Is The 80:20 Rule Really A Good Idea?
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
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 😎
❝What is your philsophy on eating 80% healthy and 20% not, is it better to try to eat 90% or 100% healthy?❞
Short answer: what works for you, works for you (if it works for you)!
More helpful answer: it depends on what each dietary approach ends up looking like for you. For example, there are important differences between:
- Someone who carefully measures their food to get 80% of calories from whole-foods plant-based nutrient-dense food, and the other 20% from anything they like, healthy or not
- Someone who eats what looks like a healthy diet for 80% of their diet, but falls for a lot of greenwashing and things that look healthier than they are, and then 20% things that look unhealthy (and probably are).
- Someone who considers that dessert is just one small part of the day’s eating, so that triple-chocolate ice cream caramel sundae with waffles and syrup and candy sprinkles must be fine (and then similar the next day, and the next, and…)
- Someone who works out their daily calories, and dutifully calculates “ok, I’m consuming 1600 kcal per day, so 1600/100 x20 = 320, so if I eat healthily the rest of the day, I can have 6 shots of vodka before bed daily
- Someone who applies the 80:20 rule in one of the above ways Monday to Friday, and then at the weekend, declares that 20% of the week and anything goes
As you may gather, some of those are definitely overly optimistic in their understanding of what will bring (and maintain) good health.
We’ll be clear: option 1 is not bad, 2 is next best, 3 and 4 are going wildly off-piste in similar but different ways and neither are doing their health* any favors, and 5 is using the 80:20 rule as an excuse to do whatever they want.
*The main problems with 3 and 4 are the damage to the gut microbiome, the damage to the liver (and associated metabolic problems, which will ultimately hit the heart and pancreas, amongst other organs), and the increased risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer. Depending on alcohol tolerance, there is also an increased risk of harm by accident/incident in the alcohol version.
Let us assume that you, dear reader, are not doing 3 or 4.
What about 5?
The thing with 5 is… If you want to eat that way, you don’t need an excuse. You don’t have to justify it to anyone, including yourself. Just, it might be better to make your peace with the fact that you have simply decided that eating healthily isn’t important to you. And that’s your choice!
Practical example: there are many people who, for one reason or another, have good cause to believe they will die soon regardless of what they eat. It could be because of a terminal diagnosis, or very advanced age, or some other reason, but the relevant thing is: in such a position, there really is a limit to the worst that can happen from eating that triple-chocolate ice cream caramel sundae with waffles and syrup and candy sprinkles, even with a side-serving of 6 shots of vodka, if they so choose.
If you, dear reader, are health-conscious and hoping (and reasonably expecting) to not die soon, then that leaves us with 1 and 2.
2 will put you—guestimating here; we don’t have hard figures—easily into the top quartile of healthy people. That’s not bad at all. It could be better, and if you’re in that position, we’d say that the best thing you can do is exactly what you’re doing: gradually build your knowledge of what is actually healthy vs what just looks healthy, and gradually adjust your grocery-shopping habits accordingly.
1 has a very wide range, but if you get about it in a smart way, it can be super-healthy. We say “it has a wide range” because technically, 1 in its broadest interpretation could include 4 (since the 6 shots of vodka will indeed fit in that 20%). But most people, hopefully, don’t do that.
To go about it “in a smart way”: remember that the “whatever you want” doesn’t have to be unhealthy. It just means that if you’re going out for dinner, ordering a thin-crust pizza with mostly vegetable toppings isn’t going to derail your health plan. You can take a flute of champagne at that wedding, if you find yourself so inclined. And so forth.
You don’t have to “fill” that 20% with unhealthy things. It’s just there if you need to dip into it to avoid inconveniencing yourself.
The best tip
Redefine what “treat” means for you. For this writer, for example, a treat on my birthday means I buy the more expensive coffee if I want to. On my last birthday (let’s just say, it was a number ending in zero, and thus merited extra attention) my main (and only) course of my birthday dinner was shchi ← Russian cabbage soup; sounds terrible, looks worse, yet is my favorite comfort food.
Perhaps you don’t care for coffee and are alarmed at the prospect of eating cabbage soup on a special day.
But, what do you love? For an ex of mine, it was prawn cocktail salad with pomegranate. How about you?
The only limit is your imagination—it doesn’t have to be unhealthy to be good!
Here be science
There is some merit to avoiding slippery slopes by declaring an entire category of food/drink forbidden, so that you’re not tempted to have just a bit, and then more, and then more, and before you know it it’s your new habit, again.
But there’s also merit to allowing wiggle-room for sustainability, because otherwise it’s easy to give up when things are difficult/inconvenient/unpleasant.
Previously at 10almonds, we’ve looked at two fairly opposing schools of thought when it comes to managing what we eat, and the relevant science for each of them.
First we looked at:
What Flexible Dieting Really Means
…and the notion of doing things imperfectly for greater sustainability, and reducing the cognitive load of dieting by measuring only the things that are necessary.
And then in opposition to that,
What Are The “Bright Lines” Of Bright Line Eating?
…and the notion of doing things perfectly so as to not go astray, and reducing the cognitive load of dieting by having hard-and-fast rules that one does not second-guess or reconsider later when hungry.
Either way, intuitive eating can be a very strong method. It means listening to one’s body, and responding to hunger signals, whether those signals are saying “time to eat” or “time to stop”.
A common recommendation is to “check in” with one’s body several times per meal, reflecting on such questions as:
- Do I have hunger pangs? Would I seek food now if I weren’t already at the table?
- If I hadn’t made more food than I’ve already eaten so far, would that have been enough, or would I have to look for something else to eat?
- Am I craving any of the foods that are still before me? Which one(s)?
- How much “room” do I feel I still have, really? Am I still in the comfort zone, and/or am I about to pass into having overeaten?
- Am I eating for pleasure only at this point? (This is not inherently bad, by the way—it’s ok to have a little more just for pleasure! But it is good to note that this is the reason we’re eating, and take it as a cue to slow down and remember to eat mindfully, and enjoy every bite)
- Have I, in fact, passed the point of pleasure, and I’m just eating because it’s in front of me, or so as to “not be wasteful”?
See also: Interoception: Improving Our Awareness Of Body Cues
And for that matter: Mindful Eating: How To Get More Out Of What’s On Your Plate
Finally, you can combine even seemingly opposing methods!
For example, maybe you want to go with the WHO recommendation that “the only safe amount of alcohol is zero”, and consume no alcohol ever, but are happy to be flexible about other things.
So, ultimately—after a detour through the methods, and now some links in this last section to the science of various approaches—we come back to our short answer up top:
❝What works for you, works for you (if it works for you)!❞
So, just make sure that it does, and do it mindfully and with well-informed intent!
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Semaglutide’s Surprisingly Unexamined Effects
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Semaglutide’s Surprisingly Big Research Gap
GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic, Wegovy, and other semaglutide drugs. are fast becoming a health industry standard go-to tool in the weight loss toolbox. When it comes to recommending that patients lose weight, “Have you considered Ozempic?” is the common refrain.
Sometimes, this may be a mere case of kicking the can down the road with regard to some other treatment that it can be argued (sometimes even truthfully) would go better after some weight loss:
How weight bias in health care can harm patients with obesity: Research
…which we also covered in fewer words in the second-to-last item here:
But GLP-1 agonists work, right?
Yes, albeit there’s a litany of caveats, top of which are usually:
- there are often adverse gastrointestinal side effects
- if you stop taking them, weight regain generally ensues promptly
For more details on these and more, see:
…but now there’s another thing that’s come to light:
The dark side of semaglutide’s weight loss
In academia, “dark” is often used to describe “stuff we don’t have much (or in some cases, any) direct empirical evidence of, but for reasons of surrounding things, we know it’s there”.
Well-known examples include “dark matter” in physics and the Dark Ages in (European) history.
In the case of semaglutide and weight loss, a review by a team of researchers (Drs. Sandra Christenen, Katie Robinson, Sara Thomas, and Dominique Williams) has discovered how little research has been done into a certain aspect of GLP-1 agonist’s weight loss effects, namely…
Dietary changes!
There’s been a lot of popular talk about “people taking semaglutide eat less”, but it’s mostly anecdotal and/or presumed based on parts of the mechanism of action (increasing insulin production, reducing glucagon secretions, modulating dietary cravings).
Where studies have looked at dietary changes, it’s almost exclusively been a matter of looking at caloric intake (which has been found to be a 16–39% reduction), and observations-in-passing that patients reported reduction in cravings for fatty and sweet foods.
This reduction in caloric intake, by the way, is not significantly different to the reduction brought about by counselling alone (head-to-head studies have been done; these are also discussed in the research review).
However! It gets worse. Very few studies of good quality have been done, even fewer (two studies) actually had a registered dietitian nutritionist on the team, and only one of them used the “gold standard” of nutritional research, the 24-hour dietary recall test. Which, in case you’re curious, you can read about what that is here:
Dietary Assessment Methods: What Is A 24-Hour Recall?
Of the four studies that actually looked at the macros (unlike most studies), they found that on average, protein intake decreased by 17.1%. Which is a big deal!
It’s an especially big deal, because while protein’s obviously important for everyone, it’s especially important for anyone trying to lose weight, because muscle mass is a major factor in metabolic base rate—which in turn is much important for fat loss/maintenance than exercise, when it comes to how many calories we burn by simply existing.
A reasonable hypothesis, therefore, is that one of the numerous reasons people who quit GLP-1 agonists immediately put fat back on, is because they probably lost muscle mass in amongst their weight loss, meaning that their metabolic base rate will have decreased, meaning that they end up more disposed to put on fat than before.
And, that’s just a hypothesis and it’s a hypothesis based on very few studies, so it’s not something to necessarily take as any kind of definitive proof of anything, but it is to say—as the researchers of this review do loudly say—more research needs to be done into this, because this has been a major gap in research so far!
Any other bad news?
While we’re talking research gaps, guess how many studies looked into micronutrient intake changes in people taking GLP-1 agonists?
If you guessed zero, you guessed correctly.
You can find the paper itself here:
What’s the main take-away here?
On a broad, scoping level: we need more research!
On a “what this means for individuals who want to lose weight” level: maybe we should be more wary of this still relatively new (less than 10 years old) “wonder drug”. And for most of those 10 years it’s only been for diabetics, with weight loss use really being in just the past few years (2021 onwards).
In other words: not necessarily any need to panic, but caution is probably not a bad idea, and natural weight loss methods remain very reasonable options for most people.
See also: How To Lose Weight (Healthily!)
Take care!
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How To Double Your Heart Attack Risk With This One Easy Sleep Habit
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A lot of heart attack risk factors are quite big things to change. Stop smoking, stop drinking, stop eating red meat, exercise a certain amount, and so forth.
This one, in contrast, is quite easy to change:
The one easy habit is…
If you would like to double your heart attack risk, then what you want to do is simply get in the habit of sliding your sleep schedule around each day, so that its lacks regularity.
We wrote about this a bit before, here: How Regularity Of Sleep Can Be Even More Important Than Duration
…however, today’s article is not just a rehash of that one, because with the evidence when we wrote that one, we could “only” point to a 26% increased risk of cardiovascular disease (in general, not heart attack risk specifically).
Now, however, new evidence has come to light, that makes this several times more important!
Researchers (Dr. Laura Nauha et al.) followed 3,231 people from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966, measuring sleep timing at age 46 with wearable activity monitors over 7 days, then tracking cardiovascular outcomes for more than 10 years through to 2023—and yes, it’s just been published now in 2026, because science is like that; we cannot accuse them of not being rigorous in their conscientiousness of checking and double-checking things and doing things right! In fact, for more on that, see the peer review notes at the end of this section, because it’s interesting too.
Notably, people with the most irregular bedtimes had more than double the risk of major adverse cardiac events (HR* 2.01) compared with those with regular bedtimes, while irregular sleep midpoints also doubled risk (HR 2.00).
*HR = “Hazard Ratio”, a way of measuring risk. 1.0 means the risk is the same, 0.5 means the risk is halved, 2.0 means the risk is doubled, and so on.
You may be wondering what counted as “major” events: for the purposes of this study, serious cardiovascular problems included heart attack, unstable angina, stroke, heart failure hospitalization, and/or cardiovascular death.
One important thing to take note of: inconsistent bedtimes—but not irregular wake-up times—showed the strongest independent association with later heart risk, suggesting when you go to bed may matter more than when you get up. That said, controlling when you get up (bearing in mind you can control when you wake up more strongly than you can control when you fall asleep) is a good way of influencing being able to fall asleep at the appointed hour in the evening.
You can learn more about that, here: Calculate (And Enjoy) The Perfect Night’s Sleep
And as for the study we’ve been talking about, you can read the paper in full here: Sleep timing irregularity in midlife: association with incident major adverse cardiac events and cardiovascular disease mortality over a 10-year follow-up
Incidentally, if you’re at all curious about what peer review actually looks like in real terms, this paper has a great and very accessible example, in the short back-and-forth that can be seen between Dr. Nauha and her team (the researchers) and the reviewers (the peer reviewers, that is to say, similar researchers in the same industry, double-checking the team’s work and asking salient questions about it, providing challenges where appropriate, and allowing the authors to make stuff clearer where necessary).
Want to learn more?
For a much more in-depth treatment of the topic, you might like this book that we reviewed a while back:
Why We Sleep – by Dr Matthew Walker
Basically, if you will read only one book on sleep, that’s the book.
Sweet dreams!
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How Relationships Affect The Heart (For Better Or For Worse)
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Love has long been associated with the heart, despite the latter being nothing but a hot wet pumping organ. Which string of words might conjure an image of a different kind of love, but what we mean here is: as body parts go, it’s a fairly simple mechanical thing that doesn’t do much.
It has one job, if it does that one job well, we rarely think about it much at all.
So, what’s this about relationships and heart health?
How well cared-for is your heart?
Firstly, it is well-established in science that strong relationships tend to be associated with strong health.
We wrote about that here: Only One Kind Of Relationship Promotes Longevity This Much!
Of course, there are limitations to this association, including that causality is not clear. For example, without examining further, it could be that people in poor health are less likely to have good relationships (because people are impatient, the stress of ill health places a strain on the relationship, financial problems are more likely, and so forth).
However, when we do look at more specific things, rather than all-cause mortality, or looking at people’s relationship status at the time of their death, and recording such things as “a married person died at this age”, “a widowed person died at this other age”, etc, asking very clear-cut questions about health, relationships, and the timelines of events, can deliver some much clearer results. For example,
❝In 34 studies with a total of > 2 million participants, unmarried people (i.e., never married, divorced, or widowed) were > 40% more likely to have CVD and die from a myocardial infarction than were married people.❞
Source: Marital status and risk of cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Most recently, a team of researchers (Dr. Heather Tulloch et al.) examined whether couples-based cardiac rehabilitation improves cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac outcomes, mental health, and relationship quality in adults with heart disease and their partners.
As Dr. Tulloch herself said,
❝Sometimes heart disease brings couples closer together, but often it’s a challenge for the relationship and both people in it. We’ve learned over the years that cardiac events do not only happen to the patient, but to the couple❞
In this case, across 12 randomized controlled trials involving 1,444 patient-partner dyads, 77% of studies reported improvements in health behaviors, while evidence for cardiac outcomes and mental health benefits was mixed.
You can read her work in full here: What About Love? A Review of Interventions for Patients With Heart Disease and Their Intimate Partners: Recommendations for Cardiac Rehabilitation
So what gives?
One factor may be the manner of the data collection, as most were nurse-led CBT-centric programs and focused primarily on behavior change such as diet, physical activity, and medication adherence.
Some things appear to be sex-specific. Among women, a single-unit increase in negative relationship quality has been associated with a nearly 10-fold increase in uncontrolled hypertension, whereas a single-unit increase in positive relationship quality has been related to a 70% decrease in the risk of hypertension.
For men, in contrast, relationship distress is known to mobilize circulating lipids and to lead to upsurges in circulating inflammatory markers such as interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein all of which can (and often do) contribute to the development and progression of CVD.
For people in general, more physical intimacy is closely correlated with lower cortisol levels, and thus (all else being equal) better heart health.
Source: Positive couple interactions and daily cortisol: On the stress-protecting role of intimacy
We wrote on that topic before; you can check out that article here: Better Sex = Longer Life (Here’s How)
…and while we’re at it: Who Initiates Sex & Why It Matters
Of course, not every relationship is beneficial, sadly. Remember when we mentioned how “only one kind of relationship promotes longevity this much”? Well, that was about happy, secure, loving, fulfilling relationships.
But what if that’s not what we have? In such a case, see: Relationships: When To Stick It Out & When To Call It Quits
And lastly (and for posterity, this article was written in the second half of December), it is worth mentioning:
Which means: for almost all of us, regardless of relationship status, there is something that we can do to improve our health in this regard.
So, if you’re in a relationship (a good one!), please do take care of it.
And either way, please do take care of yourself 🙂
Want to learn more?
You might like this book that we reviewed a little while back:
Just One Heart: A Cardiologist’s Guide to Healing, Health, and Happiness – by Dr. Jonathan Fisher
Enjoy!
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Artichoke vs Broccoli – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing artichoke to broccoli, we picked the artichoke.
Why?
Both have their strengths, and it was close! But…
In terms of macros, artichoke has about 2x the fiber (which is lots, because broccoli is already good for this) and more protein, for only slightly more carbs, making it the nutrient dense choice in all respects, and especially in the case of fiber.
In the category of vitamins, artichoke has more of vitamins B3, B9, and choline, while broccoli has more of vitamins A, B2, B5, B6, C, E, and K, thus winning this round.
When it comes to minerals, artichoke has more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, while broccoli has more calcium and selenium, handing artichoke the win again here.
Looking at polyphenols, both have an abundance; artichoke has more by total mass (in terms of mg/100g) and is especially rich in luteolin and phenolic acids, but broccoli has some that artichoke doesn’t have (such as quercetin and kaempferol). We could reasonably call this a tie or a win for artichoke on strength of numbers; either way, it doesn’t change the end result:
Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for artichoke, but of course, by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Enjoy!
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Psychology Sunday: Family Estrangement & How To Fix It
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Estrangement, And How To Heal It
We’ve written before about how deleterious to the health loneliness and isolation can be, and what things can be done about it. Today, we’re tackling a related but different topic.
We recently had a request to write about…
❝Reconciliation of relationships in particular estrangement mother adult daughter❞
And, this is not only an interesting topic, but a very specific one that affects more people than is commonly realized!
In fact, a recent 800-person study found that more than 43% of people experienced family estrangement of one sort or another, and a more specific study of more than 2,000 mother-child pairs found that more than 11% of mothers were estranged from at least one adult child.
So, if you think of the ten or so houses nearest to you, probably at least one of them contains a parent estranged from at least one adult child. Maybe it’s yours. Either way, we hope this article will give you some pause for thought.
Which way around?
It makes a difference to the usefulness of this article whether any given reader experiencing estrangement is the parent or the adult child. We’re going to assume the reader is the parent. It also makes a difference who did the estranging. That’s usually the adult child.
So, we’re broadly going to write with that expectation.
Why does it happen?
When our kids are small, we as parents hold all the cards. It may not always feel that way, but we do. We control our kids’ environment, we influence their learning, we buy the food they eat and the clothes they wear. If they want to go somewhere, we probably have to take them. We can even set and enforce rules on a whim.
As they grow, so too does their independence, and it can be difficult for us as parents to relinquish control, but we’re going to have to at some point. Assuming we are good parents, we just hope we’ve prepared them well enough for the world.
Once they’ve flown the nest and are living their own adult lives, there’s an element of inversion. They used to be dependent on us; now, not only do they not need us (this is a feature not a bug! If we have been good parents, they will be strong without us, and in all likelihood one day, they’re going to have to be), but also…
We’re more likely to need them, now. Not just in the “oh if we have kids they can look after us when we’re old” sense, but in that their social lives are growing as ours are often shrinking, their family growing, while ours, well, it’s the same family but they’re the gatekeepers to that now.
If we have a good relationship, this goes fine. However, it might only take one big argument, one big transgression, or one “final straw”, when the adult child decides the parent is more trouble than they’re worth.
And, obviously, that’s going to hurt. But it’s pretty much how it pans out, according to studies:
Here be science: Tensions in the Parent and Adult Child Relationship: Links to Solidarity and Ambivalence
How to fix it, step one
First, figure out what went wrong.
Resist any urge to protect your own feelings with a defensive knee-jerk “I don’t know; I was a good, loving parent”. That’s a very natural and reasonable urge and you’re quite possibly correct, but it won’t help you here.
Something pushed them away. And, it will almost certainly have been a push factor from you, not a pull factor from whoever is in their life now. It’s easy to put the blame externally, but that won’t fix anything.
And, be honest with yourself; this isn’t a job interview where we have to present a strength dressed up as a “greatest weakness” for show.
You can start there, though! If you think “I was too loving”, then ok, how did you show that love? Could it have felt stifling to them? Controlling? Were you critical of their decisions?
It doesn’t matter who was right or wrong, or even whether or not their response was reasonable. It matters that you know what pushed them away.
How to fix it, step two
Take responsibility, and apologize. We’re going to assume that your estrangement is such that you can, at least, still get a letter to them, for example. Resist the urge to argue your case.
Here’s a very good format for an apology; please consider using this template:
The 10-step (!) apology that’s so good, you’ll want to make a note of it
You may have to do some soul-searching to find how you will avoid making the same mistake in the future, that you did in the past.
If you feel it’s something you “can’t change”, then you must decide what is more important to you. Only you can make that choice, but you cannot expect them to meet you halfway. They already made their choice. In the category of negotiation, they hold all the cards now.
How to fix it, step three
Now, just wait.
Maybe they will reply, forgiving you. If they do, celebrate!
Just be aware that once you reconnect is not the time to now get around to arguing your case from before. It will never be the time to get around to arguing your case from before. Let it go.
Nor should you try to exact any sort of apology from them for estranging you, or they will at best feel resentful, wonder if they made a mistake in reconnecting, and withdraw.
Instead, just enjoy what you have. Many people don’t get that.
If they reply with anger, maybe it will be a chance to reopen a dialogue. If so, family therapy could be an approach useful for all concerned, if they are willing. Chances are, you all have things that you’d all benefit from talking about in a calm, professional, moderated, neutral environment.
You might also benefit from a book we reviewed previously, “Parent Effectiveness Training”. This may seem like “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted”, but in fact it’s a very good guide to relationship dynamics in general, and extensively covers relations between parents and adult children.
If they don’t reply, then, you did your part. Take solace in knowing that much.
Some final thoughts:
At the end of the day, as parents, our kids living well is (hopefully) testament to that we prepared them well for life, and sometimes, being a parent is a thankless task.
But, we (hopefully) didn’t become parents for the plaudits, after all.
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Top 5 Foods Seniors Should Eat To Sleep Better Tonight (And 5 To Avoid)
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Dr. Michael Breus, a sleep specialist, advises:
A prescription for rest
Dr. Breus’s top 5 foods to eat for a good night’s sleep are:
1) Chia seeds: high in fiber, protein, omega-3s, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and tryptophan, they help raise melatonin levels for better sleep. The high fiber content also reduces late-night snacking, and in any case, it’s recommended to eat them 2–3 hours before bed. As for how, they can be added to smoothies, baked goods, salads, or made into chia seed pudding.
2) Nuts (especially pistachios & almonds): both of these nuts are rich in B vitamins and melatonin, so take your pick! He does recommend, however, no more than ¼ cup about 1.5 hours before bed. Either can be eaten as-is or with an unsweetened Greek yogurt.
3) Bananas (especially banana tea): contain magnesium, especially in the peel. Boil an organic banana (with peel) in water and drink the water, which provides magnesium and helps improve sleep. It’s recommended to drink it about an hour before bed.
10almonds tip: he doesn’t mention this, but if you prefer, you can also simply eat it—banana peel is perfectly edible, and is not tough when cooked. If you’ve ever had plantains, you’ll know how they are, and bananas (and their peel) are much softer than plantains. Boiling is fine, or alternatively you can wrap them in foil and bake them. The traditional way is to cook them in the leaves, but chances are you live somewhere that doesn’t grow bananas locally and so they didn’t come with leaves, so foil is fine.
4) Tart cherries: are rich in melatonin, antioxidants, and other anti-inflammatory compounds, which all help with falling asleep faster and reducing night awakenings. Can be consumed as juice, dried fruit, or tart cherry extract capsules. Suggested intake: once in the morning and once an hour before bed.
5) Kiwis: are high in serotonin, which aids melatonin production and sleep. This also helps regulate cortisol levels (lower cortisol promotes sleep). He recommends eating kiwi fruit about 2 hours before bed.
Also, in the category of foods (or rather: food types) to avoid before bed…
- High quantities of red meat: can disrupt sleep-related amino acid balance.
- Acidic foods: can cause acid reflux.
- High sugar foods: can slow melatonin production when consumed in the evening.
- Caffeine-rich foods & drinks: includes chocolate and coffee; avoid in the evening.
- Large meals before bed: digestion is less efficient when lying down, causing sleep disruption.
For more on all of these, enjoy:
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