Are Supplements Worth Taking?
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!
As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!
So, no question/request too big or small 😎
❝There seems to be a lot of suggestions to take supplements for every thing, from your head to your toes. I know it’s up to the individual but what are the facts or stats to support taking them versus not?❞
Short answer:
- supplementary vitamins and minerals are probably neither needed nor beneficial for most (more on this later) people, with the exception of vitamin D which most people over a certain age need unless they are white and getting a lot of sun.
- other kinds of supplement can be very beneficial or useless, depending on what they are, of course, and also your own personal physiology.
With regard to vitamins and minerals, in most cases they should be covered by a healthy balanced diet, and the bioavailability is usually better from food anyway (bearing in mind, we say vitamin such-and-such, or name an elemental mineral, but there are usually multiple, often many, forms of each—and supplements will usually use whatever is cheapest to produce and most chemically stable).
However! It is also quite common for food to be grown in whatever way is cheapest and produces the greatest visible yield, rather than for micronutrient coverage.
This goes for most if not all plants, and it goes extra for animals (because of the greater costs and inefficiencies involved in rearing animals).
We wrote about this a while back in a mythbusting edition of 10almonds, covering:
- Food is less nutritious now than it used to be: True or False?
- Supplements aren’t absorbed properly and thus are a waste of money: True or False?
- We can get everything we need from our diet: True or False?
You can read the answers and explanations, and see the science that we presented, here:
Do We Need Supplements, And Do They Work?
You may be wondering: what was that about “most (more on this later) people”?
Sometimes someone will have a nutrient deficiency that can’t be easily remedied with diet. Often this occurs when their body:
- has trouble absorbing that nutrient, or
- does something inconvenient with it that makes a lot of it unusable when it gets it.
…which is why calcium, iron, vitamin B12, and vitamin D are quite common supplements to get prescribed by doctors after a certain age.
Still, it’s best to try getting things from one’s diet first all of all, of course.
Things we can’t (reasonably) get from food
This is another category entirely. There are many supplements that are convenient forms of things readily found in a lot of food, such as vitamins and minerals, or phytochemicals like quercetin, fisetin, and lycopene (to name just a few of very many).
Then there are things not readily found in food, or at least, not in food that’s readily available in supermarkets.
For example, if you go to your local supermarket and ask where the mimosa is, they’ll try to sell you a cocktail mix instead of the roots, bark, or leaves of a tropical tree. It is also unlikely they’ll stock lion’s mane mushroom, or reishi.
If perchance you do get the chance to acquire fresh lion’s mane mushroom, by the way, give it a try! It’s delicious shallow-fried in a little olive oil with black pepper and garlic.
In short, this last category, the things most of us can’t reasonably get from food without going far out of our way, are the kind of thing whereby supplements actually can be helpful.
And yet, still, not every supplement has evidence to support the claims made by its sellers, so it’s good to do your research beforehand. We do that on Mondays, with our “Research Review Monday” editions, of which you can find in our searchable research review archive ← we also review some drugs that can’t be classified as supplements, but mostly, it’s supplements.
Take care!
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5 Ways to Beat Menopausal Weight Gain!
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.
As it turns out, “common” does not mean “inevitable”!
Health Coach Kait’s advice
Her 5 tips are…
- Understand your metabolism: otherwise you’re working the dark and will get random results. Learn about how different foods affect your metabolism, and note that hormonal changes due to menopause can mean that some food types have different effects now.
- Eat enough protein: one thing doesn’t change—protein helps with satiety, thus helping to avoid overeating.
- Focus on sleep: prioritizing sleep is essential for hormone regulation, and that means not just sex hormones, but also food-related hormones such as insulin, ghrelin, and leptin.
- Be smart about carbs: taking a lot of carbs at once can lead to insulin spikes and thus metabolic disorder, which in turn leads to fat in places you don’t want it (especially your liver and belly). Enjoying a low-carb diet, and/or pairing your carbs with proteins and fats, does a lot to help avoid insulin spikes too. Not mentioned in the video, but we’re going to mention here: don’t underestimate fiber’s role either, especially if you take it before the carbs, which is best for blood sugars, as it gives a buffer to the digestive process, thus slowing down absorption of carbs.
- Build muscle: if trying to avoid/lose fat, it’s tempting to focus on cardio, but we generally can’t exercise our way out of having fat, whereas having more muscle increases the body’s metabolic base rate, burning fat just by existing. So for this reason, enjoy muscle-building resistance exercises at least a few times per week.
For more information on each of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose It
Take care!
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Samosa Spiced Surprise
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You know what’s best about samosas? It’s not actually the fried pastry; that’s just what holds it together. If you were to try eating sheets of pastry alone, it would not be much fun. But, the spiced vegetable filling? Now we’re talking! So, this recipe takes what’s best about samosas, and makes them into healthy snack-sized patties.
You will need
- Extra virgin olive oil, or coconut oil (per your preference) for cooking
- 4 medium potatoes, boiled, peeled, and mashed
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 cup peas
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- ½ cup garbanzo bean flour (chickpea flour, gram flour, whatever your supermarket calls it)
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped (substitute parsley if you have the soap gene)
- ¼ bulb garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Fry the onion until it is becoming soft and translucent (3–5 minutes).
2) Add the spices (the garlic, both kinds of pepper, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and the garam masala), stirring in well
3) Add the carrot and peas, stirring and cooking until just becoming soft (probably another 3–5 minutes, depending on the heat, how small you chopped the carrot, and whether the peas were frozen or fresh). Take it off the heat.
4) Mix the potato, chickpea flour, and cilantro in a bowl, and carefully add everything from the pan, mixing that in thoroughly too.
5) Shape into patties, and fry them on each side until browned and crispy.
6) Serve as part of a buffet, or perhaps as an appetizer—raita is a fine accompaniment option.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
Take care!
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Sun-Dried Tomatoes vs Carrots – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing sun-dried tomatoes to carrots, we picked the sun-dried tomatoes.
Why?
After tomatoes lost to carrots yesterday, it turns out that sun-drying them is enough to turn the nutritional tables!
This time, it’s the sun-dried tomatoes that have more carbs and fiber, as well as the nominally lower glycemic index (although obviously, carrots are also just fine in this regard; nobody is getting metabolic disease from eating carrots). Still, by the numbers, a win for sun-dried tomatoes.
In terms of vitamins, the fact that they have less water-weight means that proportionally, gram for gram, sun-dried tomatoes have more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while carrots still have more vitamin A. An easy win for sun-dried tomatoes on the whole, though.
When it comes to minerals, sun-dried tomatoes have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while carrots are not higher in any mineral.
Looking at polyphenols, sun-dried tomatoes have more, including a good healthy dose of quercetin; they also have more lycopene, not technically a polyphenol by virtue of its chemical structure (it’s a carotenoid), but a powerful phytochemical nonetheless. And, the lycopene content is higher in sun-dried tomatoes (compared to raw tomatoes) not just because of the loss of water-weight making a proportional difference, but also because the process itself improves the lycopene content, much like cooking does.
All in all, a clear and overwhelming win for sun-dried tomatoes.
Just watch out, as this is about the sun-dried tomatoes themselves; if you get them packed in vegetable oil, as is common, it’ll be a very different nutritional profile!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Tomatoes vs Carrots – Which is Healthier? ← see the difference!
Enjoy!
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“Give Me 6 Minutes… I’ll Save You 10 Years Of Trying To Lose Belly Fat!”
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Cutting calories is not the answer. Understanding your body, however, is:
Fuel your body (correctly)
Let’s break it down:
Foundation (Steps 1–3):
- Add more fiber: slows blood sugar spikes and keeps insulin low, reducing fat storage.
- Swap bad fats for good fats: Avoid inflammatory oils (canola, corn, soybean); use olive, avocado, or coconut oil instead.
- Narrow eating window: try intermittent fasting gradually, and avoid sugary foods when breaking your fast.
Build & Fuel Wisely (Steps 4–6):
- Reduce refined carbs: replace with whole grains, sweet potatoes, lentils, vegetables in general, berries, and other fruit.
- Prioritize protein: builds muscle, boosts metabolism, and ultimately helps burn more fat at rest.
- Avoid hidden toxins (obesogens): found in many plastics and pesticides—use glass, buy organic, and wash produce.
Activate & Accelerate Fat Burning (Steps 7–9):
- Use movement to reduce stress: walk after meals or during stressful moments to lower cortisol and belly fat.
- Strength train: build lean muscle to increase fat-burning efficiency.
- Practice mindfulness: reduce stress hormones with meditation, yoga, breathwork, or simply boundarying your peaceful time.
For more on all of each of these, plus links to the science, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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Psychedelics: Yes Even Once?
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We’ve broadly covered psychedelics before, in one of our mythbusting editions, which was necessarily a little broad and non-specific, because as we noted:
There are some moderately-well established [usually moderate] clinical benefits from some psychedelics for some people.
If that sounds like a very guarded statement, it is. Part of this is because “psychedelics” is an umbrella term.
Read in full: Taking A Trip Through The Evidence On Psychedelics
And to give some examples of those benefits being evidenced:
- Psilocybin as a New Approach to Treat Depression and Anxiety in the Context of Life-Threatening Diseases—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials
- Therapeutic Use of LSD in Psychiatry: A Systematic Review of Randomized-Controlled Clinical Trials
- Efficacy of Psychoactive Drugs for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review of MDMA, Ketamine, LSD and Psilocybin
- Changes in self-rumination and self-compassion mediate the effect of psychedelic experiences on decreases in depression, anxiety, and stress.
- Psychedelic Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Patient Experiences in Qualitative Studies
- Repeated lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reverses stress-induced anxiety-like behavior, cortical synaptogenesis deficits and serotonergic neurotransmission decline
Today we’re going to talk about the potential of psychedelics to improve…
*drumroll please*
Cognitive flexibility
So first we’ll mention what that actually is: cognitive flexibility is the ability of the brain to adapt to changing circumstances—which is not only a potential measure of general intelligence, but also, cognitive inflexibility is commonly seen as a harbinger of age-related cognitive decline.
In short, that scenario of an older person who “can’t be doing with all these new-fangled things” but the new-fangled things have been the norm for a long time now.
Fun fact: first-generation iPhones are now old enough to vote, having been initially released in January 2007, making them a little over 18 years old now.
Chances are quite high that you’re reading this on on iPhone or similar device, but chances alos are that there are other more recent changes in the world that baffle you. And maybe sometimes it really is the world (there sure are things that baffle this writer, too); sometimes, however, it would be good to at least have the option of jumping on the latest bandwagon, rather than always trying to live in decades past.
That’s where cognitive flexibility comes in; the ability to say “you know what, I can roll with this”, or the ability to switch tracks if new information comes to light contradicting some previously-held belief, things like that.
And as for where psychedelics come in?
A recent study by Dr. Elizabeth Brouns et al. has shown that a single dose of a psychedelic compound can significantly enhance cognitive flexibility in mice for weeks after treatment.
Yes, it’s just a mouse study so far, but generally squeaking, mammalian brains are mammalian brains, so we can expect this to carry over to humans when human trials are conducted next.
They (the researchers, not the mice) found that the psychedelic compound 25CN-NBOH, a selective serotonin 2A receptor agonist that honestly does not have a snappier name than that or else we’d use it, led to improved performance in tasks that required mice to rapidly adapt to changing rules, and that these benefits persisted for 20 days* after administration. This suggests long-lasting changes in brain function, with potential implications for treating conditions like depression, PTSD, and neurodegenerative diseases.
*About that “20 days”, though…
Do you remember the whole “the brain doesn’t finishing maturing until the age of 25” debacle? If not: the short version is that researchers measured brain development at various ages, from childhood until the age of 25, and found that it didn’t stop developing. Importantly, the age of 25 was simply the cut-off for the experiment, because at some point they have to publish results. It wasn’t that the brains stopped developing at 25, but when the popular press got hold of the headlines, they reported it as though that were the case, and 25 is the great landmark age at which the brain is finished developing. Now, we know from other more recent studies that the brain continues changing throughout life, and indeed even neurogenesis continues into old age, with no known stopping point (during life, anyway).
We did a mythbusting edition about that, by the way: The Brain As A Work-In-Progress
And for further reading about that neurogenesis in old age, see: How To Grow New Brain Cells (At Any Age)
The reason we’re mentioning this because in this experiment with the psychedelics, the claim of “the benefits persisted for 20 days after administration” can make it sound a lot like “and on day 21, the benefits vanished”.
The reality is, there was no day 21; the experiment ran for 20 days and that was that. It is not known how long the benefits would have persisted, only that in the first 20 days, they showed no signs of disappearing.
You can read the paper in full (and see graphs!) here:
Nevertheless, the most well-researched popular psychedelic recently isn’t 25CN-NBOH, but rather, psilocybin, the psychedelic compound that gives “magic mushrooms” their psychoactive properties.
And when we say “popular”: Psilocybin use surges across all age groups since 2019
Not a fan of drugs?
If for whatever reason, psychedelics aren’t your cup of tea, there are other ways to improve cognitive flexibility.
See for example: How (And Why) To Train Your Pre-Frontal Cortex
Take care!
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The 4 Best Stretches To Do Before Bed (And Even: To Do In Bed!)
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.
Contrary to the stereotype of early morning yoga sessions, the evening is actually the best time to improve flexibility.
Not only that, but there are benefits to stretching on a soft surface, such as your bed, rather than the floor—in few words, it reduces the nervous feedback that limits your flexibility.
The most comfortable yoga session
Here are three great stretches to do of an evening:
Frog pose:
- Spread your knees wide, forming 90° angles at your ankles, knees, and hips.
- Press your hips downward and experiment with tilting your tailbone upwards.
- Hold for 1–3 minutes, breathing calmly.
Half straddle stretch:
- This stretch is done with one leg extended, and your other leg bent with foot against your inner thigh.
- Keep your lower back elongated while folding forward.
- Adjust the stretch’s focus by moving towards the middle or towards the extended leg, to stretch your inner thighs more or your hamstrings more, respectively.
- Hold for 1–2 minutes per leg.
Tabletop chest stretch:
- From a tabletop position, walk/slide your hands forward and drop your chest down.
- Hold for at least 1 minute, breathing deeply.
- Variations:
- Turn thumbs upward to engage side muscles.
- Cross arms to stretch the ribs.
Cross-legged forward fold:
- Start in a cross-legged seated position and slightly shift your hips backwards.
- Fold forward, allowing the spine to round.
- Hold for 1–3 minutes, breathing calmly.
This latter is especially good despite its simplicity, as it provides a deep stretch in the outer hips and lower back.
For more on all of these plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Over 50? Do These 3 Stretches Every Morning To Avoid Pain
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
