Peaches vs Plums – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing peaches to plums, we picked the peaches.
Why?
Both are great! But there is a clear winner out of these two botanically-similar fruits:
In terms of macronutrients they are very similar. Peaches have slightly more protein and plums have slightly more carbs, but the numbers are close enough to make no meaningful difference; they’re both mostly water.
They’re also not too far from each other in the category of vitamins; peaches have more of vitamins B2, B3, B5, E, and choline, while plums have more of vitamins B1, B6, B9, C, and K. They’re equal on vitamin A, by the way, and the vitamins they do differ in, differ by around the same margins, so this category is a clear tie.
When it comes to minerals, however, peaches win easily with more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. The two fruits are equal on calcium, and plum is not higher in any minerals.
While they already won easily because of the mineral situation, it should be noted that peaches also have the lower glycemic index. But honestly, plums are fine too; peaches are just even lower.
So: enjoy both, but if you’re going to pick one, peaches boast the most!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
- Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer
- Apricots vs Peaches – Which is Healthier?
- Dried Apricots vs Dried Prunes – Which is Healthier? (prunes are dried plums, usually partially rehydrated)
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Relieve GERD and Acid Reflux with Stretches and Exercises
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Looking for relief from GERD or acid reflux? Today we’re featuring an amazing video by Dr. Jo, packed with stretches and exercises designed to ease those symptoms.
Here’s a quick rundown, in case you don’t have time to watch the whole video.
If you’re not familiar with GERD, you can find our simple explanation of GERD here. Or, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and want to do a deeper dive on the topic, we reviewed a great book on the topic).
1. Mobilize Your SEM Muscle
The sternocleidomastoid (SEM) muscle, if tight, can aggravate acid reflux. Dr. Jo shows how to gently mobilize this muscle by turning your head while holding the SEM in place. It’s simple but effective.
2. Portrait Pose Stretch
Stretch out that SEM with the Portrait Pose. Place your hand on your collarbone, turn your head away, side bend, and look up. Hold for 30 seconds. You’ll feel the tension melting away.
3. Seated Cat-Cow Motion
Open up your stomach area with this easy exercise. Sit down, roll your body forward, arch your back (Cow), then curl your spine and tuck your chin (Cat). Alternate for 30 seconds and feel the difference.
4. Quadruped Cat-Cow with Breathing
Similar to the seated cat-cow, the quadruped cat-cow focuses on flexing the lower spine whilst on all fours. Bonus tip: focus on deep belly breathing during the exercise. This helps improve digestion and ease reflux symptoms.
5. Exaggerated Pelvic Tilt
Lie on your back and tilt your pelvis back and forth. This loosens up the abdominal area and helps everything flow better.
6. Trunk Rotation
Lie down, bend your knees, and rotate them to one side. Hold for 30 seconds, then switch sides. It’s a great way to relax and stretch your abdominal muscles.
We know this is a quick overview (sorry if it seems rushed!), but if you have a few more minutes on your hand you can watch the whole video below.
Feel better soon! And if you have any favorite tips or videos to share, email us at 10almonds.
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Meal Timings vs Osteoporosis Fracture Risk
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…and other items from this week’s health news:
Worse than smoking?
The following factors were found to have the following effects on osteoporotic fracture risk:
- skipping breakfast: 18% higher risk
- slow gait speed: 16% higher risk
- smoking: 11% higher risk
- late dinner: 8% higher risk
- regular exercise: 1% lower risk
- enough sleep: 5% lower risk
- daily alcohol consumption: 9% lower risk
That last one’s not a typo! But it also doesn’t mean that alcohol is protective against osteoporosis itself, or against fractures.
So, what does it mean? It means that binge-drinking is more likely to result in someone falling over and breaking something, than moderate daily drinking.
Note: the term “binge-drinking” is popularly associated with young people getting intentionally drunk at the weekend, but please understand that if you don’t drink for months and then have several drinks on some special occasion (e.g. Christmas, New Year’s Eve, a wedding), etc, then that is binge-drinking.
So, what’s this about skipping breakfast and the late dinner? We are hypothesizing here, but in all likelihood it has to do with being rushed and frazzled and lacking energy in the morning—which again, makes you more likely to fall over and break something.
Similarly, that about regular exercise yielding a meager 1% lower risk… Actually, taking into account the confidence interval, an argument could be made for 0%. However, that 0% change to risk isn’t because exercise doesn’t make a difference—it’s because (and partly depending on what kind of exercise it is), while exercise does typically make people more robust, you’re also more likely to fall over while playing tennis than you are to fall over while watching TV. So, looking at nearly a million people’s data, those two sides of exercise cancel each other out.
In short: it’s not just about how strong your bones are or aren’t; it’s also about how likely you are to do something that can result in a fracture.
Read in full: Late dinners and missed breakfasts tied to higher osteoporosis risk
Related: Fall Special ← this is about how to not fall, and how to make it less likely you’ll be injured by a fall if you do
Do you know the early symptoms of prostate cancer?
No, you don’t. But don’t worry, neither does anyone else, because prostate cancer has no symptoms in its early stages.
What is cause for concern, however, is that most people don’t know that (or at least: 80% of Americans polled didn’t know that), and thus that it needs to be diagnosed with a blood test.
In the US, it’s recommended to get tested at age 50 (assuming you have a prostate to test), though earlier can be good especially if you have a family history of it, and/or otherwise are aware of a genetic risk factor (such from having done a health genomics test which revealed it).
Since prostate cancer typically progresses very slowly, it’s considered very treatable if caught early.
But that doesn’t mean “don’t worry”; it means “do catch it early”!
Read in full: Most Americans unaware that early prostate cancer shows no symptoms
Related: Prostate Health: What You Should Know ← this also covers the Prostate Screening Episwitch (PSE) test, which is 94% accurate, unlike the usual go-to, the Prostate-Specific Androgen (PSA) test, which is so inaccurate that even its original creator has called it “a profit-driven health disaster” that is “no better than a coin toss”.
Depression, according to the brain cells
Sometimes, arguments are made for depression being a purely psychological thing, and not physical. We reviewed such a book a while back ← it wasn’t good
However, researchers (Dr. Anjali Chawla et al.) have identified two specific brain cell types altered in people with depression. Specifically, a subtype of excitatory neurons linked to mood and stress regulation, and a subtype of microglia that manage neuroinflammation.
Most notably (and showing a clear long-term effect), many genes functioned differently in these cells in depressed people, indicating disruptions in mood regulation and inflammatory systems, respectively.
Dr. Chawla and her team now plan to study more comprehensively how these cellular changes affect brain function, and explore treatment options with this new information in mind.
Read in full: Research sheds new light on depression’s biological roots
Related: The Brain As A Work-In-Progress
Take care!
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Unprocessed – by Kimberly Wilson
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First, what this is not: hundreds of pages to say “eat less processed food”. That is, of course, also advisable (and indeed, is advised in the book too), but there’s a lot more going on here too.
Though not a doctor, the author is a psychologist who brings a lot of data to the table, especially when it comes to the neurophysiology at hand, what forgotten micronutrients many people are lacking, and what trends in society worsen these deficiencies in the population at large.
If you only care about the broadest of take-away advice, it is: eat a diet that’s mostly minimally processed plants and some oily fish, watch out for certain deficiencies in particular, and increase dietary intake of them where necessary (with taking supplements as a respectable next-best remedy).
On which note, a point of criticism is that there’s some incorrect information about veganism and brain health; she mentions that DHA is only found in fish (in fact, fish get it from algae, which has it, and is the basis of many vegan omega-3 supplements), and the B12 is found only in animals (also found in yeast, which is not an animal, as well as various bacteria in soil, and farm animals get their B12 from supplements these days anyway, so it is arguable that we could keep things simpler by just cutting out the middlecow).
However, the strength of this book really is in the delivery of understanding about why certain things matter. If you’re told “such-and-such is good for the brain”, you’ll up your intake for 1–60 days, depending on whether you bought a supermarket item or ordered a batch of supplements. And then you’ll forget, until 6–12 months later, and you’ll do it again. On the other hand, if you understand how something is good or bad for the brain, what it does (for good or ill) on a cellular level, the chemistry and neurophysiology at hand, you’ll make new habits for life.
The style is middle-range pop-science; by this we mean there are tables of data and some long words that are difficult to pronounce, but also it’s not just hard science throughout—there’s (as one might expect from an author who is a psychologist) a lot about the psychology and sociology of why many people make poor dietary decisions, and the things governments often do (or omit doing) that affect this adversely—and how we can avoid those traps as individuals (unless we be incarcerated or such).
As an aside, the author is British, so governmental examples are mostly UK-based, but it doesn’t take a lot to mentally measure that against what the governments of, for example, the US or Canada do the same or differently.
Bottom line: there’s a lot of great information about brain health here; the strongest parts are whether the author stays within her field (psychology encompasses such diverse topics as neurophysiology and aspects of sociology, but not microbiology, for example). If you want to learn about the physiology of brain health and enjoy quite a sociopolitical ride along the way, this one’s a good one for that.
Click here to check out Unprocessed, and make the best choices for you!
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Cranberries vs Redcurrants – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing cranberries to redcurrants, we picked the redcurrants.
Why?
It’s that time of year!
First know: here we’re comparing raw cranberries to raw redcurrants, with no additives in either case. If you buy jelly made from either, or if you buy dried fruits but the ingredients list has a lot of added sugar and often some vegetable oil, then that’s going to be very different.
But for now… Let’s look at just the fruits:
In terms of macros, redcurrants are higher in carbs, but also higher in fiber, and have the lower glycemic index as cranberries have nearly 2x the GI. Thus, a first round win for redcurrants.
In the category of vitamins, cranberries have more of vitamins A, B5, and E, while redcurrants have more of vitamins B1, B2, B6, B9, C, and K, In other words, a clear win for redcurrants.
Looking at minerals, cranberries boast a little more manganese; they also have about 2x the sodium. Meanwhile, redcurrants sweep even more convincingly with a lot more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, meaning redcurrants win their third round in a row.
In other considerations, both berries have generous amounts of assorted phytochemicals (especially polyphenols, including flavonoids and others), and/but nothing to set one ahead of the other. So, a tie in this round. Unless…
- if you have a tendency to UTIs, the cranberries win as they are very effective at reducing those
- if you have kidney problems, then redcurrants win as cranberries can increase the risk of kidney stones
…however, since we are adding things up for the readership as a whole, we’ll say those two things cancel each other out, and this declare a fourth-round tie.
Adding up the sections shows a clear overall win for redcurrants, but as for pretty much any berries that aren’t poisonous, both of these are great choices for most people most of the time.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Health Benefits Of Cranberries (But: You’d Better Watch Out)
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What’s So Special About Alpha-Lipoic Acid?
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The Access-All-Areas Antioxidant
Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) is one of the most bioavailable antioxidants in existence. A bold claim, but most antioxidants are only water-soluble or fat-soluble, whereas ALA is both. This has far-reaching implications—and we mean that literally, because its “go everywhere” status means that it can access (and operate in) all living cells of the human body.
We make it inside our body, and we can also get it in our diet, or take it as a supplement.
What foods contain it?
The richest food sources are:
- For the meat-eaters: organ meats
- For everyone: broccoli, tomatoes, & spinach
However, supplements are more efficient at delivering it, by several orders of magnitude:
Read more: Lipoic acid – biological activity and therapeutic potential
What are its benefits?
Most of its benefits are the usual benefits you would expect from any antioxidant, just, more of it. In particular, reduced inflammation and slowed skin aging are common reasons that people take ALA as a supplement.
Does it really reduce inflammation?
Yes, it does. This one’s not at all controversial, as this systematic review of studies shows:
(C-reactive protein is a marker of inflammation)
Does it really reduce skin aging?
Again yes—which again is not surprising for such a potent antioxidant; remember that oxidative stress is one of the main agonists of cellular aging:
As a special feature, ALA shows particular strength against sun-related skin aging, because of how it protects against UV radiation and increases levels of gluthianone, which also helps:
- Photochemical stability of lipoic acid and its impact on skin ageing
- Modern approach to topical treatment of aging skin
Where can I get some?
We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon
Enjoy!
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Get Fitter As You Go
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Dr. Jaime Seeman: Hard To Kill?
This is Dr. Jaime Seeman. She’s a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist with a background in nutrition, exercise, and health science. She’s also a Fellow in Integrative Medicine, and a board-certified nutrition specialist.
However, her biggest focus is preventative medicine.
What does she want us to know?
The Five Pillars of being “Hard to Kill”!
As an athlete when she was younger, she got away with poor nutrition habits with good exercise, but pregnancy (thrice) brought her poor thyroid function, other hormonal imbalances, and pre-diabetes.
So, she set about getting better—not something the general medical establishment focuses on a lot! Doctors are pressured to manage symptoms, but are under no expectation to actually help people get better.
So, what are her five pillars?
Nutrition
Dr. Seeman unsurprisingly recommends a whole-foods diet with lots of plants, but unlike many plant-enjoyers, she is also an enjoyer of the ketogenic diet.
While keto-enthusiasts say “carbs are bad” and vegans say “meat is bad”, the reality is: both of those things can be bad, and in both cases, avoiding the most harmful varieties is a very good first step:
Movement
This is in two parts:
- get your 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week
- keep your body mobile!
See also:
Sleep
This one’s quite straightforward, and Dr. Seeman uncontroversially recommends getting 7–9 hours per night; yes, even you:
Mindset
This is key to Dr. Seeman’s approach, and it is about not settling for average, because the average is undernourished, overmedicated, sedentary, and suffering.
She encourages us all to keep working for better health, wherever we’re at. To not “go gentle into that good night”, to get stronger whatever our age, to showcase increasingly robust vitality as we go.
To believe we can, and then to do it.
Environment
That previous item usually won’t last beyond a 10-day health-kick without the correct environment.
As for how to make sure we have that? Check out:
Want more?
She does offer coaching:
Hard To Kill Academy: Master The Mindset To Maximize Your Years
Take care!
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