Galveston Diet Cookbook for Beginners – by Martha McGrew

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We recently reviewed “The Galveston Diet”, and here’s a cookbook (by a nutritionist) to support that.

For the most part, it’s essentially keto-leaning, with an emphasis on protein and fats, but without quite the carb-cut that keto tends to have. It’s also quite plant-centric, but it’s not by default vegan or even vegetarian; you will find meat and fish in here. As you might expect from an anti-inflammatory cookbook, it’s light on the dairy too, though fermented dairy products such as yogurt do feature as well.

The recipes are quite simple and easy to follow, with suggestions of alternative ingredients along the way, making for extra variety as well as convenience.

If you are going to buy this book, you might want to take a look at the buying options, to ensure you get a full-color version, as recent reprints have photos in black and white, whereas older runs have color throughout.

Bottom line: if you’d like to cook the Galveston Diet way, this is as good a way to start as any.

Click here to check out the Galveston Diet Cookbook for Beginners, and get cooking!

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  • Coconut Milk vs Soy Milk – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing coconut milk to soy milk, we picked the soy.

    Why?

    First, because there are many kinds of both, let’s be clear which ones we’re comparing. For both, we picked the healthiest options commonly available, which were:

    • Soy milk, unsweetened, fortified
    • Coconut milk, raw (liquid expressed from grated meat and water)

    Macronutrients are our first consideration; coconut milk has about 3x the carbs and about 14x the fat. Now, the fats are famously healthy medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), but still, one cup of coconut milk contains about 2.5x the recommended daily amount of saturated fat, so it’s wise to go easy on that. Coconut milk also has about 4x the fiber, but still, because the saturated fat difference, we’re calling this one a win for soy milk.

    In the category of vitamins, the fortified soy milk wins. In case you’re curious: milk in general (animal or plant) is generally fortified with vitamin D (in N. America, anyway; other places may vary), and vitamin B12. In this case, the soy milk has those, plus some natural vitamins, meaning it has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, and D, while coconut milk has more of vitamins B3, B5, and C. A fair win for soy milk.

    When it comes to minerals, the only fortification for the soy milk is calcium, of which it has more than 7x what coconut milk has. The coconut milk, however, has more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. An easy win for coconut milk.

    Adding up the sections gives us a win for soy milk—but if consumed in moderation as part of a diet otherwise low in saturated fat, a case could be made for the coconut.

    The real take-away here today is not this specific head-to-head but rather: milks (animal or plant) vary a lot, have a lot of different fortifications and/or additives, and yes that goes even for brands (cow milk brands do this a lot) who don’t advertise their additives because their branding is going for a “natural” look. So, read labels, and make informed decisions about which additives you do or don’t want.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Peace Is Every Step – by Thích Nhất Hạnh

    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.

    Mindfulness is one of the few practices to make its way from religion (in this case, Buddhism) into hard science. We’ve written before about its many evidence-based benefits, and many national health information outlets recommend it. So, what does this book have to add?

    Thích Nhất Hạnh spent most of his 95 years devoted to the practice and teaching of mindfulness and compassion. In this book, the focus is on bringing mindfulness off the meditation mat and into general life.

    After all, what if we could extend that “unflappability” into situations that pressure and antagonize us? That would be some superpower!

    The author offers techniques to do just that, simple exercises to transform negative emotions, and to make us more likely to remember to do so.

    After all, “in the heat of the moment” is rarely when many of us are at our best, this book gives way to allow those moments themselves to serve as immediate triggers to be our best.

    The title “Peace Is Every Step” is not a random collection of words; the goal of this book is to enable to reader to indeed carry peace with us as we go.

    Not just “peace is always available to us”, but if we do it right: “we have now arranged for our own peace to automatically step in and help us when we need it most”.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to practice mindfulness, or practice it more consistently, this book offers some powerful tools.

    Click here to check out Peace Is Every Step, and carry yours with you!

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  • Own Your Past Change Your Future – by Dr. John Delony

    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.

    This one is exactly what it says on the cover. It’s reminiscent in its premise of the more clinically-presented Tell Yourself A Better Lie (an excellent book, which we reviewed previously) but this time presented in a much more casual fashion.

    Dr. Delony favors focusing on telling stories, and indeed this book contains many anecdotes. But also he bids the reader to examine our own stories—those we tell ourselves about ourselves, our past, people around us, and so forth.

    To call those things “stories” may create a knee-jerk response of feeling like it is an accusation of dishonesty, but rather, it is acknowledging that experiences are subjective, and our framing of narratives can vary.

    As for reframing things and taking control, his five-step-plan for doing such is:

    1. Acknowledge reality
    2. Get connected
    3. Change your thoughts
    4. Change your actions
    5. Seek redemption

    …which each get a chapter devoted to them in the book.

    You may notice that these are very similar to some of the steps in 12-step programs, and also some religious groups and/or self-improvement groups. In other words, this may not be the most original approach, but it is a tried-and-tested one.

    Bottom line: if you feel like your life needs an overhaul, but don’t want to wade through a bunch of psychology to do it, then this book could be it for you.

    Click here to check out Own Your Past To Change Your Future, and do just that!

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Related Posts

  • The Body: A Guide for Occupants – by Bill Bryson
  • The Breathing Cure – by Patrick McKeown

    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.

    We’ve previously reviewed this author’s “The Oxygen Advantage”, which as you might guess from the title, was also about breathing. So, what’s different here?

    While The Oxygen Advantage was mostly about improving good health with optimized breathing, and with an emphasis on sports too, The Breathing Cure is more about the two-way relationship between ill health and disordered breathing (and how to fix it).

    Many kinds of illnesses can affect our breathing, and our breathing can affect many types of illness; McKeown covers a lot of these, including the obvious things like respiratory diseases (including COVID and Long COVID, as well as non-infectious respiratory conditions like asthma), but also things like diabetes and heart disease, as well as peri-disease things like chronic pain, and demi-disease things like periods and menopause.

    In each case (and more), he examines what things make matters better or worse, and how to improve them.

    While the style itself is just as pop-science as The Oxygen Advantage, this time it relies less on anecdote (though there are plenty of anecdotes too), and leans more heavily on a generous chapter-by-chapter scientific bibliography, with plenty of citations to back up claims.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to breathe better, this book can help in very many ways.

    Click here to check out The Breathing Cure, and breathe easy!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Beyond Guarding Against Dementia

    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.

    When Age’s Brain-Changes Come Knocking

    A woman guarding in a red dress.

    This is Dr. Amy Friday. She’s a psychologist, specializing in geropsychology and neuropsychological assessments.

    In other words, she helps people optimize their aging experience, particularly in the context of brain changes as we get older.

    What does she want us to know?

    First: be not afraid

    Ominous first words, but the fact is, there’s a lot to find scary about the prospect of memory loss, dementia, and death.

    However, as she points out:

    • Death will come for us all sooner or later, barring technology as yet unknown
    • Dementia can be avoided, or at least stalled, or at least worked around
    • Memory loss, as per the above, can be avoided/stalled/managed

    We’ve written a little on these topics too:

    Managing Your Mortality

    …or if the death is not yours:

    Bereavement & Managing Grief

    As for avoiding dementia, the below-linked feature is about Alzheimer’s in particular (which accounts for more than half of all cases of dementia), but the advice goes for most of the other kinds too:

    How To Reduce Your Alzheimer’s Risk

    And finally, about memory loss specifically:

    How To Boost Your Memory Immediately (Without Supplements)

    this one is especially about cementing into one’s brain the kinds of memories that people most fear losing with age. People don’t worry about forgetting their PIN codes; they worry about forgetting their cherished memories with loved ones. So, if that’s important to you, do consider checking out this one!

    What is that about managing or working around the symptoms?

    If we’re missing a limb, we (usually) get a prosthetic, and/or learn how to operate without that limb.

    If we’re missing sight or hearing, partially or fully, there are disability aids for those kinds of things too (glasses are a disability aid! Something being very common does not make it not a disability; you literally have less of an ability—in this case, the ability to see), and/or we learn how to operate with our different (or missing) sense.

    Dr. Friday makes the case for this being the same with memory loss, dementia, and other age-related symptoms (reduced focus, increased mental fatigue, etc):

    ❝We are all screwed up. Here’s my flavor … what’s yours? This is a favorite saying of mine, because we ARE all screwed up in one way or another, and when we acknowledge it we can feel closer in our screwed-up-edness.

    We are all experiencing “normal aging,” so that tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon that starts in our thirties and slowly gets worse is REAL. But what if you’re having more problems than normal aging? Is it time to throw in the towel and hide? I’m hoping that there is a group of people who say HELL NO to that idea.

    Let’s use lessons from research and clinical practice to help all of us work around our weaknesses, and capitalize on our strengths.  ❞

    ~ Dr. Amy Friday

    Examples of this might include:

    • Writing down the things most important to you (a short list of information and/or statements that you feel define you and what matters most to you), so that you can read it later
    • Making sure you have support (partner, family, friends, etc) who are on the same page about this topic—and thus will actually support you and advocate for you, instead of arguing about what is in your best interest without consulting you.
    • Labelling stuff around the house, so that you get less confused about what is what and where it is
    • Having a named go-to advocate that you can call / ask to be called, if you are in trouble somewhere and need help that you can rely on
    • Getting a specialized, simpler bank account; hiring an accountant if relevant and practicable.

    The thing is, we all want to keep control. Sometimes we can do that! Sometimes we can’t, and if we’re going to lose some aspect of control, it’ll generally go a lot better if we do it on our own terms, so that we ourselves can look out for future-us in our planning.

    Want to know more?

    You might enjoy her blog, which includes also links to her many videos on the topic, including such items as:

    For the rest, see:

    This Beautiful Brain | The Science Of Brain Health

    Enjoy!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Walnuts vs Cashews – Which is Healthier?

    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.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing walnuts to cashews, we picked the walnuts.

    Why?

    It was close! In terms of macros, walnuts have about 2x the fiber, while cashews have slightly more protein. In the specific category of fats, walnuts have more fat. Looking further into it: walnuts’ fats are mostly polyunsaturated, while cashews’ fats are mostly monounsaturated, both of which are considered healthy.

    Notwithstanding being both high in calories, neither nut is associated with weight gain—largely because of their low glycemic indices (of which, walnuts enjoy the slightly lower GI, but both are low-GI foods)

    When it comes to vitamins, walnuts have more of vitamins A, B2, B3 B6, B9, and C, while cashews have more of vitamins B1, B5, E, and K. Because of the variation in their respective margins of difference, this is at best a moderate victory for walnuts, though.

    In the category of minerals, cashews get their day, as walnuts have more calcium and manganese, while cashews have more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc.

    In short: unless you’re allergic, we recommend enjoying both of these nuts (and others) for a full range of benefits. However, if you’re going to pick one, walnuts win the day.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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