Should You Soak Your Nuts?

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It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

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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!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small

❝hi. how many almonds should one eat per day? do they need to be soaked? thank you.❞

Within reason, however many you like! Given that protein is an appetite suppressant, you’ll probably find it’s not too many.

Dr. Michael Greger, of “How Not To Die” fame, suggests aiming for 30g of nuts per day. Since almonds typically weigh about 1g each, that means 30 if it’s all almonds.

And if you’re wondering about 10 almonds? The name’s a deliberate reference to an old internet hoax about 10 almonds being the equivalent of an aspirin for treating a headache. It’s a reminder to be open-mindedly skeptical about information circulating wildly, and look into the real, evidence-based, science of things.

  • Sometimes, the science validates claims, and we’re excited to share that!
  • Sometimes, the science just shoots claims down, and it’s important to acknowledge when that happens too.

On which note, about soaking…

Short version: soaking can improve the absorption of some nutrients, but not much more than simply chewing thoroughly. See:

Soaking does reduce certain “antinutrients” (compounds that block absorption of other nutrients), such as phytic acid. However, even a 24-hour soak reduces them only by about 5%:

Determination of d-myo-inositol phosphates in “activated” raw almonds using anion-exchange chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry

If you don’t want to take 24-hours to get a 5% benefit, there’s good news! A 12-hour soak can result in 4% less phytic acid in chopped (but not whole) almonds:

The Effect of Soaking Almonds and Hazelnuts on Phytate and Mineral Concentrations

Lest that potentially underwhelming benefit leave a bitter taste in your mouth, one good thing about soaking almonds (if you don’t like bitter tastes, anyway) is that it will reduce their bitterness:

Bitter taste, phytonutrients, and the consumer: a review

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  • Dr. Kim Foster’s Method For Balancing Hormones Naturally

    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.

    Not just sex hormones, but also hormones like cortisol (the stress hormone), and thyroid hormones (for metabolism regulation) too! The body is most of the time self-regulating when it comes to hormones, but there are things that we can do to help our body look after us correctly.

    In short, if we give our body what it needs, it will (usually, barring serious illness!) give us what we need.

    Dr. Foster recommends…

    Foods:

    • Healthy fats (especially avocados and nuts)
    • Lean proteins (especially poultry, fish, and legumes)
    • Fruits & vegetables (especially colorful ones)
    • Probiotics (especially fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, etc)
    • Magnesium-rich foods (especially dark leafy greens, nuts, and yes, dark chocolate)

    Teas:

    • Camomile tea (especially beneficial against cortisol overproduction)
    • Nettle tea (especially beneficial for estrogen production)
    • Peppermint tea (especially beneficial for gut health, thus indirect hormone benefits)

    Stress reduction:

    • Breathing exercises (especially mindfulness exercises)
    • Yoga (especially combining exercise with stretches)
    • Spending time in nature (especially green spaces)

    Dr. Foster explains more about all of these things, along with more illustrative examples, so if you can, do enjoy her video:

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

    Want to read more about this topic?

    You might like our main feature: What Does “Balance Your Hormones” Even Mean?

    Enjoy!

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  • The “Five Tibetan Rites” & Why To Do Them!

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    Spinning Around

    In Tuesday’s newsletter, we asked you for your opinion of the “Five Tibetan Rites”, and got the above-depicted, below-described, set of responses:

    • About 41% said “I have never heard of these before”
    • About 27% said “they restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes”
    • About 22% said “they are basically yoga, by a different name”
    • About 11% said “they are a pseudoscience popular in the US”

    So what does the science say?

    The Five Tibetan Rites are five Tibetan rites: True or False?

    False, though this is more question of social science than of health science, so we’ll not count it against them for having a misleading name.

    The first known mentioning of the “Five Tibetan Rites” is by an American named Peter Kelder, who in 1939 published, through a small LA occult-specialized publishing house, a booklet called “The Eye of Revelation”. This work was then varyingly republished, repackaged, and occasionally expanded upon by Kelder or other American authors, including Chris Kilham’s popular 1994 book “The Five Tibetans”.

    The “Five Tibetan Rites” are unknown as such in Tibet, except for what awareness of them has been raised by people asking about them in the context of the American phenomenon.

    Here’s a good history book, for those interested:

    The Secret of the Five Rites: In Search of a Lost Western Tradition of Inner Alchemy – by John Michael Greer

    The author didn’t originally set out to “debunk” anything, and is himself a keen spiritualist (and practitioner of the five rites), but he was curious about the origins of the rites, and ultimately found them—as a collection of five rites, and the other assorted advices given by Kelder—to be an American synthesis in the whole, each part inspired by various different physical practices (some of them hatha yoga, some from the then-popular German gymnastics movement, some purely American spiritualism, all available in books that were popular in California in the early 1900s).

    You may be wondering: why didn’t Kelder just say that, then, instead of telling stories of an ancient Tibetan tradition that empirically does not exist? The answer to this lies again in social science not health science, but it’s been argued that it’s common for Westerners to “pick ‘n’ mix” ideas from the East, champion them as inscrutably mystical, and (since they are inscrutable) then simply decide how to interpret and represent them. Here’s an excellent book on this, if you’re interested:

    Orientalism – by Edward Said

    (in Kelder’s case, this meant that “there’s a Tibetan tradition, trust me” was thus more marketable in the West than “I read these books in LA”)

    They are at least five rites: True or False?

    True! If we use the broad definition of “rite” as “something done repeatedly in a solemn fashion”. And there are indeed five of them:

    1. Spinning around (good for balance)
    2. Leg raises (this one’s from German gymnastics)
    3. Kneeling back bend (various possible sources)
    4. Tabletop (hatha yoga, amongst others)
    5. Pendulum (hatha yoga, amongst others) ← you may recognize this one from the Sun Salutation

    You can see them demonstrated here:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically

    Kelder also advocated for what was basically the Hay Diet (named not for the substance but for William Hay; it involved separating foods into acid and alkali, not necessarily according to the actual pH of the foods, and combining only “acid” foods or only “alkali” foods at a time), which was popular at the time, but has since been rejected as without scientific merit. Kelder referred to this as “the sixth rite”.

    The Five Rites restore youth by adjusting internal vortexes: True or False?

    False, in any scientific sense of that statement. Scientifically speaking, the body does not have vortexes to adjust, therefore that is not the mechanism of action.

    Spiritually speaking, who knows? Not us, a humble health science publication.

    The Five Rites are a pseudoscience popular in the US: True or False?

    True, if 27% of those who responded of our mostly North American readership can be considered as representative of what is popular.

    However…

    “Pseudoscience” gets thrown around a lot as a bad word; it’s often used as a criticism, but it doesn’t have to be. Consider:

    A small child who hears about “eating the rainbow” and mistakenly understands that we are all fuelled by internal rainbows that need powering-up by eating fruits and vegetables of different colors, and then does so…

    …does not hold a remotely scientific view of how things are happening, but is nevertheless doing the correct thing as recommended by our best current science.

    It’s thus a little similar with the five rites. Because…

    The Five Rites are at least good for our health: True or False?

    True! They are great for the health.

    The first one (spinning around) is good for balance. Science would recommend doing it both ways rather than just one way, but one is not bad. It trains balance, trains our stabilizing muscles, and confuses our heart a bit (in a good way).

    See also: Fall Special (How To Not Fall, And Not Get Injured If You Do)

    The second one (leg raises) is excellent for core strength, which in turn helps keep our organs where they are supposed to be (this is a bigger health issue than most people realise, because “out of sight, out of mind”), which is beneficial for many aspects of our health!

    See also: Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose Itvisceral fat is the fat that surrounds your internal organs; too much there becomes a problem!

    The third, fourth, and fifth ones stretch our spine (healthily), strengthen our back, and in the cases of the fourth and fifth ones, are good full-body exercises for building strength, and maintaining muscle mass and mobility.

    See also: Building & Maintaining Mobility

    So in short…

    If you’ve been enjoying the Five Rites, by all means keep on doing them; they might not be Tibetan (or an ancient practice, as presented), and any mystical aspect is beyond the scope of our health science publication, but they are great for the health in science-based ways!

    Take care!

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  • Screaming at Screens?

    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.

    I Screen, You Screen, We All Screen For…?

    Dr. Kathryn Birkenbach is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University, and Manager of Research at Early Medical in New York.

    Kathryn has things to tell us about kids’ neurological development, and screen time spent with electronic devices including phones, tablets, computers, and TVs.

    From the 1960s criticism of “the gogglebox” to the modern-day critiques of “iPad babies” as a watchword of parental neglect, there’s plenty people can say against screen time, but Dr. Birkenbach tells us the that the reality is more nuanced:

    Context Is Key

    On a positive note”: consistent exposure to age-appropriate educational material results in quicker language acquisition than media that’s purely for entertainment purposes, or not age-appropriate.

    Contrary to popular belief, children do not in fact learn by osmosis!

    Interaction Is Far More Valuable Than Inaction

    Kathryn advises that while adults tend to quite easily grasp things from instructional videos, the same does not go for small children.

    This means that a lot of educational programming can be beneficial to small children if and only if there is an adult with them to help translate the visual into the practical!

    There’s a story that does the rounds on the Internet: a young boy wanted to train his puppy, but didn’t know how. He asked, and was told “search for puppy training on YouTube”. His parents came back later and found him with his iPad, earnestly showing the training videos to the puppy.

    We can laugh at the child’s naïvety, knowing that’s not how it works and the puppy will not learn that way, so why make the same mistake in turn?

    ❝The phenomenon known as the “video deficit effect” can be overcome, when an on-screen guide interacts with the child or a parent is physically present and draws the child’s attention to relevant information.

    In other words, interaction with others appears to enhance the perceived salience of on-screen information, unlocking a child’s ability to learn from a medium which would otherwise offer no real-world benefit.

    Screens Can Supplement, But Can’t Replace, Live Learning & Play

    Sci-fi may show us “education pods” in which children learn all they need to from their screen… but according to our most up-to-date science, Dr. Birkenbach says, that simply would not work at all.

    Screen time without adult interactions will typically fail to provide small children any benefit.

    There is one thing it’s good at, though… attracting and keeping attention.

    Thus, even a mere background presence of a TV show in the room will tend to actively reduce the time a small child spends on other activities, including live learning and exploratory play.

    The attention-grabbing abilities of TV shows don’t stop at children, though! Adult caregivers will also tend to engage in fewer interactions with their children… and the interactions will be shorter and of lower quality.

    In Summary:

    • Young children will tend not to learn from non-interactive screen time
    • Interactive screen time, ideally with a caregiver, can be educational
    • Interactive screen time, not with a carer, can be beneficial (but a weak substitute)
      • Interactive screen time refers to shows such as Dora The Explorer, where Dora directly addresses the viewer and asks questions…But it’s reliant on the child caring to answer!
      • It can also mean interactive educational apps, provided the child does consciously interact!
      • Randomly pressing things is not conscious interaction! The key here is engaging with it intelligently and thoughtfully
    • A screen will take a child’s time and attention away from non-screen things: that’s a genuine measurable loss to their development!

    Absolute Bottom Line:

    Screens can be of benefit to small children, if and only if the material is:

    • Age-Appropriate
    • Educational
    • Interactive

    If it’s missing one of those three, it’ll be of little to no benefit, and can even harm, as it reduces the time spent on more beneficial activities.

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    Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis

    Arthritis is the umbrella term for a cluster of joint diseases involving inflammation of the joints, hence “arthr-” (joint) “-itis” (suffix used to denote inflammation).

    Inflammatory vs Non-Inflammatory Arthritis

    Arthritis is broadly divided into inflammatory arthritis and non-inflammatory arthritis.

    Some forms, such as rheumatoid arthritis, are of the inflammatory kind. We wrote about that previously:

    See: Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis

    You may be wondering: how does one get non-inflammatory inflammation of the joints?

    The answer is, in “non-inflammatory” arthritis, such as osteoarthritis, the damage comes first (by general wear-and-tear) and inflammation generally follows as part of the symptoms, rather than the cause.

    So the name can be a little confusing. In the case of osteo- and other “non-inflammatory” forms of arthritis, you definitely still want to keep your inflammation at bay as best you can; it’s just not the prime focus.

    So, what should we focus on?

    First and foremost: avoiding wear-and-tear if possible. Naturally, we all must live our lives, and sometimes that means taking a few knocks, and definitely it means using our joints. An unused joint would suffer just as much as an abused one. But, we can take care of our joints!

    We wrote on that previously, too:

    See: How To Really Look After Your Joints

    New osteoarthritis medication (hot off the press!)

    At 10almonds, we try to keep on top of new developments, and here’s a shiny new one from this month:

    Note also that Dr. Flavia Cicuttini there talks about what we talked about above—that calling it non-inflammatory arthritis is a little misleading, as the inflammation still occurs.

    And finally…

    You might consider other lifestyle adjustments to manage your symptoms. These include:

    • Exercise—gently, though!
    • Rest—while keeping mobility going.
    • Mobility aids—if it helps, it helps.
    • Go easy on the use of braces, splints, etc—these can offer short-term relief, but at a long term cost of loss of mobility.
      • Only you can decide where to draw the line when it comes to that trade-off.

    You can also check out our previous article:

    See: Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)

    Take good care of yourself!

    Don’t Forget…

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • The Optimal Morning Routine, Per Neuroscience

    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.

    Dr. Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist and professor of neurobiology, has insights:

    The foundations of a good day

    Here are some key things to consider:

    • The role of light: get sunlight exposure within an hour of waking to anchor your body’s cortisol pulse, set your circadian rhythm, and boost mood-regulating dopamine. Light exposure on the skin also boost hormone levels like testosterone and estrogen, contributing to energy, motivation, and overall wellbeing.
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    • The role of cold: cold showers or ice baths trigger adrenaline and dopamine surges, enhancing mood and drive for hours.

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    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

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:

  • Built to Move – by Kelly starrett & Juliet Starrett

    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.

    In our everyday lives, for most of us anyway, it’s not too important to be able to run a marathon or leg-press a car. Rather more important, however, are such things as:

    • being able to get up from the floor comfortably
    • reach something on a high shelf without twinging a shoulder
    • being able to put our socks on without making a whole plan around this task
    • get accidentally knocked by an energetic dog or child and not put our back out
    • etc

    Starrett and Starrett, of “becoming a supple leopard” fame, lay out for us how to make sure our mobility stays great. And, if it’s not already where it needs to be, how to get there.

    The “ten essential habits” mentioned in the subtitle “ten essential habits to help you move freely and live fully”, in fact also come with ten tests. No, not in the sense of arduous trials, but rather, mobility tests.

    For each test, it’s explained to us how to score it out of ten (this is an objective assessment, not subjective). It’s then explained how to “level up” whatever score we got, with different advices for different levels of mobility or immobility. And if we got a ten, then of course, we just build the appropriate recommended habit into our daily life, to keep it that way.

    The writing style is casual throughout, and a strong point of the book is its very clear illustrations, too.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to gain/maintain good mobility (at any age), this book gives a very reliable outline for doing so.

    Click here to check out Built to Move, and take care of your body!

    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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