Algae Might Be The Most Powerful Food You’re Not Eating

Introduction to Oxalates and the Podcast Guest 0:00

In case people don't know what oxalates, leptins and oxolates are, they're found in plants and some plants have very high amounts of them like kale and spinach that we just talked about and also nightshade. So tomatoes, red peppers. Now the reason why they are in these plants is because evolutionarily, these plant needed to protect themselves from bugs and predators, animals, and there's sharp proteins that puncture your stomach lining, your lining stomach, lining and the animals. Hi, everyone. It's Dr.

Jen. Welcome back to the podcast. So stay tuned because we are going to be talking about something you can take and eat that will really impact your health and your mitochondria, and you might not even know about it. Today, we're talking to Katherine Arnston. She is a PhD MBA and she is the founder and CEO and the Chief Scientific Officer of Energy Bits. So energy bits is algae tablets, so you're going to want to listen.

How Algae Became the Focus 1:00

So Katherine discovered algae 16 years ago after helping her younger sister recover from a breast cancer diagnosis. In the process, she learned that algae was one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world. and its healing properties were documented in 100,000 studies. But none of this was known outside of Asia. So Energy Bits was born to change this. Catherine's passion for algae is contagious, and her scientific depth allows her to explain algae's extensive healing powers. With such simplicity and clarity, you'll quickly understand why it effortlessly nourishes your body.

It restores your health and protects your children's health. Not bad for something that's been on earth for four billion years. So welcome, Catherine, and I've met you in person. And yes, you were you are so excited about algae. It's contagious. Yes. Well, hopefully it's contagious. That's a good thing to be contagious with your passion and enthusiasm. love helping people with things that are natural, so here we are. But there doesn't seem to be anybody else in the world that I'm aware of teaching people about algae nutrition.

Most people think it's just pond scum that... closes their favorite beach or messes up their aquarium. And I'm here to tell you, it's completely opposite to that. It's been endorsed by the United Nations as the answer to world hunger for 50 years. it has been endorse by NASA as a most nutrient dense food in the world for fifty years, they feed it to the astronauts. So it is like, hey, how could all these international agencies know about something that is game changing for our health and we don't.

I am here just spread the word. Yeah, it's definitely a misunderstood product or, you know, natural product. So, I mean, what first inspired you? Can you go in a little bit more about the personal history between you and algae? Sure, because I tell people I didn't pick algae, pick me. I am Canadian, as I mentioned earlier, although I've lived in the United States for 37 years, mostly in Boston. And I recently relocated to Miami. But about 17 years ago, and I have two sisters, all my family is still in Canva, including my sisters.

17 Years ago my younger sister, whom I'm very close to, got a breast cancer diagnosis. She was in her early 40s, was very healthy, had two young children. I mean, it was out of the blue. We were stunned. But she completely healed, by the way. As she was preparing for her chemotherapy, her oncologist, which of course is a cancer specialist, told her to change her diet to an alkaline diet. Now, they didn't tell her what an Alkaline Diet was or why it was good for her, so my sister called me just because I love her.

And I'm a very good researcher. I've always been a good research. Knew nothing about nutrition. Zero. I went online and anybody could go online, and you could Google alkaline diets. It turned out that two things I found.

Spirulina vs. Chlorella Basics 4:00

An alkalined diet was important because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients that have been proven to build your immune system. And I was going through chemo, so her oncologist wanted her to have a strong immune But what I also discovered is that there was a German scientist back in the 30s who won a Nobel Prize, his name is Otto Warburg, won the Nobel prize for discovering that cancer cannot exist in cells that are slightly alkaline, and it ranges from 0 to 14. And so I have to believe this was the other reason why my sister wanted, my sisters oncologist wanted her to have alkaline diet was to prevent the cancer from spreading into other cells.

So I found lots of foods for her. She changed her diet, she did go through chemo, and she completely healed. This is 17 years ago. I started learning more about plant-based diets and the alkalinity profile of plants. And I thought, man, you know, we should be talking about this. But nobody was. 17 Years ago, they are now, of course, but 17 So I'm just a very action-oriented, passionate person, so I thought, I don't know what I can do, but I am going to do something. So, went back to school. I got a health coaching certificate from a school in New York called the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

And I put a course together teaching plant-based nutrition that I gave for free at corporations and hospitals and gyms. This is what truly led me to algae, because as I was giving my lectures, Everyone was telling me, I know I'm supposed to eat more vegetables. My mother's been trying to get me to more vegetable since I was a kid, but they had all sorts of obstacles. Either they didn't live near a grocery store or they don't have time to cook them or the gave them gas or their children wouldn't eat them.

Or they went bad too quickly. So I thought, okay, I've seen the power of this green nutrition. If I can't get people to eat more vegetables, I need to find something that gives them the nutrition that doesn't taste bad, doesn' t have any work, it doesn t give them gas, blah blah. So I circled back to everything I found for my sister. And when I got to algae, that's when the miracle happened, because first of all, its food. It's not a supplement. Its algae and we'll talk about this. Algae is in the oceans and the lakes, but is harvested spirulina and chlorella, which are the two algae we'll talk about today.

They're harvested as agricultural crops in fresh water. So there's no contamination from the ocean. Also, it's a multi-billion dollar agricultural crop in Asia. We grow ours in Taiwan. It's nothing small. it is almost as big as the beef industry. The most studied foods, spirullina, chloella, collectively, there are a hundred thousand studies documenting all the different health benefits, whether it reducing inflammation, preventing Alzheimer's, prevent cancer, heart disease, autoimmune, removing toxins.

Endless. And the best part of all is that when you grow it as we do in fresh water and you air dry it without high heat and then we press them into tiny tablets. And if you swallow the tablet, there's no taste, zero. So if your like vegetables, you just have to swallow a handful of these. Now I chew mine because I love the flavor, but this is the way you can give this to your children, to you newborns, your pets, To your teenagers, Your grandparents and every tablet. But they're about the size of a baby aspirin.

If you're only listening, every Tablet has the same nutrition as literally a pound of vegetables. So now, and the last three years, they don't give you gas. In fact, spirulina, which we'll talk about in a minute, is actually a bacteria. It doesn't even have any fiber. So it's documented in science, endorsed by international agencies, used safely daily in Asia. Is a whole food and you swallow it and there's no flavor. And even if you do chew them, it tastes green. That's about it. So when I learned all that and nobody outside of Asia knew about any of the health benefits or that even existed, I thought, okay, i'm going to spend the rest of my life teaching people what algae is, why it's so important for us, and explaining it in terms that they can understand.

And along the way I did get my PhD because there was so much science behind all this. I needed to prove myself to myself that I knew I was talking about and to others. So yes, that was 17 years ago and I'm still doing it. As a physician, I am always looking for nutrition that works at a cellular level. Microalgae like spirulina and chlorella are among the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in a form your body can easily absorb. Energy Bits makes it simple with pure microalgae tablets and nothing else.

Spirulina supports energy and endurance while chlorella helps with detox and recovery. Use code DRGEN for 20% off your first order.

Why Algae Beats Leafy Greens 9:00

Yeah, that's amazing. I think that when I first learned about energy bits, and I honestly, I need to get better in the habit and just like put it on my counter, but I will actually eat them more, like just swallow them when i'm traveling. you know, just to like give me a boost and, and then my, my little one when he was like two and three would just chew them and like his mouth would be all green. Oh, I know. Yeah. We have sending us pictures. I have a grand nephew. He's, his name is Cosmo. he's about a year and he getting sick all the time.

And his mother was getting colds and the whole family were getting called. So I said, will you please let me send you some algae tablets. I've sent them bags and bags of spirulina and chlorella. This kid has not had a cold since he started taking these tablets every day. And they sent me pictures of him drooling or videos droolling green. He calls them his greenies. They have them for breakfast, lunch. It's unbelievable and it makes me so happy. So great for kids. Absolutely. And mothers, you'll never have to worry about your children getting properly nourished because there's 40 vitamin more, but we document 40 vitamins and minerals in both the spirulina and chlorella.

We'll talk about the different algae because they do completely different things in your body. Yeah. Yeah. I would love to go into detail. Well, one thing also, you know, everyone is obsessed with like green smoothies. And what do they put in their green smoothie? Raw spinach, which is really high oxalate load. Yeah like don't do that because it makes us like whenever we see health influence or whenever I see Health Influencers and they're jamming down spinach. Now I'm not gonna lie I did this before I knew about oxalates like yes like a decade ago.

I was like jammin' and like I think back and I cringe and i'm like oh my goodness and and now I actually you know I recommend algae products because they don' have oxolates so you're getting the benefits which out without the pokey little crystals. We don''t want those. In case people don't know what oxalates, leptins and oxolates are, they're found in plants and some plants have very high amounts of them like kale and spinach that we just talked about and also nightshade. tomatoes, red peppers.

Now, the reason why they're in these plants is because evolutionarily, these plans needed to protect themselves from bugs and predators, animals, and their sharp proteins that puncture your stomach lining, your lining stomach, lining and the animals. So it upsets their tummies too. now algae started in the ocean. so it's never been a land plant. It never had to develop lectins or oxalates to So that's why they're not in the algae. So yeah, please stop eating kale. It is probably causing a lot of autoimmune issues.

And there's 500 times more chlorophyll in algae than in arugula, and a thousand times than Chinese greens. There's nothing with more Chlorophylls and phytonutrients than algae, so it's very, very concentrated and has none of the downside. All the upside, none the down side. Yeah. And like you said, I mean, my pet peeve, like I have some arugula right now in the fridge because I'm like, oh, that would be nice with some broccoli sprouts. But it's going to go bad so fast. So this is nice for those that they just they need it.

That's why I said I like using them with travel and I just gave some to my brother-in-law and my nephew for camping. So just you know think kind of outside the box you on how to get your greens and how do you get them safely because yes they are important but high oxalate

Food Quality, Testing, and Sourcing 13:00

load is hard, lectins hard so this kind bypasses that. Now, can you describe the two different kind of algaes that you have really loved and are in your company that are part of energy? Yes, well, I'll give you a little higher level overview first. So algae is its own food category, and as you mentioned in my bio, spirulina, which is called a cyanobacteria, was the first life on earth. Not just the plant, but the life. That was almost four billion years ago. And to put that in context, we've been on Earth for 200 million years.

So algae way predates us and actually I could talk about it later on but that spirulina, cyanobacteria, evolved to become our mitochondria and it's all proven in science and we're going to talk a little bit about mitochondrial later because they are absolutely the most essential thing in your body because the generate all your cellular energy. So, algae first life on earth and so it is its own food category because it not technically a vegetable, definitely not an animal. So within algae as a food category, there are two subcategories, macroalgae and microalge.

Macroalgie is that stringy stuff that you see washing up on shore, also known as seaweed or dulse or kelp. And it's still good for you because it has a high iodine and it high fiber, but it literally has no nutrition. I used to buy bags of kelb noodles and there'd be like five calories in this huge bag because there was virtually no nutritional in it. Mapper algae, very string, high-fiber, only in the ocean, a couple of strains, round, red, green. and still good for you but virtually no nutrition.

Microalgae, which is what we're talking about today, is completely opposite. First of all, it's in the ocean but it is also everywhere. It's rivers, lakes, streams, soil, your aquarium, swimming pool, and harvested as a food crop. in Asia. I'm going to show you a picture of some of the algae farms. They're grown in fresh water. So just so you know what they are. Now microalgae is called micro-algy because it's microscopic in size. You can't see this with your eye. I read in a book recently that you can get a million microalgae on the head of a pin.

That's how tiny they are. So that's why when you consolidate them into these little tiny tablets that we do, you start to understand that each tablet has the equivalent nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. the highest density of nutrition in the universe. That's why the United Nations, we have a quote from them saying, one gram of algae has the same nutrition as a thousand grams of fruits or vegetables, 1 to 1,000. We sell them in large bags of 1 thousand tablets, and we'll talk about this later on, but one bag of a 1 000 tablets has as about 30, three, zero grocery carts of vegetables.

Just imagine 30 grocery cards of vegetable nutritionally right here in this bag. So very, very efficient nutrition. Now within microalgae, there are thousands of strains. The most best known one is blue green and the other one as green. One example of blue-green algae is spirulina and one example, of a green algae, is chlorella. And the reason I emphasize that spirula and chlorine are just one strain is that you may sometimes read in the paper or online that there's a blue green closing your favorite beach and it's toxic and to stay away.

We're not talking about spirulina. It's just another strain of blue-green algae. Spirulena is harvested as a food crop. There was a swamp with lots of toxins in the water. You don't say, well, I'm going to stop drinking water, you just don' drink the swamp water! Don't worry about blue green algae closing beaches. By the way, The reason why the algae showed up is because it's Mother Nature's cleanup crew. Algae kills bacteria and absorbs toxins. So yes, it is going to be toxic, so you do want to stay away from it.

But it's there because there were toxins and bacteria that you couldn't see. So that's why the algae showed up. And it does the same thing in your body, too. It's your cleanup crew. Spirulina is a blue-green algae. Chlorella is green algae, and they do completely different things in the body. You take them at different times for that reason. Maybe this would be a good time to go into that, if that works. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's really interesting. And I like how you said it's a cleanup crew. I was taking a walk in my neighborhood and there were so many turkey vultures everywhere and people get annoyed with them, but they're the cleanup group.

If there's dead animals or whatever on the side of the road, they are going to clean it up. Yay for, you know, God's design and nature. And, Algie, I was going to ask you, so do you still eat vegetables? Very limited, because here's the thing, and we'll talk about this. Our food supply is so damaged. Our vegetables and fruits come from so far away now, and when you harvest them, within 24 hours, they lose 50% of their nutrition. Then they're stuck on ships, in cargo ships. And then they go into warehouses, then to the warehouse at the grocery store.

They sit there for a couple of days. Even if we're eating vegetables, we are getting fiber. And we're getting calories. And, we are probably getting glyphosate because unless you eat organic and even if you organic, there's going to be blow off from all the crops that are

Spirulina for Energy and Mitochondria 19:00

sprayed with glyphasate. So, when you go to a restaurant, I hardly ever eat vegetables or salads in restaurants anymore because you know they're not organic. And glyphosate, there's 100,000 cancer cases currently being processed in the courts suing Monsanto and Bayer for causing cancer. And they've already paid off like $10 billion. This stuff is evil. So do I eat vegetables? I ate very limited vegetables. I'd fruit, and most of the fruit I'll eat, even with glyphasate it penetrates the food, but I usually eat things that are covered like oranges or bananas or pineapples.

If I eat an apple, I peel it. It's really unfortunate, but that's the world we live in. Seventy-five percent of the food Americans are eating is processed food. Not only is there zero nutrition in there, then it's also loaded with sugar and other pesticides. canola oil and seed oils. We're screwed. I'm sorry. This is why it's killing us, literally. Yeah. It's really, really hard. Some people, the dirty doesn't and whatever, but yeah, you're still getting toxins. I like how you said, like when you're eating vegetables right now, they're so void of nutrients that you basically, it's just bulking fiber.

And it like, well, at this, that point, I'll just take a fiber drink, you know? It's really scary. It hard. So I think that's important to, And I think of energy bits almost as a supplement too. It's supplementing that the food out there is just not good. So your products, this algae, it does not have glyphosate in it. And you were saying... And we do third-party lab tests here in the United States, we test for metals, pesticides, nutritionals, and microtoxins. I have like six labs, it costs us like $50,000 a year to do all of our tests.

We are the only company that I'm aware of that does this level of testing in America. You can go to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and you can buy less expensive spiruline and chlorella tablets, but I can promise you they're all grown in China or India. They don't do testing. they use high heat to dry it because it's less expensive. So they have to get to market quickly. And high-heat deactivates enzymes and pigments. It's like buying a car with no engine. Well, that's not going to work, is it? So if you want real nutrition, ours is the one that is fully loaded.

It's got every accessory that you would possibly want, and it nourishes your body. And I know people think of these as supplements, but they're really food. They are a whole food, in fact, they are raw food They look like a supplement, think about it as nuts. That's why you wouldn't just have one tablet, you'd have a handful. To fill nutritional gaps, you really need 10 of each one, and we'll talk about the different benefits. For correcting health conditions like preventing cancer, if you had cancer or preventing heart disease or you have high blood pressure or if have autoimmune or digestive issues or sleep issues, or brain fog or lack of energy, You want closer to 30 a day because There's no upper limit.

It's food. We fuel NHL teams, Olympic teams. Hockey players take 75 spirulina before a game because it gives them focus and energy on the ice. And then they take seventy five of the chlorella, which we We call it our recovery bits after the game because it pulls out lactic acid as well as other things. And by the way, with 40 vitamins and minerals, so it has all your electrolytes, all of your B vitamins. The only vitamin I will say it doesn't have very much of is vitamin C. So you would need to take a vitamin, but you can eliminate a multivitamin, a fish oil, please stop taking fish.

It's usually rancid by time you get it. Where do you think the fish get the omega-3 from? Yes, they get it from algae and they consolidate it in their bodies, but our algae will never go rancid. In fact, it lasts three years. So you can replace a multivitamin, a fish oil, collagen powder, and you do not need collagen power. Algae has 18 of the 20 aminos, including the nine your body can't make. So it's a complete protein. Collagen powder is missing tryptophan. You can also replace CoQ10. There's so much chlorophyll in the algae that when you merge, combine it with red light or sunlight, it recycles your Coq10 molecule.

So you can eliminate hundreds of dollars of supplements on your countertop. Almost everybody I know is taking anywhere from five to 25 supplements a day. And Dr. Jen, I take nothing. Nothing. I takes spirulina and chlorella every single day and I have for the last 17 years, and I'm turning 70 this year, at seven zero. I have no medications, I've no health issues, run a big company, travel nonstop, writing a book, it's going to be published in September. And I just want, have great energy, sleep well, poop well.

Just want everybody to have the same life. Aging is natural, I'm telling you. This is what I am writing about in my book. Declining is not. Somehow we have decided that as we get older, we're going to decline. That's because that's what we see. It doesn't have to be that way. Where are the role models of healthy 60 and 70 year olds? Menopause is not a life sentence. It is a not jail term. And we view it that because we're told that this is what life has to offer us. we have another option. We have other choices.

But you have to know what to do. And algae is a cornerstone, foundational food for women in particular, but for everybody. You'll start to see your health change. I absolutely promise people. Absolutely, 100% promise you. Yeah. And I know you wanted to talk about mitochondria because part of healthy aging is having healthy mitochondrion. Yeah, and yeah, we have so many insults thrown at us. So we do have to, you know, have weapons in our arsenal and tools in toolbox and this could be one of them.

How does algae help the mitochondrial as we age? Yes. Well, I definitely want to get there, but first I want explain the two different algae because they do affect the mitochondria differently. So is the blue green algae, and we pack the jars in a blue bag to help people understand that. And we call it energy bits because Spirulina gives you energy. It gives your energy mentally, physically, and at the mitochondrial level. And how does it do that? It does two ways. In the short term, what it does, because spirulia is a bacteria, does not have a cellulose wall, so there's nothing for your body to break down to get access to anything.

If you chew it, it's absorbed sublingually, which means through your mouth. and gets into your bloodstream literally in seconds. So all the nourishment gets in to your body. This is quite different from supplements, which are very often damaged in your stomach, gut lining, and they're acidic. Algae is the most alkaline food in the world. And they are usually made from artificial ingredients, but your bodies can't recognize, so you only absorb a few of them. But spirulina All the nutrition gets in there, loaded with 18 of the 20 aminos, including the 9 your body can't make, and loaded it with B vitamins, which convert the aminoes into glucose, convert it into energy.

So the kind of energy you get is not like a crazy roller coaster, like supplement, stimulant, coffee or sugar. The best way to describe it is you just feel fresh. Nothing more, there's more dramatic than that. It's, algae is no drama. So you just feel alert. You feel fresh and ready for the day. How fantastic is that? And it never goes away. But you do need at least 10 to feel that way. 20 or 30 is even better. And, it satisfies your hunger. There's one calorie per tablet. They're about the size of a baby aspirin.

We have them in little pouches of 30. You could have 30 for lunch, that'd be 30 calories, highest protein in the world, three times more protein than steak, chicken or fish, 40 vitamins and minerals. You wouldn't be hungry for hours.

Chlorella for Detox and Gut Health 28:00

Now, you're gonna feel stuffed like you had a big, spaghetti dinner or something, but you won't be hungry. And if you are on a weight loss program or if are taking a GOP-1, please do yourself a favor and take this every day, at least the 30. Because if your are not eating, your cells are being nourished, it's only a matter of time before you have a health issue. It's that simple. I don't know how else to describe it. Plus, we can prevent your muscle wasting because this has got so much protein. By the way, there's way more protein needs in your body than just muscles.

There's over a thousand proteins in our body. We're going to talk about the mitochondria in a minute and the things that generate The actual energy in the mitochondria, it's called the electron transport chain, they're proteins. And you have millions of mitochondrion. So you millions have proteins, so you need a lot of protein to keep you going. Spirulina gives you that energy mentally, physically, instantly. Then because the blue pigment speeds up the electronic transport so that it generates more energy, you get long-term more.

And the best thing of all is your brain has the most mitochondria. We'll talk about this in a minute. It has 2 million mitochondia per neurotransmitter. So the first thing that happens is that your brains wakes up. A classic symptom of menopause and as you're getting into 40s and 50s is you got this brain fog and you've got that mental fatigue. it goes away naturally from the spirulina. brain food. So energizing, nourishing, satisfies your hunger and get you the protein and make sure your focus is on point.

Very much a brain. Spirulina, think energy, energy for the cells, and energy from the mitochondria. We can break it down kind of easy. Yes. And energy is for your brain for sure. Chlorella will not give you energy. It's a wellness detoxing algae. Its a green algae, which is I designed the bag in green. And it does belong to the plant kingdom. Spirulina is a bacteria. So there's leaf on the package. Why is this so detox and it builds your immune system? Well, there are a few ways. That fiber that's on chlorylla, the cell wall, is the hardest cellulose wall in the plank kingdom, attaches to toxins.

everything heavy metals, lead, mercury, radiation, glyphosate, pesticides, alcohol, lactic acid, and chelase, so it pulls them out. So that's one way that chlorella removes toxins. It also has the highest flutathione in the world, which is a very, very important antioxidant for your liver. Your liver is like your water cleaning plant. It gets rid of all the toxins that it needs. Glutathione is also called the master antioxidant because it can regenerate other antioxidants. So chlorella does that too.

The fiber that's in the chlorella feeds your gut biome. You have healthy bacteria in your guts biomes and they need fiber. So, chlorella does that. Chlora also has the highest chlorophyll in world. It's called chorellas because of the chlorophil. So it has 25 times more chlorophyll than liquid chlorophyll. So when you get liquid, chlorophil, that's good, but you're only getting chlorofil. When you take chlorella, you getting 25x more Chlorophylla plus you are getting 40 vitamins and minerals plus 60% protein plus fiber.

You want to level up and take Chloryl. Chorophylls is good but it's just a warm up act. Now, the other thing that you need to know is that when you have toxins in your body, your get rid of them in four ways. They're called four pathways. One is through sweat, one is your breath, and one through urine. And the fourth one, is bowel movements. I'm going to talk about bowel movement because they're absolutely essential for your health. What do you think is sitting down there in you colon? I call it the junk in the trunk.

It's stuff that your didn't want. toxins and other garbage. Well, if you're not getting rid of those on a daily basis, it's like having a garbage truck parked in front of your house permanently. And that gets pretty smelly. So we need to get those bowel movements going. Just go into a pharmacy and you see there's so many people having problems with constipation because there are rows and rows of all this stuff, fiber. Don't take that. Take chlorella. because it's very natural, it stimulates peristalsis, and generally, we recommend chlorella at night, spirulina in the morning, because in morning you're hungry and tired and you want energy and focus.

And chleorellas, when you are sleeping, that's when your body goes through a detox repair cycle. That's where your your want to prepare for a bowel movement. I have another little tip on the bowel movements. It has nothing to do with algae. Fresh pineapple, ladies and gentlemen, bromelain in fresh pineapple is a miracle for digestion and elimination. And it tastes delicious. It's not even high in sugar. So pair bromelin pineapple with chlorella, or if you want to go even deeper into the sort of holistic health routine.

Coffee enemas, which is what they use at the Gershwin Institute, are also very powerful. But of the three, the pineapple and the chlorella are probably the easiest. Now, chlorella also has the highest tryptophan in the world. What's trypophane? Well, it's a precursor to something called melatonin. which I'm sure most people know helps you sleep. But as you get older, you have less melatonin. So the chlorella also helps to get into that deeper sleep, and it's also a precursor to a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is known as your happy mood neurotansmitters.

Now, 80% of your seratonins is used and made and used in your gut. It affects your brain, but it's used in your gut. So all these things, as you can see the elimination, the killing of the bacteria, and the fiber, it is all focused on your guts. Chlorella is a gut health algae. Spirulina is brain health allergy because it gives you focus. It heals your mitochondria and there are so many mitochondrias in the brain. beautifully together. They complement one another, and you take them at different times.

Spirulina in the morning, because that's when you're tired and hungry and want focus and energy. Chlorella, you can take it any time of day, but definitely before bed. In both cases, 10 tablets would be your starter dose, But for chlorylla detox, You do need closer to the 20 or 30, or it won't attach to toxins. So you see how they work at a different time and day. But they're really your power couple, and I don't know how I could live without them. I take them all day long, I snack on them in the morning, put sea salt on, as you mentioned earlier, you can put them on a smoothie, mix them with trail mix.

If you drop any on the floor and you have any pets, your pets will love them! Oh my goodness, I was going to ask you that. Is it one, my cats, My Sphinx cats. They think they like hunt in our house for like food and packages. Like we have to like hide like everything. But here's the thing, because they, if they're eating it, then it's probably good for you. Cause they won't eat like ultra processed food. So they got into it and I couldn't figure out which cat, cause we a couple of cats. There's a lot of cat.

But I was like, I'm gonna ask you, like I have to ask Catherine if that's okay. And none of them died. Maybe they had more energy, right? So, should we give these to our pets? We'll eventually give them to the veterinarian marketplace. Okay.

Mitochondrial Aging and Superoxide Dismutase 36:00

But I was like, oh no, they chomped them down. You know those little sample packs, broke into a few of those. And I said, no. So beware, if you have curious pets, you're going to eat your energy. Don't leave them on the countertop. It doesn't matter whether it's a lap dog, a regular dog. They will leap up to that counter and they will rip that thing. I have a funny story. A customer wrote us They went camping in the middle of the Appalachians and in middle the evening at night, like two o'clock in morning, a bear broke into their campground.

And so everybody scrambled and they came back about two hours later. The baggie that had all the supplements had been ripped open, but all of supplements were still there. Their bag of energy bits, spirulina tablets had then ripped opened and licked cleaned. Not a single tablet remained. Oh, funny. Even the bears, and I've had people send me pictures of their pet raccoons, their cats, or dogs. The animals are smarter than we are. They know this stuff is really good for them. Try to take it every day because it really is a foundational food.

Whether you're eating eggs or meat or any meals, it's really a mini meal. so handy when you're traveling, but try to get into the habit. I take them every single morning, I have them at my office. Our canisters come with little tins inside, we have these fun canister, and they come a travel tin so you can fill up the tin and put it in your handbag or gym bag. It's unbelievable. That's the difference between the two allergies. Spirulina, very energizing, nourishing, and mitochondrial health, which is why we call it energy bits.

And then chlorella,which is very detoxing and immune building, it helps you recover from your day. And I like that and the recovery bits with the Corolla. I liked that because we do have just toxic burden like every day, you know, attacking us and as we age we become less resilient. So midlife, perimenopause, menopausal, we probably should be having some recovery bit and incorporating them into our life. Things like cadmium, and other heavy metals like they can affect our cancer risk for breast cancer.

So really we do need to make sure we are, you know, paying attention to the heavy metals, the environmental toxins. Another thing that comes up when you look at chlorella, for example, is how it's processed. Because you have to break the cell wall. And many companies, they do this in a way that could be with chemicals, but also in a way that the algae isn't going to be retaining its nutrients. So you're taking something and you think you are doing good, it's not as nutrient dense. Well, and that's a really good point.

Spirulina does not have to crack because it does have a cellulose wall. But even worse than that is, as I mentioned earlier, 99% of the algae, sterling, and chlorella tablets that are sold in America, because they've been sold here for 60 years. I'm not doing anything new. What's new is that I am providing a high quality version because all of these other companies, their lower price They have to sell more to stay alive, so they cut corners. Typical, right? Companies cut corner. And one of the corners they've cut is they use high heat to dry the algae.

What does that do? It deactivates critical nutrients and pigments. This is why I'm not a big fan of powders, because they have high heat to mix the powders or most supplements, they use high-heat to make the supplement. And so it deactivates it. You're back to that buying a car with no engine. It doesn't work. it looks great. Doesn't perform. We've never used highheats on our algae. we grow ours in Taiwan, which is the gold standard for algae and my plan is to hopefully start some agricultural farms here in America, probably in Florida, where I live.

climate, but that's a very expensive proposition. So for now, we have companies that have been doing this for 60 years. They do it just for us, and in fact, I'm going over there in about six weeks to take some film footage and make sure everything's going according to plan. But it really protects you, the user, because you're getting full value in all the nutrition that you deserve. Because in the other cheaper stuff, you'd have to get 10 times more to the same benefits, and you still wouldn't get the benefits because they're deactivated.

If the enzyme's dead, it's just never going to come back. And there's a very, very important enzyme, for just a minute or two to mitochondria. And particularly, this is very important for women as you get into perimenopause and menopaus. Because as we get older, our bodies make They change, just the way it is. And one of the things that, and so some things our bodies were making for us, they slow down the production. They slow it down in the product of melatonin. The slowdown in production of estrogen until there's none.

and they also slow the down production a very important antioxidant called superoxide dismutase. I know it's a long word. But what it does, when you create energy in the mitochondria, it's through a process. It's sort of like a relay race. You've all seen relay races where you have a runner and they pass a baton to the next runner, and then that runner passes a Baton, they try to cross the finish line. Well, in your mitochondrias, something similar happens, except instead of a Runner, you'd have these proteins.

And instead, of the batons, the pass electrons. To make that all work properly, you have to have a healthy mitochondria. But even when it's working properly byproduct of all this energy called ATP, it are free radicals. I'm sure you've heard of a free-radical, but if not, let me remind you, is a molecule with an unpaired electron. And so nature strives for balance. If you haven't un-paid electron, It will steal an electron from a neighboring molecule and cause tissue damage. Now that one's unbalanced.

So it will steal electron from somebody else. And so this is what causes disease. The good news is there's these knights in shining armor called antioxidants and they have extra electrons. Certainly the kid came to school with extra lunches to give to all his friends. Normally antioxidants would neutralize free radicals, but in the mitochondria, mitochondria have a second inner membrane and it's left over from when it was living by itself. Anyways, antioxidants, most antioxidants can't get in there.

They just can' t penetrate that inner memory. And one of the most damaging free radical in the mitochondrion is called superoxide. Fortunately, your body makes an antioxidant that can get in there called superoxide dismutase. Dismutased means to demute, to reduce. So that's what it does. It's an anti-oxidant, that reduces the free radicals and converts them into harmless water and oxygen. Ta-da! Mitochondria are saved. Here's the catch. Once you hit 40, your body slows down the production of that and even more when you hit 50. Think of this stuff called superoxide dismutase like a big golf umbrella.

If you get caught in a rainstorm, whether you're golfing or shopping, and you have one of those golf umbrellas, you don't stop the rain, but you stop getting wet. Superoxide dismitase is the same way. It does not stop free radicals, it stops the damage to the mitochondria. But after 40 or 50, You have less of it. So now your mitochondrion are getting damaged and dying. And when you have fewer mitochondria, you less cellular energy, You have more brain fog, more fatigue, and more sleep issues. Everything deteriorates when we have less mitochondrion.

But I have a happy ending. This stuff called superoxide dismutase is found in the highest concentration in spirulina algae. However, it's an enzyme. So all those cheaper companies that are selling it at lower price and using high heat to dry their algae deactivate it. So it's not working, period. You could take as much as you want, but it won't work. But ours does. And you can also get fresh or frozen spirulina, and it will also have this active superoxidism tase.

Mission, Book, and Healthy Aging Philosophy 45:00

So when you take ours, it starts feeding back the mitochondria, their golf umbrella. Now your mitochondrion aren't getting damaged. They can start growing back. You can get more energy. The mitochondrior, like the lights in a building, a power shortage, or your light bulbs go out, you can't do any work. In your body, if your Mitochondria get damaged or die, having the light go in your building in in your body, everywhere. So spirulina, because it has this super oxidizing taste and other nutrients, turn your lights back on.

Almost as simple as that. It's very much a mitochondria healing algae. Yeah, and mitochondria, like you said, the brain. So many women, they hit 40s and 50s, And they're like, oh, I can't concentrate. And now everyone is just like well, it's a hormone problem. We have to replace the hormones. Hormone, hormone, hormones, It's not just that. I work on the basics with everyone in gut health. Yes, we work in mitochondrial health, now I'm worried that everyone's just rushing to hormones and there's going to be side effects from that because we're not fixing the root cause.

Yes, hormones need to be balanced, but we also need work on mitochondrial health and stress and sleep and detoxification, you know? So, and using food is medicine. So I think, like, I love that everyone's talking about hormones right now, But the answer is not another script. another prescription, another supplement. And like you said, we could have handfuls and handful of supplements, but we need to start going back to the basics and things that, you know, God put algae on this earth and it's there for us.

But I love the integrity of your company. I know you too, and I've met you and you are just your hands on. You are like the most hands-on CEO I have ever seen, I think, of a company, yeah. Because it is, it has to be done right. And being in like the wellness world for so long and a decade, you know, in integrative medicine and going to conferences, like, You know finding a company that doesn't cut corners because they, their product, working and being what it says it, is very important. So I really appreciate that, that with you.

so I mean, your mission for energy bits, where do you see your company, your brand, this mission in the next five to 10 years? Well, I want to build algae. I wanna build an agricultural crop here in America. It needs to be here. Why should the Asians? 99.9% of algae is grown in Asia. why should they have all the benefits? So that's number one for me. Writing my book. I've launched my own podcast. The book is called working title is Love your health to bits with algae I walked through help people understand why we're sick the combination of no nutrition too many toxins what algae is and then I address specific health issues to show people why specific nutrients found in algae will address your health issue.

And I've come up with a genre for the book that I don't think anyone else is doing. I call it science with sarcasm, because here's the thing. There's so much science. You know, Dr. Jen, there's thousands, millions of papers, and we hold a lot of the medical community in awe and on a pedestal. That knowledge should be shared with the rest of us. And I had to teach myself that because once you understand how your body works, makes it much easier. It's less frightening. Number one, and then you start to understand what you actually need.

You get up, you get a owner's manual. So in my book and my approach is like, I'm trying to help people understand science doesn't have to be scary or it is complicated, but I can make it easy for people so they can have agency and start making better choices for themselves. And it will always come down to the simple things from nature. Always for me, whether it's sleep or movement or sun or water or whole foods. That's it. You know, we do need help occasionally, and I completely get that. But for the vast majority, once you understand how your body works, nobody's telling you.

I say, I don't cook very much. So when I cook, i need a recipe, And I need to go and get all my ingredients. And when i get my all ingredients and i follow the recipe I could do pretty good. So I want to give people the recipe for wellness because at any age, remember, aging is natural, declining is not, but we've somehow decided it is. And I wanna flip that script and provide people some role models and some examples because it shouldn't be complicated, it should be expensive. You know that the vast majority of bankruptcies are due to people having a health crisis and they can't pay their medical bills.

I mean, that's just, it's frightening that people are one inch at the way from possibly going bankrupt if they have a healthy issue. We need to correct the health issue! Yeah, and it does start when you're young. I tell my patients, in their 40s, we're working on your health in your 80s right now. We have to start as young as we can. And yeah, I feel very passionate about this as a doctor. A doctor comes from the Latin word docer, which means to teach. My job is to teacher my patient. Like you said, there's no secret.

We want people to do better so they don't end up with disease. And you know, diseases is not, it's not good. So I love that you have such a passion and you can just tell by how you talk about algae and, you Good stuff. I love it. So I'm so grateful to have you here. And I want to ask you some rapid fire questions. Oh, and can I tell people where to find the product if they want And you can learn, just come to the website to learn. We have a blog, but our website is energybits.com, E-N-E-R-G-Y, B-I-T-S.

Uh, we're also very active on Instagram, which handles energy bits. And we have 20% discount code, Dr. Jen. No dot, no space. For 20% off anything, it doesn't matter whether it's the bags, the canisters, single pouches. It's best value. And by the way, if you buy the bag, so the best of value and you use Dr. Jen as your discount. If you took 10 tablets a day, a bag will last you three months and it will cost you a dollar a date. So very affordable.

Where to Find Energy Bits and Rapid Fire 52:00

Anyways, come and visit us at energybits.com and use your Discount Code. Dr. Jen and you'll start to see what I'm talking about with your health and improving everything. Yeah, I love that. So just try both out, try one out and just kind of gauge your energy and how you feel. And it's really great when we have products that we can add in easy and throughout the day. And yeah, like use it as a snack, you know, use while you're fasting. So it's great. so Katherine, thank you so much and everyone head there.

We'll link all the links below and let's do some rapid fire with you. What is your favorite biohack that actually works? I think I'll, I know your answer to this question. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to defer to LG. It's a great biohack on its own and it also uplevels all other bio hacks, whether it's coal plunge, saunas, red light, it is unbelievable. Love it. Now, if you weren't CEO of Energy Bits, what would you be doing, do you think? Well, people will be stunned to find out that my previous career actually, I was in international business, but the one I really loved was interior design.

I, was the publisher of an interior magazine. Absolutely, absolutely love design, so I love making things beautiful. It doesn't matter whether it's a room or a package. or an outfit, so probably. Yes, I could see that. I thought you were going to say something like fashion design or something because your outfits are always in point. So that totally makes sense. That doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah. What is your favorite part of your morning routine? I get up, I try to get sick sometimes earlier and I start with fresh water and fresh squeezed lemon.

And then I drink a tea called Yerba Mate and have my algae tablets. I now live in Florida, so I sit outside and listen to the birds and just do a about half an hour or an our meditation, it's so peaceful. It just makes me so happy. So the tea, the meditating, and the birds, magic combination for me. By the way, they found that the vibration of birds is similar to the Earth's vibration. There's healing properties in the bird vibration, then they've proven it. I always have always loved listening to birds.

If you could eliminate one toxin from the world tomorrow, what would it be? Glyphosate. Yes, I'm with you on that one. What is your favorite book or scripture to lean on in tough seasons? I am a big fan of a book called A Course in Miracles. I've read it probably three times, and I now get the recordings. It's tough reading, very powerful spiritually. And you can get it on Amazon for $18. So it's not nutrition, but it is food for the soul. Yeah, yeah. And then just one word to leave us with for our listeners to take with them in the week.

Wow, that's how I want you to feel. That's what I wanted your life to be. Yeah. works for me. Love it. I thought you were going to say algae. Algae is my wow. Yes. Wow and algae, awesome. Well, thank you so much. So excited to hear feedback from listeners. If you try energy bits, drop a comment and let us know how you felt and share this episode with family, friends that would benefit, which would be everyone. Yeah, that's true. They can't read. Well, if they feel them. Yeah. So pets and family.

Thank you so much.