Creamy Zucchini, Edamame, & Asparagus Linguine
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Protein, fiber, and polyphenols are the dish of the day here:
You will need
- 1½ cups milk (your choice what kind; we recommend soy for its neutral taste, though hazelnut’s nutty flavor would also work in this recipe)
- 6 oz wholegrain linguine (or your pasta of choice)
- 2 zucchini, thinly sliced
- 5 oz edamame beans (frozen is fine)
- 5 oz asparagus tips, cut into 2″ lengths
- ½ bulb garlic, crushed
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 small handful arugula
- 1 small handful parsley, chopped
- A few mint leaves, chopped
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
- ½ tsp MSG or 1 tsp low-sodium salt
- Extra virgin olive oil
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Heat some oil in a sauté pan or similar, over a low to medium heat. Add the zucchini and cook for 5 minutes until they start to soften.
2) Add the garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute, stirring gently.
3) Add the milk, bring to the boil, and add the past, chia seeds (the resistant starch from the pasta will help thicken the sauce, as will the chia seeds), and MSG or salt.
4) Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 8 minutes.
5) Add the edamame beans and asparagus, and cook for a further 2 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked but still firm to the bite. The sauce should be quite thick now.
6) Stir in the remaining ingredients and serve, adding a garnish if you wish.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- The Many Health Benefits Of Garlic
- Black Pepper’s Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)
- If You’re Not Taking Chia, You’re Missing Out
Take care!
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Gut-Positive Pot Noodles
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Everything we consume either improves our health a little or worsens it. Pot noodles aren’t generally the healthiest foods, but these ones sure are! There’s quite a range of fiber in this, including the soluble fiber of the noodles themselves (which are, in fact, mostly fiber and water). As a bonus, the glucomannan in the noodles promotes feelings of fullness, notwithstanding its negligible carb count. Of course, the protein in the edamame beans also counts for satiety!
You will need
- ½ cup konjac noodles (also called shirataki), tossed in 1 tsp avocado oil (or sesame oil, if you don’t have avocado)
- 2 oz mangetout, thinly sliced
- 1 oz edamame beans
- ¼ carrot, grated
- 2 baby sweetcorn, cut in half lengthways
- 1 scallion, finely diced
- 1 heaped tsp crunchy peanut butter (omit if allergic)
- 1 tsp miso paste
- 1 tsp chili oil
- 1 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
- 1 tsp peeled-and-grated ginger
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Layer a heat-resistant jar (mason jars are usually quite resistant to temperature changes) with the noodles and vegetables.
2) Combine the peanut butter, miso paste, and chili oil, black pepper, and ginger in a small bowl. Pour this dressing over the layered vegetables and noodles, and screw the lid on. Refrigerate until needed.
3) Add hot water to the jar and stir, to serve. If you prefer the vegetables to be more cooked, you can microwave (without the lid!) for a minute or two.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)
- Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Fiber (And How To Fix It)
- 10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars ← today’s recipe makes a perfect high-fiber, low-carb starter, per the hacks here
- Capsaicin For Weight Loss And Against Inflammation
- Black Pepper’s Impressive Anti-Cancer Arsenal (And More)
- Ginger Does A Lot More Than You Think
Take care!
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Metabolism Made Simple – by Sam Miller
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The author, a nutritionist, sets out to present exactly what the title promises: metabolism made simple.
On this, he delivers. Explaining things from the most basic elements upwards, he gives a well-rounded introduction to the science of metabolism and what it means for us when it comes to our dietary habits.
The book is in large part a how-to, but with a lot of flexibility left to the reader. He doesn’t advocate for any particular dietary plan, but he does give the reader the tools necessary to make an informed choice and go from there—including the pros and cons of some popular dietary approaches.
He talks a lot about getting the most out of whatever we do choose to—managing appetite, mitigating adaptation, maximizing adherence, optimizing absorption of nutrients, and so forth.
The book does also touch on things like exercise and stress management, but diet is always center-stage and is the main topic of the book.
The style is—as promised by the title—simple. However, this simply means that he avoids unnecessary jargon and explains any necessary terms along the way. As for backing up claims with science, there are 22 pages of references, which is always a good sign.
Bottom line: if you’d like a simple, practical guide to eating for metabolic health, this book will start you off on a good footing.
Click here to check out Metabolism Made Simple, and give your metabolic health a boost!
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Apples vs Figs – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing apples to figs, we picked the figs.
Why?
These two fruits are both known for being quite rich in sugar (but also rich in fiber, which offsets it metabolically), and indeed their macros are quite similar. That said, figs have slightly more protein, fiber, and carbs. Both are considered low glycemic index foods. We can consider this category a tie, or perhaps a nominal win for apples, whose glycemic index is the lower of the two. But since figs’ GI is also low, it’s really not a deciding factor.
In terms of vitamins, apples have more of vitamins C and E, while figs have more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, and choline, with noteworthy margins of difference. A clear for figs here.
When it comes to minerals, apples are not higher in any minerals, while figs are several times higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. An overwhelming win for figs.
Of course, enjoy either or both, but if you want nutritional density, apples simply cannot compete with figs.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?
Take care!
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What are plyometric exercises? How all that hopping and jumping builds strength, speed and power
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If you’ve ever seen people at the gym or the park jumping, hopping or hurling weighted balls to the ground, chances are they were doing plyometric exercises.
Examples include:
- box jumps, where you repeatedly leap quickly on and off a box
- lateral skater hops, where you bound from side to side like a speeding ice skater
- rapidly throwing a heavy medicine ball against a wall, or to the ground
- single leg hops, which may involve hopping on the spot or through an obstacle course
- squat jumps, where you repeatedly squat and then launch yourself into the air.
Photo by cottonbro studio/Pexels There are many more examples of plyometric exercises.
What ties all these moves together is that they use what’s known as the “stretch shortening cycle”. This is where your muscles rapidly stretch and then contract.
Runners routinely practise plyometric exercises to improve explosive leg strength. WoodysPhotos/Shutterstock Potential benefits
Research shows incorporating plyometric exercise into your routine can help you:
- jump higher
- sprint faster
- reduce the chances of getting a serious sporting injuries such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears
- build muscle strength
- improve bone mineral density (especially when combined with resistance training such as weight lifting), which is particularly important for women and older people at risk of falls.
Studies have found plyometric exercises can help:
- older people who want to retain and build muscle strength, boost bone health, improve posture and reduce the risk of falls
- adolescent athletes who want to build the explosive strength needed to excel in sports such as athletics, tennis, soccer, basketball and football
- female athletes who want to jump higher or change direction quickly (a useful skill in many sports)
- endurance runners who want to boost physical fitness, run time and athletic performance.
And when it comes to plyometric exercises, you get out what you put in.
Research has found the benefits of plyometrics are significantly greater when every jump was performed with maximum effort.
Jumping can help boost bone strength. WoodysPhotos/Shutterstock Potential risks
All exercise comes with risk (as does not doing enough exercise!)
Plyometrics are high-intensity activities that require the body to absorb a lot of impact when landing on the ground or catching medicine balls.
That means there is some risk of musculoskeletal injury, particularly if the combination of intensity, frequency and volume is too high.
You might miss a landing and fall, land in a weird way and crunch your ankle, or get a muscle tear if you’re overdoing it.
The National Strength and Conditioning Association, a US educational nonprofit that uses research to support coaches and athletes, recommends:
- a maximum of one to three plyometric sessions per week
- five to ten repetitions per set and
- rest periods of one to three minutes between sets to ensure complete muscle recovery.
With the right guidance, jumps can be safe for older people and may help reduce the risk of falls as you age. Realstock/Shutterstock One meta-analysis, where researchers looked at many studies, found plyometric training was feasible and safe, and could improve older people’s performance, function and health.
Overall, with appropriate programming and supervision, plyometric exercise can be a safe and effective way to boost your health and athletic performance.
Justin Keogh, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University and Mandy Hagstrom, Senior Lecturer, Exercise Physiology. School of Health Sciences, UNSW Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Are You A Calorie-Burning Machine?
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Burn, Calorie, Burn
In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you whether you count calories, and got the above-depicted, below-described set of answers:
- About 56% said “I am somewhat mindful of calories but keep only a rough tally”
- About 32% said “I do not count calories / I don’t think it’s important for my health”
- About 13% said “I rigorously check and record the calories of everything I consume”
So what does the science say, about the merits of all these positions?
A food’s calorie count is a good measure of how much energy we will, upon consuming the food, have to use or store: True or False?
False, broadly. It can be, at best, a rough guideline. Do you know what a calorie actually is, by the way? Most people don’t.
One thing to know before we get to that: there’s “cal” vs “kcal”. The latter is generally used when it comes to foodstuffs, and it’s what we’ll be meaning whenever we say “calorie” here. 1cal is 1/1000th of a kcal, that’s all.
Now, for what a calorie actually is:
A calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1℃
Question: so, how to we measure how much food is needed to do that?
Answer: by using a bomb calorimeter! Which is the exciting name for the apparatus used to literally burn food and capture the heat produced to indeed raise the temperature of 1 liter of water by 1℃.
If you’re having trouble imagining such equipment, here it is:
Bomb Calorimeter: Definition, Construction, & Operation (with diagram and FAQs)
The unfortunate implication of the above information
A kilogram of sawdust contains about a 1000 kcal, give or take what wood was used and various other conditions.
However, that does not mean you can usefully eat the sawdust. In other words:
Calorie count tells us only how good something is at raising the temperature of water if physically burned.
Now do you see why oils and sugars have such comparably high calorie counts?
And while we may talk about “burning calories” as a metaphor, we do not, in fact, have a little wood stove inside us burning the food we eat.
A calorie is a calorie: True or False?
Definitely False! Building on from the above… We will get very little energy from sawdust; it’s not just that we can’t use it; we can’t store it either; it’ll mostly pass through as fiber.
(however, please do not use sawdust to get your daily dose of fiber either, as it is not safe for human consumption and may give you diseases, depending on what is lurking in it)
But let’s look at oil and sugar, two very high-calorie categories of food, because they’re really easy to physically burn and they give off a good flame.
A bomb calorimeter may treat them quite equally, but to our body, they are metabolically very different indeed.
For a start, most sugars will get absorbed and processed much more quickly than most oils, and that can overwhelm the liver (responsible for glycogen management), and lead to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes, and more. Metabolic syndrome in general, and if you keep it up too much and you may find it’s now a lottery between dying of NAFLD, diabetes, or heart disease (it’ll usually be the heart disease that kills).
See also:
- Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?
- 10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars
- How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver
Meanwhile, we know all about the different kinds of nutritional profiles that oils can have, and some can promote having high energy without putting on fat, while others can strain the heart. Not even “a fat is a fat”, so “a calorie is a calorie” doesn’t get much mileage outside of a bomb calorimeter!
See also:
A calorie-controlled / calorie-restricted diet is an effective weight loss strategy: True or False?
True, usually! Surprise!
- On the one hand: calories are a wildly imprecise way to reckon the value of food, and using them as a guide to health can be dangerously misleading
- On the other hand: the very activity of calorie-counting itself promotes mindful eating, which is very good for the health
There is a strong difference between the mind of somebody who is carefully logging their pre-bedtime piece of chocolate and reflecting on its nutritional value, vs someone who isn’t sure whether this is their second or third glass of wine, nor how much the glass contained.
So if you want to get most of the benefits of a calorie-controlled diet without counting calories, you may try taking a “mindful eating” approach to diet.
However! If you want to do this for weight loss, be aware, that you will have to practice it all the time, not just for one meal here and there.
You can read more on how to do “mindful eating” here:
Dr. Rupy Aujla: The Kitchen Doctor | Mindful Eating & Interoception
Take care!
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The FIRST Program: Fighting Insulin Resistance with Strength Training – by Dr. William Shang
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
A lot of advice about fighting insulin resistance focuses on diet. And, that’s worthwhile! How we eat does make a huge difference to our insulin responses (as does fasting). But, we expect our regular 10almonds readers either know these things now, or can read one of several very good books we’ve already reviewed about such.
This one’s different: it focuses, as the title promises, on fighting insulin resistance with strength training. And why?
It’s because of the difference that our body composition makes to our metabolism. Now, our body fat percentage is often talked about (or, less usefully but more prevalently, even if woefully misleadingly, our BMI), but Dr. Shang makes the case for it being our musculature that has the biggest impact; because of how it hastens our metabolism, and because of how it is much healthier for the body to store glycogen in muscle tissue, than just cramming whatever it can into the liver and visceral fat. It becomes relevant, then, that there’s a limit to how much glycogen can be stored in muscle tissue, and that limit is how much muscle you have.
This is not, however, 243 pages to say “lift some weights, lazybones”. Rather, he explains the relevant pathophysiology (we will be more likely to adhere to things we understand, than things we do not), and gives practical advice on exercising the different kinds of muscle fibers, arguing that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as well as outlining an exercise program for the gym, plus a chapter on no-gym exercises too.
The style is quite dense, which may be offputting for some, but it suffices to take one’s time and read thoughtfully; the end result is worth it.
Bottom line: if you’d like to keep insulin resistance at bay, this book is an excellent extra tool for that.
Don’t Forget…
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