How to Eat to Change How You Drink – by Dr. Brooke Scheller

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.

Whether you want to stop drinking or just cut down, this book can help. But what makes it different from the other reduce/stop drinking books we’ve reviewed?

Mostly, it’s about nutrition. This book focuses on the way that alcohol changes our relationship to food, our gut, our blood sugars, and more. The author also explains how reducing/stopping drinking, without bearing these things in mind, can be unnecessarily extra hard.

The remedy? To bear them in mind, of course, but that requires knowing them. So what she does is explain the physiology of what’s going on in terms of each of the above things (and more), and how to adjust your diet to make up for what alcohol has been doing to you, so that you can reduce/quit without feeling constantly terrible.

The style is very pop-science, light in tone, readable. She makes reference to a lot of hard science, but doesn’t discuss it in more depth than is necessary to convey the useful information. So, this is a practical book, aimed at all people who want to reduce/quit drinking.

Bottom line: if you feel like it’s hard to drink less because it feels like something is missing, it’s probably because indeed something is missing, and this book can help you bridge that gap!

Click here to check out How To Eat To Change How You Drink, and do just that!

Don’t Forget…

Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

Recommended

  • The Blue Zones Kitchen – by Dan Buettner
  • Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan – by Dr. Mark Williams & Dr. Danny Penman
    Mindfulness demystified—experts guide you through an eight-week program of real-world meditation, practical tools, and no-nonsense wisdom for finding peace amid life’s chaos.

Learn to Age Gracefully

Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • The Worst Cookware Lurking In Your Kitchen (Toxicologist Explains)

    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.

    Dr. Yvonne Burkart gives us a rundown of the worst offenders, and what to use instead:

    Hot mess

    The very worst offender is non-stick cookware, the kind with materials such as Teflon. These are the most toxic, due to PFAS chemicals.

    Non-stick pans release toxic gases, leach chemicals into food, and release microplastic particles, which can accumulate in the body.

    One that a lot of people don’t think about, in that category, is the humble air-fryer, which often as not has a non-stick cooking “basket”. These she describes as highly toxic, as they combine plastic, non-stick coatings, and high heat, which can release fumes and other potentially dangerous chemicals into the air and food.

    You may be wondering: how bad is it? And the answer is, quite bad. PFAS chemicals are linked to infertility, hypertension in pregnancy, developmental issues in children, cancer, weakened immune systems, hormonal disruption, obesity, and intestinal inflammation.

    Dr. Burkart’s top picks for doing better:

    1. Pure ceramic cookware: top choice for safety, particularly brands like Xtrema, which are tested for heavy metal leaching.
    2. Carbon steel & cast iron: durable and safe; can leach iron in acidic foods (for most people, this is a plus, but some may need to be aware of it)
    3. Stainless steel: lightweight and affordable but can leach nickel and chromium in acidic foods at high temperatures. Use only if nothing better is available.

    And specifically as alternatives to air-fryers: glass convection ovens or stainless steel ovens are safer than conventional air fryers. The old “combination oven” can often be a good choice here.

    For more on all of these, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

    Share This Post

  • Where Nutrition Meets Habits!

    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.

    Where Nutrition Meets Habits…

    This is Claudia Canu, MSc., INESEM. She’s on a mission to change the way we eat:

    Often, diet is a case of…

    • Healthy
    • Easy
    • Cheap

    (choose two)

    She wants to make it all three, and tasty too. She has her work cut out for her, but she’s already blazed quite a trail personally:

    Nine months before turning 40 years old, I set a challenge for myself: Arrive to the day I turn 40 as the best possible version of myself, physically, mentally and emotionally.❞

    ~ Claudia Canu

    In Her Own Words: My Journey To My Healthy 40s

    And it really was quite a journey:

    For those of us who’d like the short-cut rather than a nine-month quasi-spiritual journey… based on both her experience, and her academic and professional background in nutrition, her main priorities that she settled on were:

    • Making meals actually nutritionally balanced, which meant re-thinking what she thought a meal “should” be
    • Making nutritionally balanced meals that didn’t require a lot of skill and/or resources
    • That’s it!

    But, easier said than done… Where to begin?

    She shares an extensive list of recipes, from meals to snacks (I thought I was the only one who made coffee overnight oats!), but the most important thing from her is:

    Claudia’s 10 Guiding Principles:

    1. Buy only fresh ingredients that you are going to cook yourself. If you decide to buy pre-cooked ones, make sure they do not have added ingredients, especially sugar (in all its forms).
    2. Use easy and simple cooking methods.
    3. Change ingredients every time you prepare your meals.
    4. Prepare large quantities for three or four days.
    5. Store the food separately in tightly closed Tupperware.
    6. Organize yourself to always have ready-to-eat food in the fridge.
    7. When hungry, mix the ingredients in the ideal amounts to cover the needs of your body.
    8. Chew well and take the time to taste your food.
    9. Eat foods that you like and enjoy.
    10. Do not overeat but don’t undereat either.

    We have only two quibbles with this fine list, which are:

    About Ingredients!

    Depending on what’s available around you, frozen and/or tinned “one-ingredient” foods can be as nutritional as (if not more nutritional than) fresh ones. By “one-ingredient” foods here we mean that if you buy a frozen pack of chopped onions, the ingredients list will be: “chopped onions”. If you buy a tin of tomatoes, the ingredients will say “Tomatoes” or at most “Tomatoes, Tomato Juice”, for example.

    She does list the ingredients she keeps in; the idea that with these in the kitchen, you’ll never be in the position of “oh, we don’t have much in, I guess it’s a pizza delivery night” or “well there are some chicken nuggets at the back of the freezer”.

    Check Out And Plan: 10 Types Of Ingredients You Should Always Keep In Your Kitchen

    Here Today, Gone Tomorrow?

    Preparing large quantities for three or four days can result in food for one or two days if the food is unduly delicious

    But! Claudia has a remedy for that:

    Read: How To Eliminate Food Cravings And What To Do When They Win

    Anyway, there’s a wealth of resources in the above-linked pages, so do check them out!

    Perhaps the biggest take-away is to ask yourself:

    “What are my guiding principles when it comes to food?”

    If you don’t have a ready answer, maybe it’s time to tackle that—whether Claudia’s way or your own!

    Share This Post

  • What does it mean to be transgender?

    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.

    Transgender media coverage has surged in recent years for a wide range of reasons. While there are more transgender television characters than ever before, hundreds of bills are targeting transgender people’s access to medical care, sports teams, gender-specific public spaces, and other institutions.

    Despite the increase in conversation about the transgender community, public confusion around transgender identity remains.

    Read on to learn more about what it means to be transgender and understand challenges transgender people may face.

    What does it mean to be transgender?

    Transgender—or “trans”—is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity or gender expression does not conform to their sex assigned at birth. People can discover they are trans at any age.

    Gender identity refers to a person’s inner sense of being a woman, a man, neither, both, or something else entirely. Trans people who don’t feel like women or men might describe themselves as nonbinary, agender, genderqueer, or two-spirit, among other terms.

    Gender expression describes the way a person communicates their gender through their appearance—such as their clothing or hairstyle—and behavior.

    A person whose gender expression doesn’t conform to the expectations of their assigned sex may not identify as trans. The only way to know for sure if someone is trans is if they tell you.

    Cisgender—or “cis”—describes people whose gender identities match the sex they were assigned at birth.

    How long have transgender people existed?

    Being trans isn’t new. Although the word “transgender” only dates back to the 1960s, people whose identities defy traditional gender expectations have existed across cultures throughout recorded history.

    How many people are transgender?

    A 2022 Williams Institute study estimates that 1.6 million people over the age of 13 identify as transgender in the United States.

    Is being transgender a mental health condition?

    No. Conveying and communicating about your gender in a way that feels authentic to you is a normal and necessary part of self-expression.

    Social and legal stigma, bullying, discrimination, harassment, negative media messages, and barriers to gender-affirming medical care can cause psychological distress for trans people. This is especially true for trans people of color, who face significantly higher rates of violence, poverty, housing instability, and incarceration—but trans identity itself is not a mental health condition.

    What is gender dysphoria?

    Gender dysphoria describes a feeling of unease that some trans people experience when their perceived gender doesn’t match their gender identity, or their internal sense of gender. A 2021 study of trans adults pursuing gender-affirming medical care found that most participants started experiencing gender dysphoria by the time they were 7.

    When trans people don’t receive the support they need to manage gender dysphoria, they may experience depression, anxiety, social isolation, suicidal ideation, substance use disorder, eating disorders, and self-injury.

    How do trans people manage gender dysphoria?

    Every trans person’s experience with gender dysphoria is unique. Some trans people may alleviate dysphoria by wearing gender-affirming clothing or by asking others to refer to them by a new name and use pronouns that accurately reflect their gender identity. The 2022 U.S. Trans Survey found that nearly all trans participants who lived as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth reported that they were more satisfied with their lives.

    Some trans people may also manage dysphoria by pursuing medical transition, which may involve taking hormones and getting gender-affirming surgery.

    Access to gender-affirming medical care has been shown to reduce the risk of depression and suicide among trans youth and adults.

    To learn more about the trans community, visit resources from the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Trevor Project, PFLAG, and Planned Parenthood.

    If you or anyone you know is considering suicide or self-harm or is anxious, depressed, upset, or needs to talk, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741. For international resources, here is a good place to begin.

    This article first appeared on Public Good News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • The Blue Zones Kitchen – by Dan Buettner
  • Small Changes For A Healthier Life

    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.

    It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

    As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

    So, no question/request too big or small

    I am interested in what I can substitute for ham in bean soup?

    Well, that depends on what the ham was like! You can certainly buy ready-made vegan lardons (i.e. small bacon/ham bits, often in tiny cubes or similar) in any reasonably-sized supermarket. Being processed, they’re not amazing for the health, but are still an improvement on pork.

    Alternatively, you can make your own seitan! Again, seitan is really not a health food, but again, it’s still relatively less bad than pork (unless you are allergic to gluten, in which case, definitely skip this one).

    Alternatively alternatively, in a soup that already contains beans (so the protein element is already covered), you could just skip the ham as an added ingredient, and instead bring the extra flavor by means of a little salt, a little yeast extract (if you don’t like yeast extract, don’t worry, it won’t taste like it if you just use a teaspoon in a big pot, or half a teaspoon in a smaller pot), and a little smoked paprika. If you want to go healthier, you can swap out the salt for MSG, which enhances flavor in a similar fashion while containing less sodium.

    Wondering about the health aspects of MSG? Check out our main feature on this, from last month:

    What’s the deal with MSG?

    I thoroughly enjoy your daily delivery. I’d love to see one for teens too!

    That’s great to hear! The average age of our subscribers is generally rather older, but it’s good to know there’s an interest in topics for younger people. We’ll bear that in mind, and see what we can do to cater to that without alienating our older readers!

    That said: it’s never too soon to be learning about stuff that affects us when we’re older—there are lifestyle factors at 20 that affect Alzheimer’s risk at 60, for example (e.g. drinking—excessive drinking at 20* is correlated to higher Alzheimer’s risk at 60).

    *This one may be less of an issue for our US readers, since the US doesn’t have nearly as much of a culture of drinking under 21 as some places. Compare for example with general European practices of drinking moderately from the mid-teens, or the (happily, diminishing—but historically notable) British practice of drinking heavily from the mid-teens.

    How much turmeric should I take each day?

    Dr. Michael Greger’s research (of “Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen” and “How Not To Die” fame) recommends getting at least ¼ tsp turmeric per day

    Remember to take it with black pepper though, for a 2000% absorption bonus!

    A great way to get it, if you don’t want to take capsules and don’t want to eat spicy food every day, is to throw a teaspoon of turmeric in when making a pot of (we recommend wholegrain!) rice. Turmeric is very water-soluble, so it’ll be transferred into the rice easily during cooking. It’ll make the rice a nice golden yellow color, and/but won’t noticeably change the taste.

    Again remember to throw in some black pepper, and if you really want to boost the nutritional content,some chia seeds are a great addition too (they’ll get cooked with the rice and so it won’t be like eating seeds later, but the nutrients will be there in the rice dish).

    You can do the same with par-boiled potatoes or other root vegetables, but because cooking those has water to be thrown away at the end (unlike rice), you’ll lose some turmeric in the water.

    Request: more people need to be aware of suicidal tendencies and what they can do to ward them off

    That’s certainly a very important topic! We’ll cover that properly in one of our Psychology Sunday editions. In the meantime, we’ll mention a previous special that we did, that was mostly about handling depression (in oneself or a loved one), and obviously there’s a degree of crossover:

    The Mental Health First-Aid That You’ll Hopefully Never Need

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • The Glucose Goddess Method – by Jessie Inchausspé

    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 previously reviewed Inchausspé’s excellent book “Glucose Revolution”. So what does this book add?

    This book is for those who found that book a little dense. While this one still gives the same ten “hacks”, she focuses on the four that have the biggest effect, and walks the reader by the hand through a four-week programme of implementing them.

    The claim of 100+ recipes is a little bold, as some of the recipes are things like vinegar, vinegar+water, vinegar+water but now we’re it’s in a restaurant, lemon+water, lemon+water but now it’s in a bottle, etc. However, there are legitimately a lot of actual recipes too.

    Where this book’s greatest strength lies is in making everything super easy, and motivating. It’s a fine choice for being up-and-running quickly and easily without wading through the 300-odd pages of science in her previous book.

    Bottom line: if you’ve already happily and sustainably implemented everything from her previous book, you can probably skip this one. However, if you’d like an easier method to implement the changes that have the biggest effect, then this is the book for you.

    Click here to check out The Glucose Goddess Method, and build it into your life the easy way!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Rebuilding Milo – by Dr. Aaron Horschig

    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.

    The author, a doctor of physical therapy, also wrote another book that we reviewed a while ago, “The Squat Bible” (which is also excellent, by the way). This time, it’s all about resistance training in the context of fixing a damaged body.

    Resistance training is, of course, very important for general health, especially as we get older. However, it’s easy to do it wrongly and injure oneself, and indeed, if one is carrying some injury and/or chronic pain, it becomes necessary to know how to fix that before continuing—without just giving up on training, because that would be a road to ruin in terms of muscle and bone maintenance.

    The book explains all the necessary anatomy, with clear illustrations too. He talks equipment, keeping things simple and practical, letting the reader know which things actually matter in terms of quality, and what things are just unnecessary fanciness and/or counterproductive.

    Most of the book is divided into chapters per body part, e.g. back pain, shoulder pain, ankle pain, hip pain, knee pain, etc; what’s going on, and how to fix it to rebuild it stronger.

    The style is straightforward and simple, neither overly clinical nor embellished with overly casual fluff. Just, clear simple explanations and instructions.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to get stronger and/or level up your resistance training, but are worried about an injury or chronic condition, this book can set you in good order.

    Click here to check out Rebuilding Milo, and rebuild yourself!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: