The Superfood NASA Endorsed That Most Men Have Never Heard Of

Dr. Catharine Arnston is 72 years old. She takes no medications. She has no chronic disease. She got her PhD last year, runs a national company, and walks two miles a day with a weighted vest.

Her explanation for all of it comes down to one word most people associate with pond scum: algae.

Specifically, two types — spirulina and chlorella — that NASA has endorsed as a complete food for space travel and the United Nations has called one of the greatest solutions to human nutrition on Earth. There are over 100,000 scientific studies documenting their benefits. And almost nobody outside of Asia, where it’s been a daily staple for over 60 years, has ever heard of it.

How a Cancer Diagnosis Led to a Sixteen-Year Mission

Catharine’s journey into algae started with her younger sister’s breast cancer diagnosis. Her sister’s oncologist recommended an alkaline diet — without explaining why. Catharine, a corporate executive with no nutrition background, started researching.

She found Otto Warburg’s Nobel Prize-winning research from the 1940s: cancer cannot exist in cells that are slightly alkaline. Her sister’s oncologist likely wanted the alkaline diet for two reasons — to strengthen her immune system through chemo, and to make her body inhospitable to cancer cell growth.

Catharine left her 25-year corporate career, got a health coaching certification, and started teaching plant-based nutrition. The problem: most people don’t like vegetables, find them inconvenient, or don’t have easy access to them. She needed a way to deliver the nutrition without the friction. That search led her to spirulina and chlorella.

The Power Plant in Every Cell

At the center of Catharine’s explanation is the mitochondria — the energy-generating structure inside every cell in your body. You have roughly 100 trillion of them. Your brain alone has 2 million per cell.

When mitochondria are damaged by excess free radicals — from processed food, toxins, stress, or simply aging — they produce less cellular energy. That shows up as brain fog, fatigue, digestive issues, and eventually chronic disease. Roughly 65% of American adults over 40 have at least one chronic disease, and Catharine traces much of it back to this same root cause: damaged mitochondria.

Spirulina contains the world’s highest concentration of an antioxidant called superoxide dismutase (SOD) — one that’s uniquely able to cross into the mitochondria’s tightly protected inner membrane, where most antioxidants and even drugs can’t reach. “It’s like turning your lights back on,” she said.

Why Men Are Rusting From the Inside

One of the most striking parts of the conversation: why men tend to develop heart disease earlier than women.

Women who menstruate release excess stored iron monthly. Men don’t. Over decades, men accumulate stored iron the way a car parked outdoors accumulates rust.

Here’s the mechanism: superoxide dismutase needs to partner with a mineral to stay anti-inflammatory. Its preferred partner is manganese. But manganese and iron are absorbed through the same pathway in the body, and the body prioritizes iron. So manganese gets crowded out — and SOD ends up partnering with iron instead. When that happens, it flips from anti-inflammatory to pro-inflammatory.

“When you have too much stored iron,” Catharine said, “your mitochondria are effectively rusting from the inside.” Since the heart is the third-highest concentration of mitochondria in the body (after the brain and, in women, the eggs), this may help explain a pattern researchers have long observed but rarely explained this clearly: men get heart disease earlier, and women’s heart disease risk rises sharply at menopause — right when their own iron stores start accumulating the way men’s always have.

Nourishment In, Toxins Out

Spirulina and chlorella do almost opposite jobs. Spirulina nourishes — it’s 60-70% protein, rich in L-arginine (a precursor for nitric oxide, which drives blood flow), and loaded with brain-supporting nutrients. Chlorella detoxes — its hard cell wall binds to heavy metals like mercury, aluminum, and pesticide residue like glyphosate, and chelates them out of the body.

Catharine’s recommendation: spirulina in the morning for nourishment and energy, chlorella in the evening, when the body naturally shifts into repair and detox mode.

One claim worth testing for yourself: 30 chlorella tablets after a night of drinking, she says, will pull alcohol out of your bloodstream within about 90 minutes — no hangover. The same mechanism, she noted, is why the global chlorella supply sold out within 24 hours after the Fukushima disaster: it’s long been used in Asia to help the body clear radiation exposure.

Why Most Supplements Don’t Work

Catharine’s biggest critique of the broader supplement industry: most products are synthetic, processed with high heat that deactivates the very enzymes and antioxidants that make them work, and absorbed at rates as low as 5-10%.

Her analogy: buying a great deal on a sports car, then lifting the hood and finding no engine.

Whole foods like algae contain something synthetics don’t: exosomes, the cell’s natural delivery vehicles for nutrients. “It’s like having FedEx,” she said. “It delivers the nutrition right into your cells.”

She likens individual supplements to a soloist — useful, but limited. Algae, grown and harvested properly, is the full orchestra: enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, pigments, and polyphenols working together exactly the way nature assembled them.

This conversation is for general education and is not medical advice. Talk to your own clinician before changing your supplements or treatment.

More about Dr. Catharine Arnston

Website: energybits.com — use code MTM for 20% off sitewide, no expiration
Instagram (brand): @energybits
Instagram (personal): @catharinearnston
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/catharinearnston
YouTube: youtube.com/energybits
Facebook: facebook.com/ENERGYbits
Upcoming book: Love Your Health to Bits with Algae — available January

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