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Why You Should Diversify Your Nuts!

Plus: how to stop sabotaging yourself

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The 10almonds Team
May 31, 2023

Today’s almonds have been activated by:

Loading Screen Tip: Learn—at least to the most basic level—a martial art that involves learning to break your falls safely.

Aikido, judo, BJJ, whatever. This morning, this writer came in from her garden (skipping gaily in the morning sun), unaware that the beautifully glistening morning dew from the grass would cause her to skid on the stone-tiled kitchen floor, went absolutely A-over-T, and escaped all injury only because of muscle-memory from many years of Aikido. Were it not for that, I could have broken anything from my hip to my neck.

PS: if you think you’re too old… 1) you’re not; especially Aikido, many people take it up as seniors 2) if you find the idea of learning to fall safely on a practice mat intimidating, please note that your kitchen floor will not be a more fun place to learn

⏰ 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:

  • Nuts are a great and healthful part of almost anyone’s diet

    • Obviously, if you have a nut allergy, then we’re sorry; today’s main feature won’t be as much help to you

  • Almonds are one of the most healthful nuts out there

  • Brazil nuts are incredibly potent, to the point where moderation is recommended

  • A handful of mixed nuts per day is a very respectable option—when it comes to food and health, diversity is almost always good!

  • As we age, our collagen levels tend to get depleted more easily

    • Collagen is important not just for youthful good looks, but also for the health of bones and joints

      • Today’s sponsor NativePath are offering high-quality collagen without additives or harmful impurities

Read on to learn about these things and more…

One almond
👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Why You Need to Pee at 3 AM: The Most Ignored Reason by Doctors For Nighttime Urination

Do you wake to pee at night? Is it usually around 3 AM, plus or minus 30 minutes? And if you wake up many times to pee, why is it at regular 90 minute intervals? In this short video, Dr. Park talks about some things most online sources don't:

Timestamps:

  • 00:28 Common reasons for nighttime urination

  • 01:15 Obstructive sleep apnea defined

  • 01:40 Atrial natriuretic peptide hormone

  • 02:06 Sleep stages and REM sleep

  • 02:35 Adenosine and sleep drive

  • 02:49 3 AM—the perfect storm

  • 03:13 Nighttime urination and higher risk of death

  • 03:59 How to lower your risk of heart attack, stroke, cancer, car accidents

  • 04:04 Upper airway resistance syndrome and nocturia

  • 05:23 4 tips to stop peeing at 3 AM

🌰 MAIN FEATURE

Time to go nuts for nuts!

Nuts, in popular perception, range from “basically the healthiest food anyone can eat” to “basically high calorie salty snacks”. And, they can be either!

Some notes, then:

  • Raw is generally better that not

  • Dry roasted is generally better than the kind with added oils

  • Added salt is neither necessary nor good

Quick tip: if “roasted salted” are the cheapest or most convenient to buy, you can at least mitigate that by soaking them in warm water for 5 minutes, before rinsing and (if you don’t want wet nuts) drying.

You may be wondering: who does want wet nuts? And the answer is, if for example you’re making a delicious cashew and chickpea balti, the fact you didn’t dry them before throwing them in won’t make a difference.

Now, let’s do a quick run-down; we don’t usually do “listicles” but it seemed a good format here, so we’ve picked a top 5 for nutritional potency:

Almonds

We may have a bias. We accept it. But almonds are also one of the healthiest nuts around, and generally considered by most popular metrics the healthiest.

Not only are they high in protein, healthy fat, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, but they’re even a natural prebiotic that increases the populations of healthy gut bacteria, while simultaneously keeping down the populations of gut pathogens—what more can we ask of a nut?

Pistachios

Not only are these super tasty and fun to eat (and mindful eating is all but guaranteed, as shelling them by hand slows us down and makes us more likely to eat them one at a time rather than by the handful), but also they contain lots of nutrients and are lower in calories than most nuts, so they’re a great option for anyone who’d like to eat more nuts but is doing a calorie-controlled diet and doesn’t want to have half a day’s calories in a tiny dish of nuts.

Walnuts

Popularly associated with brain health (perhaps easy to remember because of their appearance), they really are good for the brain:

Cashews

A personal favorite of this writer for their versatility in cooking, food prep, or just as a snack, they also do wonders for metabolic health:

Brazil nuts

The most exciting thing about these nuts is that they’re an incredibly potent source of selenium, which is important not just for hair/skin/nails as popularly marketed, but also for thyroid hormone production and DNA synthesis.

But don’t eat too many, because selenium is definitely one of those “you can have too much of a good thing” nutrients, and selenium poisoning can make your hair (however beautiful and shiny it got because of the selenium) fall out if you take too much.

Bottom line on nuts:

  • Nuts are a great and healthful part of almost anyone’s diet

    • Obviously, if you have a nut allergy, then we’re sorry; this one won’t have helped you so much

  • Almonds are one of the most healthful nuts out there

  • Brazil nuts are incredibly potent, to the point where moderation is recommended

  • A handful of mixed nuts per day is a very respectable option—when it comes to food and health, diversity is almost always good!

One almond
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

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*Parts of aging, anyway! We’ve written before about the importance of collagen for far more than just youthful skin—it’s also critical for the health of joints and bones!

Most collagen supplements on the market are made from industrial by-products of animal agriculture, and contain artificial ingredients. What NativePath does differently is focus on keeping things as close to nature as possible, with the highest quality (and purest) ingredients.

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🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

Stop Self-Sabotage: Six Steps to Unlock Your True Motivation, Harness Your Willpower, and Get Out of Your Own Way - by Dr. Judy Ho

A lot of books of this genre identify one particular kind of self-sabotage, for example, they might pick one out of:

  • Bad habits

  • Limiting self-beliefs

  • Poor goal-setting

  • Procrastination

...etc, slap a quick fix on whatever they chose to focus on, and call it a day. Not so with Dr. Ho!

Here we have a much more comprehensive approach to tackling the problem of unintentional self-sabotage. With a multi-vector method, of which all angles can be improved simultaneously, it becomes much less like "whack-a-mole"... And much more like everything actually getting into order and staying that way.

The main approach here is CBT, but far beyond what most pop-psychology CBT books go for, with more techniques and resources.

On which note...

There are many great exercises that Dr. Ho recommends we do while reading... So you might want to get a nice notebook alongside this book if you don't already have one! And what is more inspiring of optimism than a new notebook?

Bottom line: this is a great, well-organized guide to pruning the "why am I still doing this to myself?" aspects out of your life for a much more intentional, purposeful, effective way of living.

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Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday,

The 10almonds Team