gm, ser. This is WEEK TWO of Ally’s Newsletter, where we talk about a wide variety of interesting topics. This newsletter is exploratory, experimental, and playful. It’s an undefined and fluid space where I’m pushing myself to be creative and intellectually rigorous, and I’m hoping to find other people along the way who value that too.

If you think this is cool and you want to stretch your creative limbs and co-create with me, submit a mini article (less than 300 words pls!) on any topic you think is exciting or curious.

You don’t have to be some hot shot writer to participate - just write something that you think other people might be intrigued by and on a topic that you think is worth thinking about.

Here, Have Some Chokeberry

One day at a farmers market here in Denver, I stopped at a stall selling berries marketed for gut health, something I’ve been particularly curious about lately.

Gut health is increasingly recognized to have big impacts on mental health, mood and focus (not just immunity and physical health). There are also *so many* supplements and products out there that claim to be the newest, hottest thing, so I was casually skeptical as I asked the lady in the stall about her berries.

She started telling me about how these chokeberries (also known as Aronia berries) are the highest known source of antioxidants. They have more polyphenols and antioxidants than blueberries, Acai berries, and elderberries. And unlike Acai berries, which are cultivated in the Amazon and are causing major biodiversity loss, Aronia berries can be grown sustainably in the US.

There have been countless studies done on Aronia berries showing their positive impacts on stimulating growth in the intestinal microbiota, improving heart health, getting better sleep, strengthening immunity, reducing inflammation, reducing cancer cell growth, inhibiting free radicals, improving colitis and IBS and do you get the picture?

Just in case you DON’T get it, here’s a few more bullet points:

• #1 in anthocyanins: 4X more than in blueberries

• #1 in quercetins: 3.5X more than in strawberries

• #1 in catechins: up to 60% more than in green tea

• #1 in free caffeic acid: 100x more than in coffee, apple sauce, or apricots

• #1 in resveratrol- 4x more than in red wine and 20x more than in cocoa

Turns out the nice lady patiently explaining this to me (for like 30 min in the hot sun) was a Board Certified Functional Health Medicine coach who started her own business making aronia bars. I basically happened to run into one of the most knowledgeable people on this relatively unknown superfruit.

So, I bought some from the farmers market and tried it for a month.

My baseline is fairly decent - I don’t have any severe gut issues that I’m aware of, I eat clean, sleep 8 hours every night (I know, I’m crazy), and exercise 4x a week. I ended up buying the powder form of the berries (she also had power bars and drink “shots”) and just mixed it into yogurt.

After taking one teaspoon of aronia berries every day for a few weeks, I noticed that I have a lot less bloating and sensitivity to gluten. I’ve also been experiencing increased focus, but I’m not as sure that’s purely due to the aronia berries since I’ve been taking cordyceps (like we talked about in the last newsletter!).

This isn’t a scientific study or an ad (I’m making no money on this), so take what I say with a grain of salt. Look into the berries if you could benefit from stronger gut health, and come to your own conclusions!

P.S. I’m genuinely curious if you experiment with this and see results - lmk if you see results on Twitter or Threads, and use hashtag #allysnewsletter so I can find it.

Welcome, Bitcoin

Bitcoin is about to be a lot easier to hold.

BlackRock, Fidelity and many others have filed the SEC to create a Bitcoin ETF. While the SEC has historically declined requests to create Bitcoin ETFs, it recently allowed the creation of ETFs that track Bitcoin futures contracts, which already has more than $1 billion in assets.

Why is this a big deal? Right now, if you want to hold Bitcoin, you need to be onboarded into the world of web3, which means getting a cold wallet and figuring out how to buy Bitcoin from a crypto exchange. You are your own bank, which means you are entirely responsible for keeping your assets safe.

But if the SEC approves proposals for a Bitcoin ETF (which looks super likely), that means you can buy Bitcoin on any traditional stock exchange like you buy any other ETF. You don’t need to worry about security or figuring out how to purchase and hold Bitcoin, but you can still invest in it and potentially benefit.

Some ppl, like JPMorgan, doubt that a Bitcoin ETF would be a game changer. I don’t agree. BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with $9.09 trillion in assets as of April, 2023. Creating a Bitcoin ETF is going to make it accessible and easier to hold for millions of people, and it’s hard to see how that wouldn’t increase mainstream trustworthiness and acceptance of Bitcoin and crypto in general.

Note: while I think a Bitcoin ETF will be a big step to increase mainstream acceptance of Bitcoin, I still expect that we’ll still have lots of ups and downs to come.

A Passage Worth Pondering

If this newsletter is making you smile or is useful to you in some other way, subscribe and share any feedback you have by Tweet or Threads. If you use the hashtag #allysnewsletter, it’ll help me find your feedback.

Cheers,

Ally