The Amazing Health Benefits Of Algae with Catharine Arnston

Boomer Anderson 0:06
Welcome to decoding superhuman, this show is a deep dive into obsessions with performance and how to improve the human experience. Twice a week, I explore the latest science, technology and tactics with experts in various fields of human optimization. I’m your host, Boomer Anderson.

Enjoy the journey Superhumans. It’s Boomer Anderson and today we are discussing all things, algae. My guest today is Catherine Arnston. And Catherine has a 30 year career as an international attache, for the Canadian and British government’s. Not only that, but she was the publisher of an international magazine and the founder of three startups. But in 2009 when Catherine sister got diagnosed with breast cancer, Catherine decided that grabbed the bull by the horns become an expert in all things, algae. Today is a deep dive into chlorella, spirulina and the benefits of both. We talked about Catharine’s background, and specifically why her sister’s diet influenced her to really start researching algae. We talk about processing and why that matters. Fasting keto, do these allergies affect those? And the benefits? Oh, the benefits. The show notes for this one, our decoding superhuman comm slash energy bits. And Catherine has been really generous to you guys with a discount. So you’re gonna want to check that one out. Again, show notes for this one, our decoding superhuman comm slash energy bits and enjoy my episode with Catherine Princeton.

Catherine welcome.

Catharine Arnston 1:57
Oh, thank you for having me here. Good way to start my day.

Boomer Anderson 2:02
This is fantastic. It’s a conversation which has not been had yet on this podcast and I’m really looking forward to diving into the topic of algae with you. So Shall we get started?

Catharine Arnston 2:16
Oh, sure. And you know, you gotta be careful because I could talk about this for days. But I’ll try to, you know, keep it concise. I got 10 years of knowledge to pour out to you and your and your listeners. And as

Boomer Anderson 2:30
the listener base knows, I can talk for days about this stuff too. So I’ll just keep asking questions and eventually I will call it quits. But their way let’s start with the basics. What is algae and why should it be a part of a humans diet?

Catharine Arnston 2:47
Well, hopefully by the end of this podcast, people will be asking themselves not why should they take algae but why shouldn’t they? So let me get get give you the big picture first. Algae is a food group. You know we have vegetables and fruit. Algae is a is a food category. So that’s number one. It is not a supplement. supplements are made in labs from artificial ingredients. And from extracts. Algae is a crop that is grown in water hydrate. So it’s called hydroponically, so it’s no different than kale or tomatoes that may be grown in water. So that’s the most important thing that people understand that algae is food. It’s a food crop and it’s a category of food. Then within, like, let’s take fruit for example, you may have different types of fruit you have bananas and apples. Well within the algae Kingdom you have different types of algae, and the two main categories are seaweeds and the two main ones are red seaweed and brown. And the other category is micro algae and the two main micro-algae are blue, green, and green. Okay.

Boomer Anderson 4:00
I’m tracking

Catharine Arnston 4:02
okay within the micro algae blue, green and green categories. Just like with apples you have Macintosh and, and granny. So again they keep So dividing so but then the micro-algae Blue, Green Green, you have blue green, one of the blue green algae is spirulina, and one of the green algae is chlorella. And the reason why this is so important for people to understand is that these are the two that are harvested, or crops these are carefully cultivated in water. Now, not everybody cultivates them and grows them as carefully and pristinely as we do, but this is these are the two that are growing. But very often you’ll go online and you’ll read about blue green algae toxicity or you know, they there’s some studies that with blue green algae, and and I can promise you, absolutely without a doubt, I don’t even have to look at anything that whatever and I’ll do that We’re using came from an ocean, a lake, a swamp, a swimming pool because the vast majority of algae is grown wild in all of these other places. And of course, they will be toxic. Because algae absorbs whatever’s in the water. You take a glass of water from a swamp, it’s going to be full of garbage. If you take algae out of the ocean or a swamp, it’s going to be full of garbage. Just exactly same thing so so don’t panic when you ever read anything online about you know, algae being toxic, it’s only as it is wild, it’s still only time I can think of when food that has grown wild is not good for you, because you always hear about mushrooms and all these other things. It’s better to be grown what not when it comes to algae, you do not want algae while so. So it’s a food but it has to be carefully cultivated. And the two main ones as I said, in the blue green category is spirulina and then the green category is called chlorella and if you’d like I can go dive in Now the difference between the two or or I can do that later.

Boomer Anderson 6:06
Give me it. I want to table that for one second because there is this common misconception or I guess maybe among people who are inexperienced with these algae versus seaweed. Can we just discuss the differences there? I mean, obviously, obviously, you talked a little bit about the cultivation process, but I just like to understand a little bit more.

Catharine Arnston 6:30
Sure. Well, seaweed comes from the ocean and cultivated algae is grown in freshwater. Algae does grow in this in the ocean, but you don’t want that one. The difference? The main difference between the two of them is seaweed is predominantly very heavy in fiber. And my god, he has virtually no fiber like and that’s why it’s ketogenic because it also has no carbs. It’s perfect for ketogenic diets and Fasting etc. So seaweed has high fiber, very, it has iodine because it comes from the ocean and it has much lower nutritional value. Micro algae is just high test nutrition concentrated, virtually no fiber. It’s like it’s think about think of seaweed as maybe your child’s bicycle and micro-algae as a rocket ship. Because there’s no comparison you can eat a room full of seaweed and not even get less than 1% of the nutrients that you would get from a handful of of algae. It’s it’s crazy but but but the micro algae that’s harvested in most cases has either zero or virtually knows no iodine, which is important. It is important nutrient for people’s health. But so that’s the basic difference. Tons of fiber There’s no fiber, not much nutrients versus incredible. I call it not, as I call algae, not just a super food but a super duper food.

Boomer Anderson 8:10
So let’s talk a little bit about the super duper foods because you mentioned the blue green form, as well as the green form. And I want to go into each of those specifically happy to start with whichever one you’re most comfortable with. But let’s let’s jump into it.

Catharine Arnston 8:25
Okay, well, let’s do it chronologically, so, most people will not know that algae , especially in blue green algae, like spirulina was the first life on Earth. Almost 4 billion years ago before spirulina. Earth was just gas and water. I have no idea what caused the spirulina to start growing, but it did and they have fossils that are carbon dated to like 3.5 million billion years ago. By the way, we can only on the planet for about 100 million. So algae has been here four times longer than humans. And an algae releases oxygen as it grows. In fact, it provides 80% of the oxygen on Earth. It’s not the Amazon forest, it’s algae. So after about a billion years, there was enough air oxygen on earth that other life forms could grow. And chlorella was the next one that started growing and then we, you know, life moved on. So spirulina, let’s get back to it. So technically, interestingly, spirulina is really a bacteria, it does not have a cell in this wall, and it does not have a nucleus. It’s called us bacteria. And there’s a couple of really interesting reasons why that is important. It so it doesn’t have any the negative downsides of plants because it doesn’t have either it also doesn’t enormous, chlorella, oxalates, phytic acid lectins. None of those anti nutrients and we can talk about that later on. But what it does have is the richest source of protein in the world, the Germans won a Nobel Prize for discovering this back then around 1917 Has ours has 64%. It ranges from 60 to new highs in the low 60s, a high 60s. This is the most concentrated source of protein and not only is it concentrated its plant protein. So you’ll vegans vegetarians, it’s available to everybody and men. As I mentioned, it has no carbs. So it’s great for the ketogenic and also this, you know, can’t get any more paleo than being the first live on Earth. I say algae plays well in the sandbox with everybody it does, it meets every single food lifestyle that that’s out there. So very high in protein, 14 vitamins and minerals. So this has all of your it’s all the

potassium, magnesium

that you need. It’s loaded in B vitamins. In fact, it has so many B vitamins, it has all these wonderful nutrients that work so cooperatively and synergistically that it gives you energy. That’s why we call our Algae spirulina rather energy because it gives you so much energy both mentally and physically. So so it gets absorbed very quickly because it has no science Well, there’s nothing for your body to break down. That’s why our first customers were actually athletes triathletes, marathon runners, Olympic athletes, because they had been using your carb carb based products to fuel them in a race so like goo and bars and you know iterates all which are loaded with sugar so that your keto Forget it. But they cut those all cause stomach distress, diarrhea, gas, it’s not pretty. None of that happens with the spirulina or because it gets absorbed so quickly, and literally, it’s in your digestive system, within minutes, if you chew it, seconds if you chew it almost and within about five minutes, completely digested within about five minutes. So so it’s very efficient nutrition. gets into your bloodstream very quickly. And by the way, all that proteins already in amino acid form. So there’s no work for your body to break down the protein to get access to the aminos. And all the other minerals. And vitamins like the B, all the BS, like the 12 are attached to the amino so they get absorbed very quickly. So it’s also a very high in in essential fatty acids, including the omega three so So again, if you’re vegan, or if you’re concerned about sustainability, this is the answer to your omega three needs and your brain health needs because algae is the most sustainable crop in the world and it is all in all the essential fatty acids that your brain needs for functioning.

Boomer Anderson 12:42
Yeah, before we jump into chlorella, because there’s a lot of good questions to come around detoxification on this, but also spirulina in terms of the amino acid profile, is it a complete amino acid profile? Are there things that it’s a little bit less than than others?

Catharine Arnston 13:00
is a complete protein has 18 of the 20 Yomi knows all the BS of bcaas of course, and it has very high bioavailability eggs already always considered sort of one of the perfect proteins because it does get absorbed quickly and it has a also a complete protein profile. The problem with it there’s a couple of problems with eggs if you’re vegan, you’re kind of out of luck number one. They do contain a lot of sulfur which can cause gassy gas and bloating and and you know and I personally I love eggs so you know I don’t want to be you know, dissing eggs because it’s it’s great food, but it doesn’t have any chlorophyll. And when you eat the algae, whether it’s spirulina or chlorella, you get all the benefits of eggs. Plus, you get core fellow we’re going to talk a little bit about car fell about how it is like the missing I think it’s the key So much of its causing health issues so, so loving it likes to die. I don’t know if you work when you’re a kid if you read Dr. Seuss, but there was a book green eggs and ham and I’m convinced that he must have made his eggs with algae because that’s the only thing that would make them green.

Boomer Anderson 14:19
Not that not the food coloring stuff, right?

Catharine Arnston 14:21
Yeah. So it says both both the algae, particular spirulina are complete algae or complete protein and very bio bioavailable, probably 99% bioavailable because of this rapid absorption because there’s no cellulous wall and because your body doesn’t have to work to digest it it just gets absorbed in the future it’s a blink Lee it gets absorbed even faster. So so it’s it’s really crazy in terms of and by the way the United Nations in 1974 had a global conference on spirulina and identified it as the answer to world hunger because of the protein and because It is so sustainable. And I can send you the papers about the conference. And they’ve been so bullish about spirulina ever since. And that was like 40 years ago. So if algae is going to change the world, and I just happen to be on 10 years in doing this, but it’s still very, very much at the front end, and I can’t wait for the rest of the world to wake up to the benefits of algae.

Boomer Anderson 15:21
We’re going to come back to that point on the UN a little bit later. Let’s talk chlorella, and just some of the health benefits here because I know it’s used quite frequently in areas like heavy metal detoxification, for instance, that clear chat just a little bit on chlorella.

Catharine Arnston 15:41
Okay, so member blue green, was a spirulina was a blue green algae first life on Earth, high protein, energizing. And by the way, that second up is called blue green algae because there are two pigments in spirulina. One is the green pigment which is chlorophyll that most people know about. And There’s another pigment called psycho sign and that’s blue and if you put a little tablet in a plate and the other color that will come out of it is like in a GNC. It is so beautiful. But chlorella only has one pigment. It’s the chlorophyll. But what’s so amazing about chlorella is it has the highest concentration of chlorophyll in the world. Number spirulina has the highest concentration protein. chlorella is nice, chlorophyll, so much so that it has 25 times more than liquid chlorophyll, which of course is made from alfalfa sprouts 25 times more than wheatgrass 1000 times more than like Chinese lettuce 200 times more than spinach. I mean, it is a rock star when it comes to chlorophyll. So you say yourself. So what’s so important about chlorophyll? Well, chlorophyll is a fat based pigment on the blue and the spirulina is is the water based pigment. We can talk about that later on. But what’s so important about that well, all of your health issues stem Kind of three main things your gut, your the health of your cell walls were so that mitochondria can be looked after and your liver and chlorophyll prop up heals all three. But let’s talk about the cell walls because the fat piece so I say that, you know if your cells aren’t healthy and the nutrients can’t get in and toxins can’t get out and you know, we’ve always heard people saying, oh well so such as such as cleansing. Well, what does exactly does that mean? Well, I’m gonna tell you what that means. chlorophyll consider when you have windows that are dirty, right? You can’t see out and sunlight can’t get in. Not a good situation. Cells are the same way if they’re not healthy nutrients can’t get in and toxins can’t get out. chlorophyll. Consider chlorophyll. I like your window washers, because it’s so healing to the cell walls and busts them up with the fact that nutrients can get in and toxins can get out. That’s what cleansing is. And when it comes up the don’t get the toxins out. They start damaging The mitochondria, if the nutrients can’t get in, you’re not getting ATP. Then you start getting rogue cells, which leads to cancer cells, they can’t communicate and it’s just a slippery slope after that. So chlorophyll is so important, but here’s the problem. Our soils are so nutrient deprived that even if you eat organic, it is really hard to get your chlorophyll needs met by the what’s what’s in our food supply. So that’s why chlorella is just like us the answer to everything because and I’m going to tell you more about what why because it has even more amazing attributes. It has all of this rich chlorophyll 10% of chlorophyll only gets absorbed in your stomach the rest of it travels through your liver and down through your your your gut and your colon. So it’s it’s cleansing and absorbing toxins all the way down. And an interesting fact that red was back in World War One was they ran it a blood transfusions for the injured during the war. They would give them liquid chlorophyll because they would they would I help them heal just as fast as a blood transfusion. And I used to wonder about this until I discovered why and you’re welcome to do this, or I can send you this image, the chemical composition of chlorophyll is virtually identical to your hemoglobin. It’s exactly the same composition. The only difference is that chlorophyll has a magnesium atom in the middle and your hemoglobin as a iron atom in the middle and that that iron atom is what carries oxygen in your blood. So it’s very, very important. But but that I tell people, that’s going to be a tip off how important chlorophyll is to your, to your health and to your vitality, because it’s virtually identical So, so again, Cora, Cora has the highest concentration of chlorophyll. So let’s talk about some of the other attributes of chlorella. The other main one that you mentioned, which is so incredible is that it is has the ability to pull out toxins of any kind, all the heavy metals, mercury, lead radiation, it also pulls out

Alcohol for anybody’s interested. You’re so you’re sober in an hour and a half and you’ll never have a hangover. It also pulls up lactic acid. So athletes love it as a post workout, they use the spirulina as a pre workout to give them energy and focus and then the chlorella pulls out the lactic acid so their muscles aren’t sore. So what is it that’s doing this? Well, remember I said spirulina has no cellulous wall and it’s not really is it is that technically a bacteria? chlorella has the hardest selling as well in the plant kingdom, and it’s that hard cellulose wall that attaches to the toxins. It’s also called an adaptogen. Because it it can detect what’s supposed to be there and what’s not. A lot of people use activated charcoal to pull out some toxins. But the problem with activated charcoal is that it pulls out all minerals. So now you’re depleting your body of everything. And chlorella is not like that. In fact, it’s loaded with 40 vitamins and minerals. It only pulls out the bad boy And it populates you with the good minerals, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, all that good stuff. I call it intelligent food, because it it can make that distinction between what needs to be removed and what should stay there. I read a report a number of years ago, I wish I kept the source. I don’t have it, but they were just studying and I think that they were using chlorella. They were using algae as a vehicle for delivering chemotherapy treatments. So I don’t know whether they gave the patient the the, the treatment, orally or injected, but they put the chemo treatment in the algae. The algae would find the tumor and, and it’s attached to it to deliver the chemo treatment. Because that’s the problem with chemo, chemotherapy. It kills everything, right? But the algae could find the place the places where to go to deliver the the chemo. So does that mean that’s got to be something that’s really special. I mean, I just Don’t know how that even happens but so I that’s why I call it intelligent food. So in addition to that, chlorella has your daily requirements k two and we can talk more about the importance of K two and why everybody is short of it. And there’s only but two food sources and grass fed animal protein or chlorella, there’s a little bit of spirulina, but really, chlorella has 40 vitamins and minerals. It has the highest concentration of RNA and DNA in the world. And as you get older, this is very important because your RNA DNA get damaged. And so this helps you heal, grow, you’ll continue living without as much, you know, cellular damage. It has the also something called chlorella growth factor which speeds up the growth of your cells. So So chlorella is a healing algae we call ours recovery bits because it helps you recover your health or it helps you recover from fitness or helps recover from your day. It pulls out the talks as we are so bombarded with toxins every single person in the world to be taken chlorella every single day. They’ve been 80,000 chemicals released in our world since World War Two. We don’t have our immune systems were not built to support this kind of toxic load. And even if it’s just incrementally a little bit toxic here a little bit toxin there, it all gathers in your cells and in your organs and in your brain. You know, all timers are realizing is often caused by cumulated, aluminum, same thyroid issues, a lot of food disorders and autoimmune, it’s toxins and inflammation ours that are really causing so much of this and you got to get them out so if you don’t want if you want something that’s natural member chlorella is a food and it’s harvested cleanly least ours is it and we work with biological dentist because you know they pull up mercury meal in Alabama grams and i and i, once I started wrap up a coral I want to tell you what, why our chlorella is special and clean because of this broken cell wallet situation. chlorophyll detoxing healing cleansing

is very much a recovery wellness algae completely different from spirulina. And you should be taking both of them because they do completely different things. You can take them together separate instead of food with food. Oh, and the other magical thing about chlorella is it actually tastes pretty good. Most people do not like the flavor of spirulina and I get that because it’s very chewy because of the protein and the essential fatty acids kind of got this earthy. It’s really a hard flavor does and it’s really not all kids like it because it turns to turn green clover on the other hand, tastes like assess a sunflower seed or a Selena or and it’s very dry and crunchy. And I whenever I go to conferences, I take sea salt and macadamia nuts with me and I make people try them together. When you have the chlorella with a little bit sea salt and a couple of macadamia nuts in your mouth together. You can Close your eyes You think you’re eating potato chips? mean it is it doesn’t work with spirulina, just the chlorella, but you can also eat it with almonds or banana chips or whatever you want chlorella, we’re going to make it into trail mix. It’s unbelievable. So now it’s not just a healthy snack, it’s truly a healing snack. So I really encourage people to try eating the chlorella because it’s much more satisfying. If you’re eating something, then swallowing it because we, you know, we do want you to have at least 1015 or 20 and it can make 30 a day. A chlorella is, man, it’s it’s it’s my, you know, I couldn’t live without it. I just couldn’t live without it.

Boomer Anderson 25:38
This is super exciting. And I’m really glad that we’re having this conversation because I’m just excited. Butyeah, Catherine, how did you get into this? Because this is like a very interesting, you know, niche World Within the health space. How did you come into algae?

Catharine Arnston 25:57
Yeah, well, I certainly wasn’t planning on that. I am Canadian. And all my education was in Canada. And I did an MBA in international business. And I was, you know, I’d started I was a publisher of an interior design magazine. I know various new careers. But all in business, of course. And then in Canada, my younger sister developed breast cancer, she’s fine now, but 10 years ago, they got for this for oncologist told her she should change her diet to an alkaline diet, because it would help her with her healing. She was going to do the chemotherapy. Now remember, this was 10 years ago, and this knowledge of plant based nutrition was nobody It was not discussed. So this was brand new. So she got home and they didn’t tell her what it wasn’t quite work. They just said you got to do this. So she called me Not that I knew anything about nutrition, but I’m a really good researcher. Now I can find out anything. That’s why I know so much about algae because it’s like, it’s like Alice in Wonderland. Oh, it does that. Does that too. Oh, my God, I need to know work. So anyways, so I said, Don’t worry. I’ll help you honey, but we’ll figure it out. So I found out alkaline diet was basically a plant based diet because of all the chlorophyll and the vital nutrients that help build your immune system. And we can talk more about that later if you want. So she did go through chemo, she did change her diet, she still has a plant based diet. And in the process of helping her I read, I started reading more about plant based nutrition by the time I got to my 10th book, I thought, Oh my gosh, this is crazy. Like, Why doesn’t anybody in America know about this? Someone should tell them that well, I’m a very action oriented person that Well, I have no idea what to do with this, but I think I’m going to try to do something. So I gave up my 25 year corporate career. I went back to school, I didn’t have time to get a registered dietitian degree. I already had to. So I went to the Institute for integrative nutrition, learned about health coaching, so I’m a certified health coach. So then I coached for a year taught nutrition for a year trying to get people the greens and found out a very important thing. Everybody knows they shouldn’t healthier and probably incorporate more greens, but everyone’s busy or they don’t like the taste, or it’s too much work, or the kids won’t eat them. So that well how can I help people eat healthier if I can’t get them to eat green? So I gotta find something that’s easy, fast green, back to the drawing board, just doing more research and I had an epiphany one day and it was that algae stuff I found for my sister. I could take another circle back to that. Well, that was it. That was that was the Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole. Because I started reading about algae found out it was the multi billion dollar industry in Asia, where it’s been used for 50 years especially in Japan. They don’t take vitamins in Japan, they only take chlorella every day. And by the way, they have the best longevity, lowest cancer rates and best skin in here that I can find. It’s been studied for, you know, probably 100 years there’s a 300,000 studies on the efficacy of algae for everything. Whether it’s via To uptake or you’re recovering from it, you know, injury or it’s it’s the most documented food. But here’s the problem. All the scientists have done all this research, they just talk to each other. They have not given this information to the consumers, and they own it. The packaging is important America so nobody knew about it. Nobody explained what it does. So when I saw what this stuff does, and I saw the science, I decided 10 years ago, I was going to spend the rest of my life if it took that long to get algae into the mainstream and I it will probably take at least another 10 or 20 years of it’s okay because I don’t mind I’m doing this. I feel like I’m like a public service I this stuff it and it’s eco friendly, sustainable. It’s the most sustainable crop in the world. And in fact, the White House here in America, in January of this year, issued the first very first algae agricultural act. They include in the 2019 farm bill because he They have realized the nutrient density of algae, the importance of it to our future food supply. And that’s all grown in Asia, virtually none of it is grown in America. So they’re trying to encourage farmers through subsidies and grants to start growing algae here. Because it’s, it’s it is, like I said, a game changer. We can talk more about the sustainability issues later, too.

So that’s how I found I just wanted to help my sister, and that well, now I can help a few more people. And then I can have a few more. And then I was not planning on building a companies Trust me. But this is my vital tip to any entrepreneur or budding entrepreneur. If there’s a little voice in the back of your mind, or something that you just can’t stop researching, and you just keep asking questions and you have curiosity. Follow it, follow it. I had no idea what I was going to do when I did this. I just knew I want I had some knowledge, and it seems to be needed. And I just kept going with it. And I have I’m so proud of my company and So proud of what we do. I’m so proud of what the product is. I was on Shark Tank a little while ago and a meeting with Dr. Oz next week, and we’re finally starting to get some lifts and helping people understand what this stuff does with but it’s, you know, I 10 years is a long time to slug it out and not make any I haven’t even paid myself.

Boomer Anderson 31:19
Yeah, I know the feeling the entrepreneurial feeling. And I’m sure there are many people here listening that know that feeling as well.

Catharine Arnston 31:27
Yeah, it’s very satisfying work. So I will say just

Boomer Anderson 31:32
let’s, let’s

talk about the process because you mentioned something earlier with the cracked, I believe cell wall, but also your process in general. Clean, right, go a little. Let’s go into that because it’s unique. And I want to understand why is that important?

Catharine Arnston 31:50
Okay, sure. Well, remember I said spirulina has no selling as well so, so it doesn’t have to be cracked. It’s only the chlorella that needs to be cracked. And the FDA in America and also Health Canada, require all chlorella that’s sold in North America, excuse me to have crack sell well, in Europe, they don’t require that but you generally want crack sell well, and here’s why. Remember I said chlorella is the hardest silliest wall in the plant kingdom. And so if you don’t crack it, it is so hard. Your body just can’t absorb the nutrients all the nutrients are inside. So there’s a company called sun chlorella, based in Japan. And about 50 years ago, I, I give them full credit, and I’m very honored that they did this. They started to learn about, you know, the value of chlorella, for detoxing, and that took them and had never been grown for mass consumption back in the 50s. There was this one, so they took them 10 years to figure out how to grow it. And they did. And then they learned about this, this requirement to crock chlorella, so they figured out a technique that they patented. It’s called Dinah mill that cruxes with the song cell wall of the chlorella and what they do is they tumble the chlorella, with glass beads, and that physically smashes the chlorella so that you know it’s you can absorb it. But the problem is the glass heats up when it’s going through this tumbling process, and there was always worried that lead from the glass would leak into the Corolla. Now, they always denied that that was happening. And then about 10 or 11 years ago, just before I started my company, the state of California tested their chlorella and didn’t find it find that it had excessive amounts of lead. And they said, Well, you can either put a warning on your package or stop selling in America. So they put a warning on their package that said this, this you know, food group contains a substance known to cause birth defects and brain disorders. So I told my team like, like how much lead is too much lead I would say any lead. So I because I’m doing this to help people be healthier. I just did I can’t do that it just you know. So I was fortunate to find a new technique that had just been developed when they passed the chlorella, through a sound chamber. And so it’s the vibrations that are cracking the chlorella, similar to how like an opera singers voice cracked glass, and that’s the technique that we use. Now the problem is, however, 99.99% of the entire chlorella industry uses that same technique that was developed by some chlorella. So we’re one of the very end where the one of the very few companies that I know that uses this sound chamber vibrational technique to correct Well, that’s why the mercury poisoning Association wants to work with us. That’s why biological dentist like to work with us. That’s why we work with Dr. Dominic D’Agostino and lots of other nutritionist because I do third party lab tests. I do a whole series for every batch that we grow because you were asking earlier about the you know, the cleanliness and we we Grow ours and triple filter Spring Mountain water because, as I mentioned earlier, algae absorbs whatever’s in the water and you do not want anything spirulina or chlorella, from China because they don’t, they’re not as careful and they don’t really know what’s going on. They put other stuff in there and Japan still has the Fukushima issue. So So Taiwan is world renowned for having the cleanest algae period. And the company that grows ours because it has this pure water. I feel where that we have the best, we are the highest quality. That’s why we’re always endorsed by so many professionals, but then we use this technique that’s clean for the cracking of the chlorella, that I do all these lab tests here. I also do it. There’s only three labs in the world I know that will test for neurotoxins VMA, I finally found one and I knew we wouldn’t have any ensure enough we don’t have any your toxins because it’s grown so carefully. So so the crack cell wall is important for the absorption of The nutrients Why bother? Be like, I don’t know. I don’t know what the comparison is you just can’t absorb it in Europe. I don’t know why they don’t insist on crack cell wall. It’s not a requirement. But yeah, there you go. That’s the that’s what this whole cell wall thing is.

Boomer Anderson 36:16
That’s incredible and thank you for your your commitment to the quality that’s that’s I love somebody that’s that sorrow because if I were to have a company I’d want to be that thorough and diligence everything but thank you.

Catharine Arnston 36:31
Yeah, it’s it took me a long time because I didn’t come from a biochemistry or plant, plant biology background but I’m determined to make a difference in the world and I knew that I had to have the answers for everything because I had conversations like this. And I didn’t, although I will say I still don’t know everything. There’s always more to learn. And if I don’t know anything, I will find it.

Boomer Anderson 36:55
That curiosity is awesome. Let’s talk about k two because K two is very hard to get in a typical American diet. It’s also I mean, and almost every diet, right? You think of foods like not testable foods like notto, which are not very appealing to most western palates as being high in K two. But key to how can we get it from algae?

Catharine Arnston 37:23
Well, let’s talk about what k two is first, because I’m sure most people don’t know what it is. It was a vitamin that was only discovered about 25 years ago. And it is related to K one which is in green plants, like kale and spinach and stuff. But it’s we cannot convert k one to K to only animals can. So what and what k two does well, let me back up. So the issue is, we’re all taking calcium, and we’re all taking d3 to help the absorption with calcium. But here’s the problem. The calcium is not being absorbed by our bones. It’s getting absorbed in what’s called soft tissue. Now that includes your brain, your blood vessels, your organs, your skin. All these places you do not want excess calcium. They’re realizing Alzheimer’s is partly caused by calcification of the brain not a good thing. They’re realizing Heart disease is partly a calcification of your blood vessels. All that it’s called arteriosclerosis is when your blood vessels get crunchy and immobile, that’s calcium that’s making that’s causing you to build it up and then you have a stroke. You have kidney stones, guess what they are? Yep, calcium. So and wrinkles, wrinkles are causing calcium buildup in your skin, which causes your elastin to collapse. It’s like having a bridge, the structure of a bridge collapsing. So your skin wrinkles, and I don’t want to tell you how old I am, but I don’t have any wrinkles. It’s crazy. And I think it’s because of the K two. So K to move. Calcium out of all these places where does not belong And shuttles it into your bones where it does belong. And which also prevents osteoporosis. Now, the reason why nobody in North America has k two is is it’s so obvious when you think about it. But and but it’s also a sad story. So the only places that you can get k to from naturally from food, our grass fed animal protein, an oddish, called natto, which nobody in America eats because it’s a Japanese dish. It’s really strange. And algae. I don’t think anybody even knew Katie was an algae I didn’t until we did our lab tests. The chlorella in particular has your daily requirement of K two. So now that we know what k two is, why do we have it and and there’s only two sources really in North America where you can get it Why? What you know, nobody knew about algae. So of course, it’s not that not there. So let’s look at the grass fed animal protein. what’s what’s happened there? Well back in the 60s, the cattle and the chickens and everybody were on pastures and guess what they were eating grass. Animals have a bacteria in their gut that allows them to convert the K one that’s in the grass to K two. So when we humans eat the chicken or the dairy or the beef or something, we get the K to because it’s in the animal flesh course if you’re vegan, you’re out of luck. But in the 70s, the farmers found out that if they said the animals corn and put them in enclosures, they would get fat faster, and they would make more money. So that’s what they did. Guess what? No more k two, because corn doesn’t have anything green in it. So they immediately the rise of heart disease completely parallels the rise and the implement implementation of animals being fed corn. Crazy, huh? So we because we don’t have the bacteria that could convert the K one you can eat a room full of kale and you’ll ever get a drop Okay, too. So that’s so so that’s why Heart disease is escalated, all timers has escalated. It just it’s because we don’t have k two in our diet. Now you can buy candy supplements, that’s those are now available, but I will caution you that they cater supplements are made from fermented chickpeas and Kaito is a very complicated vitamin, there’s different categories of K to what is it they call them when one and two and three, four. So the kind that’s in the supplement is called m seven, which is okay but the problem is the brain can only absorb and for the variation of K two and four, and that is in food. So it’s in your grass fed animal protein or your chlorella algae. So if you want to get your biggest bang for your buck, you should be taking em for version of K two because it will it will help all of your body not just a part of your body but but if nothing else, just get k to in you because it’s it’s the lack of it is just causing so much havoc with our health. Wow

Hello

Boomer Anderson 42:00
There’s a lot I can go into here. One of the reasons why I became fascinated about with algae is the presence of phytonutrients but also the absence of anti nutrients All right. Let’s talk about the phytonutrients first and then really explaining what a photo nutrient is and go down that route and then we’ll come back to the answer nutrients afterwards.

Catharine Arnston 42:29
Sure, well, I’m just gonna, you know, a brief overview is that there’s there’s thousands and thousands of microscopic nutrients, of which vital nutrients are one that we eat the plant based diet or just don’t eat anything green. There’s harmonies and synergies that boosts the immune system. So let’s let’s talk about you know, could be chlorophyll for example, which is a very alkaline member I got on I got into this because of the my sisters. doctor recommended alkaline diet. So why is that so important? Well, it doesn’t matter whether you’re going through chemotherapy, it’s just your blood, a lot of people don’t realize, well we all realize that your body temperature has to be 98.6 to be healthy. Well, there’s another number that you need to be aware of, it’s called the pH level of your blood. And your blood needs to be I think it’s 7.34 to be healthy, and and that’s kind of like the middle of the scale. The problem is when you eat acidic food, like animal protein or dairy or processed foods or alcohol, or if you’re stressed out, because that causes chemical reactions in your body that are also acidic. So when you when that happens, your body is so intelligent that it it kind of goes red alert, Red Alert, your blood pH is becoming more too acidic, and that you would die instantly if it became too acidic. So in its intelligence, what it does is it withdraws minerals which are alkaline from your bones from your organs. Anywhere it’s stored, your bones are where most of your calcium and your minerals are stored. So it withdraws the minerals instantly into your blood to balance out that Ph. But if if you do that frequently over and over and over again, it’s like not changing your tires on your car, if you the tires, we’re down, we’re down when eventually they they’re not very functional. Same thing if you constantly withdraw these minerals, where they’re supposed to be doing important things and having actually important processes, it weakens your immune system. It’s a real hard to find your immune system. And so that causes your body to be not functioning properly and that will lead you to sickness or if you’re trying to recover from sickness. It makes it more difficult. And the algae is the most alkaline food in the world. So it facilitates healing because it not only populate your body with minerals, it prevents that pH level from every ever changing so, so it’s very important to make sure that you’ve got the vital nutrients in the chlorophyll that you need to maintain your, your health. So that’s why I was set when we’re talking about eggs earlier. I love eggs, but there’s no nothing green in there, there’s no phytonutrients that Mother Nature has provided us with all the intelligence and all the food and all the nutrients we need, we just have to pay more attention to them. And the other thing is, things like that are we I know we’re going to talk about some of the anti nutrients in plants but there’s also anti nutrients and other things like you know, awful omega sixes like canola oil, and the way I described canola oil is that you know, there’s receptors on your cells and you know, when you have a bad it’s the receptor is spot is taken up by something like canola oil, which is so damaging. It’s like someone’s stealing your parking spot. It’s the bad oil is there the girl can’t get in. So, so it’s not just putting the good stuff in your diet. You go How to take the bad stuff out. Because the bad stuff taking up your parking spot.

Boomer Anderson 46:06
I’m going to steal that analogy from you at some point because I’ve been, I’ve explained why vegetable oil is just a horrible thing for everyone. And the best analogy I’ve heard so far as stealing the parking spot. So thank you.

Catharine Arnston 46:21
You’re welcome. I’ll give you another one you’re welcome to use. I refer to chlorella and also chlorophyll is certain green as giving your body a shower from the inside because we all know yet their shower on the outside, but there’s lots of garbage on the inside. And chlorella is like giving your body a shower on the inside.

Boomer Anderson 46:39
If I take a spirulina for instance, first thing in the morning and we have a lot of people listening to this that are cognitive ninjas, and one of the strategies that they use to enhance brain function is fasting. You take spirulina first thing in the morning, does it break your fast does it disrupt a tapa g

Catharine Arnston 47:00
No, no, it’s a beautiful thing. Although, you know if you want to do long water fast, and I love fasting and I love long term fasting I love intermittent fasting it is it is there’s nothing like it. It’s challenging if you’ve never done before, but it does not because there’s no glucose, no sugar, no carbs, it does not break your fast. So it’s particularly helpful with intermittent fasting or if you’re getting into the keto diet and because you know, there’s that keto flu because now you have no carbs. So your body is kind of, you know, getting rid of all the old stuff. So the spirulina because it’s energizing, lists your brain focus. Most people are expecting the energy physically, but they don’t anticipate the mental focus. We have brain surgeons that use this stuff. So it does not interfere with your fast you can do. You can use your meters to test your ketones, your glucose, nothing changes. So it’s really terrific and You know, we recommend when I started, we were working with athletes. So we were recommending 30 of the little tablets for dosage. But now we’re working with consumers and quite honestly, they’re so nutrient deprived that even five or 10 will boost their, their health and satisfy their hunger for a little while more is always better. It’s like eating a salad. You can’t have too much of this stuff. I probably over 100 easy of chlorella every day, every day and half for eight years. And people usually think I’m 20 years younger, at least than what I really am, which is kind of cool. So yeah, I would. Now you can also take the chlorella, which is my preference, flavor wise, but it will not give you that boost of energy or, or the satisfy your hunger. And it’s odd because the nutrients are very similar, but again, it’s these harmonies between the different nutrients and micronutrients that have different effects on your body. So spirulina is definitely the one to take in the morning today. Get start your day, put it in the smoothie if you want if you’re not fasting, but and take it anytime take it at lunch, take it, two o’clock take it before your workout. But also just a little tip. Don’t expect lightning bolts from the sky. This is not a stimulant is there’s no caffeine, there’s no sugar. The best way we describe it as you feel fresh, you feel like you just had a great night’s sleep, you’re just alert you won’t eat you may not even notice it but you will notice that hey, you know if you’re on a workout, hey, I looked at more and was even trying or, Hey, I got through a whole day and you could went for a two hour run afterwards. It just it just has that very subtle, whispering non fatigue effect mentally and physically.

Boomer Anderson 49:46
It seems like a very interesting solution to people are both trying to solve for body composition as well as the benefits of fasting because spirulina being so Protein dense if you can keep your protein up, and have it be muscle sparing in a way, but it’s a fantastic solution actually.

Catharine Arnston 50:09
Well, the other thing I want to point out is, so as serving of 30 tablets only has five grams of protein. So again, if your ketogenic will not throw it again, or you go to ketosis, it also does not activate the mTOR pathway. This is a really important issue because a lot of protein when you’re younger is good because you’re building into a pathway builds muscle and build cells. But as you get older, because we all have more cancer cells in us as we get older, what’s happening is that extra protein is being used to activate more of the temporalities activating more cellular cancer cell growth. Not a good thing. So so so you can have again, as much of the algae as you’d like with all the protein and no activation of the Emperor pathway. So very happy. So did I have a good

Boomer Anderson 50:59
day? The muscle sparing part wrong or does it still

Catharine Arnston 51:03
know you know, you’re right but it doesn’t it because you’re getting the proteins and getting the muscle correct but, but it’s not. Again I call it it is it Colin adaptogen it just knows what to do. It’s intelligent food. It just, it just knows what to do in your body and, and it’s particularly spirulina, but also chlorella. It’s, it can be used for newborns. athletes, moms, soccer kids, granddad’s pets, animals love this stuff. So it’s the safest form of food you can ever give anybody in. In Japan when babies are born, they and they premies or they can’t digest mother’s milk. They have found that the spirulina and water is the only thing that keeps them alive. And I was always curious about that. And then, couple of years ago, I was looking at the nutrient profile, particularly as the amino acid profile of mother’s breast milk colostrum, and I thought that looks awfully familiar. So I scooted back to Our nutrient chart and wouldn’t you know, the nooch. The amino acid profile of mother’s breast milk is virtually identical to spirulina. spirulina has something enemy amino acid or a set of fatty acid called GLA, which the only other place there’s more GLA is mother’s breast milk in the white reason why it’s in mother’s breast milk is because this is the essential fatty acids that helps the baby’s brain grow because it doubles or triples in size within the first couple of years. So, you know, we all need brain health, we all need our brain to be functioning properly and so it’s in the spirulina along with all the same Amina was in mother’s breast milk and bread that mother’s breast milk is known as the perfect food nature’s perfect food. So I considered algae is the same way it’s under the two foods that you could live on forever. Algae never goes bad. And interesting little side note is that it also never dies. So you can grow algae and if the growing conditions you know like the sunshine disappears and the rain stops at any other crop corn tomatoes doesn’t matter what it is, will die, not algae. It just goes dormant. They have, they have documented up to 40 years going dormant. And then it will start growing again. And I read an interesting thing in that National Geographic, there was a team of people that went up to the Antarctic, and they chopped some ice and they put the carbon data to be like three and a half billion billion years old. And they found some algae in there. So just out of curiosity, they took the algae and put it in some petri dishes and put some water in it wouldn’t you know, it started growing again. So so it never dies. And it never goes bad. You could buy algae and you know, save it for 40 years. And, you know, we have to put an expiry date on it, but it technically never goes bad. And that’s why I want us to grow and be successful. So we could, you know, give this stuff away to disaster areas and help people in other parts of the world have access to this wonderfully rich, nutritionally dense food that could change things for them. So, so it’s it’s pretty neat stuff.

Boomer Anderson 54:06
Catherine one last question before we go into the final six and something you said earlier, it kind of flagged an interest to me 40 years ago the UN investigated spirulina is kind of a solution to world hunger and why. Why do you think we haven’t made that much progress with spirulina in 40 years?

Catharine Arnston 54:29
Well, you know, it’s politics, its business, its branding its education. I’m, I’ve committed myself to being a cheerleader for algae, and I’ll do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, because I’m aware of that on in Asia. You know, people drive by Saudi farms is completely normal, just like we drive by corn farm. So it’s part of the lifestyle there. And, you know, I actually going to A big meeting next week in New York. And people were saying, Well, why is nowadays, you know, known here? Well, it’s not part of our lifestyle. We never see an algae farm. And so people think it’s weird. Well, you know, 20 years ago, people thought stevia was weird, but it has been around for, you know, hundreds of years in South America, people thought chia seed was weird. Well do the Aztecs or use different decks few decades or centuries. Same with kiwa. There’s lots of foods that are very common in other parts of the world. But America if it hasn’t been introduced to America and hasn’t been packaged, and branded and edgy and explained properly, Americans just think it’s downright weird and they don’t want any part of it. So part of my effort has been to try to make algae less weird looking. It’s not pond scum. It’s a very nutrient dense food. And so the poor un I mean, they’re just their political organization. They have their scientists Know the same nutritional value that the scientists here though but like I said the scientists only talk to each other. So if I can get the ball rolling and American start helping people see the witchy value of algae that is not weird, and I’m trying my best to package it in ways that are friendly. We can get the momentum going. And there are algae conferences but again they’re only attended by scientists. But we can get it going in the mainstream just like CBD oil just exploded or what the same thing to algae then we’ll have leverage then we’ll have budget then we’ll have you know the access to the politicians. This will just take off but it’s probably going to be another five years of heavy lifting to get to that point. But anybody who starts taking this I promise you you will feel different. You will you can eliminate other foods you can eliminate other vitamins. You will just it will it will simplify your life. You will have The earth because it’s sustainable, you get 10 crops a year of algae. other crops you get one and there’s no negative footprint no no carbon footprint whatsoever. It’s, it’s, it’s, you’ll save the oceans even so

Boomer Anderson 57:14
in the way you packaged it in the way you package it makes it easy to travel with. And for those listening who travel quite a bit, it’s a much much better alternative to plane food, that’s for sure.

Catharine Arnston 57:29
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we sell our bags on our website, energy bits. com, there’s 1000 tablets and a bag. But we give you a little empty tin inside that you can fill up and always take with you. And then we also sell individually packed single what I call single serving. So there’s 30 tablets in a single serving, and we sell those on Amazon and through doctors and nutritionists. We all at Christmas time we’re going to sell them on our box as well. So we try to make it very accessible and very easy to travel with because because for that reason, I think People all over the world and they need to throw things in their, in their, you know, carry on in their briefcase, whatever. So yeah, we make it as easy as possible, but it’s really high quality stuff.

Boomer Anderson 58:10
Catherine, I want to transition now into what I call the superhuman six. So final six rapid fire questions here. Okay. favorite piece of technology which you’ve purchased in the past year.

Catharine Arnston 58:25
Well, probably this camera that’s a lot of me to talk to you.

I’m not a big technology person. So I’m, I as I was thinking about that, and I don’t know, I haven’t really purchased any big technology other than my little camera or microphone, but I do. I couldn’t live without Uber. I’ll say that. I’m about to buy the iPhone 11. And the funniest thing you probably chuckle is I I bought myself a new fridge and if I leave the door open it, it speaks so and I didn’t If it didn’t be, you know, it might just might run itself out. So I was happy that they included technology into my in my new fridge. So that was that’s the best I can do. Beautiful, beautiful. How do you unwind? Well I work 16 hours a day like most entrepreneurs, so there’s not a lot of time to unwind but I like to do yoga I I do hot yoga, I walk outside I love to do a three mile walk and then I do a little high intensity workouts about two or three times a week so and I read I’m a big reader so those are those are my go tues

Boomer Anderson 59:37
What’s the best thing you’ve done to enhance your productivity?

Catharine Arnston 59:42
Well, I do a lot of research as you can tell, and I’m and I run the company. So the thing that I have found, if I have a deadline, and we’re have to go deep, I just don’t read my emails. They’ll be I’ll be it will take me sometimes a day to catch up. But if I think Have to do some serious thinking. It’s too distracting. I just so that was that’s my tip. Definitely don’t read your emails.

Boomer Anderson 1:00:08
favorite place to go on vacation?

Catharine Arnston 1:00:11
Well, I haven’t taken it.

But top of my list is Costa Rica. I’m eager to get there. It’s very clean and healthy. And I love this. I love being outdoors and I love spas and yoga. So that’s where I want to go. I was just in LA for a week and I love the buzz of LA. So anytime I can get outside is a good thing. With trees, I’m a tree person.

Boomer Anderson 1:00:39
What book has significantly impacted your life and your ability to show up and perform in it?

Catharine Arnston 1:00:46
Well, I have a I have I have a book in it actually a primer that some people may have heard of it. It’s been around for 50 years. I’m reading it for the second time now because it’s pretty heavy going but it’s called The Course in Miracles and it’s setting about two or 3000 pages while it’s not like reading and the pages are thin like the Bible, so it’s it just helps you think if if your life It isn’t if you aren’t leading the life and feeling joy in life seems too hard it’s because there’s probably a filter you’re seeing the world a certain way and this helps you understand how to maybe remove that filter so that you know all the goodness that should be coming to you if your intentions are well meaning and from the heart will support you It’s a hard book to read so there’s another book and you can buy this on on Amazon. It’s in the publisher is called foundation for inner peace and but if it’s to get you started, there’s a shorter much shorter book called A Course in Miracles made easy. Go like you’re a cheat sheet by On the book and it’s only about feel 150 pages by man by the name of Alan Cohen. And he kind of summarizes everything that’s in the big Yo, Papa Bear version. And so I, it’s, I guess it’s heavy reading it’s hard to carry on an airplane because it ways of freeing two pounds, but it’s very powerful and I’ll give you one more because they kind of all work together. It’s a good it’s called money and the law of attraction. The authors are Esther and Jerry Hicks and this channeled knowledge from a group of whatever beings called Abraham and it’s kind of related to the, you know, the art of attraction and all that sort of stuff. So money in the law, so it’s it was an interesting it was also an interesting, you know, book much lighter to carry on an airplane. Also on Amazon,

Boomer Anderson 1:02:56
Catherine, thank you again for all this time today. The education you’ve provided us. Look, I find it a fantastic thing to bring on planes, especially. But where can people find out more about you?

Catharine Arnston 1:03:11
Sure, well, we are on em. You can find us on the website. It’s www.energybits.cam, and we sell our large algae tablets in these large bags of 1000 tablets. The regular price for a bag is $120. But I have a discount code a 20% discount code for all your listeners. The discount code is superhuman, all one word could be uppercase, lowercase doesn’t matter. You’ll find it in the checkout page. So anytime you anytime, not just like today or tomorrow, anytime you purchase anything from our website and use super superhuman, you’ll get 20% off. Now if you’re not ready for a full bag and you want to just test it out. We also sell single servings on Amazon so you can try it in a small quantity. We also sell in America through doctors nutrition Is chiropractors, spas functional medicine nationwide and they’re listed on our website so you can find one that’s nearby you. And we’re very active on social and Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It’s all at energy bits. So you can connect we have lots of fun prizes and contests and giveaways. So I would encourage you to come especially to Instagram. So yeah, that’s where you can find us and we’re we’d love to work with you help you educate you whatever it takes.

Boomer Anderson 1:04:32
And your Instagram account is fantastic. Also, thank you for the discount will link to all of this in the show notes at decoding superhuman.com slash energy, energy. That’s Catherine. Thank you.

Catharine Arnston 1:04:44
You’re very welcome. Well be well.

Boomer Anderson 1:04:49
I love when someone takes adversity and turns in an opportunity. Not exactly what Catherine has done here. Her mission or goal Making algae more readily available. educating people on algae is a noble one. I’ve got to meet Catherine at summit this year and she is just a fantastic person. I encourage you to check out her products, but also check out the show notes, decoding superhuman com slash energy bits. And again, thank you super humans for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the episode, head over to iTunes, leave us a five star rating and share it with a friend. Share it with two friends. It’s greatly appreciate it have an epic day.