How to Eat (And Still Lose Weight) – by Dr. Andrew Jenkinson

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You may be wondering: what diet is he recommending?

The answer is: some guiding principles aside…. He’s not recommending a diet, per se.

What this book does instead is outline why we eat too muchlink is to where we previously had this author as a spotlight featured expert on this topic! Check it out!

He goes into a lot more detail than we ever could have in our little article, though, and this book is one of those where the reader may feel as though we have had a few classes at medical school. The style, however, is very comprehensible and accessible; there’s no obfuscating jargon here.

Once we understand the signalling that goes on in terms of hunger/satiety, and the signalling that goes on in terms of fat storage/metabolism, we can simply choose to not give our bodies the wrong signals. Yes, it’s really that simple. It feels quite like a cheat code!

Bottom line: if you’d like a better understanding of what regulates our body’s “set point” in weight/adiposity, and what can change it (for better or for worse), then this is the book for you.

Click here to check out How To Eat (And Still Lose Weight), and enjoy eating (while still losing weight)!

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Recommended

  • Loss, Trauma, and Resilience – by Dr. Pauline Boss
  • Why Going Gluten-Free Could Be A Bad Idea
    Is a Gluten-Free Diet Right For You? Rachel Begun, a nutritionist, educates about gluten sensitivity, wheat allergy, and Celiac disease. Don’t self-diagnose, get tested and seek professional advice.

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  • If you’re worried about inflammation, stop stressing about seed oils and focus on the basics

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    You’ve probably seen recent claims online seed oils are “toxic” and cause inflammation, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. But what does the research say?

    Overall, if you’re worried about inflammation, cancer, diabetes and heart disease there are probably more important things to worry about than seed oils.

    They may or may not play a role in inflammation (the research picture is mixed). What we do know, however, is that a high-quality diet rich in unprocessed whole foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, grains and lean meats) is the number one thing you can to do reduce inflammation and your risk of developing diseases.

    Rather than focusing on seed oils specifically, reduce your intake of processed foods more broadly and focus on eating fresh foods. So don’t stress out too much about using a bit of seed oils in your cooking if you are generally focused on all the right things.

    What are seed oils?

    Seed oils are made from whole seeds, such as sunflower seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds and sesame seeds. These seeds are processed to extract oil.

    The most common seed oils found at grocery stores include sesame oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, flaxseed oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil and soybean oil.

    Seed oils are generally affordable, easy to find and suitable for many dishes and cuisines as they often have a high smoke point.

    However, most people consume seed oils in larger amounts through processed foods such as biscuits, cakes, chips, muesli bars, muffins, dipping sauces, deep-fried foods, salad dressings and margarines.

    These processed foods are “discretionary”, meaning they’re OK to have occasionally. But they are not considered necessary for a healthy diet, nor recommended in our national dietary guidelines, the Australian Guide for Healthy Eating.

    A person holds some sunflower oil while standing in a supermarket.
    Seed oils often have a high smoke point.
    Gleb Usovich/Shutterstock

    I’ve heard people say seed oils ‘promote inflammation’. Is that true?

    There are two essential types of omega fatty acids: omega-3 and omega-6. These are crucial for bodily functions, and we must get them through our diet since our bodies cannot produce them.

    While all oils contain varying levels of fatty acids, some argue an excessive intake of a specific omega-6 fatty acid in seed oils called “linoleic acid” may contribute to inflammation in the body.

    There is some evidence linoleic acid can be converted to arachidonic acid in the body and this may play a role in inflammation. However, other research doesn’t support the idea reducing dietary linoleic acid affects the amount of arachidonic acid in your body. The research picture is not clear cut.

    But if you’re keen to reduce inflammation, the best thing you can do is aim for a healthy diet that is:

    • high in antioxidants (found in fruits and vegetables)
    • high in “healthy”, unsaturated fatty acids (found in fatty fish, some nuts and olive oil, for example)
    • high in fibre (found in carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and leafy greens) and prebiotics (found in onions, leeks, asparagus, garlic and legumes)

    • low in processed foods.

    If reducing inflammation is your goal, it’s probably more meaningful to focus on these basics than on occasional use of seed oils.

    A bowl containing bright, fresh vegetables, chicken and chickpeas sits on a table.
    Choose foods high in fibre (like many vegetables) and prebiotics (like legumes).
    Kiian Oksana/Shutterstock

    What about seed oils and heart disease, cancer or diabetes risk?

    Some popular arguments against seed oils come from data from single studies on this topic. Often these are observational studies where researchers do not make changes to people’s diet or lifestyle.

    To get a clearer picture, we should look at meta-analyses, where scientists combine all the data available on a topic. This helps us get a better overall view of what’s going on.

    A 2022 meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials investigated the relationship between supplementation with omega-6 fatty acid (often found in seed oils) and cardiovascular disease risk (meaning disease relating to the heart and blood vessels).

    The researchers found omega-6 intake did not affect the risk for cardiovascular disease or death but that further research is needed for firm conclusions. Similar findings were observed in a 2019 review on this topic.

    The World Health Organization published a review and meta-analysis in 2022 of observational studies (considered lower quality evidence compared to randomised controlled trials) on this topic.

    They looked at omega-6 intake and risk of death, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, mental health conditions and type 2 diabetes. The findings show both advantages and disadvantages of consuming omega-6.

    The findings reported that, overall, higher intakes of omega-6 were associated with a 9% reduced risk of dying (data from nine studies) but a 31% increased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer (data from six studies).

    One of the key findings from this review was about the ratio of omega-3 fatty acids to omega-6 fatty acids. A higher omega 6:3 ratio was associated with a greater risk of cognitive decline and ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory bowel condition).

    A higher omega 3:6 ratio was linked to a 26% reduced risk of depression. These mixed outcomes may be a cause of confusion among health-conscious consumers about the health impact of seed oils.

    Overall, the evidence suggests that a high intake of omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils is unlikely to increase your risk of death and disease.

    However, more high-quality intervention research is needed.

    The importance of increasing your omega-3 fatty acids

    On top of the mixed outcomes, there is clear evidence increasing the intake of omega-3 fatty acids (often found in foods such as fatty fish and walnuts) is beneficial for health.

    While some seed oils contain small amounts of omega-3s, they are not typically considered rich sources.

    Flaxseed oil is an exception and is one of the few seed oils that is notably high in alpha-linolenic acid (sometimes shortened to ALA), an omega-3 fatty acid.

    If you are looking to increase your omega-3 intake, it’s better to focus on other sources such as fatty fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines), chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and algae-based supplements. These foods are known for their higher omega-3 content compared to seed oils.

    The bottom line

    At the end of the day, it’s probably OK to include small quantities of seed oils in your diet, as long as you are mostly focused on eating fresh, unprocessed foods.

    The best way to reduce your risk of inflammation, heart disease, cancer or diabetes is not to focus so much on seed oils but rather on doing your best to follow the Australian Guide for Healthy Eating. The Conversation

    Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland and Emily Burch, Lecturer, Southern Cross University

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Pulse – by Jenny Chandler

    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.

    Beans, chickpeas, and lentils are well-established super-healthy foods, but they’re often not a lot of people’s favorite. And why? Usually because of unhappy associations with boring dishes that can barely be called dishes.

    This book raises the bar for pulses of various kinds, and not only provides recipes (180 of them) but also guidelines on principles, tips and tricks, what works and what doesn’t, what makes things better or worse, perfect partners, sprouting, and more.

    The recipes themselves are not all vegan, nor even all vegetarian, but the beans are the star throughout. For those who are vegan or vegetarian, it’s easy to make substitutions, not least of all because the author is generous with “try this instead of that” and “consider also” suggestions, to help us tailor each dish to our personal preferences, and even the desired vibe of a given meal.

    The dishes are neither overly simplistic (it’s not a student survival cookbook, by any means) nor overly complicated; rather, enough is done to make each dish invitingly tasty, and nothing extraneous or pretentious is added for the sake of being fancy. This is about delicious home cooking, nothing more nor less.

    If the book has a weakness, it’s that visual learners will feel the absence of pictures for many recipes. But, the text is clear, the instructions are easy to follow, and a photo for each dish would probably have doubled the cost of the book, at least, while halving the number of recipes.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to get more beans and other pulses in your diet, but are unsure how to make it exciting, this is an excellent option.

    Click here to check out Pulse, and expand your kitchen repertoire!

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  • Burned Out By Tuesday?

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    Avoiding Burnout, The Active Way

    This is Dr. Claudine Holt. She’s double board-certified, in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine.

    In short: preventative medicine in all parts of our life.

    Hopefully, you are reading this bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on another exciting day in this wonderful, beautiful world!

    On the other hand, it’s possible that you’re reading this semi-focussed, looking for a crumb of dopamine as much as you are looking for information.

    If you’ve ever had the “What a week!” / “It’s only Tuesday” moment, this one’s for you.

    What does Dr. Holt want us to know?

    You can recover from burnout without guilt

    Sometimes, we overreach ourselves. Sometimes, life overreaches us! Sometimes it’s not that we overcommitted—it’s just that we were taking each day as it comes, but sometimes several days gang up on us at once.

    Sometimes, even, we can feel exhausted when it seems like we haven’t done anything.

    Note: if you feel exhausted and it seems like you haven’t done anything, then be aware: you are exhausted for a reason!

    What that reason might be may vary, but contrary to popular belief, energy does not just vanish. It went somewhere.

    This goes double if you have any chronic illness(es), even if you’re not aware of having had a flare-up, chances are you were just exceptionally busy (on a cellular level).

    And it’s easy to think that “mere” cellular activity shouldn’t be exhausting, but that is 100% of where our energy transactions happen—whether or not we are consciously aware of them!

    See also: Eat To Beat Chronic Fatigue ← yes, this also covers when you are too exhausted to shop and cook like a TV chef

    Dr. Holt specializes in working with burned out medical professionals (and also specifically specializes in working with women), but there are lessons for everyone in her advice. For example:

    Fiction: ”Medicine is my calling–it’s who I am.”

    Fact: You are more than medicine! Remember that your career is just one aspect of your life. Don’t forget to create your big-picture vision and tend the garden of the other areas of your life too.

    ~ Dr. Claudine Holt

    Read more: Dr. Claudine Holt | Burnout: Fact vs Fiction

    This same thing can go for whatever part of your identity frequently follows “I’m a…”, and is somewhere that you put a lot of your energy; it could equally be a non-professional job like “homemaker”, or a relational status like “husband”, or a cultural identifier like “Christian”, or a hobby like “gardener” (assuming that is not also your profession, in which case, same item, different category).

    Indeed, a lot of women especially get hit by “the triple burden” of professional work, housework, and childcare. And it’s not even necessarily that we resent any of those things or feel like they’re a burden; we (hopefully) love our professions, homes, children. But, here’s the thing:

    No amount of love will add extra hours to the day.

    So what does she recommend doing about it, when sometimes we’re juggling things that can’t be dropped?

    Start simple, but start!

    Dr. Holt recommends to start with a smile (yes even if, and sometimes especially when, the circumstances do not feel like they merit it), and deploy some CBT tools:

    Two Hacks to Quickly Rise Above Burnout (Or Any Circumstance)

    We’ve expanded on this topic here:

    How To Manage Chronic Stress

    With a more level head on, it becomes easier to take on the next step, which creating healthy boundariesand that doesn’t just mean with other people!

    It also means slaying our own perfectionism and imposter syndrome—both things that will have us chasing our tails 36 hours per day if we let them.

    See also:

    ❝Burnout is the culture of our times. A culture that expects us to do more and think our way out of everything. A culture that asks for more than the body can bear. Unfortunately, even though the situation might not be of our creation, burnout culture is our inheritance.

    An inheritance we can either perpetuate—or change—depending on what we embody.❞

    Source: The Embodied MD on Burnout with Dr Claudine Holt

    That “embodiment” is partly our choices and actions that we bring and own just as we bring and own our body—and it’s partly our relationship with our body itself, and learning to love it, and work with it to achieve wonderful things, instead of just getting through the day.

    Which yes, does also mean making space for good diet, exercise, sleep and so forth, per:

    These Top Five Things Make The Biggest Difference To Health

    Want to know more?

    You might like to check out Dr. Holt’s website:

    The Embodied M.D. | Burnout Coach

    …where she also offers resources such as a blog and a podcast.

    Enjoy!

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  • 154 million lives saved in 50 years: 5 charts on the global success of vaccines

    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 know vaccines have been a miracle for public health. Now, new research led by the World Health Organization has found vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives in the past 50 years from 14 different diseases. Most of these have been children under five, and around two-thirds children under one year old.

    In 1974 the World Health Assembly launched the Expanded Programme on Immunization with the goal to vaccinate all children against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), measles, polio, tuberculosis and smallpox by 1990. The program was subsequently expanded to include several other diseases.

    The modelling, marking 50 years since this program was established, shows a child aged under ten has about a 40% greater chance of living until their next birthday, compared to if we didn’t have vaccines. And these positive effects can be seen well into adult life. A 50-year-old has a 16% greater chance of celebrating their next birthday thanks to vaccines.

    What the study did

    The researchers developed mathematical and statistical models which took in vaccine coverage data and population numbers from 194 countries for the years 1974–2024. Not all diseases were included (for example smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980, was left out).

    The analysis includes vaccines for 14 diseases, with 11 of these included in the Expanded Programme on Immunization. For some countries, additional vaccines such as Japanese encephalitis, meningitis A and yellow fever were included, as these diseases contribute to major disease burden in certain settings.

    The models were used to simulate how diseases would have spread from 1974 to now, as vaccines were introduced, for each country and age group, incorporating data on increasing vaccine coverage over time.

    Children are the greatest beneficiaries of vaccines

    Since 1974, the rates of deaths in children before their first birthday has more than halved. The researchers calculated almost 40% of this reduction is due to vaccines.

    The effects have been greatest for children born in the 1980s because of the intensive efforts made globally to reduce the burden of diseases like measles, polio and whooping cough.

    Some 60% of the 154 million lives saved would have been lives lost to measles. This is likely due to its ability to spread rapidly. One person with measles can spread the infection to 12–18 people.

    The study also found some variation across different parts of the world. For example, vaccination programs have had a much greater impact on the probability of children living longer across low- and middle-income countries and settings with weaker health systems such as the eastern Mediterranean and African regions. These results highlight the important role vaccines play in promoting health equity.

    Vaccine success is not assured

    Low or declining vaccine coverage can lead to epidemics which can devastate communities and overwhelm health systems.

    Notably, the COVID pandemic saw an overall decline in measles vaccine coverage, with 86% of children having received their first dose in 2019 to 83% in 2022. This is concerning because very high levels of vaccination coverage (more than 95%) are required to achieve herd immunity against measles.

    In Australia, the coverage for childhood vaccines, including measles, mumps and rubella, has declined compared to before the pandemic.

    This study is a reminder of why we need to continue to vaccinate – not just against measles, but against all diseases we have safe and effective vaccines for.

    The results of this research don’t tell us the full story about the impact of vaccines. For example, the authors didn’t include data for some vaccines such as COVID and HPV (human papillomavirus). Also, like with all modelling studies, there are some uncertainties, as data was not available for all time periods and countries.

    Nonetheless, the results show the success of global vaccination programs over time. If we want to continue to see lives saved, we need to keep investing in vaccination locally, regionally and globally.

    Meru Sheel, Associate Professor and Epidemiologist, Infectious Diseases, Immunisation and Emergencies Group, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney and Alexandra Hogan, Mathematical epidemiologist, UNSW Sydney

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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  • Immunity – by Dr. William Paul

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    This book gives a very person-centric (i.e., focuses on the contributions of named individuals) overview of advances in the field of immunology—up to its publication date in 2015. So, it’s not cutting edge, but it is very good at laying the groundwork for understanding more recent advances that occur as time goes by. After all, immunology is a field that never stands still.

    We get a good grounding in how our immune system works (and how it doesn’t), the constant arms race between pathogens and immune responses, and the complexities of autoimmune disorders and—which is functionally in an overlapping category of disease—cancer. And, what advances we can expect soon to address those things.

    Given the book was published 8 years ago, how did it measure up? Did we get those advances? Well, for the mostpart yes, we have! Some are still works in progress. But, we’ve also had obvious extra immunological threats in years since, which have also resulted in other advances along the way!

    If the book has a downside, it’s that sometimes the author can be a little too person-centric. It’s engaging to focus on human characters, and helps us bring information to life; name-dropping to excess, along with awards won, can sometimes feel a little like the book was co-authored by Tahani Al-Jamil.

    Nevertheless, it certainly does keep the book from getting too dry!

    Bottom line: this book is a great overview of immunology and immunological research, for anyone who wants to understand these things better.

    Click here to check out Immunity, and boost your knowledge of yours!

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  • Uric Acid’s Extensive Health Impact (And How To Lower It)

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    Uric Acid’s Extensive Health Impact (And How To Lower It)

    This is Dr. David Perlmutter. He’s a medical doctor, and a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition. He’s a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, and has been widely published in many other peer-reviewed journals.

    What does he want us to know?

    He wants us to know about the health risks of uric acid (not something popularly talked about so much!), and how to reduce it.

    First: what is it? Uric acid is a substance we make in our own body. However, unlike most substances we make in our body, we have negligible use for it—it’s largely a waste product, usually excreted in urine.

    However, if we get too much, it can build up (and crystallize), becoming such things as kidney stones, or causing painful inflammation if it shows up in the joints, as in gout.

    More seriously (unpleasant as kidney stones and gout may be), this inflammation can have a knock-on effect triggering (or worsening) other inflammatory conditions, ranging from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, to arthritis, to dementia, and even heart problems. See for example:

    How can we reduce our uric acid levels?

    Uric acid is produced when we metabolize purine nucleotides, which are found in many kinds of food. We can therefore reduce our uric acid levels by reducing our purine intake, as well as things that mess up our liver’s ability to detoxify things. Offsetting the values for confounding variables (such as fiber content, or phytochemicals that mitigate the harm), the worst offenders include…

    Liver-debilitating things:

    • Alcohol (especially beer)
    • High-fructose corn syrup (and other fructose-containing things that aren’t actual fruit)
    • Other refined sugars
    • Wheat / white flour products (this is why beer is worse than wine, for example; it’s a double-vector hit)

    Purine-rich things:

    • Red meats and game
    • Organ meats
    • Oily fish, and seafood (great for some things; not great for this)

    Some beans and legumes are also high in purines, but much like real fruit has a neutral or positive effect on blood sugar health despite its fructose content, the beans and legumes that are high in purines, also contain phytochemicals that help lower uric acid levels, so have a beneficial effect.

    Eggs (consumed in moderation) and tart cherries have a uric-acid lowering effect.

    Water is important for all aspects of health, and doubly important for this.

    Hydrate well!

    Lifestyle matters beyond diet

    The main key here is metabolic health, so Dr. Perlmutter advises the uncontroversial lifestyle choices of moderate exercise and good sleep, as well as (more critically) intermittent fasting. We wrote previously on other things that can benefit liver health:

    How To Unfatty A Fatty Liver

    …in this case, that means the liver gets a break to recuperate (something it’s very good at, but does need to get a chance to do), which means that while you’re not giving it something new to do, it can quickly catch up on any backlog, and then tackle any new things fresh, next time you start eating.

    Want to know more about this from Dr. Perlmutter?

    You might like his article:

    An Integrated Plan for Lowering Uric Acid ← more than we had room for here; he also talks about extra things to include in your diet/supplementation regime for beneficial effects!

    And/or his book:

    Drop Acid: The Surprising New Science of Uric Acid―The Key to Losing Weight, Controlling Blood Sugar, and Achieving Extraordinary Health

    …on which much of today’s main feature was based.

    Take care!

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