Avocado, Coconut & Lime Crumble Pots

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This one’s a refreshing snack or dessert, whose ingredients come together to make a very good essential fatty acid supplement. Coconut is a good source of MCTs, avocados are rich in omega 3, 6, and 9, while chia seeds are a great ALA omega 3 food, topping up the healthy balance.

You will need

  • flesh of 2 large ripe avocados
  • grated zest and juice of 2 limes
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp honey (omit if you prefer a less sweet dish)
  • 1 tsp desiccated coconut
  • 4 low-sugar oat biscuits

Method

(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

1) Blend the avocado, lime juice, coconut oil, honey, and half the desiccated coconut, in a food processor.

2) Scoop the mixture into 4 ramekins (or equivalent-sized glasses), making sure to leave a ½” gap at the top. Refrigerate for at least 2–4 hours (longer is fine if you’re not ready to serve yet).

3) Assemble, by crumbling the oat biscuits and sprinkling on top of each serving, along with the other half of the desiccated coconut, the lime zest, and the chia seeds.

4) Serve immediately:

Enjoy!

Want to learn more?

For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

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  • The Lymphatic System Against Cancer & More

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    Ask Not What Your Lymphatic System Can Do For You…

    Just kidding; we’ll cover that first, as it’s definitely not talked about enough.

    The lymphatic system is the system in the body that moves lymph around. It’s made of glands, nodes, and vessels:

    • The glands (such as the tonsils and the adenoids) and nodes filter out bacteria and produce white blood cells. Specific functions may be, well, specialized—beyond the scope of today’s article—but that’s the broad function.
    • The vessels are the tubes that allow those things to be moved around, suspended in lymph.

    What’s lymph? It’s a colorless water-like liquid that transports immune cells, nutrients (and waste) around the body (through the lymphatic system).

    Yes, it works alongside your vasculature; when white blood cells aren’t being deployed en masse into your bloodstream to deal with some threat, they’re waiting in the wings in the lymphatic system.

    While your blood is pumped around by your heart, lymph moves based on a variety of factors, including contractions of small specialized lymphatic muscles, the pressure gradient created by the combination of those and gravity, and the movements of your body itself.

    Here’s a larger article than we have room for, with diagrams we also don’t have room for:

    Modelling the lymphatic system

    To oversimplify it in few words for the sake of moving on: you can most of the time: think of it as an ancillary network supporting your circulatory system that unlike blood, doesn’t deal with oxygen or sugars, but does deal with a lot of other things, including:

    • water and salt balance
    • immune cells and other aspects of immune function
    • transports fats (and any fat-soluble vitamins in them) into circulation
    • cleans up stuff that gets stuck between cells
    • general detoxification

    There’s a lot that can go wrong if lymph isn’t flowing as it should

    Too much to list here, but to give an idea:

    • Arthritis and many autoimmune diseases
    • Cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome
    • Obesity, diabetes, and organ failure
    • Alzheimer’s and other dementias
    • Lymphadenitis, lymphangitis, and lymphedenopathy
    • Lymphomas and Hodgkin’s disease (both are types of lymphatic cancer)
    • Cancers of other kinds, because of things not being cleaned up where and when they should be

    Yikes! That’s a lot of important things for a mostly-forgotten system to be taking care of protecting us from!

    What you can do for your lymphatic system, to avoid those things!

    Happily, there are easy things we can do to give our lymph some love, such as:

    Massage therapy (and foam rolling)

    This is the go-to that many people/publications recommend. It’s good! It’s certainly not the most important thing to do, but it’s good.

    You can even use a simple gadget like this one to help move the lymph around, without needing to learn arcane massage techniques.

    Exercise (move your body!)

    This is a lot more important. The more we move our body, the more lymph moves around. The more lymph moves around today, the more easily it will move around tomorrow. A healthy constant movement of lymph throughout the lymphatic system is key to keeping everything running smoothly.

    If you pick only one kind of exercise, make it High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT):

    How To Do HIIT (Without Wrecking Your Body)

    If for some reason you really can’t do that, just spend as much of your waking time as reasonably possible, moving, per:

    Exercise Less; Move More

    For ideas on how to do that, check out…

    No-Exercise Exercise!

    Get thee to a kitchen

    This is about getting healthy food that gives your body’s clean-up crew (the lymphatic system) an easier time of it.

    Rather than trying to “eat clean” which can be a very nebulous term and it’s often not at all clear (and/or hotly debated) what counts as “clean”, instead, stick to foods that constitute an anti-inflammatory diet:

    Eat To Beat Inflammation

    Take care!

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  • Butternut Squash vs Pumpkin – 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 butternut squash to pumpkin, we picked the butternut squash.

    Why?

    Both are great! But the butternut squash manages a moderate win in most categories.

    In terms of macros, butternut squash has more of everything except water. Most notably, it has more protein and more fiber. Yes, more carbs too, but the fiber content means that it also has the lower glycemic index, by quite a bit.

    When it comes to vitamins, pumpkin does have a little more of vitamin B1 and a lot more of vitamin E, while butternut squash has more of vitamins B3, B5, B9, C, K, and choline. They’re about equal in the other vitamins they both contain. A fair win for butternut squash.

    In the category of minerals, butternut squash has more calcium, magnesium, manganese, and selenium, while pumpkin has more copper, iron, and phosphorus. They’re about equal in potassium and zinc. A marginal win for butternut squash.

    Adding up the strong win, the fair win, and the marginal win, makes for an easy overall win for butternut squash!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Superfood-Stuffed Squash Recipe

    Take care!

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  • Super Joints – by Pavel Tsatsouline

    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.

    For those of us for whom mobility and pain-free movement are top priorities, this book has us covered. So what’s different here, compared to your average stretching book?

    It’s about functional strength with the stretches. The author’s background as a special forces soldier means that his interest was not in doing arcane yoga positions so much as being able to change direction quickly without losing speed or balance, get thrown down and get back up without injury, twist suddenly without unpleasantly wrenching anything (of one’s own, at least), and generally be able to take knocks without taking damage.

    While we are hopefully not having to deal with such violence in our everyday lives, the robustness of body that results from these exercises is one that certainly can go a long way to keep us injury-free.

    The exercises themselves are well-described, clearly and succinctly, with equally clear illustrations.

    Note: the paperback version is currently expensive, probably due to supply and demand, but if you select the Kindle version, it’s much cheaper with no loss of quality (because the illustrations are black-on-white line-drawings and very clear; perfect for Kindle e-ink)

    The style of the book is very casual and conversational, yet somehow doesn’t let that distract it from being incredibly information dense; there is no fluff here, just valuable guidance.

    Bottom line: if you would like to be more robust with non-nonsense exercises, then this book is a fine choice.

    Click here to check out Super Joints, and make yours flexible and strong!

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  • The “Yes I Can” Salad

    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.

    Sometimes, we are given to ask ourselves: “Can I produce a healthy and tasty salad out of what I have in?” and today we show how, with a well-stocked pantry, the answer is “yes I can”, regardless of what is (or isn’t) in the fridge.

    You will need

    • 1 can cannellini beans, drained
    • 1 can sardines (if vegetarian/vegan, substitute ½ can chickpeas, drained)
    • 1 can mandarin segments
    • 1 handful pitted black olives, from a jar (or from a can, if you want to keep the “yes I can” theme going)
    • ½ red onion, thinly sliced (this can be from frozen, defrosted—sliced/chopped onion is always a good thing to have in your freezer, by the way; your writer here always has 1–6 lbs of chopped onions in hers, divided into 1lb bags)
    • 1 oz lemon juice
    • 1 tbsp chopped parsley (this can be freeze-dried, but fresh is good if you have it)
    • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 tbsp chia seeds
    • 1 tsp miso paste
    • 1 tsp honey (omit if you don’t care for sweetness; substitute with agave nectar if you do like sweetness but don’t want to use honey specifically)
    • 1 tsp red chili flakes

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Combine the onion and the lemon juice in a small bowl, massaging gently

    2) Mix (in another bowl) the miso paste with the chili flakes, chia seeds, honey, olive oil, and the spare juice from the can of mandarin segments, and whisk it to make a dressing.

    3) Add the cannellini beans, sardines (break them into bite-size chunks), mandarin segments, olives, and parsley, tossing them thoroughly (but gently) in the dressing.

    4) Top with the sliced onion, discarding the excess lemon juice, and serve:

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

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  • The Reason You’re Alone

    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.

    If you are feeling lonely, then there are likely reasons why, as Kurtzgesagt explains:

    Why it happens and how to fix it

    Many people feel lonely and disconnected, often not knowing how to make new friends. And yet, social connection strongly predicts happiness, while lack of it is linked to diseases and a shorter life.

    One mistake that people make is thinking it has to be about shared interests; that can help, but proximity and shared time are much more important.

    Another stumbling block for many is that adult responsibilities and distractions (work, kids, technology) often take priority over friendships—but loneliness is surprisingly highest among young people, worsened by the pandemic’s impact on social interactions.

    And even when friendships are made, they fade without attention, often accidentally, impacting both people involved. Other friendships can be lost following big life changes such as moving house or the end of a relationship. And for people above a certain advanced age, friendship groups can shrink due to death, if one’s friends are all in the same age group.

    But, all is not lost. We can make friends with people of any age, and old friendships can be revived by a simple invitation. We can also take a “build it and they will come” approach, by organizing events and being the one who invites others.

    It’s easy to fear rejection—most people do—but it’s worth overcoming for the potential rewards. That said, building friendships requires time, patience, caring about others, and being open about yourself, which can involve a degree of vulnerability too.

    In short: be laid-back while still prioritizing friendships, show genuine interest, and stay open to social opportunities.

    For more on all of this, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    How To Beat Loneliness & Isolation

    Take care!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Stretching for 50+ – by Dr. Karl Knopf

    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.

    Dr. Knopf explores in this book the two-way relationship between aging and stretching (i.e., each can have a large impact on the other). Thinking about stretching in those terms is an important reframe for going into any stretching program. We’d say “after the age of 50”, but honestly, at any age. But this book is written with over-50s in mind, as the title goes.

    There’s an extensive encyclopedic section on stretches per body part, which is exactly as you might expect from any book of this kind. There is also a flexibility self-assessment, so that progress can be measured easily, and so that the reader knows where might need more improvement.

    Perhaps this book’s greatest strength is the section on specialized programs based on things ranging from working to improve symptoms of any chronic conditions you may have (or at least working around them, if outright improvement is not possible by stretching), to your recreational activities of importance to you—so, what kinds of flexibilities will be important to you, and also, what kinds of injury you are most likely to need to avoid.

    Bottom line: if you’re 50 and would like to do more stretching and less aging, then this book can help with that.

    Click here to check out Stretching for 50+, and extend your healthspan!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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