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Sugar, Hazelnuts, Books & Brains
Plus some 10almonds behind-the-scenes stuff!
The 10almonds Team
April 13, 2023
Loading Screen Tip: Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong
⏰ IN A RUSH?
Today’s 30-Second Summary
If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are our key takeaways:
Hazelnut milk has twice as much protein as almond milk… and double the calories
It has also been found to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and reduce inflammation
70% of cannabis sold legally in the US does not contain the amount of THC that the label claims
Our brain’s natural cannabinoid system tries (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to protect us against later-life addictions (in general) following childhood maltreatment
Holding a positive attitude to aging seems to offer protection against some aspects of age-related cognitive decline
Read on to learn about these things and more…
👀 WATCH AND LEARN
What Happens When You Quit Sugar For 30 Days (Timeline)
This short (3:28) video gives an overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly:
10almonds tip: if you do want to quit sugar but don’t want to struggle, consider focusing on adding healthy things, especially healthy sources of protein, rather than worrying about quitting sugar. You’ll soon find that because protein suppresses the appetite, you’ll be less likely to consume sugar anyway, and before long, you may realize you quit sugar accidentally!
❓ MAIN FEATURE
It’s Q&A Day!
Each Thursday, we respond to subscriber questions and requests! If it’s something small, we’ll answer it directly; if it’s something bigger, we’ll do a main feature in a follow-up day instead!
So, no question/request to big or small; they’ll just get sorted accordingly 😎
Remember, you can always hit reply to any of our emails, or use the handy feedback widget at the bottom. We always look forward to hearing from you!
Q: Interesting info, however, I drink hazelnut milk LOL so would have liked a review of that. But now I want to give hemp and pea milks a try. Thanks 😊
Aww! Here then just for you, is a quick rundown…
Pros: high in protein¹, vitamin B, and vitamin E
Cons: high in fat², low in calcium
¹Compared head-to-head with almond milk for example, it has double the protein (but also double the calories)
²However, is also has been found to lower LDL (bad) cholesterol (and incidentally, also reduce inflammation), and in a later systematic review, it was found to not correlate to weight gain, despite its high calorie-content.
If you don’t already, and would like to try making your own…
Q: Wondering if you can evaluate CLA and using it to assist with weight loss. Thanks
Will do! (Watch this space)
Q: What’s the process behind the books you recommend? You seem to have a limitless stream of recommendations
We do our best!
The books we recommend are books that…
are on Amazon—it makes things tidy, consistent, and accessible. And if you end up buying one of the books, we get a small affiliate commission*.
we have read—we would say “obviously”, but you might be surprised how many people write about books without having read them.
pertain in at least large part to health and/or productivity.
are written by humans—bookish people (and especially Kindle Unlimited users) may have noticed lately that there are a lot of low quality AI-written books flooding the market, sometimes with paid 5-star reviews to bolster them. It’s frustrating, but we can tell the difference and screen those out.
are of a certain level of quality. They don’t have to be “top 5 desert-island books”, because well, there’s one every day and the days keep coming. But they do have to genuinely deliver the value that we describe, and merit a sincere recommendation.
are varied—we try to not give a run of “samey” books one after another. We will sometimes review a book that covers a topic another previously-reviewed book did, but it must have something about it that makes it different. It may be a different angle or a different writing style, but it needs something to set it apart.
*this is from Amazon and isn’t product-specific, so this is not affecting our choice of what books to review at all—just that they will be books that are available on Amazon.
Q: Great video on dopamine. Thumbs up on the book recommendation. Would you please consider doing a piece or two on inflammation? I live with Lupus and it is a constant struggle. Thanks for the awesome work you do. Have an excellent day.
Great suggestion! We will do that, and thank you for the kind words!
It's a reference to a viral Facebook hoax! There was a post going around that claimed:
❝HEADACHE REMEDY. Eat 10–12 almonds, the equivalent of two aspirins, next time you have a headache❞ ← not true!
It made us think about how much health-related disinformation there was online... So, calling ourselves 10almonds was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to that story... but also a reminder to ourselves:
We must always publish information with good scientific evidence behind it!
🌏 AROUND THE WEB
What’s happening in the health world…
70% of legal cannabis in the US may contain less THC than label claims
New "Parkinson's marker protein" detection technique could aid early diagnosis and treatment
The brain's cannabinoid system protects against addiction following childhood maltreatment
People who think positively about aging are more likely to recover from memory loss
More to come tomorrow!
📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW
Unlimited Memory - by Kevin Horsley
Premise: there are easily learnable techniques to rapidly (and greatly) improve one's memory. We've touched on some of these methods before at 10almonds, but being a newsletter rather than a book, we've not been able to go as deeply into it as Horsley!
Your memory is far, far, far more powerful than you might realize, and this book will help unlock that. To illustrate...
Some of the book is given over to what are for most purposes "party tricks", such as remembering pi to 10,000 places. Those things are fun, even if not as practical in today's world of rarely needing to even know the actual digits of a phone number. However, they do also serve as a good example of just how much of "super memory" isn't a matter of hard work, so much as being better organized about it.
Most of the book is focused on practical methods to improve the useful aspects of memory—including common mistakes!
If the book has any flaw it's that the first chapter or so is spent persuading the reader of things we presumably already believe, given that we bought the book. For example, that remembering things is a learnable skill and that memory is functionally limitless. However, we still advise to not skip those chapters as they do contain some useful reframes as well.
Bottom line: if you read this book you will be astonished by how much you just learned—because you'll be able to recall whole sections in detail! And then you can go apply that whatever areas of your life you wanted to when you bought the book.
What did you think of today's newsletter?Sorry to bother you. But the feedback really helps us. |
Wishing your days be memorable in the best of ways,
The 10almonds Team