Can Vulnerability Be Your Strength?

The lovely Taraji P. Henson pointed this out a couple years ago, but it’s worth running it back now. Nearly 2 years into the COVID-19 pandemic, communities have been ravaged by the virus and its reverberations in our work, school and family lives. Meanwhile, as usual, we’ve tried to hold everything and everyone together…often neglecting ourselves in the process. This is as good a time as any to ask yourself a couple questions that are checkpoints on the way to healing:

1) Have you bought into the responsibility of being a Strong Black Woman?

2) Where do you need to ask for help and who could you ask?

We touched on these questions during last week’s Daily Wellness Text Chat. Join us for more prompts on self-care and wellness by texting TEXT to 1(224)302-6224

What Is The Best Almond Milk?

There are a lot of questions floating around the internet and our Daily Wellness Text message thread surrounding how to find the best almond milk. Rather than call out a specific brand of almond milk, or argue the merits of organic almonds, we decided to focus on the nutrition facts. The best almond milk is simply the one without added sugars or flavors. How do you find unsweetened almond milk?

1) Look for “Unsweetened” and “No added sugars” labels on the front of the package

2) Make sure the Added Sugars line on the nutrition facts says 0 g (zero grams)

Quick note: almond milk might not be ideal for people with nut allergies. Consider your personal health risks before trying new food and drink.

Why Is Unsweetened Milk Healthier?

We’ve talked about why unsweetened food is better for our bodies a few times before. When we’re working at peak potential, our bodies are pretty good at helping us break down and manage the sugar that grows naturally in food like fruit and sweet potatoes.

When we eat sugary foods, the sugar ends up in our blood and our pancreas releases insulin to keep the sugar level from rising too high. We definitely don’t want high blood sugar.

When our blood sugar level get too high on a regular basis, they can lead to weight gain (obesity), high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

Fruit and veggies naturally come with built-in sugar air bags like fiber and flavonoids (phytonutrients) that help your body control the level of sugar in your blood.

But, it’s possible to overwhelm the system with too much sugar. That’s where added sugars come in. Processing often adds sugar to drinks or foods. That’s a problem because those foods that don’t have strong enough natural air bags to blunt the impact of the extra sugar on our bodies. Then the amount of sugar in our blood rises, and our disease risk increases.

Added sugar isn’t the only way to screw up the balance of sugar in our bodies. We can screw up the blood sugar balance with habits that make it harder to clear the sugar out of our blood. Here are a few ways:

1) Putting on extra weight (fat around our waist and other body parts)

2) Not getting enough physical activity (because activity drives sugar out of your blood and into your muscles)

3) Not getting enough sleep

So, what’s the major takeaway? Choose UNSWEETENED almond milk.

What Is The Best Oat Milk?

Like our almond milk above, the best oat milk is simply unsweetened/unflavored oat milk. Avoid the added sugars required to sweeten oat milk and save yourself a lot of drama extra calories AND disease-causing blood sugar spikes.

Oat Milk vs. Almond Milk

Oat milk is getting a LOT of play these days, especially as a milk alternative that’s more environmentally-friendly than almonds. However, before grabbing for oat milk, make sure you think about your own personal health risks and wellness goals. Are you trying to lose weight? Do you have heart disease or high blood pressure or high cholesterol?

Oat milk does not contain the heart-healthy fiber that makes its less-processed predecessor (oatmeal) a strong choice for people with heart disease. But, it does contain lots of carbohydrate (natural starch) which can increase blood sugar (even moreso than oatmeal would because its fiber airbags are missing).

Almond milk on the other hand has lots of heart-healthy unsaturated fat that is missing from oat milk. And, it has practically none of the carbs that oat milk delivers.

So, almond milk is ideal for people looking to lose weight or manage risks of high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

Oat milk is the alternative for people with nut allergies.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoy the long weekend, and we’ll talk next week.

Happy, Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse