Pistachios vs Pecans – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing pistachios to pecans, we picked the pistachios.
Why?
Firstly, the macronutrients: pistachios have twice as much protein and fiber. Pecans have more fat, though in both of these nuts the fats are healthy.
The category of vitamins is an easy win for pistachios, with a lot more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, C, and E. Especially the 8x vitamin A, 7x vitamin B6, 4x vitamin C, and 2x vitamin E, and as the percentages are good too, these aren’t small differences. Pecans, meanwhile, boast only a little more vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid, the one whose name means “it’s everywhere”, because that’s how easy it is to get it).
In terms of minerals, pistachios have more calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium, while pecans have more manganese and zinc. So, a fair win for pistachios on this one.
Adding up the three different kinds of win for pistachios means that *drumroll* pistachios win overall, and it’s not close.
As ever, do enjoy both though, because diversity is healthy!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
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A Very Cheap Way To Slow Biological Aging
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“Multivitamins and minerals are good for longevity” is an interesting one as a topic, because:
- On the one hand, that is already popularly assumed
- On the other hand, multivitamins and minerals are equally popularly much-derided as a waste of money
And indeed, they have their limitations, and yes, it’s still better to get everything from one’s diet.
Warning: do not, however, fall into the trap that many do, and think “I don’t need to take supplements because it’s better to get it from my diet” and then not, in fact, get a full coverage from your diet
So, for whatever reason you might choose to take a multivitamin and mineral, let’s take a look at…
Cause and effect
Researchers (Dr. Sidong Li et al.) found that taking a daily multivitamin for two years slowed biological aging by the equivalent of about four months.
So, that’s basically as if every time you went forwards 6 years, you went back 1 year.
Compared to what, you ask?
Good question, because if it’s “compared to not taking it”, and if it’s an observational study, then there can be all kinds of confounding factors, most of them rooted in the theme “people who do thing 1 for their health are more likely to also do things 2, 3, 4, and 5 for their health”.
The answer, happily, is: “compared to placebo”. It was a randomized controlled trial.
Next up, some may be wondering what “biological age” is. In fact, biological age is not one thing but quite a lot of things, each of which can age at different rates.
See for example: Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?
One of the best ways to try to boil it down to a composite figure, however, is to look at epigenetic clocks.
First let’s quickly cover the question of: what does “epigenetic” mean? In few words and put simply, epigenetics is the study of “around genetics”, i.e. the things that are not the genes themselves, but modulate how (and indeed, whether or not) genes are expressed.
In this case, Dr. Li and her team used epigenetic clocks that estimate biological age based on patterns of DNA methylation, which influence gene expression and naturally change with age. The quicker the progression of the clock, the faster the aging.
The analysis included DNA methylation data from blood samples of 958 healthy participants with an average chronological age of 70 who were randomized to receive combinations of cocoa extract, multivitamins & minerals, or placebo.
- Good news: participants taking a multivitamin enjoyed slowing across all five epigenetic aging clocks tested, with strongest effects in the two clocks most strongly linked to mortality risk.
- Bad news: the cocoa extract supplement was a bit of a flop. Didn’t help. Or rather, it had no effect whatsoever on the 5 epigenetic clocks tested.
The reason why she tested cocoa extract for this, is because of: Cocoa vs Biological Aging!
…in which Dr. Li (yes, the same Dr. Li) and her team (mostly the same team, but not entirely the same) found that daily cocoa extract reduced hsCRP (a key inflammation marker tied to heart disease) by about 8.4% per year compared with placebo, suggesting anti-inflammatory and cardio-protective effects, and also noted that this cocoa extract supplementation reduced cardiovascular mortality by 27%.
Which is relevant, because epigenetic clocks and inflammatory markers are two out of three of: The 3 Best Predictors Of How Well You’ll Age
If you’d like to read Dr. Li’s latest work, you can find it here: Effects of daily multivitamin–multimineral and cocoa extract supplementation on epigenetic aging clocks in the COSMOS randomized clinical trial ← published literally today, at time of writing this article. Never let it be said we don’t bring you cutting edge health science news!
Want to learn more?
You might like this book we reviewed a while back
Eat Your Vitamins – by Mascha Davis, RDN ← This book methodically discusses an assortment of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients; the “other nutrients” category including amino acids (branched chain and essential), prebiotics and probiotics, and triglycerides of various kinds.
Enjoy!
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First it was ‘protein goals’, now TikTok is on about ‘fibre goals’. How can you meet yours?
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“Protein goals” have long been a thing on TikTok and Instagram. But now social media users are also talking about “fibre goals”. This reflects a positive broader shift toward overall health and wellbeing rather than a narrow focus on weight loss or muscle gain.
Foods high in fibre are among the healthiest we can eat. Not getting enough can lead to constipation, haemorrhoids and boost the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and bowel cancer.
So what’s the expert evidence say about “fibre goals” and how to hit them?
Westend61/Getty Images Different types of fibre
Dietary fibres are indigestible parts of plant foods. Unlike other carbohydrates that break down into sugar, these complex carbs pass through our digestive tract mostly unchanged.
There are two main types of dietary fibre:
Soluble fibres dissolve in water to form gel-like substances. You can find these in fruits such as apples and berries, vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots, as well a legumes and oats.
Soluble fibres can slow down digestion and help us feel fuller for longer. They support heart health, lower blood cholesterol and help regulate blood sugar levels.
Insoluble fibres don’t dissolve in water, but add bulk to food. You can get this type of fibre from wheat bran, fruits and vegetable skins, nuts and seeds, beans and whole grain foods.
Insoluble fibres add bulk to the stool and help regulate bowel movements and reduce constipation.
Resistant starch is also a type of complex carb that isn’t technically a fibre, but behaves like one; it resists digestion and feeds gut bacteria. These are found in legumes, cooked potato, and undercooked pasta.
Unlike many fibre supplements (which often only offer one type of fibre) most sources of fibre we eat contain both soluble and insoluble forms. For example, oats, apples and avocado have both.
Both soluble and insoluble fibre benefit our gut and overall health.
Both can be fermented by good gut bacteria, although soluble dietary fibres (and resistant starches) tend to ferment more readily.
Our gut bacteria rely on fermenting these fibres as a fuel to help digest foods, fight against pathogenic microbes such as germs and viruses, and improve physical and mental health.
Avocados are high in fibre. Rouzes/Getty Images What should my fibre goal should be?
Sadly, there’s no quick lab test to measure it.
A simple indicator is how well your digestion works. If you’re rarely constipated, you’re likely getting enough fibre.
The National Health and Medical Research Council recommends daily fibre intakes vary by age and gender.
But in general, adult men should have about 30 grams of fibre per day. Women should have about 25 grams.
There are many apps and websites to help you calculate your current fibre intake.
It’s hard to have too much dietary fibre; even eating 50g per day is not considered harmful.
How do I meet that goal without overthinking it?
Foods rich in fibre include:
- fruits
- vegetables
- nuts
- seeds
- legumes
- beans
- wholegrain or wholemeal breads and cereals.
Aim for variety in your diet, so you don’t get bored of the same foods.
The federal government’s Australian Dietary Guidelines suggest a daily intake of:
- two serves of medium-sized fruits
- five serves of vegetables (one serve is half a cup of cooked veggies or one cup of salad greens)
- two to three serves of nuts and seeds (where one serve is about 30g or a handful) or two to three serves of legumes/beans (where one serve is a cup of cooked beans, lentils, chickpeas, split peas).
What not to do
Here are some important things to remember:
- avoid drastic changes such as cutting out entire food groups or nutrients (such as carbohydrates) unless advised by your health practitioner. Even low-fibre food groups (such as dairy or lean meats) provide important nutrients. Avoiding them can potentially cause other health problems
- avoid focusing on just one type of fibre (soluble or insoluble). Each has different benefits, so incorporating both is best
- avoid a sudden increase in fibre. It can cause abdominal pain and increased flatulence. Start by adding just one or two high-fibre foods each day and slowly increase this over a few weeks
- fibre needs water to work effectively, so drink plenty of fluids. Aim for at least eight to ten glasses of water per day.
How do I hit my goal without being a weirdo about it?
Eating well doesn’t need to be a competition.
It’s great people are sharing ideas on social media about increasing fibre intake and setting fibre goals, but we can do it without constantly obsessing over food.
Focus on gradual changes and incorporating fibre-rich foods naturally into your diet. Start by eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, and adding legumes and pulses (such as kidney beans and chickpeas) to meals.
Simple switches can go a long way. For example, swap refined grain products (such as white rice or white bread) for wholemeal or wholegrain varieties. If you like breakfast cereals, choose one with at least 5g of fibre per serve (read the nutrition panel on the packet).
Finally, listen to your body. If you experience any digestive discomfort or have certain conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome that requires managing your fibre intake, consult with a health-care professional.
Saman Khalesi, Senior Lecturer and Head of Course Nutrition, HealthWise Research Group Lead, Appleton Institute,, CQUniversity Australia; Chris Irwin, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Health Sciences & Social Work, Griffith University, and Seyed Farhang Jafari, PhD candidate of Public Health (Nutrition), CQUniversity Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Sensitive – by Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo
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This book is written for what is called the “Highly Sensitive Person”, which makes it sound like a very rare snowflake condition, when in fact the diagnostic criteria (discussed early in the book) yield a population bell curve of 30:40:30, whereupon 30% are in the band of “high sensitivity”, 40% “normal sensitivity” and the remainder “low sensitivity”. You may note that “high” and “low” together outnumber “normal”, but statistics is like that.
So, if you’re one of the approximately one in three people who fall into the higher category, and/or you have a loved one who is in that category, then this book looks at the many advantages to a commonly stigmatized and (by cruel irony) criticized personality trait.
Those advantages range from personal life to work and even public life (yes, really), and can be grown, positively highlighted, used, and enjoyed.
In the category of criticism, the book does not usefully cover the benefit of psychological resilience. Resilience does not mean losing sensitivity, just, being able to also dry one’s tears and weather life’s slings and arrows when the world is harsher than one might like. But for the authors, they have stacked all their chips on “we must make the world a better place”. Which is a noble goal, if not always an immediately attainable one.
Bottom line: if you are more sensitive than average and would like to use that to benefit yourself and those around you, then this is the book for you!
Click here to check out Sensitive, and make the most of your strengths!
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How to Eat (And Still Lose Weight) – by Dr. Andrew Jenkinson
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You may be wondering: what diet is he recommending?
The answer is: some guiding principles aside…. He’s not recommending a diet, per se.
What this book does instead is outline why we eat too much ← link is to where we previously had this author as a spotlight featured expert on this topic! Check it out!
He goes into a lot more detail than we ever could have in our little article, though, and this book is one of those where the reader may feel as though we have had a few classes at medical school. The style, however, is very comprehensible and accessible; there’s no obfuscating jargon here.
Once we understand the signalling that goes on in terms of hunger/satiety, and the signalling that goes on in terms of fat storage/metabolism, we can simply choose to not give our bodies the wrong signals. Yes, it’s really that simple. It feels quite like a cheat code!
Bottom line: if you’d like a better understanding of what regulates our body’s “set point” in weight/adiposity, and what can change it (for better or for worse), then this is the book for you.
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With all this bird flu around, how safe are eggs, chicken or milk?
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Enzo Palombo, Swinburne University of Technology
Recent outbreaks of bird flu – in US dairy herds, poultry farms in Australia and elsewhere, and isolated cases in humans – have raised the issue of food safety.
So can the virus transfer from infected farm animals to contaminate milk, meat or eggs? How likely is this?
And what do we need to think about to minimise our risk when shopping for or preparing food?
AS Foodstudio/Shutterstock How safe is milk?
Bird flu (or avian influenza) is a bird disease caused by specific types of influenza virus. But the virus can also infect cows. In the US, for instance, to date more than 80 dairy herds in at least nine states have been infected with the H5N1 version of the virus.
Investigations are under way to confirm how this happened. But we do know infected birds can shed the virus in their saliva, nasal secretions and faeces. So bird flu can potentially contaminate animal-derived food products during processing and manufacturing.
Indeed, fragments of bird flu genetic material (RNA) were found in cow’s milk from the dairy herds associated with infected US farmers.
However, the spread of bird flu among cattle, and possibly to humans, is likely to have been caused through contact with contaminated milking equipment, not the milk itself.
The test used to detect the virus in milk – which uses similar PCR technology to lab-based COVID tests – is also highly sensitive. This means it can detect very low levels of the bird flu RNA. But the test does not distinguish between live or inactivated virus, just that the RNA is present. So from this test alone, we cannot tell if the virus found in milk is infectious (and capable of infecting humans).
It’s best to stick with pasteurised milk. Amnixia/Shutterstock Does that mean milk is safe to drink and won’t transmit bird flu? Yes and no.
In Australia, where bird flu has not been reported in dairy cattle, the answer is yes. It is safe to drink milk and milk products made from Australian milk.
In the US, the answer depends on whether the milk is pasteurised. We know pasteurisation is a common and reliable method of destroying concerning microbes, including influenza virus. Like most viruses, influenza virus (including bird flu virus) is inactivated by heat.
Although there is little direct research on whether pasteurisation inactivates H5N1 in milk, we can extrapolate from what we know about heat inactivation of H5N1 in chicken and eggs.
So we can be confident there is no risk of bird flu transmission via pasteurised milk or milk products.
However, it’s another matter for unpasteurised or “raw” US milk or milk products. A recent study showed mice fed raw milk contaminated with bird flu developed signs of illness. So to be on the safe side, it would be advisable to avoid raw milk products.
How about chicken?
Bird flu has caused sporadic outbreaks in wild birds and domestic poultry worldwide, including in Australia. In recent weeks, there have been three reported outbreaks in Victorian poultry farms (two with H7N3 bird flu, one with H7N9). There has been one reported outbreak in Western Australia (H9N2).
The strains of bird flu identified in the Victorian and Western Australia outbreaks can cause human infection, although these are rare and typically result from close contact with infected live birds or contaminated environments.
Therefore, the chance of bird flu transmission in chicken meat is remote.
Nonetheless, it is timely to remind people to handle chicken meat with caution as many dangerous pathogens, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, can be found on chicken carcasses.
Always handle chicken meat carefully when shopping, transporting it home and storing it in the kitchen. For instance, make sure no meat juices cross-contaminate other items, consider using a cool bag when transporting meat, and refrigerate or freeze the meat within two hours.
Avoid washing your chicken before cooking to prevent the spread of disease-causing microbes around the kitchen.
Finally, cook chicken thoroughly as viruses (including bird flu) cannot survive cooking temperatures.
Are eggs safe?
The recent Australian outbreaks have occurred in egg-laying or mixed poultry flocks, so concerns have been raised about bird flu transmission via contaminated chicken eggs.
Can flu viruses contaminate chicken eggs and potentially spread bird flu? It appears so. A report from 2007 said it was feasible for influenza viruses to enter through the eggshell. This is because influenza virus particles are smaller (100 nanometres) than the pores in eggshells (at least 200 nm).
So viruses could enter eggs and be protected from cleaning procedures designed to remove microbes from the egg surface.
Therefore, like the advice about milk and meat, cooking eggs is best.
The US Food and Drug Administration recommends cooking poultry, eggs and other animal products to the proper temperature and preventing cross-contamination between raw and cooked food.
In a nutshell
If you consume pasteurised milk products and thoroughly cook your chicken and eggs, there is nothing to worry about as bird flu is inactivated by heat.
The real fear is that the virus will evolve into highly pathogenic versions that can be transmitted from human to human.
That scenario is much more frightening than any potential spread though food.
Enzo Palombo, Professor of Microbiology, Swinburne University of Technology
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Comfortable with Uncertainty – by Pema Chödrön
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This book is exactly what the subtitle claims it to be: 108 teachings on cultivating fearlessness and compassion. They are short extracts, entire of themselves, taken from Chödrön’s wider work and arranged to offer her insights and advices on this one topic, in one place.
It is worth noting, by the way, that the author is a Buddhist nun, and as such, the principles and practices are Buddhist in origin. If that’s a problem for you, then this book will not be for you. It does not, however, require that the reader be Buddhist to benefit, simply that one has a will to be calm in the face of chaos, and yet not indifferent—rather, to take on the challenges of life with a whole heart.
And about that compassion? This is about alleviating suffering; your own, and the suffering in the world as a whole, increasingly uncertain as this world is. And being brave enough to do that, in a world that is not always gentle.
The style is idiosyncratic, and you will likely love it or hate it. If you love it, then you will find this book at once both soothing and empowering; if not, you will put the book down and pick up a book on CBT or something instead.
Bottom line: this book absolutely does deliver on its title/subtitle promises—provided you, dear reader, internalize it and practise it.
Click here to check out Comfortable with Uncertainty, and get comfortable with uncertainty!
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