I’m really excited for this week’s interview with Catherine Arnston because we are talking about how nutrition impacts women’s health. The cooler thing is, we are going to talk about how to get all the nutrition you need in a tiny little package that is easy to take and get.
Are you curious to know what it is?
It’s algae. That’s right, you’re here. You heard it. It’s algae. I know algae doesn’t sound appealing, but you may want to give it a try after you hear what I have to say. The benefits of algae are numerous. My guest today is going to talk about it. For starters, it can improve brain function and memory, improve obesity biomarkers, reduce heavy metals it can even help to improve physical performance! Not only that, but algae is nutrient-dense! It’s pretty amazing how much protein, B vitamins, Omega3, and immune support are in algae. The best part is, she has figured out how to safely get it into a compact little form that you can take as a tablet with water, chew or put in your smoothies to replace greens. It can replace a meal. It’s incredible.
In this blog post, we are going to talk about…
How nutritious algae is and how many supplements are replaced by this one supplement.
How algae can help to prevent osteoporosis.
How algae can Alkalize and detoxify your body.
The benefits of including algae supplements in your diet.
About Catherine Arnston
Catharine started ENERGYbits after her sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and was advised by her oncologist that an alkaline diet would help her heal. Catharine immediately sprung into action to help her sister research alkaline foods and in the process she discovered algae.
When Catharine learned that algae was the most alkaline, plant-based, nutrient-dense food in the world and had been used for fifty years in Asia to improve health and longevity, she knew she had discovered something big that could be a game-changer for the world if she could just convince people it wasn’t weird.
Dr. Tabatha: Here are a few of my Reasons to Like Algae
1. It contains iron
As women, we have heavy periods. This causes us to lose iron. Algae is full of iron.
2. It helps to prevent osteoporosis
For many of us, bone loss starts in our late 20s or early 30s. Algae is alkalizing and full of minerals that keep those minerals in our bones. This ensures that our bodies don’t start stealing minerals from our bones and causing osteoporosis.
3. It helps us maintain muscle mass as we age
As we age, our muscle mass declines and we require more protein in our diets just to keep the muscle mass that we do have. Algae is full of protein.
My guest today is amazing. She’s so excited about all the benefits of algae, and she’s gonna share her beautiful story of how she even got into algae. It’s because her sister developed breast cancer and she wanted to help her to beat it. I love supporting women who are on a mission to help other women reclaim their health and be their best selves. My guest, Catherine Arnston is doing all of that. Her mission in life is to help all of us women to live happier healthier lives.
Catherine is gonna explain, why we should be ingesting algae. How it’s going to help us reclaim our health so we can be our best most amazing selves. Make sure to share this blog post with everyone you know. Share it with your girlfriends, your moms your sisters, daughters, everybody. Because the way for us to be our best selves is to reach out and be a community of women supporting each other. We need to talk to each other, be there for each other and share our stories.
Let’s Share our Stories and Lift Each Other Up!
I just love highlighting women who are doing their thing. I would encourage you to do this same because I think we all have a purpose in this life. Once you support other women on their journeys it softens your heart and opens it up to what God has created for you in your life. Then opportunities come knocking. If you’re in tune and your heart is soft and open, you will see them and you will embrace them. My goal in life is to help you figure out what your goals are, what your mission is, and figure out why you are on this health journey. Why are you listening to this podcast? Hopefully, something will trigger an idea or a dream. Anything that will help you move forward on the right path. Maybe you need to turn around and go in the complete opposite direction. Maybe you need to veer off the path you’re on. Maybe you need to find new people to walk with you on your path.
Your Voice Your Health
Life is such a beautiful journey. It matters who you’re going down the path with. So I’m here for you, I’m here to bring you information that will help guide you to make smarter, safer, healthier decisions about your body, what you put in it, how you move it, what you do with it, what you don’t do with it, I want you to have a voice and a choice in your health care and in your life.
I talk about health topics, but how we treat our bodies, how we interact with each other, how we interact with the environment in the world, it’s all impacting your health. I really do need to talk about all this stuff. You need to have a strong spiritual presence and connection with the universe and with the people in your lives. You don’t necessarily have to believe in God or anything else, but I do think that we need to think about our higher purpose and why we’re here. I see a lot in my patients sometimes. That internal struggle of, I’ve taken care of everybody else, I’ve done all the right things, I’ve checked the boxes, I have the house, I have the job, I have the clothes, but something is still, not satisfied. There’s still something I need to prove or do. That really does impact your health. It can create inflammation in your body. It can create bad neurotransmitter dysfunction, and you can end up with mood disorders and other things.
My guest today is talking about algae and nutrition and getting your health back on track with algae. Her passion really comes through in her drive and her purpose. Take that energy that she’s giving off and use it to help spark what else you need to do to drive your own passion in life. I am so honored that you’re here and you’re reading my blog.
Please send me your questions, your comments, your topics, what you want to hear about. I do this for you.
Welcome, Catherine to The Functional Gynecologist Blog.
Thank you so much. I’m so thrilled to be here. I started my company because of my sister. So women’s health is very, very, very important to me.
I would love for you to share that story with my readers.
Dr. Tabatha: Because you know this product. I’ve heard you on another podcast. You talk about how Energy Bits are or athletes, major workout buffs, and biohackers, but honestly, this is for everybody, right? Especially, women, it should be a foundational food for women period.
Catherine:
I’m based in Boston, Massachusetts, but I’m actually Canadian. I’ve lived in Boston for 33 years. I mentioned Canada because I have an MBA and I was minding my own business with a corporate career. Then my younger sister in Canada developed breast cancer 13 years ago. Now I first want to assure everyone, she’s completely healed and cancer-free, which is the best news.
As she was preparing for her chemo, her oncologist recommended she change her diet to an alkaline diet. They didn’t tell her what an alkaline diet was or what it was good for. The first call she made was to me because I’m her big sister who loves her and is also a really good researcher. I said I have no idea what this Alkaline Diet stuff is, but I will find out. I did and it was predominantly a plant-based diet because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that have been proven for years to build your immune system. When you go through chemo, you want a strong immune system. I looked up suggested foods to eat. She changed her diet, went through chemo, is completely healed, and is 11 years cancer-free.
In the process of helping her, I started reading more about plant-based nutrition. This was 13 years ago, nobody was talking about plant-based nutrition. As I read more, I thought someone needs to tell the rest of the world about this. I had no science background and no nutrition background. I’m very passionate, and I’m a woman of action. So I gave up my corporate career, went back to school, and studied nutrition. I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, which gave me a one-year certificate in health coaching.
I taught plant-based nutrition at corporations and hospitals. This is what really truly led me to algae because as I was teaching people about the importance of eating more vegetables, I learned that I wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t already know. Mothers have been telling us to eat our veggies since we were kids. What I learned is that even though people knew what they should do, there were too many obstacles.
Let’s face it, vegetables weigh a lot, they’re heavy to carry home from the grocery store. Kids and men are notorious for not eating their veggies (and french fries don’t count). They take a long time to clean, cook and eat. When I realized that people knew what they should do, but there were too many obstacles,I thought, Okay, I have to find an easy fast way to get the green nutrition of vegetables into them. I went back to the internet.
Nothing was working until I got to algae. That’s when the miracle happened. I was like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. As you’re going to find out on this podcast, algae is the answer to just about everything that ails us in the world.
Algae is the Cure to Just About Everything That Ails Us in the World
First of all, algae is the most alkaline food in the world. That’s what got me started on this. It’s also the most nutrient-dense food in the world. That’s not my opinion. I have a quote from NASA that says one gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1000 grams of vegetables. It’s been endorsed by United Nations since the 1970s, as the answer to world hunger because it has three times the amount of protein as steak. It has the highest concentration of protein of any food in the world. It’s also the most studied food in the world. I don’t make any of this stuff up. Everything I’m telling you today is documented scientifically is available in the NIH Library or other scientific libraries around the world. Thousands of studies have been done on algae. Spirulina and chlorella are the two we’re going to talk about today. Here’s the problem, scientists like to talk to other scientists so 90% or 99% of this knowledge has not made its way out to consumers.
Algae is a crop. It is a vegetable. It is not a supplement. Supplements are made in labs from artificial ingredients using high heat. They are poorly absorbed nutrients. Algae is no different than kale or broccoli, except that we pack it into tiny little tablets that you can swallow and it is equal to an entire plate of vegetables. It’s not grown in the ocean. Spirulina and chlorella are harvested as vegetables in freshwater, so they aren’t affected by ocean toxicity. It’s the most sustainable crop in the world. So it’s good for the earth as well.
Dr. Tabatha: That is amazing. So you went on this path because of your sister’s illness. You were trying to help her, reclaim her health and do everything that she could possibly do.
What are the two different types of algae that you work with?
As I mentioned, algae is everywhere. It’s in the oceans, or lakes, or rivers or streams. Algae that you find growing in the wild is toxic. The only ones you want to consume are the two we’re talking about today, which are chlorella and spirulina. It’s 99.9% of any algae you buy, whether it’s target Walmart, or from us. They are farmed and aren’t from the ocean. Spirulina was the first life on Earth. It is well known for having the highest concentration of protein in the world. It gives you energy because the protein is in amino acid form, which means it’s easy to absorb. Spirulina is technically a bacteria and has no cellular wall. It’s rapidly absorbed because there’s nothing for your body to break down.
What are the Benefits for Women of Consuming Algae?
First of all, it contains all the B vitamins which convert the amino acids into energy. Women always need more energy. Each one of these tiny tablets that we make can be swallowed chewed or added to smoothies. They only have one calorie, but they have lots of protein, and 40 vitamins and minerals.
Second, when we have our periods, we lose a lot of iron. Algae has the highest concentration of iron in the world. Iron is what carries oxygen in your blood. We always need iron. I urge people not to take iron supplements because supplements can reach toxicity levels especially iron supplements. Algae is a food. If you don’t need it, you just don’t absorb it.
Third, it’s also loaded with essential fatty acids including Omega three and is loaded with all of the important minerals like magnesium. This has been shown to help reduce cramping during your period. It relaxes your muscles and helps your blood vessels to open up because it’s a vasodilator.
Let’s talk about beauty. Spirulina helps build your collagen. I just finished a big a little bit of research comparing algae to collagen powder. Algae has more essential fatty acids and essential amino acids than collagen. You need amino acids to build your collagen and build elastin which can be damaged by sugar or free radicals. Algae helps to preserve your skin health because of the protein antioxidants, and vitamins like K2.
I’m Post Menopausal and Algae Has Helped Me to Feel Better Now Than I Did When I Was Younger
I am the poster child for algae because I just turned 65. I sleep well, I digest well, and I have way more energy than most people I know my age or even millennials.
Let’s Talk About The Difference Between Spirulina and Chlorella
Chlorella is a different algea. It’s a green algea. Spirulina is higher in protein. Chlorella is higher in chlorophyll. What’s so important about chlorophyll? Well, first of all, chlorophyll, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. Chlorophyll builds your blood. When you have healthy blood, you’re going to have a healthier body, you’re going to have more oxygen, you’re going to have better digestion, everything works better.
Chlorophyll is also known to build your immune system. And it does that because of phytonutrients. It has 42 of the top nutrients that are needed to build your immune system. This includes zinc, vitamin C, chlorophyll, and other vitamins, minerals. Right now we’re still struggling with COVID19. So having a healthy immune system is important. Chlorophyll is also a fat-based pigment. What’s important about that? All of your health issues start at the cellular level. Your cells need healthy, permeable cell walls so that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. Healthy fats do that.
Chlorella helps to detoxify your body. It attaches to toxins of any kind, Lead, Mercury, radiation Aluminum, alcohol, etc. Athletes use it to remove lactic acid. We are surrounded by toxins. There are pesticides, glyphosate chemicals, and other toxins in our cosmetics on our clothing, and each one. Over time, it builds up into your body and our immune systems were not built to support that.
We generally recommend that you take chlorella at night because when you sleep, your body goes through a detox and repair cycle. If you have chlorella in your body, while that’s happening, you get a much better detox. It also has the highest RNA and DNA in the world. So it helps rebuild any damaged RNA and DNA and any damaged mitochondria. (Which by the way, start dying off as we age.) It helps rebuild your skin cells.
Watch the full video interview here
Can You Take it Every Day?
You can take it every day. You can take some extra when you’re hungry and tired or want energy in the morning or afternoon. You know, the classic two o’clock slump, or before a workout. You can take it alone instead of food or with food. It doesn’t matter. There are no contraindications for spirulina. For chlorella, since it pulls out toxins and because some medications contain metals, we just suggest you take it two hours after or before any medication. Both of them are so nutrient-dense, they will replace most of your supplements. This includes your multivitamin, fish oil, magnesium, CoQ10. Chlorella can do the same except it won’t satisfy your hunger as spirulina will.
They are great for kids. Kids are notorious for not eating vegetables. Same with men who don’t like to eat vegetables. They just have to swallow two or five or 10 and they are off the hook for eating vegetables ever. Seriously. One caveat, it won’t give you the fiber that you would find in vegetables, but it gives you all the nutrition. So no more arguments at dinner time about eating your vegetables. Whether you’re ketogenic, Paleo vegan, low power, low carb, it works with every single lifestyle food choice.
They Can Help Prevent Hardening of the Arteries
It contains Vitamin K. It pulls excess calcium out of your soft tissue (soft tissue is your blood vessels, your skin, and your organs.) A lot of heart disease is because calcium solidifies in your blood vessels. That’s what arteriosclerosis is, the hardening of your arteries. Vitamin K will move that excess calcium into your bones, which is also important for women to know because 80 to 90% of osteoporosis issues affect women. Our bones are smaller, they’re thinner than men, so they’re already more porous. By taking the chlorella you can avoid developing osteoporosis over time.
It Can Also Help Prevent Osteoporosis
I just want to dwell on osteoporosis a bit more because it is a disease frequently experienced by women. The strength of your bones isn’t really based on calcium, it’s where most of your calcium is stored. However, your bone strength actually comes from minerals and from protein called protein matrix, both of which are found in algae. When you have an acidic diet (diets high in sugar or processed foods) your blood turns a little bit acidic. Your body is so intelligent. It knows that this is not a good thing for you. So it pulls minerals that are alkaline from your bones. When that happens over and over again, it creates holes in your bones. If you or anyone that you know has been diagnosed with osteoporosis, please start taking the algae. It will start beefing up the minerals and protein in your bones. If you went back and retested your bone density months later, you would see an improvement.
It’s a Great Source of Omega 3
Another supplement that you can get rid of if you take algae is your fish oil supplement. Fish get Omega 3 from algae that they eat. You cannot get any lower on the food chain, than algae. It was the first life on Earth.
A while ago, I saw a chart that showed the amino acids found in a mother’s breast milk. I thought, gosh, that looks awfully familiar. Sure enough, it’s virtually the same as the nutrients and the Amino Acid profile found in spirulina. It has virtually the same nutrients as a mother’s breast milk. I consider algae, Mother Nature’s breast milk for us.
Algae Production Actually Helps Heal The Earth
When you look after your health and your family’s health with something as nutrient-dense and natural as algae, you are also helping the Earth. Algae supplies 80% of the oxygen on Earth. It gives us 200 times more protein per acre than animal farming. It has zero carbon footprint and is just about the most sustainable crop in the world. When you use algae instead of fish oil, you are helping to save the Earth’s oceans.
Dr. Tabatha:
I just love that you have put so much research into this. You also make it so easy to understand and you’re making it so doable and easy to add to your diet. You talked about how you eat energy bits all day long. How much do you recommend?
How Much Algae Should we be Consuming?
I always recommend that people use caution when trying something new. You could start with just two or three tablets a day, but to really truly enjoy more benefits. Five or 10 a day would be better or even 20, but its food. Some people are satisfied with a small salad and some people need two or three huge salads. So it’s really what works for you. If you’re not feeling the energy then try taking more. By the way, the energy feeling is not like lightning bolts from the sky. It’s not a stimulant like coffee is. You’ll just feel fresh. That’s it, nothing more. I love it because there’s no drama, no crash. You’ll just feel like you had a great sleep. You’ll feel alert, you’ll feel ready. If you’re not feeling that, then you aren’t taking enough. I think five or 10 is a good number. I don’t want people to be horrified by that. Remember that it’s food.
We do sell them in large bags on our website with 1000 tablets, and I don’t want people to get sticker shock. Keep in mind, the nutrition in one gram of algae is equal to 1000 grams of vegetables. One bag of algae tablets is equivalent to the nutrition in 551 pounds of vegetables. At $3 a pound, that would have been a cost of $1,500 and that’s 551 pounds of vegetables. You didn’t have to carry home, cook, or clean right?
We have a 20% discount code for your readers. The discount code is: DOCTORTABITHA. If you aren’t ready for a large bag, we do sell small pouches on Amazon for $5 each. There are 30 tablets in a pouch. $5 is a very small investment to try it to see if you’d like it or not. We also have a sample pack on our website. You can try all of our products.
Right. You know, you mentioned with the chlorella that it pulls out the toxins, you know, and use the chlorella for that do you notice people having any digestive discomfort or changes when they eat your product?
Do Your Customers Experience any Digestive Issues When They Try Your Product?
Sometimes, not everybody, but some people do have a detox. I’m glad you mentioned that because if you want the wellness benefits of the chlorella, five or 10 tablets a day would do that, but if you want the detox benefits, you need to take more tablets. Probably closer to 20 tablets. Thirty would be better. If you have some cocktails for dinner, and you want to feel good the next day, be sure you take 20 or 30 of the chlorella tablets before you go to bed.
Some people don’t want to detox all the time, so they’ll take ten tablets a day for a while and then up the dosage when they want to get the detoxification benefits. Also, because they’re both very high in protein and your body needs water to digest protein. I recommend that you drink at least an extra glass of water when you take them. That will help to avoid constipation. Chlorella has actually been used for IBS and Crohn’s disease because of the chlorophyll, which is very cleansing.
We work with biological dentists who use it when they take out fillings because they’re loaded with mercury. They have their patients take Chlorella to clean the mercury out of their systems. Remember there is no detox effect with spirulina. It’s just with the chlorella.
Dr. Tabatha: That is great to know. You can take a higher dose for a few days to really pull the toxins out then you can just go to a maintenance amount.
Catherine:
It’s not just the external toxins that are causing problems for us. I read recently that we have 30 trillion cells that die in our bodies every day. That’s a big number. Dead cells are toxic. If you don’t pull them out they start congesting your lymph system. When there’s congestion in your lymph system, then that attracts bacteria, because there’s not enough flow. That starts causing more acidity, which then causes the cells to stop communicating properly and it just causes lots of health issues. That’s why I tell people to take chlorella every day. It’s like giving your body a shower from the inside and it’s effortless. We have to protect ourselves and be more proactive these days. There are so many more toxins in our environments, our food, and the products that we use.
Dr. Tabatha:
I love it! Where else can we find you and all the amazing things you’re doing, Katherine?
Where Can My Readers Connect With You?
Our website is energy bits.com. You can find so much information about algae and health on our site and our blog. All of our products are there as well. You can find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ENERGYbits/ and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/energybits/. We also have an Instagram account that is just for women. You can find it at https://www.instagram.com/beautybits/.
Dr. Tabatha:
I’m so appreciative of all the amazing work you’re doing. Women need support. We need to support each other.
To Wrap it Up
I’m all pumped up about algae now. I’ve learned about it. I’ve studied it and I know how to use it for detox purposes but I never really thought of it as a daily nutritional food supplement. I really like that idea because it’s such an easy way to add it to your day.
I hope that you got some great information that resonated with you. Maybe you found out that you really need algae to help with bone health, heavy periods, or to help detoxify your body. Start incorporating algae into what you’re doing. What do you guys think about energy bits and recovery bits? I want to hear from you.