iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 23/09/2026

Nice chart! Why do last two bars for Stockholm yellow?

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 04/08/2026

Can lines work better here than circles? Like in this video www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWB2...

youtube.com

Css Rain Animation Effect

YouTube video by Bihari Coder

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 15/06/2026

Thank you Sean, you are probably right. I will go there today and have another look when it is grown a bit more. It has been about a week since the picture was taken.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/05/2026

Yes, likely a cup fungus. Found a similar one in my garden 😊

Raised garden bed mulched with seaweed, under which a cup fungus started growing

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 05/05/2026

Have you done spore print? They also look like young wild enoki Flammulina velutipes

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 15/03/2026

🧪🍎📃 Nice article discussing ways to visualize both health and environmental impacts of various food groups. The authors propose a matrix chart showing health effects and carbon footprints for 30 food. The dataset is freely available in Supplementary Materials. www.frontiersin.org/journals/nut...

Figure 1 from doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1572297: A matrix visualization displaying health effects and carbon footprints for 30 food groups. Groups are arranged in the matrix from top (favorable) to bottom (unfavorable) and from left (low carbon) to right (high carbon). Beef is split vertically in the bottom-right to show its exceptionally high carbon footprint. Cell colors utilize a traffic light scheme to correspond to intensity of environmental and health impacts.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 05/03/2026

Hi Erin, this Q is better to discuss with an endocrinologist. But yes, it is established that hormones play an important role in how the body regulates energy. For example, with age, estrogen declines, which can influence metabolism and how energy is stored or used in the body.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 03/03/2026

Please share more about sewing and animal rescue. I am learning how to sew so I can do some upcycling projects, and I adopted a senior rescue dog last year. I am glad to see more people on the same mission and with the same interests 🥰

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 03/03/2026

I love everything in this post, even that creepy yet very skilful hand 😅 Thank you for what you do!

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 23/02/2026

Nice chart! Protein content is high too. Btw, you can post your work in the data viz feed, this way, more people will see it. There are instructions on how to be included in the list: bsky.app/profile/jacq...

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 23/02/2026

thank you 🙏 colors are always hard for me

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 19/02/2026

This is so true and important to remember. I found a relevant table about this in the Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook:

A table from the Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook showing which plant are compatible with each other and which are not

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 19/02/2026

Noted! I have a nice terracotta pot for mint 💚

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 19/02/2026

My late submission to #TidyTuesday, week 5. I couldn’t resist making this 📊, as I’m planning my first garden this year. And since I’m ambitious (or delusional?), my plan is to grow more than 20 plants! I summarized the requirements for some of them. #vegetablegarden #greenheart #gardening

Chart titled “What do my garden plants need?”. A dot-matrix comparison of growing requirements for 20 edible plants, ordered vertically from high to low overall needs. Plants listed: aubergine, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, regular tomato, runner beans, bell pepper, basil, soybean, headed lettuce, borlotti beans, beetroot, dill, cress, onion, radish, rocket, thyme, rosemary, chives, and mint.

Each row shows four colored dot groups representing requirements for sun (yellow), water (gray/blue), nutrients (green), and temperature sensitivity (red). More dots indicate higher needs.

Aubergine appears among the most demanding, with many dots across categories. Mint appears among the least demanding.

Annotations note: “Aubergine = DIVA – Prefers full sun; requires high water and nutrients. Temperature class: tender.” and “Mint = (should be) EASY – Prefers full sun, but requires low water and nutrients. Temperature class: very hardy.”

Data source: The Edible Plant Database, GROW Observatory, a European Citizen Science project. Chart was designed and created by Elena Shekhova. The tool for data analysis is R. The tool for data viz is React.js.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/01/2026

What a cool term “a multi-step gut–liver–vascular axis.” 🙂 I think, with fiber, it always comes down to its importance for the microorganisms in our gut. I also wrote about the link between fiber and cancer here: lumipie.com/blog/fiber-d...

lumipie.com

Read article 'Is Fiber Important?' on LumiPie

How the importance of dietary fiber was recognized, and how one scientist connected it to a disease more common in wealthy countries.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/01/2026

Could this be because people living near golf courses tend to be wealthier and therefore more likely to survive to older ages, when Parkinson’s disease is more likely to develop? In contrast, those living farther away may have lower socioeconomic status and die earlier, before the disease develops.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 29/01/2026

🧪🍎📃 Nutrition discourse often focuses on protein. Fiber is important too, but rarely talked about. Here is an “oldish” paper showing a dose-dependent association between fiber intake (from cereals, fruits, and vegetables) and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. 🔗 www.bmj.com/content/347/...

Risk of cardiovascular disease across increasing levels of total fibre intake. RR=risk ratio

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 27/01/2026

I am glad that you found it informative. Thank you for your kind comment 🙏

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 01/01/2026

That is why I am getting into permaculture. I want to practice it in my garden.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 31/12/2025

Good to know, we have a lot of birds here.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

Something to look into, definitely. The good thing is that it will be easy to check as it seems that the bitterness of seeds correlates with the amount of alkaloids.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

Nice, thanks for sharing!

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

Are they hard to grow? Pollinators are very important. I am designing my first vegetable garden now, ahead of spring, and planning what I want to plant. It seems there are some sweet, low-alkaloid varieties of lupines. From the article:

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

Many of these protein sources are very sustainable and resilient to harsh growing conditions, so they are likely to become more important in future food systems. 🔗 www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15...

mdpi.com

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 30/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 I stumbled across this article about alternative protein sources. Many of them I had never heard of before. It mentioned: -winged beans -grasspea -lupins -Bambara groundnut Also, duckweed species can have protein contents of up to 43% (dry matter) and provide all essential amino acids.

From paper "Alternative Protein Sources and Novel Foods: Benefits, Food Applications and Safety Issues": Figure 1. Underutilized legumes: (a) Winged beans (b) Grasspea (c) Lupins (d) Bambara groundnut.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 28/12/2025

Absolutely 💯 Restaurants are also in a unique position to set an example of how plant-based alternatives can be nicely incorporated into typical dishes.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 26/12/2025

🍄📸🧪 I was cloning a wood ear mushroom that I foraged recently. One of my plates was contaminated, so I let it grow. Then I thought I should definitely photograph it against a lamp and share it here. Perfect for @contamclub.bsky.social The red/pink pigment is likely produced by Fusarium mold.

Agar plate with wood ear mushroom tissues. The red/pink pigment diffusing into the agar is likely metabolites produced by Fusarium mold. Bacterial growth is also visible. Petri dish is photographed against a lamp.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 16/12/2025

And it actually worked. The schools reported that before the deposit was introduced, many people would stop attending, but wanting to get the deposit back was enough motivation to attend classes and pass the exams.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 16/12/2025

I’m not sure if this is helpful, but the experience I had with a language school here in Denmark might be relevant: it’s free for all immigrants, but you have to pay a deposit (I think it’s something like $300), which is returned only if you complete the course.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 09/12/2025

Fantastic, thank you! Then my plan for 2026 is to go through your book carefully and listen to the lectures

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 08/12/2025

That's a good point. More reasonably priced plant-based options should definitely boost sales. Something similar was shown in another study: at the university canteen, more vegetarian options led to more vegetarian sales and fewer meat sales. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 07/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 In this US study, people with a college degree were more likely to consider or choose plant-based burgers than those without a degree. But when the prices of plant-based options were lowered, consumers without a college degree became more inclined to buy them. www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Figure 2:
Price Effect Simulations for Meat and PBMA Burgers (Study 2). Note: Consideration and choice probabilities are shown for the meat burger and PBMAs (aggregated) given a PBMA price range between $12.50 and $5, along with 95% credible intervals. Across PBMA price scenarios, the price of the meat burger was kept constant at $10. A PBMA price of $10 thus corresponds to price parity. The gray dashed lines display the population mean (representative of the United States). Education = high: college degree or higher; No Prior PBMAs = yes: self-report to never eat PBMAs.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 01/12/2025

🧪🍎📃 Very cool new study & great datasets. The authors compared the nutritional composition and density of plant-based meat alternatives vs. meat. They write: plant-based meat is equally nutrient-dense as animal meat and legumes. Heatmap with more details ⤵️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Figure 1 from the publication: Heatmap showing the weighted average nutrient levels per protein source (plant-based meat or animal meat) against the nutrition claim criteria to assess the contribution of the different products to the daily requirement. Data on levels of micronutrients from fortification were excluded. The different shades of green represent to what extend the nutrient levels meet nutrient claim criteria (appendix 2). For the minerals and vitamins these are related to a percentage of the NRV (for iron, zinc and vitamin D the lowest NRV was chosen). Grey colors represent the nutrient levels which do not meet any claim/limit criteria or are lower than one-third of the claim criteria. Shades of blue are given to nutrients to limit and represent whether the level is low or too high and exceeds the criteria for nutrients to limit or the level is somewhere in between those two values (appendix 2).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 26/10/2025

I think most studies show that supplementation works quite well. E.g., a study from Germany found that vegans who took supplements had adequate B12 status. What he probably meant refers to certain health conditions where B12 is not absorbed properly. Look up “intrinsic factor and vitamin B12”

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

Good question. I think it is hard to compare nori cultivation at scale vs. industrial synthesis. Industrial synthesis and fortification are probably easier to control and ensure the right amounts of folic acid, especially for people who need it most.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

To sum up 🔴 Neither animals nor plants synthesize B12 🔴 Symbiotic or environmental bacteria produce B12, which can be absorbed by other organisms 🔴 Animals and some algae require B12, and therefore accumulate it 🔴 Fermented plant foods and mushrooms may have some B12, but the amounts vary a lot

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

While non-animal foods can deliver some B12, they are still not considered reliable sources. That is why industry relies on bacterial fermentation to produce B12 at scale. The vitamin is then purified and used for food fortification. Milk alternatives often have B12 added to them 🥛

Nutritional content of alternative milk called DO NOT CALL ME M_LK, per 100 g

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

The final non-animal foods that contain B12 are mushrooms🍄 Not all mushrooms have meaningful amounts, but shiitake stands out. Still, compared to nori at about 32.3 μg per 100 g dry weight, shiitake only contains about 5.6 μg per 100 g on average.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

This distinction is very important, because what researchers have found makes perfect sense: 🟢Chlorella commercial products contained active B12 🟢Spirulina supplements were dominated by pseudo-vitamin B12 analogues. Spirulina’s B12 works perfectly well for Spirulina, just not for us.

Figure from doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2022.104464: Fig. 1. UHPLC-PDA chromatograms of three selected algae-derived nutritional supplements showing different ratios of cobalamin to pseudo-cobalamin in Chlorella No 41 (a), Spirulina No 54 (b), and Chlorella No 18 (c). It shows how scientists distinguish between pseudo and real B12 (cobalamin).

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

Chlorella, as eukaryotic microalgae, obtains B12 from its environment, which means it can contain bioactive B12. Spirulina is actually a cyanobacterium, not a true alga, and can synthesize corrinoids, but mostly pseudo-vitamin B12, forms that are inactive in humans.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

The fact that algae may contain B12, along with other vitamins, was picked up by the wellness industry. This is why you may have seen supplements based on Chlorella or Spirulina. But even though both are known as microalgae, they are fundamentally different.

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Elena Shekhova @lumipie.com · 25/10/2025

So some algae are like us, and others are more like plants. How cool is that?

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