5HT: 5 Healthyish Things, including Fruity Pebbles and the OG wonder drug

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I was solo parenting my two girls (2 and 4) over a recent weekend and offered them some healthyish cereal… only to realize we were out 🤦‍♂️. Fast forward to us in the cereal aisle at Target, where I offered them the chance to choose any cereal they wanted. As you can probably guess, they did not go with All Bran. 

Instead, they chose Fruity Pebbles. They decided it was “rainbow cereal.” And I justified buying it by calling it, er, newsletter research.

Of course, with MAHA around, those bright rainbow colors may not last much longer—and wow does Fruity Pebble have a lot of them. From Red 40 to Yellow 6 and Yellow 5 to Blue 1, Fruity Pebbles has the rainbow covered. (Plus something called “turmeric oleoresin” that I think actually is fine? 🤔)

Why are we so hooked on these bright shades? To food-makers, we love the color. As NPR reports, when Trix cereal tried switching to natural colors from fruits and veggies, shoppers revolted. Apparently, one guy even told the WSJ the new Trix was "basically a salad now.” 🫠

In theory, though, removing synthetic dyes could level the playing field. If no one could lean on neon colors, cereals (and other foods) would have to stand out for something else. Considering that nearly 20% (!) of packaged food and drinks in the U.S. contain synthetic dyes, the impact could be massive (and maybe positive).

But then comes the slippery slope: Who gets to decide what’s “good” or “safe” and where do we draw the line? Some argue replacing dyes won’t deliver the food safety win we hope for. How toxic are these food dyes, really? To be clear, I’m supportive of getting rid of these. Especially because it feels like the U.S. has been wayyy too lax on food safety compared to other countries. (Did you know Fanta is an entirely different color in Europe?!) 

But, I worry the more we take action here, the more we potentially stifle innovation or risk creating unnecessary constraints based more on opinion > science. And, by doing so, we lose the agency (or joy, in my kids’ case) that comes with choosing “rainbow cereal” on (rare) occasions. Food for thought (literally).

If you’ve been a 5HT reader for a while, you know I’m all for proactive healthcare. I never miss an annual checkup, and I do at least two blood tests a year (with my fave, Function) to keep tabs on my biomarkers. But here’s something most of us don’t treat like routine care (yet): Fertility.

I was recently chatting with friend Lauren Sugarman about how fertility checks are often delayed or dismissed. Most people know their cholesterol or blood pressure numbers. Almost no one knows their fertility status. Why? For one, old-school sex ed classes duped us into thinking we could blink and get pregnant 🙄. (To be clear: Not how that works.) Layer on limited access to fertility specialists and the classic advice to “try for 6–12 months” before testing 🙄🙄, and problems can go undetected. 

Lauren and her team are trying to change that by making fertility checks as easy as routine bloodwork 🙌. They recently launched Conceive Access, fertility testing you can order directly. The way it works is simple, you:  

Annnd it’s not just for women either! For whoever needs to hear it, fertility is a team sport 📢. With Conceive, women can test their hormones, ovarian reserve, thyroid levels, and vitamins, and men can check their sperm health and hormones. 

Congrats to Lauren and the team at Conceive 👏. Here’s to making fertility testing more common!

Roughly 1 in 8 US adults today are on some form of antidepressants, and usage has climbed since the pandemic—especially for young women. (Think: Prozac, Lexapro, Zoloft.) These meds can make a difference. But as some literature shows, they’re not without scrutiny. One major criticism is that people stay on antidepressants forever, in part because getting off can be brutal. 

When people stop taking their medications (especially abruptly), it can trigger what’s called antidepressant discontinuation syndrome (ADS). Symptoms can include things like nausea, insomnia, and fatigue—plus a potential rebound of the condition the meds were treating (like anxiety or depression). Recent studies show this could affect one in six to seven people who discontinue their medication.

Importantly, these medications aren’t meant to be cut cold turkey. Yet there’s often little structured support in mainstream care for safely tapering off. So patients either suffer through withdrawal or stay on indefinitely. As one common refrain goes: “I don’t know who I am without it.” 

That’s why I was so intrigued when I recently came across Outro Health and met their Co-Founder & CEO, Brandon Goode. They’re a digital health company helping people taper off antidepressants using neuroscience-based tapering plans. Dubbed the “Uber for getting off antidepressants” (not 100% sure what that means, but it sure is provocative 😂) by Wired, they make personalized plans and include non-drug mental health support to reduce relapse risk and ease the nervous system through the transition.

I find the idea extremely compelling—and I’m bullish. While they only focus on antidepressants right now, it’s not hard to imagine this model expanding more broadly. Plenty of people don’t want to rely on meds for the rest of their lives (and less now than ever, I think), but are too scared of the downsides of stopping. (GLP-1s come to mind!)

To me, there’s a world where the next frontier of health is not better pills, but better off-ramps. And Outro might be at the front.

While everyone’s writing and raving about GLP-1s (guilty 😅), the original “wonder drug” in longevity is actually something called metformin. If you haven’t heard of it, metformin is an inexpensive medication used to help regulate blood sugar levels in people with diabetes.

Unlike GLP-1s—which are new, expensive, and buzzy—Metformin is older, cheaper, and has been studied for decades. First used in Europe in the ‘50s and FDA-approved in the U.S. in the ‘90s, metformin activates what’s called AMPK—basically a signal for your cells to go into repair (what Mark Hyman calls your “longevity switch.”) The drug is also said to mimic the effects of fasting and reduce oxidative stress. The catch? Some people get GI upset, it can deplete B12, might blunt muscle gain, and you (or at least me) need to be cautious with kidney issues.

Medical professionals have long seen benefits beyond diabetes with doctors prescribing it off-label for pre-diabetes, gestational diabetes, PCOS, and even antipsychotic-related weight gain. 

Metformin originally got the attention of biohackers in 2014 after a study came out showing that people with type 2 diabetes taking metformin as their only treatment lived longer than those without diabetes. Biohackers quickly embraced the drug, calling it the fountain of youth. But recently, the energy has cooled. Dave Asprey now favors fasting, Peter Diamandis switched to berberine, and even Mark Hyman now calls for more research. 

Fair. Most of the data is observational and mostly in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. But now all eyes are on the TAME trial (Targeting Aging with Metformin) to see if it makes a comeback. TAME is a pretty big deal—the first large study testing whether it truly slows aging. Maybe they'll end up becoming the statin of aging, orrr maybe it turns out to be all hype. It’s not currently in my stack, buuut it’s on my watchlist 👀.

If you’re curious for more on this, check out this great episode from our friends at InsideTracker with Dr. Nir Barzilai (who’s leading the TAME trial): 

Last week I mentioned I was excited about Starbucks getting into the “proffee” craze. This week, I finally tried it while in Vegas for work. For $2.55 more than my usual order, I got a Chocolate Protein Cold Brew (and tried Pumpkin the next day, too). Call me #basic (and I know many of you do), but I am INTO it. 👍

Did it completely change my life? No. Did it make my morning in Vegas feel a little better? Absolutely 😆. When I shared the exciting update in the 5HT+ chat (now 100+ strong!), someone dropped this GIF 👇

It made me laugh—annnd had me briefly considering whether Snickers Hi Protein Bar belongs in the protein bar challenge I’m doing. (It does not.)

Okay, you now know what I’m curious about—but here’s what everyone else is Googling, according to a few trusty platforms.

👋 Who are you again? I’m Derek Flanzraich—founder of two venture-backed startups in Greatist (👍) and Ness (👎). I’ve worked with brands like GoodRx, Parsley, Midi, Ro, NOCD, and Peloton. I now run Healthyish Content, a premium health content & SEO agency (among other things).

Every Thursday, I share 5 health things I feel strongly about so you can live healthyish. (Disclaimer: I’m more your friend with health benefits. None of this is medical advice.) 

And oh, you also feel strongly about some health things? Hit reply—I’d love to hear it.