Walnuts vs Brazil Nuts – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing walnuts to Brazil nuts, we picked the walnuts.
Why?
Talking macros first, they are about equal in protein, carbs, fats, and fiber; their composition is almost identical in this regard. However, looking a little more closely at the fats, Brazil nuts have more than 2x the saturated fat, while walnuts have nearly 2x the polyunsaturated fat. So, we’ll declare the macros category a moderate win for walnuts.
The category of vitamins is not balanced; walnuts have more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, and choline, while Brazil nuts have more of vitamins B1 and E. A clear and easy win for walnuts.
The category of minerals is interesting, because of one mineral in particular. First let’s mention: walnuts have more iron and manganese, while Brazil nuts have more calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. Taken at face value, this is a clear win for Brazil nuts. However…
About that selenium… Specifically, it’s more than 391x higher, and a cup of Brazil nuts would give nearly 10,000x the recommended daily amount of selenium. Now, selenium is an essential mineral (needed for thyroid hormone production, for example), and at the RDA it’s good for good health. Your hair will be luscious and shiny. However, go much above that, and selenium toxicity becomes a thing, you may get sick, and it can cause your (luscious and shiny) hair to fall out. For this reason, it’s recommended to eat no more than 3–4 Brazil nuts per day.
There is one last consideration, and this is oxalates; walnuts are moderately high in oxalates (>50mg/100g) while Brazil nuts are very high in oxalates (>500mg/100g). This won’t affect most people at all, but if you have pre-existing kidney problems (including a history of kidney stones), you might want to go easy on oxalate-containing foods.
For most people, however, walnuts are a very healthy choice, and outshine Brazil nuts in most ways.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts
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Feta or Parmesan – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing feta to parmesan, we picked the parmesan.
Why?
It’s close! Looking at the macros, parmesan has more protein and slightly less fat. Of the fat content, parmesan also has slightly less saturated fat, but neither of them are doing great in this category. Still, a relative win for parmesan.
In the category of vitamins, feta is a veritable vitamin-B-fest with more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, and B9. On the other hand, parmesan has more of vitamins A, B12, and choline. By strength of numbers, this is a win for feta.
Minerals tell a different story; parmesan has a lot more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc. Meanwhile, feta is not higher in any minerals. A clear win for parmesan.
Both cheeses offer gut-healthy benefits (if consumed regularly in small portions), while neither are great for the heart.
On balance, we say parmesan wins the day.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
Feta Cheese vs Mozzarella – Which is Healthier?
Take care!
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Neurotransmitter Cheatsheet
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Which Neurotransmitter?
There are a lot of neurotransmitters that are important for good mental health (and, by way of knock-on effects, physical health).
However, when pop-science headlines refer to them as “feel-good chemicals” (yes but which one?!) or “the love molecule” (yes but which one?!) or other such vague names when referring to a specific neurotransmitter, it’s easy to get them mixed up.
So today we’re going to do a little disambiguation of some of the main mood-related neurotransmitters (there are many more, but we only have so much room), and what things we can do to help manage them.
Dopamine
This one predominantly regulates reward responses, though it’s also necessary for critical path analysis (e.g. planning), language faculties, and motor functions. It makes us feel happy, motivated, and awake.
To have more:
- eat foods that are rich in dopamine or its precursors such as tyrosine (bananas and almonds are great)
- do things that you find rewarding
Downsides: is instrumental in most addictions, and also too much can result in psychosis. For most people, that level of “too much” isn’t obtainable due to the homeostatic system, however.
See also: Rebalancing Dopamine (Without “Dopamine Fasting”)
Serotonin
This one predominantly helps regulate our circadian rhythm. It also makes us feel happy, calm, and awake.
To have more:
- get more sunlight, or if the light must be artificial, then (ideally) full-spectrum light, or (if it’s what’s available) blue light
- spend time in nature; we are hardwired to feel happy in the environments in which we evolved, which for most of human history was large open grassy expanses with occasional trees (however, for modern purposes, a park or appropriate garden will suffice).
Downsides: this is what keeps us awake at night if we had too much light before bed, and also too much serotonin can result in (potentially fatal) serotonin syndrome. Most people can’t get that much serotonin due to our homeostatic system, but some drugs can force it upon us.
See also: Seasonal Affective Disorder Strategies
Oxytocin
This one predominantly helps us connect to others on an emotional level. It also makes us feel happy, calm, and relaxed.
To have more:
- hug a loved one (or even just think about doing so, if they’re not available)
- look at pictures/videos of cute puppies, kittens, and the like—this triggers a similar response
Downsides: negligible. Socially speaking, it can cause us to drop our guard, most for most people most of the time, this is not a problem. It can also reduce sexual desire—it’s in large part responsible for the peaceful lulled state post-orgasm. It’s not responsible for the sleepiness in men though; that’s mostly prolactin.
See also: Only One Kind Of Relationship Promotes Longevity This Much!
Adrenaline
This one predominantly affects our sympathetic nervous system; it elevates heart rate, blood pressure, and other similar functions. It makes us feel alert, ready for action, and energized.
To have more:
- listen to a “power anthem” piece of music. What it is can depend on your musical tastes; whatever gets you riled up in an empowering way.
- engage in something competitive that you feel strongly about while doing it—or by the same mechanism, a solitary activity where the stakes feel high even if it’s actually quite safe (e.g. watching a thriller or a horror movie, if that’s your thing).
Downsides: its effects are not sustainable, and (in cases of chronic stress) the body will try to sustain them anyway, which has a deleterious effect. Because adrenaline and cortisol are closely linked, chronically high adrenal action will tend to mean chronically high cortisol also.
See also: Lower Your Cortisol! (Here’s Why & How)
Some final words
You’ll notice that in none of the “how to have more” did we mention drugs. That’s because:
- a drug-free approach is generally the best thing to try first, at the very least
- there are simply a lot of drugs to affect each one (or more), and talking about them would require talking about each drug in some detail.
However, the following may be of interest for some readers:
Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!
Take care!
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Most People Try The Wrong Way To Unshrimp Their Posture (Here’s How To Do It Better)
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Many people try to correct posture by pulling the shoulders back and tucking in the chin, but that doesn’t work. Happily, there is a way that does! Kinesiologist Kyle Waugh demonstrates:
Defying gravity
The trick is simple, and is about how maintaining good posture needs to be unconscious and natural, not forced. After all, who is maintaining singular focus for 16 waking hours a day?
Instead, pay attention to how the body relates to gravity without excessive muscle tension, aligning the (oft-forgotten!) hips, and maintaining balance. The importance of hip position is really not to be underestimated, since in many ways the hips are a central axis of the body just as the spine is, and the spine itself sits in the hips.
A lot of what holds the body in poor posture tends to be localized muscle tensions, so address those with stretches and relaxation exercises.
For a few quick tests and exercises to try, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
6 Ways To Look After Your Back ← no video on this one, just 6 concepts that you can apply to your daily life
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The Starch Solution – by Dr. John McDougall & Mary McDougall
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Carb-strong or carb-wrong? We’ve written about this ourselves before, and it comes down to clarifying questions of what and how and why. Even within the general field of carbs, even within the smaller field of starch, not all foods are equal. A slice of white bread and a baked potato are both starchy, but the latter also contains fiber, vitamins, minerals, and suchlike.
The authors make the case for a whole-foods plant-based diet in which one need not shy away from starchy foods in general; one simply must enjoy them discriminately—whole grains, and root vegetables that have not been processed to Hell and back, for examples.
The style is “old-school pop-sci” but with modern science; claims are quite well-sourced throughout, with nine pages of bibliography at the end. Right after the ninety-nine pages of recipes!
Bottom line: if you’re a carb-enjoyer, all is definitely not lost healthwise, and in fact on the contrary, this can be the foundation of a very healthy and nutrient-rich diet.
Click here to check out The Starch Solution, and enjoy the foods you love, healthily!
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Mango vs Guava – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing mango to guava, we picked the guava.
Why?
Looking at macros first, these two fruits are about equal on carbs (nominally mango has more, but it’s by a truly tiny margin), while guava has more than 3x the protein and more than 3x the fiber. A clear win for guava.
In terms of vitamins, mango has more of vitamins A, E, and K, while guava has more of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B7, B9, and C. Another win for guava.
In the category of minerals, mango is not higher in any minerals, while guava is higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.
In short, enjoy both; both are healthy. But if you’re choosing one, there’s a clear winner here, and it’s guava.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
Take care!
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The Plant-Based Athlete – by Matt Frazier and Robert Cheeke
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If you’re already a seasoned plant-based athlete yourself, you can probably skip this book; the 60 recipes at the end would still provide value, but there is the “No Meat Athlete Cookbook” that you could hop straight to, in any case.
For most readers, there will be plenty of value from start to finish. We get a quick ground-up tour of nutrition basics, before getting into restructuring diet to optimize it for performance.
There is less in the way of “Vegans struggle with…” and more in the way of “People think vegans struggle with…” and explanations of what vegan athletes actually eat. The book does include science, but isn’t too science-heavy, and relies more on modelling what plant-based superathletes enjoy on a daily basis.
To that end,if the book has a weak point, it’s perhaps that it could have stood to include more science. The book comes recommended by Dr. Michael Greger, whose nutritional approach is incredibly science-heavy and well-referenced, and this book is obviously compatible with that (so they could have!), but in this case Frazier and Cheeke leave us to take their word for it.
Nevertheless, the science is good whether they cite it or not, and this book is quite a comprehensive primer of plant-based athleticism.
Bottom line: if you’re wondering how to optimize the two goals of “eating plants” and “being a powerful athlete”, then this one’s the book for you.
Click here to check out The Plant-Based Athlete and upgrade your health and athletic performance!
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