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How Much Harm Does One Junk Food Meal Do? How About Two?
Plus: 3 standing abs exercises you'll actually feel tomorrow
The 10almonds Team
May 20, 2025
In partnership with
Good afternoon 👋
Are you getting enough calcium? Most people can answer that one easily, but are you also getting enough vitamin K2? Because without enough of that, a lot of your calcium might be stuck hardening your arteries instead of your bones.
Learn more: Vitamin K2 And The Calcium Paradox
In today’s email we cover saturated fats and gut defenses, standing abs exercises, and the neurotransmitter that improves skin health.
Never be without a healthy backup option in your pantry again: stock up on Huel (and enjoy the free gifts too!) from the sponsored section below today! It’s also a great flour-replacer in cooking; just be sure to select unsweetened if appropriate! Click here to see their range 😎
Today’s Main Feature
 | How Much Harm Does One Junk Food Meal Do? How About Two?More specifically, it’s about the saturated fat levels (thus also relevant for many paleo/keto enjoyers), and how quickly they wipe out gut defenses: |
Recommended Reading
 | 5 Ways Vaccines Changed The WorldFrom saving lives to saving costs: |
 | Which Bell Peppers To Pick? A Spectrum Of SpecialtiesEach color conveys different benefits: |
Watch and Learn
3 Standing Abs Exercises You’ll Actually Feel Tomorrow
When it comes to ab exercises, not everyone loves spending time on the floor.
So, what else is there?
Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text overview, as well as the video!
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This Or That?
Vote on Which is Healthier
Yesterday we asked you to choose between cabbage and spinach—we picked the spinach (click here to read about why), as did 67% of you!
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Click on whichever you think is better for you!
Bonus (Sponsored) Recommendation
We know 10almonds readers love learning in a convenient, bite-size fashion. Check out this list of other newsletters our readers also enjoy!
One-Minute Book Review
The Beauty Molecule: Introducing Neuroceuticals, the Breakthrough for Ageless Beauty – by Dr. Nicholas Perricone
We’re a health science publication, not a beauty magazine, but what’s actually going on here is skin rejuvenation, and in any case, skin health does tend to affect mental health, especially if it’s not good—thus giving a second reason to consider it of importance.
With that in mind, we’ll not keep “the beauty molecule” a secret: he’s talking about acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.
What does a neurotransmitter have to do with beauty, you wonder? In the largest part, it’s because (via a chain of events which, for brevity, we’ll not detail) it reduces inflammation.
There are other factors too; it also triggers endothelial vasodilation which can result in the skin being better-nourished and better-maintained; the hair also benefits by the same process.
Thus, while the title makes it sound like we will need to buy a mysterious newly-developed skincare product, it turns out that he recommends eating almonds and other choline-rich foods.
On the flipside, he recommends acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, such as ginkgo biloba and huperzine A, which will (as the name suggests) inhibit acetylcholinesterase, which is an enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
However, that is only part of the book, and much of the rest covers other nutraceuticals (neuroceuticals being a word coined by the author, but it doesn’t seem to add much, and he also includes things that are not specific to neural function, such as polyphenols of various kinds and even carotenoids).
The style is a little more technical than most books we review here, but it’s nothing that should pose a barrier to comprehension if you:
have sufficient scientific literacy that you can read at least the abstracts of scientific papers and understand what they mean, and/or…
read the book from cover to cover such that many specific things are explained as we go (you learn what DMAE and EGCG and AMPK etc are, and you know that IRS2 is not about taxes), and…
for other more general things you have a digital device to hand to look up, if necessary, the difference between modulate/moderate/mitigate/mediate and so forth.
Bottom line: if you’d like to improve your skin health, systemic health, and your knowledge of physiology, this book can deliver those things!
Penny For Your Thoughts?
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Wishing you the very best of health every day, in every way,
The 10almonds Team
