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The Sugary Food That Lowers Blood Sugars
Plus: if squats are king, glute bridges are queen (here's why)
The 10almonds Team
January 19, 2024
Today’s almonds have been activated by:
Do you want to cook healthier food, but get into a rut of cooking the same old thing because you know how and you have the ingredients in?
Solution: Make a regular (e.g. weekly, or fortnightly if that seems ambitious) habit of cooking one new healthy recipe, specifically something you have never cooked before.
Bonus tip: if there are at least two people in your household*, and you’re the cook, consider delegating the “choose a healthy new recipe” task to someeone else! It’s good to get everyone involved and it’ll feel like an fun project together instead of an extra job.
*and if there isn’t, do you have a nearby friend? Take turns at hosting!
**and if you don’t have a nearby friend, this is a great way to make one 😉
⏰ 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:
Did you know there are sugary foods that lower blood sugars? This is about fruits full of polyphenols (berries are top-tier) that have a net hypoglycemic effect.
Our old friends the goji berries are particularly powerful at this!
However, if you juice fruit, including berries, including goji berries, that tips the balance the other way, as it can now be absorbed too quickly. So don’t do that.
Losing weight (healthily!) can be a challenge. Keeping that weight off can be even harder.
Today’s sponsor, the Mayo Clinic Diet, is a medically-backed, globally-trusted method that focuses on changing your daily routine by adding and breaking habits that make a difference to your weight.
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
What Happens To Your Body When You Do 100 Glute Bridges Every Day (6:09)
If you do only one calisthenic exercise, then honestly, make it squats.
But if you do only two calisthenic exercises, then this is a high candidate for that second place:
Want to watch it, but not right now? Bookmark it for later 🔖
❓ MAIN FEATURE
It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!
Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!
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 😎
❝Loved the article on goji berries! I read they are good for blood sugars, is that true despite the sugar content?❞
Most berries are! Fruits that are high in polyphenols (even if they’re high in sugar), like berries, have a considerable net positive impact on glycemic health:
And more specifically:
As for goji berries specifically, they’re very high indeed in polyphenols, and also have a hypoglycemic effect, i.e., they lower blood sugar levels (and as a bonus, increases HDL (“good” cholesterol) levels too, but that’s not the topic here):
❝The results of our study indicated a remarkable protective effect of LBP in patients with type 2 diabetes. Serum glucose was found to be significantly decreased and insulinogenic index increased during OMTT after 3 months administration of LBP. LBP also increased HDL levels in patients with type 2 diabetes. It showed more obvious hypoglycemic efficacy for those people who did not take any hypoglycemic medicine compared to patients taking hypoglycemic medicines. This study showed LBP to be a good potential treatment aided-agent for type 2 diabetes.❞
LBP = Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, i.e. polysaccharide in/from goji berries
OMTT = Oral metabolic tolerance test, a test of how well the blood sugars avoid spiking after a meal
For more about goji berries (and also where to get them), for reference our previous article is at:
❝I’m only a new subscriber, and it’s very clear you put so much thought into these emails. I love the quick summary at the top and it has piqued my interest enough each time to not delete email, and to come back when I have more reading time. I do get waaay too many emails in general, so a lot have to get binned straight away if they don’t hook me quickly. Yours are different. Keep up the good work!❞
Ok, so this one wasn’t a question, but we just wanted to say “thank you” without making it an extra email in your inbox to do so!
I (your writer here today, hi) think I speak for the whole 10almonds team when I say, we genuinely love being able to help so many people every day—and hope that every edition of 10almonds has at least something of interest to every reader. We’re certainly glad to work hard to achieve that, so thank you again for the kind words!
On which note (dear readers all), if you have questions and/or topics you’d like us to cover, please do let us know! We always love to hear from you, and requests are very welcome!
Take care!
📊 POLL
We turn the tables and ask you a question…
We’ll then talk about this tomorrow:
You have meat in the freezer. How long is it really safe to keep it?(If you are vegetarian/vegan, please consider the question hypothetical!) |
❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE
Mayo Clinic Diet: effective, practical, and healthy weight loss
Losing weight (healthily!) can be a challenge. Keeping that weight off can be even harder. But, you don't have to do it alone:
The Mayo Clinic Diet is a medically-backed, globally-trusted method that focuses on changing your daily routine by adding and breaking habits that make a difference to your weight.
The benefits are far more than we could list here, but include:
A new digital platform that has helped members lose 3x more weight
A quick-start "lose it!" phrase, where members can lose 6–12 lbs in 2 weeks
Meal plan options that include healthy keto, high protein, vegetarian, and Mediterranean
See also: General Info | Pricing | How it Works | Free Diet Assessment
Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
🤫 A WORD TO THE WISE
 | Take This Two-Minute Executive Dysfunction TestHave you ever found yourself torn between several competing tasks, and ended up doing… none of them? If so, find out how your executive (dys)function scores, and what you can do about it! |
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Sensitive: The Power of a Thoughtful Mind in an Overwhelming World – by Jenn Granneman and Andre Sólo
This book is written for what is called the "Highly Sensitive Person", which makes it sound like a very rare snowflake condition, when in fact the diagnostic criteria (discussed early in the book) yield a population bell curve of 30:40:30, whereupon 30% are in the band of "high sensitivity", 40% "normal sensitivity" and the remainder "low sensitivity". You may note that "high" and "low" together outnumber "normal", but statistics is like that.
So, if you're one of the approximately one in three people who fall into the higher category, and/or you have a loved one who is in that category, then this book looks at the many advantages to a commonly stigmatized and (by cruel irony) criticized personality trait.
Those advantages range from personal life to work and even public life (yes, really), and can be grown, positively highlighted, used, and enjoyed.
In the category of criticism, the book does not usefully cover the benefit of psychological resilience. Resilience does not mean losing sensitivity, just, being able to also dry one’s tears and weather life's slings and arrows when the world is harsher than one might like. But for the authors, they have stacked all their chips on "we must make the world a better place". Which is a noble goal, if not always an immediately attainable one.
Bottom line: if you are more sensitive than average and would like to use that to benefit yourself and those around you, then this is the book for you!
What did you think of today's newsletter?We always love to hear from you, whether you leave us a comment or even just a click in the poll if you're speeding by! |
May you always have ways to make your life that little bit healthier and better,
The 10almonds Team
