The Insomnia Breakthrough – by Katherine Coleman
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The author, a massage therapist, knows plenty about relaxation. But how to put that to use when it comes to getting good quality sleep?
She takes a holistic approach, and yes, does start by covering all the things you’d expect to find in any guide to better sleep (aim for regular schedule, have darkness when you sleep, cool room, clean sheets, no alcohol or caffeine before bed, etc).
What she offers in particular beyond that, is the integration of calming routines, building in mindfulness for sleep (when very often people will go for the opposite!), and small cumulative lifestyle adjustments that are conducive to getting a better night’s rest every night.
The style is very light pop-science (as one might expect from someone who is not, in fact, a scientist), and while we do get a bibliography at the back, it’s a meagre 4 pages. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of interdisciplinary knowledge here, explained well.
Bottom line: if improving your sleep is something you’d like to do, this book can almost certainly get you on the right track.
Click here to check out The Insomnia Breakthrough, and don’t stay up too late reading it!
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Unprocess Your Life – by Rob Hobson
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Rob Hobson is not a doctor, but he is a nutritionist with half the alphabet after his name (BSc, PGDip, MSc, AFN, SENR) and decades of experience in the field.
The book covers, in jargon-free fashion, the science of ultra-processed foods, and why for example that pack of frozen chicken nuggets are bad but a pack of tofu (which obviously also took some processing, because it didn’t grow on the plant like that) isn’t.
This kind of explanation puts to rest a lot of the “does this count?” queries that a reader might have when giving the shopping list a once-over.
He also covers practical considerations such as kitchen equipment that’s worth investing in if you don’t already have it, and an “unprocessed pantry” shopping list.
The recipes (yes, there are recipes, nearly a hundred of them) are not plant-based by default, but there is a section of vegan and vegetarian recipes. Given that the theme of the book is replacing ultra-processed foods, it doesn’t mean a life of abstemiousness—there are recipes for all manner of things from hot sauce to cakes. Just, healthier unprocessed ones! There are classically healthy recipes too, of course.
Bottom line: if you’ve been wishing for a while that you could get rid of those processed products that are just so convenient that you haven’t got around to replacing them with healthier options, this book can indeed help you do just that.
Click here to check out Unprocess Your Life, and unprocess your life!
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Tuna vs Catfish – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing tuna to catfish, we picked the tuna.
Why?
Today in “that which is more expensive and/or harder to get is not necessarily healthier”…
Looking at their macros, tuna has more protein and less fat (and overall, less saturated fat, and also less cholesterol).
In the category of vitamins, both are good but tuna distinguishes itself: tuna has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B6, and D, while catfish has more of vitamins B5, B9, B12, E, and K. They are both approximately equal in choline, and as an extra note in tuna’s favor (already winning 6:5), tuna is a very good source of vitamin D, while catfish barely contains any. All in all: a moderate, but convincing, win for tuna.
When it comes to minerals, things are clearer still: tuna has more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium, while catfish has more calcium, manganese, and zinc. Oh, and catfish is also higher in one other mineral: sodium, which most people in industrialized countries need less of, on average. So, a 6:3 win for tuna, before we even take into account the sodium content (which makes the win for tuna even stronger).
In short: tuna wins the day in every category!
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Farmed Fish vs Wild Caught (It Makes Quite A Difference)
Take care!
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Things Many People Forget When It Comes To Hydration
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Good hydration is about more than just “drink lots of water”, and in fact it’s quite possible for a person to drink too much water, and at the same time, be dehydrated. Here’s how and why and what to do about it:
Water, water, everywhere
Factors that people forget:
- Electrolyte balance: without it, we can technically have lots of water while either retaining it (in the case of too high salt levels) or peeing it out (in the case of too low salt levels), neither of which are as helpful as getting it right and actually being able to use the water.
- Gastrointestinal health: conditions like IBS, Crohn’s, or celiac disease can impair water and nutrient absorption, affecting hydration
- Genetic factors: some people simply have a predisposition to need more or less water for proper hydration
- Dietary factors: high salt, caffeine, and alcohol intake (amongst other diuretics) can increase water loss, while water-rich foods (assuming they aren’t also diuretics) increase hydration.
Strategies to do better:
- Drink small amounts of water consistently throughout the day rather than large quantities at once—healthy kidneys can process about 1 liter (about 1 quart) of water per hour, so drinking more than that will not help, no matter how dehydrated you are when you start. If your kidneys aren’t in peak health, the amount processable per hour will be lower for you.
- Increase fiber intake (e.g., fruit and vegetables) to retain water in the intestines and improve hydration
- Consume water-rich foods (e.g., watermelon, cucumbers, grapes) to enhance overall hydration and support cellular function (the body can use this a lot more efficiently than if you just drink water).
- Counteract the diuretic effects of caffeine and alcohol by drinking an additional 12 oz of water for every 8 oz of these beverages. Best yet, don’t drink alcohol and keep caffeine to a low level (or quit entirely, if you prefer, but for most people that’s not necessary).
- If you are sweating (be it because of weather, exercise, or any other reasons), include electrolyte fluids to improve cellular hydration, as they contain essential minerals like magnesium, potassium, and in moderation yes even sodium which you will have lost in your sweat too, supporting fluid regulation.
For more details on all of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
- Water’s Counterintuitive Properties
- Hydration Mythbusting
- When To Take Electrolytes (And When We Shouldn’t!)
- Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60)
Take care!
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Outlive – by Dr. Peter Attia
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We know, we know; this diet, that exercise, don’t smoke or drink, get decent sleep”—a lot of books don’t go beyond this level of advice!
What Dr. Attia offers is a multi-vector approach that covers the above and a lot more.
Themes of the book include:
- The above-mentioned things, of course
- Rethinking medicine for the age of chronic disease
- The pros and cons of…
- caloric restriction
- dietary restriction
- intermittent fasting
- Pre-emptive interventions for…
- specific common cause-of-death conditions
- specific common age-related degenerative conditions
- The oft-forgotten extra pillar of longevity: mental health
The last one in the list there is covered mostly in the last chapter of the book, but it’s there as a matter of importance, not as an afterthought. As Dr. Attia puts it, not only are you less likely to take care of your physical health if you are (for example) depressed, but also… “Longevity is meaningless if your life sucks!”
So, it’s important to do things that promote and maintain good physical and mental health.
Bottom line: if you’re interested in happy, healthy, longevity, this is a book for you.
Click here to check out Dr. Attia’s “Outlive” on Amazon today!
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The Silent Struggle – by L. William Ross-Child, MLC
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The vast majority of literature out there about ADHD is about children. And fair enough, there are enough popular misunderstandings of ADHD in children so it’s good those works exist… but what about adults?
Adults face different challenges than children, and have different responsibilities. People have different expectations. And even if you say you have ADHD… If you’re not behaving like a squirrel, they will often not accept this, much less understand it, because half the actual symptoms are not what most people think they are.
Ross-Child first lays out the neurobiological underpinnings of ADHD. This is a good place to start, because the physiology of it explains a lot of the other parts of it that can otherwise seem quite mystifying.
Thereafter, he looks one-by-one at the various cognitive and behavioral aspects of ADHD in adults, which will surely help the reader to better understand themself (or perhaps a loved one).
The next part of the book is given over to an exploration of ADHD and the differences it can make in the workplace, relationships (incl. ADHD and sex), as well as parenting, and how these things can all be navigated better by all concerned.
The style throughout is light and very readable, peppered with science made comprehensible. If there’s any flaw, it’s that there are only two pages of references in the bibliography—we’d have liked to have seen more.
All in all though, a really useful guide if you or a loved one has ADHD and you’d like strategies for working with (or around) this condition in a world not made to be kind to such.
Order your copy of “The Silent Struggle: Taking Charge of ADHD in Adults” from Amazon today!
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Nutrivore – by Dr. Sarah Ballantyne
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The core idea of this book is that foods can be assigned a numerical value according to their total nutritional value, and that this number can be used to guide a person’s diet such that we will eat, in aggregate, a diet that is more nutritious. So far, so simple.
What Dr. Ballantyne also does, besides explaining and illustrating this system (there are chapters explaining the calculation system, and appendices with values), is also going over what to consider important and what we can let slide, and what things we might need more of to address a wide assortment of potential health concerns. And yes, this is definitely a “positive diet” approach, i.e. it focuses on what to add in, not what to cut out.
The premise of the “positive diet” approach is simple, by the way: if we get a full set of good nutrients, we will be satisfied and not crave unhealthy food.
She also offers a lot of helpful “rules of thumb”, and provides a variety of cheat-sheets and suchlike to make things as easy as possible.
There’s also a recipes section! Though, it’s not huge and it’s probably not necessary, but it’s just one more “she’s thinking of everything” element.
Bottom line: if you’d like a single-volume “Bible of” nutrition-made-easy, this is a very usable tome.
Click here to check out Nutrivore, and start filling up your diet!
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