Farmed Fish vs Wild, The Blood Pressure Sweet Spot, And More

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:

• Hypertension is more of a problem (in turns of how often it occurs, and thus overall mortality in a given population) than hypotension, but there is a “sweet spot” of blood pressure.

  • Generally speaking, being under 120/80, but not too far under, is usually good.

  • Under 90/60 is generally considered hypotension, and not so good.

• Fish are generally considered a very healthy food, but not all fish are created equal—even within the same species.

  • Farmed vs wild-caught fish have quite different nutritional profiles

    • Farmed fish tend to have about three times as much fat for the same amount of protein

    • Farmed fish tend to have slightly lower levels of minerals and other nutrients

    • Farmed fish tend to have slightly higher levels of heavy metals and other contaminants

    • Farmed fish tend to have much, much higher levels of antibiotics and thus antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and antimicrobial-resistance genes, all of which are bad for us to have on our plates.

• Omega-3 fatty acids have a lot of health benefits—including for joints and for the brain—but not all sources are created equal

  • Today's sponsor, NativePath, are offering a convenient, sustainable, and highly bioavailable form—far better than cod liver oil!

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

How to fall back asleep in the middle of the night

Dr. Michael Breus explores why you wake up at 2–3am, and what you can do about it:

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

❓ MAIN FEATURE

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? You can always hit “reply” to any of our emails, or use the feedback widget at the bottom!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

As ever: if the question/request can be answered briefly, we’ll do it here in our Q&A Thursday edition. If not, we’ll make a main feature of it shortly afterwards!

So, no question/request too big or small 😎

❝Maybe I missed it but the study on blood pressure did it say what the 2 numbers should read ideally?❞

We linked it at the top of the article rather than including it inline, as we were short on space (and there was a chart rather than a “these two numbers” quick answer), but we have a little more space today, so:

To oversimplify for a “these two numbers” answer, under 120/80 is generally considered good, unless it is under 90/60, in which case that becomes hypotension.

Hypotension, the blood pressure being too low, means your organs may not get enough oxygen and if they don’t, they will start shutting down.

To give you an idea how serious this, this is the closed-circuit equivalent of the hypovolemic shock that occurs when someone is bleeding out onto the floor. Technically, bleeding to death also results in low blood pressure, of course, hence the similarity.

So: just a little under 120/80 is great.

❝What could be easily digestible plant sources of protein for a vegetarian. My son is a gym holic and always looking for ways to get his protein from lentils other than eggs. He says to reach his protein requirement for the day, the amount of lentils he has to eat is sometimes heavy on the gut. Would really appreciate if you throw some light on this😊❞

Unless one has IBS or similar (or is otherwise unaccustomed to consuming healthy amounts of fiber), lentils shouldn’t be at all problematic for the digestion.

However, the digestive process can still be eased by (speaking specifically for lentils here) blending them (in the water they were cooked in). This thick tasty liquid can then be used as the base of a soup, for example.

Soy is an excellent source of complete protein too. Your son probably knows this because it’s in a lot of body-building supplements as soy protein isolate, but can also be enjoyed as textured soy protein (as in many plant-based meats), or even just soy beans (edamame). Tofu (also made from soy) is very versatile, and again can be blended to form the basis of a creamy sauce.

Mycoproteins (as found in “Quorn” brand products and other meat substitutes) also perform comparably to meat from animals:

Meatless Muscle Growth: Building Muscle Size and Strength on a Mycoprotein-Rich Vegan Diet

See also, for interest:

Vegan and Omnivorous High Protein Diets Support Comparable Daily Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Rates and Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy in Young Adults

❝Is it good to eat farm raised fish?❞

We’ll answer this as a purely health-related question (and thus not considering economy, ecology, ethics, or taste).

It’s certainly not as good as wild-caught fish, for several reasons, some more serious than others:

Farmed fish can have quite a different nutritional profile to wild-caught fish, and also contain more contaminants, including heavy metals.

For example, farmed fish tend to have much higher fat content for the same amount of protein, but lower levels of minerals and other nutrients. Here are two side-by-side:

Wild-caught salmon | Farmed salmon 

See also:

Quantitative analysis of the benefits and risks of consuming farmed and wild salmon

Additionally, because fish in fish farms tend to be very susceptible to diseases (because of the artificially cramped and overcrowded environment), fish farms tend to make heavy use of antibiotics, which can cause all sorts of problems down the line:

Extended antibiotic treatment in salmon farms select multiresistant gut bacteria with a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes

So definitely, “let the buyer beware”!

📊 POLL

We turn the tables and ask you a question…

We’ll then talk about this tomorrow:

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

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We've mentioned their other products before, and with good reason.

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

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• New tools enable non-clinicians to diagnose substance use disorders

• Hypersensitivity pneumonitis: is your feather bedding making you sick?

• Neuroscientists show adversities permanently change our brains

• Firearms continue to be leading cause of death in US children

• Is there an association between sleep-disordered breathing and Alzheimer's disease?

• UK underwear gets cancer warning labels

• Study finds that dogs sniff out COVID more effectively than tests

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Menopause Manifesto: Own Your Health with Facts and Feminism – by Dr. Jen Gunter

From the subtitle, you may wonder: with facts and feminism? Is this book about biology or sociology?

And the answer is: both. It's about biology, principally, but without ignoring the context. We do indeed "live in a society", and that affects everything from our healthcare options to what is expected of us as women.

So, as a warning: if you dislike science and/or feminism, you won't like this book.

Dr. Jen Gunter, herself a gynaecologist, is here to arm us with science-based facts, to demystify an important part of life that is commonly glossed over.

She talks first about the what/why/when/how of menopause, and then delivers practical advice. She also talks about the many things we can (and can't!) usefully do about symptoms we might not want, and how to look after our health overall in the context of menopause. We learn what natural remedies do or don't work and/or can be actively harmful, and we learn the ins and outs of different hormone therapy options too.

Bottom line: no matter whether you are pre-, peri-, or post-menopausal, this is the no-BS guide you've been looking for. Same goes if you're none of the above but spend any amount of time close to someone who is.

Click here to check out The Menopause Manifesto, and understand better the changes in your (and/or your loved one's) body!

Wishing you the very best of health in all ways, always,

The 10almonds Team