Guava vs Pear – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing guava to pear, we picked the guava.
Why?
It wasn’t close:
In terms of macros, guava has nearly 2x the fiber and 7x the protein, while pears have slightly more carbs, so this is an easy win for guava, mostly because of the fiber (since the protein numbers are small on both sides).
In the category of vitamins, guava has a lot more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, and E, while pears have slightly more vitamin K; another easy win for guavas.
Looking at minerals, guavas have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while pears are not higher in any mineral—a one-sided victory for guava here!
In other considerations, guavas have a lot more polyphenols, so that’s another strong point in their favor.
Adding up the sections is not difficult mathematics today; it’s a very clear overall win for guava. Still, 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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Your Knee Pain Isn’t Coming From Your Knee
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Four things to fix it:
More than just a part
Knee pain usually isn’t just a knee problem, because your knee mainly handles flexion and extension and relies on your feet, ankles, hips, and even glutes to control force, rotation, and alignment. So problems can come from all those places.
With that in mind, here are four things to identify and (as applicable) fix:
- Foot arch collapse (overpronation)
- What happens: when your arch drops, your foot rolls inward, your shin follows, and your knee tracks inward under load
- Test for it: stand relaxed and see if your arches visibly collapse inward
- Exercise to fix it: pull the ball of your foot toward your heel without curling your toes and hold briefly; repeat as necessary
- Limited ankle dorsiflexion
- What happens: if your ankle can’t move forwards, your knee compensates during walking, squatting, and stairs
- Test for it: knee-to-wall test (10–12 cm distance, heel flat, knee touches wall)
- Exercise to fix it: slow heel raises off a step to improve ankle mobility and control
- Weak glutes (especially glute medius)
- What happens: weak hip control lets your femur rotate inward, causing your knee to collapse inward under load
- Test for it: single-leg squat—watch if your knee caves inward
- Exercise to fix it: banded clamshells to strengthen hip stabilizers
- Tight quads and hip flexors
- What happens: tightness here alters how your kneecap tracks, increasing pressure and irritation
- Test for it: simply watch for symptoms like pain going upstairs, stiffness after sitting, or a “gravelly” feeling
- Exercise to fix it: couch stretch or standing quad stretch with your glute engaged
For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
For a much deeper understanding of treating knee pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:
Treat Your Own Knee – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, and/but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.
Take care!
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- Foot arch collapse (overpronation)
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Another Reason To Enjoy The Mediterranean Diet!
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The Mediterranean Diet is considered by many to be the current “gold standard” of healthy eating, and with good reason. With 10,000+ studies underpinning it and counting, it has a pretty hefty weight of evidence.
Wondering what the Mediterranean Diet consists of? We outlined it in a previous main feature, so here it is for your convenience:
The Mediterranean Diet: What Is It Good For? ← also covers which foods actually go into it, and which don’t 😎
To get us started today, we’ll quickly drop some links to a few of those Mediterranean Diet studies from the top:
- Definition of the Mediterranean Diet; a Literature Review
- Mediterranean Diet In Healthy Aging
- Cancer and Mediterranean Diet: A Review
- Impact of Mediterranean Diet on Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases and Longevity
- Mediterranean diet and cardiovascular disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies
- Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis
The short version is: it glows, in a good way.
So… What’s new?
Give yourself a Mediterranean mitochondrial boost
Researchers (Dr. Vittoria Cammisotto et al.) found that eating in a manner consistent with the Mediterranean diet is associated with increased levels of mitochondrial microproteins (namely: humanin, and small human mitochondrial ORF over serine tRNA, known as “SHMOOSE” to its friends) linked to healthier aging.
Specifically, these microproteins go well above and beyond the job of being “mere” nutrients, and rather act directly as molecular messengers translating diet into cellular function, which means that they influence aging, cardiovascular health, and brain health.
Which really is quite a reminder that at the end of the day, our body is one big organism of countless tiny parts that just do what they’re told.
As for these molecular messengers specifically:
- Humanin is associated with improved insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular protection, longevity, and preservation of cognitive function.
- SHMOOSE appears to protect brain cells in general, although certain genetic variants affect Alzheimer’s disease risk too.
- Both sets of higher microprotein levels were associated with lower oxidative stress markers, which is invariably good news, especially vs chronic diseases.
The study even highlighted which components of the Mediterranean diet were responsible for which benefits:
- Humanin: olive oil, fish, and legumes
- SMOOSE: olive oil and lower refined carbohydrate
So, olive oil scores twice! And by a completely different mechanism to that which we described in How Olives Can Help Protect Your Brain!
Before you go shopping though, do first swing by: Type Of Olive Oil Does Matter, For Brain & Gut Health!
And to read this study in full, you can find it here: Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with mitochondrial microproteins Humanin and SHMOOSE; potential role of the Humanin–Nox2 interaction in cardioprotection
Want to learn more?
You have options:
- Want to make it even better? See: Better Than The Mediterranean?
- Want to do it with much less effort? See: Mediterranean Diet… In A Pill?
- Want to expand your culinary repertoire? See: More Mediterranean – by American’s Test Kitchen
Enjoy!
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Pelvic Floor Exercises (Not Kegels!) To Prevent Urinary Incontinence
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It’s a common threat, and if you think it couldn’t happen to you, then well, just wait. Happily, Dr. Christine Pieton, PT, DPT, a sport & women’s health physical therapist, has advice:
On the ball!
Or rather, we’re going to be doing ball-squeezing here, if you’ll pardon the expression. You will need a soccer-ball sized ball to squeeze.
Ball-squeeze breathing: lie on your back, ball between your knees, and inhale deeply, expanding your torso. Exhale, pressing your knees into the ball, engaging your abdominal muscles from lower to upper. Try to keep your spine long and avoid your pelvis tucking under during the exhalation.
Ball-squeeze bridge: lie on your back, ball between your knees, inhale to prepare, and then exhale, pressing up into a bridge, maintaining a firm pressure on the ball. Inhale as you lower yourself back down.
Ball-squeeze side plank: lie on your side this time, ball between your knees, supporting forearm under your shoulder, as in the video thumbnail. Inhale to prepare, and then exhale, lifting your hip a few inches off the mat. Inhale as you lower yourself back down.
Ball-squeeze bear plank: get on your hands and knees, ball between your thighs. Lengthen your spine, inhale to prepare, and exhale as you bring your knees just a little off the floor. Inhale as you lower yourself back down.
For more details and tips on each of these, plus a visual demonstration, plus an optional part 2 video with more exercises that aren’t ball-squeezes this time, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Psst… A Word To The Wise About UTIs
Take care!
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Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain – by Dr. Bradley Bale & Dr. Amy Doneen
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 often written that “what’s good for your heart is good for your brain”, because the former feeds the latter and takes away detritus. You cannot have a healthy brain without a healthy heart.
This book goes into that in more detail than we have ever had room to here! This follows from their previous book “Beat The Heart Attack Gene”, but we’re jumping in here because that book doesn’t really contain anything not also included in this one.
The idea is the same though: it is the authors’ opinion that far too many interventions are occurring far too late, and they want to “wake everyone up” (including their colleagues in the field) to encourage earlier (and broader!) testing.
Fun fact: that also reminded this reviewer that she had a pending invitation for blood tests to check these kinds of things—phlebotomy appointment now booked, yay!
True the spirit of such exhortation to early testing, this book does include diagnostic questionnaires, to help the reader know where we might be at. And, interestingly, while the in-book questionnaire format of “so many points for this answer, so many for that one”, etc is quite normal, what they do differently in the diagnostics is that in cases of having to answer “I don’t know”, it assigns the highest-risk point value, i.e. the test will err on the side of assume the worst, in the case of a reader not knowing, for example, what our triglycerides are like. Which, when one thinks about it, is probably a very sensible reasoning.
There’s a lot of advice about specific clinical diagnostic tools and things to ask for, and also things that may raise an alarm that most people might overlook (including doctors, especially if they are only looking for something else at the time).
You may be wondering: do they actually give advice on what to actually do to improve heart and brain health, or just how to be aware of potential problems? And the answer is that the latter is a route to the former, and yes they do offer comprehensive advice—well beyond “eat fiber and get some exercise”, and even down to the pros and cons of various supplements and medications. When it comes to treating a problem that has been identified, or warding off a risk that has been flagged, the advice is a personalized, tailored, approach. Obviously there’s a limit to how much they can do that in the book, but even so, we see a lot of “if this then that” pointers to optimize things along the way.
The style is… a little salesy for this reviewer’s tastes. That is to say, while it has a lot of information of serious value, it’s also quite padded with self-congratulatory anecdotes about the many occasions the authors have pulled a Dr. House and saved the day when everyone else was mystified or thought nothing was wrong, the wonders of their trademarked methodology, and a lot of hype for their own book, as in, the book that’s already in your hands. Without all this padding, the book could have been cut by perhaps a third, if not more. Still, none of that takes away from the valuable insights that are in the book too.
Bottom line: if you’d like to have a healthier heart and brain, and especially if you’d like to avoid diseases of those two rather important organs, then this book is a treasure trove of information.
Click here to check out Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain, and secure your good health now, for later!
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Don’t Love Needles? New Oral GLP-1 Med Works Just As Well!
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…and other items from this week’s health news:
GLP-1, easier
Orforglipron may sound like the name of a demon, or perhaps an elf, but in fact it’s the new GLP-1 drug in oral form, offering the benefits of other GLP-1 receptor agonists, but without having to do injections (and also without the resultant mountain of plastic waste from the disposable subcutaneous injection pens!).
It was tested in a 72-week, double-blind placebo-controlled trial across 136 sites in 10 countries, enrolling 1,613 adults with type 2 diabetes. Doses were escalated from 1 mg to 6 mg, 12 mg, or 36 mg.
There was a slight difference from many such studies though; whereas similar trials often prescribe a fixed 500-calorie deficit, participants were encouraged to use portion control, avoid skipping meals, prioritize protein- and fiber-rich foods, limit saturated fats, added sugar, and salt, and complete at least 150 minutes of physical activity each week. So, there’s a distinct diet-and-lifestyle element here too.
Still, the diet and lifestyle can’t take all the credit, as average weight reductions after 72 weeks were 5.5% (6 mg), 7.8% (12 mg), 10.5% (36 mg), and 2.2% (placebo).
It’s also worth noting that the medication improved blood sugar control, and produced only mild to moderate gastrointestinal side effects comparable to standard injectable GLP-1 therapies:
Read in full: Oral GLP-1 pill shows strong weight loss and blood sugar benefits in adults with diabetes
Related: 1 in 5 US Women Aged 50–64 Has Used GLP-1 RAs: What We’ve Learned
Good news for hot tub lovers this winter
No sauna available? The good news is that a hot tub outperforms them anyway. And, that doesn’t mean that it has to be a fancy one—a regular hot bath will work too.
The reason it has extra benefits is because hot tubs raise core temperature more strongly than saunas, producing greater cardiovascular, immune, and acute inflammatory responses.
As for why it does that even at the same temperatures, it’s because immersion limits your body’s ability to dissipate heat, so your core temperature rises more, boosting the blood flow and vascular stress that supports cardiovascular health.
Furthermore, when tested head-to-head, only hot-water immersion increased inflammatory cytokines and similar immune cell populations, indicating a measurable acute immune response (that’s good).
Read in full: New research shows hot tubs trigger surprising health benefits saunas don’t
Related: How Useful Is Hydrotherapy?
The DAMP harbingers of stroke
After an ischemic stroke, the brain launches an inflammatory “fire drill” that can either protect it or accidentally make things worse.
Specifically: when brain cells die, they spill distress molecules that kick the immune system into action, raising the inflammatory biomarkers IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6. In the short term, this can breach the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and worsen injury. But when calmer signals like IL-10 and TGF-β take over, the brain finally gets a chance to rebuild blood vessels and repair tissue.
If measured, this can give doctors important clues about what’s going on (and thus how to treat it). For example:
- Early-rising markers help confirm a stroke sooner
- High CRP, IL-6, and MMP-9 levels predict slower recovery and higher complications
- Simple ratios such as NLR and SII give fast insight into risks like pneumonia and long-term disability
- Markers including SII, NLR, FAR, and CCR7+ T cells can even guide thrombectomy decisions
Based on these things, new therapies aim to calm harmful inflammation without shutting down the good kind. These include IL-1β-blocking antibodies, drugs that tune microglia towards healing modes, MMP inhibitors, and experimental miRNA-based treatments.
In other words: personalized treatment flowcharts guided by each patient’s biomarker profile (rather than guessing and hoping).
Read in full: Inflammatory biomarkers offer new insights for precision medicine in ischemic stroke
Related: Reduce Your Stroke Risk
Take care!
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Broad Beans vs Sweetcorn – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing broad beans to sweetcorn, we picked the broad beans.
Why?
Firstly, you may be wondering: “aren’t broad beans fava beans?”, and yes, yes they are, but by convention, broad beans are the young green beans, while fava beans are the mature beans of the plant. Similar situation to the relationship between edamame and soybeans. And, in both cases, you’re more likely to put the young green beans in a salad, thus making the broad beans the more reasonable vegetable to compare to the sweetcorn. On which note…
In terms of macros, the broad beans have more protein and fiber, while the sweetcorn has more carbs. We call that a win for the beans.
Looking at the vitamins, the broad beans have (barely) more vitamin B6, while the sweetcorn has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B5, B9, E, and choline. An easy win for the corn this time.
In the category of minerals, the situation is reversed: broad beans have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while sweetcorn is not higher in any minerals. So, a clear win for the beans.
Adding up the sections gives a 2:1 win for the beans over the corn, but by all means enjoy either or both—together is great, and diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
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