Raspberries vs Blackberries – Which is Healthier?

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Our Verdict

When comparing raspberries to blackberries, we picked the blackberries.

Why?

It was very close! Raspberries most certainly also have their merits. But blackberries do just a little bit better in a few categories:

In terms of macros, raspberries have a tiny bit more carbs and fiber, while blackberries have a even tinier bit more protein, and the two berries have an equal glycemic index. We’ll call this category a tie, or else the meanest of nominal wins for raspberry.

In the category of vitamins, raspberries have more of vitamins B1, B2, B5, B6, and choline, while blackberries have more of vitamins A, B3, B9, C, E, and K. This would be a very marginal win for blackberries, except that blackberries have more than 6x the vitamin A, a much larger margin than any of the other differences in vitamins (which were usually small differences), which gives blackberry a more convincing win here.

When it comes to minerals, things are closer: raspberries have more iron, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus, while blackberries have more calcium, copper, potassium, selenium, and zinc. None of the differences are outstanding, so this is a simple marginal victory for blackberries.

It would be rude to look at berries without noting their polyphenols; we’re not list them all (or this article will get very long, because each has very many polyphenols with names like “pelargonidin 3-O-glucosyl-rutinoside” and so forth), but suffice it to say: raspberries are great for polyphenols and blackberries are even better for polyphenols.

That said… In the category of specific polyphenols we’ve written about before at 10almonds, it’s worth noting a high point of each berry, for the sake of fairness: raspberries have more quercetin (but blackberries have lots too) and blackberries have more ellagic acid (of which, raspberries have some, but not nearly as much). Anyway, just going off total polyphenol content, blackberries are the clear winner here.

Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for blackberries, but by all means, enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

Want to learn more?

You might like to read:

21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them

Enjoy!

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  • Eat All You Want (But Wisely)

    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.

    Some Surprising Truths About Hunger And Satiety

    This is Dr. Barbara Rolls. She’s Professor and Guthrie Chair in Nutritional Sciences, and Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Pennsylvania State University, after graduating herself from Oxford and Cambridge (yes, both). Her “awards and honors” take up four A4 pages, so we won’t list them all here.

    Most importantly, she’s an expert on hunger, satiety, and eating behavior in general.

    What does she want us to know?

    First and foremost: you cannot starve yourself thin, unless you literally starve yourself to death.

    What this is about: any weight lost due to malnutrition (“not eating enough” is malnutrition) will always go back on once food becomes available. So unless you die first (not a great health plan), merely restricting good will always result in “yo-yo dieting”.

    So, to avoid putting the weight back on and feeling miserable every day along the way… You need to eat as much as you feel you need.

    But, there’s a trick here (it’s about making you genuinely feel you need less)!

    Your body is an instrument—so play it

    Your body is the tool you use to accomplish pretty much anything you do. It is, in large part, at your command. Then there are other parts you can’t control directly.

    Dr. Rolls advises taking advantage of the fact that much of your body is a mindless machine that will simply follow instructions given.

    That includes instructions like “feel hungry” or “feel full”. But how to choose those?

    Volume matters

    An important part of our satiety signalling is based on a physical sensation of fullness. This, by the way, is why bariatric surgery (making a stomach a small fraction of the size it was before) works. It’s not that people can’t eat more (the stomach is stretchy and can also be filled repeatedly), it’s that they don’t want to eat more because the pressure sensors around the stomach feel full, and signal the hormone leptin to tell the brain we’re full now.

    Now consider:

    • On the one hand, 20 grapes, fresh and bursting with flavor
    • On the other hand, 20 raisins (so, dried grapes), containing the same calories

    Which do you think will get the leptin flowing sooner? Of course, the fresh grapes, because of the volume.

    So if you’ve ever seen those photos that show two foods side by side with the same number of calories but one is much larger (say, a small slice of pizza or a big salad), it’s not quite the cheap trick that it might have appeared.

    Or rather… It is a cheap trick; it’s just a cheap trick that works because your stomach is quite a simple organ.

    So, Dr. Rolls’ advice: generally speaking, go for voluminous food. Fruit is great from this, because there’s so much water. Air-popped popcorn also works great. Vegetables, too.

    Water matters, but differently than you might think

    A well-known trick is to drink water before and with a meal. That’s good, it’s good to be hydrated. However, it can be better. Dr. Rolls did an experiment:

    The design:

    ❝Subjects received 1 of 3 isoenergetic (1128 kJ) preloads 17 min before lunch on 3 d and no preload on 1 d.

    The preloads consisted of 1) chicken rice casserole, 2) chicken rice casserole served with a glass of water (356 g), and 3) chicken rice soup.

    The soup contained the same ingredients (type and amount) as the casserole that was served with water.❞

    The results:

    ❝Decreasing the energy density of and increasing the volume of the preload by adding water to it significantly increased fullness and reduced hunger and subsequent energy intake at lunch.

    The equivalent amount of water served as a beverage with a food did not affect satiety.❞

    The conclusion:

    ❝Consuming foods with a high water content more effectively reduced subsequent energy intake than did drinking water with food.❞

    You can read the study in full (it’s a worthwhile read!) here:

    Water incorporated into a food but not served with a food decreases energy intake in lean women

    Protein matters

    With all those fruits and vegetables and water, you may be wondering Dr. Rolls’ stance on proteins. It’s simple: protein is an appetite suppressant.

    However, it takes about 20 minutes to signal the brain about that, so having some protein in a starter (if like this writer, you’re the cook of the household, a great option is to enjoy a small portion of nuts while cooking!) gets that clock ticking, to signal satiety sooner.

    It may also help in other ways:

    Clinical Evidence and Mechanisms of High-Protein Diet-Induced Weight Loss

    As for other foods that can suppress appetite, by the way, you might like;

    25 Foods That Act As Natural Appetite Suppressants

    Variety matters, and in ways other than you might think

    A wide variety of foods (especially: a wide variety of plants) in one’s diet is well recognized as a key to a good balanced diet.

    However…

    A wide variety of dishes at the table, meanwhile, promotes greater consumption of food.

    Dr. Rolls did a study on this too, a while ago now (you’ll see how old it is) but the science seems robust:

    Variety in a Meal Enhances Food Intake in Man

    Notwithstanding the title, it wasnot about a man (that was just how scientists wrote in ye ancient times of 1981). The test subjects were, in order: rats, cats, a mixed group of men and women, the same group again, and then a different group of all women.

    So, Dr. Rolls’ advice is: it’s better to have one 20-ingredient dish, than 10 dishes with 20 ingredients between them.

    Sorry! We love tapas and buffets too, but that’s the science!

    So, “one-pot” meals are king in this regard; even if you serve it with one side (reasonable), that’s still only two dishes, which is pretty good going.

    Note that the most delicious many-ingredient stir-fries and similar dishes from around the world also fall into this category!

    Want to know more?

    If you have the time (it’s an hour), you can enjoy a class of hers for free:

    !

    Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later

    Enjoy!

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  • Pistachios vs Brazil Nuts – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing pistachios to Brazil nuts, we picked the pistachios.

    Why?

    In terms of macros, pistachios have more protein, carbs, and fiber, while Brazil nuts have more fat. The fats are mostly healthy, although it is worth noting that Brazil nuts have not only more total saturated fat, but also more saturated fat proportionally to total fats. All in all, Brazil nuts’ macro balance isn’t bad, but we say pistachios have it better.

    When it comes to vitamins, pistachios have a lot more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and C, while Brazil nuts have more vitamin E. An easy win for pistachios here.

    In the category of minerals, it gets interesting: pistachios have more iron and potassium, while Brazil nuts have more calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc. Sounds great, but… About that selenium:

    • A cup of cashews contains 38% of the RDA of selenium. This will go towards helping your hair be luscious and shiny (also important for energy conversion).
    • A cup of Brazil nuts contains 10,456% of the RDA of selenium. This is way past the point of selenium toxicity, and your (luscious, shiny) hair will fall out.

    For this reason, it’s recommended to eat no more than 3–4 Brazil nuts per day.

    We consider that a point against Brazil nuts.

    Adding up the sections gives us an overall win for pistachios. Of course, enjoy Brazil nuts too if you will, but in careful moderation please!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts

    Take care!

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  • Stop Overthinking – by Nick Trenton

    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.

    This book is exactly what it says on the tin. We are given twenty-three techniques to relieve stress, stop negative spirals, declutter your mind, and focus on the present, in the calm pursuit of good mental health and productivity.

    The techniques are things like the RAIN technique above, so if you liked that, you’ll love this. Being a book rather than a newsletter, it also takes the liberty of going into much more detail—hence the 200 pages for 23 techniques. Unlike many books, it’s not packed in fluff either. It’s that perfect combination of “to the point” and “very readable”.

    If you’ve read this far into the review and you’re of two minds about whether or not this book could be useful to you, then you just might be overthinking it

    Check Out “Stop Overthinking” On Amazon Now!

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  • From immunotherapy to mRNA vaccines – the latest science on melanoma treatment explained

    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.

    More than 16,000 Australians will be diagnosed with melanoma each year. Most of these will be caught early, and can be cured by surgery.

    However, for patients with advanced or metastatic melanoma, which has spread from the skin to other organs, the outlook was bleak until the advent of targeted therapies (that attack specific cancer traits) and immune therapies (that leverage the immune system). Over the past decade, these treatments have seen a significant climb in the number of advanced melanoma patients surviving for at least five years after diagnosis, from less than 10% in 2011 to around 50% in 2021.

    While this is great news, there are still many melanoma patients who cannot be treated effectively with current therapies. Researchers have developed two exciting new therapies that are being evaluated in clinical trials for advanced melanoma patients. Both involve the use of immunotherapy at different times and in different ways.

    The first results from these trials are now being shared publicly, offering insight into the future of melanoma treatment.

    Svitlana Hulko/Shutterstock

    Immunotherapy before surgery

    Immunotherapy works by boosting the power of a patient’s immune system to help kill cancer cells. One type of immunotherapy uses something called “immune checkpoint inhibitors”.

    Immune cells carry “immune checkpoint” proteins, which control their activity. Cancer cells can interact with these checkpoints to turn off immune cells and hide from the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors block this interaction and help keep the immune system activated to fight the cancer.

    Results from an ongoing phase 3 trial using immune checkpoint inhibitors were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

    This trial used two types of immune checkpoint inhibitors: nivolumab, which blocks an immune checkpoint called PD-1, and ipilimumab, which blocks CTLA-4.

    A woman's arm with a mole on it.
    More than 16,000 Australians are diagnosed with melanoma each year. Delovely Pics/Shutterstock

    Some 423 patients (including many from Australia) were enrolled in the trial, and participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

    The first group had surgery to remove their melanoma, and were then given immunotherapy (nivolumab) to help kill any remaining cancer cells. Giving a systemic (whole body) therapy such as immunotherapy after surgery is a standard way of treating melanoma. The second group received immunotherapy first (nivolumab plus ipilimumab) and then underwent surgery. This is a new approach to treating these cancers.

    Based on previous observations, the researchers had predicted that giving patients immunotherapy while the whole tumour was still present would activate the tumour-fighting abilities of the patient’s immune system much better than giving it once the tumour had been removed.

    Sure enough, 12 months after starting therapy, 83.7% of patients who received immunotherapy before surgery remained cancer-free, compared to 57.2% in the control group who received immunotherapy after surgery.

    Based on these results, Australian of the year Georgina Long – who co-led the trial with Christian Blank from The Netherlands Cancer Institute – has suggested this method of immunotherapy before surgery should be considered a new standard of treatment for higher risk stage 3 melanoma. She also said a similar strategy should be evaluated for other cancers.

    The promising results of this phase 3 trial suggest we might see this combination treatment being used in Australian hospitals within the next few years.

    mRNA vaccines

    Another emerging form of melanoma therapy is the post-surgery combination of a different checkpoint inhibitor (pembrolizumab, which blocks PD-1), with a messenger RNA vaccine (mRNA-4157).

    While checkpoint inhibitors like pembrolizumab have been around for more than a decade, mRNA vaccines like mRNA-4157 are a newer phenomenon. You might be familiar with mRNA vaccines though, as the biotechnology companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna released COVID vaccines based on mRNA technology.

    mRNA-4157 works basically the same way – the mRNA is injected into the patient and produces antigens, which are small proteins that train the body’s immune system to attack a disease (in this case, cancer, and for COVID, the virus).

    However, mRNA-4157 is unique – literally. It’s a type of personalised medicine, where the mRNA is created specifically to match a patient’s cancer. First, the patient’s tumour is genetically sequenced to figure out what antigens will best help the immune system to recognise their cancer. Then a patient-specific version of mRNA-4157 is created that produces those antigens.

    The latest results of a three-year, phase 2 clinical trial which combined pembrolizumab and mRNA-4157 were announced this past week. Overall, 2.5 years after starting the trial, 74.8% of patients treated with immunotherapy combined with mRNA-4157 post-surgery remained cancer-free, compared to 55.6% of those treated with immunotherapy alone. These were patients who were suffering from high-risk, late-stage forms of melanoma, who generally have poor outcomes.

    It’s worth noting these results have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals. They’re available as company announcements, and were also presented at some cancer conferences in the United States.

    Based on the results of this trial, the combination of pembrolizumab and the vaccine progressed to a phase 3 trial in 2023, with the first patients being enrolled in Australia. But the final results of this trial are not expected until 2029.

    It is hoped this mRNA-based anti-cancer vaccine will blaze a trail for vaccines targeting other types of cancer, not just melanoma, particularly in combination with checkpoint inhibitors to help stimulate the immune system.

    Despite these ongoing advances in melanoma treatment, the best way to fight cancer is still prevention which, in the case of melanoma, means protecting yourself from UV exposure wherever possible.

    Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) and John (Eddie) La Marca, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer, WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)

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

    Don’t Forget…

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  • Resistance band Training – by James Atkinson

    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.

    For those who’d like a full gym workout at home, without splashing out thousands on a home gym, resistance bands provide a lot of value. But how much value, really?

    As James Atkinson demonstrates, there’s more exercise available than one might think.

    Did you know that you can use the same band to strengthen your triceps as well as your biceps, for instance? and the same goes for your quadriceps and biceps femoris. And core strength? You bet.

    The style here is not a sales pitch (though he does, at the end, offer extra resources if desired), but rather, instructional, and this book is in and of itself already a complete guide. With clear instructions and equally clear illustrations, you don’t need to spend a dime more (unless you don’t own a resistance band, in which case then yes, you will need one of those).

    Bottom line: if you’d like to give your body the workout it deserves, this book is a potent resource.

    Click here to check out Resistance Band Training, and get training!

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  • Coconut & Lemongrass Protein Soup

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    The main protein here is pea protein, but the soup’s health benefits don’t stop there. With healthy MCTs from the coconut, as well as phytochemical benefits from the ginger and chili, this wonderfully refreshing soup has a lot to offer.

    You will need

    • 1 can coconut milk
    • 1 cup vegetable stock (making your own, or buying a low-sodium option)
    • 1 cup frozen petits pois
    • 1 oz fresh ginger, roughly chopped
    • ½ oz lemongrass stalk, crumpled without being broken into multiple pieces
    • 1 red chili, roughly chopped
    • 1 tbsp white miso paste
    • zest and juice of 1 lime
    • Optional: garnish of your choice

    Method

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

    1) Mix the coconut milk, vegetable stock, ginger, and chili in a saucepan, and simmer for 15 minutes

    2) Remove the lemongrass and ginger (and the chili if you don’t want more heat), and add the petit pois. Bring back to a simmer for about 2 minutes more, stir in the miso paste and lime, then take off the heat.

    3) Blend the soup to a smooth purée. Since it is hot, you will need to either use a stick blender, or else a food processor that is ok with blending hot liquids (many are not, so don’t use yours unless you’re sure, as it might explode if it’s not made for that). Alternatively, you can let it cool, blend it, and then reheat it.

    4) Serve, adding a garnish if you so wish:

    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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