Eat Well With Arthritis – by Emily Johnson, with Dr. Deepak Ravindran
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Author Emily Johnson was diagnosed with arthritis in her early 20s, but it had been affecting her life since the age of 4. Suffice it to say, managing the condition has been integral to her life.
She’s written this book with not only her own accumulated knowledge, but also the input of professional experts; the book contains insights from chronic pain specialist Dr. Deepak Ravindran, and gets an additional medical thumbs-up in a foreword by rheumatologist Dr. Lauren Freid.
The recipes themselves are clear and easy, and the ingredients are not obscure. There’s information on what makes each dish anti-inflammatory, per ingredient, so if you have cause to make any substitutions, that’s useful to know.
Speaking of ingredients, the recipes are mostly plant-based (though there are some chicken/fish ones) and free from common allergens—but not all of them are, so each of those is marked appropriately.
Beyond the recipes, there are also sections on managing arthritis more generally, and information on things to get for your kitchen that can make your life with arthritis a lot easier!
Bottom line: if you have arthritis, cook for somebody with arthritis, or would just like a low-inflammation diet, then this is an excellent book for you.
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Yoga For Stiff Birds – by Marion Deuchars
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Quick show of hands, who here practices yoga in some fashion, but does not necessarily always look Instagrammable while doing it? Yep, same here.
This book is a surprisingly practical introduction to yoga for newcomers, and inspirational motivator for those of us who feel like we should do more.
Rather than studio photography of young models in skimpy attire, popular artist (and well-practised yogi) Marion Deuchars offers in a few brushstrokes what we need to know for each asana, and how to approach it if we’re not so supple yet as we’d like to be.
Bottom line: whether for yourself or as a gift for a loved one (or both!) this is a very charming introduction to (or refresher of) yoga.
Click here to check out Yoga For Stiff Birds, and get yours going!
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Celery vs Carrot – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing celery to carrot, we picked the carrot.
Why?
In terms of macros, carrot has more protein, carbs, and fiber, and is thus the “most food per food” option. The carb:fiber ratio is such that they have about the same glycemic index (when raw, anyway).
In the category of vitamins, celery has more of vitamins B9 and K, while carrot has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, C, E, and choline. An easy win for carrot here.
When it comes to minerals, celery has more calcium and selenium, while carrot has more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc. Another clear win for carrot.
In short, both are very respectable foods, but carrot simply has more in it, and it’s all good.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)
Take care!
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How Much Does A Vegan Diet Affect Biological Aging?
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Slow Your Aging, One Meal At A Time
This one’s a straightforward one today, and the ““life hack” can be summed up:
Enjoy a vegan diet to enjoy younger biological age.
First, what is biological age?
Biological age is not one number, but a collection of numbers, as per different biomarkers of aging, including:
- Visual markers of aging (e.g. wrinkles, graying hair)
- Performative markers of aging (e.g. mobility tests)
- Internal functional markers of aging (e.g. tests for cognitive decline, eyesight, hearing, etc)
- Cellular markers of aging (e.g. telomere length)
We wrote more about this here:
Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?
A vegan diet may well impact multiple of those categories of aging, but today we’re highlighting a study (hot off the press; published only a few days ago!) that looks at its effect on that last category: cellular markers of aging.
There’s an interesting paradox here, because this category is:
- the most easily ignorable; because we all feel it if our knees are giving out or our skin is losing elasticity, but who notices if telomeres’ T/S ratio changed by 0.0407? ← the researchers, that’s who, as this difference is very significant
- the most far-reaching in its impact, because cellular aging in turn has an effect on all the other markers of aging
Second, how much difference does it make, and how do we know?
The study was an eight-week interventional identical twin study. This means several things, to start with:
- Eight weeks is a rather short period of time to accumulate cellular aging, let alone for an intervention to accumulate a significant difference in cellular aging—but it did. So, just imagine what difference it might make in a year or ten!
- Doing an interventional study with identical twin pairs already controlled for a lot of factors, that are usually confounding variables in population / cohort / longitudinal / observational studies.
Factors that weren’t controlled for by default by using identical twins, were controlled for in the experiment design. For example, twin pairs were rejected if one or more twin in a given pair already had medical conditions that could affect the outcome:
❝Inclusion criteria involved participants aged ≥18, part of a willing twin pair, with BMI <40, and LDL-C <190 mg/dL. Exclusions included uncontrolled hypertension, metabolic disease, diabetes, cancer, heart/renal/liver disease, pregnancy, lactation, and medication use affecting body weight or energy.
Eligibility was determined via online screening, followed by an orientation meeting and in-person clinic visit. Randomization occurred only after completing baseline visits, dietary recalls, and questionnaires for both twins❞
~ Dr. Varun Dwaraka et al. ← there’s a lot of “et al.” to this one; the paper had 16 collaborating authors!
As to the difference it made over the course of the 8 weeks…
❝Various measures of epigenetic age acceleration (PC GrimAge, PC PhenoAge, DunedinPACE) were assessed, along with system-specific effects (Inflammation, Heart, Hormone, Liver, and Metabolic).
Distinct responses were observed, with the vegan cohort exhibiting significant decreases in overall epigenetic age acceleration, aligning with anti-aging effects of plant-based diets. Diet-specific shifts were noted in the analysis of methylation surrogates, demonstrating the influence of diet on complex trait prediction through DNA methylation markers.❞
~ Ibid.
You can read the whole paper here (it goes into a lot more detail than we have room to here, and also gives infographics, charts, numbers, the works):
Were they just eating more healthily, though?
Well, arguably yes, as the results show, but to be clear:
The omnivorous diet compared to the vegan diet in this study was also controlled; both groups were given a healthy meal plan for their respective diet. So this wasn’t a case of “any omnivorous diet vs healthy vegan diet”, but rather “healthy omnivorous diet vs healthy vegan diet”.
Again, the paper itself has the full details—a short version is that it involved a healthy meal kit delivery service, followed by ongoing dietician involvement in an equal and carefully-controlled fashion.
So, aside from that one group had an omnivorous meal plan and the other vegan, both groups received the same level of “healthy eating” support, guidance, and oversight.
But isn’t [insert your preferred animal product here] healthy?
Quite possibly! For general health, general scientific consensus is that eating at least mostly plants is best, red meat is bad, poultry is neutral in moderation, fish is good in moderation, dairy is good in moderation if fermented, eggs are good in moderation if not fried.
This study looked at the various biomarkers of aging that we listed, and not every possible aspect of health—there’s more science yet to be done, and the researchers themselves are calling for it.
It also bears mentioning that for some (relatively few, but not insignificantly few) people, extant health conditions may make a vegan diet unhealthy or otherwise untenable. Do speak with your own doctor and/or dietician if unsure.
See also: Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy?
We would hypothesize, by the way, that the anti-aging benefits of a vegan diet are probably proportional to abstention from animal products—meaning that even if you simply have some “vegan days”, while still consuming animal products other days, you’ll still get benefit for the days you abstained. That’s just our hypothesis though.
Take care!
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Easing Election Stress & Anxiety
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At the time of writing, the US is about to have a presidential election. Most of our readers are Americans, and in any case, what the US does tends to affect most of the world, so certainly many readers in other countries will be experiencing stress and anxiety about it too.
We’re a health science publication, not a political outlet, so we’ll refrain from commenting on any candidates or campaign policies, and we’d also like to be clear we are not urging you to any particular action politically—our focus today is simply about mental health.
First, CBT what can be CBT’d
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is far from a panacea, but it’s often a very good starting point. And when it seems the stakes are high, it’s easy to fall into such cognitive distortions as “crystal ball” and “catastrophization”, that is to say, predicting the future and feeling the impact of that (probably undesired version of the) future, and also feeling like it will be the end of the world.
Recognizing these processes and how they work, is the first step to managing our feelings about them.
Learn more: The Art of Being Unflappable (Tricks For Daily Life)
Next, DBT what can be DBT’d
A lot of CBT hinges on the assumption that our assumptions are incorrect. For example, that our friend does not secretly despise us, that our spouse is not about to leave us, that the symptoms we are experiencing are not cancer, and in this case, that the election outcome will not go badly, and if it does, the consequences will be less severe than imagined.
But… What if our concerns are, in fact, fully justified? Here’s where Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) comes in, and with it, what therapists call “radical acceptance”.
In other words, we accept up front the idea that maybe it’s going to be terrible and that will truly suck, and then either:
- there’s nothing we can reasonably do about it now (so worrying just means you’ll suffer twice), or
- there is something we can reasonably do about it now (so we can go do that thing)
After doing the thing (if appropriate), defer processing the outcome of the election until after the election. There is no point in wasting energy to worry before then. In a broadly two-party system where things are usually close between those two largest parties, there’s something close to a 50% chance of an outcome that’s, at least, not the worst you feared.
Learn more: CBT, DBT, & Radical Acceptance
Lastly, empower yourself with Behavioral Activation (BA)
Whatever the outcome of any given election, the world will keep turning, and the individual battles about any given law or policy or such will continue to go on. That’s not to say an election won’t change things—it will—but there will always still be stuff to do on a grassroots level to make the world a better place, no matter what politician has been elected.
Being involved in doing things on a community level will not only help banish any feelings of despair (and if you got the election outcome you wanted, it’ll help you feel involved), but also, it can give you a sense of control, and can even form a part of the “ikigai” that is often talked about as one of the pillars of healthy longevity.
Learn more: What’s Your Ikigai?
And if you like videos, then enjoy this one (narrated by the ever soothing-voiced Alain de Botton):
Watch now: How To Escape From A Despairing Mood (4:46) ← it also has a text version if you prefer that
Take care!
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Proteins Of The Week
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This week’s news round-up is, entirely by chance, somewhat protein-centric in one form or another. So, check out the bad, the very bad, the mostly good, the inconvenient, and the worst:
Mediterranean diet vs the menopause
Researchers looked at hundreds of women with an average age of 51, and took note of their dietary habits vs their menopause symptoms. Most of them were consuming soft drinks and red meat, and not good in terms of meeting the recommendations for key food groups including vegetables, legumes, fruit, fish and nuts, and there was an association between greater adherence to Mediterranean diet principles, and better health.
Read in full: Fewer soft drinks and less red meat may ease menopause symptoms: Study
Related: Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet
Listeria in meat
This one’s not a study, but it is relevant important news. The headline pretty much says it all, so if you don’t eat meat, this isn’t one you need to worry about any further than that. If you do eat meat, though, you might want to check out the below article to find out whether the meat you eat might be carrying listeria:
Read in full: Almost 10 million pounds of meat recalled due to Listeria danger
Related: Frozen/Thawed/Refrozen Meat: How Much Is Safety, And How Much Is Taste?
Brawn and brain?
A study looked at cognitively healthy older adults (of whom, 57% women), and found an association between their muscle strength and their psychological wellbeing. Note that when we said “cognitively healthy”, this means being free from dementia etc—not necessarily psychologically health in all respects, such as also being free from depression and enjoying good self-esteem.
Read in full: Study links muscle strength and mental health in older adults
Related: Staying Strong: Tips To Prevent Muscle Loss With Age
The protein that blocks bone formation
This one’s more clinical but definitely of interest to any with osteoporosis or at high risk of osteoporosis. Researchers identified a specific protein that blocks osteoblast function, thus more of this protein means less bone production. Currently, this is not something that we as individuals can do anything about at home, but it is promising for future osteoporosis meds development.
Read in full: Protein blocking bone development could hold clues for future osteoporosis treatment
Related: Which Osteoporosis Medication, If Any, Is Right For You?
Rabies risk
People associate rabies with “rabid dogs”, but the biggest rabies threat is actually bats, and they don’t even need to necessarily bite you to confer the disease (it suffices to have licked the skin, for instance—and bats are basically sky-puppies who will lick anything). Because rabies has a 100% fatality rate in unvaccinated humans, this is very serious. This means that if you wake up and there’s a bat in the house, it doesn’t matter if it hasn’t bitten anyone; get thee to a hospital (where you can get the vaccine before the disease takes hold; this will still be very unpleasant but you’ll probably survive so long as you get the vaccine in time).
Read in full: What to know about bats and rabies
Related: Dodging Dengue In The US ← much less serious than rabies, but still not to be trifled with—particularly noteworthy if you’re in an area currently affected by floodwaters or even just unusually heavy rain, by the way, as this will leave standing water in which mosquitos breed.
Take care!
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Chili Hot-Bedded Salmon
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This one can be made in less time than it takes to order and receive a Chinese take-out! The principle is simple: it’s a bed of greens giving pride of place to a salmon fillet in a deliciously spicy marinade. So healthwise, we have greens-and-beans, healthy protein and fats, and tasty polyphenols. Experientially, we have food that tastes a lot more decadent than it is!
You will need
- 4 salmon fillets (if vegan, substitute firm tofu; see also how to make this no-salmon salmon)
- 2 bok choy, washed and stems trimmed
- 7 oz green beans, trimmed
- 4 oz sugar snap peas
- 4 spring onions, sliced
- 2 tbsp chili oil*
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp black pepper
*this can be purchased as-is, but if you want to make your own in advance, simply take extra virgin olive oil and infuse it with [finely chopped, red] chili. This is a really good thing to do for commonly-used flavored oils, by the way—chili oil and garlic oil are must-haves in this writer’s opinion; basil oil, sage oil, and rosemary oil, are all excellent things to make and have in, too. Just know, infusing is not quick, so it’s good to do these in batch and make plenty well before you need it. For now, if you don’t have any homemade already, then store-bought is fine 🙂
Method
(we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)
1) Preheat the oven to 360℉/180℃/gas mark 6
2) Lay out 4 large squares of foil, and put the bok choy, green beans, and sugar snap peas in a little pile in the middle of each one. Put a salmon fillet on top of each (if it has skin, score the skin first, so that juices will be able to penetrate, and put it skin-side down), and then top with the spring onions.
3) Mix the rest of the ingredients in a small bowl, and then spoon this marinade evenly over each of the fillets (alternatively, if you have occasion to marinade the fillets in advance and let them sit in the marinade in the fridge for some hours before, do so, in which case this step will already be done now, because past-you did it. Yay for past-you!)
4) Fold up the edges of the foil, making each one an enclosed parcel, gently sealed at the top by folding it over. Put them on a baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes.
5) Serve! If you’d like some carbs with it, we recommend our tasty versatile rice recipe.
Enjoy!
Want to learn more?
For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:
- We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of
- Farmed Fish vs Wild-Caught ← don’t underestimate the difference this makes!
- Tasty Polyphenols For Your Heart And Brain
- Brain Food? The Eyes Have It!
- Our Top 5 Spices: How Much Is Enough For Benefits?
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
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