doctor told you, hey, go into the alkaline diet, but didn’t give you the insight to it. But the feeling charged and leaving a career of 25 years. There are a lot of different things. So what was it that made you do that?

Catharine Arnston: Yeah. Well, I’ve always been, I always need to know why I’ve been like this all my life I and I love to read and I love to solve problems. And I love to help people. Just to show you how much I used to read when we used to go on a summer vacation, my mother would buy me about a dozen books, and she would have to hide them from me, but I would find them and read them. And then she’d have to go buy me another dozen because that was you know, I just love reading. So it’s ironic that I’ve turned into a bit of a scientist, even though I have no science background because I love to read these complex documents and be able to explain them to people.

But what motivated me is like, I’m not someone who just wants information, I want to put that information to good use. And the best analogy I can come up with is you know, well, there’s two. One is if you owned a major piece of art a Picasso or a Van Gogh, would you just have it in your home? Or would you feel motivated to donate it to a, you know, an art gallery, or public art gallery where the world could enjoy it as well? And I’m the second person. So as I learned the important value and health benefits of plant-based nutrition, I felt that I was I had discovered something powerful.

And it was my obligation to share it. It’s sort of like if you see someone drowning in a pool, do you jump in or not? And I tried to tell the universe to pick somebody else, you know, I don’t have a background in science. I mean, it took me so long to get started because I had to cross-reference, you know, 20 times every time there was some sort of biochemical or nutritional term because I didn’t have the background. But I don’t know, this is my path. I and I tell people I’ve never been so happy. I’ve never had so little money, but I am. So what gets me up in the morning gets me so charged.

I mean, I have been teaching people about this now for 1212 years, and I am if not as excited about it. I am more excited about it now because now I’m confident about my math knowledge, I’m confident about my science, and I write so many papers. So I just felt that I had been picked algae picked me because it’s been around for 4 billion years. It’s the first life on Earth and I felt I had a spiritual path, a spiritual obligation somewhere, I made a promise I was gonna get algae to the world. And that’s what’s kept me going. And so here I am. Still do, right.

Dr. Joel Rosen:

Right. And, you know, I think also to the when you say the stars in the moon collide, the fact that and you and I have talked about this, you know, at the conferences where traditional medicine it’s great that a smart oncologist that can make a difference with your cancer diagnosis is telling you a blanket statement of doing something but doesn’t have the power behind it in terms of taking you to know, make a pH diet but not really giving you the insight and then on top of that, having a whole culture in Asia that have embraced it yet. There is a whole culture in the West that hasn’t worked those factors into it to Katherine in terms of why like why is it not accepted here and why is it accepted there? And well, that opportunity as well?

Catharine Arnston: Well, you know, we can talk forever about the lack of nutritional knowledge of the traditional medical community and that’s a whole nother story and I don’t want to go down that path because that has negativity. I’m a positive livity person. But the main reason why I think, Well there’s a couple of main reasons why people in America don’t know about a boat allergy is it’s just not grown here in and it’s started The whole algae industry started in Japan back in the late 50s. And the 60s, they initiated it, and they had to figure out how to grow it for mass consumption.

It was discovered in the late 1800s To have the highest protein. But it wasn’t until the Japanese and there’s a long story about why they’re the ones that did it. Nonetheless, that’s where the industry started. And that’s where it evolved. And after, you know, 10 years of them experimenting with it as chlorella. Then Korea, Taiwan, China, India, all the Asian countries started growing it and so when you’re in Japan, for example, you may be when you ride your bicycle to school, you go by multiple LT farms, when you’re riding the train to work, you’ll drive you’ll be going by a bunch of algae farms, it’s just part of their day to day existence, they put it in all of their foods, like we put chia seed and, and other things in all of our foods, but they put algae because you know, it’s the main crop there.

So so we just didn’t grow up with it. We grew up with wheat and corn, and I live in Boston where Dunkin Donuts is the basis. So we were quite normal, you know, see Dunkin Donuts trucks going by, but we never see an algae truck go by, we never drive by an algae farm. So its complete lack of awareness is number one. So and my goal is to grow it here and turn it into a major industry. It’s already happening in other countries, but we’re very slow on the draw.

But one good thing is a 19 2019. So about three years ago, the US government released the first algae Agricultural Act as part of the farm bill to encourage farmers to grow algae here, because even they have realized it’s the most nutrient-dense food in the world and is the most sustainable, eco friendly, and none of it’s grown here. So So that’s number one. Nobody here has grown up with it. But I point out to people, that algae aren’t new, it’s just new to you. And it’s no different than, you know, a few years ago, you didn’t know about chia seed, you didn’t know about key y, you didn’t know about matcha, you didn’t know about CBD or even collagen powder. But these were all things and food types mushrooms that have been used for centuries in other countries. But it took somebody to educate Americans about what it is and you know how to make a choice and start how to incorporate it into their lifestyle.

So that’s one of the things that we’re doing. And the second thing is, algae, as I said, is a type of vegetable. So it’s not a drug, it’s not a pill. So there are no patents that you can get on it. So the biotech companies weren’t interested in pursuing it, I’m sure they’re aware of it. And food companies, if anybody’s had any experience with the food industry, you know that they never launch anything new, they wait for a little entrepreneur to discover something helpful. And you know, you know, we pour our US entrepreneurs who pour our heart and soul into building something and educating people. And then and then once the, it’s been proven as a that the consumers wanted and needed, then the food companies generally acquire them. But they never launch a new category, this is considered a new category. So that’s why it’s just not around the main one being it just isn’t grown here. So, people, you don’t know what you don’t know. Right?

Dr. Joel Rosen: right. No, it makes sense. I remember just the only thing I would think of us as algae as a kid. And before I knew what I know, was in the pool, where if it wasn’t properly clean, there’d be algae growing on the side of the pool or something like that. Yeah, right.

Catharine Arnston: Well, that’s probably a good segue to tell people what algae are and before I do that, I do want to let you know that algae only shows up when there are bacteria. So whether its algae blooming on your beach, closing the beach, or in your swimming pool, it’s because there are toxins there. On the beach, maybe there’s runoff from a chemical plant, or some people pee in the water or something. But algae is the cleanup crew. It’s just that it’s there after something negative has already entered the water. And so the algae kill bacteria. So they get the bone wrap, even though they’re the cleanup crew.

But I will tell you algae is used in virtually every single water treatment plant in North America. For this reason, they run all the water through algae because it kills bacteria. But anyway, so So the thing about algae is that it is everywhere. And there are two main types of algae. One is called macroalgae and the other one is microalgae we’re going to be talking mostly about we’re only about microalgae, but let me tell you what macroalgae are. It’s also known as seaweed, Dulce, or kelp. This is the big stringy stuff that washes up on shore, high in fiber and high in iodine because it’s only in the ocean.

That’s why it’s called seaweed, but virtually no nutrition. That’s what we’re talking about. today. We’re talking about microalgae, which are called microalgae because as I mentioned at the very beginning, it’s micro Got big inside something like a million cells could fit on the head of a pin, and microalgae everywhere. Seaweed is only in the sea. microalgae are in the rivers, the lakes, the streams, the soil, your swimming pool, and your aquarium, and it feeds everything.

Now, there are 1000s and 10s of 1000s of strains of microalgae. But the two most well-known two are blue, green, and green algae. And one strain of Blue-Green Algae is spirulina. And one strain of chlorella, of green algae, is chlorella. And those are the two that we’re going to be talking about today. And these are the two are that are harvested as food crops in fresh water. It doesn’t matter whether you’re buying your chlorella or spirulina from Target or Walmart or us, they’re all grown in fresh water, not from the ocean. So if you read about toxic blue-green algae, that’s fine. That’s, that’s another type of blue-green algae.

That’s not what we’re talking about today. These two crops, spirulina, and chlorella are freshwater. And of course, the quality of the water determines the quality of the algae, among other things. And so we grow ours and triple filtered Spring Mountain water. And then we air dry it without without high heat to preserve the enzymes and I made that decision. You know, when I started the company 12 years ago, and when we get to mitochondria health, you’re going to find out how important that is because there is a very important antioxidant called superoxide dismutase, which is a mouthful, also known as S OD.

That is one of the few antioxidants that can get into the inner membrane of your mitochondria to protect your mitochondria DNA from free radical damage. And but there’s virtually no food source of this superoxide dismutase except in algae, and only if it hasn’t been dried with high heat. And virtually every other company uses high heat to dry the algae because they’re lower-priced, high-volume companies and they need to get to market quickly so they use high heat so so their algae do not contain any live superoxide dismutase. But getting ahead of myself there but anyways, so yes there spirulina and chlorella are the two main algae that are harvested as vegetables. It’s called hydroponic growth, lettuce, tomatoes, and even kale are often grown in water.

Dr. Joel Rosen: So good, Greg, good overview. Catherine, as far as my inquisitive mind wants to know about the different qualities of water. And given that it’s the cleanup crew, would it make the hormetic stress of maybe the not-so-great water? Given that its main definition of function is to clean up? Would it make it that much more robust? Or is it a problem from having? I guess the question is how, what can there be adulterations when they’re when we get concerned about the mineral concentration in our soils? And what do sprays and chemicals and fertilizers and disinfectants do with the minerals in our soils? Not all, not all algae are created equal. But my mind is thinking that if its main job is to clean up, are we going to get the benefit of the cleanup in that strengthened algae because of the environment it was born in? Makes sense?

Catharine Arnston: Well, I think I think you may I just want to clear up for you. And for your listeners when I say algae is the cleanup crew that’s in water in this sort of environment area, not when that’s that’s not what it does in your body. And that’s just what it does in water. And that’s why I want to be sure people understand the difference what the different out spirulina and chlorella. What the different chemicals, the different nutritional components because they’re quite different. And they do quite different things in your body. When the reference I was making to the water is just when it’s in the environment, not in your body. What it does in your body is completely different.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Right, but I wasn’t necessarily alluding to what it does in your body. Mike, my question is more about how was it made? How are the algae born? And what are the mechanics of that? And does the water that it’s born out of impact the potency or the strength of when it does go into our own body?

Catharine Arnston: Yeah, the things that so it’s like I showed you some pictures. Chlorella is more complex. I don’t want to spend too much time on the agricultural process because it ultimately doesn’t the more important parts of algae are the nutritional value and what it does in your body. The fact that your chlorella is grown and around the pond and spirulina has grown into a long, narrow one is not a critical piece of information. The thing that makes the difference in the quality of the algae is number one, as I mentioned, the water that is grown in.

This is why I urge people to stay away from anything, any algae that are grown in China because they’re not as there’s not as careful about the quality of the water, and algae will absorb whatever’s in the water. That’s why you don’t want to eat algae from your swimming pool because there will be toxins in there. And even though there’s, you can’t see mycotoxins they will be there, I promise you. They’re not in ours because we grow ours in triple-filtered Spring Mountain water.

And I found a lab that’s actually in Florida, that tests for mycotoxins and we never have them in our vault in our algae. Because our water is so clear, the number two thing that you need to be aware of, and this is almost impossible for people to check is that if the algae were dried with high heat, 99% of it is dried with high heat. Because 99% of the algae that’s out there is low, low price, high volume companies that most companies that sell algae tablets, or even algae powder, they usually have anywhere from, you know, 50 to 100 other products, they just aren’t watching the ball, this is all I do.

I am 100% on board with algae, we sell nothing else and I spend nothing else, my time is only on algae and protecting it and nurturing it, and making sure it’s safe for our community, and learning more and more about what it does for you. So we are one of the few if only companies that I’m aware of that do not use high heat to dry your algae because I decided early on, I only wanted to make a difference in the world. And that meant having a high-quality product that meant having intact enzymes.

So it’s almost impossible for you to find out whether somebody’s using high heat, but you can pretty much assume that if it’s if you’re going to Walmart to buy your algae, I can promise you it was used dried with high heat because it’s the financial business model just won’t work any other way. Number three is how when they package it, lots of these algae tablets are in our capsules.

And I’ve got pictures where people you know, companies have been grinding up rocks and, and shells and just as filler, the end there could be other garbage in those tablets or binders. And so we don’t use any of those. Ours is one ingredient again, we do third-party lab tests here in America by an FDA-approved lab to prove that there’s nothing else in our algae except algae. And you could use so many things that could go into tablets or capsules, and they don’t have to b put on the label. And so it could be causing more damage than good.

And the fourth thing is the packaging, you know, as chlorella or mostly algae have the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world, we’re gonna talk a little bit about the importance of chlorophyll. But chlorophyll gets leached out by sunlight. And so you need to be sure that there whatever package your algae is coming in is leaving intact and you know, our bags or, or packages and boxes with you know, all the different varieties are 99% UV protected so, so between and there are different strains of algae, there’s a lower strain of algae that has less nutrition, nutrition in it and less protein.

And we always start with the highest strains of algae, as I said, the highest quality water, no heat, no binders, and really careful packaging. And then we do this third-party lab tests, I think we’re the only ones and I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones in the country that do third-party lab tests here. We get lab tests from our suppliers in Asia, but you know, I have to be double, triple quadruple sure that what I’m giving my doctors to prescribe literally to their patients is safe for them.

And it’s safe enough for newborns so so those are the things and I would like to also point out I personally in my company energy bits are the only we are the only ones educating consumers or practitioners about what algae are and what it does and providing the science I’ve read myself about 3000 at this point 3000 NIH articles and I’ve tried to condense them and you know, everybody else is selling stuff on Amazon and selling stuff and in you know, Walmart and wherever Whole Foods but who’s educating you, me

it takes a lot of time to dig through those research papers and rewrite them and try to understand what’s going on because we found that people were loving our product, we feel like you know NHL teams and Olympic teams and marathon runners and, and it’s you know, I will go through you know why there’s good value in what we sell, but sometimes they will say well, you know, it was getting a little expensive. So we tried a cheaper version, but they always come back because they don’t get the same efficacy they had to use five or 10 times the amount I want to get the same value out of the smaller quantity because you know the enzymes were dead and the lower strain of algae wasn’t as high quality.

I’ll, I’ll just do a little small segue, I got an email last week from one of our doctor’s wives, Dr. Joel, Joel Khan, who’s a heart surgeon knows, and he loves our products sells our products. And his dogs love them, too. They love the chlorella particularly. And so his wife emailed me and says, you know, it was getting a little pricey. So we tried a cheaper version from Amazon and the dogs refused to eat it. Even the dishes, I’m so glad my dogs have such great vision and they know a quality product when they see it. I thought that was pretty fun.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Yeah, yeah, you know, cheap is expensive. And I do find that what you just went down and explained applies to almost all things on the market. And I won’t say that it’s apples to apples, because yours is not a supplement. It’s a food source. But even more important for a food source to be properly handled. So that you know what you’re getting is, is effective, which is a good segue to your talking about pH and tissue oxygenation, and the importance of alkalinity.

So maybe we can start there, Catherine, in terms of first my question would be, how do the algae increase the pH? Or why is it increasing the pH? Or what is it doing inside our body? Once it’s treated so properly with the painstaking manners that you probably get? Get it into the people’s mouths? Literally? Yeah. And do you ever have trials where you suggest that your clients take their tissue, oxygenation with the pH, whether it’s saliva or urine, and do before and afters with your products to see if their oxygenation is going up? So it’s sort of a two-part question.

Catharine Arnston: Well answer the second one first, because that’s an easier one, we’re so tiny trials are not even possible. And quite honestly, we’re so inundated with so much pressing demands for answers. That, because there’s so much science about algae, I don’t need to recreate anything, there are already 100,000 studies documenting, and I’m sure there are different ones on pH, I don’t have access to everything, because it’s just the I think that’s part of the problem.

There’s too much information about algae so so we will probably never do trials on that until we’re you know, a $100 million company and can afford to do that sort of thing. But you know, that’s not, you know, I’d be thrilled if when we get to that stage because I’m planning on building a big company. After all, there are a lot of people that need help. And I’ll get to the pH. Now, although I do want to be sure that I address the differences between the two algae because they are quite different than what they do in your body. And the way that they affect the pH is probably a little different as well. So I was so grateful that my sister’s oncologist recommended that she changed her diet to this pH, alkaline diet, and people may not even know what that means.

So food, anything that goes on in your body affects your body. And there’s a scale of zero to 14, with zero being acidic, acidic, and 14 being alkaline. And whether it’s cortisol and motions as acidic food like dairy or processed food or animal protein it has an effect on it when it’s metabolized by your body. It affects the pH of your cells. Now, I’m going to talk about blood pH. And I’m also going to tell talk about cellular pH. Let me address cellular pH first. So your cells need to be just slightly alkaline which is 7.1 ph which is just slightly above that middle point between zero and 14.

To be healthy, the reason you need that slightly alkaline is that that isn’t indicative of oxygenation being available in the cell, that the cell is functioning properly that the cell membrane is porous, which allows nutrients in and toxins out. And Otto Warburg is a German scientist who won a Nobel Prize back in 1941. He’s passed away since then, obviously but he wanted Nobel Prize for discovering that cancer can only exist in an acidic environment because cancer grows using an anaerobic process.

And when you have proper oxygenation on your cell that your cell metabolism yourself, your cell respiration is aerobic. And you so your cells need to have that slightly alkaline condition to facilitate that and when They become too acidic because of either too many toxins or too much acidic food, which is or too many, you know, negative emotions which change the different pH, it’s an invitation for disease cancer, to start taking root to grow because it encourages bacteria, which makes the environment more acidic, it prevents proper cellular communication because the cell membrane is no longer permeable, it increases inflammation at the salary level.

So maintaining that, you know, that’s that slightly alkaline state is very important to your health. And yet 99% of the food that people eat is acidic. Sugar is the worst, anything white, anything package, and you know, any dairy, you can’t live in a bubble. But yeah, and I encourage people to, you know, use the 8020 rule, try to be as healthy as you can 80% of the time, and go out and enjoy yourself, the other 20%.

But regardless of whatever you do, because algae are the most alkaline food in the world because it has the highest concentration of chlorophyll, especially the chlorella, which we’ll talk about in a minute, it has this great neutralizing effect on your blood, and which we’ll get to in a second and on your cells. So even if you are not eating well, it will, it will introduce more alkalinity and bring you back to homeostasis, which is where you need to be if you want to be healthy. So that’s the sort of cellular pH. Now your blood needs to be even more slightly alkaline, it’s it needs to be at 7.34. And this is interesting, because

when your blood becomes too acidic, you Well if your blood becomes too acidic, let me put it that way, you would die instantly, but your body is so intelligent, it knows that it needs to neutralize any acidity or you would die. And so what it does good old mother nature, it will pull minerals that are stored in your bones and your cells in your organs. Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, to neutralize that acidity from the high, you know, the dairy and the meat and the processed foods. So but the problem is, it happens instantly, thank goodness or he would die. But if that happens over and over and over again, because I don’t you may not know but the bones Your bones are where most of your minerals are stored.

Think of them as a bank for your magnesium, potassium, and all the other good minerals, and they’re alkaline. So you’re constantly eating acidic food, you’re constantly pulling minerals out of your bones, which can for women you know easily leads to osteoporosis. And it also is a drain on your immune system because it’s constantly pulling out important minerals like magnesium, which are used for like, over 3000 metabolite metabolic processes is pulling them out to neutralize the blood. And that drains your immune system so that you aren’t ready for defending, it’s not able to defend you as well as it could from any invader, which is why my sister’s doctor wanted her to have an alkaline diet.

So this would not be happening to her. So again, algae because it is especially spirulina, spirulina is that I’ll tell you in a minute is a bacteria, it does not have a cellulose wall. Zero, it’s it. It was the first life on Earth. And they’ve documented that. So not only does it have a rich profile nutrient of phytonutrients and chlorophyll, it gets into your bloodstream almost instantly. And all the nutrients, the 40 vitamins, and minerals, and the high concentration of plant-based protein in this great enzyme called superoxide dismutase get absorbed instantly into your bloodstream to help neutralize any kind of possible acidity that may have thrown off the pH balance of your blood, and that there is nothing in the world that can get into your bloodstream as fast as spirulina. So it’s very restorative to the pH of your blood.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Yeah, that’s a great explanation. I joke around where I’ve told this to clients before where think of it in this case in terms of the algae as your metabolic sponsors or your metabolic pimp that pays your bills. And now you have all this extra overhead that you weren’t able to be able to pay before and you start to see bone density increase, you start to see your your your mineral status go up you start to see your energy hence no GE bids, right? So it’s quite amazing. That’s a good explanation of what you gave us.

Catharine Arnston: I like to call algae, both of them your nutrition insurance because it covers you with 40 vitamins and minerals, the highest protein in the world highest chlorophyll in the world, it gives you everything to give you a base level of everything that you need. I mean, you could live on this forever and not have to need to eat anything else. We don’t encourage you to do that. But you could. The nutrient profile of spirulina is virtually identical to a mother’s breast milk. But, but it gives you so when you have you’re taking algae every day, regardless of what else you eat that day, the rest of it can be for entertainment, it can be for social reasons, it can be for whatever you choose, but at least you’re giving your body what it needs to perform optimally. And, you know, we all have health insurance, but this is truly your nutritional insurance.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Yeah, that’s a good way to look at it. And I think it’s good, where if what I wasn’t necessarily alluding to, for you to run clinical trials, I think it’s important because a lot of the clients that I work with, they’re frustrated, Catherine, cuz they’re told that nothing’s wrong with them, although they feel so tired that their blood tests are normal. And I think that you’ve provided so much good useful information about education. The other thing that I think could be helpful is for them to go out and buy pH strips, and measure that no one does this.

And I was happy to hear that a lot of doctors at the forum meeting where you and I are thinking, well, it’s not as, as integrated as we’d like it to be as other conferences that we go to. But I was surprised to hear them suggesting to measure your pH. And that gives you a baseline of how acidic you are. I mean, if you’re tired and you’re exhausted, you got to already assume guilty until proven otherwise, measure your pH start to make a dietary change, and get more plant-based foods.

But try energy bits and see your pH levels go up, which is just anecdotal. It’d be something for people to see. Yeah, they’re not always sure if it’s working. I’ve kind of feeling a little bit more energized. But I’m always a skeptical person and see objective markers. I’m sure it would change. So yeah, as far as if you want to get into the difference between the two algae. That’s been good.

Catharine Arnston: Yeah. Terrific. And the other reason why I call allergy or nutrition insurance is because the sad reality is, that our food no longer has nutrition, it has calories, and it has garbage canola oil. It’s processed food, but you can even if you’re eating organic, the soils are so damaged and overcropped, and we grow a lot of the produce in far countries Far, far away. So they harvest them before they’re right because they have to travel so long and sit in so many warehouses, so they don’t want them to be right. But that’s the ripening is where all the extra enzymes come from are all the nutrients.

So you can be eating and in anybody who’s buying arugula these days, you know, have you noticed it goes yellow after about two to three days. That’s because it didn’t even start with much chlorophyll. In the very beginning. You could eat a roomful, a roomful of arugula. And you wouldn’t get the same amount of of chlorophyll that you would get from probably five or 10 of our little tablets that in fact, algae has 500 times more chlorophyll, then arugula, so So you need something if the food you’re eating isn’t giving you and I promise you, it’s not giving the nutrition that you need to be functioning mentally and physically optimally, you need something else. And the other problem is, that we have so many toxins in our bodies.

I read a statistic recently that said, the average adult has 800 toxins in their body 800 our immune systems weren’t built to support that kind of toxic load. And so it’s a great segue because I want you to know that spirulina gives you all the nourishment that you need for optimal performance, and chlorella pulls out toxins. So let’s jump into it. So spirulina, as I mentioned, is a blue-green alga and it is a bacteria it’s called a Sino bacteria. No Celsius wall. Now, spirulina is known to be energizing, which is why we call our spirulina energy bits. Because it’s energizing from the high concentration of protein. It’s the highest concentration in the world.

Ours is 64%, which is about three times the amount of protein and steak and it’s already in amino acids. Now when you eat animal protein, your body needs to break it down into these tiny bite-size portions called amino acids. And that can take two to three days for your body to gain access to the Aminos but with and then you have Colin gin which is in what’s called peptides, which are clusters of Aminos. But algae even up levels, collagen has got more collagen and collagen powder.

And then you have algae which all air all the proteins already in amino acid. I tell people, it’s like a get-out-of-jail card free. I mean, it just, it, you can almost hear going whoosh as it gets into your bloodstream. So that’s the number one high protein and no cellular wall to get rapid absorption. The other amazing thing is it is loaded with B vitamins B vitamins are what convert glucose and amino, Manos, into energy. So that’s why you have this rapid conversion, although it’s not a rush or crash like you would get from sugar or caffeine because there is no sugar or caffeine. And actually, there are no carbs in either of the algae either. And so they’re ketogenic. They’re fantastic for diabetics and great for low blood sugar. Get in because they get into your bloodstream so quickly, they satisfy your hunger.

Spirulina is also loaded with essential fatty acids like Omega three, a lot of people take fish oil, I can’t make the show I tried for years, but I would always be burping it up and you never get the repeat from the spirulina. Once you swallow that, man, that stuff stays down and you’re good to go. And, you know, I you know, a lot of fish oil goes rancid after you’ve purchased it. And I tell people, well, where do you think the fish got the Omega three from it? Well, they got it from algae, so they just consolidated it in their body. So you can cut out the middleman. Our algae never go bad.

We have an expiry date of three years, but you get to keep it for 10 if you wanted. So between the high rabbit absorption, high protein B vitamins, and essential fatty acids, it also is boron which helps with synapses and mental coordination. Its releases nitric oxide, which is a vasodilator, which opens up your blood vessels so your blood can flow faster and bring rich oxygen and nutrients to your brain. So all of this is very energizing. Now, I will tell you it’s not energy like you would, you know be like a Superman or running a huge marathon. It’s in fact, you almost wouldn’t notice it.

If you all if you were taking it before a workout, you would notice it because you would run further or run faster and you wouldn’t have even noticed it or, you know, if you’re a weightlifter, you would lift more and more lift longer and wouldn’t have noticed that the energy you get is what I call quiet energy. You just don’t fatigue. It’s like you just had a great night’s sleep and it never goes away. And you never have to have more of it to achieve it. The next day either you just just take it every day five or 10 tablets. If you’re anemic, do two or three we do try to recommend five or 10 to feel any difference.

Although there is also no upper limit. We have NHL players who put 75 spirulina in their smoothie before every hockey game because they need access to that high energy. So spirulina is usually very good, we recommend you take it in the morning or the afternoon, you could have it as a meal replacement. For anybody who’s trying to lose weight, there’s one calorie per tablet. So if you had 20 it could be like a meal replacement for 20 calories, zero carbs, high protein for the vitamins and minerals. Lots of times when you go on a diet, you cut out a lot of some of your food groups and you also cut out quantities of foods very often you’re tired, and you start craving things. And the cravings are often related to deficiencies things that you’re not getting especially mineral deficiency.

So that doesn’t happen when you’re taking the algae because you’ve got all the vitamins and minerals that you need. So it nourishing and could replace your multivitamin co q 10. Fish oil, magnesium, and potassium. So it’s not only efficient nutrition, it’s it saves you money and it saves you time. And one more thing I just want to put point out and we’ll get to it later in more detail is the energy that you get is not just the mental energy or the physical energy. This is probably more when Dr. Joel deals with with metabolic energy which is cellular energy. You’re in your cells you have something called mitochondria. And they are they’re called little organelles, little peanut-shaped things that generate what’s called ATP.

ATP is what energizes everything in your body, your breathing, your heartbeat, and your digestion. Just every single metabolic process is energized by the mitochondria. And there’s an enzyme that I mentioned earlier called superoxide dismutase that is exclusively found in spirulina that protects the mitochondria from being getting damaged by free radicals. So this allows your mitochondria to generate more energy for you so that you aren’t fatigued during the day you can sleep better, can think better.

And it’s a very, very important aspect of spirulina, it’s doesn’t this particular enzyme does not exist in chlorella, but it has something else that we’ll talk about in a minute. That’s good for your mitochondria too. So it’s, they’re realizing all disease, all aging is caused by mitochondria, DNA damage, everything. For the last 10 years, we’ve been talking about inflammation being the cause of everything, which it is, except now they’re realizing that 90% of that inflammation is mitochondria, inflammation. All roads lead back to mitochondria. And all roads lead back to algae. And I have some cool stuff to tell you about that later on. But spirulina, is very, very nourishing, very energizing, very satisfying, great meal replacement, and it’s safe enough for newborns pets, grandparents, and kids, it’s unbelievable. So everybody who wants to you know, make fill their nutritional gaps, and we all have them. This would be my salute my suggestion for sure.

Dr. Joel Rosen: And of course, without a do further ado going into that and what’s the big difference between that and chlorella?

Catharine Arnston: Yeah, so chlorella developed spirulina, by the way, it first lived on Earth 4 billion years ago, chlorella developed about a billion years later, and it does belong to the plant kingdom. So it is definitely in the vegetable world, whereas spirulina is a bacteria. So spirit, chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Remember I said spirulina has the highest protein. So what’s so important about chlorophyll? Well, I could go on for days about chlorophyll.

But I’ll tell you a couple of things. Remember, we talked about the importance of your blood pH? Well, the other important thing is your chlorophyll you can see this, but the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to the chemical composition of your hemoglobin. The only difference is that there’s an iron atom in the middle of your hemoglobin. And in chlorophyll, it’s a magnesium atom. So chlorophyll builds your blood. They’ve used chlorophyll for centuries for this purpose for injuries for surgeries.

Even as recently as World War Two, if they ran out of blood for transfusions, they would give the injured liquid chlorophyll because it would build their blood. So that’s number one because your blood is your highway of, oxygen, and nutrition. And if you have healthy blood, you’re going to have a much healthier body. Number two, chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment. Remember, I mentioned earlier that you need healthy men’s cell membranes to have a healthy cell. And those cell membranes need to be porous so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. And we’ve always been told to take Omega three and d3 and vitamin E because those are healthy fats that will keep the cell wall porous. Well turns out chloric chlorophyll is also a fat-based pigment. And I discovered that because I would take Spirulina and put it in a bowl with water, the beautiful blue pigment would disperse evenly through the water. But when I did the same thing with Clark, chlorella, the chlorophyll wouldn’t disperse, it would just clump.

I did this probably 20 times until I checked my science. And sure enough, turns out chlorophyll is a fat-based pigment. And the reason why you need to know that is that it heals your cell walls as well as a mega three and d3. And you know Joel and I are on the same boat about you know, telling people maybe d3 is not so great, as we’ve been told it is. But and so the way the best analogy I give to people is that you know when your windows are dirty, you can’t see out and sunlight can’t get in. And so think of chlorophyll as window washers for your cell walls, it keeps everything healthy so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get.

So that’s number two about chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is also very just generally cleansing to the colon, and there’s a lot of colon cancer. So this helps correct that. The other amazing thing about chlorella, which makes it different from spirulina is that a hard cell wall never spirulina has no cells as well. Its chlorella has the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom and that hard cell wall attaches to toxins. It’s a key later, it pulls out led Mercury radiation, aluminum, which is in vaccines, by the way, it pulls out alcohol. Wine beer doesn’t matter what it is.

Alpha athletes love it because it pulls out lactic acid. So we work with biological dentists because they use it to pull out Mercury when they pull out any other patients’ fillings. The United Nations use chlorella when after the Chornobyl disaster and also at Fukushima because it pulls out radiation so chlorella will pull out anything spores from mold. Lifetime. And by the way, it’s not just the toxins in the outside world, although there are gazillions of those, your body is constantly remodeling itself every day, you have 30 trillion cells that die in your body, and that’s a good thing.

Because your body is constantly changing. That means that if you have a health condition, now, you can recover, because your body will rebuild you have to give it the good building blocks, it needs to make sure that that journey is a positive and has a positive outcome. And algae is certainly a way to do that. But what I want you to know is that when your bones are rebuilding and your organs are rebuilding, and your stomach lining is rebuilding, where do you think the old stuff goes? Well, you got to pull it out, you got to remove it because dead cells are just as toxic as other toxins.

And I remind people, you know, if you don’t take the garbage out from your house, for a couple of days, it starts to get pretty smelly. While the same thing happens in your body. Think of it as a goldfish bowl that you haven’t cleaned out, you need to be constantly cleaning out those toxins, but that have been generated internally or from external sources. So chlorella, because it’s a natural detoxing agent and loaded with chlorophyll, which is cleansing. Taking it every day is like showering your body from the inside. You know, we all take showers on the outside but take chlorella every day. And I encourage people don’t just dabble with these elders and take them every day, I promise you, you will be so grateful in five or 10 years or even, you know, five or 10 months when you’re feeling so much better. So that’s one of the other important things about chlorella. It’s a detoxing ag alga. It’s a wellness alga that has high in chlorophyll.

It has the highest RNA and DNA in the world, which helps your body and your cells regenerate healthily. And because there’s it’s a cellulose wall, that heart cell wall has fiber in it. And fiber is necessary to feed your gut biome so that it can, the bacteria can generate the short-chain fatty acids which help with your gut biome and your mental health. So it has so many other nutrients in it like the highest tryptophan in the world, which is the precursor to melatonin and serotonin. You know, I don’t want to go on forever and ever. But so chlorella, is a wellness alga, healing algae, a cleansing, algae detoxing. And so we recommend it You mean you can take it anytime a day, same with the spirulina but definitely before bed, because your body goes through a detox and repair cycle when you’re sleeping, particularly in your deep Alpha sleep.

So if you have chlorella, in your body while you’re sleeping, it’s like you’re getting your beauty rest and you got the cleanup crew and they’re clean, you know, getting rid of all the old dead cells and fixing some of the DNA and RNA I know it’s a bit of you know, simplicity but it also stimulates peristalsis. And let’s, which is bowel movements, because elimination is part of the game, you’ve got to put good stuff in and you’ve got to get rid of the bad stuff.

And when that process is working, then you start to achieve more homeostasis, and you’ll just have more energy in general, so it’s, so the two of them work quite beautifully together. We created another brand called vitality bins, which has the two of them blended, if you could only buy one bag, but if you can buy them separately, it gives you more control because if you’re hungry and you want energy, that’s only going to be spirulina, if you are having a health condition and you want to pull out toxins and you want to have you know, got lime or that’s only going to be or you want to pull it lead or mercury whatever.

It’s only going to be chlorella. And by the way, I’ve read in several studies that say that its chlorella detoxing ability of it is elevated when you eat it with cilantro. I don’t know why, but it does. So it could be cilantro oil, it could be cilantro, raw. And the other thing I would like to mention is that chlorella tastes pretty good if you put sea salt on it. I love to eat mine with. I’m big on Mac, and pistachio nuts these days. The pistachios have a flavor with salt and vinegar, or macadamia nuts because both those nuts have very few lectins and oxalates.

And by the way, for anybody concerned about lectins and oxalates, there are nine in the allergy. lectins and oxalates are types of sharp proteins that are found in many plants like kale or spinach, or even almonds, quite honestly. And the plants develop these as defenses to stop predators, bugs, and animals from eating them because they taste bitter when they eat them. But algae didn’t have to develop those kinds of defense Because initially it was it originated in the ocean.

So it’s never been and never will be a plant-based organism so it doesn’t have any lectins and oxalates. So, anybody who’s carnivore or paleo, this is for you too, because a lot of people do go that route when they want to avoid them, what’s called the negative nutrients in some plants. So So you know, if you take them separately severely in the morning or the afternoon, anytime you have a lull in your energy or your hunger, great for meal replacement, great for intermittent fasting they will not interfere with your fast they’re both ketogenic both zero carbs. Both have 40 vitamins and minerals. But one is energizing alga and one is a healing, cleansing detox algae.

Dr. Joel Rosen: Yeah, well, great, great answers, I guess it’s safe to say the Japanese knew something about the algae that were was early-adopting for us Westerners for sure.

Catharine Arnston: yeah. Well, I point out that the Japanese have the best longevity, lowest cancer rates, lowest obesity rates, and great skin and hair. And they take it every single day.

Dr. Joel Rosen: So so as far as the doctors that you you sell to? Well, two parts of the question, are they giving you feedback on whether the spirulina or the chlorella is more of a mover than the other one will? And then the second question is, why did you adopt the business model of just only approaching health care providers?

Catharine Arnston: Yeah. Well, I don’t have an answer. For the first one. People buy them for different reasons. If you’re looking for filling nutritional gaps or improving your energy or getting your kids the nutrients that they need without fighting with them to eat vegetables. You know, maybe spirulina is the answer. If you’re an athlete, and certainly spirulina is the answer. If you want mitochondria health, spirulina is the answer. If you’re wanting to support your immune system, and pull out toxins to improve your sleep, chlorella is the answer. So everyone’s got different purposes. We sell, quite honestly, we sell its neck, it’s a horse race, they’re neck and neck, usually, people buy both of them. Or they buy the one called vitality bits, which is blended because we need both of them, you need to get rid of toxins and trash in your body.

And you need to improve your energy at a cellular level and your mental and physical level. So that’s number one. The reason I chose to go this way is that it all comes down to why I started the company. I didn’t have plans to start a company. I just wanted to help my sister. That was it. That’s all I wanted to do. And then when I learned so much about plant-based nutrition, I thought, as I said, I felt this obligation to you and somebody that nobody else was doing. And I thought well, I’m gonna give it a try. And then when I started teaching and saw the problems people were having, with time and not being able to get access to vegetables, it was just, you know, it was just not happening. I get I’m a problem solver.

I like solving problems. You give me a problem. And I am just the happiest girl when I find a solution. But this was not an easy solution. I mean, it’s taken me 12 years because then once I found the science, then trying to figure out how to explain it. So two things happened. One is when I started working, I was invited to my first chiropractic conference about six years ago, Dr. Pompa invited me and I had previously been working mostly with athletes up until then, and they, they weren’t really so concerned about the science, they just want to know if it worked.

So when I got to the chiropractic conference, they were interested in the science, and as someone who has spent a lot of time researching the science, to be to have a willing audience to learn to listen, not just listen but to learn and to appreciate the science, maybe found feel like I’d found my home. So I started pursuing them a little bit more. And then I also realized, well, this is the this is where I want to be anyways because I’m not doing this for money.

I’m doing this to help people be healthy. And since then, with the COVID and everything. Thank God more consumers are taking their health into their own hands, and they’re realizing there are more non-invasive solutions, more gentle nature-driven solutions, and where people like you will give them more hands-on care, you know, so I like the thought that my product is being explained. It’s one-on-one to someone I’m not looking for, you know, dominate the world and meet me maybe one day, but I only once the knowledge of algae has reached a level where it’s hit the mainstream because you’ve got to explain something new. And I love to explain. I mean, I could talk about science and help people 24 hours 24/7 I just absolutely love it because I know that this stuff works. And I am determined to leave this world better.

This is my path. There is absolutely no question. I would like to do it a little faster. But I’m thrilled. I mean, we’ve turned down CVS, we’ve, I’ve turned down venture capital, I was on Shark Tank, although I didn’t do it because I you know, wanted their money because I would have turned it down even if they’d invested in it, but or wanted to, but I did it just for the visibility. I just want people to have a more open mind to understand there are safe things out there. If you go to the right sources, like practitioners like yourself, and you know, heart drove, you know, indie companies, I’ll I will say everybody in the Keto world of metabolic. We’re all you know, as passionate, most people are as passionate, maybe not quite as passionate as me. But you know, they’re right up there. We’re here to help people be healthy.

We’re not big corporations, just trying to squeeze out an extra dime, and don’t care that it’s not good for you. We’re here to really make a difference. So, I’m quite happy where I am. It’s a slower road. It’s more work. But it’s me, this is my joy. So I just want more people to learn about algae so they can start benefiting from it. You know, I don’t know if I shared with you the fact that I mean, I’ll be 66 This year, I mean, I’m getting close to 70. And so I’m no spring chicken, I am the poster child for what algae do for you. So I’ve been taking it for 12 years, I couldn’t live without it. So I do want other people to you know, enjoy the same benefits?

Dr. Joel Rosen: Well, that’s great. I think that when, when there are so many wins in it, Katherine in terms of it’s a valuable resource that we don’t need that we don’t know about. And it’s untapped. And why do we not know about it? And I gotta, I gotta let the world know. And this is my miss