Mark Sisson's Blog, page 146

Last Chance for Paleo f(x)™ Tickets!

Hey folks, I just wanted to offer a quick reminder: this is the LAST week that you can save up to 25% off Premier or VIP tickets to Paleo f(x)™ 2018!

And now you can get 35% off with the code: MDA35

===> CLICK HERE to get your tickets now and save!

Why you should attend Paleo f(x)™…

1. It’s an amazing place to immerse and empower yourself.

Discover something new or deepen your knowledge. There will be dozens of experts speaking about the latest in epigentics, biohacking, Keto, AIP, nootropics, blood testing, strength conditioning, sleep, stress and much more.

2. It’s an amazing place to connect with your tribe.

It’s said that you become like the five people you spend the most time with. The amazing tribe that attends Paleo f(x)™ are among the most uplifting, inspiring, and health-minded people on the planet. If you’re trying to up your health game, this is the perfect place to do it.

You’ll have plenty of time to connect with old friends and make new ones as you bond at the Paleo f(x)™ tribe gatherings and paleo parties!

3. Paleo f(x)™ is an amazing place to do business networking, too.

If you’re in the health space, Paleo f(x)™ gives you an incredible opportunity to meet some of the best and brightest minds in ancestral health. You never know who you’ll meet. You could find your next idea, joint venture partner, or even business partner!

Ready to take your health—and your whole life—to the next level?

We can’t wait to meet you in Austin in April!

The post Last Chance for Paleo f(x)™ Tickets! appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Coffee and Cancer, Beef Cheeks, Paleo Pancakes

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering a few questions from readers. First, what do I make of the news that coffee sellers in California are going to start putting “may cause cancer” warnings on their labels? Is there anything to the cancer and coffee claims? Next, why didn’t we include beef cheeks in the “cheap cuts” post last week, despite being big fans of the cheek? After that, I explain why I included a recipe for fried scallion pancakes in last week’s Weekend Link Love.

Dean asked:

Hi Mark,

Did you hear that coffee sellers in California must now include cancer warnings on their products? Seems like you got out just in time!

Heh, you must be referring to this.

Yeah, it’s silly. No, it’s not a factor in my move from CA to Miami. Thanks to Prop 65 passing back in 1986, Californians see these cancer warnings everywhere. I suspect they mostly just tune them out at this point. I sure did.

Is there anything to this coffee-cancer stuff?

This has been studied extensively. From my reading of the literature—which isn’t definitive, since much of the evidence is epidemiological—coffee is protective against most types of cancer.

Coffee consumption has an inverse relationship with liver cancer incidence that persists through various confounding factors. Three coffee components, including caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and the diterpenes (which unfiltered coffee preserves and paper filters block) all favorably affect different aspects of the anti-tumorigenic cascade in the liver.

Postmenopausal women who drink four cups of coffee a day have a 10% lower risk of breast cancer. Most female coffee drinkers have a lower risk of breast cancer, except for perhaps carriers of the BRCA1 mutation.

The latest research shows that coffee consumption has an inverse relationship with endometrial cancer, both pre- and post-menopausal.

A recent meta-analysis finds that coffee consumption is probably related to a lower risk of gastric cancer, upending previous findings.

Sure, extracts taken from light roast coffee have higher anti-cancer activity against strains of oral and colon cancer—but the dark roast extracts are still anti-carcinogenic, just not as anti-carcinogenic as the light roasts. It’s a matter of degree.

Coffee targets the NRF2 pathway, which produces proteins that reduce oxidative stress, nullify toxins, and exert chemopreventive effects. NRF2 has been called the most important anti-aging pathway, as most of the maladies of aging correspond to reduced NRF2 activation. Many hormetic stressors—those sources of stress which actually improve our defenses and make us stronger—operate along the NRF2 pathway. That coffee activates it is a good thing.

The combination of overwhelming epidemiological evidence and suggestive mechanistic evidence means I’m not worried about coffee and cancer.

I bet you could make the case for putting a Prop 65 warning brand on infants as they pass through the birth canal—after all, sleep deprivation increases the risk of cancer.

I’ll cap this off by reminding everyone that coffee consumption has a protective relationship with all-cause mortality across ethnic lines.

Liver King pointed out:

You forgot beef cheeks… I don’t know a cheaper cut of meat that offers so much gelatin, deliciousness and tenderness… when prepared right! Wife puts in the Instapot for a few days with a bunch of cumin, onions and bacon. It’s reminiscent of a savory pulled pork done right. The sauce is essentially gravy.

Beef cheeks are one of my favorite cuts. I usually do mine in the Instant Pot with red wine, onions, carrots, tomato paste, and fish sauce until fork tender, then reduce. The sauce (or gravy, as you say) is unmatched.

Only thing is people are getting wise to them, and the cheeks are creeping up toward $9, $10 per pound.

Daniel said:

So, that scallion pancake recipe. Discs of fried cassava flour and arrowroot powder are paleo now? Please….

I get your point. Eating a bunch of fried flour on a regular basis is pretty much how most of the Western world and a growing proportion of the developing world got themselves into this obesity epidemic.

But we’re a different bunch.

Implicit in my recommendation of paleo-fied versions of otherwise unhealthy foods is the assumption that you shouldn’t eat them on a regular basis.

By any stretch of the imagination, these are better than the standard type. No gluten. No refined seed oils. And you have to work for them.

That’s a big one: They’re rather involved. You probably won’t make these on a regular basis, if only because the process to make them is so involved: hauling out multiple flours, kneading and flipping and rolling and pressing, then frying one at a time. Great for a special occasion, unfeasible as a staple food.

Which is the point.

That’s all for today, folks. Thanks for reading, thanks for writing, and thanks for asking such great questions. If you have anything to add for today’s questioners, or a question of your own, include it down below in the comments.

Take care and Grok on!

Want to make fat loss easier?

Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

The post Dear Mark: Coffee and Cancer, Beef Cheeks, Paleo Pancakes appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekend Link Love — Edition 497

Research of the Week

Eating home cooking reduces phthalate exposure.

Having a life purpose reduces the impact of income on life satisfaction.

Structured music lessons improve academic performance.

Global antibiotic use is up 65% since 2000.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 231: Lauren Lobley: Host Elle Russ chats with Lauren Lobley, who stepped out of the gluten-laced world of the pastry chef to become a gluten-free chef.

Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.

Interesting Blog Posts

Regarding (non-aspirin) NSAIDs and heart attacks.

Media, Schmedia

What if scientists did science?

Venison tastes extra good with a generous dusting of smugness.

Everything Else

Why forests are so, quite literally, awesome.

Does this new organ exist in other mammals and, if so, is it edible?

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Better than “dog ate my homework”: “Mom, my class schedule is misaligned with my circadian rhythm!”

I’d wear one: A tooth sensor that tracks exactly what you eat.

Interesting concept to ponder: Is a combination of rising carbon dioxide and degenerating topsoil contributing to an increase in the carb:mineral ratio of our produce and, thus, obesity?

I don’t blame them: Some archaeologists feel threatened by the emerging field of ancient DNA.

Movie you should support: CJ Hunt is raising funds for a new feature length film, The Perfect Human Diet 2: Dispelling the Lies. This promises to be a critical counter to the constant stream of films parroting the opposite view—that animal foods are unhealthy and toxic, killing us and the planet—which has become accepted truth, despite being incorrect. Very important work being done here.

Recipe Corner

Ditch the canned cream of mushroom soup and get out your Instant Pot.
Easy shrimp scampi in the oven.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 25– Mar 31)

The Plight of the Modern Foot: Conditions that Plague Us—And How to Avoid Them – Don’t forget the feet.
5 Obscure Nutrients: How Grok Got Them and Why We Need Them – Are you getting enough of these?

Comment of the Week

“LOL. Wife actually makes amazing bone soups… dries the knuckle bones in the oven and scoops out fragments of the epiphysis / spongy bone to top our kimchi-avocado salads. These parts are a kin to croutons but way, way better in taste and nutrition. I call these “bone crumbs” and I’ve been trying to convince her to sell a line… in that case, she would ship!”

– I’d love to spend a weekend at the Liver King B&B.

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Keto Earl Grey Collagen Fat Bombs

The good folks at Pique Tea have stopped in this week to serve up two awesome keto recipes to our Primal crowd. Enjoy these rich and chocolatey Keto Earl Gray Collagen Fat Bombs today, and be sure to check back Wednesday morning for a tasty collagen latte. Good stuff. Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

While a good Primal diet offers much in the way of healthy, varied fats, with keto it’s helpful to have extra strategies for incorporating additional good fats. That’s where these two dairy-free keto recipes make the perfect on-the-go breakfast, snack, meal replacement, you-name-it, throughout the day. They keep you fuller, for longer, while letting you experience the many benefits from tea polyphenols. Tea is full of a type of antioxidants called catechins that suppress appetite and stimulate metabolism. Tea caffeine also increases your metabolic rate so your body burns off excess calories and body fat to boost ketone levels faster.

And here’s what makes these Keto Earl Grey Collagen recipes so special. Not only do you gain all the major benefits of collagen and a healthy dose of nutrient-dense fat from coconut oil, you’ll also get the nutritional benefits of tea polyphenols. One of the original superfoods, tea polyphenols have long been used in traditional medicine for both its high antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Tea is also a natural prebiotic that feeds your gut with healthy bacteria, balancing the bio flora in your gut. A healthy balance of gut bacteria will provide you with more energy, improved digestion, reduced stress, stronger immunity, to even glowing skin.

So, you can be sure these easy keto Earl Grey recipes offer more than their share of both delicious flavor and essential nutrients. Today, we used Pique Tea Crystals for an Earl Grey kick in our fat bombs. It is an easy way to get the most pure, potent tea antioxidants alongside the collagen benefits in these Collagen Fuel packets. Each Pique Tea sachet contains up to 12x the antioxidants (third-party verified) than regular teas and is the first of its kind to triple screen for mycotoxins, mold and heavy metals.

Servings: 10 (approximately)

Time in the Kitchen: 10 minutes (plus 1 hour for chill time)

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Coconut Butter
1 Cup Coconut Oil
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
2 packets PRIMAL KITCHEN® Vanilla Coconut Collagen Fuel
2 sachets Pique Tea Earl Grey Tea Crystals
3 Tbsp. Raw Cocoa Powder
2 Tbsp. Hemp Hearts

Instructions:

In a small saucepan, heat coconut oil and coconut butter over low heat until melted.

Add Pique Tea Earl Grey Tea sachets, packets of Vanilla Coconut Collagen Fuel, hemp hearts and sea salt into mixture. Blend and mix well until smooth.

Pour the mixture in a silicone mold of your choice.

Freeze for 20 minutes until the fat bombs harden.

Add rose petals to garnish. Store in the freezer or the refrigerator. Enjoy!

Pique Tea is the world’s first Cold Brew Tea Crystals. Pique delivers up to 12x the polyphenols of other teas on the market and is most effective for unlocking benefits like improved gut health, sustained energy, and stress reduction. Pique is also the only tea that Triple Screens for heavy metals, pesticides and toxic mold commonly found in tea. Best of all, Pique is cold or hot water soluble and delivers a world championship brew (3 Gold Medals at 2018 Global Tea Championships). Potency, Purity, and Ease-of-Use is the holy trinity for unlocking the benefits of tea and Pique is the tea for health benefits.

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I Went From Having an Invisible Illness, Being Overweight, Depressed and Tired To Enjoying Robust Health!

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Looking back, I have always had thyroid issues though I had no idea what that meant in my teens and twenties. It apparently runs in my family, though with rural Alaska medical care in the 70s, you were lucky to have a doctor available, let alone a dentist. Even as I grew older and moved to the city and then to college in Arizona and life in many other places, I was always just not well. Though I managed to live and work and play fairly normally, I would occasionally have days that I could not get out bed, so I attributed it to depression or other more readily identifiable causes like depression.

I eventually married and went through two pregnancies in my early 30s,

fairly normal and with healthy babies. After my second child, my mental and physical health really started going downhill, though it wasn’t really visible other than weight gain and some fairly severe post-partum depression. With the benefit of hindsight and research, what was probably mild Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in my youth turned into full-blown Hashimoto’s after the stress of pregnancy, childbirth, nursing and raising two small children.

I was officially diagnosed in 2006 with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis after a therapist I was seeing for depression thought to order some tests. My levels weren’t that high, and I don’t even remember what the endocrinologist said to do about it, just that I had it and it had to do with my thyroid, and that someday my thyroid would fail and I’d be put on medication. He advised eating better and exercising, but with no specific plan. Ok. I just went about my life in the usual way, raising two small kids and easing my way back into the working world while doing all of the usual life things of home maintenance, the kids’ sports and school schedules, marriage, work and other family obligations. The Internet wasn’t that prevalent then, and I just accepted my diagnosis and prognosis and went about my life the best I could.

The years went by and I gained more and more weight. I would “diet” occasionally, have a little bit of success, then fall right off the wagon. I’d tried all of the fad diets, Weight Watchers, etc., and even went sugar-free and even gluten-free a few times in the past with great results, but again, fell off the diet wagon every time. I had been active most of my life with running, college intramural sports, tennis, hiking, long-distance biking, canoeing, camping—nothing ever really stopped me from being active, even being overweight or tired through most of it. I even put myself through almost three P-90X workouts in a row (shoutout to Mark Sisson for his episode – little did I know he’d be so instrumental to my life later….). My weight didn’t budge, though I got some nice muscle under my chub. I thought I was eating fairly well at that time, too, low fat, whole grains—the usual “good diet.” At the beginning of the third cycle of hard-core exercise, plus moving some furniture, I herniated a disc in my back and that put an end to P90X and extreme exercise.

In the meantime, I was getting sicker and I didn’t understand why. I was 50 pounds heavier than my normal pre-pregnancy weight. I was depressed, moody, lethargic, overweight, exhausted, and I always felt like I should just try harder to find the right medication to take care of it, or cut out the fats, or just exercise more. It seemed like each day was a monumental effort to get through, and I know I missed out on a lot of activities with my kids when they were little.

By 2013 my diagnoses were:

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. This is an auto-immune disorder where your

immune system attacks the thyroid, which untreated can lead to multiple issues and eventual thyroid gland failure.
Bipolar disorder and depression/anxiety. The manic-depression was

actually the hypothyroidism/hyperthyroidism that characterizes
Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, but I didn’t know that at the time so I went

on multiple and many medications over the years, thinking that nothing

was working for me and this is how it was and would be for me forever.
Migraines and headaches. This entailed emergency room visits and even a brain MRI. I went to a neurologist and was put on a migraine medication that ultimately gave me kidney stones, two of which had to be surgically removed. The medication didn’t help at all so I eventually gave up on it and since then, no more kidney stones! An expensive experiment. Now, if I have a gluten exposure—instant migraine and the root cause of them.
GERD, bile disorder and esophagitis. I was put on a medication and at my first out-of-pocket charge of $400 for the med, I decided I’d go with the heartburn instead. I’d had bloating and discomfort for years, and did the usual OTC meds for that. An EGD thankfully showed no celiac disease but did show chronic inflammation.
Asthma and chronic bronchitis requiring an inhaler
Chronic fatigue
Restless leg syndrome
Hyperlipidemia
Osteoarthritis, joint pain and stiffness
Chronic tendinitis in wrists
Adult acne
Early menopause at age 40
Brain fog

Around this time I had also lost half of my hair—thankfully I have thick hair so it still looked ok even though it was falling out in clumps.

For seven long years I went to the endocrinologist, got my thyroid (TSH) level tested and was always told it was “normal.”

In August 2013, after my last visit to the endocrinologist who had “managed” my Hashimoto’s for seven years, I finally hit the wall with my frustration over not being able to control my own body. I had had my first full-blown panic attack around this time as well. My medical record states the doctor actually thought it “was unlikely patient has significant thyroid disorder.” My TPOAb (Hashimoto’s marker) was 629.5 IU/ml (normal is to just eat right and exercise more and wait until my thyroid failed and then be put on medication. I even begged to be put on Armour NDT or something to just try it, even though my TSH was normal. He refused. I fired him and, at the end of my rope, finally got on the internet where I found the book I felt saved my life, “Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the The Root Cause” by Dr. Izabella Wentz, which had just been published. Finally, someone who had suffered like me!

I jumped right in to the Hashimoto’s protocol—which is basically Primal, and though it was a super hard transition off the SAD and meds, I lost 20 pounds in the first 21 days and over the next three months, lost 25 more, and never looked back. I gave up gluten, grains, started eating way more fat and vegetables, minimal fruits, got off all of my medications and resolved almost all of my health problems, in particular the depression—it’s amazing to live without it! Without reading The Primal Blueprint (until a bit later), my diet and lifestyle had evolved to fit the model of ancestral health naturally.

During the initial transition, I had gathered all of my medical records, made a summary of them chronologically, made a spreadsheet of my labs and discovered by myself that while I have always had “normal” TSH levels, I don’t convert T4 into the more usable T3, and my symptoms fit that profile. I found a holistic leaning CNP that agreed with my diagnosis and was willing to prescribe the proper NDT medication to address this and literally 20 minutes after taking the first dose, my anxiety, which had reached panic attack levels, disappeared. I now know that when my anxiety creeps up, it’s time for a thyroid medication adjustment.

I eventually read Elle Russ’ Paleo Thyroid Solution, which is a great resource for thyroid sufferers and explained a lot of what I was going through. I do still have the occasional Hashimoto’s flare days, when I simply cannot get out of bed, but it’s down to 1-2 times a year—and usually after I’ve let non-Primal foods into my diet. A far cry from being how I lived my life on a daily basis. It took ten years from diagnosis and many endocrinologists, naturopaths, nurses and internists later, but I finally have found an integrative medical doctor who helps me with the right medical care for Hashimoto’s. I was gratified at our first intake appointment that she did not change one thing about my diet which was already Primal! She commented on my robust health and I was never more proud of myself for getting myself from my sickest days to the point of actual robust health!

Today, after my all time high of 213 lbs, I keep my body at a comfortable 165 lbs (I’m 5’5” and age 49). My Hashimoto’s is stable and after initially cutting my levels in half by eating primally, I go a bit up and down and now rely on my physical and mental states to determine how well I’m controlling it through my food plan. I don’t have a CrossFit-type body, but I do have a body that takes me through my days without pain or suffering, as long as I stick to the Primal way. I no longer have depression, anxiety, GERD, acne, my hair grew back, I sleep like a champ and my brain fog is better but not all gone—hey, I’ll be 50 this year, what can I say! My weight, despite four back surgeries for disc herniations, a labral tear repair in my hip, a broken ankle and a shoulder surgery (the osteoarthritis still rears its ugly head), has remained stable at 165 lbs since 2013. Even when I am unable to exercise, I maintain my weight, mood and general good health simply by eating and living Primally. Today, I enjoy riding my bike, walking my dogs, working out at my property mowing grass, hauling logs and brush and doing simple Primal workouts in my basement. I have a goal of someday being super muscle-y but since I feel so much better than I did before, I’m ok with my body now. My clothes always fit and I can live and do what I want to physically, and that’s more than enough for me.

My children are now 19 and 16, growing up and moving on with their lives, and with extra time on my hands I started looking into being a health coach. I’d followed many “diets” related to primally eating—mostly the Hashimoto’s Protocol, the Bulletproof Diet, the Whole30 plan, the Auto Immune Protocol plan and Paleo among others—but truly, the lifestyle I developed and live dovetails totally with the Primal Blueprint—I was living it before I really even knew about it! My heritage is Inuit/Alaskan Eskimo so it makes complete sense now that I live best on fats, meats and vegetables and berries! I know this lifestyle works for me and am excited to share it with others like me, who have suffered needlessly with auto-immune disorders that aren’t treated properly. I know you can take your health into your own hands and live the way nature intended – PRIMALLY! I recently became certified as Primal Health Coach and am living proof that good health can be had with minimal effort and suffering and I’m excited to begin my journey of helping others to robust health!

The post I Went From Having an Invisible Illness, Being Overweight, Depressed and Tired To Enjoying Robust Health! appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Thrift Meats That Can Match Expensive Cuts (and How to Cook Them)

Eating flavorful meat doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune. But finding the most flavorful thrift cuts at the market often means speaking up and asking the butcher. Don’t be shy—butchers and meat vendors at the farmers’ markets usually love to share their favorite thrift cuts of meat.

The lesser known, less expensive cuts of meat listed here are a good place to start if you want flavorful meat, for a lower price. These cuts aren’t always displayed front and center in the meat case, and they might even have to be special ordered.

To bring out the most flavor and tenderness, season these cuts of meat with salt a few hours or a full day ahead of time, and then set the meat out an hour before cooking to bring it up to room temperature. Always let the meat rest 5 to 10 minutes after it’s cooked, then slice it against the grain, on the bias.

Lamb Shoulder Chop (a.k.a. Blade Chop or Shoulder Steak)

Instead of: leg of lamb or lamb rib chops

Lamb shoulder chops aren’t as pretty as darling little lamb chops, https://www.marksdailyapple.com/haris... but they’re not as expensive, either. Lamb shoulder chops are marbled with fat, have a chewier texture and bigger, bolder lamb flavor. If all that sounds good, then cook these chops briefly over a hot flame until medium-rare, about 4 minutes a side.

7-Bone Chuck Steak (aka Chuck Steak or 7-Bone Roast)

Instead of: short ribs or brisket

The 7-bone is sometimes sold as steak, and sometimes sold as a bigger, thicker roast. Either way, it’s a tough cut of meat, but it’s also really flavorful thanks to a generous amount of fat and collagen. If you don’t mind a little chewy gristle, then go ahead and throw a 7-bone steak on the grill.  Otherwise, cook a 7-bone (both the steak and the roast) just like pot roast, with a little braising liquid at low heat for several hours.

Chicken Leg Quarters (aka Whole Chicken Legs)

Instead of: bone-in or boneless chicken thighs

A thigh and a drumstick attached, this cut isn’t the most gorgeous part of a chicken, but it sure tastes good. Sold bone-in and skin-on, there’s lots of flavor to be had. Cook leg quarters the same as bone-in chicken thighs.

Flap Meat (aka Bavette or Sirloin Tip)

Instead of: skirt steak, flank steak and hangar steak

This thin strip of beef has a wonderfully robust meaty flavor. It’s best to marinate flap meat then cook it quickly over high heat. Both a hot grill and a hot skillet are a good choice for cooking flap meat.

What are your favorite thrift cuts, and what techniques do you use to bring out their full flavor and tenderness in cooking? Share your ideas and questions below, and have a great day, everyone.

The post Thrift Meats That Can Match Expensive Cuts (and How to Cook Them) appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Submit a Comment on the USDA Dietary Guidelines

Change is in the air.

As the rest of the country engages in the same old partisan bickering about how best to rearrange the Titanic’s deck chairs, we have a chance to redirect course and avoid the iceberg. The USDA is considering some major changes to its dietary recommendations, and they’ve put out a call for comments from the public—an unprecedented request. Even better, they’ve requested comments on specific nutritional topics that they’re presumably interested in amending for the upcoming 2020 guidelines, including the safety and efficacy of low-carbohydrate diets and the current maximum recommended intake of saturated fats.

If you’re wondering why you should care whether an overbearing governmental agency thinks you should eat saturated fat or eat fewer carbs, it’s not you I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about the people who don’t know better, who assume what they read in doctor’s office pamphlets is the unvarnished truth.

The USDA dietary guidelines are designed for professionals who administer and recommend diets to their patients. They’re used to develop federal food programs and health policies. State and local governments, schools, businesses, charities, and dozens of other organizations with the power to shape the food and food-related information we consume all use USDA dietary guidelines as, well, guidelines.

You may have a good grasp on the science of food and the diet that works for you—but millions of people do not. Millions rely on the experts and the medical professionals and bureaucrats to make their decisions for them. If those authorities are operating with bad information, what do you think happens?

The obesity epidemic happens. The type 2 diabetes epidemic happens. Low-fat chocolate milk in the lunch line happens. Statins for toddlers happens. Fat acceptance (not the same as self-acceptance) happens. An exploding mobility scooter market happens.

This isn’t a magic fix. This information—the right stuff, the helpful stuff I and other folks in the community have been doling out for years—is readily available, and not everyone wants to listen or buy in. That isn’t going to transform just because the USDA changes their tune. And the tune isn’t going to change dramatically no matter what happens. You won’t see the USDA recommending bone marrow and keto anytime soon. But it will start shifting things in the right direction. And it’ll expose a large number of people who’d never heard anything but the official line about low-carb diets and saturated fat to a radically new position that could really improve their health and make eating both more enjoyable and more effective.

And there’s an even bigger reason to get involved and submit a comment: Vegetarian activists and passionate defenders of the status quo (yes, they exist) are out in full force submitting comments arguing against low-carb diets and the relaxation of limits on saturated fat consumption. They already wield a home court advantage—everyone “knows” vegetarians are healthier and holier—so we need to push back.

***But you only have until THIS Friday, March 30, to submit your comment.

Most of the other luminaries in the ancestral health community are also asking their readers and followers to participate. This has the chance to be a big wave of influence, provided everyone willing and able follows through and makes a comment.

Nina Teicholz and Dr. Sarah Hallberg, who are spearheading this effort, have provided some excellent suggestions for the content of your comments, including relevant scientific references. Copy and paste what they wrote if you prefer, or write your own.

Just get it done. Let’s make a change.

Thanks for reading and commenting, folks. You know what would be cool? Sketch out what you’ll write to the USDA in the comment section down below, then submit it as a document for consideration. That way everyone gets inspired to submit.

Take care.

The post Submit a Comment on the USDA Dietary Guidelines appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

5 Studies I’d Like to See

Imagine money is no object. Imagine you wield absolute control over the scientific community and can direct it to run whichever study you desire. If you can dream it up, they’ll get the subjects, produce the money, and make it happen. All you need to come up with is the overarching design. What would you choose? What do you wonder? What questions do you want answered once and for all?

Here’s what I’d choose:

Omega-6 From Seed Oils vs. Omega-6 From Nuts and Seeds

Linoleic acid isn’t linoleic acid. In nuts and seeds, the fragile omega-6 fats have a home. They have cellular walls and antioxidant compounds protecting them from these oxidative stressors. In theory, eating nuts is far different than consuming an equivalent amount of omega-6 through seed oils.

In a seed oil, the omega-6 fats are adrift like storm-tossed sailors, subject to oxidative stressors like heat, light, and oxygen with little protection. To make matters worse, the refining process often strips them of what few endogenous antioxidant compounds remain. They tend to arrive in your kitchen already oxidized and rancid, and if they aren’t, cooking finishes the process. Consuming these oxidized fats makes your LDL particles more vulnerable to oxidation, and oxidized LDL particles are strong candidates for primary progenitors of heart disease.

What’s more, we’re eating (well, maybe not us so much as the average Westerner) more seed oils than ever before. In observational studies, the two sources are conflated. Omega-6 from nuts might be perfectly safe and healthy, and I suspect they are, but we just don’t know. A study pitting the two against each other over a period of 6-12 months would be among the most important for public health.

If you wanted to really isolate the effect of the fatty acids alone and eliminate the variables, you’d give the seed oil group a vitamin/mineral/micronutrient supplement replicating the nutrient content of the nuts. But I don’t think this is necessary, and it may even be counterproductive; people don’t eat seed oils with complicated nutrient complexes to replace the missing nutrients they’d otherwise get from nuts. They just eat crappy refined oils. The simpler study pitting nuts against oils would be more realistic and applicable to how people actually eat.

Track: Bodyweight, lipids, oxidized LDL, inflammation, liver health/fat.

Strict Keto vs. “Keto Zone”

While staying strict when you first embark on the Keto Reset journey is highly recommended, if not downright mandatory, not everyone remains so. Hardcore keto eaters are often lifers, figuring if it worked better than anything else they’d tried early on, there’s no reason to think the benefits would slow or reverse. That may be true. But I like flexibility. I like being able to drift in and out of ketosis as needed. And from what I can tell, the beauty of going strict keto is that it unlocks and enhances your fat-burning machinery and ability to obtain energy from fat—so that you regain the metabolic flexibility to shift between sources of energy.

That’s the keto zone I often talk about—that range of macros where you have the necessary metabolic machinery to shift back and forth between ketosis and straight-up fat-burning based on the number of carbs you eat. A sweet potato doesn’t “knock you out” of ketosis for days; slipping back in just happens because you’re so accustomed to it.

I call it the keto zone because it’s exactly that: a range of carbohydrate intake that causes you to drift in and out of ketosis without even realizing it. For most, the keto zone might correlate to consuming between 20-120 grams of carbs per day. Less one day, more the next. More ketones today, fewer tomorrow. You’re constantly on the verge of either leaving or entering ketosis, and it’s okay.

Is strict keto superior to the keto zone, where you drift in and out of ketosis transiently? I have my biases, but this study would let us find out for sure.

Participants would all start on strict keto for two months, after which they’d split into two groups. One group would stay strict keto, the other would drift into the keto zone. This portion of the study would go for six months.

Track: bodyweight/composition, physical and cognitive performance, inflammatory markers, lipids.

Grilled Meat vs. Gently Cooked Meat: Long Term (5-ish Years) With Health Outcomes

I’ve written about the apparent benefits of gently cooked meat compared to high heat grilled meat. I’ve also dug into the research implicating high heat grilled meat and various diseases, and found it wanting. This would get to the bottom of it.

Except for how the meat is cooked, the diets are identical. The fatty acids are identical, so the differential effects of polyunsaturated vs saturated fat on meat carcinogenicity don’t enter. Each diet has adequate calcium, since low calcium appears to be a prerequisite for “meat-induced” colon cancer. The meat sources are identical; everything is grass-fed (or not). You compare a burger patty grilled over charcoal to a burger patty lightly simmered in some water. A pork chop over fire versus the same pork chop in the pressure cooker.

Track: Incidence of cancer (and related biomarkers), diabetes, heart disease, and everything else they say meat will inflict upon us.

Battle Of the Carnivores: Muscle Meat Carnivore vs. Whole Animal Carnivore (e.g. organs, bones, skin) Over 5 Years

Many zero-carbers are adamant that beef muscle meat is all one needs to thrive. They’ll eat steak and nothing else. Ground beef and nothing else. They’ll drink water and sometimes coffee. They’ll salt their food, but pepper is a stretch. Obviously, there’s something to this. Meat offers nutrients you simply can’t get anywhere else, and in the most bioavailable form around. Eating a bunch of it is probably better than eating none of it.

I suspect that a whole animal carnivore would be healthier, one who ate organs, bones, skin in addition to the muscle meat. This provides a wider range of nutrients, particularly by eating nature’s multivitamin (liver). It balances the methionine (from muscle meat) and glycine (from connective tissue), a ratio that plays a role in the lifespan according to animal models. It’s also more evolutionarily congruent than discarding everything but the muscle meat.

That said, we don’t know for sure. The anecdotes are persuasive. I’d argue that their results are preliminary, and we don’t know if the effects will persist 3, 4, 5 years out. This study would give us a good idea.

It would be cool to throw in another meat-based group who also ate leafy greens and other non-starchy vegetables.

Track: Lipids, body composition/weight, metabolic health, inflammation markers, physical performance, strength, endurance, health endpoints like mortality, diabetes, cancer.

Three-Year Study Of Keto In Anaerobic Athletes (e.g. basketball or soccer)—Enough Time For Full Adaptation

Even skeptics admit that getting fat adapted can help endurance athletes excel at their sport, but what remains to be seen is if keto is good for athletes who perform above the anaerobic threshold. Traditionally, going anaerobic means burning glucose. If you don’t have glucose, either because you’re not eating it or your metabolism isn’t optimized for its utilization, your performance will suffer. That’s the story, at least. The data so far is spotty, mixed, and plagued by the fact that the perfect study hasn’t been done.

My intuition is that the keto team would do better than expected. Maybe not better than the other team, but better than the skeptics would assume, and perhaps equal. After all, fat-adaptation extends your anaerobic threshold. You can go longer and harder burning primarily fatty acids than a “normal” athlete. This should preserve glycogen for when you truly need it. And certain “intangibles” might be better in the keto team, like teamwork/cooperation/morale (from improved cognition) and injury rates (from lower inflammation).

A fun wrinkle would be to add a third team that does “keto zone.” They’d start with a strict keto adaptation period, after which they’d cycle carbs in for workouts and games. I suspect that team would be the most successful.

Track: Performance at regular intervals, both team and individual. W/L ratio, points scored, defense, overall success, injury rates. Player attributes like speed, stamina, power.

Those are the five studies I think would be the most illuminating. What about you? What would you like to investigate?

Let me know down below. Thanks for reading, everybody.

The post 5 Studies I’d Like to See appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Folate Retention in Beans, Seeds, and Greens, Blended Liver Folate, No Vegetable/Fruit Full Study

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering three questions. You guys had more questions about folate. Since it’s such an important vitamin, I answer those first. Then I discuss the study mentioned in last week’s Dear Mark in which removing polyphenol-rich fruits and vegetables from the diet improved oxidative stress markers instead of worsening them. I got my hands on the full study, so I have more to say on the subject.

Let’s go:

First, Tiffany asked:

What about the folate in sunflower seeds and leafy greens? How much does cooking affect those?

“Cooked” sunflower seeds are roasted sunflower seeds. According to USDA nutritional data, both roasted and raw sunflower seeds have the same amount of folate. You’re probably safe there.

For greens, how much folate you retain depends on how you cook them.

Boiling spinach or broccoli causes about 50% folate loss. Steamed spinach or broccoli lose almost zero folate. For what it’s worth, potato folate is impervious to boiling.

Another study found similar results: Cooking in water causes leafy green folate loss.

Overall, folate loss from vegetables is primarily due to leaching (into cooking water) rather than degradation by heat.

Even though you didn’t mention them, legumes is where it gets interesting.

In one study, cooking beans without soaking retained 60% of folate. A quick pre-soak (boiled for 2 minutes, covered for an hour, then drained) followed by 20 minutes of cooking retained 18% folate; followed by 90 minutes of cooking, 31%. A long soak (16 hours in water overnight) followed by 20 minutes of cooking retained 35% folate; followed by 90 minutes of cooking, 42%. Oddly, how you soaked the beans didn’t matter when you cooked the beans for 150 minutes. A quick soak retained 41%, a long soak 44%. I suspect the longer cooking times give the folate more time to be re-absorbed.

Another study found that pressure cooking was better for folate retention than boiling, and that chickpea folate was more resilient than field pea folate.

Steph Windmill asked:

For some years now I’ve been whizzing Ox Liver up in the blender and then adding it to vats of chilli or bolognaise. It gives an additional meaty taste, but I’ve been mostly (and smugly!) doing it for the nutrition. Based on the idea that pan-frying depletes folate, is the 2+ hours of cooking time I’m giving this dish going to make adding the liver completely redundant on the nutrition front?!

Wet cooking will deplete folate, but as in the case of beans, it ends up in the cooking water. Since you’re consuming the cooking liquid, it shouldn’t be a problem.

Still, if you want to be really sure, I have a solution. Classic bolognese sauce recipes call for chopped or pureed liver to be added in the last ten minutes of cooking, not right away. Try that instead of dropping it in at the beginning. Liver cooks really quickly, so ten minutes is plenty of time.

Time Traveler swooped in with assistance:

Hey Mark, here’s the link to the full smokers study, if you wish analyze thoroughly. It took me 2 seconds to find (-:

http://doc.rero.ch/record/301928/file...

Great, thanks.

Very interesting. The full paper clears up a lot of questions I had.

The fruit and vegetable-free diet was decent, as lab diets go, drawn from standard Danish foods:

Cheese
Fermented milk
Rye bread (traditionally fermented in Denmark)
Cheese sauce
Brown sauce (Danish brown sauce is butter, broth, flour, vinegar, sherry)
Broth/stock
Butter
Tuna salad
Carrots
Potatoes
Ham
Meat patties (with or without green tea added)
Pasta
Rice

Is it Primal? Not exactly, but you could definitely cobble together a nice Primal diet by removing some foods. And everything is “real,” not processed or overly refined.

They do point to other studies in which removal of fruits and vegetables had the effect of increasing oxidative stress, so the effect is equivocal.

The 16 subjects of the study were young, lean, and—besides half of them smoking—quite healthy males. If you’ve ever fit that category, it’s a good time to be alive. You don’t worry about much. You’re focused on the day at hand. You have very low stress levels. You’re living for the moment. Old enough to reap the benefits of adulthood, young enough to avoid the consequences.

I’ve always maintained that polyphenols and other phytonutrients found in fruits and vegetables are most critical for people undergoing significant oxidative stress. These include the obese and overweight, the diabetic, the old and sedentary, the chronically stressed. The overworked athlete who needs an edge for recovery.

And one big reason I emphasize produce and even sell a powerful antioxidant/mineral/vitamin supplement is that most people come to this site to improve their health. Many of us got into Primal because we were trying to fix something broken in us. We were starting from a health deficit. We needed (and still need) extra help.

The subjects in this study weren’t really the target audience for phytonutrients. What really throws me for a loop is that their oxidative stress markers were worse on the habitual diet with more polyphenols. It wasn’t that removing polyphenols had no effect. It actually improved their oxidative status.

Here’s a thought that could explain it: Denmark isn’t known for its natural bounty of high-polyphenol plant foods. We know from previous posts that our genetic ancestry can partially determine our nutrient requirements and how we respond to foods. If these were ethnic Danes (as of 2017, 86% of the country is ethnically Danish; the study was in 2002, so Denmark was probably even more homogeneous), and ethnic Danes have a genetic adaptation to the historically lower levels of dietary phytonutrients available in the area, this could explain the results.

Interesting study to hypothesize about. Maybe I should pursue this ancestry angle further—thoughts?

That’s it for me, folks. Thanks for reading, thanks for writing in, and be sure to keep it going down below!

The post Dear Mark: Folate Retention in Beans, Seeds, and Greens, Blended Liver Folate, No Vegetable/Fruit Full Study appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekend Link Love — Edition 496

Research of the Week

Hunger blunts chronic pain.

Chronic inflammation impairs tastebud renewal.

Certain phytonutrients, vitamins, and NAC may increase the effectiveness of treatments for psychosis.

5:2 “fasting diets” (eat normally for five days, eat almost nothing for two) beat low-calorie diets.

Dogs on a diet high in protein and fat recover more quickly after joint injuries than dogs on a high-carb kibble.

Keeping your hands busy keeps you happy.

Teachers tend to see playfulness in boys as more disruptive and pathological.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 229: Daniel Thomas Hind : Host Elle Russ chats with Daniel Thomas Hind, who uses mindset, psychology, and habit forming to help his clients and readers effect real change in their diets and lives.

Interesting Blog Posts

Hate beets but want the performance-enhancing effects? Try sunlight.

Retinol content of animal livers has been increasing, probably due to synthetic vitamin A in animal feed.

Media, Schmedia

Electrical current-induced happiness: too much of a good thing?

Why pancreatic cancer is on the rise.

Everything Else

Caffeine usually makes people faster, but not everyone.

The spiritual essence of depression.

Utah signs the first “free range kid” bill into law.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Podcast episode that touched me: The Drink, in which a couple of guys (one of whom has a fantastic first name) talk about avoiding bad habits and how some person named Mark Sisson saved his life.

Interview I dug: The one with Pedro Carrera Bastos about the lessons of traditional diets (and dieters).

I wonder if toxicity of cleaning products used would affect this: Cleaning at home or on the job associated with degrading lung function.

I’m not sure I agree: “It’s time to make human-chimp hybrids.”

A big reason why I moved to Miami: To walk more.

Recipe Corner

Paleo scallion pancakes.
This ain’t your grandma’s casserole, unless your grandma is paleo and loves pork and beef.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 18– Mar 24)

How to Exercise with An Autoimmune Condition – It’s important to do it right (and safely).
How to Buy (and Appreciate) Eggs – Make the most of them.

Comment of the Week

“On that note, my husband is a professional entertainer and he had a gig several years ago where he was blowing up and twisting animal balloons for a six hour stretch 2 days running. He generally uses a pump, I don’t remember what it was about the gig that precluded that. Anyway, he still refers to it as the weekend he shit a brown dwarf star.”

– This just proves Carl Sagan right, Missy: We truly are made of star stuff.

Want to make fat loss easier?

Try the Definitive Guide for Troubleshooting Weight Loss for free here.

The post Weekend Link Love — Edition 496 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.