#304 | Why Algae is the Superfood for Fertility, Pregnancy & Postpartum Health

I'm Cynthia Overgard, owner of HypnoBirthing of Connecticut, childbirth advocate and postpartum support specialist. And I'm Trisha Ludwig, certified nurse midwife and international board certified lactation consultant. And this is the Down To Birth Podcast. Childbirth is something we're made to do. But how do we have our safest and most satisfying experience in today's medical culture? Let's dispel the myths and get down to birth.

My name is Catharine Arnston and I am the founder, CEO, chief scientific officer of a company called energy bits, which is my baby, and we sell spirulina and chlorella algae tablets. And I won't go too deep into my backstory, but having children and having a family is all about love. And I started the company out of love for my sister, who had breast cancer, and her on in Canada, she healed completely, by the way, and she's 15 years cancer free, but her oncologist advised her to change her diet to an alkaline diet to help with her healing. They didn't tell her what it was. My baby sister called me. Of course, I was going to help her. I found out it was a plant based diet because of the chlorophyll and the phytonutrients, which so I had been in the corporate world. I gave up my corporate career after helping her, realizing I could help more people, and I just kept going. And 15 years later, in the process, rather, I discovered the power of algae and nutrition we're going to talk about that you may be familiar with, spirulina, maybe not so much, chlorella, those are two of the algae we'll talk about. They do completely different things in your body and your whether you're want to have a baby, whether you are currently pregnant, whether you are nursing, whether your children are growing algae fills important nutrient gaps that can't be filled by anything else, and they come in these little tiny tablets, which is why I love them So much? They're about the size of a baby aspirin. So they are effortless to take. You don't need to go change your diet, go and get a whole new descriptive foods to eat, or take time from your busy day already to cook all these crazy meals, unless you want to, you can get all the nourishment for you to achieve a pregnancy, complete the pregnancy, even after you have the baby. These are so important, and I'll explain some of the nutrients in them why they're so important for you and their food, that's the great thing. They're not a supplement. We call them bits because they are bits of food, because you'll find algae is a vegetable crop. We grow it in fresh water. So it's grown in hydroponically. We air dry it into these little, tiny tablets that you can just swallow or chew. And you chew it straight. You just popped like that. We saw it pull with water. Yeah, they're very chewy. Spirulina has this three times the amount of protein at steak. So the great thing about these tablets is they're so tiny. You can put them in your handbag, your gym bag, your travel bag, and you can eat them. You can swallow them. You can put them in trail mix, but each one has the same nutrition as an entire plate of vegetables. So moms, we know how difficult it is for you to get your kids to eat vegetables, probably your husbands, too. This is the answer. They love to chew them. The kids love to chew them quite honestly, because it turns their tongue screen. They think it's hilarious. So you can turn it into a game, and you'll be nourishing. There's over 40 vitamins and minerals, the highest concentration of protein in the world a protein in the world, highest chlorophyll in the world. You can give this to your newborns, to your young children, your teenagers, your pets. Absolutely no drug indicator interactions at all. And very, very nutrient dense.

I have to just stop you right there for a moment, because we don't normally talk about products too much on this podcast, we're usually talking to women and healthcare providers and, you know, talk, but I heard you on a podcast talk about these little energy bits on a longevit podcast, and I immediately was like, Oh my gosh. We have to talk about this. We have to teach women about this. Because, personally, when I was pregnant, talk. Greens was, like, a major no no. Like, I could not eat greens. And busy postpartum moms who don't have enough time to eat, like it's, we're always talking about nutrition and how you have to get your protein and how you have to eat enough, and how you're for your breast milk and your pregnancy and iron supplements and and when I listened to your podcast and talk about LG, I was blown away, like, How could there possibly be a food out there that is this miraculous, this nutrient dense, this easy to consume, and not everybody is taking it, I know, and it's because people don't know about it. It's not grown here. 99% of algae is grown in Asia. It's China, India, Korea, Taiwan. We grow ours in Taiwan. So we don't grow up with it. We grow we drive our cars by corn fields or wheat fields or tomato patches, not algae farms. In Asia, you can't go to school or work without driving by an algae farm. It's just, it's an agricultural crop, but we're not familiar with it. The other thing is, you can buy algae anywhere, target spirulina tablets, Whole Foods, but most of it is grown by companies that sell a lot of other supplements, so they cut corners. And the corners they cut, one of them is they don't they use high heat to dry it so they can get to market quickly, which kills most of the really good nutrients in there. And we'll talk about a few of them, but we've never used high heat. So this is why ours works so well. Is because there's always quality issues. What in what? Whether you're buying shoes or, you know, breast milk, pumps or an algae is what as well. So this is the maximum value nutrition. And I don't make these numbers up. We have a quote from NASA that says one gram of algae has the same nutrition as 1000 grams of fruits and vegetables one to 1000 and it's because spirulina and chlorella are what's called micro algae. They're so microscopic in size you can't see them. You can get a million micro algae on the head of a pin. So when you consolidate them into these little tablets, now you start to understand why they are so nutrient dense, and there is nothing in the world with more nutrition. That's algae. That is what sold me. When I heard that, I immediately bought them for everyone in my family for the holidays, because I actually don't really like vegetables that much, completely the opposite of Cynthia, who could eat salads all day long, but I'm not a big vegetable fan, and probably don't eat enough greens, and this is like the perfect solution. I and it was provided to us by mother nature, another lady, another one of our moms. Mother Nature, the Queen mom, up with it was the first life on Earth, 4 billion years ago. Spirulina, in fact, is not even a plant, it's a bacteria. Why is that important for you to know? Because there is no cellulous wall for your body to break down to get access to all the nutrients, all the protein, all the 40 vitamins and minerals. It's absorbed almost instantly. So it's called a Cynthia bacteria, which was the first life on earth, all documented. And I tell people, there's something spiritual about being the first life on Earth. So I jokingly refer to spirulina as spiritual Lena, because it was the first life on Earth. Life giving life is a spiritual experience, and this will give you your life, your loved ones, so much life and love. And I wrote a little book just recently called the LG love story, because it loves your body back to life. It is as close to a miracle as you're going to find. But it's all science based. There are 100,000 studies documenting the benefits I'm going to talk to you about today. So it's all science based.

I heard you say on one of the podcasts that is it NASA or some, no, the UN or who, some major governmental organization claims that, you know, algae is the solution to world hunger, like people can actually live off this. This is food. It's not a supplement.

It's food. It was the World Health. It was the United Nations, sorry. And you could go online 1974 which is 51 years ago, they held a global conference declaring spirulina algae the answer to world hunger 50 years ago, because it has the highest concentration of protein in the world. And it's a it's an eco friendly, sustainable crop, but it is food. Again, I re emphasize that it's a whole food. And in fact, ours is a raw whole food because we don't use high heat to dry it. And spirulina is a raw whole live food, as chlorella is, is still raw and it's still whole. It can't it's not live because it we had to crack, you have to crack the cell wall for the nutrients to be absorbed. And they do, as I said, completely different things. But when you have the world, when you have the United Nations endorsing something like spirulina, and you have NASA endorsing it, they've been feeding it to the astronauts for 50 years as well, it's a multi billion dollar agricultural crop in Asia. It's almost as big as the beef industry is here. And yet, you go, why don't I know about this stuff? Because nobody has told you about it, and nobody. Has been given you a high quality product so that you'll be able to experience all the benefits. And so when I saw what this did, and helped my sister, and then I went to school and got my to the Institute for an Integrative Nutrition I got a health coaching certificate that was 15 years ago, and I just got my PhD last year on natural health, I am determined to help women in particular, be healthy, be healthier, have better pregnancies, faster, easier pregnancies, feed and nourish you and your children throughout your lifestyle and your life, effortlessly. This is the key. It's gotta be effortless. It's just one tablet, one ingredient, because Mother Nature put this together. This is the orchestra of all of these nutrients that your body needs. It's not like taking individual supplements. I say that. They're like listening to soloists. This is like listening to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. You don't have to worry about should I take it with other food? Should I have white other food? Should I take it with this or with that? And so all of that's been figured out for you by mother nature. She put her all in there, the enzymes, the coenzymes, the factors, the cofactors. And there are some nutrients that I want to help you understand that are very powerful for either becoming pregnant, going through your pregnancy. And there's some nutrients that support the all of those. One is an antioxidant called superoxide dismutase, because it protects your mitochondria. But that's getting a little into the geeky part. A little let's get in there. It's okay.We want to we want to know why, other than ease and convenience for a pregnant woman who, especially in her first trimester, is not feeling like eating anything, this is obviously a great solution. But tell us why it's a great solution. What is this going to do for her body and her baby? Well, what whether you want are trying to get pregnant? Well, let's start with trying to get pregnant. So first of all, women's eggs have the second highest concentration of mitochondria. The first highest is your brain. Second highest is your brain has 2 million mitochondria per cell. Women's eggs have 1 million, close to 1 million. The next is your heart. The highest concentration of mitochondria are found where the greatest energy needs are. Takes a lot of energy to think takes a lot of energy to make another human being, because this is what mitochondria do. They create what's called cellular energy. And you need cellular energy for everything, for breathing, for thinking, for walking, for talking, and certainly for having a baby. And so you if you don't have healthy mitochondria, you don't have enough cellular energy to do anything. Well, when you have more cellular energy, all of your body parts, all of your functions are working properly, including pregnancy and fertility. Because if you don't have enough energy, mitochondria, the cell your body and your mitochondria, cannot go through the conception stage. It's just very, very difficult. So because the mitochondria are so important, you want to protect them. And unfortunately, what happens to the mitochondria is they are right, located where this ATP is being produced. That's not the problem. The problem is a byproduct of ATP production. The cellular energy is something called free radicals. It's just the other side of the coin you get ATP, and a byproduct is free radicals. Now, normally, your body creates this thing called sod, which is a short form for superoxide dismutase. It is an antioxidant that literally turns these free radicals into harmless water and oxygen. I tell people, it acts like a big golf umbrella. It so that free radicals are raining in, but the golf umbrella, called sod, is protecting your mitochondria so they don't get damaged. But as you get older, particularly after the age of 30, the production of that antioxidant decreases by the time you have your 40, you have none. So now your your mitochondria, which had been protected by the golf umbrella called sod, is gone. It turned into a tote umbrella when you were about 30, and then it turned into a cocktail umbrella when you're about 35, nine and then 40, virtually none gone. And it's for men and women. It's just like at 30 or 40 you are certainly at 40, your melatonin starts decreasing, your hormones, your estrogen starts decreasing. So at the age of 40, there's a lot of other issues that. And if you're still trying to have children at that age, we need to get your mitochondria healthy again, this thing called superoxydy taste, your body's not making much of it after 30, none of it after 40, and yet it is the most important antioxidant to protect your mitochondria. Well, the good news is it's in the highest concentration of spirulina. We call ours energy bits now. But it can't be just any spirulina, because that antioxidant is also an enzyme, and all enzymes are deactivated by high heat. So you could either have raw or fresh spirulina or ours, because we don't use high heat to dry it. So the baby needs to have the healthy mitochondria, and you need to have them, because the other thing that spirulina does is it gives you energy, which is why we call it energy. But again. And it's cellular energy. So just to help you get pregnant, you want, you want to be sure your mitochondria are healthy. Also, vitamin A is a very important nutrient to helps you with fertility issues. And spirulina is loaded with beta carotene, which is the precursor to vitamin A. So that's very important. And and once, let's say you are now that you are pregnant, of course, everything that you're eating is going to be shared with the baby, and so you want to be sure that you're getting the maximum nourishment. This has the highest protein in the world, over 40 vitamins and minerals. So it's not just vitamins, it's also all the electrolytes and the highest chlorophyll. Now people don't realize is that most chlor most of our vegetables, even if you are eating vegetables, don't have much chlorophyll in anymore, because our soil is so damaged that he that the plants can't pull up nutrients, and so you're not getting chlorophyll. Why is the chlorophyll so important? I'm going to show you. This is a chemical composition of chlorophyll, and this is your hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is your red blood cells. They're virtually identical. Chlorophyll builds your blood, and blood is feeding you and your baby the nourishment you both need to have a healthy life.

And women have to build their blood volume in pregnancy by at least 30% so they're another solution. Let me ask a question on that, please, so that I understand I saw the image, and it looks like a molecular copy of of the red blood cell. That's the molecular structure of a red blood cell. Yeah. And then this one is chlorophyll. The first chlorophyll is a little teeny little difference over here. But, and chlorophyll has magnesium in the middle, and your blood cell, your red blood cell, the hemoglobin has iron in the middle. Iron is what carries oxygen in your blood. So that's the the the only difference, really, between the two of them.

Explain more because it's so fascinating how it looks so much like it. It's just miraculous that it just looks exactly like it. But can you explain more for the lay person like me, scientifically, yeah, well, that exactly means it goes into your body and like, it's, is it like a perfect match? What do you build your blood? What do you mean? It builds your blood?

Well, different food groups do different things in your bodies based on the nutrients. Whether you know you need protein for muscle, you actually you need protein for everything, because even in your mitochondria, in your DNA, they use proteins. They're called folded proteins. So as an example, up until, you know, 50 years ago, whenever, like for centuries, whenever anyone had a surgery, they would give them liquid chlorophyll because it would help them rebuild their body and their blood, because it rebuilds their blood. Even at during World War Two, if they ran out of blood for transfusions, they would give the injured liquid chlorophyll, because it would build their blood. So it's, it's creating hemoglobin, it's, and also chlorophyll is, is a, is an alkaline nutrient. And one of the things, the thing that got me started on this was my sister's oncologist, who happened to be a woman, wanted her to have an alkaline diet, because it would help with her healing. Chlorophyll builds your immune system too, and you want a strong immune system when you're when you're pregnant. You want a strong immune system before and after when you're pregnant. So this has all of the nutrients that help build your immune system and you want and it maintains the make the alkalinity of your cells, because also, this is on another topic, but cancer cells can't grow in cancer can't grow in cells that are slightly slightly alkaline.

They thrive in acidity, Exactly, yep. And so chlorophyll, it builds your blood. And this is maybe getting a little deeper, but since you asked a little geeky question, so on that acidity thing, your cells need to be 7.1 which is just slightly over the middle, your blood needs to be even more Alpha line needs to be 7.34 and the cool thing about Mother Nature, she's so brilliant. In the hemoglobin as moving through your blood vessels, it has a negative charge on it so that they don't clump. And if you've ever taken a magnet and tried to put them together, you know they repel one another because they're the same charge. And so that's what happens with your hemoglobin. They are negatively charged so they don't clump, so they can deliver all that rich nutrients and oxygen to your blood, into your baby. But if you eat too much acidic food, dairy, processed foods, sugar, it's acidic, and it strips off the negative charge, so now your blood cells clump because they're acidic. Two things happen that makes it difficult for your blood to carry the oxygen molecule, the iron, so you get fatigued because you're not getting oxygen, and also they can't get to all the tiny capillaries, because now they're all clumping and big and they can't get into the tiny areas. So your body is very intelligent. It says, Oops, that's too much acidity. I need some alkalinity. So what it does is it pulls minerals, calcium, magnesium, potassium, from your bones, from your organs, from your cells, instantly into your. Bloodstream to neutralize that acidity. It happens instantly, but if that happens over and over and over again, it can lead to osteoporosis, it can wear down your immune system because you're losing all that great alkalinity, and can lead to other illnesses. So algae and chlorophyll in particular are the most alkaline foods in the world. So maybe you're taking it for energy so that you can get through your day. Maybe you're taking it because you want the superoxydismitase to protect your mitochondria, but you're also going to get the alkalinity, you're also going to get the nourishment, you're also going to get the stronger, healthier blood. So it's like the gift that keeps on giving. You might take it for one thing and it does 1000 other things. It's like a little baby einstein, every time I read another article, you do that too. I mean, are you kidding me? So I and so you can feel absolutely confident and safe that you're eating this is probably the safest food you'll ever put in your children's bodies or your own bodies, and it's certainly the most nutrient dense.

Tell us about the protein you said that it's the most protein dense food on the planet, which is really hard to believe. I know Cynthia probably already knows this, but you know, most people think of a steak as being, yeah, most protein dense food on the planet. But how is it a tiny, little green tap? Yes, well, it's by weight. Is that concentration is by weight and so, and it's not just me. I mean, it's all the scientists, everybody, even the United Nations, recognizes this. So, you know, I love a good piece of the grass, fed grass, finished steak too. So I'm not telling people not to eat that however it takes about your body can absorb protein in that format. It needs to break it down into something called amino acids. And a lot of us don't have as healthy lifestyles as we would like, so we're missing all these, what's called factors and folk factors that allow us to break down the protein and into aminos so the body can absorb it and use it. And it can take up to three days.

And if you have 10 ounces of pure meat. Your body doesn't. How do I say this? It doesn't. The benefit, the effect in the body is more like two or three ounces to one, I don't know, yes.

Well, yes, yes, absolutely. So what happens is, you may eat 50 grams of chicken, which is about the size of a wrist, and you go, okay, I'm good. I got my 50 grams of protein, but because you're missing all these factors, in quotes, factors and coke factors, because it's not just steak, it's chicken, it's any animal protein, because it all has to be broken down into aminos. So you may take 50 grams of that animal protein, but you're only ending up with five grams of aminos because it's not efficiently and it took two or three days for it to get in there. The great thing about algae, both spirulina and chlorella, but particularly spirulina is all of the protein is already in amino acid form. And I have another chart I can show you. So here's here's a great visual animal proteins all bound up, and it takes a while to break it down into those aminos. And then you have collagen peptides, which are smaller clusters of aminos. But algae doesn't matter whether it's spirulina or chlorella, are individual aminos. So no no work for your body to do to get access to the aminos. It's 99.9% bio available aminos. So very efficient protein, and you get all of it. So if you have five grams of protein, you get five grams aminos, because it's so efficiently absorbed, and this is why I recommend if you had to choose between spirulina chlorella, spirulina is the nourishing, energizing algae. Chlorella is the wellness, detox algae, and we'll get to that in a minute. But remember, spirulina is a bacteria, no cellulose wall. So again, it gets it's you can almost hear the as it gets absorbed into your bloodstream. It literally bypasses digestion because it's being used and it's a complete protein. Has 18 of the 20 aminos, including the nine your body can't make, so you don't have to worry about pairing it with anything. And this is good for vegans, carnivores, paleo, ancestral, low carb, low cal. It works with every lifestyle choice every age group. Carnivores love it because there's no lectins or oxalates in it, which very often is why people go carnivore, because those are sharp proteins that can puncture your stomach lining that are found in vegetables like kale and spinach or even almonds. And they can, they can cause some leaky gut issues. And when women are pregnant, they're more sensitive, I think, to those oxalates, which is why a lot of women don't like to eat greens in pregnancy. But in pregnancy, we're generally telling women that they need to eat, you know, 80 to 100 maybe even 120 grams of protein a day. It's just like such a huge number, and it's really hard for people to get that protein in but if you're saying 50 grams of chicken protein equates to only five grams in the body of aminos, right? And that's why sometimes I think the numbers for protein is so high, because the no they know there's this loss in the conversion to aminos. It would be interesting. And I don't actually know if there's numbers. I'm sure there are somewhere. What actual. Aminos are the recommended dosage. Not that's what I want to know. Yes, yeah, that's what I don't know. How many spirulina do we need to get that? Well, here's the great thing, it's food. So there's no upper limit. You can have as much as you like. And you know, our NHL players, we feel NHL teams, Olympic teams, obviously they're not pregnant, but they need it for the energy and the focus. So they put 75 spirulina in their smoothie before a game, and 75 because that gives them the focus and the energy. And they put 75 chlorella in their smoothie after the game, because it pulls out toxins, including lactic acid, so you could have as much as you want, and if you're having nausea and you don't want to eat, you can still swallow these little guys. They are tiny, and there is no repeat. So I never take fish oil. By the way, fish oil is not good for you, because it's usually rancid by the time you get it. So it becomes anti inflammatory instead of inflammatory, instead of anti inflammatory. And I remind people, where do you think the fish get the Omega three from right that I they get it from algae. So save the ocean, save the fish, save yourself, save the ransom, save the burp that, uh, so you can have as much as you want. Your poop might be a little green you want to check the mirror ever once a while, because, of course, your mouth might be a little green, but and your tongue will certainly be green if you chew it, if you swallow it, there's no green on your mouth or anything, but your poop will and the reason your poop will be a little green. And this is a great thing about chlorophyll, only about 10% gets absorbed in the stomach. The rest of it travels through your liver and your colon. And what does chlorophyll do? It kills bacteria, and chloral in particular, also stimulates peristalsis. I my baby is my company, so I have to say, I've never had a child, but I'm sure that constipation is an issue. Dry stools is a problem. This is your answer, ladies, chlorella stimulates peristalsis. Is why lots of people eat vegetables, because they want the fiber to have a good bowel movement. Well, this has chlorophyll and fiber. Chlorella does have fiber because it is a plant. Spirulina does not. So this spirulina will not help with your bowel movement. Chlorella will and it's beautiful. I do when I when I Googled, of course I wanted to look up like, what are the benefits of spirulina in pregnancy? The first thing that came up, or maybe it was chlorella, it must have been. The first thing that came up was constipation. Constipation is a is a big problem for women in pregnancy, because pregnancy slows down the peristalsis. So this is another remedy, yes, well, just Cynthia, just one's a whole second. So generally, we suggest take Spirulina in the morning and at lunchtime, in the afternoon, because that's when you're tired and hungry and you need energy and focus for whatever you're doing. You could have it any all day long, even up to night, because the energy you get is at the cellular energy cellular level, not not it's not a stimulant, no caffeine, no chemicals and sugar. But generally, during the day, we do generally recommend chlorella before bed. Why? You can have it during the day too, if you want, but definitely before bed, because when you're sleeping, this is when your body goes through a detox repair cycle. And so if you have chlorella, because it pulls out toxins, heavy metals, glyphosate, pesticide alcohol, shouldn't be drinking when you're pregnant anyways, but so a pulls out all the toxins. B, it has something called chlorella growth factor in it, which speeds up the growth of your cells, and it will stimulate that peristalsis. It also has the highest tryptophan in the world, in the world with tryptophan is a precursor to melatonin, which helps you sleep. So this won't make you sleepy, will help you get into a sleep. And when you're pregnant, I know that's a an issue, so this will help with your sleep. And also it's a precursor to neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is your happy neurotransmitter. And I'm sure there's days when you you know lugging around an extra child inside is difficult, so this will help with that as well, but this will stimulate the peristalsis you do need for detox. Generally, we recommend 10 spirulina just for nutritional, you know, filling the gaps, if you really want to, you know, super test everything take 3030. Would be a really great therapeutic amount, which I would recommend. Chlorella. 10 would give you the chlorophyll and immune health. But for detox and for for peristalsis, probably 30 is better. What does chlorella have that spirulina doesn't? What does spirulina have that chlorella doesn't? I understand molecularly, they're different, and I heard all that. But what can you just say a little more about? Yeah, difference?

Well, there's a couple of things. If you look at the nutritional chart, they have almost the same nutrients, but in different proportions. So what's particularly different about spirulina is it's called a blue green algae. It has two pigments in it, the green one, which which you are familiar with, which is chlorophyll. But it also has this pigment called phycocyanin, which is spelled P, h, y, C, o, y, c, n, i n. And I want you to Google that, because what does phycocyanin. In doing it doesn't have anything to do with pregnancy, but it kills cancer cells, and the cancer chemotherapy companies use it in their own treatments now, and rise of of cancer is just going through the roof, particularly for women. And women usually get breast cancer. It's the highest cancer for women. So so the and phycocyanin is also a antioxidant that, again, protects the mitochondria. It also protects your telomeres from shrinking, so it's very healing at the mitochondria level. And the way that it's structured is it gives you energy. You could eat an entire bag or cancer of chlorella, and you will not get any energy. Spirulina is the one that gives you energy, so it has many, many of the same nutrients, but it behaves differently in your in your body. So this is the one for nourishment of your of your brain, your mitochondria, for your energy. By the way, you'll find this really interesting. I want. Years ago, I looked at a chart that showed all the nutrients in mother's breast milk, mostly colostrum, I believe, and I thought, gosh, that looks awfully familiar. So I looked at our spirulina nutrient profile, and they were almost identical, same aminos in the same proportions. And also, spirulina has something called GLA which is gamma limaic acid, which is technically an Omega six. And we know omega six is if they're heated, are really bad for us. Well, the only place that has more of this GLA Omega six than spirulina is mother's breast milk. And why is it there? Because it it builds the baby's brain. The baby's brain doubles or triples in size in the first couple of years. Now, it is so important for brain development of the baby and of you as well. But it's GLA but it is not heated in mother's breast milk, and we do not use high heat to dry our algae, so it behaves like an Omega three when it's not heated again, all those cheaper ones that use high heat, it's turning it into a an inflammatory Omega six, so you're not getting that bit. So that's spirulina, very nourishing to the brain, to the body, to the mitochondria, and certainly to the baby. Chlorella is a detoxing algae. And so one of the things it has differently than from spirulina. This has the blue phytocynin. It has fiber. Spirulina is a bacteria. Chlorella is a plant. And not only does it have fiber that hard cell wall, fiber, cell wall attaches to toxins, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, glyphosate, pesticides. And we are hearing so much about all the placentas, they test them and they're loaded with toxins. You need to be getting rid of the toxins in your body so that we can get them out of your baby's body too before they're born, because and whether it's aluminum, lead, all these toxins, and you can't just do it detox once a year, once a month, once a year, once a once a week. It really this is like giving your body a shower from the inside. Every day we take showers on the outside. Chlorella gives you a shower on the inside. So it's and it's very it's very soft and gentle, and stimulate peristalsis, and you get rid of toxins four ways, breath, sweat, urine and bowel movements. And so once you are getting rid of the toxins, it could also be great to go to a sauna or or do a little exercise or something, so you can start sweating. But then this will help with the bowel movement part pulling gay, because it holds on to the toxins and pulls them out. So that's a really important thing that differentiates this from spirulina. Spirulinas is has high chlorophyll, which is cleansing, but not a chelator. Does not pull out toxins, only. Chlorella pulls out the heavy metals, and we want to get rid of those at all times for sure. So that would probably be and this builds your your immune system. This stimulates peristalsis. Chlorella does not, in fact, if you find you are constipated, because this has so much protein, and protein can cause constipation, step up your water and certainly add the chlorella, because that will, that will get rid of that, that issue back to the breast milk. Just for a second, I read that that the spirulina is used as a substitute for breast milk in Japan rather than formula for infant feeding. Is that well?

They found well, not well, sort of. So what they found was that if preemies were born and they could not digest mother's breast milk, they found that putting spirulina in water was the only thing that kept them alive. And I have the passage in a book somewhere, and that's what led me to start looking at mother's breast milk years ago, and that, well, what is it, you know, what's in the spirulina that's making this work? And it's because it has a very similar nutrient profile, and I think that GLA probably helped as well. So, so you could, this is why. And there's no fiber, this is why you can give this to your children from from day one, just put it in the water and and they're getting all the nourishment. Well, this is very unusual for us on the podcast. I don't think we've ever done this. But like, do you? Did you have, like, an offer for everyone to purchase, and want to encourage everyone to try these?

Yes. So our website is energybits.com, E, N, E, R, G, y, d, i, t, s, and we have a discount code down to birth all one word, no spaces between them. And they normally a large bag, which has 1000 tablets in it, is $130 but it brings the price down to 104 which I know is still a big number, but I want to break it down for you, because, using that quote from NASA, about one gram of algae has having the same nutrition as 1000 grams of fruits and vegetables. One bag of 1000 tablets has the same nutrition as 551 pounds of vegetables. That's about 30 grocery carts of vegetables. And if you took 10 a day using your discount code down to birth, that brings it down to one of four. It works out to $1 a day. So it's very, very affordable. Nutrition, it's crazy, right?

It's just food, right? It's just food. Put back your, you know, I don't know, whatever expensive dry goods on the grocery shelf that you might not need and replace it with this. It's just, it's such an incredible source of food, it feels too good to be true. Honestly, it feels like a miracle food. But I'm in.

It's taken me so long to be trusted. And I speak all over the country, and I started this because of my sister. It was gifted to us by another mother, Mother Nature, and you just don't know about it, because nobody told you. So here I am.

Thank you for joining us at the Down To Birth Show. You can reach us @downtobirthshow on Instagram or email us at Contact@DownToBirthShow.com. All of Cynthia’s classes and Trisha’s breastfeeding services are offered live online, serving women and couples everywhere. Please remember this information is made available to you for educational and informational purposes only. It is in no way a substitute for medical advice. For our full disclaimer visit downtobirthshow.com/disclaimer. Thanks for tuning in, and as always, hear everyone and listen to yourself.

I don't drink a lot, but sometimes I do, and especially over the holidays, a little bit more, and I had heard about, you know, the chlorella being a good detoxer, and I had gone to the city for a night and little bit of, you know, holiday celebration, had a glass of wine, had a glass of Rose, had a little shot of whiskey, stayed up too late, had a terrible night's sleep. I woke up the next day, and I took those before bed the chlorella. I felt perfect, not I hardly slept, and still had great energy, and didn't feel bad in any way. Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, you wouldn't believe it until you try. I tell people, it's never too late to feel great. Never.