Sweet Potato vs Cassava – Which is Healthier?

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Our Verdict

When comparing sweet potato to cassava, we picked the sweet potato.

Why?

For any unfamiliar with cassava, it’s also called manioc or yuca/yucca, and it’s a tuber that can be used a lot like sweet potato. It’s popular in S. America, often in recipes that aren’t the healthiest (deep-fried chunky “cassava chips” are popular in Brazil, for example, and farofa, a flour made from cassava, is less healthy even than refined white flour from wheat), but today we’re going to judge it on its own merit—since after all, almost anything can be deep-fried and many things can be turned into flour, but it doesn’t mean we have to do that.

Let’s talk macros first: sweet potato has nearly 2x the protein, while cassava has nearly 2x the carbs. As for fiber to soften those carbs’ impact on our blood sugars, well, sweet potato has about 2x the fiber. All in all for macros, a clear and easy win for sweet potato.

Important note: as for the impact that has on glycemic index: the exact glycemic index will depend on what you do with it (different cooking methods change the GI), but broadly speaking, sweet potatoes are considered a medium GI food, while cassava is a very high GI food, to the point that it’s higher than sucrose, and nearly equal to pure glucose. Which is impressive, for a tuber.

In terms of vitamins, sweet potato’s famously high vitamin A content raises the bar, but it’s not all it has to offer: sweet potato has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, E, and K, while cassava has more of vitamins B9 and choline. Just for amusement’s sake, let’s note that the sweet potato has over 1,478x the vitamin A content. In any case, the vitamins category is another clear win for sweet potato.

When it comes to minerals, it’s again quite one-sided: sweet potato has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and potassium, while cassava has more selenium. So, sweet potato wins yet again.

In short: definitely a case of “the less widely-available option is not necessarily the healthier”!

Want to learn more?

You might like to read:

Glycemic Index vs Glycemic Load vs Insulin Index

Take care!

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  • Make Social Media Work For Your Mental Health

    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.

    Social Media, But Healthy

    Social media has a bad reputation, and rightly so. It’s calculated to trick you into doomscrolling and rage-posting, and it encourages you to compare your everyday life to other people’s carefully-curated highlight reels.

    Rebalancing Dopamine (Without “Dopamine Fasting”)

    But it doesn’t have to be so.

    Find your community

    One of the biggest strengths social media has going for it is that it can, if used well, be a powerful tool for community. As for why that’s important from a health perspective, see:

    How To Beat Loneliness & Isolation

    Loneliness & isolation do, of course, kill people. By:

    • Accidents, e.g. household fall but nobody notices for a week
    • Depression and resultant decline (and perhaps even active suicidality)
    • Cognitive decline from a lack of social contact

    Read more:

    So, what’s “community” to you, and to what extent can you find it online? Examples might include:

    • A church, or other religious community, if we be religious
    • The LGBT+ community, or even just a part of it, if that fits for us
    • Any mutual-support oriented, we-have-this-shared-experience community, could be anything from AA to the VA.

    Find your people, and surround yourself with them. There are more than 8,000,000,000 people on this planet, you will not find all the most compatible ones with you on your street.

    Grow & nurture your community

    Chances are, you have a lot to contribute. Your life experiences are valuable.

    Being of service to other people is strongly associated “flourishing”, per the science.

    Indeed, one of the questions on the subjective wellness scale test is to ask how much one agrees with the statement “I actively contribute to the happiness and wellbeing of others”.

    See: Are You Flourishing? (There’s a Scale)

    So, help people, share your insights, create whatever is relevant to your community and fits your skills (it could be anything from art to tutorials to call-to-action posts or whatever works for you and your community)

    As a bonus: when people notice you are there for them, they’ll probably be there for you, too. Not always, sadly, but there is undeniable strength in numbers.

    Remember it’s not the boss of you

    Whatever social media platform(s) you use, the companies in question will want you to use it in the way that is most profitable for them.

    Usually that means creating a lot of shallow content, clicking on as many things as possible, and never logging off.

    Good ways to guard against that include:

    • Use the social media from a computer rather than a handheld device
    • Disable “infinite scroll” in the settings, if possible
    • Set a timer and stick to it
    • Try to keep your interactions to only those that are relevant and kind (for the good of your own health, let alone anyone else’s)

    On that latter note…

    Before posting, ask “what am I trying to achieve here?” and ensure your action is aligned with your actual desires, and not just reactivity. See also:

    A Bone To Pick… Up And Then Put Back Where We Found It

    Take care!

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  • Eating For Energy (In Ways That Actually Work)

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    Snacks & Hacks: The Real Energy Boosters

    Declining energy levels are a common complaint of people getting older, and this specific kind of “getting older” is starting earlier and earlier (even Gen-Z are already getting in line for this one). For people of all ages, however, diet is often a large part of the issue.

    The problem:

    It can sometimes seem, when it comes to food and energy levels, that we have a choice:

    • Don’t eat (energy levels decline)
    • Eat quick-release energy snacks (energy spikes and crashes)
    • Eat slow-release energy meals (oh hi, post-dinner slump)

    But, this minefield can be avoided! Advice follows…

    Skip the quasi-injectables

    Anything the supermarket recommends for rapid energy can be immediately thrown out (e.g. sugary energy drinks, glucose tablets, and the like).

    Same goes for candy of most sorts (if the first ingredient is sugar, it’s not good for your energy levels).

    Unless you are diabetic and need an emergency option to keep with you in case of a hypo, the above things have no place on a healthy shopping list.

    Aside from that, if you have been leaning on these heavily, you might want to check out yesterday’s main feature:

    The Not-So-Sweet Science Of Sugar Addiction

    …and if your knee-jerk response is “I’m not addicted; I just enjoy…” then ok, test that! Skip it for this month.

    • If you succeed, you’ll be in better health.
    • If you don’t, you’ll be aware of something that might benefit from more attention.

    Fruit and nuts are your best friends

    Unless you are allergic, in which case, obviously skip your allergen(s).

    But for most of us, we were born to eat fruit and nuts. Literally, those two things are amongst the oldest and most well-established parts of human diet, which means that our bodies have had a very long time to evolve the perfect fruit-and-nut-enjoying abilities, and reap the nutritional benefits.

    Nuts are high in fat (healthy fats) and that fat is a great source of energy’s easy for the body to get from the food, and/but doesn’t result in blood sugar spikes (and thus crashes) because, well, it’s not a sugar.

    See also: Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts

    Fruit is high in sugars, and/but high in fiber that slows the absorption into a nice gentle curve, and also contains highly bioavailable vitamins to perk you up and polyphenols to take care of your long-term health too.

    Be warned though: fruit juice does not work the same as actual fruit; because the fiber has been stripped and it’s a liquid, those sugars are zipping straight in exactly the same as a sugary energy drink.

    See also: Which Sugars Are Healthier, And Which Are Just The Same?

    Slow release carbs yes, but…

    Eating a bowl of wholegrain pasta is great if you don’t have to do anything much immediately afterwards, but it won’t brighten your immediately available energy much—on the contrary, energy will be being used for digestion for a while.

    So if you want to eat slow-release carbs, make it a smaller portion of something more-nutrient dense, like oats or lentils. This way, the metabolic load will be smaller (because the portion was smaller) but the higher protein content will prompt satiety sooner (so you addressed your hunger with a smaller portion) and the iron and B vitamins will be good for your energy too.

    See also: Should You Go Light Or Heavy On Carbs?

    Animal, vegetable, or mineral?

    At the mention of iron and B vitamins, you might be thinking about various animal products that might work too.

    If you are vegetarian or vegan: stick to that; it’s what your gut microbiome is used to now, and putting an animal product in will likely make you feel ill.

    If you have them in your diet already, here’s a quick rundown of how broad categories of animal product work (or not) for energy:

    • Meat: nope. Well, the fat, if applicable, will give you some energy, but less than you need just to digest the meat. This, by the way, is a likely part of why the paleo diet is good for short term weight loss. But it’s not very healthy.
    • Fish: healthier than the above, but for energy purposes, just the same.
    • Dairy: high-fat dairy, such as cream and butter, are good sources of quick energy. Be aware if they contain lactose though, that this is a sugar and can be back to spiking blood sugars.
      • As an aside for diabetics: this is why milk can be quite good for correcting a hypo: the lactose provides immediate sugar, and the fat keeps it more balanced afterwards
    • Eggs: again the fat is a good source of quick energy, and the protein is easier to digest than that of meat (after all, egg protein is literally made to be consumed by an embryo, while meat protein is made to be a functional muscle of an animal), so the metabolic load isn’t too strenuous. Assuming you’re doing a moderate consumption (under 3 eggs per day) and not Sylvester Stallone-style 12-egg smoothies, you’re good to go.

    See also: Do We Need Animal Products To Be Healthy?

    …and while you’re at it, check out:

    Eggs: Nutritional Powerhouse or Heart-Health Timebomb?

    (spoiler: it’s the former; the title was because it was a mythbusting edition)

    Hydration considerations

    Lastly, food that is hydrating will be more energizing than food that is not, so how does your snack/meal rank on a scale of watermelon to saltines?

    You may be thinking: “But you said to eat nuts! They’re not hydrating at all!”, in which case, indeed, drink water with them, or better yet, enjoy them alongside fruit (hydration from food is better than hydration from drinking water).

    And as for those saltines? Salt is not your friend (unless you are low on sodium, because then that can sap your energy)

    How to tell if you are low on sodium: put a little bit (e.g. ¼ tsp) of salt into a teaspoon and taste it; does it taste unpleasantly salty? If not, you were low on sodium. Have a little more at five minute intervals, until it tastes unpleasantly salty. Alternatively have a healthy snack that nonetheless contains a little salt.

    If you otherwise eat salty food as an energy-giving snack, you risk becoming dehydrated and bloated, neither of which are energizing conditions.

    Dehydrated and bloated at once? Yes, the two often come together, even though it usually doesn’t feel like it. Basically, if we consume too much salty food, our homeostatic system goes into overdrive to try to fix it, borrows a portion of our body’s water reserves to save us from the salt, and leaves us dehydrated, bloated, and sluggish.

    For more on salt in general, check out:

    How Too Much Salt Can Lead To Organ Failure: Lesser-Known Salt Health Risks

    Take care!

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  • Proteins Of The Week

    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 week’s news round-up is, entirely by chance, somewhat protein-centric in one form or another. So, check out the bad, the very bad, the mostly good, the inconvenient, and the worst:

    Mediterranean diet vs the menopause

    Researchers looked at hundreds of women with an average age of 51, and took note of their dietary habits vs their menopause symptoms. Most of them were consuming soft drinks and red meat, and not good in terms of meeting the recommendations for key food groups including vegetables, legumes, fruit, fish and nuts, and there was an association between greater adherence to Mediterranean diet principles, and better health.

    Read in full: Fewer soft drinks and less red meat may ease menopause symptoms: Study

    Related: Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean Diet

    Listeria in meat

    This one’s not a study, but it is relevant important news. The headline pretty much says it all, so if you don’t eat meat, this isn’t one you need to worry about any further than that. If you do eat meat, though, you might want to check out the below article to find out whether the meat you eat might be carrying listeria:

    Read in full: Almost 10 million pounds of meat recalled due to Listeria danger

    Related: Frozen/Thawed/Refrozen Meat: How Much Is Safety, And How Much Is Taste?

    Brawn and brain?

    A study looked at cognitively healthy older adults (of whom, 57% women), and found an association between their muscle strength and their psychological wellbeing. Note that when we said “cognitively healthy”, this means being free from dementia etc—not necessarily psychologically health in all respects, such as also being free from depression and enjoying good self-esteem.

    Read in full: Study links muscle strength and mental health in older adults

    Related: Staying Strong: Tips To Prevent Muscle Loss With Age

    The protein that blocks bone formation

    This one’s more clinical but definitely of interest to any with osteoporosis or at high risk of osteoporosis. Researchers identified a specific protein that blocks osteoblast function, thus more of this protein means less bone production. Currently, this is not something that we as individuals can do anything about at home, but it is promising for future osteoporosis meds development.

    Read in full: Protein blocking bone development could hold clues for future osteoporosis treatment

    Related: Which Osteoporosis Medication, If Any, Is Right For You?

    Rabies risk

    People associate rabies with “rabid dogs”, but the biggest rabies threat is actually bats, and they don’t even need to necessarily bite you to confer the disease (it suffices to have licked the skin, for instance—and bats are basically sky-puppies who will lick anything). Because rabies has a 100% fatality rate in unvaccinated humans, this is very serious. This means that if you wake up and there’s a bat in the house, it doesn’t matter if it hasn’t bitten anyone; get thee to a hospital (where you can get the vaccine before the disease takes hold; this will still be very unpleasant but you’ll probably survive so long as you get the vaccine in time).

    Read in full: What to know about bats and rabies

    Related: Dodging Dengue In The US ← much less serious than rabies, but still not to be trifled with—particularly noteworthy if you’re in an area currently affected by floodwaters or even just unusually heavy rain, by the way, as this will leave standing water in which mosquitos breed.

    Take care!

    Share This Post

Related Posts

  • Hazelnuts vs Pistachios – Which is Healthier?
  • Mango vs Papaya – 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 mango to papaya, we picked the mango.

    Why?

    Both are great! But there are some things to set them apart:

    In terms of macros, this one’s not so big of a difference. They are equal in fiber, while mango has more protein and slightly more carbs. They are both low glycemic index, so we’ll call this one a tie, or the slenderest nominal win for papaya.

    When it comes to vitamins, mango has more of vitamins A, B1, B3, B5, B7, B9, E, K, and choline, while papaya has more vitamin C. However, a cup of mango already gives the RDA of vitamin C, so at this point, it’s not even really much of a bonus that papaya has more. In any case, a clear and overwhelming win in the vitamins category for mango.

    As for minerals, this one’s closer; mango has more copper, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc, while papaya has more calcium, iron, and magnesium. Still, a 4:3 win for mango.

    Adding these up makes for a clear win for mango. However, one extra thing to bear in mind about both:

    Both of these fruits interact with warfarin and many other anticoagulants. So if you’re taking those, you might want to skip these, or at least consult with your doctor/pharmacist for input on your personal situation.

    Aside from that; enjoy both; diversity is good! But mango is the more nutritionally dense, and thus the winner here.

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    5 Ways To Make Your Smoothie Blood Sugar Friendly (Avoid the Spike!)

    Take care!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • 52 Ways to Walk – by Annabel Streets

    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.

    Most of us learned to walk at a very young age and probably haven’t thought much about it since, except perhaps in a case where some injury made it difficult.

    Annabel Streets provides a wonderful guide to not just taking up (or perhaps reclaiming) the joy of walking, but also the science of it in more aspects than most of us have considered:

    • The physical mechanics of walking—what’s best?
    • Boots or shoes? Barefoot?
    • Roads, grass, rougher vegetation… Mud?
    • Flora & fauna down to the microbiota that affect us
    • How much walking is needed, to be healthy?
    • Is there such a thing as too much walking?
    • What are the health benefits (or risks) of various kinds of weather?
    • Is it better to walk quickly or to walk far?
    • What about if we’re carrying some injury?
    • What’s going on physiologically when we walk?
    • And so much more…

    Streets writes with a captivating blend of poetic joie-de-vivre coupled with scientific references.

    One moment the book is talking about neuroradiology reports of NO-levels in our blood, the impact of Mycobacterium vaccae, and the studied relationship between daily steps taken and production of oligosaccharide 3′-sialyllactose, and the next it’s all:

    “As if the newfound lightness in our limbs has crept into our minds, loosening our everyday cares and constraints…”

    And all in all, this book helps remind us that sometimes, science and a sense of wonder can and do (and should!) walk hand-in-hand.

    Treat yourself to “52 Ways to Walk” from Amazon today!

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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  • Nicotine pouches are being marketed to young people on social media. But are they safe, or even legal?

    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.

    Flavoured nicotine pouches are being promoted to young people on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

    Although some viral videos have been taken down following a series of reports in The Guardian, clips featuring Australian influencers have claimed nicotine pouches are a safe and effective way to quit vaping. A number of the videos have included links to websites selling these products.

    With the rapid rise in youth vaping and the subsequent implementation of several reforms to restrict access to vaping products, it’s not entirely surprising the tobacco industry is introducing more products to maintain its future revenue stream.

    The major trans-national tobacco companies, including Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco, all manufacture nicotine pouches. British American Tobacco’s brand of nicotine pouches, Velo, is a leading sponsor of the McLaren Formula 1 team.

    But what are nicotine pouches, and are they even legal in Australia?

    Like snus, but different

    Nicotine pouches are available in many countries around the world, and their sales are increasing rapidly, especially among young people.

    Nicotine pouches look a bit like small tea bags and are placed between the lip and gum. They’re typically sold in small, colourful tins of about 15 to 20 pouches. While the pouches don’t contain tobacco, they do contain nicotine that is either extracted from tobacco plants or made synthetically. The pouches come in a wide range of strengths.

    As well as nicotine, the pouches commonly contain plant fibres (in place of tobacco, plant fibres serve as a filler and give the pouches shape), sweeteners and flavours. Just like for vaping products, there’s a vast array of pouch flavours available including different varieties of fruit, confectionery, spices and drinks.

    The range of appealing flavours, as well as the fact they can be used discreetly, may make nicotine pouches particularity attractive to young people.

    Two teenage girls vaping on a blanket in a park.
    Vaping has recently been subject to tighter regulation in Australia.
    Aleksandr Yu/Shutterstock

    Users absorb the nicotine in their mouths and simply replace the pouch when all the nicotine has been absorbed. Tobacco-free nicotine pouches are a relatively recent product, but similar style products that do contain tobacco, known as snus, have been popular in Scandinavian countries, particularly Sweden, for decades.

    Snus and nicotine pouches are however different products. And given snus contains tobacco and nicotine pouches don’t, the products are subject to quite different regulations in Australia.

    What does the law say?

    Pouches that contain tobacco, like snus, have been banned in Australia since 1991, as part of a consumer product ban on all forms of smokeless tobacco products. This means other smokeless tobacco products such as chewing tobacco, snuff, and dissolvable tobacco sticks or tablets, are also banned from sale in Australia.

    Tobacco-free nicotine pouches cannot legally be sold by general retailers, like tobacconists and convenience stores, in Australia either. But the reasons for this are more complex.

    In Australia, under the Poisons Standard, nicotine is a prescription-only medicine, with two exceptions. Nicotine can be used in tobacco prepared and packed for smoking, such as cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, and cigars, as well as in preparations for therapeutic use as a smoking cessation aid, such as nicotine patches, gum, mouth spray and lozenges.

    If a nicotine-containing product does not meet either of these two exceptions, it cannot be legally sold by general retailers. No nicotine pouches have currently been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration as a therapeutic aid in smoking cessation, so in short they’re not legal to sell in Australia.

    However, nicotine pouches can be legally imported for personal use only if users have a prescription from a medical professional who can assess if the product is appropriate for individual use.

    We only have anecdotal reports of nicotine pouch use, not hard data, as these products are very new in Australia. But we do know authorities are increasingly seizing these products from retailers. It’s highly unlikely any young people using nicotine pouches are accessing them through legal channels.

    Health concerns

    Nicotine exposure may induce effects including dizziness, headache, nausea and abdominal cramps, especially among people who don’t normally smoke or vape.

    Although we don’t yet have much evidence on the long term health effects of nicotine pouches, we know nicotine is addictive and harmful to health. For example, it can cause problems in the cardiovascular system (such as heart arrhythmia), particularly at high doses. It may also have negative effects on adolescent brain development.

    The nicotine contents of some of the nicotine pouches on the market is alarmingly high. Certain brands offer pouches containing more than 10mg of nicotine, which is similar to a cigarette. According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, pouches deliver enough nicotine to induce and sustain nicotine addiction.

    Pouches are also being marketed as a product to use when it’s not possible to vape or smoke, such as on a plane. So instead of helping a person quit they may be used in addition to smoking and vaping. And importantly, there’s no clear evidence pouches are an effective smoking or vaping cessation aid.

    A Velo product display at Dubai airport in October 2022.
    A Velo product display at Dubai airport in October 2022. Nicotine pouches are marketed as safe to use on planes.
    Becky Freeman

    Further, some nicotine pouches, despite being tobacco-free, still contain tobacco-specific nitrosamines. These compounds can damage DNA, and with long term exposure, can cause cancer.

    Overall, there’s limited data on the harms of nicotine pouches because they’ve been on the market for only a short time. But the WHO recommends a cautious approach given their similarities to smokeless tobacco products.

    For anyone wanting advice and support to quit smoking or vaping, it’s best to talk to your doctor or pharmacist, or access trusted sources such as Quitline or the iCanQuit website.The Conversation

    Becky Freeman, Associate Professor, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

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

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    Learn to Age Gracefully

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