Which Vitamin Brands Are Effective?

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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

❝As far as specific brands of vitamin…some are good some not. I don’t like being told what buy but I guess I want to know which are effective. Could there be some brands recognized as good given to us?❞

The most reliable brands are generally those with the most transparency:

  • They tell you what is in the supplement; not just the active ingredient(s), with doses, but also any buffers etc.
  • They tell you, in the case of ingredients that can have various different sources, what the source is.
  • They are, ideally, well-certified and independently tested.

Our previous sponsor Ora is a good example of a company that does this.

Additionally, in terms of bioavailability, generally speaking the order of preference goes liquid > capsule/softgel > tablet, so that’s something to look out for, too.

Note: “liquid” includes powders that are ingested when dissolved/suspended in water, and also includes tablets that become a liquid when dissolved/dispersed in water and ingested that way.

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  • Mung Beans vs Black Gram – Which is Healthier?

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    Our Verdict

    When comparing mung beans to black gram, we picked the black gram.

    Why?

    Both are great, and it was close!

    In terms of macros, the main difference is that mung beans have slightly more fiber, while black gram has slightly more protein. So, it comes down to which we prioritize out of those two, and we’re going to call it fiber and thus hand the win in this category to mung beans—but it’s very close in either case.

    In the category of vitamins, mung beans have more of vitamins B1, B6, and B9, while black gram has more of vitamins A, B2, B3, and B5. They’re equal on vitamins C, E, K, and choline. So, a marginal victory by the numbers for black gram here.

    When it comes to minerals, mung beans have more copper and potassium, while black gram has more calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and phosphorus. They’re equal on selenium and zinc. Another win for black gram.

    Adding up the sections makes for an overall win for black gram, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?

    Enjoy!

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  • Buffed-Up Buffalo Cauliflower

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    This is a tasty snack that also more protein than you’d think, because of the garbanzo bean flour. It also has plenty of health-giving spices, as well as blood-sugar-balancing vinegar, no added sugar, and very little salt.

    You will need

    • 1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets
    • ½ cup garbanzo bean flour
    • ½ cup water
    • ⅓ cup hot sauce (we recommend a low-sugar kind; Nando’s hot sauce is good for this if available where you are, as it has no added sugar and its main ingredient by volume is vinegar, which is good for balancing blood sugars)
    • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for the pan
    • 2 tsp garlic powder
    • 2 tsp nutritional yeast
    • 2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
    • 1 tsp smoked paprika
    • ½ tsp MSG, or 1 tsp low sodium salt

    For the ranch sauce:

    • ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
    • ⅓ cup water
    • ⅓ cup milk (plant milk being healthiest if you choose one that’s unsweetened)
    • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
    • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 tsp onion powder
    • 1 tsp dried thyme
    • 1 tsp dried oregano
    • 1 tsp dried dill
    • ½ tsp MSG, or 1 tsp low sodium salt

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃.

    2) Blend the ranch sauce ingredients until smooth, and set aside.

    3) Mix the buffalo cauliflower ingredients except for the cauliflower, in a big bowl.

    4) Add the cauliflower to the big bowl, mixing well to coat evenly.

    5) Bake the buffalo cauliflower florets on a baking tray lined with baking paper, for about 25 minutes, turning gently if it seems they are at risk of cooking unevenly.

    6) Serve hot, with the sunflower ranch on the side!

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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  • Milk Thistle For The Brain, Bones, & More

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    “Thistle Do Nicely”

    Milk thistle is a popular supplement; it comes from the milk thistle plant (Silybum marianum), commonly just called thistles. There are other kinds of thistle too, but these are one of the most common.

    So, what does it do?

    Liver health

    Milk thistle enjoys popular use to support liver health; the liver is a remarkably self-regenerative organ if given the chance, but sometimes it can use a helping hand.

    See for example: How To Undo Liver Damage

    As for milk thistle’s beneficence, it is very well established:

    Brain health

    For this one the science is less well-established, as studies so far have been on non-human animals, or have been in vitro studies.

    Nevertheless, the results so far are promising, and the mechanism of action seems to be a combination of reducing oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, as well as suppressing amyloid β-protein (Aβ) fibril formation, in other words, reducing amyloid plaques.

    General overview: A Mini Review on the Chemistry and Neuroprotective Effects of Silymarin

    All about the plaques, but these are non-human animal studies:

    Against diabetes

    Milk thistle improves insulin sensitivity, and reduces fasting blood sugar levels and HbA1c levels. The research so far is mostly in type 2 diabetes, however (at least, so far as we could find). For example:

    Silymarin in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

    Studies we could find for T1D were very far from translatable to human usefulness, for example, “we poisoned these rats with streptozotocin then gave them megadoses of silymarin (10–15 times the dose usually recommended for humans) and found very small benefits to the lenses of their eyes” (source).

    Against osteoporosis

    In this case, milk thistle’s estrogenic effects may be of merit to those at risk of menopause-induced osteoporosis:

    Antiosteoclastic activity of milk thistle extract after ovariectomy to suppress estrogen deficiency-induced osteoporosis

    If you’d like a quick primer about such things as what antiosteoclastic activity is, here’s a quick recap:

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

    Is it safe?

    It is “Generally Recognized As Safe”, and even when taken at high doses for long periods, side effects are very rare.

    Contraindications include if you’re pregnant, nursing, or allergic.

    Potential reasons for caution (but not necessarily contraindication) include if you’re diabetic (its blood-sugar lowering effects will decrease the risk of hyperglycemia while increasing the risk of hypoglycemia), or have a condition that could be exacerbated by its estrogenic effects—including if you are on HRT, because it’s an estrogen receptor agonist in some ways (for example those bone benefits we mentioned before) but an estrogen antagonist in others (for example, in the uterus, if you have one, or in nearby flat muscles, if you don’t).

    As ever, speak with your doctor/pharmacist to be sure.

    Want to try it?

    We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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  • The Many Health Benefits Of Garlic

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    The Many Health Benefits of Garlic

    We’re quite confident you already know what garlic is, so we’re going to leap straight in there with some science today:

    First, let’s talk about allicin

    Allicin is a compound in garlic that gives most of its health benefits. A downside of allicin is that it’s not very stable, so what this means is:

    • Garlic is best fresh—allicin breaks down soon after garlic is cut/crushed
      • So while doing the paperwork isn’t fun, buying it as bulbs is better than buying it as granules or similar
    • Allicin also breaks down somewhat in cooking, so raw garlic is best
      • Our philosophy is: still use it in cooking as well; just use more!
    • Supplements (capsule form etc) use typically use extracts and potency varies (from not great to actually very good)

    Read more about that:

    Now, let’s talk benefits…

    Benefits to heart health

    Garlic has been found to be as effective as the drug Atenolol at reducing blood pressure:

    Effects of Allium sativum (garlic) on systolic and diastolic blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension

    It also lowers LDL (bad cholesterol):

    Lipid-lowering effects of time-released garlic powder tablets in double-blinded placebo-controlled randomized study

    Benefits to the gut

    We weren’t even looking for this, but as it turns out, as an add-on to the heart benefits…

    Garlic lowers blood pressure in hypertensive subjects, improves arterial stiffness and gut microbiota: A review and meta-analysis

    Benefits to the immune system

    Whether against the common cold or bringing out the heavy guns, garlic is a booster:

    Benefits to the youthfulness of body and brain

    Garlic is high in antioxidants that, by virtue of reducing oxidative stress, help slow aging. This effect, combined with the cholesterol and blood pressure benefits, means it may also reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia:

    There are more benefits too…

    That’s all we have time to dive into study-wise today, but for the visually-inclined, here are yet more benefits to garlic (at a rate of 3–4 cloves per day):

    An incredible awesome recipe using lots of garlic:

    • Take small potatoes (still in their skins), cut in half
    • Add enough peeled cloves of garlic so that you have perhaps a 1:10 ratio of garlic to potato by mass
    • Boil (pressure-cooking is ideal) until soft, and drain
    • Keeping them in the pan, add a lashing of olive oil, and any additional seasonings per your preference (consider black pepper, rosemary, thyme, parsley)
    • Put a lid on the pan, and holding it closed, shake the pan vigorously
      • Note: if you didn’t leave the skins on, or you chopped much larger potatoes smaller instead of cutting in half, the potatoes will break up into a rough mash now. This is actually also fine and still tastes (and honestly, looks) great, but it is different, so just be aware, so that you get the outcome you want.
    • The garlic, which—unlike the potatoes—didn’t have a skin to hold it together, will now have melted over the potatoes like butter

    You can serve like this (it’s delicious already) or finish up in the oven or air-fryer or under the grill, if you prefer a roasted style dish (an amazing option too).

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  • Are Electrolyte Supplements Worth It?

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    When To Take Electrolytes (And When We Shouldn’t!)

    Any sports nutrition outlet will sell electrolyte supplements. Sometimes in the form of sports drinks that claim to be more hydrating than water, or tablets that can be dissolved in water to make the same. How do they work, and should we be drinking them?

    What are electrolytes?

    They’re called “electrolytes” because they are ionized particles (so, they have a positive or negative electrical charge, depending on which kind of ion they are) that are usually combined in the form of salts.

    The “first halves” of the salts include:

    • Sodium
    • Potassium
    • Calcium
    • Magnesium

    The “second halves” of the salts include:

    • Chloride
    • Phosphate
    • Bicarbonate
    • Nitrate

    It doesn’t matter too much which way they’re combined, provided we get what we need. Specifically, the body needs them in a careful balance. Too much or too little, and bad things will start happening to us.

    If we live in a temperate climate with a moderate lifestyle and a balanced diet, and have healthy working kidneys, usually our kidneys will keep them all in balance.

    Why might we need to supplement?

    Firstly, of course, you might have a dietary deficiency. Magnesium deficiency in particular is very common in North America, as people simply do not eat as much greenery as they ideally would.

    But, also, you might sweat out your electrolytes, in which case, you will need to replace them.

    In particular, endurance training and High Intensity Interval Training are likely to prompt this.

    However… Are you in a rush? Because if not, you might just want to recover more slowly:

    ❝Vigorous exercise and warm/hot temperatures induce sweat production, which loses both water and electrolytes. Both water and sodium need to be replaced to re-establish “normal” total body water (euhydration).

    This replacement can be by normal eating and drinking practices if there is no urgency for recovery.

    But if rapid recovery (<24 h) is desired or severe hypohydration (>5% body mass) is encountered, aggressive drinking of fluids and consuming electrolytes should be encouraged to facilitate recovery❞

    Source: Fluid and electrolyte needs for training, competition, and recovery

    Should we just supplement anyway, as a “catch-all” to be sure?

    Probably not. In particular, it is easy to get too much sodium in one’s diet, let alone by supplementation.And, oversupplementation of calcium is very common, and causes its own health problems. See:

    To look directly to the science on this one, we see a general consensus amongst research reviews: “this is complicated and can go either way depending on what else people are doing”:

    Well, that’s not helpful. Any clearer pointers?

    Yes! Researchers Latzka and Mountain put together a very practical list of tips. Rather, they didn’t put it as a list, but the following bullet points are information extracted directly from their abstract, though we’ve also linked the full article below:

    • It is recommended that individuals begin exercise when adequately hydrated.
      • This can be facilitated by drinking 400 mL to 600 mL of fluid 2 hours before beginning exercise and drinking sufficient fluid during exercise to prevent dehydration from exceeding 2% body weight.
    • A practical recommendation is to drink small amounts of fluid (150-300 mL) every 15 to 20 minutes of exercise, varying the volume depending on sweating rate.
      • During exercise lasting less than 90 minutes, water alone is sufficient for fluid replacement
      • During prolonged exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes, commercially available carbohydrate electrolyte beverages should be considered to provide an exogenous carbohydrate source to sustain carbohydrate oxidation and endurance performance.
    • Electrolyte supplementation is generally not necessary because dietary intake is adequate to offset electrolytes lost in sweat and urine; however, during initial days of hot-weather training or when meals are not calorically adequate, supplemental salt intake may be indicated to sustain sodium balance.

    Source: Water and electrolyte requirements for exercise

    Bonus tip:

    We’ve talked before about the specific age-related benefits of creatine supplementation, but if you’re doing endurance training or HIIT, you might also want to consider a creatine-electrolyte combination sports drink (even if you make it yourself):

    Creatine-electrolyte supplementation improves repeated sprint cycling performance: a double-blind randomized control study

    Where can I get electrolyte supplements?

    They’re easy to find in any sports nutrition store, or you can buy them online; here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience

    You can also opt for natural and/or homemade electrolyte drinks:

    Healthline | 8 Healthy Drinks Rich in Electrolytes

    Enjoy!

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  • 10 Simple Japanese Habits For Healthier & Longer Life

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    You don’t have to be Japanese or live in Okinawa to enjoy the benefits of healthy longevity. A lot of it comes down to simple habits:

    Easy to implement

    We’ll not keep the 10 habits a mystery; they are:

    1. Start the day with hot water: drinking hot water in the morning helps with hydration, warming the body, and aiding digestion.
    2. Enjoy a hearty breakfast: Japanese breakfasts are traditionally filling, nutritious, and help promote energy and longevity. Typical components include rice, miso soup, fish, and pickles.
    3. Take balanced meals: Japanese education emphasizes nutrition from a young age, promoting balanced meals with proteins, fiber, and vitamins & minerals.
    4. Enjoy fermented foods: fermented foods, such as nattō and soy-based condiments, support digestion, heart health, and the immune system.
    5. Drink green tea and matcha: both are rich in health benefits; preparing matcha mindfully adds a peaceful ritual to daily life too.
    6. Keep the “80% full” rule: “hara hachi bu” encourages eating until 80% full, which can improve longevity and, of course, prevent overeating.
    7. Use multiple small dishes: small servings and a variety of dishes help prevent overeating and ensure a diverse intake of nutrients.
    8. Gratitude before and after meals: saying “itadakimasu” and “gochisousama” promotes mindful eating, and afterwards, good digestion. Speaking Japanese is of course not the key factor here, but rather, do give yourself a moment of reflection before and after meals.
    9. Use vinegar in cooking: vinegar, often used in sushi rice and sauces like ponzu, adds flavor and offers health benefits, mostly pertaining to blood sugar balance.
    10. Eat slowly: Eating at a slower pace will improve digestion, and can enhance satiety and prevent accidentally overeating.

    For more 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:

    How To Get More Out Of What’s On Your Plate

    Take care!

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