One of the founding principles of All Healthy is that more information isn’t always better. Most people don’t have a clear way to separate snake oil from what’s actually evidence-backed — and that problem isn’t limited to health, it’s everywhere, especially in politics.
Is Frozen Yogurt Actually Healthier Than Ice Cream?
Dan Gold/Unsplash
You Should Know: Frozen yogurt has had a health halo since the 1980s, and honestly, it’s not totally undeserved. Compared to ice cream, it’s lower in calories and fat, since it’s made with cultured low-fat milk instead of cream. Some versions also contain live and active bacterial cultures, which can be good for your gut (though how many actually survive the freezing process depends on the product).
Going Deeper: Here’s where it gets a bit more complicated. To balance out the natural tanginess of frozen yogurt, manufacturers often add more sugar than you’d find in a comparable serving of ice cream. And the self-serve set-up at many froyo shops makes it easy to overdo it, since the average container holds 16 to 24 ounces before you’ve even approached the toppings bar.
Takeaway: How much you eat and what you pile on top of it probably matter more than whether you chose froyo in the first place. And if you’re craving ice cream but settle for frozen yogurt, you may just end up wanting both.
Bottom Line: Neither one is exactly a health food, so you might as well get what actually sounds good to you.
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Courtesy: National Park Foundation
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Sleep
Sleep Loss Shows Up Somewhere Surprising
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Spit Take: Red, bleary eyes and dark undereye circles are telltale signs we’re not getting enough sleep. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now found a way to measure fatigue in our mouth — more specifically, in our saliva.
The Study: The research team gathered 20 healthy young males (ages 20 to 33) who regularly get seven to nine hours of sleep. They created three interventions, each separated by one week: one night of total sleep deprivation, four consecutive nights of sleep restricted to six hours, and control sleep of eight hours. Multiple saliva specimens were taken before and after each intervention for each participant and then analyzed using liquid chromatography. Researchers identified 10 molecular differences in saliva between sleep-deprived and well–rested participants.
The Takeaway: Researchers say these 10 differences create a “sleepiness fingerprint” that could be used to develop a rapid saliva test to gauge sleepiness before driving or operating machinery — like a version of alcohol breath tests. Drowsy driving kills more than 6,000 people each year in the U.S.
Keep in Mind: This was a small preliminary study that included only young men, but the next research phase will include a broader population.
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Mindfulness
Stressed? The Internet Says Stick Out Your Tongue
Filipe Resmini/Unsplash
The Trend: On today’s news in “delightfully weird internet trends,” sticking out your tongue is the new kingpin of stress relief. Across Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, people are saying: Stick out your tongue for 40 seconds, and, poof, your stress supposedly melts away. As for how it works, the claim making the rounds is that the move releases tension in the jaw, throat, and neck, reduces cortisol, and stimulates the vagus nerve.
What People Are Saying: Many have been quick to point out that the trend is often attributed to an unnamed neurologist (a sign of questionable health information), and doctors point out that there’s no real scientific evidence to support the trend. Thousands of people online, meanwhile, swear that it works.
What to Know: The lack of clinical evidence doesn’t mean the relief is imagined. Any unusual physical action can interrupt a runaway thought loop and pull attention into the body — a grounding technique that may briefly ease the fight-or-flight response. If you want a similarly quick reset with stronger evidence, try diaphragmatic breathing or do the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise, naming what you can see, hear, touch, smell, and taste.
Italian Seafood-Salad Pasta Salad With Vietnamese Noodles
Courtesy: Serious Eats
Serves: 4-6 | Cook Time: 25 minutes
This quick dinner combines Italian seafood flavors with Vietnamese noodles for a refreshing pasta salad. Shrimp, squid, and crab meat are coated in a classic scampi sauce of lemon juice, olive oil, minced chile, garlic, parsley, mint, and chives. Fresh rice noodles add a light, bright base to this flavor-packed dish that’s best served cold on a hot summer day.
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This, Not That
No Scroll Snack
THIS
NOT THAT
Amy Vann/Unsplash, Stephanie Berbec/Unsplash
This: A “no-scroll” snack Not That: Eating while hypnotized by your phone
For one snack, put the phone down and actually taste the thing. It sounds small, but it helps separate hunger from boredom and can make even a quick bite feel more satisfying.
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Thank you for supporting our sponsors! They help us keep All Healthy free.
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HEALTHY HABIT
Make the Default Easier
Move the thing you want to use closer and the thing you want to use less farther away. Shoes by the door. Snacks in a cabinet. Phone off the nightstand. Environment beats willpower more often than we like to admit.
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Final Thought
Once you embrace unpleasant news, not as a negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren’t defeated by it. You’re learning from it.”
