Hemp Seeds vs Flax Seeds – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing hemp seeds to flax seeds, we picked the flax.
Why?
Both are great, but quite differently so! In other words, they both have their advantages, but on balance, we prefer the flax’s advantages.
Part of this come from the way in which they are sold/consumed—hemp seeds must be hulled first, which means two things as a result:
- Flax seeds have much more fiber (about 8x more)
- Hemp seeds have more protein (about 2x more), proportionally, at least ← this is partly because they lost a bunch of weight by losing their fiber to the hulling, so the “per 100g” values of everything else go up, even though the amount per seed didn’t change
Since people’s diets are more commonly deficient in fiber than protein, and also since 8x is better than 2x, we consider this a win for flax.
Of course, many people enjoy hemp or flax specifically for the healthy fatty acids, so how do they stack up in that regard?
- Flax seeds have more omega-3s
- Hemp seeds have more omega-6s
This, for us, is a win for flax too, as the omega-3s are generally what we need more likely to be deficient in. Hemp enthusiasts, however, may argue that the internal balance of omega-3s to omega-6s is closer to an ideal ratio in hemp—but nutrition doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so we have to consider things “as part of a balanced diet” (because if one were trying to just live on hemp seeds, one would die), and most people’s diets are skewed far too far in favor or omega-6 compared to omega-3. So for most people, the higher levels of omega-3s are the more useful.
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How Reading Changes Your Brain, Unnaturally
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Reading is not an innate human ability—not just in the sense “nobody is born knowing how to read”, but also biologically: the brain evolved for vision and speech, not for interpreting written symbols (which innovation so recent as to be a mere tick of the evolutionary clock), so it repurposes visual, auditory, language, attention, and affect circuits to create a neural network that can handle reading, where none existed in our infancy.
This has some interesting resultant quirks and consequences:
Reading and rewriting
Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics emerged around 5,000 years ago, shifting gradually into the letters and characters used today as societies read and wrote more.
How exactly we go about writing things makes a difference. For example logographic systems like Chinese rely heavily on visual memory and association regions; evidence includes a bilingual stroke patient who lost the ability to read Chinese but retained English, because of the different neural demands on different parts of the brain.
Generally speaking, reading activates all four cortical lobes, linking characters to sounds and meaning*; learning to read reshapes brain activity, structure, and connectivity.
*Not necessarily in that order. For example, Chinese would link it first to meaning and then to sound, whereas Korean is sound first and then meaning. But the overall result and big-picture neuronal activation is more or less the same.
It goes deeper too; immersive reading (such as when reading a good novel, when one becomes “lost” in the book, and effectively hallucinates during the reading period) can activate the anterior insula, producing physical sensations such as nausea, pain, or discomfort that mirror a character’s experience, showing how reading engages bodily systems.
On a more abstract level, deep reading transforms brain circuits, shapes empathy, and ultimately influences society by changing minds, hearts, and the futures readers are capable of imagining.
You might be wondering about reading on screens vs on paper. While there’s no difference (neurally speaking) between reading a paper book or an e-ink device, reading on phones and tablets (which tend to have more distractions in even the simplest interfaces) encourages passive scrolling and skimming, increasing susceptibility to misinformation, and constant digital distraction can impair attention and executive function too.
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:
Reading As A Cognitive Exercise
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Some women’s breasts can’t make enough milk, and the effects can be devastating
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Many new mothers worry about their milk supply. For some, support from a breastfeeding counsellor or lactation consultant helps.
Others cannot make enough milk no matter how hard they try. These are women whose breasts are not physically capable of producing enough milk.
Our recently published research gives us clues about breast features that might make it difficult for some women to produce enough milk. Another of our studies shows the devastating consequences for women who dream of breastfeeding but find they cannot.
Some breasts just don’t develop
Unlike other organs, breasts are not fully developed at birth. There are key developmental stages as an embryo, then again during puberty and pregnancy.
At birth, the breast consists of a simple network of ducts. Usually during puberty, the glandular (milk-making) tissue part of the breast begins to develop and the ductal network expands. Then typically, further growth of the ductal network and glandular tissue during pregnancy prepares the breast for lactation.
But our online survey of women who report low milk supply gives us clues to anomalies in how some women’s breasts develop.
We’re not talking about women with small breasts, but women whose glandular tissue (shown in this diagram as “lobules”) is underdeveloped and have a condition called breast hypoplasia.
Sometimes not enough glandular tissue, shown here as lobules, develop.
Tsuyna/ShutterstockWe don’t know how common this is. But it has been linked with lower rates of exclusive breastfeeding.
We also don’t know what causes it, with much of the research conducted in animals and not humans.
However, certain health conditions have been associated with it, including polycystic ovary syndrome and other endocrine (hormonal) conditions. A high body-mass index around the time of puberty may be another indicator.
Could I have breast hypoplasia?
Our survey and other research give clues about who may have breast hypoplasia.
But it’s important to note these characteristics are indicators and do not mean women exhibiting them will definitely be unable to exclusively breastfeed.
Indicators include:
- a wider than usual gap between the breasts
- tubular-shaped (rather than round) breasts
- asymmetric breasts (where the breasts are different sizes or shapes)
- lack of breast growth in pregnancy
- a delay in or absence of breast fullness in the days after giving birth
In our survey, 72% of women with low milk supply had breasts that did not change appearance during pregnancy, and about 70% reported at least one irregular-shaped breast.
The effects
Mothers with low milk supply – whether or not they have breast hyoplasia or some other condition that limits their ability to produce enough milk – report a range of emotions.
Research, including our own, shows this ranges from frustration, confusion and surprise to intense or profound feelings of failure, guilt, grief and despair.
Some mothers describe “breastfeeding grief” – a prolonged sense of loss or failure, due to being unable to connect with and nourish their baby through breastfeeding in the way they had hoped.
These feelings of failure, guilt, grief and despair can trigger symptoms of anxiety and depression for some women.
Feelings of failure, guilt, grief and despair were common.
Bricolage/ShutterstockOne woman told us:
[I became] so angry and upset with my body for not being able to produce enough milk.
Many women’s emotions intensified when they discovered that despite all their hard work, they were still unable to breastfeed their babies as planned. A few women described reaching their “breaking point”, and their experience felt “like death”, “the worst day of [my] life” or “hell”.
One participant told us:
I finally learned that ‘all women make enough milk’ was a lie. No amount of education or determination would make my breasts work. I felt deceived and let down by all my medical providers. How dare they have no answers for me when I desperately just wanted to feed my child naturally.
Others told us how they learned to accept their situation. Some women said they were relieved their infant was “finally satisfied” when they began supplementing with formula. One resolved to:
prioritise time with [my] baby over pumping for such little amounts.
Where to go for help
If you are struggling with low milk supply, it can help to see a lactation consultant for support and to determine the possible cause.
This will involve helping you try different strategies, such as optimising positioning and attachment during breastfeeding, or breastfeeding/expressing more frequently. You may need to consider taking a medication, such as domperidone, to see if your supply increases.
If these strategies do not help, there may be an underlying reason why you can’t make enough milk, such as insufficient glandular tissue (a confirmed inability to make a full supply due to breast hypoplasia).
Even if you have breast hypoplasia, you can still breastfeed by giving your baby extra milk (donor milk or formula) via a bottle or using a supplementer (which involves delivering milk at the breast via a tube linked to a bottle).
More resources
The following websites offer further information and support:
- Australian Breastfeeding Association
- Lactation Consultants of Australia and New Zealand
- Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne
- Supply Line Breastfeeders Support Group of Australia Facebook support group
- IGT And Low Milk Supply Support Group Facebook support group
- Breastfeeding Medicine Network Australia/New Zealand
- Supporting breastfeeding grief (a collection of resources).
Shannon Bennetts, a research fellow at La Trobe University, contributed to this article.
Renee Kam, PhD candidate and research officer, La Trobe University and Lisa Amir, Professor in Breastfeeding Research, La Trobe University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Avocado vs Goji Berries – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing avocado to goji berries, we picked the avocado.
Why?
It takes a special non-dried food to beat a dried food for nutritional density, but avocado manages it!
In terms of macros, avocados have more (famously health) fat; mostly monounsaturated with some polyunsaturated and a little bit of saturated, with some omega-3 and omega-6, in a healthy ratio. Meanwhile, goji berries have more fiber, carbs, and protein. As for glycemic indices, avocados are low GI (40), but goji berries are zero-GI, or, functionally, a negative glycemic index as (notwithstanding their sugar content!) they have an overall lowering effect on blood sugars. In short, both of these fruits have very different good things to offer in the macros category, so we’re declaring this round a tie.
In the category of vitamins, avocados have more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, E, and K, while goji berries have more vitamin C. A clear win for avocados!
Looking at minerals, avocados have more copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while goji berries have more calcium and iron. Another win for avocados!
In other considerations, goji berries are higher in polyphenols, so that’s a round in their favor finally.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for avocado, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like :
Goji Berries: Which Benefits Do They Really Have?
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Folic Acid: What If You Take Too Much?
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Folic acid (a form of vitamin B9 found in many foods, as well as popularly taken as a supplement) is critical to good health.
Indeed, that is part of the definition of “vitamin”.
However, it is possible to have too much of a good thing!
Highs and lows
Folic acid is essential for DNA repair, methylation, and fetal neural development, but both insufficient and excessive intake pose risks.
Insufficient intake can result in raised homocysteine levels (that’s bad), and resultantly, increased stroke risk. It can also cause problems in fetal neural development, but obviously that’s only important if you’re pregnant. Still, it’s a reason that folic acid is often marketed as an important thing to ensure plenty of during pregnancy.
As for excessive intake, that falls into two main categories. We’ll quote the breakdown of this directly from a paper that we’ll share in a moment, so pardon it’ll be jargon-heavy in the bullet points, but we promise we’ll explain it all underneath:
Neurotoxicity:
- High folic acid mimics glutamate-like excitotoxicity, similar to kainic acid (KA).
- Methyl-THF competes with KA for receptor binding in the brain.
Inflammation:
- Excess folic acid (>40 µg/mL) inhibits anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10.
- Hypoxia increases inflammation via HIF-1 pathway → IL-1β and TNF-α production.
So, about that neurotoxicity: basically, an excess of folic acid can mimic certain neurotransmitters, which may sound like a good thing, but because it’s showing up in unexpected quantities in unexpected places, it can kill neurons in the CNS, which needless to say, is definitely a bad thing.
See also: The mechanism of kainic acid neurotoxicity
And, about that inflammation: there are two main things going on here, which are that it simultaneously excites some inflammatory systems and inhibits some anti-inflammatory systems. Now, both of those systems are supposed to exist and function, but playing them against each other, and without good reason, results in an overall dangerous increase in inflammation.
To make matters worse… Remember that whole “folic acid is needed for fetal neural development” thing? Taking it in excess can overstimulate neural stem cell proliferation, and while you may think “having more stem cells is surely a good thing”, please remember that excessive proliferation of any kind of cell is basically the hallmark of cancer. So, definitely not something you want in your brain, or anywhere else in your body, really.
You may be wondering what that bit about hypoxia was. In few words: excess folic acid can worsen sleep apnea due to disrupted methylation (we’ll explain this in a moment) in hypoxic (i.e. “not enough oxygen”) conditions (i.e. what happens when you stop breathing during sleep apnea).
About the disrupted methylation: ok, we’re having a lot of terms that need explaining today, but this one’s a good one to understand. You know how vitamins B9 and B12 are often discussed at the same time and pertaining to the same groups of people who are likely to be deficient in both?
Vitamin B12 deficiency combined with high folic acid can trap folate metabolites (i.e. what your body produces when metabolizing folic acid) and raise homocysteine (which we discussed up top), increasing risks of anemia, cognitive decline, and neuropsychiatric disorders.
We’ve got some good news, but before we get to that, here’s the paper we’ve been mostly working from today:
How to do it better
Of course, sticking to recommended dosage guidelines is important, but you can also skip folic acid entirely (yes, really) and go with a different vitamer of vitamin B9 (a vitamer is a variation of a vitamin), namely, l-methylfolate, which can help dodge a lot of the methylation issues and thus related problems we talked about.
See also: Which B Vitamins? It Makes A Difference
Please still stick to the recommended dosage guidelines of course, but it’s safer than folic acid and as a bonus, you’ll also get more “bang for buck”.
Want to try some? We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon 😎
Enjoy!
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High-Octane Brain – by Dr. Michelle Braun
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True to the title, Dr. Braun jumps straight into action here, making everything as practical as possible as quickly as possible and giving the most attention to the science-based steps to take. Thereafter, and almost as an addendum, she gives examples of “brain role models” from various age groups, to show how these things can be implemented and benefitted-from in the real world.
The greatest strength of this book is that it is the product of a lot of hard science made easy; this book has hundreds of scientific references (of which, many RCTs etc), and many contributions from other professionals in her field, to make one of the most evidence-based guidebooks around, and all presented in one place and in a manner that is perfectly readable to the layperson.
The style, thus, is easy-reading, with references for those who want to jump into further reading but without that being required for applying the advice within.
Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your brain with an evidence-based health regiment and minimal fluff, this is the book for you.
Click here to check out High-Octane Brain, and level-up yours!
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Which Osteoporosis Medication, If Any, Is Right For You?
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Which Osteoporosis Medication, If Any, Is Right For You?
We’ve written about osteoporosis before, so here’s a quick recap first in case you missed these:
- The Bare-bones Truth About Osteoporosis
- Exercises To Do (And Exercises To Avoid) If You Have Osteoporosis
- We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of
- Vit D + Calcium: Too Much Of A Good Thing?
All of those look and diet and/or exercise, with “diet” including supplementation. But what of medications?
So many choices (not all of them right for everyone)
The UK’s Royal Osteoporosis Society says of the very many osteoporosis meds available:
❝In terms of effectiveness, they all reduce your risk of broken bones by roughly the same amount.
Which treatment is right for you will depend on a number of things.❞
…before then going on to list a pageful of things it will depend on, and giving no specific information about what prescriptions or proscriptions may be made based on those factors.
Source: Royal Osteoporosis Society | Which medication should I take?
We’ll try to do better than that here, though we have less space. So let’s get down to it…
First line drug offerings
After diet/supplementation and (if applicable) hormones, the first line of actual drug offerings are generally biphosphates.
Biphosphonates work by slowing down your osteoclasts—the cells that break down your bones. They may sound like terrible things to have in the body at all, but remember, your body is always rebuilding itself and destruction is a necessary act to facilitate creation. However, sometimes things can get out of balance, and biphosphonates help tip things back into balance.
Common biphosphonates include Alendronate/Fosamax, Risedronate/Actonel, Ibandronate/Boniva, and Zolendronic acid/Reclast.
A common downside is that they aren’t absorbed well by the stomach (despite being mostly oral administration, though IV versions exist too) and can cause heartburn / general stomach upset.
An uncommon downside is that messing with the body’s ability to break down bones can cause bones to be rebuilt-in-place slightly incorrectly, which can—paradoxically—cause fractures. But that’s rare and is more common if the drugs are taken in much higher doses (as for bone cancer rather than osteoporosis).
Bone-builders
If you already have low bone density (so you’re fighting to rebuild your bones, not just slow deterioration), then you may need more of a boost.
Bone-building medications include Teriparatide/Forteo, Abaloparatide/Tymlos, and Romosozumab/Evenity.
These are usually given by injection, usually for a course of one or two years.
Once the bone has been built up, it’ll probably be recommended that you switch to a biphosphate or other bone-stabilizing medication.
Estrogen-like effects, without estrogen
If your osteoporosis (or osteoporosis risk) comes from being post-menopausal, estrogen is a very common (and effective!) prescription. However, some people may wish to avoid it, if for example you have a heightened breast cancer risk, which estrogen can exacerbate.
So, medications that have estrogen-like effects post-menopause, but without actually increasing estrogen levels, include: Raloxifene/Evista, and also all the meds we mentioned in the bone-building category above.
Raloxifene/Evista specifically mimics the action of estrogen on bones, while at the same time blocking the effect of estrogen on other tissues.
Learn more…
Want a more thorough grounding than we have room for here? You might find the following resource useful:
List of 82 Osteoporosis Medications Compared (this has a big table which is sortable by various variables)
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