As promised, here is the link to download the magic food combos PDF! Enjoy!

Turning Your Ears Into Armpits…

One of the inescapable facts of life is that you are surrounded by bugs.

An ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and viruses that make up your skin microbiome.

Now when you get an ear piercing…. something interesting happens.

The piercer naturally sterilises the earlobe first and wipes out the microflora present there and this provides an insight into how the body builds up its reserve of tiny critters and repopulates itself.

Researchers collected skin swab data from 28 people before and after an ear piercing and further swabs up to two weeks after the piercing too.

The results showed that despite the initial sterilisation of the area providing a “reset” button to the bugs, over time the new pierced site promoted even greater biodiversity and complexity than before!

The new microbiome that developed around the ear piercing site mirror those found in other “moist” areas like the groin, nose or armpit so preferentially allowed types of microogranisms that thrived in wetter envrionmets to flourish.

Two particular types – Staph epidermidis and Cutibacterium acnes dominated (don’t worry these are protective to your skin!)

So yes, you are a walking petri dish and you have the power to decide how you flourish!

Life Updates…

It’s a very British thing to complain about the weather right? So let’s skip the part where I do that – just know I am typing this newsletter from a very freezing house.

I can’t believe that my book comes out officially in under a month.

It feels like it’s been a long, protracted journey from when I first announced it! Remember it’s available to pre-order WORLDWIDE and the more pre-orders there are the more bookstores it gets stocked in so the messaging around health gets spread around more!

I usually don’t go out a whole lot but I have been invited to a British Heart Foundation charity event this coming Wednesday to present an award for their “Heart Heroes” night. Should be fun and even if it’s not, there’s apparently a 3 course dinner – so at least I’ll be well fed!

The only problem now is that I don’t have a black suit…which the dress code demands…

Is Eating Burnt Toast Dangerous?

So toasting is a chemical reaction called the Maillard reaction which occurs at heats of 120 degrees.

Within the Maillard reaction, one of the amino acids – a particular one called asparagine (found in potatoes, bread , cookies, coffee) produces a substance called acrylamide.

Acrylamide is listed as a “possible carcinogen” – so burnt toast causes cancer?

Hold on now…

First of all, it is practically impossible to eliminate acrylamide entirely from your diet.

Also there is no causative data in humans which even suggests it is directly causing cancer.

The toxic effects of acrylamide have only been demonstrated in rats and at SIGNIFICANTLY higher doses than anything you would encounter.

What’s more is that when you consume acrylamide in your diet you’re eating it with other things like antioxidant compounds in foods which likely neutralise or counteract it’s “toxic” effects.

Our bodies may even have protective mechanisms against this compound.

Also there are easy ways to reduce acrylamide – e.g. not burning them to black or in the case of potatoes soaking them in hot water for 10 minutes reduces acrylamide formation by 90%

Unless you’re routinely consuming pieces of coal which once were bits of bread, you’re probably fine.

The Hardest Language to Learn…

Mandarin? Xhosa? Basque?

Nope…Navajo!

The Navajo are one of the largest Native American groups in the USA and are mainly concentrated around Arizona and New Mexico.

There are ony 400,000 tribal members in existence. Reports suggest that as of 2017 there were only 170,000 fluent speakers… and the numbers have likely dwindled since then.

One reason is that learning it isn’t easy.

For starters there aren’t many resources for non native speakers unlike Arabic or French etc.

Secondly, truly mastering this language requires an understanding of local Navajo customs… not an easy thing to get access to!

Even its grammar, syntax and tonal pronunciations are a maze to navigate – so much so that in WW2 US soldiers used Navajo as a military code!

It’s also a tonal language meaning that some words with the same spelling can have different meanings depending on how its pronounced.

Combine all the above with the fact that a lot of Navajo children now attend schools where English is the primary learning medium, they never even learn Navajo.

Will this join the ranks of extinct languages? I hope not.

The Harder You Try,

The Harder You Fail

You’re lying in bed, desperately trying to force your eyes to close and fall asleep. You keep telling yourself “go to sleep”.

All fails.

It’s 3 am and you’re still staring at the ceiling. You read a book, and within 10 minutes you’re out.

Paradoxical intention, reversed effort… often the harder we try the more our bodies resist and the harder something seems.

This law of reversed effort applies to other practical things too.

When writing a book and staring at a blank page, willing your brain to conjure some words… it’s tough.

It’s better to let ideas come and write them in a notebook and save them. Inspiration and creativity comes when we least expect it, not available on tap to be dispensed at any given time.

Even technical things like learning a new sport or skill – yes you need to nail the technique but at some point overthinking is counter-intuitive and detrimental. You need to let go.

Sometimes, its better not to obsessively run over things in our heads, step away, take a breath and do nothing – its good for you. After all, that is the basis of mindfulness.

What You Should Watch:

Squid Game – The Challenge

You’ve been living under a rock if you’ve not seen the original Korean squid game series on Netflix. A fictional drama where people are locked into a facility and subjected to a series of life or death elimination games to win a large cash prize.

The overall plot focuses on the psychology of humans and what levels people would go to to survive – a kill or be killed mentality.

What darkness can we expect to unearth in humans when your survival depends on it? Will compassion survive in any form?

Although this reality TV series version of Squid Games isn’t exactly a kill or be killed scenario – it is interesting to watch the “Lord of the Flies” style psychology which infects people.

When people are forced into a scenario where they need to “survive”: (or in this case, win the millions of dollars)

how they resort to lynching, mob mentality or psychological manipulation or trickery to come out on top.