Why You’re Tired & How To Fix It
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This is Sadia Badiei. A dietician by academic and professional background, she’s nowadays hung up her lab coat for a chef’s jacket, and is best known for her “Pick Up Limes” brand. Today, we’ll be taking her advice on managing energy levels with what’s on our plates!
Quick note: our usual medical/legal disclaimer applies, and this article cannot diagnose you from afar, and thus neither can it make any certain prescription; this is for educational purposes, and aimed at being applicable to most of our readers.
There are many possible things that can cause chronic fatigue, and not all of them can be fixed by diet. Your doctor will have access to tests and such that we, being a humble health science publication, do not.
You may recognize her; we’ve featured her videos occasionally, mostly recently:
Pick Up A Zest For Life: 10 Lessons For A Healthy Mind & Body
But, what does she want us to know about living life with more energy?
It starts with balance
Badiei makes the case that we should strive for a nutritionally-balanced diet; that may not come as much of a revelation, but what does that look like for a vegan (Badiei advocates for plant-based eating)?
She recommends that our diet consist of:
- About 50% fruits and vegetables
- About 25% grains and starches
- About 25% proteins
- Modest amounts of fats
- A little of well-chosen dairy substitutions
- Finally, a few judicious supplements to top it off
That does add up to more than 100%, but 1) we did say “About n%” and 2) this is not a bad thing to note, actually, since Badiei advocates (as we do) for focussing more on what we add into our diet, rather than what we take out.
Breaking it down a little further, she recommends making sure to get “the foundational seven”, which is a little like “Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen”, but in this case it’s counted on a per-food-type basis.
Thus, she recommends:
- Dark green leafy vegetables
- Assorted other non-starchy vegetables (your choice what kind)
- Fruit, of any kinds (unlike Dr. Greger separating berries)
- Grains and starches (so for example, potatoes are lumped in with rice here, botanically very different, but often fulfil a similar culinary role)
- Nuts and seeds
- Legumes
- Fortified dairy alternatives
For full details including how much of each, and “what counts”, etc, see:
Pick Up Limes | The Nourish Method
Time your carbs
Slow-release carbohydrates, those with the most fiber, are best most of the time, giving us more sustained fuel, keeping us energized for longer after meals—even if we would rather sleep:
She cites: Fiber and Saturated Fat Are Associated with Sleep Arousals and Slow Wave Sleep
Quick-release carbohydrates, those with what’s generally considered a less favorable carb:fiber ratio, are best if we’re going to eat nearer to bedtime. We know, eating before bed is often considered a bit of a no-no, but Badiei bids us indulge if we so desire, as the quicker-absorbed carbohydrates support tryptophan reaching our brain more efficiently, and thus promote sleep onset.
See also: Should You Go Light Or Heavy On Carbs?
About that fat
We mentioned (or rather, Badiei’s citation mentioned) saturated fat. It is indeed linked with difficulty falling asleep, and/but omega-3 fatty acids, on the other hand, promote better sleep.
She cites: The relationship between sleep duration, sleep quality and dietary intake in adults
While you’re enjoying those nuts and seeds (for the omega-3 fatty acids), you might also note that several also star in Badiei’s list of plant-based foods that are rich in tryptophan, such as soy, cashews, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, beans, green vegetables, and mushrooms.
Micronutrients
Badiei’s focus here is on B-vitamins, iron, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. We imagine most of our readers here are taking steps to ensure to get a full daily coverage of vitamins and minerals anyway, but you might want to read what she has to say about iron on a plant-based diet, because the numbers may be different than you think.
The reason for this is that while animal products contain mostly heme iron, which is easier to absorb but associated with a risk increase in some diseases, plant-based foods usually* contain only non-heme iron, which is healthier but not as bioavailable, so if eating only plants, we need more of it:
Pick Up Limes | Iron on a Plant-Based Diet
*If you eat a carnivorous plant, guess what, it’ll have heme iron in it, tangling that food web.
“What if I know I have chronic fatigue for non-dietary reasons?”
Well, that sucks, and we’re not going to pretend the above will magically fix it. However, there are still things that can at least relatively improve your experience:
Eat To Beat Chronic Fatigue! Yes, Even When Fatigued Chronically
(it’s a good guide to being able to consistently eat healthily when your energy levels are consistently at minimal, meaning that a lot of common advice becomes unusable)
Take care!
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Banana vs Plum – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing bananas to plums, we picked the bananas.
Why?
Both are great! But…
In terms of macros, bananas have nearly 2x the fiber, as well as more carbs and protein, winning this round.
In the category of vitamins, bananas have more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, and B9 (all those B vitamins; easy to remember, as it’s B for banana!), while plums have more of vitamins A, E, and K, giving bananas a 7:3 win here.
Looking at minerals, bananas have more copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while plums have slightly more calcium, for an overwhelming win to bananas in this round.
In other considerations, plums do have some cancer-killing properties that bananas can’t boast, so that is a point in their favor.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for bananas, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer
Enjoy!
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How To Build a Body That Lasts – by Adam Richardson
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This book is written on a premise, and that premise is: “your age doesn’t define your mobility; your mobility defines your age”.
To this end, we are treated to 328 pages of why and how to improve our mobility (mostly how; just enough on the “why” to keep the motivation flowing).
Importantly, Richardson doesn’t expect that every reader is a regular gym-bunny or about to become one, doesn’t expect you to have several times your bodyweight in iron to life at home, and doesn’t expect that you’ll be doing the vertical splits against a wall any time soon.
Rather, he expects that we’d like to not dislocate a shoulder while putting the groceries away, would like to not slip a disk while being greeted by the neighbor’s dog, and would like to not need a 7-step plan for putting our socks on.
What follows is a guide to “on the good end of normal” mobility that is sustainable for life. The idea is that you might not be winning Olympic gymnastics gold medals in your 90s, but you will be able to get in and out of a car door as comfortably as you did when you were 20, for example.
Bottom line: if you want to be a superathlete, then you might need something more than this book; if you want to be on the healthy end of average when it comes to mobility, and maintain that for the rest of your life, then this is the book for you.
Click here to check out How To Build A Body That Lasts, and build a body that lasts!
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The Path To Revenue – by Theresa Marcroft
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So many books about start-ups skip right over the elephant in the room: survivorship bias. Not so for Marcroft! This book contains the most comprehensive and unapologetic treatment of it we’ve seen.
Less “here’s what Steve Jobs did right and here’s what Chocolate-Teapots-For-Dogs-R-Us did wrong; don’t mess up that badly and you’ll be fine”… and more realism. Marcroft gives us a many-angled critical analytic approach. In it, she examines why many things can seem similar in both content and presentation… but can cause growth or failure (and how and why), based on more than anecdotes and luck.
The book is information-dense (taking a marketing-centric approach) and/but well-presented in a very readable format.
If we can find any criticism of the book, it’s less about what’s in it and more about what’s not in it. This can never be a “your start-up bible!” book because it’s not comprehensive. It doesn’t cover assembling your team, for example. Nor does it give a lot of attention to management, preferring to focus on strategy.
But no single book can be all things, and we highly recommend this one—the marketing advice alone is more than worth the cost of the book!
Take Your First Step Along The Path To Revenue By Checking It Out On Amazon!
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Understanding Type 1 Diabetes
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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!
No question/request too big or small 😎
❝I enjoy10almonds reading. What you need more articles about is type 1 diabetes❞
Glad you enjoy it!
You’re right that we haven’t written a lot about type 1 diabetes (henceforth: T1D), and the reason is that most people tend to be interested in:
- Things that pertain to them directly (e.g. health conditions they have)
- Things that might pertain to them (e.g. health conditions they fear getting)
So, we have a lot of articles about health conditions that are very common and/or become increasingly common as we get older, and therefore that everyone would do well to avoid.
In contrast, since T1D is usually diagnosed at a rather young age, our readers will tend to fall into one of the following two categories:
- People who do not have T1D and, being mostly older adults, less likely to get it now
- People who do have T1D and, as such, already know far more about it than we’re likely to include in a one-page article
- Honorable mention: people who do not have T1D but do live with or otherwise spend a lot of time with someone who does, and thus learn a lot due by proximity and (hopefully) care for the other’s wellbeing
However! Perhaps we are overemphasizing a focus on direct usefulness, and underestimating general interest.
So, while we won’t have room to go into great depth, let’s address some important things:
It’s really quite different from type 2 diabetes
While type 2 diabetes is largely a matter of insulin resistance resulting in blood sugar imbalances (and thus can largely be controlled by dietary adjustments, for most people), T1D is an autoimmune disorder in which the pancreas (which normally produces insulin) goes to war with itself and produces no meaningful amount of insulin.
As a result, those with T1D rely on exogenous (“comes from outside”) insulin, and that’s not negotiable (until such time as a cure is found, but alas, that’s not yet).
Without exogenous insulin, blood sugar levels will rocket upwards (even if sugar consumption was minimal, the problem is that it has no way of getting out of the blood and into where it’s needed, so it just builds up), and this hyperglycemia will cause all the same problems it would in type 2 diabetes (including diabetic ketoacidosis and, if untreated, death), except that unlike in type 2 diabetes (where this can often be waited out if it’s not too severe), hyperglycemia won’t self-resolve without exogenous insulin.
It makes a lot of other health considerations more difficult to manage
For starters, it increases the risk of… honestly, most other adverse health conditions. This is for three main reasons:
- Being an autoimmune condition, it does mean the immune system is chronically compromised, which reduces its ability to do its actual job, i.e. defending the body from pathogens and similar
- In this case, even the best general advice for most people, such as that discussed in How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation, will only get one so far
- Hypo- and hyperglycemia (low and high blood sugar levels, which are both frequently-suffered conditions within T1D) both have adverse effects on the body which increase the risk of many health problems
- Even if there are still generally helpful habits, such as: 10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars
- Trying to manage the hypos and hypers makes it very difficult to do a lot of other things that most people take for granted when it comes to improving one’s health. It affects one’s ability to exercise (see our “learn more” below for how to best manage that, by the way), and has a huge impact on adherence to any sort of dietary strategy, let alone things like intermittent fasting. Simply put, one cannot be especially purist about diet when the options are “have a sugary snack at 4am to correct this hypo, or go into a coma”
- This produces similar challenges to those discussed in our article Eat To Beat Chronic Fatigue!
Want to learn more?
You might like this very good book that we reviewed:
Exercise with Type 1 Diabetes: How to exercise without scary lows or frustrating highs – by Ginger Vieira ← most of this book is very practical information, e.g: using fasted exercise (4 hours from last meal+bolus) to prevent hypos, counterintuitive as that may seem—the key is that timing a workout for when you have the least amount of fast-acting insulin in your body means your body can’t easily use your blood sugars for energy, and draws from your fat reserves instead… Win/Win!
That’s just one quick tip; do check out the book for much more 😎
Take care!
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Pomegranate vs Apricot – 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.
Our Verdict
When comparing pomegranate to apricot, we picked the pomegranate.
Why?
Both are great! Top tier fruits. But ultimately, pomegranate does have more to offer:
In terms of macros, pomegranate has more protein, carbs, and fiber (and even a little healthy fat—it’s the seeds); the main deciding factor on macros for fruits is almost always the fiber, and that’s the case here, which is why we hand the win to pomegranates in this category.
In the category of vitamins, pomegranates have more of vitamins B1, B2, b5, B6, B7, B9, K, and choline, while apricots have more of vitamins A, B3, and E. A clear win for pomegranates here.
When it comes to minerals, pomegranate has more copper, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, and zinc, while apricots boast just a little more calcium and iron. Another easy win for pomegranates.
Looking at polyphenols, apricots finally win a category, with greater overall polyphenol coverage.
Which is good, but not enough to overcome the other three categories all being in pomegranates’ favor—hence the overall win for pomegranates here!
Of course, the solution is to enjoy both! Diversity is good, for exactly such reasons as this.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Pomegranate’s Health Gifts Are Mostly In Its Peel ← in other words, the one part of the fruit you don’t normally eat. However! It can be dried and ground into a powder supplement, or else made in pomegranate tea.
Enjoy!
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Sciatica Flares “Out of Nowhere”? Here’s What’s Really Triggering It
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Dr. Amy Konvalin explains what’s really going on:
The tipping point
Sciatica is irritation* of the sciatic nerve formed from the L4–S2 nerve roots, and it runs from your lower back through (on each side) your buttock and down your leg, sometimes reaching your foot.
*Yes, this may seem like a very mild word for it, given how it feels when experiencing it, but physiologically, that’s what’s happening.
A flare-up usually starts with a mechanical irritation that triggers your nervous system into a fight or flight response, causing your muscles and tissues to tighten and increase pressure on the nerve (with overcompensation often being something that causes further harm and pain).
There are usually some early warning signs: most people have subtle signs beforehand, like reduced range of motion, increasing muscle tension, stiffness, or mild nerve symptoms. Additionally, your body may signal issues through tight hips, poor lower back movement, weak abdominal activation, shallow breathing, pelvic tension, or just general stiffness.
However, flare-ups often seem sudden because a small movement (like bending or reaching) becomes the tipping point after underlying tension and dysfunction have already been built up.
One thing that a lot of people don’t know is some less obvious triggers, including:
- Stress sensitizes your nervous system, increases muscular tension, and makes your body more reactive, so even simple movements can trigger a flare-up.
- Insufficient sleep reduces your body’s ability to recover and handle physical and emotional stress, increasing your risk of irritation and flare-ups.
- Long periods of sitting reduce movement, create tissue stiffness, and alter your biomechanics, which can compress or irritate the sciatic nerve too.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Sciatica Exercises & Home Treatment – by Dr. George Best
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
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