Transcript #422 Using Algae Like Chlorella to Detox with Catharine Arnston

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1. Find out what’s in store on this Myers Detox Podcast with Catharine Arnston, who joins the show to talk about the many amazing health benefits of algae, such as spirulina and chlorella. Catharine goes over their nutritional benefits, how eating algae helps your detox, the history of consuming algae, and her awesome line of ENERGYbits algae products.
2. Inspired by the alkaline foods she researched for her sister’s breast cancer diagnosis, Catharine went on to produce a line of algae tablets. Learn more about Catharine’s story and why she decided to create a company around algae.
3. Learn about the amazing properties of algae that allow them to help address chronic disease like Alzheimer’s, dementia, heart disease, and more!
4. Learn about the fascinating history of eating algae and why it has become a staple in the east.
5. Find out what Catharines company, ENERGYbits, does differently during production to make sure their algae is nutrient rich and toxin free.
6. Learn more about the nutrient properties of algae and the different algae products ENERGYbits sells.
7. Find out the many health benefits of algae and how they specifically affect the body.
8. Find out how the properties of algae help our bodies to detox, and the products Catharine recommends from ENERGYbits to help aid in detox.
9. Learn more about Catharine’s company and the benefits of her products.
10. You can learn more about Catharine and ENERGYbits at energybits.com Use Code MYERSDETOX for 20% off your order!
11. You can also find ENERGYbits on Instagram @energybits

Wendy Myers: Hello everyone. I’m Wendy Myers. Welcome to the Myers Detox Podcast. Today, we have my friend Catharine Arnston on the show. She’s going to be talking about algae. She’s going to be talking about spirulina, chlorella and the many, many benefits to them. It’s really interesting how they are 64% protein. They have more protein than animal proteins.

Wendy Myers: We also talk about all their nutrient density and how they can facilitate detoxification. We go into the history of algae as well, and why most of it has been grown in Asia, how the Japanese started using it and why it’s so complicated to grow. We talk about Catharine’s company called ENERGYbits, and all the benefits of her products and how they keep her staying super young. How they help to fend off disease for many reasons because of their nutrient density and the detoxification benefits as well. This is a really, really interesting show.

Wendy Myers: We all know that algae is good for you, that spirulina is good for you, chlorella has detox benefits, but we really go into the details about why. I know guys listening are concerned about your heavy metal burden. You’re worried about how to detox your body so I created a quiz that you can take at www.heavymetalsquiz.com. It only takes a couple of minutes to take the quiz.

Wendy Myers: After the quiz, you will get results about how toxic you are and generally what your body burden of heavy metals is. Then I will give you a free video series on how to get started detoxing. Where do you begin? How long does it take? I answer a lot of your frequently asked questions about detoxification, getting back to some of the basics. Go check that out at www.heavymetalsquiz.com.

Wendy Myers: Our guest today, Catharine Arnston, is an expert in algae nutrition. She’s a wellness thought leader, an experienced entrepreneur and a sought after speaker. She has an MBA, a BA and is a board certified health coach as well. She spent the last 10 years researching algae, writing papers, giving presentations, lecturing at conferences and speaking on over 150 podcasts to explain the benefits of algae.

Wendy Myers: To do this, she’s read thousands of scientific papers in detail, validated and confirmed algae’s nutrition, health, longevity and global benefits. Remarkably, none of these findings are very well known by consumers. It’s Catharine’s vision and passion to change this. While she’s not a PhD, her scientific fluency allows her to explain algae with a lot of simplicity and clarity.

Wendy Myers: It quickly becomes obvious why algae is something that we all really need in our diet. Her passion for algae is contagious, as you’ll see on this podcast. She’s very inspiring and thought provoking as well. Her efforts have led to algae being better understood by educators, consumers, doctors and wellness practitioners.

Wendy Myers: Even the United Nations and NASA endorse algae as the most nutrient dense food in the world, and the answer to world hunger. It’s really interesting. Catharine’s extensive knowledge and playful personality is both entertaining and educational. Her speaking style leaves audiences informed, uplifted and hopeful. You can learn more about Catharine, her research and her line of algaes at www.energybits.com. Catharine, thanks so much for joining the show.

Catharine Arnston.: Well, thank you for having me. I’m so excited because I’ve followed you for a while. I was on your stream last night. You’re doing some excellent work. We’re so happy to meet you personally, finally.

Wendy Myers: Yes, so you founded the company ENERGYbits. Can you tell us a little bit about that and why you founded it?

Catharine Arnston.: ENERGYbits sells algae tablets. It’s certainly not an area that, when you’re a kid thinking, “I want to be a fireman or a policeman.” I tell people I didn’t choose algae, it chose me. I’m actually Canadian. I’ve lived in Boston, which is where I live now for 33 years but I am Canadian. All my schooling was in Canada, and I had an MBA and was pursuing a corporate career.

Catharine Arnston.: Then about 13 years ago, my younger sister in Canada developed breast cancer. Now, I want to first assure everyone that she’s cancer free and has been for 12 years now. But it was a shock at the time, as it always is. Fortunately her oncologist, a cancer specialist, recommended that she change her diet to an alkaline diet because it would help with her healing.

Catharine Arnston.: Now, they didn’t tell her what an alkaline diet was or why it would be good for her, so the first call she made was to me, her big sister who loves her. I said, “Well, I have no idea. I’m a business person, but I will find out.” I did. It turned out to be a plant based diet because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that as you know, are proven to help build your immune system.

Catharine Arnston.: I did some research, recommended foods for her to eat and ones not to eat. She went through chemo. She completely healed. In the process, I started learning about plant-based nutrition. Now, this was 13 years ago and nobody was talking about it then. I’m just a very passionate person. I thought, somebody’s got to tell the world about this plant-based nutrition stuff.

Catharine Arnston.: I gave up my 30-year corporate career. Yes, if you do the math, I’m a lot older than you think. Maybe I’ll reveal it later in the show. I went to the Institute For Integrative Nutrition because I needed some kind of certificate in some kind of nutrition education. It was only a one-year certificate. After that, I taught plant-based nutrition.

Catharine Arnston.: I put my own curriculum together for corporations and hospitals. This is what truly actually led me to algae, in a big way, because my epiphany was this and I’m sure your listeners will appreciate this.

Catharine Arnston.: When I was teaching people the importance of eating more vegetables, they said, “Hey, you’re not telling me anything. My mother has been trying to get me to do it since I was a kid. The problem is it’s too much work. The vegetables are heavy. They’re hard to carry home from the grocery store. They take up a lot of room in your fridge. They take a long time to clean, to cook and to eat. Let’s not even talk about the endless arguments at the dinner table trying to get your kids or your husband to eat their vegetables.”

Catharine Arnston.: I thought, okay, I’ve seen the power of green nutrition. I know that people are needing it because that’s one of the things that’s causing so many chronic illnesses, not only the lack of nutrition but too many toxins, which is your specialty, detox.

Catharine Arnston.: So back to all the foods I found for my sister. I just lifted the hood, did a deeper dive, nutritionally, on everything. Nothing was working until I got to algae. That’s when the miracle happened. First of all, it’s the most alkaline food in the world, which is what started me on this process. It’s also the most nutrient dense food in the world. We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Catharine Arnston.: NASA says one gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of fruits and vegetables. That’s a big comparison. One to a thousand. I will tell you in a minute, why that concentration exists. It’s also endorsed by international agencies like the United Nations, who have endorsed it since 1974 as the answer to world hunger. It has the highest concentration of protein in the world. It has three times the amount of protein as steak, chicken or fish. It’s 64% protein.

Catharine Arnston.: Algae is also the most scientifically studied food in the world. First of all, it’s a food that you’re going to learn about. I’m going to show you pictures of algae farms. It’s not a supplement but it’s got all the scientific backing. None of the science has made its way out into the public domain until I came along and started reading all this stuff.

Catharine Arnston.: On top of all that, it’s been used safely for almost 75 years in Asia, where it’s been grown as an agricultural crop. By the way, the Japanese do not leave their house in the morning without taking chlorella algae because it’s revered for its detox abilities, longevity and wellness. I read all this and the only trouble with algae in North America is that nobody knew about it. They didn’t know what it did. They didn’t know it was science based. They didn’t know it was safe.

Catharine Arnston.: Actually, it wasn’t safe because a lot of it came from China. So back in 2010, I started the company. Twelve years ago, I started educating myself and others about algae, and I haven’t stopped. In the process, I’ve learned even more and I’m even more passionate than I was 12 years ago.

Wendy Myers: Algae is like the number one supplement in Japan. It’s the number one, sorry.

Catharine Arnston.: Oh no, they don’t take vitamins in Japan. They only take chlorella algae because they understand it. In fact, I was on a podcast last year, hosted by a Japanese woman. She said I was the first person she’s ever met who wasn’t Japanese, who could explain chlorella algae. In Asia, it’s like air to them. It’s so normal. They don’t even know how to explain it.

Wendy Myers: Talk to us about how algae and eating algae can help with a lot of the chronic diseases that we suffer from like Alzheimer’s, dementia, heart disease, et cetera.

Catharine Arnston.: Well, a lot of people are learning there’s so many chronic illnesses. All chronic illnesses and actually all health, starts at the cellular level. In terms of the disease, whether it’s heart disease or cancer, it all starts with inflammation. Inflammation begins because, for whatever reason, the cell has become unhealthy. There’s not enough oxygen. It’s not alkaline enough. The nutrients aren’t getting in there, or the toxins aren’t getting out.

Catharine Arnston.: One of the reasons why algae corrects all of these situations is it manifests in different ways in different people. So in one person, the poor cellular health and mitochondria health might manifest eventually as cancer, and in somebody else it might manifest as heart disease. It’s part genetics, part of it is historic, part of it is epigenetics and whatever you’ve been exposed to.

Catharine Arnston.: The reason why algae is so helpful is, number one, it has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. I’m going to show you two things about chlorophyll. First of all, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to the chemical composition of your blood. I’m just going to change my background so I can show you this. This is a chlorophyll cell and this is a hemoglobin cell.

Catharine Arnston.: You notice that they’re virtually identical. The only difference is in chlorophyll, magnesium is in the middle and in your blood, you have iron and that’s what carries oxygen. Chlorophyll builds your blood. The problem is, even if you’re eating vegetables, our soils are so damaged and the ozone layer is so damaged that plants just don’t have the nutrients or chlorophyll that they used to. You could eat a room full of arugula and not get the same amount of chlorophyll it’s in this little container, right there.

Catharine Arnston.: Chlorella in particular, has 500 times more chlorophyll than arugula, and 25 times more than even the liquid chlorophyll. Number one, your blood is your freeway that delivers nutrients and oxygen to your cells, your organs and to your brain. If you don’t have the nutrients in your blood, they can’t get to the cells. That’s number one, why the cells start to deteriorate in terms of their health. Another key reason, Otto Warburg, who is a German scientist got a Nobel prize for discovering this.

Catharine Arnston.: Otto Warburg discovered that cancer can only exist at the cellular level if the cell is acidic. The reason why this is so important is because a lot of foods people are eating today, whether it’s dairy, processed foods or gluten, they’re all acidic and they change the pH. To be healthy, your cell pH needs to be 7.1. That’s on a scale of zero to 14. By the way, your blood is 7.34, which is a little more acidic or more alkaline.

Catharine Arnston.: When your cells become acidic, there’s less oxygen, which causes the mitochondria to become damaged. There’s more free radicals, which cause even more damage to the mitochondria. You need to keep the pH of your cells healthy. And as I mentioned, chlorophyll is very alkaline and algae has the most chlorophyll. I’m just going to grab something, what I want to show you is a chart. I do want to talk about the two algae because they’re quite different, but I’m going to show you this chart.

Catharine Arnston.: This is a picture of some spirulina tablets in water. Spirulina, by the way, is a blue-green algae. We’ll talk about that in a minute but you see how beautiful the blue color is and that it disperses evenly through the water. I’m going to show you down here, this is a picture of chlorella tablets, which only has one pigment in it, chlorophyll. Notice how it clumps, it doesn’t disperse evenly through the water. I did this experiment 25 times until I finally had the epiphany to understand what was going on.

Catharine Arnston.: I confirmed this in science. This pigment in spirulina, phycocyanin, is a water based pigment. We can talk about it, why it has healing properties for your blood and for your plasma. Chlorophyll, which is the only pigment in chlorella, is a fat-based pigment. That’s why it doesn’t disperse evenly. We all know, or maybe you’re learning, that one of the ways to keep your cells healthy is to keep your cell wall permeable. To do that, you need healthy fats, vitamin D and  omega-3. Well, chlorophyll is a fat-based nutrient that does the same thing.

Catharine Arnston.: The best way I describe it to people is, when you have dirty windows, you can’t see out and sunlight can’t get in. If it’s dirty windows on your car, it’s even more dangerous. Think of chlorophyll as window washers for your cell walls. It facilitates getting nutrients into the mitochondria, into the cell to maintain the proper pH, reduce the free radicals and give the cell what it needs. It allows the toxins to be removed. That is one of the things that chlorophyll does.

Catharine Arnston.: Again, algae, especially chlorella algae, has the most chlorophyll. It’s not that algae targets specific individual illnesses. What it does is the same solution, quite honestly, for virtually every chronic illness because every chronic illness starts at the cellular level and starts with inflammation, damage and the poor condition of the cell, which then cascades into damaged DNA and RNA.

Catharine Arnston.: Whether it’s cancer or there’s other attributes. I certainly want to go into them because chlorella is world renowned for being a wellness algae and it’s not just the chlorophyll, it has other attributes.

Catharine Arnston.: It’s hard cell wall pulls out heavy metals. It has the highest DNA and RNA in the world, a high amount of K2, which pulls out excess calcium, which is also damaging to your cells, and moves it into your bone. Chlorella is definitely a wellness and detox algae, which is why we call ours Recovery Bits, because it helps you recover your health.

Wendy Myers: Tell us a little bit about the history of algae. There’s like 50 years of research behind it. Can you tell us a little bit about the history?

Catharine Arnston.: It’s actually quite fascinating. I do want to assure you and your listeners that everything I tell you is documented. I’ve spent 12 years studying algae. There’s a lot to tell about it. It was actually discovered in the late 1800s by a Dutch scientist who found out it had the highest concentration of protein. Science continued to develop and evolve in Germany.

Catharine Arnston.: The Germans are the ones that discovered not only that it has high protein, but it has the highest digestible protein. They actually used it after World War II, when all the bombs killed the livestock and crops, and somehow the Germans grew some algae and fed people. The real story about algae happened after World War II, when the Japanese were bombed. The American government, through the Marshall plan, agreed to send them food to help them get back on their feet.

Catharine Arnston.: One of the things they sent them was algae because they had learned about it from the Germans. What happened was that, not only did it feed the Japanese, and this is why the algae industry is in Asia, but it healed them from the radiation poisoning from the Hiroshima bomb. The Japanese basically said, “What was that stuff that you gave us? We want to grow it.”

Catharine Arnston.: Eventually, all the science moved over to Japan. Starting in the late 1940s, early ’50s, the Japanese started learning. It took them 10 years to figure out how to grow chlorella, because it was chlorella that they had used. It’s a very complicated crop to grow, but that’s why the entire algae industry is pretty much in Asia, because of the Japanese who were so determined to learn about this amazing food that had saved them. I’m going to show you a picture of an algae farm.

Catharine Arnston.: Now, this one happens to be spirulina because chlorella is grown in round ponds, but 99.9% of algae is grown in Asia. You may be asking yourself, “Well, I’m not familiar with algae. Why don’t I know about it if it’s so fantastic because it does so many things?” Here’s the answer, because you just didn’t grow up with it. In Asia, it’s quite normal to see a truck going by with algae on its way to be dried, packed or whatever.

Catharine Arnston.: Here in America, we see trucks scrolling by with bales of hay, wheat or logs, but you never see algae trucks because there aren’t any. It’s not grown here. There’s a very, very tiny amount grown in Hawaii, but virtually none of it is grown here. This is why in 2019, the U.S government passed the first Algae Agricultural Act, to encourage farmers to grow it. Even they have realized it’s the most sustainable nutrient dense food in the world and virtually none of it is grown here.

Catharine Arnston.: It was part of the U.S Farm Bill in 2019. You can learn about that. When I tell people algae is food, not a supplement, I can show them an algae farm. Then what we do is we dry it. We don’t use high heat, which makes us special because it preserves all the enzymes and makes it a raw food. Then we just press it into these tiny tablets that have no binders.

Catharine Arnston.: We do third party lab tests to prove the nutrition and that they’re toxic-free, because we sell ours only through our website and also through doctors, nutritionists and functional medicine. They need to be sure that it’s clean, pure and toxin-free.

Wendy Myers: How do you grow it so that it’s toxin free? What is your process?

Catharine Arnston.: The other thing I want people to understand is that first of all, algae in general is everywhere. There’s big stringy stuff, also called seaweed in the ocean. That’s called macroalgae. What we’re talking about is microalgae. It’s called microalgae because it’s microscopic in size. Something like a million cells of microalgae could fit on the head of a pin. That’s how tiny it is. It’s everywhere. It’s not just in the sea, it’s also in the lakes, the rivers, the streams, your swimming pool, your aquarium and even the soil.

Catharine Arnston.: The algae that’s consumed as food are the two algae we’re talking about, spirulina and chlorella. I’m going to show you a picture of the two of them in a second if I can find the other one. They are grown in freshwater. Here’s spirulina. It’s a blue-green algae. This is chlorella, which is a green algae.

Catharine Arnston.: You can see the difference in the colors, just because this has the two pigments and this only has the one. The problem has been, up until we came along, most of the algae came from China. They were still grown in fresh water but you weren’t really sure if they were contaminated, you weren’t really sure if they were growing organically and often they added binders, fillers or whatever.

Catharine Arnston.: What makes us special is that the water we grow it in is not only fresh water, so there’s no toxins from the ocean, but it’s triple filtered spring mountain water. We grow ours in Taiwan, which is world-renowned for having the highest quality algae, also the highest certifications in standards. Then as I mentioned, we air dry it without heat. We can do that because we’re not a volume supplier. We’re a value. We’re focused on high value, concentrated nutrition and safety.

Catharine Arnston.: All the other companies that are in Target or even Whole Foods, are less expensive. They survive on high volume. They need to get to market quickly, so they dry it really quickly with lots of heat which kills the enzymes and heat always damages the nutrients. That makes us different because we don’t use high heat. Then again, we press it into the tablets without any binders or fillers.

Catharine Arnston.: When we do our third party lab test and we’re just doing another set, it comes back showing that there’s nothing else in there. It’s safe for your children, your grandparents and your pets. At least ours is safe for all ages. Spirulina, in fact, the nutrient profile, especially the amino acid profile, I discovered was virtually the same as mother’s breast milk. I can show you a chart that compares the aminos. They’re virtually identical, same proportions and same aminos.

Catharine Arnston.: Since algae was the first life on earth from mother nature, and because it has the same profile as mother’s breast milk, I consider algae mother nature’s breast milk for us. You could live on it forever. It’s that complete. It’s got 18 of the 20 aminos, and it has all nine aminos that make it a complete protein. That means it’s the nine aminos that your body can’t make. It has 40 other vitamins and minerals. It just makes it easy. This is why I loved it so much.

Catharine Arnston.: Remember I said, I got into this because people knew they should eat more vegetables, but it was just too much work. Well, you could just swallow two, five or 10 of these tablets if you don’t like the flavor. I will say most people don’t like spirulina. It’s pretty chewy because of the protein and is very earthy.

Catharine Arnston.: Chlorella tastes pretty good if you eat it with pistachios or macadamia nuts, but still it’s very green, I will say, but I eat them all day long. It’s effortless nutrition, just throw two or three of these down with some water, or five or 10. If you want it as a mini-meal, you might need 15 or 20. Even 10 will satisfy your hunger, give you energy and focus for hours.

Catharine Arnston.: That’s just spirulina because I need to make sure people understand there’s a difference between the benefits and what they do, but it’s effortless. That’s what people need. We’re busy, we’ve got so many things going on, and algae just makes it so much easier to get the protein nourishment, omega-3s and electrolytes, instantly. It can replace many of your other supplements, for sure.

Wendy Myers: I love this because so many people are mineral deficient today and it causes their body to not work correctly. They have cravings. This would solve a lot of those issues. I noticed when I started taking minerals, I stopped having cravings. This would, because you’re getting the nutrition that you need, be really instrumental in helping with that.

Catharine Arnston.: Absolutely, and again, I love it because it’s food. What people don’t understand is that a lot of supplements are made in factories with high heat, as I mentioned, using extracts. Extracts don’t exist in nature so your body can’t recognize or absorb them.

Catharine Arnston.: That’s why the numbers are so high on a lot of those bottles that you buy at some of these retail stores, because even the manufacturers know you’re only going to absorb about 10% of it. But with algae, it’s food. It comes from nature and so do we so your body goes, “Oh, I know what to do with this.” It’s 99% bio available.

Catharine Arnston.: Spirulina, again, we call ours ENERGYbits because it gives you energy both mentally and physically, it’s technically a bacteria. It does not have a cellulose wall. It’s called a cyanobacteria. It’s absorbed almost instantly into your bloodstream.

Catharine Arnston.: That’s why when we first started, the athletes, runners, triathletes, marathoners and Olympic athletes started becoming our biggest customers, because it gave them steady energy. Not a rush or crash, like you would get from carbs or sugar, because there aren’t any. I forgot to mention there’s no carbs in any of them. They’re ketogenic.

Catharine Arnston.: It was steady energy and great focus, and it did not upset their stomach like the sugar or carb products did. Then they would take the chlorella after their runs because it would help them recover from sports, because one of the toxins that chlorella pulls out is lactic acid. It helps your muscles not be sore the next day.

Wendy Myers: Yeah. That’s amazing. There’s so many other benefits too. Can you talk about all the different purposes of algae, the different health benefits?

Catharine Arnston.: As I mentioned, they’re quite different. Let me talk to you about them, one at a time. Let’s talk about spirulina, which by the way, was the first life on earth, three and a half billion years ago, and there’s fossils to prove it. As I mentioned, we call ours ENERGYbits because we felt that was easier for people to understand and to relate to. It does give you energy.

Catharine Arnston.: The energy you get is because it has so much protein, and the protein’s already in amino acids, as I mentioned. There’s no cellulose wall to take time to break down in digestion. It gets absorbed so quickly. It has a lot of B vitamins. B vitamins are what convert the aminos into glucose and energy for you. The other way you get energy is because it has a very high amount of iron, which as I alluded to earlier, carries oxygen in your blood, and it releases nitric oxide in your blood.

Catharine Arnston.: Nitric oxide is what’s called a vasodilator, which means it opens up your blood vessels because the muscles relax. That helps more nutrients and oxygen to get to your brain, to your body and into your muscles, which gives you energy. Spirulina also is loaded with boron, which helps facilitate thought in your synapses and coordination. It has a very high amount of essential fatty acids. It has some omega-3, not a lot, but some. It has another one called GLA, which behaves like an omega-3, at least in our algae, because it’s not heated.

Catharine Arnston.: It reduces inflammation just as much as omega-3 is. To reinforce that fact, most omega-6s are the reason why they’re so bad for you because they’ve been exposed to heat. They’re used in processed foods. Mother’s breast milk is loaded with GLA and it’s the only place that has more GLA than spirulina. GLA is important for your brain development and when the baby’s born, it’s brain develops or triples in size, within the first couple years.

Catharine Arnston.: I just want to be sure that you all know that GLA is not bad if it’s not heated. You get all this energy and steady focus. It satisfies your hunger. It’s great freedom in fasting and it’s ketogenic so it doesn’t interfere with the fast. It can be a meal replacement, as I mentioned. It can replace a lot of other nutrients.

Catharine Arnston.: I’m just trying to encourage more moms to give this to their children before they go play soccer or whatever, instead of one of those sugar-laden bars which cause inflammation and spike their glucose. This will give them focus. It helps with ADHD. Spirulina in ENERGYbits, our brand, is nourishing, energizing and really helps with brain focus. That’s the main reason for spirulina.

Wendy Myers: I imagine it really helps so much with detoxification as well. Can you talk a little about that?

Catharine Arnston.: It helps with cleansing because spirulina does have a lot of chlorophyll, but it also has that phycocyanin. If you really want detox benefits, you really need the chlorella, which we call RecoveryBits. The reason for that is, as I mentioned, chlorella has the highest chlorophyll in the world. It is the most cleansing because it’s got all that chlorophyll, and it builds your blood but chlorella has the hardest cell wall in the plankton world, spirulina has no cellulose wall.

Catharine Arnston.: Chlorella has the hardest, and it’s that hard cell wall that attaches to toxins like lead, mercury, radiation and aluminum. It recognizes alcohol as a toxin, so it pulls it out and lactic acid. We work with biological dentists who use it after they’ve pulled out fillings because it removes the mercury. They give it to their patients and they take it as well because there’s fumes in the air. The United Nations used it after the China War to help pull out the radiation.

Catharine Arnston.: After the Fukushima disaster, the entire global supply of chlorella was bought within 24 hours, because everybody in Asia knows it’s the only thing that pulls out radiation. I feel it’s far better for you than activated charcoal, because activated charcoal pulls out all minerals and if you’re not careful, that can cause you to be dehydrated because it’s pulling out all your magnesium and potassium.

Catharine Arnston.: Chlorella will never do that because it only pulls out toxins, number one, and it’s loaded with all the electrolytes, magnesium, potassium and sodium. It’s really, really good for you. That’s number one why chlorella is the preferred algae for detox. I forgot to mention that because spirulina is very nourishing and satisfies your hunger, most people take it in the morning or the afternoon when they’re having a little bit of a slump, or as a meal or before a workout because that’s when you want energy and that’s when you’re hungry.

Catharine Arnston.: Because chlorella is a detoxifying agent, and because most of your detox and repair occurs when you’re sleeping, you could take either one of them anytime of the day, but we definitely encourage you to take it before you go to bed. If you have chlorella in your system while you’re sleeping, it will facilitate a much better detox. I don’t know if you know, but when you’re sleeping in your deep sleep, your brain actually shrinks a little bit. It has its own sort of lymphatic system, think about street washers in your brain.

Catharine Arnston.: The chlorella will help pull out aluminum, realizing that some Alzheimer’s is because of aluminum in your brain. It just facilitates that detox. Now, if you want the energizing benefits of spirulina, most people are so nutrient deprived that two or three tablets a day or five or 10 might be enough. Although our NHL players put 75 in their smoothie before a game.

Catharine Arnston.: There’s no upper limit because it’s food. For chlorella, same thing. You could take two or three tablets a day, or five or 10 for the wellness benefits. If you want to detox, you need to take closer to 20 or 30 tablets a day. You don’t need to take that much. That’s why I encourage people to chew them. If they can learn to like the flavor, it becomes like a snack. I have it with pistachio nuts, almonds or macadamia nuts. It’s my favorite snack. I literally eat 100 of these a day or more. It’s a main food for me.

Catharine Arnston.: Really, as you know, Wendy, people should be detoxing all the time because the toxins never stop. We’re surrounded by them. They’re in our clothes, they’re in our air and they’re in our food. It’s not just the ones in the world outside. People probably don’t even think about it, but your skin, your body, your bones, your cells and your organs are constantly remodeling. You are constantly regenerating cells.

Catharine Arnston.: Well, think about it, where do the old cells go? We have 30 trillion cells that die every day in our body. That’s a big number. If you don’t get rid of those dead cells, they aggregate, they cluster in your lymphatic nodes, which attract bacteria. They contribute to the disease in your cells.

Catharine Arnston.: You need to get rid of the toxins that are inside you as well as the ones that are outside of you. That’s why I say taking chlorella every day is like giving your body a shower on the inside. We’ve taken the shower automatically on the outside, but don’t forget about the inside.

Wendy Myers: I love that. So where can we get these? Tell us what your website is and where we can learn more about them?

Catharine Arnston.: Terrific. Our website is energybits.com. We have a 20% discount code for you. The code is Myersdetox. All one word, no space between Myers and detox. When you go to the website and you go to the shopping cart, you’ll see a box that says, enter your discount code here. That’s where you type, Myersdetox, for 20%. It works on everything all the time so don’t panic.

Catharine Arnston.: If you’re not ready for a big bag with a thousand tablets, you can buy a sample pack to try them out. Now, I don’t want people to have sticker shock when they go to the website, because a bag is $125, but here’s what I want to tell you. I use that quote we have from NASA that says, one gram of algae equals the same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables, the nutrition in it.

Catharine Arnston.: I did the math and figured out that one bag of our algae tablets has the same nutrition as 551 pounds of vegetables. Now, if you buy organic, that’s about $3 a pound so that would’ve cost you $1,500. By the way, arugula and vegetables, we all know they go bad, right? My arugula goes yellow after about three days. Algae never goes bad. We have to put an expiry date on it, which is usually two or three years, but technically it will never go bad because even when it’s growing, it never dies. That’s a whole nother story.

Catharine Arnston.: It’s what I call efficient nutrition. Plus think of all the time you saved not having to buy 551 pounds of vegetables and the arguments that you don’t have to have with your kids or your significant other to eat their vegetables. It just makes life easier. It’s effortless, easy nutrition. Because we’re so focused on quality and purity, it makes it safe. It’s even, like I said, good for your pets.

Catharine Arnston.: So we’re also very active on social media. Come and visit us on Instagram. Our handle, we have one for @ENERGYbits. I didn’t mention that we actually have two brands of spirulina. I found women didn’t like the packaging of our ENERGYbits. I started because of my sister and I designed everything, so I made a second version of spirulina because it has more collagen than collagen powder. It’s very good for your skin and has lots of antioxidants. BeautyBits is also a spirulina. Whatever makes you happy.

Wendy Myers: I love that. It’s really interesting that it has more collagen than actual collagen powder. Like you said, you can get rid of a lot of your other supplements and just take this.

Catharine Arnston.: I tried for years to take fish oil, but I kept burping it up and it made me sick. I tell people, where do you think the fish get the fish oil? The omega-3 from? They get it from algae so you can cut out the middleman and it never repeats on you. It never goes rancid like fish oil. 

Catharine Arnston.: By the way, collagen powder is not a sustainable crop. It’s made from basically melted animal bones and parts using chemicals to melt it all down. So do yourself and the environment a favor and up-level to algae, you’ll get more collagen and you’ll get 40 other vitamins and minerals that aren’t even found in collagen. It’s good stuff. Like I said, now I’ll tell you how old I am because you hung in there as long as you could. I’m 65.

Wendy Myers: Wow. Wow.

Catharine Arnston.: I attribute my skin, no wrinkles, no Botox, to the fact that I take so much chlorella and it keeps my skin nourished. That’s not going to happen overnight. I don’t want you to think it’s a quick fix, but I couldn’t live without it. I just want everybody else to enjoy the same benefits.

Wendy Myers: Well, Catharine, thanks so much for coming on the show. That was really interesting. I actually didn’t know all that about algae and chlorella.

Catharine Arnston.: Well, nobody does.

Wendy Myers: Thanks so much for coming on the show. Everyone, go check out energybits.com. Thanks so much for tuning in.

Catharine Arnston.: You’re welcome. Thanks Wendy for all that you do. We’re doing this together.

Wendy Myers: I do this show every week because I want to give you guys the tools to up-level your health because you deserve to feel good. I love having experts come on the show and educate you about all these different shortcuts, tips and tools that you can use to get the health that you deserve. Thanks for tuning in. I’m Wendy Myers of Myersdetox.com. I’ll see you guys on the next podcast.