Episode 336: CATHARINE ARNSTON How Micro-Algae Can Transform Your Health

   

Catharine Arnston is an expert on algae nutrition, a wellness thought leader, an experienced entrepreneur and sought after speaker.

In 2008 Catharine left her corporate job to care for her sister who was diagnosed with breast cancer. When Catharine learned that algae’s vast healing properties were documented in tens of thousands of scientific studies, but none of these studies or benefits were known outside of Asia, she knew she had to do something. And that’s how ENERGYbits was born!

In this episode, Catharine Arnston and Tara dive into how spirulina and chlorella microalgae power mitochondria, detox the body, support gut health, and plug into biohacking and women’s longevity.

 

RESOURCES:

• Learn more about ENERGYbits and use code COACHTARA for 20% off: http://www.energybits.com 
• Instagram: @energybits
• Get 10% off Peluva minimalist shoe with coupon code COACHTARA here: http://peluva.com/coachtara
• Enjoy the previous conversation with Catharine here: https://www.taragarrison.com/blog/catharinearnston3 

 

CHAPTERS:

00:03 – Catharine Arnston returns to the show

00:32 – Catharine’s algae journey and ENERGYbits origin story

02:36 – Sponsor: Peluva barefoot shoes ad

04:22 – Why Catharine is a favorite educator

04:55 – Macroalgae vs microalgae basics

05:40 – Spirulina vs chlorella: fiber and nutrient density

06:05 – UN, NASA, and microalgae’s extreme protein content

07:01 – How ENERGYbits algae is farmed and why Taiwan matters

07:43 – Drying process, heat, and preserving SOD in spirulina

08:42 – Microalgae overview and the dominance of spirulina/chlorella

09:21 – Pigments: chlorophyll vs phycocyanin and methylene blue

10:27 – Phycocyanin, cancer pathways, and chemo applications

10:53 – Spirulina and chlorella do “night and day” different jobs

11:24 – Spirulina history and Catharine’s book “Love Your Health to Bits”

12:20 – How spirulina gives clean energy without sugar or caffeine

13:10 – Amino acid “Legos,” protein absorption, and bioavailability

14:11 – B vitamins, ATP, and steady log‑on‑the‑fire energy analogy

18:59 – Mitochondria protection, regeneration, and long‑term energy

19:18 – SOD2 genetics, toxin load, and mast cell/energy issues

43:03 – Chlorella, microbiome, colon health, and motility analogies

45:01 – Chlorella as gut health, fiber, liver support, and PM algae

46:20 – Using spirulina and chlorella daily, fasting, and electrolytes

46:33 – Stacking algae with sauna, cold plunge, and red light

47:23 – Red light + chlorophyll + CoQ10 for ATP and inflammation

49:00 – Travel, sachets, tins, and biohacking with algae in real life

51:50 – Algae as foundational “food” alongside sleep, light, movement

52:16 – Why Catharine insists algae is food, not a supplement

52:29 – Tara's generalized “what should I take” answer: ENERGYbits

53:26 – Labs, targeted supplements, and algae as safe “for everyone”

63:01 – Catharine’s millennial team, stamina, and protecting what you have

64:03 – Vision: spirulina/chlorella on the food pyramid for daily use

1:04:34 – Book title, presale, and upcoming audiobook details

1:11:56 – Where to find more, ratings, reviews, and sign‑off

 

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 

I am so excited to have Catherine Arnston back on the show. She has been a guest before, and I will probably have her on regularly because of two things. One is because her product, ENERGYbits and RECOVERYbits, is one, by far one of my favorites in the entire health world, and you're gonna find out in this episode why, because it just hits so many birds with one stone.

Um, what it is, is microalgae, and I'm definitely gonna turn this over to Catherine to educate you on why it's so awesome. Um, but let me tell you a little bit about Catherine. So Catherine is... Catherine Arnston is an expert in algae nutrition, a wellness thought leader, an experienced entrepreneur.

I think I'm gonna have to have her on talking about her business side sometimes, 'cause sometimes, wow, like she needs to be featured in... She probably is featured in some sort of magazine for female entrepreneurs, and a sought-after speaker. Catherine has a PhD, MBA, a BA Hons, and is a board-certified health coach.

So Catherine's journey into this fascinating world of algae began in 2008 when her younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, and advised by her oncologist that an alkaline diet would improve her healing. Catherine left her 25-year corporate career to help her sister identify which foods were alkaline, and this led her to algae, the most alkaline, chlorophyll-rich, high-protein, nutrient-dense food in the world.

When Catherine learned that algae's vast healing properties were documented in tens of thousands of scientific studies, but that none of these studies or benefits were known outside of Asia, she knew she needed to do something, and so ENERGYbits was born. She has spent the last 15 years researching algae, writing papers, giving presentations, lecturing at conferences, and speaking on 300-plus podcasts to explain the benefits of algae.

To do this, she read thousands of scientific papers that detailed, validated, and confirmed algae's nutritional, health, longevity, and global benefits. Remarkably, none of these findings are known by consumers, so that is why we have Catherine on the podcast sometimes, because this is like... you have to understand, right? It's not just like, "Oh yeah, I heard, like spirulina and chlorella are, like, good." Like, you need to understand what they're actually doing in your body so you can truly value them and enough, in my opinion.

Um, it is Catherine's vision and passion to change this, and, uh, her PhD in natural health has given her the scientific fluency that allows her to explain algae with such simplicity and clarity. It quickly becomes obvious why algae is something we all urgently need. So let's go ahead and get into it.

Let's learn all about microalgae with Catherine Arnston. Okay, before we get into the episode, I wanna take a moment to tell you guys about Peluva Shoes. So here's what happened. So Mark Sisson... If you don't know Mark Sisson, you should know Mark Sisson, okay? Go look him up and start following Mark Sisson.

Uh, Mark Sisson and also Brad Kearns, who have been on the... He's been on the podcast, uh, a few times now, and Mark has also. They are, like, legendary OGs in the health and wellness industry. And, um, Mark, who also started Primal Kitchen, if you're familiar with that brand, um, has started Peluva Shoes.

So Peluva means foot glove in Portuguese, and these are minimalist, zero drop barefoot shoes, and they have that five-toe articulation. I resisted trying these out for a long time, 'cause I thought they looked nerdy. I'm just being so real. Um, but after many times of Brad being like, "Dude, just try them.

Just try them," I was like, "Okay, okay, I promise I'm gonna be honest with you." Yeah, I wear them all the time. I absolutely love them. I didn't think that the five-toe articulation was really that important, 'cause I've been a longtime fan of Vivobs and barefoot shoes, and still love Vivobs too.

Um, but wow, like major difference. Like, I was like, "Okay, now I'm like really actually using my foot the way I was supposed to." So they are awesome. Um, I told Brad, I was like, "You're right, dude. I love them so much." They're awesome. Um, and then they offered to sponsor the podcast, so thank you to Peluva, and they also offered to give you guys 10% off if you would like to try them out, which I highly recommend.

Um, you can go to Peluva, that's P-E-L-U-V-A.com/coachterra, or you can just use the code coachterra at checkout and get 10% off of your order, and I highly, highly recommend getting some of their toe socks while you're there, because you're gonna need toe socks. All right, let's go ahead and get into the episode.

Okay, Catherine. I was just telling Catherine before we started, guys, I'm like, "Yay, I get to interview one of my favorite people in the entire health industry today." And if, if you guys didn't catch Catherine on previous podcast episodes, no worries, 'cause we are gonna do a massive refresher.

So if this is your first time meeting Catherine or maybe a second time, I guarantee you didn't remember everything, and so this is refresher course. So Catherine, oh my gosh, this is gonna be such a fun episode, because you're such an amazing educator.

Oh,

Uh, but let's start. Like microalgae, let's start with the basics.

Yes, yes. Well, what is algae? Uh, um, actually, there's two types of algae. Um, microalgae is one. The other one is macroalgae. We, uh, at ENERGYbits, we sell microalgae, and that's what you get at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and everywhere else. But let me tell you what macroalgae is, just to give you context.

Um, it's that stringy stuff that washes up on shore, also known as seaweed or dulse or kelp, and it's still good for you because it has high, um, fiber, and it has iron... or, sorry, iodine, 'cause it's from the ocean.

Mm-hmm.

They call it seaweed for two reasons: A, you can see it, and also it's from the sea. Uh, but it has virtually no nutrition, so just, you know, mostly fiber, no nutrition. Microalgae is completely opposite, and that's what we sell at ENERGYbits. Um, it is, either has zero fiber or very little fiber.

Spirulina has zero fiber because it's actually a bacteria, not even a plant. Chlorella is the other algae, and it does have fiber. But it is the most nutrient-dense food in the universe. And that's not just my opinion. The United Nations has endorsed spirulina as the answer to world hunger because it has the highest concentration of protein in the world by weight.

It's three times the amount of protein as steak, so ours is 64% protein. Just to give

Wow

some context, animal protein is usually about 22%. the the, uh, NASA's been feeding it to the astronauts for 50 years, and we have a quote from them saying, "One gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1,000 grams of fruits or vegetables." So one to 1,000, so so concentrated nutrition.

Uh, and it's everywhere. It's not just in the sea. It's in the rivers, the lakes, the streams, the soil, and, uh, we grow it in fresh water. So whether, again, whether it's from us or from Trader Joe's, when you buy spirulina or chlorella, which are the two microalgae that, you know, are much everybody knows, they're grown in

Let me interject real quick. Sorry, Catherine. Uh, if you're listening on audio, I am gonna recommend that you maybe catch this one on YouTube because she's got visuals, guys. That's what I she's an amazing educator. She's ready. Okay, sorry. Continue on.

Yeah, so I'm showing you pictures of, uh, farms. This is a spirulina farm. They're long and narrow, and then the other one is chlorella. Now, um, we'll talk later about what makes our algae so special, but I'll give you a little hint. Uh, we grow ours in Taiwan, which is known as the gold standard for growing algae, partly, uh, two reasons.

Uh, growing algae isn't like growing broccoli or carrots. It's more like making wine.

Yeah.

And just like wine is affected by the angle of the sun, Taiwan just happens to be in the perfect place to get the most concentrated nutrition growing algae.

Wow.

Number two, in as with wine, it's the production processes that change the wine. You know, the in wine, I don't drink a lot of wine, so but it's the barrels, the type of wood of the barrels, how long they're in the barrels. Well, with algae, it's did you use high heat to dry it, uh, and how long did it take to dry it?

Uh, and we're known for having the the highest efficacy because we don't use high heat to dry our algae. all of the lesser quality, lower priced ones are 99% of it comes from China or India, uh, where there are contract manufacturers. And they, because they're lower priced, they need to get to market quickly, so they cut corners, and one of the corners they cut is they use high heat to dry it.

Now, we're gonna talk, we're gonna do a little bit of a deep dive, I hope, on mitochondria health

Yeah

uh, you need to protect your mitochondria. They generate all your cellular energy for you, but they get damaged by free radicals. And there's an antioxidant that protects your mitochondria that your body makes until you're age 30, and then it drops, but it's called superoxide dismutase, and the highest concentration of it is found in spirulina.

However, it's deactivated by high heat. So our, that's one of the reasons why ours works so well. So back to the story of microalgae. You have macroalgae in the ocean, stringy, uh, lots of fiber, no nutrition. Microalgae is everywhere, no, virtually no fiber but lots of nutrition and everywhere and harvested as a food crop in Asia, grown hydroponically in fresh water.

Now, within microalgae, there are tens of thousands of strains, but the two most popular that people are familiar with are spirulina and chlorella. There's lots of other strains, but these are, represent 99.9% of algae that's available for sale by us or anywhere around the world. And spirulina is known as a blue-green algae.

Um, that's why I package ours, we call ours Energy Bits. I package ours in blue because it's a blue-green algae, and chlorella is a green algae. Now, you may say, "Well, why are they called that?" Well, chlorella only has one pigment in it. It's one that you're familiar with, chlorophyll.

And so in fact, chlorella is called chlorophyll, chlorella because it has the highest chlorophyll in the world. It even has more than liquid chlorophyll. Now, has two pigments. It has the green one, chlorophyll, but it has another one, a unique one only found in spirulina called phycocyanin. Now, that's spelled with a P-H-Y, phy, P-H-Y-C-O-C-Y-A-N-I-N.

Now, a lot of people are familiar with methylene blue as something to improve mitochondria health. But and that's okay, but methylene blue is a chemical. It's made in a in a production facility. Phycocyanin is natural. It's from nature And it does a, you know, 10 to 100 times more things than, than methylene blue does.

One of the things that it does that methylene blue does not do is it kills cancer cells. I'd say that was pretty important, and it's scientifically proven, and I can... And if you Google phycocyanin and cancer treatments, you'll see the same science that I've seen, and in fact, chemotherapy companies use the phycocyanin now in their treatments.

They don't tell you

Mm

but they do, and I can tell you how it works on the, the pathway. But anyways, back to the two algae. So spirulina and chlorella are the two algae, microalgae that most people are familiar with, but they do completely different things in your body, so you really do need both, or depending on what your purpose is or health issue you want to correct, you might want to focus on one over the other if you could only buy one.

And I can walk you through what those two different, uh, what they do differently in your body, 'cause they're as different as night and day. And everyone they're the same.

You're right. Yeah. It's both microalgae. Okay, yeah, walk us through.

Okay. So spirulina, by the way, spirulina was the first life on Earth. Again, I'm writing a book. I told Tara I'm writing a book, and, um, it'll be published in January. It's called, uh, uh, Love Your Health to Bits, with Algae, and I was on Dr. Phil's show recently.

Oh, no way.

And, yeah. And, and he said, "Is there enough to write a, book about algae?" And I said, "Are you kidding?" and I've already told Tara, I'm I'm up to 300 pages already, and I have over 1,000 scientific references, so yes, Dr. Phil, there's enough a book

anyone who knows you, yeah, it's just hilarious. It's like, are you kidding? It's like, she she whittled that down

I know, I know. There were 3,000. I cut it down to 1,000. And I have an editor working with me, and every... Uh, I'm on the mitochondria chapter right now, and it was going to be 25 pages, and we had to cut it back 'cause nobody else except me would read a 25-page chapter on mitochondria.

So I promise you, we're gonna and I make it fun.

Yeah. Yeah

so anyways, spirulina gives you energy, uh, but it's not a stimulant. It doesn't work like a stimulant 'cause it has no sugar, caffeine, or chemicals, and it gives you energy in the near term and the long term. And how that works is this. First of all, spirulina, as I started to say, was the first life on Earth.

Uh, nobody knows why it started happening, why it started growing four billion years ago, but it, but it did, and I call it spiritualina for that reason, because something spiritual about being the first life. We're not talking just the first plant. The first life, people. We're talking... And by the way, it became your mitochondria, but that's another story.

So spirulina gives you energy at the cellular level. It does it because it has the highest, uh, amount of protein in the world, and, and most importantly, it's two important things, the protein is already in amino acid form. When you eat protein, your body can't absorb it that way.

It has to break it down into what I call Legos, right? You get all these

Mm

and you make really great stuff. Well, your body has to do the reverse. It takes this great stuff and breaks it down into Legos, called aminos, then it can absorb it. So in animal protein, it can take a while. Plant protein could take even longer 'cause the protein's stuck inside the cellulose walls.

But with algae, both spirulina and chlorella, the, uh, protein is already in amino acid form. No work for your body to get access to it. It has 18 of the 20 aminos, including the nine your body can't make, so it's a complete protein. And because spirulina is a bacteria, no cellulose wall, your body absorbs it instantly if you chew it, and within maybe 10 minutes tops if you swallow it.

So it literally bypasses digestion. So all, so that's why it's about 99% bioavailable. All the nutrition, all the 40 vitamins and minerals, all the concentrated, um, superoxide dismutase that we'll talk

Yeah

gets absorbed. And then it's loaded with B vitamins, so the B vitamins convert the aminos, which are now being converted into glucose, into energy. So within minutes, you have a bit of a mental, physical lift. Not a rush or a

Right

'cause it's not a stimulant. It's more like putting a, log on the fire instead of putting paper on a fire. Paper would be like a stimulant.

Right

so that's what gives you energy in the short term, and the best way to describe it is you just feel fresh.

Mm-hmm.

That's it.

Mm-hmm.

No drama, nothing crazy. You might not even notice it unless you're working out, and then if you are, then you'll be able to run further or faster and you won't notice it, or you'll lift more and you'll lift longer and you won't notice it. Uh, you can take anywhere from 10 to 30.

NHL players take 75, which

Mm

like two or three pouches of our, uh, single pouches in, and put them in their smoothie before a game because they need

Mm

energy and focus on the ice. So remember, it's food. So there's no upper limit, no, uh, contraindications. So but that's how you get energy in the short term, because the aminos getting absorbed quickly, the B vitamins convert them into energy, and boom, you get, you get a nice lift.

Mm.

On the long term, spirulina has this really, two critical things, this antioxidant called superoxide dismutase that protects your mitochondria from free radical damage. Now, your mitochondria are what make all of your cellular energy for you, called ATP. You need cellular energy for everything, not just running to the store or a great workout.

It's thinking, it's walking, it's talking, it's lymphatic system, it's digestion, it's sleep. it's like money, and when you have more ATP, when you have more money, you can do more things and you have more choices. When you have more

Mm

you can do more things and you have more choices.

Yeah.

The problem is, as we get older, our mitochondria get damaged and die.

Mm-hmm.

So there's less ATP being generated, so there's less cellular energy to be shared among your body parts to do anything. And it gets worse after the age of 40, partly because one of these protective antioxidants, which is called superoxide dismutase, your body slows down the production of it. The way I describe superoxide dismutase is like a golf umbrella.

You know, if you ever get caught in a rainstorm, whether you're golfing or shopping, it doesn't really matter, and you pop one of those big golf umbrellas You don't stop the rain, but you stop getting wet. Superoxide dismutase is the same way. It does not stop the free radicals.

They're a natural byproduct of, of ATP production. However, what it does is it it intercepts them and converts them to oxygen and water. So it's like an umbrella. it's protecting the mitochondria. So this goes on in your body without you even knowing from the moment you're born until about the age of 30, when your big golf umbrella gets reduced, and by the time you're 40, it's about the size of one of those totes umbrella, and by the time you're 50, it's about the size of a cocktail umbrella.

And this is exactly when chronic illness kicks in.

Mm-hmm.

This is exactly when heart disease, cancer, autoimmune, and when for women, we're also hitting, um, perimenopause and menopause at that same time. And what people don't know is that estrogen acts as an antioxidant in the mitochondria. So as we're going through menopause, we're losing the protection of the estrogen.

At the same time, we're losing the protection of the superoxide dismutase. But there's a happy ending, because spirulina has the highest concentration of that superoxide dismutase in the world. We have lab tests that prove it. By the way, if you ever doubted that this stuff called superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD, is important, there are 25,000 studies confirming that it's, it, it's, it stops inflammation, it prevents heart disease, it prevents, uh, um, Alzheimer's.

It is in, it, uh, the lack of it is indicated in every single chronic condition. Now, the problem is the scientists don't know you can get it in spirulina. So I'm on a mission to let people know.

Mm-hmm.

But here's the catch: It's also an enzyme. So any of lesser quality and algaes that are using high heat to dry their algae, boom, they're killing the superoxide dismutase. And the way I describe it is like getting a great deal on a fabulous car, except you lift the hood and there's no engine.

So looks great, doesn't perform. So you, so you either need to be sure you're getting... 'Cause ours is raw. We call our, our, both tablets raw because we don't use high heat to dry them. Or you can get frozen or fresh spirulina, 'cause again, has not been exposed to high heat.

So, so that's really cool. So this is also why on the long term it increases your energy because you have more mitochondria being regenerated. The ones that are still there are starting to perform better. So, um, you just, everything gets up-leveled. So it's

Mm-hmm

pretty, great.

And, and I had to pull, I had to pull this up just on the SOD2 stuff. Like, there, there are genetic predispositions to have reduced SOD2 function. Now, I really feel like a lot of this has to do with people who, you know, their toxin load is high. They, their energy starts to go down.

They end up with like, you know, some sort of... I, I'm not saying this causes that, but like mast cell activation or like

Yep

some sort of, uh, overload of like being, not being able to recover fully from whatever your body's dealing with.

Yeah,

And I'm just throwing that out there. It might be something nice to know about yourself if you

Yeah

like a high-risk variant, and then just start pounding freaking spirulina.

Right. Right.

Yeah.

and you're right. I mean, there are... It's very rare that this, that the genetic, uh, situation occurs. It's most more that we are so, we are

Aging

soaked with

Yeah

and we are just missing critical nutrients, and we never... Our bodies weren't built to live this long. Up until 200 years ago, our average lifespan was about 30. So evolutionarily, our bodies are preparing us for death once we cross that threshold of 30, 35. That's why your melatonin slows down.

That's why your estrogen goes down, because you sure don't need a a, um, you know, you're not gonna be making a baby if you're dead, and the superoxide dismutase similarly drops after the age of 30. It's just biologically wired. But we can jigger that with bio hacks and with proper nutrition and with detox and, you know, getting your body back into a, a healthier condition.

But right now it thinks that it's on its way out, and we want you to stay around. So, uh, so this is like your I say SOS, SOD is your SOS for your mitochondria.

Yeah, and we did do a whole podcast episode just on this mitochondria thing. 'Cause I remember when you figured this out, you were, like, so because so much of your career has been like, "I know this is powerful," and then it's been like, I, I don't know. How, how many years has it been since you started ENERGYbits?

16.

it's been, like, 16 years of, like, validation through science. It's been fun to watch.

I'm gonna figure this out. know there's something here, I just don't know what it is. But I finally got my PhD last year, so that really helped. Uh, uh, so anyway, so this is why why we call spirulina ENERGYbits because it gives you energy for, you know, in, in the short term, long term for the mitochondria, but there's an extra thing that gives you energy.

Remember I talked about the blue, uh, pigment called phycocyanin and that it kills cancer cells? Well, here's the thing. In a healthy cell, it actually speeds up the production of the ATP. 'Cause if you know anything about the electron transport chain, this is where the actual energy is created, and it's sort of like a relay race.

You have these four proteins, and they pass electrons from one to another, and then at the end of it is this thing called ATP synthase, where the ATP is actually created. Now, it, there are two little helper molecules, I call them little Ferraris, that help the the proteins move those electrons across, and one of them, one of the Ferraris, is called cytochrome c.

In a healthy cell, the blue phycocyanin in spirulina is like putting high-test fuel into that Ferrari. It speeds it up. So now the electrons can move faster across that electron transport chain, which, ta-da, generates more energy for you. Beautiful. However, if you have a senescent cell, which is a cell that's basically a, a zombie cell and, and is inflammatory, or you have a cancer cell, that blue phycocyanin detects that it's a senescent or a zombie cell and instead of speeding up that Ferrari, it kicks it out, which triggers something called caspases, which triggers what's called apoptosis, which is cell death.

Cancer cells can't kill themselves. So this blue... So that's why I call spirulina intelligent food. You have to be

Mm-hmm

to take it, and it knows what to do in your body. If it's a healthy cell, you get more energy. If it's an unhealthy cell, it, it, it boots it out.

So cool. See

Unbelievable

I had to have Catherine back on the show, right? 'Cause I'm like, uh, uh, first of all, I'm not gonna remember everything Catherine said. Everybody needs a refresher, and it's so much more than just some, like, you know, multivitamin or something. Like, you know, so it, an education piece is really required to understand all this, but how cool is that?

Yeah, I know. It's, when you really start digging in, and most people wouldn't have the patience that I've or the curiosity,

Yeah

our bodies, and particularly the mitochondria, are the most elegantly designed system in the universe.

Mm-hmm.

It's brilliant.

Mm.

And the problem is, we don't understand that brilliance, and so we don't we think, "Oh, well, you know, having a couple of cupcakes is, you know, it's just a few extra calories." It's actually very damaging, not because of the, the calories. It's 'cause of the insulin spikes and the, and what it causes, uh, your, it causes your electron transport chain to get offline.

So,

Mm

whatever you put in your mouth at any time, or your brain, 'cause negative thoughts also cause damage, um, it's either good for you or, or not. It, there's really, you

Mm

there's a bit of a scale, of course, really good or maybe not so good. But remember that whatever you're putting in your mouth has an effect at the cellular level, and it's way beyond calories. Calories really aren't

Right

the room to talk about.

Yeah, I like to say, "Is this helping my body or is it something my body has to deal with?"

Yes, yeah.

I know it can deal with some stuff, but how much do I want to put it in that kind of position?

Yeah. And it's 80/20 because I'm not perfect

Mm-hmm

and I'll, you know, I crave stuff every once in a while just like everybody else. Um, uh, but so it's, it is 80/20. So

Mm-hmm

that's spirulina.

Yeah.

Very energizing. Now, the other thing I call spirulina is brain food. Now, why is that you may ask. Well, because your brain has the most mitochondria. There are two million mitochondria per neurotransmitter. Unbelievable. Uh, scientifically proven. I've got the reference in my book.

Can't be. Like, how?

Two million. And the second highest are women's eggs, the, um, 'cause it takes a lot of energy to create a baby, and the third highest is your heart. The fourth are your muscles. The mitochondria generate energy for your body, and they are concentrated where the greatest energy needs are, and your brain sucks up 20% of all ATP energy.

This is why when you go through menopause, you have, so many women suffer from brain fog. This is why Alzheimer's is so uh, prevalent with women. We, we suffer, uh, at the mitochondrial level in our brain more than men. And your brain has a very high concentration of fat, and fat oxidizes.

It gets damaged very quickly. That's why you need the superoxide dismutase and the blue phycocyanin, which also protects your telomeres. So very much brain food. So I call spirulina not only energizing and

Right

it's only one calorie per tablet and all that high protein, but it's brain food.

Mm-hmm

so, okay. So that's number one. Number two is chlorella. Uh, it developed on Earth about a billion years after spirulina, and it does belong to the plant kingdom. Remember spirulina is a bacteria. Why is that important? Well, a couple things. First of all, and I designed it with a plant leaf on it so you know that it's plant and it's got fiber.

So that hard cellulose wall is in fact the hardest cellulose wall in the plant kingdom, and what it does is it chelates heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticides, alcohol, lactic acid, mold spores, anything that should not be in your body. So it, chelates means it attaches and removes, so it pulls it out.

Very important, 'cause the average, I read the average, uh, adult in North America has 700 toxins in them. Babies are being born with almost 200. I mean, that's crazy.

Mm-hmm.

And those, I, the way I describe toxins is they're, you know, I used to live in Boston, especially in the winter when you're very protective of your parking spots, and you pay big money for them. And if someone's in your parking spot, you're out of luck, so you have to call a tow truck or the police car, and they come and tow the, the car out so that you can get in.

Well, chlorella is like pulling out the, the, uh, toxins that are sitting inside what's called your receptor cells. They're like parking spots, uh, to, so

Mm-hmm

then the nourishment from the spirulina can get in. So the chlorella, think of chlorella as toxins out, spirulina is nourishment in, and that can help you understand the two of them. So back to the hard cell wall. The other great thing about that hard cell wall is that it has fiber, because it's a cell wall, and your gut biome needs fiber to, to be fed so it can create the healthy bacteria, uh, so they can make sure all your absorption is happening and your, um, your, uh, immune system is working properly.

So chlorella does that. Chlorella also, as I mentioned earlier, has the highest amount of chlorophyll. Now chlorophyll is very important, but our vegetables, if you are still eating any, have virtually no chlorophyll in them anymore because we've been, we've killed our soils by overcropping, so there's no minerals left in the soils.

So even if you're eating vegetables, even if they're organic, they do not have the nutrition that they used to have, so they're really

Right.

Now your body needs minerals.

Mm-hmm.

the, and thing about chlorophyll is that it also build, builds your blood. I'm showing now a picture of, uh, the hemoglobin cell and, uh, the chlorophyll cell. They're virtually identical. The difference is your hemoglobin has iron in the middle and chlorophyll has magnesium. The iron that's in the middle of your hemoglobin is what carries oxygen in your blood.

So when you have high chlorophyll, you are literally building your blood.

Mm.

And, uh, both algae are very alkaline, which keeps the blood acidity, uh, it keeps it, the pH rather, alkaline. You need your pH, uh, of your blood to be about 7.34. We know our body should be like, uh, temperature should be 98.6, or your, your blood has a particular pH it needs, and when it goes too acidic, uh, you would die.

So what it does is to, it will need to neutralize that acidity by pulling out alkaline minerals from your bones, from your organs, from your tissue, and that wears down your immune system over time. So that never happens when you're taking spirulina or chlorella, particularly chlorella, 'cause of the high chlorophyll.

It keeps the blood pH where it needs to be to function properly.

Wow.

It's

Yeah, and I, I just have to say also on the, on the binder effect, the chelation you were talking about, I had a client who, I don't know why I can't think of the name of the heavy metal. And she, uh, she was a military instructor for flying helicopters.

Oh, wow.

we did, um, her heavy metals testing and, ah, I can't remember the name of the one right now 'cause I've only ever seen it high in her. I've never I mean, it was all the way high. I mean, it was off the charts.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

And we decided to use, uh, your energy, your,

recovery bits

recovery bits. Yeah. Which is chlorella. It worked.

Yeah. Yeah.

Just that. That's all we used. We didn't do any other kind of thing, so just letting you know. I don't know if I ever told you that, but I was

Oh, that's awesome

weak.

That's so awesome. And I recently moved into a new condo building here in in Miami, and I was doing some renovations, and lo and behold, they discovered mold. Brand new building. And, uh, I had been feeling so sick the previous month, so fatigued, brain fog, and it's so not like me.

Mm-hmm.

And then I knew it was... And so then I, I had blood tests. I worked with a functional uh, medicine doctor, and they just, she just said, you know, "Just keep ta-" taking more chlorella, which I did. And, literally within a month it was all um, symptoms were gone.

So it's really incredible for what it, what it does. And the, we work with a biological dentist. They use it to pull mercury out of their patients when

Okay

their their fillings out. And the doctors, the

Wow

take it as well because the mercury fumes can get into the air,

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

very, very important for chelation. If anyone's taking radiation, if they're doing, um, uh, cancer treatments, please take the chlorella after, uh, the treatment because it will pull out the excess radiation so you're not as sick.

Wow.

Uh, they used it at Chernobyl, they used it Fukushima. Um, it's the only, uh, thing that will remove radiation effectively. Um, so yeah, it's pretty, pretty crazy. So, uh, so back to the, it chelates the heavy metals, the chlorophyll builds your blood, the fiber feeds your gut biome. Also, the chlorophyll kills bad bacteria.

It kills it in your mouth if you chew it, in your, in your, um, stomach, in your colon and travels all the way down. So very, very healing to the gut. It also has the highest glutathione in the world, which is also a very important antioxidant, particularly for your liver.

Your liver works like a, your water treatment plant. It processes and removes toxins from your blood all the time, but it could, it often needs some help, so the glutathione chlorella, um, really, really help with that. Um, now, a lot of people may have been, be familiar with tryptophan.

It's known for being very high in turkey. Chlorella has five times more tryptophan than anything else. Well, than turkey.

Wow.

And why is that important? Well, two things. First of all, it's a, tryptophan is a precursor to melatonin, which is help you get to, gets you, uh, get your circadian rhythm back in, into place so that you can sleep. So this will actually help you with your sleeping. Won't put you to sleep, but it'll help you get there.

And very importantly, tryptophan is also a precursor to something called serotonin. Now, a lot of people have heard of serotonin as your happy mood neurotransmitter, which it is, but you may not know that 80% of your serotonin is made and used in your gut. It does a lot of things.

Your gut is known as your second brain, and it's connected to the first brain by the vagus nerve. But the second brain, which is your stomach, you know you say you, you know you have a gut reaction, you, you, you you know something for sure is off. Yeah, you're usually right 'cause there's a lot of, um, uh, nerve endings in your gut that help communicate intelligence to, to your brain to make decisions.

But back to serotonin. One of the things that most people do not know, and I did not know about this, that serotonin does is it triggers what's called bowel motility. People, we're talking poops.

Yeah.

This is bowel movements. So if anyone is constipated, please start taking chlorella because, uh, and it's not spirulina 'cause spirulina, in fact, it, the high protein sometimes it can, if you have too much and you don't have enough water, can, uh, lead to constipation just like it would too much protein from animal protein.

Chlorella, the high tryptophan precursor to the serotonin stimulates bowel movements.

Mm-hmm

as I was doing research for my book, I found that every year in America, there are 1.3 million visits to the emergency room for constipation. You just walk down any pharmacy and see rows and rows of stool softeners and psyllium husk. Honestly, don't take that stuff. Chlorella is your natural go-to.

And I have one more, uh, for, 'cause constipation is a big, is a big deal. I call it the junk in your trunk.

Mm-hmm.

if you don't have bowel movements regularly, uh, it's the stuff that's sitting there in your colon is stuff that your body didn't want, including toxins. And so your blood will circulate and pick up those toxins and redeposit them back into your cells. And we, you don't want that.

Right.

So, uh, so my other tip is, drum roll, 'cause I know you live in Hawaii, Tara,

Not anymore. I moved back to Utah, but I was. Yeah.

Oh, Okay. Well, uh, there's Whole Foods everywhere. Fresh pineapple. Yes. Fresh pineapple. It's the bromelain that's in the fresh pineapple that helps with, um, your digestion and your elimination. So stay away from the drugs. certainly keep out of the emergency ward. But things that cause constipation are stress, lack of movement, too much dairy, pharma's drugs, prescription drugs are a classic, processed foods, too much, um, uh, processed food period or, or white carbs.

These are all things that uh, contribute to constipation. And you can get rid of all that simply by taking, uh, you know, your chlorella. We generally recommend chlorella, um, either after dinner or after a workout or before bed because, um, when you sleep, that's when your body goes through a detox repair cycle, and chlorella will help you get into the deeper sleep, and it will facilitate that cleansing detoxing that's going on while you're sleeping so that you can, uh, get rid of all those heavy metals in your brain, uh, pull them out of your cells, and then, uh, have a nice little trip to the bathroom in the morning.

I wanna take a moment to tell you guys what I can actually do to support you in your journeys and tell you a little bit more about Higher Coaching, my app, and retreats. So just as a quick summary, Higher Coaching is my full tilt, full on customized health and life coaching.

So we are getting all into every aspect of your life in a very supportive way. So how that's delivered is completely customized training. You'll do my neuro-typing test to kick things off, which is a whole thing in and of itself that's really cool, and then I will completely customize your training and also your nutrition.

I base a lot of my decisions on labs. You don't have to do labs, but we can do a lot of labs. You can also bring me labs that you've had done recently or, you know, whatever kind of health history that you have. Love to see it. And, you know, from the labs perspective, we do blood, we do hair tissue mineral analysis, DNA.

Um, I have a software that I run DNA through that I prefer where I can see different SNPs that have to do with health, um, that are more research backed and I actually trust. Um, we do stool testing, so gut microbiome, so if you got gut issues, bring 'em, let's go.

And also, um, hormones through saliva and urine, and those two methods of testing help us get, see a little bit more of a deeper insight into what's going on with your hormones, incorting, incorting, including cortisol, um, and your sex hormones.

So, um, there's that, and then we also have biohacking involved in various ways. That could be through an Oura Ring or Whoop strap or some sort of HRV and sleep tracking device or a continuous glucose monitor or, you know, lots of different interventions that we do depending on the person and what they need.

So there's all of that health approach, and then there's the full-on life coaching because I believe these are one. They are. It's not I believe. They are one, okay? So it's like if there's a lot of dysfunction in terms of interpersonal relationships or professional life or just internal world in terms of boundaries and self-talk and identity and all of that kind of wounded stuff, like we get into that too, as much or as little as someone is willing to.

So higher is my full till we are going all in on you, baby, uh, one-on-one coaching. And I do have a coach that coaches with me, Coach Daria, who has been on the podcast a couple times. Um, so you do have some options there between working with either of us and the...

You know, obviously the cost is a little different too, so it's kind of a nice service for people because, yes, I charge more. But yeah. So if you wanna learn more about that, go to teragarrison.com, and you'll see one-on-one coaching. And just, just click on that one, and you can get a free consultation with my team.

Next is my app. So my app is my solution for not everybody can afford or even wants full-on one-on-one coaching. So if you want all my goods, like you want all my training counsel on form optimization and nutrition and, know, the biohacking and the info, and we do have live Q&As once a month and community and all of that, that is, uh, obviously a lot more affordable and pretty awesome if I do say do say so myself.

And, uh, there's a whole mindset part in there that a lot of people like where I take you on these little 22-minute guided journeys. So check those out if you get the app, and there's a seven-day free trial so you can see everything in there and make sure you like it before you actually pay anything.

So just go to app.teragarrison.com for that. And then I do have a retreat open right now. In 2027, we are going up to the Pacific Northwest. It'll be about 45 minutes outside of Seattle. Um, we are staying at the beautiful Salish Lodge and Spa. It sits on top of 168-foot waterfall, and it is owned by the tribe whose lands that those are.

That waterfall is very sacred to them, and that makes me happy that they are in control of that land again. So, um, it's gonna be incredible. We're gonna do lots of fun things like white water rafting, paddleboarding. Uh, you know, we're gonna do holotropic breathwork or, like, conscious connected breathwork, which is a healing type thing.

Um, we will have all sorts of amazing facilitation. And yeah, they're the coolest thing that I offer, straight up. They're amazing. So if you want to check that out, just go to teragarrison.com and click on Retreats, and you can find out more and get all signed up. If that is speaking to you, I firmly believe that anybody that comes to anything, like whether it's working with me directly or in my app or coming to one of my retreats, uh, my whole business is kind of a spiritual thing for me, so I take that very seriously, and I fully believe that people who come my way are sent my way for a reason.

So if that's pinging at you, um, please, please honor it. Like, uh, it's, it's more than just business for me here, you know? So, um, yeah. I would love to hear from you if I can support you in any of those ways. Um, I'm curious if maybe this is in your book.

Uh, did you come across any specifics? I know we have so much, uh, research to do on the actual gut microbiome, but did you come across any... you said that you mentioned, I mean, guess chlorophyll and all that, uh, that it has a, uh, an ability to get rid of some of potential overgrowth of opportunistic bacteria.

Were there any specific bacteria strains that came up in your research?

Um, I haven't

Okay.

I'm sure there's but I wasn't looking for it.

Okay.

but this brain intelligence is called the enteric system, enteric nervous

Mm-hmm

and it lines all of your cell walls in your, uh, stomach and in your lower intestine. Um, most digestion, by the way, is done in your lower, uh, in your small intestine. The food is broken down in your stomach, then it goes into your small intestine where it's actually absorbed.

Uh, and then your by the way, colon cancer is on the rise, and I think a lot of it has to do with this constipation issue.

Mm-hmm

between stress and high, the average adult in America, um, so over 40, is on three medications. It's crazy. And so, um, you know, that causes issues with your gut biome, which also cause issues with your elimination.

Mm-hmm

so we can, if we can get the elimination and the, the fiber into the gut to help, you

Mm-hmm

get the, the way I describe it in my, in my book is, like, when you have drugs or things that are messing up your gut biome, it's, it's like, uh, the old Western movie where the bad guys took over the town and the townspeople are terrified. They don't know what to do.

And so in rides the sheriff,

Mm-hmm

with his trusty stead chlorophyll to calm everybody down so that the, the bad guys can be taken out and the good townspeople can come back in, which is the healthy gut bacteria in your, in your gut biome and,

Mm-hmm

peace can be restored.

Yeah, and to clarify, like the microbiome when we're thinking of all this bacteria and fungi and all this stuff, that is your colon. That, that's where that's happening. You know?

Yeah.

We think it's just, like, our whole entire abdominal area. No, a lot of that is your small intestine and you

Yeah

you don't want a bacteria grow, all growing all

Yeah

small intestine. That's gonna cause a lot of problems, but

Yeah

that happens. But that, just to clarify, I don't think a lot of people realize that. It's not just your whole abdomen. It is your colon. It is your large intestine. That's where all

Yeah

gut microbiome is. it is definitely, I would say, not surprising to me the rates of colon cancer when we can already see how much dysfunction is happening in the microbiome.

Yeah

the combination of our environmental factors, missing tons of nutrients out of our food, chronic stress, and the medications, you know, then you're right. I mean, constipation in and of itself, like, for me, it's like the the most important thing is you just gotta get motility going. Like, it's

Yeah

critical, and that can be difficult sometimes, but anything that is going to help stimulate motility when you're constipated is a critical part. You're not gonna just attack certain bacteria. It, like, if it's not moving, you're not going anywhere. Like, it's to start moving, you know?

You gotta traffic jam Yeah.

Uh-huh. It's, like a, a little pond that gets all filled with all sorts of stuff versus, like, a stream, you know? Or a river.

Yeah. It's, it's

So I love that you're

the difference between, um, you know, again, being from the Northeast, Canadian in fact, it's like the difference between having ice and and running water.

yeah. Yeah. Your mind goes to ice. I go to, like, a, in my Hawaii

Right. Right, right

stagnant water. You're like, "No."

skating and skiing, so I'm very familiar with ice being Canadian.

Right. Right.

Yeah. You know, you, it's a lot easier when it's moving water, and that's what, you know, that's what you want. You, and this doesn't give you diarrhea. This just

Right

the things along and, uh, makes it more efficient. So, um, so, so you can see that chlorella is very much a gut health algae. It

Mm-hmm

out toxins. It builds your gut biome. It facilitates liver, uh, cleansing, facilitates movement through your colon. Um, and so all of

fiber.

it has fiber, so

Right

so that's why, you know, again, I say they're both different.

Mm-hmm.

Spirulina's very much brain food, energizing, focus, health, you know, your, your, um, uh, superoxide dismutase for your mitochondria, and chlorella is the cleansing, detoxing, you know, gut biome, your movement algae. So the two of them work quite different.

Mm-hmm.

That's why I also think of, um, spirulina as your AM algae.

Mm-hmm

the morning, afternoon, before a workout, and chlorella is your PM. It could be after dinner. I mean, I eat both of them all day long, so

Right.

don't think that you can't have them all day long. And by the

Right

I, I eat them, especially in the morning, I, both of them, I use, I like to eat them, I put sea salt on them, which is really great 'cause I wanna get my electrolytes back up.

Mm-hmm.

I know a lot of people drink electrolyte water. I just pour sea salt on mine. So generally, though, spirulina is your AM, your morning, and chlorella generally

Mm-hmm

post-workout, after dinner, before bed.

Mm-hmm

and remember again, they're both food, so they don't,

Yeah

and they, they don't interfere with, uh, intermittent fasting, 'cause I do that all day every morning as well. or, and they, and they're terrific to stack with other bio hacks. So let's say you're doing, um, a sauna. I, we always recommend the spirulina first and the chlorella after, and the reason for that is spirulina being a, the the bacteria, no cell as well, gets into your bloodstream so much faster.

So while you're sweating out the the, you know, the toxins or whatever in your sauna, you're also nourishing your cells with the good nourishment that's in the spirulina. Then you take the chlorella after the sauna,

Mm

it's like the cleanup crew. It pulls out all the stuff that was released. Same thing with cryotherapy or, or cold plunges. Spirulina before, chlorella after. If you're red light, spirulina before, chlorella after. And here's a fun little sort of a did you know thing, uh, with red light Um, there's a scientific paper that showed that when you stack red light with chlorophyll, so the two of them have to be pretty much the same time, the the combination stimulates, uh, the other helper molecule in that electron transport chain.

I did mention one called cytochrome C, which I'm sure nobody's ever heard of before. But you have heard of this other one. It's called CoQ10. And so when you put blue, red light and chlorophyll together, it stimulates the CoQ10 molecule, which speeds up the production of ATP and reduces inflammation.

So if you're doing your red light, do yourself a favor. Up level, and you could take either one of them. Again, I usually defer to spirulina 'cause it does have chlorophyll and it will get in there much faster for you. Uh, and that will help reduce inflammation and speed up your, your ATP production, which is, uh, you know, a beautiful thing.

Yeah. And if you're in a nature version of a infrared sauna, you know, you're gonna be outdoors all day.

Yes.

I really love the, both of these, especially Energybits. You know, if you're gonna be at the beach or you're gonna be hiking or fishing or hunting, like bring some packs with you.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah,

I mean, you you guys make it so easy 'cause, like, if you're not watching on YouTube, she has, like, the big bags right now. There's, like, but it's, they also have these little sachets, these little packs, which are

Yeah

every time I travel, I bring those with me. It is, like, a non-negotiable. There's very few things I bring with me when I travel, but I always bring those 'cause I'm like, I'm putting myself in this, like, airplane situation,

I know

these airports and all this stuff, and I, I love it. So you can bring those with you. Or you

Yeah

like, little, you have these

Well, we have, tins

dispensers.

Yeah

with these little tins also if you just want to refill. So

Yeah

easy to bring them with you

Yeah

which I really appreciate.

The, the key is just to take them because,

That's

we are literally being poisoned to death, and I'm so I've been in this biohacking wellness community for almost 20 years now. So and I meet all the vendors, and I meet all the scientists, and I, and, and so I'm always um, learning about the, you know, what's going on, what devices are being created, and what protocols

Mm-hmm

being recommended so that I can benefit from it, and then I try to incorporate that into what I sell, which is spirulina and chlorella.

Wow. Wow.

basically biohacking, uh, in my opinion is, what it does is it takes what Mother Nature has provided to us and but maybe we don't have access to it for, based on either age, location, or time.

Mm-hmm.

And it has used technology to accelerate the,

Mm-hmm

benefits of that. So right, you just said, when you're hiking, you get red, you get red light from the sun. Especially if you get out in the morning. So get, but if

Mm-hmm

can't get in there and you live in the Northeast and it's too cold most of the year, red light is fantastic. So

Mm-hmm

capturing what Mother Nature has created for us. Same like oxygen. We need oxygen. By the way, you need oxygen in the electron transport chain. It's the final handoff stage. You can get oxygen from deep breathing, from hyperbaric chambers.

Right

you know, if you don't want all the device, the situation, just sit and breathe, uh, deeply, belly breathing. And that will facilitate oxygenation of your... And there's other devices that you can buy. I just actually bought something called, by a company called Avacenn, A-V-A-C-E-N. What they do is, uh, they use heat to, um, uh, and you put your palm into this device, and it heat, it expands your capillaries, not just in your hand, but through your entire body, which allows more oxygen to be moved through your body.

So, um, it was just sort of one of the things. But, we

Mm-hmm

all of the resources from Mother Nature. Sleep is another miracle drug. All you have to

Yeah

get yourself into bed and make sure the room is cool, you have a sleep mask so you're not getting any light, uh, and, and get some power sleep. And you can

Mm-hmm

you know, a Oura Ring to track it, and the chlorella will help you get into deeper sleep. Do never, never, never apologize for needing sleep. It is a, it is a natural drug for us.

Mm-hmm

and you'll notice and movement. Get into the forest. Just go for a walk. It reduces the insulin in your blood. Uh, you, if you can, you know, weightlifting is good 'cause that will pull more insulin out so you're less, uh, metabolic inefficient. Um, and because chlorella and spirulina have zero carbs, uh, they actually balance your blood sugar, lower your, your, your, um, cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure if you have high pressure.

It's just incredible what this stuff does.

Mm-hmm.

So all these things, light, sleep, movement, they're foundational. So is algae. It is right there,

Mm-hmm

with all these other things that Mother Nature has provided to us but may not be accessible in our modern society.

Exactly. Exactly

so that's why I'm proud of what we do. I'm just the voice of Mother Nature. I'm the voice of algae.

Yeah. And I, and I love that I always hear you emphasizing, like, this is not a supplement. This is just food. This is just food.

Yeah.

This is just food. And I, I think it's a really important clarification. Now, when people ask me, one of my, uh, questions I get asked a lot that I always struggle to answer is, what supplement should I take? And I am always like, "I don't, don't, don't ask people that."

Yeah.

don't ask that generally. Like, it, like, find out what you actually need, you know? 'Cause, like, you can run some basic labs. There's a if there's a will, there's a way. You can figure out how to run labs, whether it's through your insurance or, you know, save up some run a lab privately.

But, you know, for example, I have a client right now where I'm like, "Don't worry about anything except for iron and fish oil for you. Like, so what that is, nothing else matters," right? But when I get asked that question, I'm like, well, it's not really a supplement, but if you want something general like that that I would highly recommend, Energy Bits.

Energy Recovery Bits, like, literally everyone. It's, it's kind of like fish oil, like a high-quality fish oil. Okay, sure, yeah, 'cause 90, I think it's 97% of the adult population and, like, 98.5 of children, which is

omega-3s

are deficient in omega-3s. It's something close to that. It's incredibly high.

Yeah.

So yeah, if you want the answer to my generalized question, even though Energy Bits and Recovery Bits are not a supplement, they do kind of look like a supplement, which is

Yeah

because it's easier to take.

Yeah

those are my main two things right there.

Yeah. Well, and to your point, um, getting tests, you want to understand what's going on with you.

Yeah.

and, and there's you know, concierge medicine and, and, uh, custom, uh, dietary programs. And it's so funny 'cause, with algae, it's almost the opposite. It helps everyone for everything. That's why the book got so big, because it's like, oh my, I can't just, you

Right

automate that. I

Right

so you can't... like somebody asked me the other day, "Does it help with fibromyalgia?" And I said, "You know what? I actually don't know, but it can't hurt." I mean, if, and, and people who are

the serotonin thing is huge on that, so yeah.

Okay. Okay, that's good to know. I didn't know. See? I'm, I'm learning still. Uh, so I didn't know if serotonin would help with fibromyalgia.

If, there's, low serotonin is correlated with an increase in neurological specifically fibro.

Okay. Oh,

there could be a

Let's really... Okay

downstream connection there.

Well, so I, I will share that. Um, and people who are, you know, on stage four cancer, I mean, honestly, you, what have you got to lose?

Right.

And who wants to get to that level?

Right

if, and we have, you have a discount code that you can share with your community, and we, the best value are the large bags. And I'm not trying to do a, you know, sales pitch but, but with your discount code and the large bags, they end up being $104.

If you

Mm-hmm

10 a day, people, that's a dollar a day.

Mm-hmm.

You can't tell me you can't afford a dollar a day. And it, it will eliminate a lot of other multivitamins that are

Right

they're synthetic, you're not absorbing.

Mm-hmm.

Now, I will point out, if you have a health condition or you're trying to correct one or take action to prevent one, 20 or 30 tablets a day is your is what we call the therapeutic amount. So 10 will fill nutritional gaps, whether it's spirulina, uh, for your nutrition, and chlorella, you'll never have to another vegetable again if you don't like them.

Uh, but this also is the, the detoxing algae. But a dollar a day, I mean,

Mm-hmm

you, you deserve, you deserve that. And let me tell you about these synthetic pharmaceutical or, uh, prescription, not prescription, supplements. They, when they're made from synthetics, not all them are, so there are some exceptions, but the vast majority, certainly the inexpensive ones, are synthetics. Your body simply cannot recognize them and can't absorb them.

That's why I always defer to whole food of any kind. The trouble is, a lot of people have compromised digestion, so they can't eat vegetables. They might not be able to digest beef or, or whatever, and, you know, you have to buy the good stuff or you end up getting, you know, loaded with glyphosate.

So, so

Mm

the answer. It really gives you the whole food and the whole nutrition, and because it's food, it gets recognized. Now, what I've learned recently, I, I'm always learning new stuff, which I want to share with you. One of the reasons why whole foods are so important is because plants and, uh, anything that's alive, have these things called exosomes.

Exosomes are, think of them, I, the way I describe them in my book is it's like your cells have their own FedEx delivery service. Because what they do is they they, they're, they're basically carriers of either nutrition, nutrients, or RNA, or things, and they can get the, whatever's inside them into the cells faster, just like a FedEx will deliver.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, you could you could send something by mail and you get it maybe 10, 10 days later. Maybe not. If you send it by FedEx, it gets there.

Mm-hmm.

That day, the next day.

Mm-hmm.

So when you eat food, and there's, I have all sorts of references, scientific references about algae having very high exosomes. They're called nanoparticles. They're basically the same thing. They get to where they're supposed to go. Synthetic supplements have none of that. So they, they wander around in your body trying to get Can't get absorbed or a small percentage get absorbed, and then you pee them out.

Mm-hmm.

So,

Mm-hmm

as again, there are exceptions. Uh, and I do know some companies that have some really high quality products. But with

Mm-hmm

because it's

Right

always gets to where it needs to go, and it has high concentrations of the nutrients that almost everybody needs. Well, I will say actually everybody needs.

Mm-hmm.

Doesn't matter whether your, what your age.

Mm-hmm.

And they're good for carnivores, paleo, vegans, vegetarians. A lot of carnivores, enjoy them I was just on, um, Dr. Jack Wolfson's podcast, and he wrote the book Paleo Doctor. He's a cardiologist. He, he just moved to Costa Rica. Um, but a lot of people switch out of eating vegetables because of the lectins and oxalates that are found in certain vegetables, like what's called nightshades.

These are

Mm-hmm

tomatoes or red peppers or potatoes. They're sharp proteins that puncture your stomach lining and can cause autoimmune, can cause stomach distress. So they eliminate them 'cause they wanna have their stomach lining heal. Well, the reason why they're in those, um, vegetables is because evolutionarily, plants developed them to protect themselves from bugs and predators, 'cause they do the same thing to their stomachs too.

They hurt them. But algae has never been a land plant. It came from the ocean, so it never had to develop defensive lectins and oxalates to protect themself 'cause it didn't have them.

Yeah.

Crazy, right?

Yep. Yeah, definitely safer way for people who have sensitivities like that and things to, to worry about. And it's so

Yeah

also, like I, I'd say when I've been fasted is when I've noticed the impact of Energybits the most. That's a really nice thing to take while you're in, like a fasted state.

Yeah.

And I just, you can feel I don't know, you're just more sensitive, right, when you're fasting. So it's like I can feel, I'm like, whoa, mental clarity boost, nice, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

So, yeah. Recommend it if you do fasting every once in a while or intermittent fasting 'cause you totally, they don't have any, uh, carbs or fats or anything, if

no carbs. Yeah.

Right. You can

spirulina has it. Yeah, and it keeps the, even Dr. Mindy Pelz said as long as you keep your protein down to a certain nominal

Right

30 of the tablets of spirulina, of or chlorella have five grams of protein.

Right.

And you may say, "Well, that's not very much." It certainly won't pull you out of a, uh, fasting state.

Right.

And here's the cool thing about again, spirulina in particular, when you eat protein, animal protein, it may take a while for your body to absorb it. So maybe you had 50, 50 grams of protein, but you may only be absorbing, if you have compromised digestion, 10 grams as as aminos.

Mm-hmm.

So not terribly efficient. With spirulina, when you have five grams of protein, you get five grams of aminos.

Mm-hmm.

So it's one for one.

Mm-hmm.

yeah. You could also take things like Perfect Aminos, which are just aminos to balance that out. So I'm not saying we're the only option, but we're certainly one

But it's just

easier value

and aminos and then some, a whole bunch of other stuff too,

Yeah,

if you wanna talk about, like, you know, condensing it down into one product that you're taking, it's kind of a smart deal. Um, not to

I call

offsets the price.

Yeah, it's, it's like a Swiss Army knife. It, it does

Yeah, yeah. Exactly

like 20 different things it can do. Maybe you take it for energy, but your skin starts improving. Or, or maybe you take chlorella because of the constipation, but you're, uh, you get, um, natural sun protection from the chlorophyll or, or whatever. So yeah, it's, it's pretty cool. I could not survive without them.

And Tara, in two months, I turn 70. That's 7-0. 7-0.

That's so crazy.

Right? I think

If you guys aren't watching on YouTube, I know, thank you for being so open about your age, 'cause I like, I'm like, uh, people should know you're like the walking billboard for this stuff.

it's just like

You're so,

I walk with my weighted vest every night. And, and I sleep well, I poop well. I just got my PhD, so the brain's working. I want women in

Right

know that once you like everyone's so worried, uh, once they get to 50 they think it's a, it's downhill. Well, we have mostly role models that are, show that it's downhill. It doesn't have to be that way, but you have to

Yeah

proactive about

Yeah

defensive because, um, in, in sports they have you have a defense line and you have an offense line, right? The offense goes forward, and the defense, you know, makes sure nobody can you know, get in and, and take away your, your distance. Well, in this world that we live in, we need to be proactive to get us playing in the game of life, and that's what spirulina does, because it gives you that nourishment and the energy.

Yeah.

And your defense

Right

is chlorella.

Totally.

they use this. They have a, a playbook in sports, doesn't matter whether it's soccer, football, hockey, they have a defense

Right

and they have a offense playbook.

Yeah.

We need the same thing, and particularly as women, because, um, we so much of the science that's around, they only used men in the studies, and women's bodies are different. And so we need to have something to protect us from the, you know, the stuff that's out there, and help us get through the

Mm-hmm

in life that occur, but do it with, um, confidence and with health.

Mm-hmm.

Because it takes a lot of energy to engage in life.

Mm.

I know that for a fact, because I have almost only millennials working for me, and I have 25 of them now, and I'm traveling writing the book and running the company, and I, you know, I don't, I don't know how I do it, quite honestly. I try not to think about it.

But it's working for

I know. I'm 43 and I'm like, "Okay, need to take more ENERGYbits, I guess."

We'll send you some more. We'll send you some.

good.

Because you want to... I tell people, you want to protect what you

Yeah

or regain what you lost, and it's possible. and I'm not saying the spirulina is the only thing, but if you, um, really try to think back to anything that's natural, um, try to eliminate the stress if you can. I, I know it's you know, it's not gonna ever go away permanently.

the sleep will help with that as well. Allows you to bounce back.

Mm-hmm

but I, I see I... If I do my job right, every single person in the world, I'll start with America, will be taking spirulina and chlorella every single day. Uh, I'm trying to get it on the food pyramid. I've, I've done videos. I've done whole pitch. Uh, I mean, at least they got the, the pyramid

Awesome

animal protein and vegetables are at the top, so that's, that's a good start. Uh, I'm gonna try to talk to Casey Means. Maybe she can help me get get algae on the food pyramid. But,

That's awesome. Yeah, it's true. It does need to be on there. It's like, where's the bacteria? Where's the microalgae?

Right, right, right.

Um, okay. Well, first of all, couple things. One, remind us the name of your book again that's coming out

Yeah

January.

Love Your, uh, Love Your Health to Bits With Algae.

Love Your Health to Bits. And I already asked Catherine if she's gonna do read it, and she said she will. Be

Yes, there'll be an

book

um, for sure. It won't come out till January. Uh, you can come to our energybits.com website and there's a, there should be a drop-down where you can, uh, register, uh, for presale and

Oh, perfect

have lots of fun stuff for people to, to, to, uh, get, you know, freebie stuff. And we're gonna be rolling it

Okay,

at different conferences and stuff. But,

Cool

and I promise it won't... it will be fun. Honestly, I, I talk about, you know, the way some you know, the way some of the nutrients work. It's like, you know, being on a starship that, you know, SS Starship or, um, yeah, it's, it's science like you've never seen before, um, so that you can enjoy the ride.

Yeah, I have no doubt. And as you guys have seen in just in this episode, you're, you're gonna learn so much more through learning about algae, you're gonna learn a lot about the human body. Right.

Exactly.

And yeah, just to reemphasize for you guys, so ENERGYbits is, if you go to the discounts page of my website, tara-garrison.com/discounts, ENERGYbits is the very first thing on that whole big old

Oh

of all the companies that I love.

They're the best.

And it's 20% off, so it, the coupon code is Coach Tara,

Yes

like, like Catherine said, I would recommend getting the big bag of them, 'cause it's the most cost efficient way to get it. But the

Yeah

I mean, honestly, like if you

Yeah, they're

swing it, they're very handy for traveling. Or you can get, like, one of the little tin... Do the tins come in the big bags?

The tin comes,

How do you get that?

in the canister. I don't have a canister.

Canisters, okay.

The canisters are really attractive. Well, they're

Mm-hmm

the counter behind me.

Yeah.

they come with a bag inside and one of these little travel tins.

Yes.

And so you, you open the canister, uh, open the bag, put the tablets inside the canister, and then you shake them out through the opening. Then when you run out of tablets, you just buy a large

Refill pack, right

the can. So you

Yeah

buy canister once. I, you know, I've... Mine is, I think it's four years old. It's getting a little 'cause I use it, you know, five times a day. But you only buy it once, and it comes with the little canister. Now I, the little travel tin, I will tell you, years ago when I first started, I put the tins in all of the bags.

And it it was because when I was a we used to get Cracker Jack, and there popcorn. And there was always a

Yeah, yeah, yeah

right? So I thought, "Oh, this is cute. I'll put the tin inside the bag,"

Mm

that's what, how it was for many, many years.

Mm-hmm.

And then a handful of people wrote us and said, "I don't want my bits touching my tin."

Oh, got it. That's why I was thinking that. I was like, "I think it's in the bag." Okay. And I

used to be years ago,

Okay

so I thought, "Okay, we'll put it in the canister with the bag so it accomplishes the of getting the tin out to people, but it's not touching any tablets." So, you know, anytime we get feedback, we really try our best

Yeah

accommodate.

And if you want your kids, if you have kids and you want your kids to take them, the canisters are the way to go, because you just set them on the counter you know, especially as kids are starting to get more towards the teenager age, like I know every parent freaking knows this, they're all walking around with, like, energy drinks and blah blah blah.

So they're, like, they have this mindset of, like, "I need energy," right? Well, when they see ENERGYbits, it, instead of spirulina, spirulina they're not gonna take it. when they

Yeah.

they're gonna be like, "Oh," and, and if it's out on the counter, they'll take it, you know? So if you want to invest in your kids' health, it, that, the canisters are literally like the ticket.

Yeah

they will take it.

Yeah. And also because you shake them out through the little opening in in the lid, you don't have people putting their

Yeah

gooey fingers into there and

Right

so it's very clean.

Yes.

And same if there's any practitioners listening, that's what the uh, clinics love to use for sampling purposes.

Yes.

So,

Yeah.

and by the way, um, so for your children, they can have as much as they want, but parents want some defined quantities. So we say, well, give them up to their uh, either half their age or their age on a daily basis. So if some, uh, if you had a daughter who was six, give her three to six a day, or a son who's eight, give them four to eight, until they're, like, 12 or 13, and then they can you know, you can up them

Have at it, yeah

adults. And same with pets. Your pets, cats, dogs, we've

that's right

raccoons, actually bears

Mm-hmm

funny story about bears. Love them.

Love them.

And animals are smarter than us, so,

Oh, yeah, especially the chlorella, I've noticed. My

Oh, really?

in Hawaii.

Oh,

Oh my gosh. They, they were

Okay

I was like, "Get away." Like, "This is mine."

"It's my turn. mama's turn. I

If I dropped one,

Yeah

for some reason, especially the chlorella, like, they would just... It was like they were, like, ravenous. Like,

Yeah

got activated in them.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

It's like catnip.

They're "Oh, yes." So yeah.

And, the pets are getting the same diseases that we are, even more so because they're walking through, uh, in grass that's been sprayed, and their bodies are smaller, so the

Yeah

the toxins uh, concentrate. So, um, yeah. So we have to help our little friends, our furry friends.

Yes. And last thing to say is you can chew either of these. The spirulina is a little bit more chewy, but as Catherine said, it will break down more instantly if you want to do that. I personally enjoy chewing the chlorella. The kinda like, it's more chewable vibe, right?

It's like it breaks down or whatever. But I have chewed on the spirulina ones. They, they, they both taste good. It's just a little more chewy. I will be

Yeah

most of the time I'm kind of, like, in a rush now, and so I just pop them all and swallow them down with a drink.

Yeah.

But you can chew both of them, just FYI.

Yes. And, um, as, as mentioned, I put sea salt on mine, but the chlorella, the green one, tastes delicious with pistachio nuts. I have a brand that's a salt and vinegar flavor. It's fantastic. And then with the spirulina, um, it tastes great with sliced, uh, strawberries or, um, blueberries.

Uh, any way to, um... 'Cause I used to love, you know, peanut butter and banana, for example. Like, like, like, a sort of a sweet, flat flavor.

Right.

so the spirulina has a, that flat flavor, and if

Right

pair it with something sweet, it's kind of, it's kind of cool. But the tastes more like a sunflower seed or a um, or

Yeah

soy nut. And so when you pair it with the, um, with the nuts, it's really good. Or any kind of, uh, any kind of nut. But,

Yeah

macadamia nuts are also really great, so.

Okay. Good to know. Well, Catherine, thank you so much. I know you have so much going on. Best wishes with the rest of your book. I know that's

Thank you

just pretty much whittling everything down at this point. Yeah. And we will definitely look forward to that coming out, and

Yes, we'll do a promotion

definitely everyone will see me sharing it all over social media, so.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for everything you do.

Good see you again.

Likewise.

You look fantastic. I'm glad you're back in, um, mainland America.

Thank you.

we'll you.

Likewise.

Welcome Well, you, you never left. Uh, just, you just were in a different place.

Yeah. Thanks.

So all right. Thank you so much.

All right. Yeah.

Have

wonderful rest of your day. Thank you, Catherine

Terra for your 20% off at Energy Bits.

Yes. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the Inside Out Health podcast. I hope it's been helpful to you in your journey. If you think that it might be helpful to someone you know, please share it with them. Please share on social media. It really helps me grow the show and reach more people with these amazing messages.

And if you could be so kind as to rate the show, and, um, possibly even leave me a review, that really helps, so, uh, much thanks in advance if you do that. And yeah, please subscribe if you wanna hear more of this type of content. I have lots of amazing expert guests on the way.

All right. Thank you.