What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

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The 10almonds Team

We speak often about the importance of dietary diversity, and of that, especially diversity of plants in one’s diet, but we’ve never really focused on it as a main feature, so that’s what we’re going to do today.

Specifically, you may have heard the advice to “eat 30 different kinds of plants per week”. But where does that come from, and is it just a number out of a hat?

The magic number?

It is not, in fact, a number out of a hat. It’s from a big (n=11,336) study into what things affect the gut microbiome for better or for worse. It was an observational population study, championing “citizen science” in which volunteers tracked various things and collected and sent in various samples for analysis.

The most significant finding of this study was that those who consumed more than 30 different kinds of plants per week, had a much better gut microbiome than those who consumed fewer than 10 different kinds of plants per week (there is a bell curve at play, and it gets steep around 10 and 30):

American Gut: an Open Platform for Citizen Science Microbiome Research

Why do I care about having a good gut microbiome?

Gut health affects almost every other kind of health; it’s been called “the second brain” for the various neurotransmitters and other hormones it directly makes or indirectly regulates (which in turn affect every part of your body), and of course there is the vagus nerve connecting it directly to the brain, impacting everything from food cravings to mood swings to sleep habits.

See also:

Any other benefits?

Yes there are! Let’s not forget: as we see often in our “This or That” section, different foods can be strong or weak in different areas of nutrition, so unless we want to whip out a calculator and database every time we make food choices, a good way to cover everything is to simply eat a diverse diet.

And that goes not just for vitamins and minerals (which would be true of animal products also), but in the case of plants, a wide range of health-giving phytochemicals too:

Measuring Dietary Botanical Diversity as a Proxy for Phytochemical Exposure

Ok, I’m sold, but 30 is a lot!

It is, but you don’t have to do all 30 in your first week of focusing on this, if you’re not already accustomed to such diversity. You can add in one or two new ones each time you go shopping, and build it up.

As for “what counts”: we’re counting unprocessed or minimally-processed plants. So for example, an apple is an apple, as are dried apple slices, as is apple sauce. Any or all of those would count as 1 plant type.

Note also that we’re counting types, not totals. If you’re having apple slices with apple sauce, for some reason? That still only counts as 1.

However, while apple sauce still counts as apples (minimally processed), you cannot eat a cake and say “that’s 2 because there was wheat and sugar cane somewhere in its dim and distant history”.

Nor is your morning espresso a fruit (by virtue of coffee beans being the fruit of the plant, botanically speaking). However, it would count as 1 plant type if you eat actual coffee beans—this writer has been known to snack on such; they’re only healthy in very small portions though, because their saturated fat content is a little high.

You, however, count grains in general, as well as nuts and seeds, not just fruits and vegetables. As for herbs and spices, they count for ¼ each, except for salt, which might get lumped in with spices but is of course not a plant.

How to do it

There’s a reason we’re doing this in our Saturday Life Hacks edition. Here are some tips for getting in far more plants than you might think, a lot more easily than you might think:

  • Buy things ready-mixed. This means buying the frozen mixed veg, the frozen mixed chopped fruit, the mixed nuts, the mixed salad greens etc. This way, when you’re reaching for one pack of something, you’re getting 3–5 different plants instead of one.
  • Buy things individually, and mix them for storage. This is a more customized version of the above, but in the case of things that keep for at least a while, it can make lazy options a lot more plentiful. Suddenly, instead of rice with your salad you’re having sorghum, millet, buckwheat, and quinoa. This trick also works great for dried berries that can just be tipped into one’s morning oatmeal. Or, you know, millet, oats, rye, and barley. Suddenly, instead of 1 or 2 plants for breakfast you have maybe 7 or 8.
  • Keep a well-stocked pantry of shelf-stable items. This is good practice anyway, in case of another supply-lines shutdown like at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But for plant diversity, it means that if you’re making enchiladas, then instead using kidney beans because that’s what’s in the cupboard, you can raid your pantry for kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans, fava beans, etc etc. Yes, all of them; that’s a list, not a menu.
  • Shop in the discount section of the supermarket. You don’t have shop exclusively there, but swing by that area, see what plants are available for next to nothing, and buy at least one of each. Figure out what to do with it later, but the point here is that it’s a good way to get suggestions of plants that you weren’t actively looking for—and novelty is invariably a step into diversity.
  • Shop in a different store. You won’t be able to beeline the products you want on autopilot, so you’ll see other things on the way. Also, they may have things your usual store doesn’t.
  • Shop in person, not online—at least as often as is practical. This is because when shopping for groceries online, the store will tend to prioritize showing you items you’ve bought before, or similar items to those (i.e. actually the same item, just a different brand). Not good for trying new things!
  • Consider a meal kit delivery service. Because unlike online grocery shopping, this kind of delivery service will (usually) provide you with things you wouldn’t normally buy. Our sometimes-sponsor Purple Carrot is a fine option for this, but there are plenty of others too.
  • Try new recipes, especially if they have plants you don’t normally use. Make a note of the recipe, and go out of your way to get the ingredients; if it seems like a chore, reframe it as a little adventure instead. Honestly, it’s things like this that keep us young in more ways than just what polyphenols can do!
  • Hide the plants. Whether or not you like them; hide them just because it works in culinary terms. By this we mean; blend beans into that meaty sauce; thicken the soup with red lentils, blend cauliflower into the gravy. And so on.

One more “magic 30”, while we’re at it…

30g fiber per day makes a big (positive) difference to many aspects of health. Obviously, plants are where that comes from, so there’s a big degree of overlap here, but most of the tips we gave are different, so for double the effectiveness, check out:

Level-Up Your Fiber Intake! (Without Difficulty Or Discomfort)

Enjoy!

Don’t Forget…

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Recommended

  • Unlock Your Air-Fryer’s Potential!
  • The Mindful Body – by Dr. Ellen Langer
    Not your typical self-help book. Dive into the science of mind-body connection with The Mindful Body. Accessible yet packed with research.

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  • Tasty Tabbouleh with Tahini

    The 10almonds Team

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Tabbouleh is a salad, but it’s not “just a salad”. It’s a special kind of salad that’s as exciting for the tastebuds as it is healthy for the body and brain. Its core ingredients have been traditional for about a dozen generations, and seasonings are always a personal matter (not to mention that Lebanese tabbouleh-makers centuries ago might not have used miso and nooch, as we will today), but the overall feel of the Gestalt of tabbouleh seasonings remains the same, and this recipe is true to that.

    You will need

    For the tabbouleh:

    • 1 cup bulgur wheat
    • 1 cup plum tomatoes, chopped
    • 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped (add the peel to a jug of water and put it in the fridge; this will be refreshing cucumber water later!)
    • 1 cup chickpeas, cooked without salt
    • 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
    • 1/2 cup mint, chopped
    • 2 spring onions, finely chopped
    • 2oz fresh lemon juice
    • 1 tsp white miso paste
    • 1 tsp garlic powder
    • 1 tsp ground cumin
    • 1 tsp ground celery seeds
    • 1 tsp ground nigella seeds
    • 1 tsp ground black pepper
    • 1 tsp MSG, or 1/2 tsp low sodium salt (you can find it in supermarkets, the sodium chloride is cut with potassium chloride to make it have less sodium and more potassium)
    • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (nooch), ground (it comes in flakes; you will have to grind it in a spice grinder or with a pestle and mortar)

    For the tahini sauce:

    • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
    • 3 tbsp tahini
    • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
    • 1 tbsp white miso paste
    • 1 tsp ground cumin

    To serve:

    • A generous helping of leafy greens; we recommend collard greens, but whatever works for you is good; just remember that dark green is best. Consider cavolo nero, or even kale if that’s your thing, but to be honest this writer doesn’t love kale
    • 1 tsp coarsely ground nigella seeds
    • Balsamic vinegar, ideally aged balsamic vinegar (this is thicker and sweeter, but unlike most balsamic vinegar reductions, doesn’t have added sugar).

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Rinse the bulgur wheat and then soak it in warm water. There is no need to boil it; the warm water is enough to soften it and you don’t need to cook it (bulgur wheat has already been parboiled before it got to you).

    2) While you wait, take a small bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients from the tabbouleh section (so, the lemon juice, miso paste, and all those ground spices and MSG/salt and ground nutritional yeast); you’re making a dressing out of all the ingredients here.

    3) When the bulgur wheat is soft (expect it to take under 15 minutes), drain it and put it in a big bowl. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, chickpeas, parsley, mint, and spring onions. This now technically qualifies as tabbouleh already, but we’re not done.

    4) Add the dressing to the tabbouleh and mix thoroughly but gently (you don’t want to squash the tomatoes, cucumber, etc). Leave it be for at least 15 minutes while the flavors blend.

    5) Take the “For the tahini sauce” ingredients (all of them) and blend them with 4 oz water, until smooth. You’re going to want to drizzle this sauce, so if the consistency is too thick for drizzling, add a little more water and/or lemon juice (per your preference), 1 tbsp at a time.

    6) Roughly chop the leafy greens and put them in a bowl big enough for the tabbouleh to join them there. The greens will serve as a bed for the tabbouleh itself.

    7) Drizzle the tahini over the tabbouleh, and drizzle a little of the aged balsamic vinegar too.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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  • Cupping: How It Works (And How It Doesn’t)

    The 10almonds Team

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Good Health By The Cup?

    In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your opinion of cupping (the medical practice), and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • About 40% said “It may help by improving circulation and stimulating the immune system”
    • About 26% said “I have never heard of the medical practice of cupping before this”
    • About 19% said “It is pseudoscience and/or placebo at best, but probably not harmful
    • About 9% said “It is a good, evidence-based practice that removes toxins and stimulates health”
    • About 6% said “It is a dangerous practice that often causes harm to people who need medical help”

    So what does the science say?

    First, a quick note for those unfamiliar with cupping: it is the practice of placing a warmed cup on the skin (open side of the cup against the skin). As the warm air inside cools, it reduces the interior air pressure, which means the cup is now (quite literally) a suction cup. This pulls the skin up into the cup a little. The end result is visually, and physiologically, the same process as what happens if someone places the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner against their skin. For that matter, there are alternative versions that simply use a pump-based suction system, instead of heated cups—but the heated cups are most traditional and seem to be most popular. See also:

    National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health | Cupping

    It is a dangerous practice that often causes harm to people who need medical help: True or False?

    False, for any practical purposes.

    • Directly, it can (and usually does) cause minor superficial harm, much like many medical treatments, wherein the benefits are considered to outweigh the harm, justifying the treatment. In the case of cupping, the minor harm is usually a little bruising, but there are other risks; see the link we gave just above.
    • Indirectly, it could cause harm by emboldening a person to neglect a more impactful treatment for their ailment.

    But, there’s nothing for cupping akin to the “the most common cause of death is when someone gets a vertebral artery fatally severed” of chiropractic, for example.

    It is a good, evidence-based practice that removes toxins and stimulates health: True or False?

    True and False in different parts. This one’s on us; we included four claims in one short line. But let’s look at them individually:

    • Is it good? Well, those who like it, like it. It legitimately has some mild health benefits, and its potential for harm is quite small. We’d call this a modest good, but good nonetheless.
    • Is it evidence-based? Somewhat, albeit weakly; there are some papers supporting its modest health claims, although the research is mostly only published in journals of alternative medicine, and any we found were in journals that have been described by scientists as pseudoscientific.
    • Does it remove toxins? Not directly, at least. There is also a version that involves making a small hole in the skin before applying the cup, the better to draw out the toxins (called “wet cupping”). This might seem a little medieval, but this is because it is from early medieval times (wet cupping’s first recorded use being in the early 7th century). However, the body’s response to being poked, pierced, sucked, etc is to produce antibodies, and they will do their best to remove toxins. So, indirectly, there’s an argument.
    • Does it stimulate health? Yes! We’ll come to that shortly. But first…

    It is pseudoscience and/or placebo at best, but probably not harmful: True or False?

    True in that its traditionally-proposed mechanism of action is a pseudoscience and placebo almost certainly plays a strong part, and also in that it’s generally not harmful.

    On it being a pseudoscience: we’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating; just because something’s proposed mechanism of action is pseudoscience, doesn’t necessarily mean it doesn’t work by some other mechanism of action. If you tell a small child that “eating the rainbow” will improve their health, and they believe this is some sort of magical rainbow power imbuing them with health, then the mechanism of action that they believe in is a pseudoscience, but eating a variety of colorful fruit and vegetables will still be healthy.

    In the case of cupping, its proposed mechanism of action has to do withbalancing qi, yin and yang, etc (for which scientific evidence does not exist), in combination with acupuncture lore (for which some limited weak scientific evidence exists). On balancing qi, yin and yang etc, this is a lot like Europe’s historically popular humorism, which was based on the idea of balancing the four humors (blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm). Needless to say, humorism was not only a pseudoscience, but also eventually actively disproved with the advent of germ theory and modern medicine. Cupping therapy is not more scientifically based than humorism.

    On the placebo side of things, there probably is a little more to it than that; much like with acupuncture, a lot of it may be a combination of placebo and using counter-irritation, a nerve-tricking method to use pain to reduce pain (much like pressing with one’s nail next to an insect bite).

    Here’s one of the few studies we found that’s in what looks, at a glance, to be a reputable journal:

    Cupping therapy and chronic back pain: systematic review and meta-analysis

    It may help by improving circulation and stimulating the immune system: True or False?

    True! It will improve local circulation by forcing blood into the area, and stimulate the immune system by giving it a perceived threat to fight.

    Again, this can be achieved by many other means; acupuncture (or just “dry needling”, which is similar but without the traditional lore), a cold shower, and/or exercise (and for that matter, sex—which combines exercise, physiological arousal, and usually also foreign bodies to respond to) are all options that can improve circulation and stimulate the immune system.

    You can read more about using some of these sorts of tricks for improving health in very well-evidenced, robustly scientific ways here:

    The Stress Prescription (Against Aging!)

    Take care!

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  • Stickers and wristbands aren’t a reliable way to prevent mosquito bites. Here’s why

    Cameron Webb – University of Sydney

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Protecting yourself and family from mosquito bites can be challenging, especially in this hot and humid weather. Protests from young children and fears about topical insect repellents drive some to try alternatives such as wristbands, patches and stickers.

    These products are sold online as well as in supermarkets, pharmacies and camping stores. They’re often marketed as providing “natural” protection from mosquitoes.

    But unfortunately, they aren’t a reliable way to prevent mosquito bites. Here’s why – and what you can try instead.

    Why is preventing mosquito bites important?

    Mosquitoes can spread pathogens that make us sick. Japanese encephalitis and Murray Valley encephalitis viruses can have potentially fatal outcomes. While Ross River virus won’t kill you, it can cause potentially debilitating illnesses.

    Health authorities recommend preventing mosquito bites by: avoiding areas and times of the day when mosquitoes are most active; covering up with long sleeved shirts, long pants, and covered shoes; and applying a topical insect repellent (a cream, lotion, or spray).

    I don’t want to put sticky and smelly repellents on my skin!

    While for many people, the “sting” of a biting mosquitoes is enough to prompt a dose of repellent, others are reluctant. Some are deterred by the unpleasant feel or smell of insect repellents. Others believe topical repellents contain chemicals that are dangerous to our health.

    However, many studies have shown that, when used as recommended, these products are safe to use. All products marketed as mosquito repellents in Australia must be registered by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority; a process that provides recommendations for safe use.

    How do topical repellents work?

    While there remains some uncertainty about how the chemicals in topical insect repellents actually work, they appear to either block the sensory organs of mosquitoes that drive them to bite, or overpower the smells of our skin that helps mosquitoes find us.

    Diethytolumide (DEET) is a widely recommended ingredient in topical repellents. Picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus are also used and have been shown to be effective and safe.

    How do other products work?

    “Physical” insect-repelling products, such as wristbands, coils and candles, often contain a botanically derived chemical and are often marketed as being an alternative to DEET.

    However, studies have shown that devices such as candles containing citronella oil provide lower mosquito-bite prevention than topical repellents.

    A laboratory study in 2011 found wristbands infused with peppermint oil failed to provide full protection from mosquito bites.

    Even as topical repellent formulations applied to the skin, these botanically derived products have lower mosquito bite protection than recommended products such as those containing DEET, picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus.

    Wristbands infused with DEET have shown mixed results but may provide some bite protection or bite reduction. DEET-based wristbands or patches are not currently available in Australia.

    There is also a range of mosquito repellent coils, sticks, and other devices that release insecticides (for example, pyrethroids). These chemicals are primarily designed to kill or “knock down” mosquitoes rather than to simply keep them from biting us.

    What about stickers and patches?

    Although insect repellent patches and stickers have been available for many years, there has been a sudden surge in their marketing through social media. But there are very few scientific studies testing their efficacy.

    Our current understanding of the way insect repellents work would suggest these small stickers and patches offer little protection from mosquito bites.

    At best, they may reduce some bites in the way mosquito coils containing botanical products work. However, the passive release of chemicals from the patches and stickers is likely to be substantially lower than those from mosquito coils and other devices actively releasing chemicals.

    One study in 2013 found a sticker infused with oil of lemon eucalyptus “did not provide significant protection to volunteers”.

    Clothing impregnated with insecticides, such as permethrin, will assist in reducing mosquito bites but topical insect repellents are still recommended for exposed areas of skin.

    Take care when using these products

    The idea you can apply a sticker or patch to your clothing to protect you from mosquito bites may sound appealing, but these devices provide a false sense of security. There is no evidence they are an equally effective alternative to the topical repellents recommended by health authorities around the world. It only takes one bite from a mosquito to transmit the pathogens that result in serious disease.

    It is also worth noting that there are some health warnings and recommendations for their use required by Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority. Some of these products warn against application to the skin (recommending application to clothing only) and to keep products “out of reach of children”. This is a challenge if attached to young children’s clothing.

    Similar warnings are associated with most other topical and non-topical mosquito repellents. Always check the labels of these products for safe use recommendations.

    Are there any other practical alternatives?

    Topical insect repellents are safe and effective. Most can be used on children from 12 months of age and pose no health risks. Make sure you apply the repellent as a thin even coat on all exposed areas of skin.

    But you don’t need “tropical strength” repellents for short periods of time outdoors; a range of formulations with lower concentrations of repellent will work well for shorter trips outdoors. There are some repellents that don’t smell as strong (for example, children’s formulations, odourless formulations) or formulations that may be more pleasant to use (for example, pump pack sprays).

    Finally, you can always cover up. Loose-fitting long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and covered shoes will provide a physical barrier between you and mosquitoes on the hunt for your or your family’s blood this summer.The Conversation

    Cameron Webb, Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Related Posts

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  • Daily, Weekly, Monthly: Habits Against Aging

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    Dr. Anil Rajani has advice on restoring/retaining youthfulness. Two out of three of the sections are on skincare specifically, which may seem a vanity, but it’s also worth remembering that our skin is a very large and significant organ, and makes a big difference for the rest of our physical health, as well as our mental health. So, it’s worthwhile to look after it:

    The recommendations

    Daily: meditation practice

    Meditation reduces stress, which reduction in turn protects telomere length, slowing the overall aging process in every living cell of the body.

    Weekly: skincare basics

    Dr. Rajani recommends a combination of retinol and glycolic acid. The former to accelerate cell turnover, stimulate collagen production, and reduce wrinkles; the latter, to exfoliate dead cells, allowing the retinol to do its job more effectively.

    We at 10almonds would like to add: wearing sunscreen with SPF50 is a very good thing to do on any day that your phone’s weather app says the UV index is “moderate” or higher.

    Monthly: skincare extras

    Here are the real luxuries; spa visits, microneedling (stimulates collagen production), and non-ablative laser therapy. He recommends creating a home spa if possible for monthly skincare treatments, investing in high-quality devices for long-term benefits.

    For more on all of these things, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Avocado vs Blueberries – Which is Healthier?

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    Our Verdict

    When comparing avocado to blueberries, we picked the avocado.

    Why?

    These two fruits aren’t as similar as some of the comparisons we’ve made—we often go for “can be used in the same way culinarily” comparisons. But! They are both popularly in the “superfood” category, so it’s interesting to consider:

    In terms of macros, avocado has more protein, (healthy!) fat, and fiber, while blueberries have more carbs. An easy win for avocado here, unless you’re on a calorie-controlled diet perhaps, since avocado is also higher in those. About that fat; it’s mostly monounsaturated, with some polyunsaturated and saturated, and is famously a good source of omega-3 in the form of ALA.

    In the category of vitamins, avocado has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while blueberries are not higher in any vitamins. So, not a tricky decision here.

    When it comes to minerals, avocado has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while blueberries are higher in manganese. Another win for avocados.

    There is one other category that’s important to consider in this case, and that’s polyphenols. We’d be here all day if we listed them all, but in total, blueberries have about 1193x the polyphenol content that avocados do. Blueberries got the reputation for antioxidant properties for a reason; it is well-deserved!

    So, out of the two, we declare avocado the overall more nutritious of the two, but blueberries absolutely deserve the acclaim they get also.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Give Us This Day Our Daily Dozen

    Take care!

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  • Ayurveda’s Contributions To Science

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    Ayurveda’s Contributions To Science (Without Being Itself Rooted in Scientific Method)

    Yesterday, we asked you for your opinions on ayurveda, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses. Of those who responded…

    • A little over 41% said “I don’t know what ayurveda is without looking it up”
    • A little over 37% said “It is a fine branch of health science with millennia of evidence”
    • A little over 16% said “It gets some things right, but not by actual science”
    • A little over 4% said “It is a potentially dangerous pseudoscience”

    So, what does the science say?

    Ayurveda is scientific: True or False?

    False, simply. Let’s just rip the band-aid off in this case. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily without merit, though!

    Let’s put it this way:

    • If you drink coffee to feel more awake because scientific method has discerned that caffeine has vasoconstrictive and adenosine-blocking effects while also promoting dopaminergic activity, then your consumption of coffee is evidence-based and scientific. Great!
    • If you drink coffee to feel more awake because somebody told you that that somebody told them that it energizes you by balancing the elements fire (the heat of the coffee), air (the little bubbles on top), earth (the coffee grinds), water (the water), and ether (steam), then that is neither evidence-based nor scientific, but it will still work exactly the same.

    Ayurveda is a little like that. It’s an ancient traditional Indian medicine, based on a combination of anecdotal evidence and supposition.

    • The anecdotal evidence from ayurveda has often resulted in herbal remedies that, in modern scientific trials, have been found to have merit.
      • Ayurvedic meditative practices also have a large overlap with modern mindfulness practices, and have also been found to have merit
      • Ayurveda also promotes the practice of yoga, which is indeed a very healthful activity
    • The supposition from ayurveda is based largely in those five elements we mentioned above, as well as a “balancing of humors” comparable to medieval European medicine, and from a scientific perspective, is simply a hypothesis with no evidence to support it.

    Note: while ayurveda is commonly described as a science by its practitioners in the modern age, it did not originally claim to be scientific, but rather, wisdom handed down directly by the god Dhanvantari.

    Ayurveda gets some things right: True or False?

    True! Indeed, we covered some before in 10almonds; you may remember:

    Bacopa Monnieri: A Well-Evidenced Cognitive Enhancer

    (Bacopa monnieri is also known by its name in ayurveda, brahmi)

    There are many other herbs that have made their way from ayurveda into modern science, but the above is a stand-out example. Others include:

    Yoga and meditation are also great, and not only that, but great by science, for example:

    Ayurveda is a potentially dangerous pseudoscience: True or False?

    Also True! We covered why it’s a pseudoscience above, but that doesn’t make it potentially dangerous, per se (you’ll remember our coffee example).

    What does, however, make it potentially dangerous (dose-dependent) is its use of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic:

    Heavy Metal Content of Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine Products

    Some final thoughts…

    Want to learn more about the sometimes beneficial, sometimes uneasy relationship between ayurveda and modern science?

    A lot of scholarly articles trying to bridge (or further separate) the two were very biased one way or the other.

    Instead, here’s one that’s reasonably optimistic with regard to ayurveda’s potential for good, while being realistic about how it currently stands:

    Development of Ayurveda—Tradition to trend

    Take care!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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