Grapefruit vs Starfruit – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing grapefruit to starfruit, we picked the starfruit.
Why?
In terms of macros, grapefruit has slightly more carbs while starfruit has nearly 2x the fiber, making this category a win for starfruit.
In the category of vitmains, grapefruit has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, and B6, while starfruit has more of vitamins B2, B5, C, and E, making this round a 4:4 tie.
Looking at minerals, grapefruit has more calcium and phosphorus, while starfruit has more copper, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc, winning.
One more consideration that’s not shown in the nutritional values, is that grapefruit contains high levels of furanocoumarins, which can inhibit cytochrome P-450 3A4 isoenzyme and P-glycoptrotein transporters in the intestine and liver—slowing down their drug metabolism capabilities, thus effectively increasing the bioavailability of many drugs manifold.
This may sound superficially like a good thing (improving bioavailability of things we want), but in practice it means that in the case of many drugs, if you take them with (or near in time to) grapefruit or grapefruit juice, then congratulations, you just took an overdose. This happens with a lot of meds for blood pressure, cholesterol (including statins), calcium channel-blockers, anti-depressants, benzo-family drugs, beta-blockers, and more. Oh, and Viagra, too. Which latter might sound funny, but remember, Viagra’s mechanism of action is blood pressure modulation, and that is not something you want to mess around with unduly. So, do check with your pharmacist to know if you’re on any meds that would be affected by grapefruit or grapefruit juice!
PS: the same substance is quite available in pummelos and sour oranges (but not meaningfully in sweet oranges); you can see a chart here showing the relative furanocoumarin contents of many citrus fruits, or lack thereof as the case may be, as it is for lemons and most limes).
In any case, adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for starfruit, but (unless one of the grapefruit contraindications applies to you) by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Watch Out For Furanocoumarins!
Enjoy!
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Celeriac vs Zucchini – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing celeriac to zucchini, we picked the celeriac.
Why?
Both have their merits! But…
In terms of macros, the celeriac has nearly 2x the fiber, more than 2x the carbs, and slightly more protein, winning in this category.
In the category of vitamins, celeriac has more of vitamins B1, B3, B5, B7, E, and K, while zucchini has more of vitamins B2, B9, and C, yielding a 6:3 win to celeriac here.
Looking at minerals, celeriac has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while zucchini has a tiny bit more manganese, making this round another compelling win for celeriac.
In other considerations, celeriac also has slightly more polyphenols (most notably quercetin), but it’s a tiny difference. Realistically, we could call this last round a tie.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for celeriac, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
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Why is it so shameful to have missing or damaged teeth?
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When your teeth and gums are in good condition, you might not even notice their impact on your day-to-day life. Good oral health helps us chew, taste, swallow, speak and convey emotions.
This means the state of your mouth can affect nutrition, confidence, forming relationships and maintaining overall good health and wellbeing.
People who have missing or damaged teeth, or other oral health issues such as gum disease, know this all too well.
They may not only live with pain that affects their sleep, speech and ability to enjoy certain foods, but often also face discrimination and stigma.
So, why is it so shameful to have missing teeth or gum disease? And what can we do about it?
Natalia Lebedinskaia/Getty The social and psychological impact
Oral health is deeply tied to social status. People who don’t have good teeth often face stereotypes about their health, wealth and even their intelligence.
For example, in one 2010 study from the United Kingdom, researchers showed young people photographs of the same person, modified with different levels of tooth decay.
Whenever decayed teeth were visible, participants rated the person lower in intelligence, social skills, confidence, self-esteem and whether they appeared happy – based only on the photo.
These stereotypes can lead to bullying and stigma that scar people for life.
In a recent study with colleagues, we looked at nationally representative data on 4,476 children from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
We found losing teeth to decay or injury was relatively common, affecting one in ten children. These children then had a 42% higher risk of being bullied at school.
These stigmatising experiences can lead to feelings of shame, embarrassment and low self-esteem. In some cases, they can mean people are less likely to seek dental care, fearing further humiliation or blame that they have neglected themselves.
Dental care is often out of reach
Tooth decay and gum disease are the most common oral diseases in Australia and can lead to missing teeth. These conditions can occur at any age, from childhood to adulthood, but they usually worsen with age.
Yet the government’s Child Dental Benefits Schedule only covers dental care for children aged 17 and under whose parents receive government benefits.
Some states and territories also provide oral care for eligible older adults. But long waiting lists show the public system is stretched.
This means oral health care remains inaccessible and unaffordable for many Australians.
Poor oral health affects everyday life
Arguments for improving oral health almost always focus on preventing other physical health conditions. For example, one large study of 172,630 adults in New South Wales found those with missing teeth or poor oral health were more likely to die from heart disease.
Yet when people can’t afford to fix their own oral health issues or their children’s, there can be other serious flow-on effects for their day-to-day life and wellbeing, beyond physical health.
Research shows when people are in pain from tooth decay they are more likely to take days off work and school. This can have long-term negative effects, disrupting education and employment.
Parents may also need to take time off work to take children to the dentist or dental hygienist. They often face financial pressures due to high out-of-pocket costs for dental treatments.
Research shows when people can’t afford dental treatments they may feel powerless to control their circumstances. As a result, they may choose cheaper treatments, such as having a tooth extracted even when it could have been saved.
There has also been a recent surge in people using superannuation to pay for dental treatments, for largely preventable conditions. This will further entrench financial disadvantage.
So, what’s the fix?
Research I conducted with colleagues this year found 96% of working-aged adults in Australia believe oral health care is essential.
But there continue to be significant financial barriers in getting required treatment, particularly for people who are unemployed, have low incomes or those with disability.
So, making dental care more affordable and accessible is an important step. This will encourage timely care and make sure check-ups aren’t a luxury for those who can afford them.
But while dental visits are important, they can’t provide sustainable and long-term protection from oral diseases when the social conditions and behaviours that lead to poor oral health stay the same.
Experiencing stigma because of poor oral health can be highly personal and feel shameful. But the burden to fix this should not be on individuals.
The main causes of oral diseases are behaviours – such as having a lot of sugar, alcohol and tobacco, or poor oral hygiene – and high levels of stress.
We know these behaviours and stress are more common among people who experience social disadvantage.
So we need broader policies that address the social conditions in which people live, work, age and grow – for example, by making access to nutritious food more accessible and affordable.
Reducing disadvantage is the key to addressing both tooth decay and gum disease and the stigma attached to these oral health issues.
Ankur Singh, Chair of Lifespan Oral Health, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The Vicious Cycle Of CKM Syndrome
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About 90% of American adults have never heard of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome—an interconnected health condition that affects nearly 90% of American adults through combinations of heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and poor energy metabolism.
Source: About 9 in 10 haven’t heard of condition that affects nearly 90% of U.S. adults, survey reveals
Why these things go together and why that matters
Our body is a “system of systems”, including:
- a countless number of cells (most of them not human) working together to continually make us us
- ecosystems like our various microbiomes (gut being most talked-about and far-reaching in its effects, but also oral, skin, vaginal, and so forth)
- a very complex interplay of hormones in our endocrine system
- large-scale systems like the nervous systems, circulatory systems, immune systems, etc, and yes those are all in the plural because we categorically have more than one of each
- and more, we could go on all day, depending on how we categorize them
All this means that if one system goes wrong, the others will soon start to have problems, and we really don’t have any systems that are expendable.
So, what happens if one system does start failing?
According to the same American Heart Association poll as gave the “90% of American adults don’t know about this” figure,
- 68% of respondents mistakenly thought the best approach is to manage each condition separately or were unsure
- 42% believed a healthy heart wouldn’t likely be affected by other organs or weren’t sure
However…
As just one example, there’s a two-way relationship between heart and kidneys:
- The heart pumps blood to the body
- The metabolic system turns glucose (sugar) from the blood into energy
- The process of metabolism dumps waste back into the blood
- The kidneys filter waste from the blood and balance fluids, which helps with blood pressure
- Blood pressure affects how the heart pumps blood into the body
When this feedback loop goes bad, this is cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome.
So, what to do about it?
The AHA recommend focusing on 4 specific things; we’ll mention them and in each case share one of our main features about that topic:
- Healthy blood pressure: Hypertension: Factors Far More Relevant Than Salt
- Healthy blood sugars: Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity!
- Healthy cholesterol levels: Lower Cholesterol Naturally
- Healthy body weight: How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
For less information, see also the AHA’s press release: Paying attention to four health factors can help prevent CKM syndrome
Want to do more?
Check out:
Are your Kidneys Ok? Detect Early To Protect Kidney Health (Here’s How) ← especially relevant if you are over 60
Take care!
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Tempeh vs Tofu – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing tempeh to tofu, we picked the tempeh.
Why?
Per 100g, tempeh has about 1.5x as many calories, about 2x as much protein, about 3x as much fiber, and about 4x the carbohydrates.
Which latter sounds like a lot, but really, the amounts here are small—tempeh is under 12% carbohydrates, and most of that is treated by the body as fiber (e.g. it’s a resistant starch).
Both have no sugar, and both have more or less the same (tiny) amount of fat.
Micronutrients, you ask? As they’re both made from soybeans, the micronutrient profiles are similar, but exact amounts will depend on the method used, so by all means check labels if comparing products in store. By and large, there’s usually not much difference, though.
You can see sample stats here:
In summary
Both are great, and/but tempeh is the more nutrient-dense of the two.
Therefore, tempeh is the healthier option, unless you are on a very strictly calorie-controlled diet, in which case, tofu will give you more quantity per calorie.
Enjoy!
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11 Things That Can Change Your Eye Color
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Eye color is generally considered so static that iris scans are considered a reasonable security method. However, it can indeed change—mostly for reasons you won’t want, though:
Ringing the changes
Putting aside any wishes of being a manga protagonist with violet eyes, here are the self-changing options:
- Aging in babies: babies are often born with lighter eyes, which can darken as melanocytes develop during the first few months of life. This is similar to how a small child’s blonde hair can often be much darker by the time puberty hits!
- Aging in adults: eyes may continue to darken until adulthood, while aging into the elderly years can cause them to lighten due to conditions like arcus senilis
- Horner’s syndrome: a nerve disorder that can cause the eyes to become lighter due to loss of pigment
- Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis: an inflammation of the iris that leads to lighter eyes over time
- Pigment dispersion syndrome: the iris rubs against eye fibers, leading to pigment loss and lighter eyes
- Kayser-Fleischer rings: excess copper deposits on the cornea, often due to Wilson’s disease, causing larger-than-usual brown or grayish rings around the iris
- Iris melanoma: a rare cancer that can darken the iris, often presenting as brown spots
- Cancer treatments: chemotherapy for retinoblastoma in children can result in lighter eye color and heterochromia
- Medications: prostaglandin-based glaucoma treatments can darken the iris, with up to 23% of patients seeing this effect
- Vitiligo: an autoimmune disorder that destroys melanocytes, mostly noticed in the skin, but also causing patchy loss of pigment in the iris
- Emotional and pupil size changes: emotions and trauma can affect pupil size, making eyes appear darker or lighter temporarily by altering how much of the iris is visible
For more about all these, and some notes about more voluntary changes (if you have certain kinds of eye surgery), enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Understanding And Slowing The Progression Of Cataracts
Take care!
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The Medicinal Properties Of Bay Leaves
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The humble bay leaf has more uses than just culinary!
How about for hair growth?
Popularly recommended on social media with the promise of long and glowing hair… Guess how many scientific studies back up this claim!
If you guessed zero, you guessed correctly. At least, we were not able to find any. In fact, the only paper on the entirety of PubMed (a large online database of available scientific literature from most, if not all, reputable scientific journals) to return a hit for the search string “bay leaf hair growth” was this one:
You may notice that that has nothing to do with hair growth, and rather returned the hit because the acne bacteria are known to “proliferate within sebum-blocked skin hair follicles”.
So let’s talk about that instead:
Against acne & skin inflammation
Well, for that, it works! The research that we mentioned above concluded that:
❝LNE significantly suppressed the expression of P. acnes-mediated proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-1β, IL-6, and NLRP3. We also found that LNE inhibited the inflammatory transcription factor NF-κB in response to P. acnes. In addition, eucalyptol, which is the main constituent of LNE, consistently inhibited P. acnes-induced inflammatory signaling pathways. Moreover, LNE significantly ameliorated P. acnes-induced inflammation in a mouse model of acne. We suggest for the first time that LNE hold therapeutic value for the improvement of P. acnes-induced skin inflammation.❞
LNE = Laurus nobilis extract, i.e. bay leaf extract
Now, that’s all about acne-induced skin inflammation, but what about other kinds?
Against inflammation in general
Bay leaves have an abundance of antioxidant polyphenols, and what’s good against oxidation is good against inflammation. For example:
Laurus nobilis leaf extract controls inflammation by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation
That anti-inflammatory action is more than skin-deep though, because…
Against IBD / ulcerative colitis
It’s good for the gut, too, for example in this study (with mice, but the bacteria affected are the same as we have), which found:
❝…bay leaves showed the best treatment effects on gut microbiota compositions; promoting the growth of Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus in addition to producing high butyric acid levels. Meanwhile, the number of Clostridium and sulfate-reducing bacteria was significantly reduced. Conclusively, consuming bay leaves brought significant colon health benefits other than stimulating appetite for a better taste.❞
Note that all of those gut-related changes are beneficial to us, increasing things that are best increased, and reducing things that are best reduced.
Against diabetes
It’s good for the blood—and for the heart, but more on that later. First, about diabetes:
❝All three levels of bay leaves reduced serum glucose with significant decreases ranging from 21 to 26% after 30 d.
Total cholesterol decreased, 20 to 24%, after 30 days with larger decreases in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol of 32 to 40%. High density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol increased 29 and 20% in the groups receiving 1 and 2 g of bay leaves, respectively. Triglycerides also decreased 34 and 25% in groups consuming 1 and 2 g of bay leaves, respectively, after 30 d. There were no significant changes in the placebo group.
In summary, this study demonstrates that consumption of bay leaves, 1 to 3 g/d for 30 days, decreases risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases and suggests that bay leaves may be beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes.❞
Again, all those changes are good:
Bay Leaves Improve Glucose and Lipid Profile of People with Type 2 Diabetes
Good for the heart
This one’s quite straight forward. Bay leaf tea is indeed good for the heart,
- Literally: Evaluation of Daily Laurus nobilis Tea Consumption on Lipid Profile Biomarkers in Healthy Volunteers
- Metaphorically: Evaluation of daily Laurus nobilis tea consumption on anxiety and stress biomarkers in healthy volunteers
Of course, even that latter is also good for the heart literally, just, indirectly, by reducing anxiety and stress, thus indirectly benefiting the heart itself.
But even before that, it’s already very directly beneficial to cardiovascular health, per its significant improvements to the lipid profile.
Anything else?
So much else, but there’s only so much we can feature in one day, so if you’d like to learn more, we recommend this very comprehensive paper:
…which discusses many benefits in considerable detail, including…
❝The LN leaves have various biological activities, such as antioxidant, wound healing, antibacterial, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory activities. However, oxidative stress, cancer, diabetes, microbial infections, and inflammatory diseases are closely linked. The objective of this research is to characterize Laurus nobilis (LN) aromatic oil (AO) and evaluate its antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiobesity, antimicrobial, and antimutagenic bioactivities.
The plant AO showed potent antioxidant activity (IC50 = 2.2 ± 1.38) and has moderate anti-amylase (IC50 = 60.25 ± 1.25), anti-glucosidase (IC50 = 131.82 ± 0.1), and antilipase (IC50 = 83.17 ± 0.06) activities.
Moreover, LNAO showed potent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Proteus vulgaris (MICs = 1.56 µg/mL), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (MIC = 3.125 µg/mL) and Candida albicans (MIC = 0.195 µg/mL). The cytotoxicity results demonstrated that at a concentration of 1 mg/mL, LNAO has potent breast cancer (MCF-7), and hepatocellular carcinoma (Hep 3B) cancer cells inhibitory activities of 98% and 95%, respectively.
Importantly, we are the first to show that LNAO significantly hinders hepatocellular carcinoma spheroids’ formation capacity in a 3D model.
These results show that LNAO is a promising natural source with powerful antioxidant, antidiabetic, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities that could be exploited in the future to treat a variety of diseases.❞
Want to try some?
We don’t sell it, but you can buy leaves from your local supermarket and make bay leaf tea, or alternatively, if you prefer essential oil form, here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon 😎
Enjoy!
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