The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast
The Kick Sugar Coach Podcast
Dr. Catharine Arnston: Algae’s Mind-Blowing Benefits
If there were a way to get steadier energy, fewer cravings, and a little more calm from a handful of tiny green tablets… would you be curious?
In this week’s episode of the Kick Sugar Coach Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Catharine Arnston, founder and CEO of EnergyBits, to talk about algae—specifically spirulina and chlorella—and why she believes they’re some of the most powerful, overlooked superfoods for sugar-sensitive people.
Catharine shares how her sister’s cancer diagnosis sent her deep into the research, eventually leading her to become of the world’s authorities on algae’s remarkable ability to:
- Supply the body with clean, steady fuel at the cellular (mitochondria) level
- Quiet sugar cravings by deeply nourishing the body
- Support focus and mental clarity without stimulation or jitters
- Detox toxins and support gut and immune health with chlorella
We also talk about the differences between spirulina and chlorella, why quality matters, and how people are using them to repair, rejuvenate, and replenish the body.
It’s a grounded, hopeful conversation that offers a very simple tool you can experiment with to see which of the 20+ benefits you experience. (And if you decide to try EnergyBits, there is a 10% off code below.)
One of algae’s great features is that you can grab it when you’re on the go or travelling. No cooking, slicing, dicing, or refrigeration needed. Chlorella is so powerful at detoxifying the body that it is used to sober someone up when they have consumed too much alcohol. It also helps with hangovers. Crazy but true.
A final amazing feature is that algae contains over 40 essential minerals and vitamins in easy-to-digest form, making it ideal for those who don’t love or don’t eat enough veggies. (You rascals!)
Here’s to magical green pellets, clean fuel, and your well-being!
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Welcome to the Kick Sugar Coach Podcast. Join me each week as I interview experts who will share the science of sugar, sugar addiction, and different approaches to recovery. We hope to empower you with the information and inspiration, insights, and strategies you need to break up with sugar and fall in love with healthy Whole Foods so you can prevent and reverse chronic disease, lose weight, boost your mood and energy. Feel free to go to my website for details on my coaching programs and to access free resources. Kicksugarcoach.com. Welcome everybody to an interview today with Dr. Katherine Arnstein, who just recently got her PhD in nutrition. I think. What is it nutrition? Uh natural health. Natural health. Yes. Let me tell you a little bit more about her. She is the founder and CEO of Energy Bits, a company on a mission to put LJ, Clorella and Sperulina specifically, on, um, which are both some of the most nutrient-dense, sustainable superfoods on earth, into the spotlight. She's trying to bring, you know, particularly the Western world on, you know, get it on their radar. She was inspired by her sister's cancer diagnosis. During research to figure out what she could do to support her, she discovered LG's remarkable ability to fuel energy, support focus, and longevity. For over a decade, she's been a leading voice in showing how these tiny superfoods can make a massive impact on our health and our planet. Welcome, Catherine.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thank you so much, Florence. So glad to be here. Yes, um, I tell people say, Well, how did you, you know, start algae? And I tell, I say, Well, I didn't find algae, it found me. And as you mentioned, Florence, I just wanted to help my sister recover from her breast cancer, which she did, by the way, and that was 17 years ago. And it was her oncologist who recommended she have an alkaline diet because it would help with her healing. Didn't tell her what an alkaline diet was. So I uh jumped in to help my baby sister, and it was basically a plant-based diet. And the research led me to algae, which is the most alkaline, nutrient-dense uh food in the world with healing properties that I'm going to talk about some today because they will really help all of us with this fixation of sugar and um uh nerve our nervous system dysregulation and the burdens that society puts on us and causes us to reach for something to comfort us, and very often it's sugar, which is very inflammatory and causes other damage. And I'm gonna show you and help you understand why algae can get you off of that terrible um cycle of grabbing for sugar, balance your emotions, balance your parasympathetic system, put you back in charge so that you can make the decisions that are best for you and start to gain back the uh power that you've maybe been reassigning elsewhere to whoever. It could be your doctor, it could be your neighbor, it could be who knows. But uh, we're gonna help you get back on track. And it's not me, it's algae. I'm just the voice that Mother Nature and the universe has tapped me on the shoulder so I can I can help bring all these great nutrients to you because it's effortless, it's scientifically proven, it's been used for decades, centuries, in fact. Um, but you don't know about it because nobody told you about it or provided a safe version of it. And that's what we do here at Energy Bits. So yes, it's good stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, so for those who don't know what algae is, can you tell us a little bit more about it?
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. It's its own food category. So, first of all, it it is a food. Some some people, you know, they uh um the tablets become their little tablets that look like a baby aspirin, but they're a food category. So just like other foods, uh, there's two main categories. Um, uh, like you know, you would have fruit and you have like you know, grapefruit and apples. So you have macroalgae and microalgae. We're gonna be talking about microalgae today, but let me tell you what macroalgae is, it's that stringy stuff that washes up on shore, also known as seaweed. Now it's called seaweed because it's only in the sea. And it's still good for you because it has high iodine, because it's comes from the ocean, and it has high fiber, but it actually has virtually zero nutrition. So only in the sea, high fiber, zero nutrition. Microalgae, which is what we're talking about, is completely opposite. First of all, it's everywhere. It's in the sea because it feeds the whales and the fish, but it's also in the lakes, the rivers, the streams, your swimming pool, your aquarium, and it's harvested as a food crop, primarily in Asia. So it's grown in fresh water. So microalgae is everywhere, but we, and we're going to talk more about this. These are two pictures of algae farms, spirulina and chlorilla. So microalgae is everywhere and it's nutrient-dense, the most nutrient-dense food in the world. We have a quote from NASA that says one gram of algae has a thousand grams, same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables. One to a thousand. The United Nations has endorsed spirulina algae, which is one of the algae we'll talk about today, for 50 years as the answer to world hunger because it has the highest protein in the world, three times the amount of protein as steak, chicken, or fish. And we're going to talk about how that will help you with weight loss, with hunger, because with that kind of concentrated nutrition, you, your mitochondria, your muscles, your body are going to get all the protein that you need. So nutrient dense, but has virtually no fiber. Either no fiber, spirulina is actually a bacteria, no fiber, and chlorella does have fiber. So, but just a little bit of it. And the reason why that's important to know is because it gets absorbed by your body quickly. So it's everywhere, nutrient-dense, virtually no fiber, and has healing properties that we're going to talk about today that are very well known in Asia, where they grow, they have been growing algae for 60 years, but virtually unknown outside of Asia. But 100,000 studies document and document these benefits. And so I'm going to share some of them with you, particularly as they relate to helping you get off sugar, helping you get off uh with uh your weight management or weight loss, uh, helping you with more energy, more focus, reducing um chronic disease of any kind. And again, all scientifically prove it. So that's the story. It's a food, microalgae was that we're talking about, and spirulina and chlorella are two of the main microalgae that are known. Spirulina is a blue-green algae, and chlorella is a green algae. And spirulina is called a blue-green algae because it has two pigments in it: a blue one called phycocyanin, and the green one that you probably are familiar with, which is chlorophyll. The green algae, which is chlorella, only has chlorophyll as the pigment. So that's the way what why they're called different things. And they do completely different things in your body, and we'll go over that today. Ah, keep going. Tell us, tell us. Okay, all right. So, so spirulina algae is known as being an energizing algae. Uh, and the reason for that is a number of things, and in fact, we call our spirulina energy bits because of that, and I package it in blue because it's a blue-green algae. So it's not a stimulant. A stimulant is something like caffeine or chemicals or sugar, and you get a rush of energy and then you get a crash, very much from sugar. Anyone will tell you that. Uh spirulina gives you energy because it's at the cellular level. So it generates more of something called ATP, which is made by your mitochondria. So when you take spirulina, it does, it has uh, it's a complete protein that has 18 of the 20 aminos, including the nine your body can't make, and it is loaded with B vitamins, which convert the aminos into energy. So, but it's very steady and it's very quiet energy. So it's it's more like putting a log on the fire, whereas with the stimulant, it's like putting paper on the fire. You get a burst and a crash. So very energizing for your brain, for your body, but it's all because of this, what's called ATP, which is your uh generated by your mitochondria. Think of the mitochondria as you might the lights in a building. You can't do any work in a building if you don't have any electricity. And if you have a power shortage, you're kind of you're you're stuck, right? Well, the mitochondria are not just the lights in your building, they are the electricity. And so they generate all of the energy for you to do anything: thinking, walking, talking, digesting, sleeping, everything requires cellular energy. And so, because spirulina has nutrients in it that improve the mitochondria, and as you get older, your mitochondria die. The spirulina literally turns the lights back on in your body and in your brain. And that's a good thing because as you want to sort of get gain back your agency over your life, stop eating sugar, start losing more weight, improve your metabolic health. Spirulina is known for doing that because it turns on those mitochondria. It also, the high protein and essential fatty acids, satisfy your hunger. You could have 30 for lunch. There's one calorie per tablet, 40 vitamins and minerals. You are completely nourished. It will fill all nutritional gaps. And you can swallow them or chew them. They're very, very tiny. Uh, this is the spirit, I have the holding up spirulina, it's the blue-green algae. You can see a slightly different color than the chlorella. So very energizing, great for workouts. There's zero carbs. So if you're doing intermittent fasting, which I I do, uh, it keeps you in your fasted state. Um, and it there's never you can't have too many. 10 would get you started. So you don't want just one, you want 10 tablets. That would be kind of your starter dose. Uh, but you could have 30 for lunch. Uh NHL players, they take 75 before a game because they want focus on the ice and energy, and then we'll they take chlorilla afterwards. But nourishing, energizing, satisfies your hunger, will kill cravings. A lot of cravings are because of your new uh of nutritional densities. Very often you crave chocolate because uh you have a magnesium shortage, and there's a lot of magnesium in chocolate. So this will keep you uh satiated, uh on very, very few calories, nourished at the cellular level, uh, keep your focus on track so that you can stay true to yourself and your goals. And it's effortless. You just swallow them. Or I chew mine, but they're very chewy. So I will admit most people swallow them or put them in a smoothie. So that's spirulina, very, very energizing, satisfying for your hunger.
SPEAKER_01:And I can attest to that. So I put my spirulina in a smoothie when I do, and I don't do it all the time, but I go through long stretches of that's my thing, that's my breakfast. And I on those days I just blow past lunch. I'm like, how did that smoothie with my all my spirulina and whatever I had in there, probably some blueberries and hemp seeds and whatever? Oh, I love spir, I love parsley and cilantro. Like it's a very rich, robust, beautiful green smoothie. And it will last me five, six, seven, eight, like unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:Crazy. I know. And you wouldn't believe it until you started doing it. And what what somebody recently said to me the way that they notice uh the effects of the spirulina is when they run out, and suddenly they're dragging at 11, they're dragging at two, they're dragging at four. And this will get you, you won't ever drag. Never drag is gone. It's a drag knot. So um it's unbelievable. And and it does it naturally. There are no binders, there's nothing added. This is just Mother Nature at her best, by the way. Mother, I can't take credit for algae, it's Mother Nature's device and discovery. I will take credit for growing it so carefully that we ensure there are no toxins and that all the nutrients are preserved. So you get the maximum value. But um, and we have doctors, uh, people who are so busy throughout the day, they say, you're and when I go to trade shows, the vendors come over to our booth all the time to take handfuls, and we encourage them to because it's nonstop at these shows. You're talking for 12 hours straight. You often don't get time for lunch. And the same thing happens for people at work, or whether you're a mom and you're running around with your kids and you and if you can't sit and digest properly, honestly, it's better not to eat because then you get indigestion from trying to you know eat in a very um, very uh erratic state. So it's so you just take a handful of spirulina, 10, 20, 30, you're good to go. And it took seconds. So it does not interrupt your day. By the way, I'll also point out there's so many nutrients in the spirulina, it can replace many of your supplements, your multivitamin, fish oil, coQ10, collagen. So it clears the clutter on your countertop and saves you money. So you can't you can't beat that. But yeah, it's uh it's like having it, you just it just keeps you going, but not at a frantic level. It's just very steady. I call it steady, steady energy, very quiet energy. So glad that you're finding that too.
SPEAKER_01:Truly, truly. Um, yeah, it does not arouse me. If I'm really, really tired, it doesn't lift me up. But if I'm well rested and I'm feeling good, it will help me stay really, really good all day. What I mean, it really just sounds too good to be true. I hear you, I've interviewed you four times now, every single time. It just sounds like one of those, oh, that has to be too good to be true. Is there a catch, Catherine? Is there a downside? Is there like it just sounds too unreal that there's truly like this?
SPEAKER_00:The only downside is that not all algae is equal. It's just like whether you're buying a handbag or a house or anything. Um, there's various levels of quality. And so um the benefits I'm explaining, I can't vouch for the fact you'll get this from any spirulina because a lot of it has to do with the way that it's grown and produced. So, for example, um, we don't use high heat when we dry our algae. So that preserves all the nutrients, and these some of these nutrients are also enzymes. And enzymes are deactivated by high heat. And so a lot of the lower quality algae that's grown in China and India, they have to get to market quickly because they're lower priced. So they use high heat to dry it, which deactivates a lot of the enzymes, so you don't get all of the same benefits. The way I describe it, it's like someone gives you a great deal on a car and you go, yay, except then you get home and you find out there's no engine in the car. Well, it wasn't such a great deal after all, was it? Because it's not going to do anything for you. So, so the only catch is you can't buy just any spirulina or chlorella, and we'll talk about chlorella next. Um, some of these benefits about the cellular energy come from an antioxidant that's a long word you've probably never heard of before. It's called superoxide dismutase. But you could get the same value and benefits from it if you had raw or frozen spirulina, because it also would not have been exposed to too high heat. So, so that's the only catch that I could provide is that all algae is not going to give you these benefits and that you need to take enough of it. One tablet, any amount is better than none, uh, but really you need kind of 10, and they are tiny, uh, and you could snack on them throughout the day if you wanted. 30, 15 or 20 or 30 would be even better. And people go, oh my God, that's too many. But once you start feeling better, um, and I tell people when you get to the age 50, and by the way, I just had a birthday and I'm in my 70th year. 70th, right? So when you get to like 40 or 50, we were talking about this, you start to understand how the world's really working. And very often it's not really how you thought it was going to work. So you have two choices you can get bitter, or you can get better. And I want to help you get better. And algae is one of the ways to do it, and it does it naturally from nutrients found in a whole food. Algae is a whole food. So there are no catches. The only catches that nobody's explained these benefits to you. There are a hundred thousand studies, about 60,000 for spirulina, 40,000 for chlorella. They document everything from reducing inflammation, improving uh sleep, improving uh your brain health, especially for women, because we lose estrogen at the same time our bodies stop making this stuff called superoxy dysmutase. And both of those are used to protect your mitochondria. So, women at 50, when you're in perimenopause and menopause, we're suffering weight gain, brain fog, uh sleep disorders, digestive disorders, and it's very difficult to stay happy. And that's when sugar fills that gap, right? It it makes us feel better momentarily. And I want you to feel better permanently and not have to rely on a stimulant that's inflammatory and ultimately not good for you, laced with other things that aren't good for you, by giving you algae, because algae will reduce your cravings, keep you on track for whatever your goal is in life, weight loss, um, uh anything. And it does it with food, with nutrients that your body is probably crying out for. So I I wish that I could I have tried to find something bad about algae. The only thing I will say, spiruline is not the easiest flavor to get used to. So most people do swallow it. But if you if you like green stuff and you can learn to chew it, it's so much more rewarding and it gets into your bloodstream faster. But that's the only catch.
SPEAKER_01:And I I'm a chewer, I love the flavor of it. I find it across between like a leaf and a nut. Like it's I love it. Like I love it too. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't mind the flavor at all. I put sea salt on mine. I have a flavored one that's uh salt vinegar, which makes it taste better. I also cut, um, I eat it often, either one of them with pistachio nuts um or slices of um of strawberries. Yeah, I just use it, I I eat with everything. I do eat real food, but uh it gets me through most of my day, and then I have a uh like a proper dinner.
SPEAKER_01:I remember when I was in my 20s, um I was I had read the Adkins book and he was talking about low carb, and I was trying to unhook from my sugar addiction pre-internet. No one was talking about it. I was reading everything I could to try and help myself. And that was one of the books that I came across. I thought, well, I'll try it. And I remember that spirulina was considered compatible with keto and fasting and low carb diets, et cetera, et cetera. So I had, I don't know why I decided to only eat spirulina one day. I think I was rushed for time. I was a university student, and during the first two weeks of September, I was hired every year in the bookstore to move thousands. We had 30,000 students at my university. It was huge. Oh my gosh. 30,000. So we had lineups like, but we and our job was to move people through to get them to buy their textbooks in their sky, right? And I had three times the pace of anybody else at any tail. And I always credited spirulina because I would take the spirulina, I was in ketosis, my brain was bright, I was like, boom, bang, gone, boom. Like it was, and I've never felt better. Yeah, it's amazing to fast on spirulina.
SPEAKER_00:And part of the reason for that is because the spirulina has very high concentrated nutrients, like this long word superoxidisney taste, which is also known as SOD, which heals your mitochondria. And your brain has the most mitochondria. So when you take spirulina, the first thing, the first lights that go back on are in your brain. They've done studies to show this is why women suffer from more depression and post-traumatic stress disorder or any kind of brain disorder, because the mitochondria get damaged and we lose the superoxydismase after the age of 40, and we also lose estrogen. So our poor little mitochondria are exposed to all these toxins and other things that are going on in our body, and they get damaged. So I'm not surprised your brain was on fire with spirulina, and and it works for everybody, male, men and women. Uh it's just it's just uh I I was actually on a podcast last week and explaining some of this. And the mitochondria are uh maybe new to people on this podcast on this summit, but they are responsible for keeping you alive, literally. So anything that keeps them alive will keep and happy will keep you alive and happy. And spirulina has the all the nutrients that are missing in your diet and missing from your body after the age of 40. So, yeah, it's a gold mine.
SPEAKER_01:Why do mitochondria love spirulina and algae so much?
SPEAKER_00:So, okay, great question. Uh, so let me explain to you. So these things called superoxydismutase, um, they turn free radicals into harmless water and oxygen. Now, when you generate this stuff called cellular energy, also known as ATP, a byproduct are free radicals. Free radicals are very damaging. And the most, and the one in the mitochondria that's produced, the free radicals produced there is called superoxide. And so the stuff called superoxide dismutase uh dismantles the superoxide. It reduces the free radical into oxygen water. So and your body makes it for you from the moment you're born, just like it makes melatonin that helps you sleep and estrogen that helps you, you know, um maintain all your hormonal balance. But after the age of 30, our bodies slow down the production of hormones and melatonin and this stuff called SOD. And by 40, which is when we hit perimenopause and menopause, you have basically, in most cases, none. So what does this? So that's that's not a good thing. And it happens to everybody. And the reason it's happening, first of all, is that we have been on earth, humans have been on earth for two million years. And until about 200 years ago, we died at 30. That's it. End of story. We are biologically programmed to die at 30. And so Mother Nature, in her wisdom, never wants to produce something unless it's absolutely necessary. So we it says, well, you're gonna die at 30, so why am I gonna give you melatonin? Why am I gonna give you estrogen? You're not gonna have any more babies after because you're supposed to be dying at 30, and it stops the production of this stuff called SOD, SOD, superoxy dysmandase. So we are biologically programmed to have these things reduced after the age of 30, and by 40, they're virtually gone. So, what superoxid technically does is that when you have all these free radicals being thrown off as a byproduct of this stuff called uh ATP, it converts it into harmless oxygen and water. The way I describe it is like, you know, if you've ever been outside and got in a rainstorm and you had one of those big golf umbrellas, I don't care if you're a golfer or a shopper, but if you have one of those big golf umbrellas and you pop that baby up, you haven't stopped the rain, but you stopped getting wet. Right? Superoxidismutase is the same way. It doesn't stop the rain of free radicals, but it acts to convert them into harmless water and oxygen. So it now protects the mitochondria from getting damaged. And normally they would be so damaged because they're located exactly where the free radicals are. Your mitochondria have their own DNA, and the average lifespan is between 10 and 15 days because they're constantly dying. Just as a comparison, your regular DNA, it's called nuclear DNA, lasts a lifetime. So you've got 22,000 of those, a lifetime, but your mitochondria DNA lasts 10 days because they're constantly being killed. And the and the and because you lose your golf umbrella after the age of 40, the damage escalates after 40. This is exactly when escalation of chronic disease, brain fog, weight gains, everything gets worse after the age of 40 and 50. And I believe it's because your mitochondria are no longer protected. So they are dying, they are getting damaged. And when you have less mitochondria, you have less cellular energy to do anything, to heal, to balance out your hormones, to balance out your leptin, which controls your appetite. Nothing works properly. But spirulina has this missing nutrient, superoxidus. And as soon as you start taking it, it starts popping up that golf umbrella again. Boom! Your mitochondria are protected again. They're going, yay, let's grow, let's multiply, let's get out there like r rabbits and start getting cellular energy so you can think again, you can have your hormones balanced again, you won't have that insulin yo-yo going on. It everything works better when you have this stuff in your system. And there is no other source of it in the entire world, period. Well, actually, there is a small amount in in uh wheatgrass, but they found that it gets damaged in your stomach lining. And here's the great thing about spirulina it's not even a plant, it's a bacteria. And that's important because there is nothing for your body to break down to get access to the protein and all the other nutrients, including this stuff. So it literally gets absorbed in seconds if you chew it, and within minutes if you swallow it. So it almost bypasses digestion. So this is why it works so quickly. It's it's like getting a it's like being in the VIP lane. You know, you go to a a club or something, and there's they got the red, the red uh carpet and the things, and you know, you you wave your you got the VIP pass, boom, you get in. With spirulina, you it's a VIP pass. The that superoxycentase, boom, it it gets in the front line and goes to work right away. So it's pretty amazing.
SPEAKER_01:Really amazing. So the the free radicals that are broken down into oxygen and water, does that actually contribute? Oxygen is energizing, and that that that would be a good thing for the body to have. And the water, does it help hydrate the body? Is there any is there any studies that talk about how it can support hydration?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, well, it hydrates and supports the mitochondria. So I didn't want to get too geeky, but in this, the way that the uh energy is produced is through something called the electron transport chain. And if you've ever seen a relay race, you know, you have runners and they pass a baton to one runner, and then that runner takes it and passes it, and they try to try to cross the finish line first. Well, the way the energy in your mitochondria are actually produced is very similar, except instead of runners, you have these things called protein molecules. And instead of passing a baton, they pass electrons. So the spirulina, the blue, the blue pigment in it speeds up one of the little helper molecules. So that's another way it creates energy. But the way that the superoxidismase reduces the free radicals into oxygen and water, the final runner needs oxygen. And if it doesn't get oxygen, it can't complete the pass, more or less, which means nothing gets done. And so it so all the electrons that are being passed by the other runners, they start to aggregate and they spill out and become more free radicals. There's a great video I saw. You can see you see it on YouTube. It's a Lucille Ball, and it's a sequence series where she's at a chocolate factory. I remember it. She's supposed to put all the chocolates in the boxes, and the the conveyor belt keeps speeding up and she can't keep up. So she's throwing the chocolates in her mouth and she's throwing them over her shoulder. It's hilarious. Well, that's what happens when you don't have enough oxygen in the cell to have that final runner pass the electron to it. Now, the superoxy dysmutase create not only protects the mitochondria, but creates this oxygen to allow the final runner to pass the electron to it and you get ATP. Because if you don't have that oxygen, the whole electron transport chain gets backed up, just like that chocolate conveyor belt. And what happens is more electrons spill out, which cause more free radicals. So you can see how it's a downward spiral. So this stuff called superoxygenase is critical. Now you address the water piece. It's interesting because there's some really great research coming out. There's a guy by the name of Dr. Jerry Pollock who works at the University of Washington. And we all know that oxygen or water has three stages. It's uh it's uh gas, water, or ice. Well, he's discovered what he calls the fourth phase of water, and he calls it easy water, which is uh um uh uh um uh extract I'm just blanking on the E. Um extracted um uh basically it's a gel. And what it does is it gathers the water around those runners. Remember, I said they're called molecules, and they need water around them. Um exclusionary zone. That's what the E say, exclusionary zone. It gathers the water and keeps it gel like so that the molecules, which are like the runners, is like giving them water. When the runners are running, they need water to keep going. Your molecules need this water too to allow them to pass the electrons. So this superoxydismutase not only protects the mitochondria, so now they can turn your lights back on, it also creates oxygen for the last pass to be made, so you can get your energy, and it creates water so that they are protected. Because what we have found, and the research has found, is that EMFs dehydrate the water that's around these molecules, also the runners, which means they can't work as well. So the water is critical, and you have this easy water in your fascia. That's why water is really important. You get uh it's called also known as structured water, this uh exclusionary zone, and you get it from fruits. Uh, you can you can buy structured water, uh, but you get structured water, this exclusionary zone, as a byproduct of protecting the mitochondria if you have the superoxide dysmutase, which is your golf umbrella to protect your mitochondria. It's a closed loop. This is why studying the body and studying Mother Nature and following anything that Mother Nature provides: sleep, uh, movement, breath, sunlight, everything that we need to be healthy and live optimally is provided to us by Mother Nature. And the cells in the mitochondria are exactly the same. It's a closed loop. But you need to know what your body needs to make sure that it gets everything that you need. And algae literally gives you everything.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely amazing. Tell us um before we go to chlorella, and I know we need to get there. Um, you talked about the quality of spirulina. I remember looking at companies in Canada that are producing it, but they're producing it underground. There's no sunlight. Like, what's the difference and what's the importance? And how did you land on the way that you produce your spirulina with the sun and how you protect it? Like, tell us a bit more about that quality piece.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, um, uh, as I mentioned, a lot of the algae that is available, whether it's Trader Joe's or Target or Whole Foods, comes from China and India. And the contract manufacturers, and most people that sell spirulina or chlorella tablets have anywhere from 50 to 500 other products. So they just don't pay attention. All we do is algae, nothing else. But I did learn that Taiwan is considered the gold standard for growing algae for a couple of reasons. Growing algae isn't like make growing broccoli or carrots, it's more like making wine. So, a couple of things. The angle of the sun does affect the nutritional uh composition. And just like, you know, occasionally I'll have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, but I only drink it from New Zealand because it just has the fruitiness that I like. And a Sauvignon Blanc in California is just different. The angle of the sun is part of it, the other part is the production processes. And so the companies that grow it for us have been doing it for 60 years. They've they've figured out all the best uh practices for, you know, we use triple filters, spring mountain water, and we don't use high heat to dry it, and then we don't use any binders when we make the tablets. So uh I do plan to grow uh spirulin and chlorella in America, and it's gonna be in Florida because I drew a line across the globe, because again, Taiwan has the best uh climate, and Florida has a the same tropical climate as Taiwan. So that's my long-term strategy. I mean, it's gonna take 10 or 20 million dollars and it could take another three or four years, but I want to do it with the uh Asians because they have been growing algae for 60 to 70 years for mass consumption. So they figured out all the nuances of how to do it the best way for the maximum value. Now, um, you did mention something that I think is really interesting of growing algae underground. And there are a number of companies I'm in discussions with already. There's a company in Iceland that grows it, there's a company in Spain, Austria, and in, for example, the one in Iceland, they grow it underground in glass tubes with photobioreactors, which are like equivalent LED lights. And honestly, Florence, this is the long-term solution for feeding the world. And it's it gives you 90% of the value. I like, I'm a I'm a you know, old school, nature does it best. I want to grow my algae outside. But if I really want to move the needle and change the world and feed the world, it's going to have to be underground because then you're not limited to environmental conditions. Who would ever have thought you could grow algae in Iceland? They have five floors underground, and this particular company is growing it just for the omega-3. And you know what they do with the excess protein? They donate it to Africa. How amazing is that? There's a company we're talking to in Spain, and they're doing the same thing. They're growing it also underground. There's another company in Austria, of all places. They develop a technique where they grow it above ground, almost in a greenhouse, but it's it's still in the glass tubes. Yeah, it's so it's a very it's relatively new technology. It's been around for five-ish years, five, you know, um, it's still experimental, but um, and I think spirulina is the better one to grow that way because with chlorella, and we'll talk about chlorella next, apparently the cell wall is not as hard. And it's that hard cell wall that attaches the toxins. So I'm not convinced that chlorella in the glass tubes will have the same efficacy of being able to remove toxins. On the other hand, it means you don't have to crack it because in chlorella, you have to crack it to be able to get access to the nutrients inside because it is such a hard cell wall. So there there are there's actually a very, very uh large and growing algae community, and I'm involved with it because algae is being used for packaging, for for ink, for for food dyes, MMs. There's a company that just invested a hundred million dollars to grow spirulina only for the blue pigment called phycocyan. And companies like MMs are using that blue and are have been for years for their blue MMs. So as you know, there's a huge movement to pull out, fortunately, finally, all the toxic ingredients, including pigments that are, you know, in our foods. And algae can provide some of them, the blue for sure, and I can you can probably create purple out of the blue and the green. So uh it's really amazing what the future of algae will will bring us. Uh it's really the food of the future, and those who are in the science know that, but we have to help people at the consumer level understand it, how to understand the differences, how to use it, uh, which one to use for different purposes, um, because it's here to stay. It's been here for four billion years. It just needed a makeover and someone to someone to explain um the value that it offers.
SPEAKER_01:So on on the grocery stores, um, when you see, so there's vegan omega-3s. Is that coming from blue green algae or spirlina?
SPEAKER_00:It it could. Um it could, but there's also omega-3s in borrage oil. Uh it could be coming, it will say what the source is. It says algae. Okay. Okay, well then then it's probably coming from one of these companies that are growing it just for the omega-3. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I never I often wondered where are they getting this uh omega-3 from algae from in Iceland, apparently.
SPEAKER_00:Well, well, because it's uh it's naturally in the algae, but you can um modify the water that it's grown in to emphasize one nutrient over the other. So they have found a way to maximize the omega-3 in algae. The other company has found a way to maximize the blue phycocyanin, which is the blue pigment. Um, we we just let it grow naturally and don't change anything. So um it's the pure form of what it would have been on its own. But um there's lots of things that you can do. It's it's as I said, it's remarkable. There was a company in UK two years ago that won the um, I think print Prince Charles uh uh there's an award he gives every year called uh um shoot for the moon or the world, whatever. And they they pick, I think, 10 companies from around the world that are doing um building products and services that are environmentally remarkable. And this one company in the UK, that it's called No Pla, which is a kind of a rough word to say, it's hard to remember, but it stands for no plastics. And it was an algae company. They had made found a way to modify the creation of the algae so that it could be used and made into uh condiment containers and and plastic bottles. They're putting water in bottle, plastic bottles made of algae. You could eat your bottle if you wanted after you finish the bottle of water, or if you dispose of it, it will decompose in 30 days. Right? Wow. So when I I this is why people who know me, I get like they oh my they say, Oh, you're you're so in love with algae. And it's true because I've seen the science, I've seen what's going on, and it's still really under the radar in so many areas. Uh, but it's you can't keep it down for much longer because it offers so many solutions, whether it's nutritional, uh, mental, uh, health and wellness packaging, environmental. It's just it's like having Einstein as uh around.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, well, tell us about chlorella. Sorry, yes, chlorella.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So chlorella is equally as important as spirulina, but for different reasons. Remember, spirulina satisfies your hunger, feeds your mitochondria, so you can get energy, uh, um, uh, get your brain working. Chlorella, there's two problems in our society right now. We're not getting nourished. Our food has no nourishment in it in it. Obviously, if you eat processed foods, you're not getting nourishment. But even if you eat vegetables, they just don't have the soils don't have any nutrients or minerals. So even if you're eating vegetables, you're getting fiber and calories, but not nourishment. Spirulina, I call your nutritional insurance because it solves that problem. On the other, the other problem we're facing is we are surrounded by toxins. The average adult, apparently, in America, has 800, 700 or 800 toxins in their body. These are things from the air, from our food, from our chemicals, from our from our cosmetics, from our clothing. And our immune systems weren't built to sustain that kind of toxic load. This is where chlorella shines, because it it is a green algae and it has a hard cell wall. Spirulina has no cell wall because it's a bacteria. Chlorella has the hardest. And that hard cell wall attaches to toxins of any kind. Uh lead, mercury radiation. We're working with dentists to pull it, help them pull out mercury when they take out amograms. Uh, it pulls out glyphosate, pesticides, mold spores. I recently had a mold experience and I healed quickly because I took so much chlorella, alcohol, lactic acid. It's amazing. It pulls everything out. So chlorella is a detoxing algae. Uh, it attaches and removes these toxins. Now, the toxins are critical to get out of your body for a number of reasons. They intercept cellular communication. I'm old school, I'm a baby boomer. In the old days, we had car radios. And when you were in between stations on your car radio, all you would hear was right, static. The toxins in our bodies are creating static. The cells can't communicate, the mitochondria can't communicate. Nothing works properly because there's so much noise going on. And so, and in many cases, even if you have spirulina, which I call your nutritional insurance, if you have toxins sitting on what's called cell receptors, that that's where the cell goes, oh yeah, you're you're vitamin C, come on in. Well, again, I'm going to reference Boston, where parking is really hard to find. And some people would protect their their parking spot on the street, even in the wintertime, with like barricades, because uh, you know, maybe they own that spot. But if somebody's taken your parking spot, you can't get in there. If your toxins are sitting on your receptive receptor cells, your great nutrition can't get in there. You can put it in, but is it being absorbed? Ultimately, it's not what you eat, it's what you absorb. And as you get older, your absorption rates drop. Your digestion rates drop. If you're on medications and you have an illness, you have also absorption problems and digestion problems. Chlorella heals and helps with that. It not only pulls out the toxins, but it's known as a gut health algae. The reason for that is it has fiber that feeds your gut biome, the good bacteria, what they need. It has the highest concentration of chlorophyll. It's called chlorella because of the chlorophyll, it's 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll. What does chlorophyll do? Well, it kills your um it kills bacteria, number one, and it builds your blood. Chlorophyll, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is almost identical to your hemoglobin. Here's your hemoglobin and here's chlorophyll. They're virtually identical. The only difference is your blood has an iron atom in the middle and that carries oxygen and your and uh chlorophyll has magnesium. But when you you take chlorophyll, you are building your blood. It's that simple. The trouble is our vegetables don't have any chlorophyll in them anymore because they don't have anything in them anymore. And if you're a carnivore or uh you're probably definitely not eating plants, so you're not getting that chlorophyll either. So chlorella, because it has no lectins or oxalates, so it's really great for carnivores and anyone who's worried about autoimmune, it fills that gap. It gives you the chlorophyll that you need to build your blood and it kills bacteria. It kills it in your mouth, your colon, everywhere. Also, chlorella has 40 vitamins and minerals, including ones that build your immune system. Your immune system is your first defense. I relate it to like the police force. The police force, when you have an invader in your house, they identify the invader, pull them out, and you know, you put them in jail so they won't do it again. That's what your immune system does. It identifies invaders, uh, pulls them out and uh and remembers them so they won't allow, they won't be able to get in again. Chlorella has all the nutrients that build and support your immune system, like zinc and vitamin C and all the aminos that you you uh have. It also stimulates what's called peristalsis, which is a fancy word for saying a bowel movement, because you need to get rid of toxins. Your body releases toxins four ways: breath, sweat, urine, and bowel movements. And saunas are great for sweating, but a lot of people, if they're on medication, they're traveling, they're eating too many carbs, too much sugar, they're constipated. And chlorella is an easy way to move that through your system so you can have a nice little bowel movement in the morning. So chlorella is very much a healing recovery algae. It pulls out alcohol. So if you're as you get older, it's harder to uh wake up the next morning and not have a hangover. Athletes use it to pull out lactic acid as a post-workout so that their muscles aren't sore. And and we recommend chlorella before bed because that's when your body goes through a detox repair cycle. And chlorella also has the highest tryptophan in the world, which is a precursor to melatonin, which helps you sleep. So it's very much a recovery algae, which is why we call ours recovery beds. So it's really it works completely differently than chlorella. And by the way, in terms of weight loss, guess where your body loves to store toxins in your fat. So as you are losing weight, whether you're doing it on your own or a GLP1, your body is releasing fat. But that means it's also releasing toxins. Now, you need something like chlorella, it's the cleanup crude to go around and mop up all those toxins that are being released by your fat, because otherwise they're just gonna get reabsorbed and cause more problems. So chlorella is your cleanup crude, uh, and it will get rid of all the toxins released either through a sauna, uh cold plunge, exercise, um, or losing weight. And on the flip side, because chlorella pulls out toxins and will pull them out of your fat cells as well, your body goes, gosh, I don't I don't have those toxins anymore. Maybe I don't need that fat either. People are losing weight because the toxins are removed, so the body doesn't need to protect itself by having all this fat to hold on to the toxins. So you can see how they work in conjunction with the spirulina. The spirulina is nourishing, satisfies your hunger, reduces your cravings, builds your mitochondria so that you can stay focused on whatever you're doing. And then the chlorella comes in, cleans up all, mops up all the toxins that are released, uh uh, and keeps your body moving and everything moving because you want always you always want movement, uh, either through your lymphatic system, your bowel movement. Um, so they work completely differently. So um, but generally we you can have the chlorella any time of day. It actually tastes better than spirulina. It tastes more like a soy nut or a sunflower seed. Um, and but take it after digestion, after meals, because it helps with your digestion. Uh, if you eat sushi, for sure it will pull out the mercury. But we generally also recommend it for sure before bed, because when you're sleeping, you're getting your beauty rest. That's when you're getting the detox and repair cycle. So we want the best repair cycle for you. And chlorella before bed will help you with that. But you could take either of them any time a day with each other instead of food, with food. There's no drug interactions of any kind. Um, and if you don't like vegetables, by the way, you don't have to eat another one. Why do we eat vegetables? We want the fiber and we want the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients and the bowel movements, right? Guess what chlorophorilla has? Phytonutrients, chlorophyll, fiber, and bowel movements. And they come in little pouches you can travel with. They're so easy to turn toss in your handbag, your gym bag. So you don't have to prep. You don't you in fact, we'd sell these, as I mentioned, I was holding up these bags. There's a thousand tablets in the in the bags are the best value. Um, and I did it, I used that quote from NASA that said one gram of algae has the same nutrition as uh a thousand grams of fruits and vegetables. So I did the math, and one bag of our thousand tablets has the same nutrition, doesn't matter whether it's spirulin or chlorilla, of five hundred and fifty pounds of vegetables. To give you a visual, that's about 30 grocery carts of food. Right here. The nutrition of food, not the fiber, the nutrition of food. 30 grocery carts of food. Now, that's 30 grocery carts you didn't have to carry home from the grocery store, put in your fridge, pull out, cook, clean, and throw out when nobody, like your kids or your husband or boyfriends, didn't eat them. So, and they last three years. So it's very efficient nutrition. And I used to be hypoglycemic, which means I would um, if I wasn't eating, I have a little blood pressure as well. I uh if I was out for a walk, I might I would have a plummet of my blood pressure, and then hypoglycemia, you you sweat and you get shaky, and it, and that's why uh I think the green green eggs and uh there was a movie with this woman, uh um uh Julia Roberts, she was hypoglycemic. They would always give her oranges. This works far faster than oranges. I started carrying spirulina with me in all of my pockets everywhere I went. And um, if I ever, and I'm not hypoglycemic anymore, I think it's because I take so much spirulina, but it would get my blood sugar balanced very, very quickly because it gets absorbed so quickly. So for diabetics, um, anytime you're tired or hungry and you you gotta get something, and we want we don't want you to rush out and grab one of those bagels or bars because they're everywhere, right? Airports, drugstores, gas stations, they're pushing sugar on you, they're pushing carbs on you, and you get an insulin spike, and then you it shatters your your uh your mental stability. Nothing, nothing works well when you have you're on that roller coaster. Spirulina will get you off that roller coaster, gets absorbed so quickly, balances everything out for you. Uh, and it does it from food and from really dense nutrition. So we can help people get off that that cycle of um the crashing. Um, and then because then and then you feel terrible about yourself because you you went off your plan, and then you end up eating even more. It was maybe you know eight two Oreo cookies and suddenly now you've just eaten 10. Honestly, we've all been there. I've been there. I I went to college, my eating habits were terrible. I knew none of this until I started researching spirulina um and uh and and chlorella algae. And um, that's why it was like, oh my god, it was like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. So I just want to help people understand what it will do for you, all science-based. Um, but you have to be sure you get a high-quality version. But yeah, it's nice to know. I feel like Santa, uh we call we sort of feel sometimes like a puppy adoption agency because when somebody buys some of our allergies, like, go out there and do good things, you know, be bring a smile to people's faces, and it will.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, it's life-changing. It's life-changing. So amazing. Thank you so much. Is there any final word you'd like to share, share? And I will say as well that you should let us know how to find you, how to order. Your product is slightly more expensive, I think, than you might find off a grocery store. And there's a reason for it. And I want to give you a chance to just reiterate how far you go to make sure this is the best product that you can offer the world. Um, and I think you also have a special code for us if we want to try it. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, our website is energybits.com. That's E-N-E-R-G-Y, B for boy, I T for Tom, S for Sam. We call them bits because they're bits of nutrition. Nothing else in there. Um, and the code to get 20% off anything, we have bags and we have fun canisters is uh kick sugar, all one word, no space between it. It works on everything all the time, so don't panic. Um, but like anything, uh, when you buy higher quality, you need less of it. So um you may need, you know, 30 or 40 of uh uh lower quality algae to get the same benefits that maybe 10 tablets would give you from ours because it is such high quality and we preserve the nutrients. We do third-party lab tests here because we don't sell through retail stores. Uh, we sell through doctors' offices, longevity clinics, and our website, energybits.com. So we have to assure them that we have such high quality that they can recommend us to their patients, and they do. Um, but that takes a lot of uh extra steps and it's very expensive to do all these lab tests. And um I'm very committed, we're very committed to educating people. So I've recorded up over 200 videos, teaching videos. You can just find them on our Instagram or on our website. Our handle is at EnergyBits or Facebook. And they're just one and one or two minute videos teaching people algae for brain health, algae for weight loss, algae for skin health. Just so that you can start to learn a little bit more about it, because it is here, finally getting noticed. Um, but we're leading the charge. We're also making it um, you know, a little fun and playful because we don't want to scare people. Because when your health goes sideways, whether it's too much weight gain, uh metabolic health issue, uh, you know, the escalation of, you know, I know we're not talking about heart disease or cancer, but they're escalating. We're all seeing our families, our friends suffer. And when I have seen the science that shows that algae can have has nutrients if it's properly grown, to correct or prevent almost all of that. And it's science-based, I'm very motivated. I'm very motivated to help people understand this. You don't have to spend 15 years learning it. I that was my job. And so my job is to help you understand it with as much um ease as possible and to get the nourishment that you need uh with as much ease as possible. So I would just say that algae isn't new, it's just new to you. And you didn't know about chia or kiwa or matcha until somebody or bone broth, um, even though they've been used in other countries for centuries, until maybe somebody told you about them. So I'm here to tell you about algae, how to make a good choice. Um, ours would be one of them. And um, we're available. We we uh we are we love helping people, we answer every question, we don't outsource our customer care, it's all us. Um, so we want you to have a better life. So when you get to those ages of 40 or 50, you don't have to get bitter, you can get better, and algae will help you with that. That's why I say algae will love you back to to life, and uh it certainly did for me and everyone who um knows me because I make them take algae. So thank thank you, Florence, for letting me share with your community. And I welcome everybody to visit us again at energybits.com and um use your code uh KICKSUGURE and uh we'll we'll we'll rush some out to you as soon as possible.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much, Catherine. This isn't just an incredible product, real really, but it also just fills our bodies with hope. Right? There's an easy solution, there's something here, there's this is the answer to prayers that people have been saying. And so I'm very excited for you guys to try it, especially if you're the kind of person that really loves the best and high integrity, high research, high, high quality. This is your company and this is your opportunities to experience it for yourself. Thanks again for tuning in. Thanks again, Catherine, for your time. Thank you. Take care, everybody. Thanks for tuning in this week. If you would like more interviews, more information, and more inspiration on how to break up with sugar, go to my YouTube channel, Kick Sugar Coach, or my website, kicksugarcoach.com. See you next week.
