The Little-Known Truth...

It's time to bust myths and eat almonds... And we're all outta almonds

❝Rome wasn’t built in a day… But it burned in one❞

❝Great minds think alike… Fools seldom differ❞

❝Curiosity killed the cat… But satisfaction brought it back❞

Do you know any similar ones? Sayings that are half-known, and people end up believing the opposite of what they say in full? Let us know! You can always hit reply to our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom.

Meanwhile…

It’s Myth-busting Friday here at 10almonds, and today we have:

  • Productivity misconceptions (that lead people astray)

  • Canned food (don’t dead; open inside!)

  • Weight-lifting (you might want to pick this up)

  • Deodorants (a fresh take on the matter)

Let’s bust some myths!

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

The Science of Productivity

This short (3:18) video may change how you think about productivity:

⁉️ MAIN FEATURE

Myth-Buster, Myth-Buster, Bust Us A Myth (or three!)

🥫 Let’s can this myth for good

People think of “canned foods” as meaning “processed foods” and therefore bad. But the reality is it’s all dependent on what’s in the can (check the ingredients!). And as for nutrients?

Many canned fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients than fresh ones! This is because the way they’ve been stored preserves them better. For example:

  • Canned tomatoes contain more bioavailable lycopene than fresh

  • Canned spinach contains more bioavailable carotene than fresh

  • Canned corn contains more bioavailable lutein than fresh

  • The list goes on, but you get the idea!

💪 Gaslight, Gymkeep, Girl-loss?

Many women and girls avoid doing weight-training as part of their exercise—or use only the smallest weights—to avoid “bulking up” and “looking like a man”.

Many men, meanwhile, wish it were that easy to bulk up!

The reality is that nobody, unless you have very rare genes, packs on a lot of muscle by accident. Even with the genes for it, it won’t happen unless you’re also eating for it!

Resistance-based strength training (such as lifting weights), is a great way for most people to look after an important part of their long-term health: bone density!

You can’t have strong muscles on weak bones, so strengthening the muscles cues the body to strengthen the bones. In short, your strength-training at age 45 or 55 (or earlier) could be what helps you avoid a broken hip at 65 or 75.

👃 Something doesn’t smell right about this

There’s been a big backlash against anti-perspirants and deodorants. The popular argument is that the aluminium in them causes cancer.

This led to many people buying “deodo-rocks”, crystal rocks that can be run under water and then rubbed on the armpits to deodorize “naturally”. But, those crystal rocks are actually alum crystals (guess what they contain…).

The belief that deodorants cause cancer came from studies done by applying deodorant to cells (like the canine kidney cells in this study) in petri dishes. So, assuming you don’t cut out your kidney and then spray it directly with the deodorant, the jury is still out!

A more recent systematic review sorted out quite clearly the ways in which aluminium was, or was not, harmful, and said:

❝Neither is there clear evidence to show use of Al-containing underarm antiperspirants or cosmetics increases the risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or breast cancer. Metallic Al, its oxides, and common Al salts have not been shown to be either genotoxic or carcinogenic.❞

...but also says that you should avoid eating aluminium while pregnant or breastfeeding. We hope you can resist the urge.

(actually the whole article is there, but we know you value condensed knowledge, so: the abstract at the top will probably tell you all you want to know!)

Psst… It’s Friday, the perfect time to plan your next week in advance. Take a moment when you can, to do that!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Make Time - by Jake Knapp and John Zeratzky

We live in an information-saturated world, and we have done for so long now that it’s easy to forget: we did not evolve for this!

It’s easy to say “unplug”, but the reality is:

We also have to actually function in this fast-paced info-dense world whether we want to or not, and we are expected to be able to handle it.

So… How?

Appropriately enough, authors Knapp and Zeratsky present the answer in a skimmer-friendly fashion, with summaries and bullet points and diagrams and emboldened text for ease of speed-reading. Who uses such tricks?!

In short, less living life in “default mode scramble” and more about making an impact in the ways you actually want to, for you.

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Wishing you a healthy and productive Friday,

The 10almonds Team