Kiwi vs Lemon – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing kiwi to lemon, we picked the kiwi.
Why?
A fairly straightforward one today!
In terms of macros, kiwi has more protein, carbs, and fiber, the ratio of the latter two also giving it the lower glycemic index. An easy win for kiwi here.
In the category of vitamins, kiwi has more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while lemon has more of vitamins B1 and B6. Yes, that’s right, lemon didn’t even win on the vitamin C that it’s famous for. In any case, a clear 8:2 win for kiwi.
Looking at minerals, kiwi has more calcium, copper, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc, while lemon has more iron and selenium. So, looking at this 7:2 win for kiwi, you might want to reconsider that “glass of lemon water to replenish minerals” trend!
None of this is to knock lemons, by the way; lemons are still a very respectable fruit, nutritionally. Probably very few people are out there eating lemons the way one might eat kiwi…
(writer’s note: I say “very few”, as once upon a time when my son was small, I remember coming into the kitchen to find he had helped himself to lemon wedges and was just eating them, so it can happen. But I also one time when he was just as small, found him drinking hot sauce directly from the bottle, so hey, he clearly already enjoyed strong flavors. Lest I seem a very inattentive mother, I’ll say in my defense that our kitchen has no real toddler-height hazards when the oven is cold, and those items were from the bottom of the fridge, so easy to access if I leave the room for a moment to grab something)
…but what we do want to say here is: if you don’t care for lemons so much, you’re not missing out. If the lemon water isn’t calling to you, you can skip it guilt-free.
In any case, do enjoy either or both, but kiwi’s the clear winner here!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer ← kiwi is top of the list! It has some cool properties, as you’ll see, killing cancer cells while sparing healthy ones.
Take care!
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Sweet Cinnamon vs Regular Cinnamon – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing sweet cinnamon to regular cinnamon, we picked the sweet.
Why?
In this case, it’s not close. One of them is health-giving and the other is poisonous (but still widely sold in supermarkets, especially in the US and Canada, because it is cheaper).
It’s worth noting that “regular cinnamon” is a bit of a misnomer, since sweet cinnamon is also called “true cinnamon”. The other cinnamon’s name is formally “cassia cinnamon”, but marketers don’t tend to call it that, preferring to calling it simply “cinnamon” and hope consumers won’t ask questions about what kind, because it’s cheaper.
Note: this too is especially true in the US and Canada, where for whatever reason sweet cinnamon seems to be more difficult to obtain than in the rest of the world.
In short, both cinnamons contain cinnamaldehyde and coumarin, but:
- Sweet/True cinnamon contains only trace amounts of coumarin
- Regular/Cassia cinnamon contains about 250x more coumarin
Coumarin is heptatotoxic, meaning it poisons the liver, and the recommended safe amount is 0.1mg/kg, so it’s easy to go over that with just a couple of teaspoons of cassia cinnamon.
You might be wondering: how can they get away with selling something that poisons the liver? In which case, see also: the alcohol aisle. Selling toxic things is very common; it just gets normalized a lot.
Cinnamaldehyde is responsible for cinnamon’s healthier properties, and is found in reasonable amounts in both cinnamons. There is about 50% more of it in the regular/cassia than in the sweet/true, but that doesn’t come close to offsetting the potential harm of its higher coumarin content.
Want to learn more?
You may like to read:
- A Tale Of Two Cinnamons ← this one has more of the science of coumarin toxicity, as well as discussing (and evidencing) cinnamaldehyde’s many healthful properties against inflammation, cancer, heart disease, neurodegeneration, etc
Enjoy!
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6 Signs Of A Heart Attack… A Month In Advance
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Many people know the signs of a heart attack when it’s happening, but how about before it’s too late to avoid it?
The signs
- Unusual fatigue: persistent tiredness that doesn’t improve with rest
- Shortness of breath: unexplained breathlessness during light activities or rest, which can be caused by fluid buildup in the lungs (because the heart isn’t circulating blood as well as it should)
- Chest discomfort: pain, pressure, tightness, or aching in the chest due to reduced blood flow to the heart muscle—often occurring during physical exertion or emotional stress
- Frequent indigestion: means that heartburn could be heart-related! This is about persistently reoccurring discomfort or pain in the upper abdomen
- Sleep disturbances: difficulties falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up abruptly
- Excessive sweating: unexplained cold sweats or sudden sweating without physical exertion or excessive heat, can be a response to the decreased oxygen levels caused by less efficient blood flow
Note: this is a list of warning signs, not a diagnostic tool. Any or even all of these could be caused by something else. Just, don’t ignore the signs and do get yourself checked out.
For more details on each of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
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How Not to Age – by Dr. Michael Greger
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First things first: it’s a great book, and it’s this reviewer’s favorite of Dr. Greger’s so far (for posterity: it’s just been published and this reviewer has just finished reading the copy she got on pre-order)
Unlike many popular physician authors, Dr. Greger doesn’t rehash a lot of old material, and instead favours prioritizing new material in each work. Where appropriate, he’ll send the reader to other books for more specific information (e.g: you want to know how to avoid premature death? Go read How Not To Die. You want to know how to lose weight? How Not To Diet. Etc).
In the category of new information, he has a lot to offer here. And with over 8,000 references, it’s information, not conjecture. On which note, we recommend the e-book version if that’s possible for you, for three reasons:
- It’s possible to just click the references and be taken straight to the cited paper itself online
- To try to keep the book’s size down, Dr. Greger has linked to other external resources too
- The only negative reviews on Amazon, so far, are people complaining that the print copy’s text is smaller than they’d like
For all its information-density (those 8,000+ references are packed into 600ish pages), the book is very readable even to a lay reader; the author is a very skilled writer.
As for the content, we can’t fit more than a few sentences here so forgive the brevity, but we’ll mention that he covers:
- Slowing 11 pathways of aging
- The optimal anti-aging regimen according to current best science
- Preserving function (specific individual aspects of aging, e.g. hearing, sight, cognitive function, sexual function, hair, bones, etc)
- “Dr. Greger’s Anti-Aging Eight”
In terms of “flavor” of anti-aging science, his approach can be summed up as: diet and lifestyle as foundation; specific supplements and interventions as cornerstones.
Bottom line: this is now the anti-aging book.
Click here to check out How Not To Age, and look after yourself with the best modern science!
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Curing Hiccups And Headaches At Home With Actual Science
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Quick fixes for bodily annoyances
Do you ever find yourself desperately trying to cure hiccups, and advice on the Internet is like “breathe in through your ears while drinking vinegar upside-down through your nose”?
If so, you’re not alone. So, today we’re going to look at some science-based approaches to dealing with common bodily annoyances.
Hiccups
Unfortunately, most popular advices simply don’t work, and the only near-guaranteed way to cure these is with anti-convulsive medications whose side-effects may be worse than the hiccups.
However, before you head to the pharmacy, there is one breathing exercise that has a very simple scientific underpinning: 4:4 breathing. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s just:
- Breathe slowly in through your nose to a count of four
- Hold your breath for a count of four
- Breathe slowly out through your nose to a count of four
- Hold your breath for a count of four
…and repeat. The slower the better. At first, your hiccups will interrupt this, but just “keep calm and carry on”.
The reason this can work is that breathing is an autonomic function (e.g., it happens without us thinking about it) that, unlike most other autonomic functions, we can all control directly. By taking control of one, others will tend to fall into line with it.
For example, it is normal that your heart rate will tend to slow or quicken as your breathing slows or quickens, respectively.
Your hiccups? Autonomic function. Actually a very, very old evolutionary left-over trait, that’s only useful for protecting lungs while breathing underwater. In other words, it’s the bodily function thinks you’re a fish (or a tadpole-like amphibious creature) in the process of developing lungs. Unfortunately, because hiccuping doesn’t harm our chances of passing on our genes, it never got naturally de-selected so we still have it.
Anyway, the bottom line is: take control of your breathing in the aspects you can directly control, and the aspects you can’t directly control will fall into line. You may need to give it some minutes, don’t give up too quickly.
Headaches
If you ever get a headache and you don’t have painkillers or perhaps they’re not helping or you have another reason for not wanting to take them, there’s “one quick trick” that can cure most headaches in seconds.
First, the limitation: this will only cure headaches that have been caused by increased localized blood pressure in the forehead. However, that’s more than half of most common headaches.
Next, how it works…
We’re mentioning this first, because understanding how it works will give you more confidence in using it.
Your body has a wonderful homeostatic system, which is the system by which your body maintains its “Goldilocks zones” of not too hot or cold, not to acidine or alkaline, not too hydrated or dehydrated, blood pressure not too high or too low, etc. Sometimes, however, it can get confused, and needs a nudge back to where it should be.
One of the ways it maintains blood pressure is biofeedback from receptors in blood vessel walls, called baroreceptors. They are what it sounds like; they measure blood pressure internally.
In certain places, there are clusters of baroreceptors in one place. And if we press on that one place, the body will think “Oh no! Super high blood pressure in this bit!” and reduce the blood pressure immediately.
This is called the baroreflex, and that’s what you need to cure a hypertensive headache.
So, what to do:
With your thumb, carefully feel the upper inside corner of your eye socket. So, at the top, and about ¼ of the way out from the bridge of your nose. You should feel a groove. No, not like the Emperor’s New, but, an actual groove in your eye socket. That’s the supraorbital notch (or foramen), and it allows the supraorbital artery, veins, and nerve to run through.
Press it firmly (you can do both sides at once, assuming you have two thumbs) for about three seconds, and then massage it gently. Repeat as necessary, but it shouldn’t take more than about three goes to have cured the headache.
As a bonus, this is a great party trick for curing other people’s headaches, when the need arises!
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You can’t reverse the ageing process but these 5 things can help you live longer
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At this time of year many of us resolve to prioritise our health. So it is no surprise there’s a roaring trade of products purporting to guarantee you live longer, be healthier and look more youthful.
While an estimated 25% of longevity is determined by our genes, the rest is determined by what we do, day to day.
There are no quick fixes or short cuts to living longer and healthier lives, but the science is clear on the key principles. Here are five things you can do to extend your lifespan and improve your health.
1. Eat a predominantly plant-based diet
What you eat has a huge impact on your health. The evidence overwhelmingly shows eating a diet high in plant-based foods is associated with health and longevity.
If you eat more plant-based foods and less meat, processed foods, sugar and salt, you reduce your risk of a range of illnesses that shorten our lives, including heart disease and cancer.
Plant-based foods are rich in nutrients, phytochemicals, antioxidants and fibre. They’re also anti-inflammatory. All of this protects against damage to our cells as we age, which helps prevent disease.
No particular diet is right for everyone but one of the most studied and healthiest is the Mediterranean diet. It’s based on the eating patterns of people who live in countries around the Mediterranean Sea and emphases vegetables, fruits, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds, fish and seafood, and olive oil.
2. Aim for a healthy weight
Another important way you can be healthier is to try and achieve a healthy weight, as obesity increases the risk of a number of health problems that shorten our lives.
Obesity puts strain on all of our body systems and has a whole myriad of physiological effects including causing inflammation and hormonal disturbances. These increase your chances of a number of diseases, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes and a number of cancers.
In addition to affecting us physically, obesity is also associated with poorer psychological health. It’s linked to depression, low self-esteem and stress.
One of the biggest challenges we face in the developed world is that we live in an environment that promotes obesity. The ubiquitous marketing and the easy availability of high-calorie foods our bodies are hard-wired to crave mean it’s easy to consume too many calories.
3. Exercise regularly
We all know that exercise is good for us – the most common resolution we make this time of year is to do more exercise and to get fitter. Regular exercise protects against chronic illness, lowers your stress and improves your mental health.
While one of the ways exercising helps you is by supporting you to control your weight and lowering your body fat levels, the effects are broader and include improving your glucose (blood sugar) use, lowering your blood pressure, reducing inflammation and improving blood flow and heart function.
While it’s easy to get caught up in all of the hype about different exercise strategies, the evidence suggests that any way you can include physical activity in your day has health benefits. You don’t have to run marathons or go to the gym for hours every day. Build movement into your day in any way that you can and do things that you enjoy.
4. Don’t smoke
If you want to be healthier and live longer then don’t smoke or vape.
Smoking cigarettes affects almost every organ in the body and is associated with both a shorter and lower quality of life. There is no safe level of smoking – every cigarette increases your chances of developing a range of cancers, heart disease and diabetes.
Even if you have been smoking for years, by giving up smoking at any age you can experience health benefits almost immediately, and you can reverse many of the harmful effects of smoking.
If you’re thinking of switching to vapes as a healthy long term option, think again. The long term health effects of vaping are not fully understood and they come with their own health risks.
5. Prioritise social connection
When we talk about living healthier and longer, we tend to focus on what we do to our physical bodies. But one of the most important discoveries over the past decade has been the recognition of the importance of spiritual and psychological health.
People who are lonely and socially isolated have a much higher risk of dying early and are more likely to suffer from heart disease, stroke, dementia as well as anxiety and depression.
Although we don’t fully understand the mechanisms, it’s likely due to both behavioural and biological factors. While people who are more socially connected are more likely to engage in healthy behaviours, there also seems to be a more direct physiological effect of loneliness on the body.
So if you want to be healthier and live longer, build and maintain your connections to others.
Hassan Vally, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Deakin University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Tempeh vs Tofu – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing tempeh to tofu, we picked the tempeh.
Why?
Per 100g, tempeh has about 1.5x as many calories, about 2x as much protein, about 3x as much fiber, and about 4x the carbohydrates.
Which latter sounds like a lot, but really, the amounts here are small—tempeh is under 12% carbohydrates, and most of that is treated by the body as fiber (e.g. it’s a resistant starch).
Both have no sugar, and both have more or less the same (tiny) amount of fat.
Micronutrients, you ask? As they’re both made from soybeans, the micronutrient profiles are similar, but exact amounts will depend on the method used, so by all means check labels if comparing products in store. By and large, there’s usually not much difference, though.
You can see sample stats here:
In summary
Both are great, and/but tempeh is the more nutrient-dense of the two.
Therefore, tempeh is the healthier option, unless you are on a very strictly calorie-controlled diet, in which case, tofu will give you more quantity per calorie.
Enjoy!
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