See what other 10almonds subscribers are asking!

⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s Key Learnings:

Flying by? Here are some key take-away ideas from today’s newsletter:

• You can ask us questions! Hit reply to any of our emails or use the feedback widget at the bottom 😎

• Pink Himalayan salt has no less sodium than “regular” salt

• MSG does have less sodium than salt

• Air pollution may increase risk for dementia

• A collagen-regulating protein may hold key to healthy aging in the face of climate change

• Fluoxetine (e.g. Prozac) increases neuroplasticity (that’s good)

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Do you have oatmeal, banana, cocoa?

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Here’s their recipe, and we’ve added unit conversions for American subscribers:

• 150ml hot milk (5 oz)

• 70g oat flakes (2.5 oz)

• 1 banana (that’s still one banana)

• 1 egg (that’s still one egg)

• 20g cocoa (0.5 tsp)

• 0.5 tsp baking powder (still 0.5 tsp)

• Grease with vegetable oil

• Bake at 180 degrees for 30–35 minutes (that’s 356 ºF) (still 30–35 minutes)

• Melt 80g dark chocolate (3 oz)

• 60 grams of warm cream (2 oz)

• Chill for 1 hour (still an hour)

Enjoy!

💬 MAIN FEATURE

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Q: I would be interested in learning more about collagen and especially collagen supplements/powders and of course if needed, what is the best collagen product to take. What is collagen? Why do we need to supplement the collagen in our body? Thank you PS love the information I am receiving in the news letters. Keep it up

We’re glad you’re enjoying them! Your request prompted us to do our recent Research Review Monday main feature on collagen supplementation—we hope it helped, and if you’ve any more specific (or other) question, go ahead and let us know! We love questions and requests 😎

Q: Great article about the health risks of salt to organs other than the heart! Is pink Himalayan sea salt, the pink kind, healthier?

Thank you! And, no, sorry. Any salt that is sodium chloride has the exact same effect because it’s chemically the same substance, even if impurities (however pretty) make it look different.

If you want a lower-sodium salt, we recommend the kind that says “low sodium” or “reduced sodium” or similar. Check the ingredients, it’ll probably be sodium chloride cut with potassium chloride. Potassium chloride is not only not a source of sodium, but also, it’s a source of potassium, which (unlike sodium) most of us could stand to get a little more of.

For your convenience: here’s an example on Amazon!

Bonus: you can get a reduced sodium version of pink Himalayan salt too!

Q: Can you let us know about more studies that have been done on statins? Are they really worth taking?

That is a great question! We imagine it might have been our recent book recommendation that prompted it? It’s quite a broad question though, so we’ll do that as a main feature in the near future!

Q: Is MSG healthier than salt in terms of sodium content or is it the same or worse?

Great question, and for that matter, MSG itself is a great topic for another day. But your actual question, we can readily answer here and now:

• Firstly, by “salt” we’re assuming from context that you mean sodium chloride.

• Both salt and MSG do contain sodium. However…

• MSG contains only about a third of the sodium that salt does, gram-for-gram.

• It’s still wise to be mindful of it, though. Same with sodium in other ingredients!

• Baking soda contains about twice as much sodium, gram for gram, as MSG.

Q: Thanks for the info about dairy. As a vegan, I look forward to a future comment about milk alternatives

Thanks for bringing it up! What we research and write about is heavily driven by subscriber feedback, so notes like this really help us know there’s an audience for a given topic!

We’ll do a main feature on it, to do it justice. Watch out for Research Review Monday!

Have a question or request? Let us know! You can click reply on any email, or use the feedback widget at the bottom.

No question/request too big or small!

If it’s big, it’ll probably get a main feature (maybe even more than one, if it’s a really big topic that needs breaking down to keep with our “bitesize” approach).

If it’s small, we’ll just answer it here the Thursday after we get it!

🌎 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Air pollution may increase risk for dementia

• Discovery could hold the key to healthy aging during global warming 

• How an antidepressant increases brain plasticity

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness - by Robert Waldinger, MD, and Marc Schulz, PhD

For any who have thought "there must be some middle-ground between entirely subjective self-help books advising how to feel better, and sifting through clinical data on what actually affects people's moods", this book is exactly that middle-ground!

Drs. Waldinger and Schultz went through the 80-year-long Harvard Study of Adult Development with a fine-toothed comb, and this book details—more readably—what they found.

There are frequent references to data from the study. Not just numbers, though, people's answers to questions, too. And how different factors about people's lives affected their answers to the same questions.

We hear from all ages, from young adults to octagenarians, and learn how attitudes (including: of the same people) change over time. Not because people are fickle, but because people grow... or become disillusioned. Or sometimes, both.

We learn about the importance of money... And where that importance ends.

We learn importance of relationships of various kinds, and this is certainly a recurring theme throughout the study—and thus, throughout the book.

The book doesn't just present data, though, it also presents actionable insights along the way.

Bottom line: the combined wisdom and life-experiences of a lot of people provide a very "big picture" view of life, and what makes us happy, really. We highly recommend it!

Pick up The Good Life from Amazon Today!

Wishing you health and happiness,

The 10almonds Team