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A Tale Of Two Cinnamons
Plus: how to improve your *baseline* dopamine
The 10almonds Team
November 13, 2023
In partnership with
❝A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.❞
⏰ 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:
Cinnamon has many health properties, but watch out, because it has health risks too
Sweet cinnamon has somewhat weaker health properties, but negligible health risks
Dancing is a very healthful activity; it’s good for cardiovascular fitness, mobility, stability, and mental health too.
Today’s sponsor, Date Night Dancing, offers at-home lessons for you and yours to learn in privacy and comfort!
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
Dr. Andrew Huberman | Improve Your Baseline Dopamine for Motivation & Drive (8:03)
This neurobiology professor has advice:
Dopa-menu:
0:02 | Importance of Baseline Dopamine for Motivation
0:29 | Foundational Practices for Healthy Baseline Dopamine
1:54 | Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) and Its Dopamine Benefits
3:20 | Nutrition's Role in Baseline Dopamine
4:17 | Morning Sunlight and Dopamine
5:45 | Exercise and Baseline Dopamine
7:13 | Variations in Baseline Dopamine and Fundamentals
Prefer text? You might like our previous main feature:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
💊 MAIN FEATURE
Cinnamon's Health Benefits (But Watch Out!)
Cinnamon is enjoyed for its sweet and punchy flavor. It also has important health properties!
Let's take a look at the science...
A Tale Of Two Cinnamons
In your local supermarket, there is likely “cinnamon” and if you’re lucky, also “sweet cinnamon”. The difference between these is critical to understand before we continue:
“Cinnamon” = Cinnamomum cassia or Cinnamomum aromaticum. This is cheapest and most readily available. It has a relatively high cinnamaldehyde content, and a high coumarin content.
“Sweet cinnamon” Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum. It has a lower cinnamaldehyde content, and/but a much lower (almost undetectable) coumarin content.
You may be wondering: what’s with the “or” in both of those cases? Each simply has two botanical names in use. It’s inconvenient and confusing, but that’s how it is.
Great! What’s cinnamaldehyde and what’s coumarin?
Cinnamaldehyde is what gives cinnamon its “spice” aspect; it’s strong and fragrant. It also gives cinnamon most of its health benefits.
As a quick aside: it’s also used as the flavoring element in cinnamon flavored vapes, and in that form, it can cause health problems. So do eat it, but we recommend not to vape it.
Coumarin is toxic in large quantities.
The recommended safe amount is 0.1mg/kg, so you could easily go over this with a couple of teaspoons of cassia cinnamon:
…while in Sweet/True/Ceylon cinnamon, those levels are almost undetectable:
If you have a cinnamon sensitivity, it is likely, but not necessarily, tied to the coumarin content rather than the cinnamaldehyde content.
Summary of this section before moving on:
“Cinnamon”, or cassia cinnamon, has about 50% stronger health benefits than “Sweet Cinnamon”, also called Ceylon cinnamon.
“Cinnamon”, or cassia cinnamon, has about 250% stronger health risks than “Sweet Cinnamon”, also called Ceylon cinnamon.
The mathematics here is quite simple; sweet cinnamon is the preferred way to go.
The Health Benefits
We spent a lot of time/space today looking at the differences. We think this was not only worth it, but necessary. However, that leaves us with less time/space for discussing the actual benefits. We’ll summarize, with links to supporting science:
“Those three things that almost always go together”:
Heart and blood benefits:
Neuroprotective benefits:
The science does need more testing in these latter two, though.
Where to get it?
You may be able to find sweet cinnamon in your local supermarket, or if you prefer capsule form, here’s an example product on Amazon 😎
Enjoy!
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
#1 Home Date Night: Date Night Dancing
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We started the 1st Date Night New Year's Day and the change in my husband and our relationship is amazing! He actually wants to learn more! We are having so much fun and even making up our own variations 🙂."
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🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
When isolation increased, telehealth use went down for older adults. Why?
Brain and body are more intertwined than we knew
Researchers identify new criteria to detect rapidly progressive dementia
Study unveils organizational complexity of the prefrontal cortex and neuron subtypes regulating chronic pain
Study finds genetic links between some health conditions and PTSD
Algorithm aids in early detection of age-related eye disease
What is the average age and disability level of older people moving into long-term care?
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
The Science of Nutrition: Debunk the Diet Myths and Learn How to Eat Well for Health and Happiness – by Rhiannon Lambert
While there are a lot of conflicting dietary approaches out there, the science itself is actually fairly cohesive in most regards. This book does a lot of what we do here at 10almonds, and presents the science in a clear fashion without having any particular agenda to push.
The author is a nutritionist (BSc, MSc, RNutr) and therefore provides an up-to-date evidence-based approach for eating.
As a result, the only part of this book that brings it down in this reviewer's opinion is the section on Intermittent Fasting. Being not strictly about nutrition, she has less expertise on that topic, and it shows.
The information is largely presented in double-page spreads each answering a particular question. Because of this, and the fact there are colorful graphic representations of information too, we do recommend the print version over Kindle*.
Bottom line: if you like the notion of real science being presented in a clear and simple fashion (we like to think our subscribers do!), then you'll surely enjoy this book.
*Writer's note: I realize I've two days in a row recommended this (yesterday because there are checkboxes to check, worksheets to complete, etc), but it's not a new trend; just how it happened to be with these two books. I love my Kindle dearly, but sometimes print has the edge for one reason or another!
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Wishing you the most well-informed start to the week,
The 10almonds Team