Happy October 🍂
Are you ready for October? Is October ready for you? A popular new social media trend is—as a follow-up to the popular “hot girl summer”—“fat girl fall”.
This might sound surprising in a society that often doesn’t value fat much, but there can be many reasons to do so, ranging from “I would like some more curves here” to “a higher BMI is protective against all-cause mortality after the age of 65”, or any other reason, and Fall is a perfect time to do so (sneak it on while nobody’s looking!).
So, if that’s part of your Fall plans, then check out: How To Gain Weight (Healthily!)
In today’s email we cover how morin may be your mouth’s new best friend, the science of saunas for longevity, and fermentation.
Remember what we said yesterday about the importance of mitochondrial health for muscle mass?
Today’s sponsor, Timeline, has a very well-evidenced mitochondria-boosting supplement that we’ve written about before; it’s urolithin A, which you can see in our sponsor’s store, here ← 30% off for 10almonds readers with code 30NEWSLETTER, by the way!
Today’s Main Feature
Morin: Your Mouth's New Best Friend
How this compound found in several natural foods can be protective against tooth decay in ways that most oral hygiene products can’t:
Recommended Reading
Does Weightlifting Improve Bone Density?
…and how does it compare to high-impact training such as running and jumping?
How Intermittent Fasting Reduces Heart Attack Risk
Directly! Not just via weight management:
Watch and Learn
Can Saunas Make You Live Longer?
Dr. Max Levy explains (there are several effects going on at once here):
Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text overview, as well as the video!
Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible
Science Links Mitochondria & Muscle Strength
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Recent research highlights that the key player in this aging process is our mitochondria*, tiny-but-mighty organelles that produce more than 90% of our body’s energy. Importantly, scientists have found a strong link between decreased mitochondrial health and muscle health decline with aging, emphasizing the importance of maintaining these cellular engines.
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Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free
This Or That?
Vote on Which is Healthier
Yesterday we asked you to choose between blueberries and pomegranate—we picked the pomegranate (click here to read about why), as did 38% of you!
Now for today’s choice:
Click on whichever you think is better for you!
One-Minute Book Review
Ferment: The Life-Changing Power of Microbes – by Dr. Tim Spector
You probably know that the gut microbiome is key to a lot of aspects of health.
Dr. Tim Spector, most well-known for the huge ZOE epigenetic study which covered, amongst other things, the effect of diet on the gut microbiome, and the effect of the gut microbiome on health, explains here about the process of fermentation. But…
Unlike the usual “and then the product is fermented and ready to consume” usual end-point of such description, Dr. Spector also covers what happens in the mouth, stomach, small intestine, large intestine.
Which is important, because all of these environments have very different conditions in terms of pH, temperature, and pre-existing microbiome (which latter will partially dictate how friendly or not the environment is to any given new arrivals, on a per-species basis).
For example…
If you take unprotected microbes (say, in kombucha) then most will die in the stomach acid and certainly not make it to the gut. Some may make it through though, and whether they then survive and flourish in the gut becomes a numbers game.
Semi-protected microbes (say, in kimchi, where many may have made for themselves a home inside a piece of fermented vegetable, that allows for some temporary protection from the stomach acid, and save them long enough to get into the gut) will fare better.
Specialist probiotics in nice safe capsules designed to release only in the gut will usually deliver their load safely, but will tend to have less biodiversity than fermented foods.
With these things in mind, it’s clear that getting a mix of all these things is best, and this book covers many kinds of fermented products, instructions on how to make them, and appropriate recipes using your fermented products too.
In terms of style, it’s Dr. Spector’s usual very-accessible pop-science, well-referenced with a respectable bibliography.
Bottom line: if you’re curious about getting into fermenting your own products, and/or simply want to improve your gut health, this book will give you a lot of information that’s easy to apply.
Penny For Your Thoughts?
What did you think of today's newsletter?
Wishing you a wonderful Wednesday of wellness and wholesomely healthy month ahead,
The 10almonds Team
