Cannellini Protein Gratin

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The 10almonds Team

A healthier twist on a classic, the protein here comes not only from the cannellini beans, but also from (at the risk of alienating French readers) a béchamel sauce that is not made using the traditional method involving flour and butter, but instead, has cashew protein as a major constituent.

You will need

  • 3 medium potatoes, chopped (no need to peel them; you can if you want, but many of the nutrients are there and they’re not a problem for the recipe)
  • 1 can cannellini beans (also called white kidney beans)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, sliced
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • ½ bulb garlic, minced (or more, if you like)
  • 1 jalapeño, chopped
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp chia seeds
  • 2 tsp black pepper, coarse ground
  • Extra virgin olive oil, for frying

For the béchamel sauce:

  • ½ cup milk (we recommend a neutral-tasting plant milk, such as unsweetened soy, but go with your preference)
  • ⅓ cup cashews, soaked in hot water for at least 5 minutes (longer is fine) and drained
  • ¼ cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp dried thyme

Method

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

Note: it will be a bonus if you can use a pan that is good both for going on the hob and in the oven, such as a deep cast iron skillet, or a Dutch oven. If you don’t have something like that though, it’s fine, just use a sauté pan or similar, and then transfer to an oven dish for the oven part—we’ll mention this again when we get to it.

1) Preheat the oven to 250℉/175℃.

2) Heat the pan, adding some oil and then the oven; fry it for about 5 minutes, stirring often.

3) Add the potatoes, celery, carrot, garlic, and jalapeño, stirring for another 2 minutes.

4) Add the tomato paste, along with 1 cup water, the chia seeds, and the black pepper, and cook for a further 15 minutes, stirring occasionally as necessary.

5) Add the cannellini beans, and cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally as necessary.

6) Blend all the ingredients for the béchamel sauce, processing it until it is smooth.

7) If you are using an oven-safe pan, pour the béchamel sauce over the bean mixture (don’t stir it; the sauce should remain on top) and transfer it to the oven. Don’t use a lid.

If you’re not using an oven safe pan, first transfer the bean mixture to an oven dish, then pour the béchamel sauce over the bean mixture (don’t stir it; the sauce should remain on top) and put it in the oven. Don’t use a lid.

8) Bake for about 15 minutes, or until turning golden-brown on top.

9) Serve! It can be enjoyed on its own, or with salad and/or rice. See also, our Tasty Versatile Rice Recipe.

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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  • How Useful Is Peppermint, Really?

    The 10almonds Team

    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.

    Peppermint For Digestion & Against Nausea

    Peppermint is often enjoyed to aid digestion, and sometimes as a remedy for nausea, but what does the science say about these uses?

    Peppermint and digestion

    In short: it works! (but beware)

    Most studies on peppermint and digestion, that have been conducted with humans, have been with regard to IBS, but its efficacy seems quite broad:

    ❝Peppermint oil is a natural product which affects physiology throughout the gastrointestinal tract, has been used successfully for several clinical disorders, and appears to have a good safety profile.❞

    ~ Dr. Chumpitazi et al.

    Read more: The physiologic effects and safety of Peppermint Oil and its efficacy in irritable bowel syndrome and other functional disorders

    However, and this is important: if your digestive problem is GERD, then you may want to skip it:

    ❝The univariate logistic regression analysis showed the following risk factors: eating 1–2 meals per day (OR = 3.50, 95% CI: 1.75–6.98), everyday consumption of peppermint tea (OR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.14–3.50), and eating one, big meal in the evening instead of dinner and supper (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.05–3.11).

    The multivariate analysis confirmed that frequent peppermint tea consumption was a risk factor (OR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.08–3.70).❞

    ~ Dr. Jarosz & Dr. Taraszewska

    Source: Risk factors for gastroesophageal reflux disease: the role of diet

    Peppermint and nausea

    Peppermint is also sometimes recommended as a nausea remedy. Does it work?

    The answer is: maybe

    The thing with nausea is it is a symptom with a lot of possible causes, so effectiveness of remedies may vary. But for example:

    Summary

    Peppermint is useful against wide variety of gastrointestinal disorders, including IBS, but very definitely excluding GERD (in the case of GERD, it may make things worse)

    Peppermint may help with nausea, depending on the cause.

    Where can I get some?

    Peppermint tea, and peppermint oil, you can probably find in your local supermarket (as well as fresh mint leaves, perhaps).

    For the “heavy guns” that is peppermint essential oil, here’s an example product on Amazon for your convenience

    Enjoy!

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  • Berberine For Metabolic Health

    The 10almonds Team

    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.

    Is Berberine Nature’s Ozempic/Wegovy?

    Berberine is a compound found in many plants. Of which, some of them are variations of the barberry, hence the name.

    It’s been popular this past couple of years, mostly for weight loss. In and of itself, something being good for weight loss doesn’t mean it’s good for the health (just ask diarrhoea, or cancer).

    Happily, berberine’s mechanisms of action appear to be good for metabolic health, including:

    • Reduced fasting blood sugar levels
    • Improved insulin sensitivity
    • Reduced LDL and triglycerides
    • Increased HDL levels

    So, what does the science say?

    It’s (mostly!) not nature’s Wegovy/Ozempic

    It’s had that title in a number of sensationalist headlines (and a current TikTok trend, apparently), but while both berberine and the popular weight-loss drugs Wegovy/Ozempic act in part on insulin metabolism, they mostly do so by completely different mechanisms.

    Wegovy and Ozempic are GLP-1 agonists, which mean they augment the action of glucagon-like-peptide 1, which increases insulin release, decreases glucagon release, and promotes a more lasting feeling of fullness.

    Berberine works mostly by other means, not all of which are understood. But, we know that it activates AMP-activated protein kinase, and on the flipside, inhibits proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9.

    In less arcane words: it boosts some enzymes and inhibits others.

    Each of these boosts/inhibitions has a positive effect on metabolic health.

    However, it does also have a slight GLP-1 agonist effect too! Bacteria in the gut can decompose and metabolize berberine into dihydroberberine, thus preventing the absorption of disaccharides in the intestinal tract, and increasing GLP-1 levels.

    See: Effects of Berberine on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota

    Does it work for weight loss?

    Yes, simply put. And if we’re going to put it head-to-head with Wegovy/Ozempic, it works about half as well. Which sounds like a criticism, but for a substance that’s a lot safer (and cheaper, and easier—if we like capsules over injections) and has fewer side effects.

    ❝But more interestingly, the treatment significantly reduced blood lipid levels (23% decrease of triglyceride and 12.2% decrease of cholesterol levels) in human subjects.

    However, there was interestingly, an increase in calcitriol levels seen in all human subjects following berberine treatment (mean 59.5% increase)

    Collectively, this study demonstrates that berberine is a potent lipid-lowering compound with a moderate weight loss effect, and may have a possible potential role in osteoporosis treatment/prevention.❞

    (click through to read in full)

    Is it safe?

    It appears to be, with one special caveat: remember that paper about the effects of berberine on the gastrointestinal microbiota? It also has some antimicrobial effects, so you could do harm there if not careful. It’s recommended to give it a break every couple of months, to be sure of allowing your gut microbiota to not get too depleted.

    Also, as with anything you might take that’s new, always consult your doctor/pharmacist in case of contraindications based on medications you are taking.

    Where can I get it?

    As ever, we don’t sell it, but you can check out the berberine of one of our sponsors if you like, or else find one of your choosing online; here’s an example product on Amazon, for your convenience.

    Enjoy!

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  • What You Should Have Been Told About The Menopause Beforehand

    The 10almonds Team

    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.

    What You Should Have Been Told About Menopause Beforehand

    Dr. Jen Gunter provides important information on menopause.

    This is Dr. Jen Gunter. She’s a gynecologist, specializing in chronic pain and vulvovaginal disorders. She’s also a woman on a mission to demystify things that popular culture, especially in the US, would rather not talk about.

    When was the last time you remember the menopause being referenced in a movie or TV show? If you can think of one at all, was it just played for laughs?

    And of course, the human body can be funny, so that’s not necessarily the problem, but it sure would be nice if that weren’t all that there is!

    So, what does Dr. Gunter want us to know?

    It’s a time of changes, not an end

    The name “menopause” is misleading. It’s not a “pause”, and those menses aren’t coming back.

    And yet, to call it a “menostop” would be differently misleading, because there’s a lot more going on than a simple cessation of menstruation.

    Estrogen levels will drop a lot, testosterone levels may rise slightly, mood and sleep and appetite and sex drive will probably be affected (progesterone can improve all these things!) and not to mention but we’re going to mention: vaginal atrophy, which is very normal and very treatable with a topical estrogen cream. Untreated menopause can also bring a whole lot of increased health risks (for example, heart disease, osteoporosis, and, counterintuitively given the lower estrogen levels, breast cancer).

    However, with a little awareness and appropriate management, all these things can usually be navigated with minimal adverse health outcomes.

    Dr Gunter, for this reason, refers to it interchangeably as “the menopausal transition”. She describes it as being less like a cliff edge we fall off, and more like a bridge we cross.

    Bridges can be dangerous to cross! But they can also get us safely where we’re going.

    Ok, so how do we manage those things?

    Dr. Gunter is a big fan of evidence-based medicine, so we’ll not be seeing any yonic crystals or jade eggs. Or “goop”.

    See also: Meet Goop’s Number One Enemy

    For most people, she recommends Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT), which falls under the more general category of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).

    This is the most well-evidenced, science-based way to avoid most of the risks associated with menopause.

    Nevertheless, there are scare-stories out there, ranging from painful recommencement of bleeding, to (once again) increased risk of breast cancer. However, most of these are either misunderstandings, or unrelated to menopause and MHT, and are rather signs of other problems that should not be ignored.

    To get a good grounding in this, you might want to read her Hormone Therapy Guide, freely available as a standalone section on her website. This series of posts is dedicated to hormone therapy. It starts with some basics and builds on that knowledge with each post:

    Dr. Gunter’s Guide To The Hormone Menoverse

    What about natural therapies?

    There are some non-hormonal things that work, but these are mostly things that:

    • give a statistically significant reduction in symptoms
    • give the same statistically significant reduction in symptoms as placebo

    As Dr. Gunter puts it:

    ❝While most of the studies of prescription medications for hot flashes have an appropriate placebo arm, this is rarely the case with so-called alternative therapies.

    In fact, the studies here are almost always low quality, so it’s often not possible to conclude much.

    Many reviews that look at these studies often end with a line that goes something like, “Randomized trials with a placebo arm, a low risk of bias, and adequate sample sizes are urgently needed.”

    You should interpret this kind of conclusion as the polite way of saying, “We need studies that aren’t BS to say something constructive.”❞

    ~ Gunter, 2023

    However, if it works, it works, whatever its mechanism. It’s just good, when making medical decisions, to do so with the full facts!

    For that matter, even Dr. Gunter acknowledges that while MHT can be lifechanging (in a positive way) for many, it’s not for everyone:

    Informed Decisions: When Menopause Hormone Therapy Isn’t Recommended

    Want to know more?

    Dr. Gunter also has an assortment of books available, including The Menopause Manifesto (which we’ve reviewed previously), and some others that we haven’t, such as “Blood” and “The Vagina Bible”.

    Enjoy!

    Share This Post

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    The 10almonds Team

    Questions and Answers at 10almonds

    Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

    This newsletter has been growing a lot lately, and so have the questions/requests, and we love that! 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

    I am interested in the following: Aging, Exercise, Diet, Relationships, Purpose, Lowering Stress

    You’re going to love our Psychology Sunday editions of 10almonds!

    You may particularly like some of these:

    (This coming Psychology Sunday will have a feature specifically on stress, so do make sure to read that when it comes out!)

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  • I Contain Multitudes – by Ed Yong

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    The 10almonds Team

    A little while back we reviewed a book (Planet of Viruses) about the role of viruses in our lives, beyond the obvious. Today’s book gives the same treatment to microbes in general—mostly bacteria.

    We all know about pathogens, and we all know about gut microbiota and that some (hopefully the majority) there are good for our health. This book covers those things too, but also much more.

    Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Ed Yong takes a big picture view (albeit, of some very small things) and looks at the many ways microbes keep us alive, directly or indirectly. From the microbes that convert certain proteins in breast milk into a form that babies can digest (yes, this means we produce nutrients in breast milk that have been evolved solely to feed that bacterium), to those without which agriculture would simply not work, we’re brought to realize how much our continued existence is contingent on our trillions of tiny friends.

    The style throughout is easy-reading pop-science, very accessible. There’s also plenty in terms of practical take-away value, when it comes to adjusting our modern lives to better optimize the benefits we get from microbes—inside and out.

    Bottom line: if you’d like to learn about the role of microbes in our life beyond “these ones are pathogens” and “these ones help our digestion”, this is the book for you.

    Click here to check out I Contain Multitudes, and learn more about yours and those around you!

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  • Younger For Life – by Dr. Anthony Youn

    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.

    The 10almonds Team

    We’ve reviewed anti-aging books before, so what makes this one different? Mostly, it’s the very practical focus.

    Which is not to say there’s not also good science in here; there is. But the focus is on what everything means for the reader, not what happened with a certain cohort of lab mice. Instead, he looks at the causes of aging, the process of aging, and what interventions to implement to address those, and reverse many of them.

    Some parts are more general lifestyle interventions that 10almonds readers will know well already, but other parts are very specific advices, protocols, and regimes; in particular his skincare section is well worth reading. As for nutrition, there’s even a respectable recipes section, so this book does have it all!

    The final section of the book is dedicated to plastic surgeries (the author is a plastic surgeon who believes that most people should not need those, and would do well to stick to the advices in the rest of the book). We suspect this last part of the book will be of least interest to 10almonds readers.

    Bottom line: if you’re of the view that getting older should come with as little as possible physical deterioration along the way, then this book can help a lot with that.

    Click here to check out Younger For Life, and feel great!

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