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

❝Hey Sheila – As always, your articles are superb !! So, I have a topic that I’d love you guys to discuss: green tea. I used to try + drink it years ago but I always got an allergic reaction to it. So the question I’d like answered is: Will I still get the same allergic reaction if I take the capsules ? Also, because it’s caffeinated, will taking it interfere with iron pills, other vitamins + meds ? I read that the health benefits of the decaffeinated tea/capsules are not as great as the caffeinated. Any info would be greatly appreciated !! Thanks much !!❞

Hi! I’m not Sheila, but I’ll answer this one in the first person as I’ve had a similar issue:

I found long ago that taking any kind of tea (not herbal infusions, but true teas, e.g. green tea, black tea, red tea, etc) on an empty stomach made me want to throw up. The feeling would subside within about half an hour, but I learned it was far better to circumvent it by just not taking tea on an empty stomach.

However! I take an l-theanine supplement when I wake up, to complement my morning coffee, and have never had a problem with that. Of course, my physiology is not your physiology, and this “shouldn’t” be happening to either of us in the first place, so it’s not something there’s a lot of scientific literature about, and we just have to figure out what works for us.

This last Monday I wrote (inspired in part by your query) about l-theanine supplementation, and how it doesn’t require caffeine to unlock its benefits after all, by the way. So that’s that part in order.

I can’t speak for interactions with your other supplements or medications without knowing what they are, but I’m not aware of any known issue, beyond that l-theanine will tend to give a gentler curve to the expression of some neurotransmitters. So, if for example you’re talking anything that affects that (e.g. antidepressants, antipsychotics, ADHD meds, sleepy/wakefulness meds, etc) then checking with your doctor is best.

❝Can you do something on collagen and keep use posted on pineapple, and yes love and look forward to each issue❞

Glad you’re enjoying! We did write a main feature on collagen a little while back! Here it is:

We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of

As for pineapple, there’s not a lot to keep you posted about! Pineapple’s protein-digesting, DNA-unzipping action is well-established and considered harmless (if your mouth feels weird when you eat pineapple or drink pineapple juice, this is why, by the way) because no meaningful damage was done.

For example:

• Pineapple’s bromelain action is akin to taking apart a little lego model brick by brick (easy to fix)
• Clastogenic genotoxicity is more like taking a blowtorch to the lego model (less easy to fix)

Fun fact: pineapple is good against inflammation, because of the very same enzyme!

❝I never knew anything about the l- tea. Where can I purchase it?❞

You can get it online quite easily! Here’s an example on Amazon

❝The 3 most important exercises don’t work if you can’t get on the floor. I’m 78, and have knee replacements. What about 3 best chair yoga stretches? Love your articles!❞

Here are six!

We turn the tables and ask you a question!

We’ll then talk about this tomorrow:

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

❝I was wondering, is the health difference important between extra virgin olive oil and regular?❞

Assuming that by “regular” you mean “virgin and still sold as a food product”, then there are health differences, but they’re not huge. Or at least: not nearly so big as the differences between those and other oils.

Virgin olive oil (sometimes simply sold as “olive oil”, with no claims of virginity) has been extracted by the same means as extra virgin olive oil, that is to say: purely mechanical.

The difference is that extra virgin olive oil comes from the first pressing*, so the free fatty acid content is slightly lower (later checked and validated and having to score under a 0.8% limit for “extra virgin” instead of 2% limit for a mere “virgin”).

*Fun fact: in Arabic, extra virgin is called “البكر الممتاز“, literally “the amazing first-born”, because of this feature!

It’s also slightly higher in mono-unsaturated fatty acids, which is a commensurately slight health improvement.

It’s very slightly lower in saturated fats, which is an especially slight health improvement, as the saturated fats in olive oil are amongst the healthiest saturated fats one can consume.

On which fats are which:

The truth about fats: the good, the bad, and the in-between

And our own previous discussion of saturated fats in particular:

Can Saturated Fats Be Healthy?

Probably the strongest extra health-benefit of extra virgin is that while that first pressing squeezes out oil with the lowest free fatty acid content, it squeezes out oil with the highest polyphenol content, along with other phytonutrients:

Antioxidants in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Table Olives: Connections between Agriculture and Processing for Health Choices

If you enjoy olive oil, then springing for extra virgin is worth it if that’s not financially onerous, both for health reasons and taste.

However, if mere “virgin” is what’s available, it’s no big deal to have that instead; it still has a very similar nutritional profile, and most of the same benefits.

Don’t settle for less than “virgin”, though.

While some virgin olive oils aren’t marked as such, if it says “refined” or “blended”, then skip it. These will have been extracted by chemical means and/or blended with completely different oils (e.g. canola, which has a very different nutritional profile), and sometimes with a dash of virgin or extra virgin, for the taste and/or so that they can claim in big writing on the label something like:

_{^{a blend of}}
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
_{^{and other oils}}

…despite having only a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil in it.

Different places have different regulations about what labels can claim.

The main countries that produce olives (and the EU, which contains and/or directly trades with those) have this set of rules:

International Olive Council: Designations and definitions of Olive Oils

…which must be abided by or marketers face heavy fines and sanctions.

In the US, the USDA has its own set of rules based on the above:

USDA | Olive Oil and Olive-Pomace Oil Grades and Standards

…which are voluntary (not protected by law), and marketers can pay to have their goods certified if they want.

So if you’re in the US, look for the USDA certification or it really could be:

• What the USDA calls “US virgin olive oil not fit for human consumption”, which in the IOC is called “lamp oil”*
• crude pomace-oil (oil made from the last bit of olive paste and then chemically treated)
• canola oil with a dash of olive oil
• anything yellow and oily, really

*This technically is virgin olive oil insofar as it was mechanically extracted, but with defects that prevent it from being sold as such, such as having a free fatty acid content above the cut-off, or just a bad taste/smell, or some sort of contamination.

See also: Potential Health Benefits of Olive Oil and Plant Polyphenols

(the above paper has a handy infographic if you scroll down just a little)

Where can I get some?

Your local supermarket, probably, but if you’d like to get some online, here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience

Enjoy!