The Best Kind Of Fiber For Overall Health?

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

In A Rush?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Fiber is important for many aspects of healthy, especially the heart and gut, yet most people in the industrialized world in general, and N. America in particular, do not get nearly enough.

  • Today’s main feature looks at a type of fiber (β-glucan, which is found in certain foods) that stands out from others, for giving the best benefits in a range of different health metrics.

• Have you tried everything for sleep and still find yourself getting to sleep later than you’d like, and/or sleeping less soundly than you’d like?

  • Today’s sponsor Cornbread Hemp is offering 30% of their gummies that combine organic CBD with lavender, valerian, and chamomile, for a synergistic soporific effect that’ll have you peacefully snoozing in no time, guaranteed (literally, they offer a guarantee).

• Today’s featured recipe is a fiber-rich, heart-healthy take on a classic: General Tso’s Chickpeas

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

Staying Strong: Tips To Prevent Muscle Loss With Age

Dr. Andrea Furlan, specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation with 30 years of experience, has advice beyond “do resistance training and eat protein”:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Saturday Life Hacks

The Fiber Of Good Health

We’ve written before about how most people in industrialized nations in general, and N. America in particular, do not get nearly enough fiber:

Why You’re Probably Not Getting Enough Fiber (And How To Fix It)

Fiber’s important for many aspects of health, not least of all the heart:

What Matters Most For Your Heart? Eat More (Of This) For Lower Blood Pressure

As well, of course, as being critical for gut health:

Gut Health 101: Making Friends With Your Gut (You Can Thank Us Later)

But is all fiber “prebiotic fiber”, and/or are some better than others?

Beta-glucan

A recent study (it’s a mouse study, but promising in its applicability for humans) examined the health impacts of 5 different fiber types:

• pectin

• β-glucan

• wheat dextrin

• resistant starch

• cellulose (control)

As for health metrics, they measured:

• body weight

• adiposity

• indirect calorimetry

• glucose tolerance

• gut microbiota

• metabolites thereof
   

What they found was…

If you’d like to read more, the study itself is here:

Impact of Plant-Based Dietary Fibers on Metabolic Homeostasis in High-Fat Diet Mice via Alterations in the Gut Microbiota and Metabolites

If you’d like to read less, the short version is that they are all good but β-glucan scored best in several metrics.

It also acts indirectly as a GLP-1 agonist, by the way:

The right fiber may help you lose weight

You may be wondering: what is β-glucan found in?

It’s found in many (non-animal product) foods, but oats, barley, mushrooms, and yeasts are all good sources.

Is it available as a supplement?

More or less; there are supplements that contain it generously, here’s an example product on Amazon, a cordyceps extract, of which >30% is β-glucan.

As an aside, cordyceps itself has many other healthful properties too:

Cordyceps: Friend Or Foe? ← the answer is, it depends! If you’re human, it’s a friend.

Enjoy!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

Upgrade your sleep routine with these best-selling CBD Sleep Gummies

Tired of sleep products that promise but don't deliver?  Cornbread Hemp CBD Sleep Gummies deliver where others fall short. No more restless nights or waking up groggy—their gummies are designed to keep you asleep at night, without the morning fog that often follows synthetic sleep aids, giving you the quality rest you deserve.

With the power of all-natural ingredients, these gummies make sure you can drift into dreamland within just 30 minutes. Each gummy is carefully crafted with a blend of full spectrum, high-quality, organic CBD and lavender, chamomile, and valerian to help you restore your sleep cycle to its natural rhythm.

But don’t just take our word for it. 10almonds readers can save 30% off site wide (with a minimum purchase of $55) when you order today with code CBDSLEEP30. Sweet dreams, guaranteed.

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between pistachios vs pecans—we picked the pistachios (click here to read about why), as did 77% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

Recipes Worth Sharing

General Tso’s Chickpeas

A fiber-rich, heart-healthy take on a classic:

Click below for our full recipe, and learn its secrets:

One-Minute Book Review

Be A Plant-Based Woman Warrior: Live Fierce, Stay Bold, Eat Delicious: A Cookbook – by Jane Esselstyn & Ann Esselstyn

Notwithstanding the title, this book is not about being a woman or a warrior, but let us share what one reviewer on Amazon wrote:

❝I don't want to become a plant based woman warrior. The sex change would be traumatic for me. However, as a man who proudly takes ballet classes and Pilates, I am old enough not to worry about stereotypes. When I see a good thing, I am going to use it❞

The authors, a mother-and-daughter team in their 80s and 50s respectively, do give a focus on things that disproportionally affect women, and rectifying those things with diet, especially in one of the opening chapters.

Most the book, however, is about preventing/reversing things that can affect everyone, such as heart disease, diabetes, inflammation and the autoimmune diseases associated with such, and cancer in general, hence the dietary advice being good for most people (unless you have an unusually restrictive diet).

We get an overview of the pantry we should cultivate and curate, as well as some basic kitchen skills that will see us well for the rest of the book, such as how to make oat flour and other similar mini-recipes, before getting into the main recipes themselves.

About the recipes: they are mostly quite simple, though often rely on having pre-prepared items from the mini-recipes we mentioned earlier. They're all vegan, mostly but not all gluten-free, whole foods, no added sugar, and as for oil... Well, it seems to be not necessarily oil-free, but rather oil-taboo. You see, they just don't mention it. For example, when they say to caramelize onions, they say to heat a skillet, and when it is hot, add the onions, and stir until browned. They don't mention any oil in the ingredients or in the steps. It is a mystery. 10almonds note: we recommend olive oil, or avocado oil if you prefer a milder taste and/or need a higher smoke point.

Bottom line: the odd oil taboo aside, this is a good book of simple recipes that teaches some good plant-based kitchen skills while working with a healthy, whole food pantry.

Click here to check out Be A Plant-Based Woman Warrior, and be a plant-based woman warrior!

Or at the very least: be a plant-based cook regardless of gender, hopefully without war, and enjoy the additions to your culinary repertoire 😉

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you a wonderfully restorative weekend,

The 10almonds Team