Mark Sisson's Blog, page 149

Primal Starter: Fasted Mornings

“The simplest way to building your fitness for going keto is to delay your first meal of the day until WHEN—When Hunger Ensues Naturally. This simple, intuitive strategy will turbocharge you fat- and ketone-burning genes, enhance your insulin sensitivity, and set you up for easier adherence to a low-carb or keto eating pattern for the rest of the day. When you act in accordance with your hunger instead of pursuing a fixed schedule for fasting, you will free yourself from the pressure and anxiety that can often cause you to rebel when your willpower weakens or you lose interest in being so regimented….

Owing to the many stress variables of daily life, some days are better than others to stretch the limits of your metabolic fitness. For example, I’m extremely comfortable eating in a compressed time window during which I routinely fast for 18-hour periods with no trouble—even if I throw an intense workout or jet travel into the mix. However, on certain days, hunger grabs me in the morning hours, possibly due to some interesting triggers. For example, if I have a public-speaking event, my nervous energy sometimes manifests as hunger. I also notice on mornings when I do little or no exercise, I often get hungry sooner. This might seem counterintuitive, because in the carbohydrate paradigm, exercise drives glycogen depletion drives hunger. However, I suspect that exercise increases my fatty acid and ketone oxidation, and thereby allows me to power along for longer on internal energy sources than if I had not exercised. With the WHEN approach, you essentially take what your mind and body give you each day, do your best with your eating, exercise, sleep, and stress-management strategies, and allow progress to happen naturally.

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Why the Type of Folate You Take Matters

We have a problem. When discussing vitamin B9, common parlance is to use “folic acid” and “folate” interchangeably, as if the two are different terms for the same thing. Talk to most OB-GYNs about the type of vitamin B9 in your prenatal, and they’ll say the difference doesn’t matter. Look at the average nutrition label, and it’ll list folic acid rather than folate, even though it’s naturally occurring. They are not the same. The difference is meaningful. 

Our bodies don’t actually use “folic acid” or “folate”; they convert them into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate—the useable form of folate. Folic acid must go to the liver for conversion into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, but there’s an issue here: The liver doesn’t always make enough of the enzyme necessary to convert folic acid into tetrahydrofolate.

Organic folates, like the ones found in food or supplemental 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, don’t have this problem. They’re easily converted into tetrahydrofolate at the gut level upon consumption. 

Okay, okay. So maybe just take a little more folic acid to make sure you produce enough tetrahydrofolate—right? Flood the pathways, brute-force conversion.

That same tactic used by millions of OB-GYNs to get their patients’ folate levels up to par may have unintended consequences. Unconverted folic acid can end up circulating throughout the body, where it has unwanted side effects. Let’s explore a few of them.

Immune Function

Natural killer cells are the immune system’s first line of defense against pathogens and immune insults. Their primary function is to kill—to promote cytoxicity, or cell death—and excessive folic acid in the blood may impair this. In one study, postmenopausal women with elevated blood levels of unmetabolized folic acid had lower natural killer cell cytotoxicity. A more recent study in Brazilian adults found the same thing: 5 mg of folic acid (an admittedly massive dose) given each day increased serum unmetabolized folic several-fold and lowered the cytotoxicity of natural killer cells. Natural killer cells that aren’t good at killing aren’t good at all.

Diabetes

As mentioned earlier, the presence of unmetabolized folic acid in circulation reduces the activity of natural killer cells, which in addition to defending against invading pathogens also stem the tide of unchecked inflammatory processes, including autoimmune destruction of the body’s own tissues.

A 2012 mouse study showed that administering NK cells halted the destruction of pancreatic beta cells and beat back the progression of autoimmune diabetes. If people are exposed to enough non-metabolized folic acid to depress NK cell function, that could partially explain the rise of type 1 diabetes.

Indeed, shortly after 159 countries began fortifying flour with folic acid, the diabetes rate skyrocketed, exceeding epidemiological forecasts. 

Pregnancy

Folate is critical for fetal development, and supplementation with folic acid has been shown to reduce the incidence of neural tube defects. That’s synthetic folic acid, by the way. It’s clearly helpful, especially if you’re not eating folate-rich foods. But there may be an upper limit, particularly after the first month of pregnancy.

Unmetabolized folic acid, which is elevated in many pregnant women who supplement with it, competes with glutamate for binding on neural growth cones in fetuses. If the folic acid outcompetes glutamate, researchers hypothesize it could impair neural development. Some researchers even propose that excess unmetabolized folic acid from folic acid supplementation could increase the risk of autism.

But I heard that folic acid is more bioavailable than other forms of folate. If that’s true, isn’t folic acid better?

Not necessarily.

A recent study showed the “superiority” of folic acid compared to food-based folate and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. Taking folic acid resulted in much greater serum levels of folic acid than either folate-rich foods or 5-methyltetrahydrofolate; they absorbed more. But were they using it? Or was a lot of that folate ending up in the bloodstream, unused and unmetabolized, where it’s been shown to cause the problems listed in the previous sections? A closer look reveals that while folic acid increased serum folate to a greater degree, the folate-rich foods and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate were better at increasing red blood cell folate levels.

There’s another variable to consider when choosing the type of folate you take: Genetics.

Certain genetic variants make conversion of both folic acid and food folate much harder. These are the infamous MTHFR mutations, which control production of an enzyme that plays a critical role in the folate conversion pathway. If you have an inhibitory mutation, your ability to complete the conversion of folic acid and folate into 5-methyltetrahydrofolate suffers.

Supplemental folic acid is just folic acid. It always has to travel the entire folate pathway for conversion into useable folate.  Food folate is different. A small portion of it is in the folic acid form requiring full conversion, but it also comes in different forms, some of which start out further along the conversion pathway. A significant portion of food folate is even 5-methyltetrahydrofolate itself, eliminating the need for conversion entirely.

You absorb more synthetic folic acid but may have trouble converting it into folate you can use.

You absorb less food folate but it’s easier to convert into useable folate.

Chris Masterjohn made an interesting point in a recent podcast, though: In the context of a vitamin B12 deficiency, synthetic folic acid may work better than food folate. If that’s the case for you, I’d recommend fixing the B12 deficiency.

While folic acid can certainly be helpful, especially in certain populations with certain health conditions, I err on the side of more “natural” (for lack of a better term) forms. For thousands of years, we’ve gotten our folate from foods. And some of the folate we find in foods comes in a form identical to supplemental 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. These are the forms to which we’ve adapted. They’re what our bodies expect. Folic acid clearly works at elevating folate levels, preventing neural tube defects, and preventing gross deficiencies, but it comes with potential side effects. I always like to err on the side of nature.

Why am I telling you this now? Personal experience. I recently just switched the vitamin B9 source in Master Formula from folic acid to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. I did the research over time, saw that I could do better, and fixed it. I wasn’t providing the optimum B9 formulation in my supplement, a supplement that I myself take every day and have for years. Now I am.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any questions about folate, folic acid, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, chime in below!

I don’t often highlight the latest deals on the blog here, but this just fits the topic too readily. For those who are interested, when you buy Primal Master Formula today, you’ll receive an email with a $20 discount code for your next purchase of $50+ at the Primal Blueprint store.

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Midweek Quick Cooking: Chipotle Lime Avocado Bacon Dip

Looking for some inspiration to eat more vegetables? Or maybe you just need a healthy, filling go-to snack or lunch side? This dip is it. With the kick of Primal Kitchen® Chipotle Lime Mayo, crudite never had it this good. Add in avocado and antioxidant-rich cilantro, and you soon have a quick and easy dish you won’t be able to live without. Filled with healthy fats, vitamins, and savory flavor, this dip is without question taking your standard guacamole to a new level.

Ingredients:

3 avocados
1/2 cup cilantro
1 cup Primal Kitchen® Chipotle Lime Mayo
4 strips of cooked bacon (or Pederson’s Farm Snack Pack Bacon Strips)

Instructions:

Halve each avocado, remove the pit, and slice the flesh into thin strips.

Place the avocado pieces in a mixing bowl, and use a fork to gently mash them.

Add in a cup of Chipotle Lime Mayo, and mix or mash the mayo into the avocado until you’ve achieved a uniform dip with guacamole-like texture.

Dice the cilantro.

Chop the bacon strips into bite-sized.

Place the bacon dip into a serving bowl, and top with bacon and cilantro pieces.

Serve with crisp veggies or other Primal snack. Enjoy!

Recipe From The Primal Kitchen® Blog

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6 Older Studies That Got No Love but Should Have

“Back in my day, science came harder. We may not have had your fancy longitudinal data analyzing software, your iterated pool of available data upon which to build, or your worldwide network of instantaneous communication and information transmission, but we rolled up our sleeves and got to work just the same. And man did we do some science and discover some things. Boy, you don’t even know the half of it.”

When I turn my sights back to older research, I realize that a lot of this stuff we “discover” in health and nutrition has already been found, or at least hinted at. Today, I’m going to explore some of my favorite research from years past that, if posted to Science Daily or linked on Twitter today, would get a huge response.

Carnivory and Aging

It’s 2018, and very low-carb eating is on the rise. From Bitcoin carnivores to the success of the Keto Reset to the zero-carb movement, there’s a growing acknowledgement that eating as little glucose as possible may stave off some of the aging-related maladies that plague us. But it’s not exactly new. Back in 2006—okay, not that long ago, but longer you think at first glance (12 years!)—researchers were exploring the role a carnivorous diet could play in anti-aging.

Bacon and Colon Cancer

In 1998, scientists set out to induce colon cancer in rats using different sources of protein and fat. Since “everyone knows” red meat causes colon cancer, they wanted confirmation. There were ten groups of rats with different fat and protein sources and amounts. One diet was based on casein and lard. Another was casein and olive oil. Another was beef. Another was chicken with skin. And the last was a diet based on bacon. For each diet, one group got 14% fat/23% protein and the other got 28% fat/40% protein. They tracked ACF multiplicity—the formation and spread of aberrant crypts, the structures that presage the beginning of colon cancer.

All of the rats experienced about the same degree of increase in ACF multiplicity—except for the bacon-fed rats. The rats on the 30% bacon diet had 12% lower ACF multiplicity. The rats on the 60% bacon diet had 20% lower ACF multiplicity. The bacon was protective against colon cancer, and it was dose-dependent protection.

Flummoxed, the authors hypothesize that the nitrate-induced hyperhydration—the bacon-fed rats drank more water than the others—was able to counter the carcinogenic effects of all that bacon. Sure.

This is a rat study and far from definitive, but I almost never see anyone cite it. It’s one of my all-time favorites.

Magnesium and Heart Disease

A doctor tells his patient that he has heart disease. Gives him a list of prescriptions to fill, tells him to cut out the fat and lower the salt, recommends he “exercise regularly.” Standard stuff. Why isn’t “take magnesium” on that list of best practices? Why isn’t getting a blood magnesium test standard alongside a blood lipids test? A 1981 paper found convincing evidence that low serum magnesium had the strongest correlation with heart disease. A 2013 review had the same conclusion.

Mildred Seelig studied this for decades, exploring the mechanistic underpinnings of magnesium deficiency and heart disease, the role of magnesium in congestive heart failure, the utility of magnesium infusion in acute myocardial infarction, She and her results received little acknowledgement by the medical community.

As recently as 2004, Seelig was showing that magnesium accomplishes many of the same effects as statins without the negative side effects. We really should have listened to her.

Sugar and Heart Disease

In the late 60s and early 70s, as most nutrition researchers focused their ire on saturated fat and cholesterol using spotty data, John Yudkin was exploring the role of dietary sugar in heart disease. He actually showed back in 1969 that sugar consumption made blood “stickier”—increased platelet adhesion, an indication of arterial injury—and insulin skyrocket in certain people, and these people were at a greater risk of heart disease. He highlighted the strong connection between elevated insulin and atheroma (the degeneration of arterial walls).

If only we’d adopted his paradigm then.

Cheese, Meat, and Colon Cancer

“No, because I make sure to eat lots of meat and cheese, especially together in the same meal.” Say that next time anyone asks if you’re worried about getting colon cancer on your “caveman diet.” They’ll laugh, but it’s true. Researchers have known this for decades.

Don’t believe me? In order for animals to develop colon cancer from eating red meat, researchers must deprive them of calcium. Calcium, particularly in the form of cheese and in the context of a meat-rich diet, protects against colon cancer.

One study even cooked the hell out of Swiss cheese to modify the casein in the cheese, supposedly turning it carcinogenic. But when the rats ate the cooked cheese, their ACF multiplicity dropped.

Low Cholesterol and Mortality

Recent research has established connections between high cholesterol and longevity (0r low cholesterol and mortality). PD Mangan just wrote a great blog post detailing the results of some of this research, but this “problem” of low cholesterol and high all-cause mortality goes back decades.

And it is a problem for the lipid hypothesis. What do you do when you “just know” that lowering cholesterol is healthy, but the data doesn’t want to cooperate? When Japanese-American men with the lowest cholesterol have the highest mortality? You blame “unadjusted analyses.” Raw data showing an increase in total mortality from lipid lowering must be massaged!

Science progresses by building upon the scaffolds previous generations have erected—on older research. And those older studies are often just as powerful, groundbreaking, and illuminating as the newer studies. You just have to look.

I’m interested in hearing from you. Hop on Pubmed, filter out any results published in the last twenty or so years, and report what you find. I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised and the breadth and depth of research.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and share your favorite pieces of older research!

The post 6 Older Studies That Got No Love but Should Have appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Primal Starter: 10 Nutritional Actions To Enhance Insulin Sensitivity

What if a person secretes too much insulin in response to a glucose load? What if, for whatever reason (and there are dozens of possible culprits), a person’s cells are resistant to the effects of insulin? What if, to remove the same amount of glucose from the blood, a person secretes twice or thrice the amount of insulin? What happens when insulin stays elevated? Lipolysis is inhibited to an even greater degree. Body fat becomes even harder to burn. Susceptible brain, artery, and pancreatic cells are exposed to higher levels of blood sugar for longer. Muscle protein synthesis falls off a cliff. Glycogen is replenished at a diminished rate. And if cells are already full of glycogen and there’s nowhere else to put the glucose, it converts to fat for storage.

Obviously, we don’t want to be insulin resistant. We want to be insulin sensitive. Here are 10 nutrition-based actions.

1. Eat Cinnamon

Although cinnamon isn’t always effective against insulin resistance, it can reliably attenuate the insulin resistance resulting from sleep loss. Plus, cinnamon is delicious, so there’s that.

2. Sprinkle Some Vinegar On Your Food

Next time you plan on eating a high-carb meal, have a salad with a vinegar-based dressing beforehand. Vinegar has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in response to a carb-rich meal in type 2 diabetics.

3. Get More Magnesium

Magnesium figures into hundreds of physiological processes, many of which concern glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity. My favorite sources are leafy greens like spinach, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and halibut. If you hate spinach, nuts, fish, chocolate (what’s wrong with you?), and other magnesium-rich foods, oral supplementation of magnesium also works pretty well.

4. Drink Mineral Water

Mineral water—good, high-mineral content water—is rich in minerals commonly associated with insulin sensitivity, like magnesium. So it’s no surprise that high sodium-bicarbonate mineral waters have been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in postmenopausal women and post-surgery breast cancer patients.

5. Drink Tea

Green tea lowers insulin resistance in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Pu-erh tea, a fermented black tea with a distinct and strong taste, also ameliorates insulin resistance. Gallic acid, an antioxidant compound found in tea leaves, also improves insulin sensitivity. Across the board, tea improves insulin sensitivity.

6. Eat Colorful and Bitter Plant Foods

Color and bitterness imply phytonutrients, the intangible plant compounds that don’t show up in standard nutrient databases but play huge roles in human health. Many, perhaps most, rich food sources of phytonutrients improve insulin sensitivity, like blueberries, strawberries, purple sweet potatoes, broccoli sprouts, and dark chocolate (even in healthy folks).

7. Eat Pungent Fermented Food From Asian Cuisines

I’ve been telling you guys to get on this stuff for awhile now. No more messing around, yeah? A natto (sticky stinky fermented soybeans) breakfast improves insulin sensitivity. Long-fermented kimchi also improves it; fresh kimchi does, too, but not as much as the sour stuff.

8. Use Turmeric

I love turmeric for its taste and pharmacoogical profile. I’ve outlined turmeric’s effects in the past, so it should come as no surprise to learn that it is a potent insulin-sensitizer. Be sure to include some black pepper when you cook with it to increase the bioavailability.

9. Get Some Vitamin K2 Through Food or Supplements

In a 2011 controlled trial, vitamin K2 supplementation improved insulin sensitivity. Maybe that’s partly why natto improved it in the breakfast study mentioned previously — it’s the richest source of vitamin K2 around. Other likely sources of vitamin K2 include goose and chicken liver, aged cheeses (especially gouda), grass-fed butter, pastured eggs, and fermented milk.

10. Eat Liver and Oysters Once a Week

Ruminant liver and oysters are some of the best sources of copper and zinc, two minerals that play essential roles in maintenance of insulin sensitivity. Serum zinc and copper have inverse relationships to insulin resistance, and increases in zinc status match up well with improvements to insulin sensitivity.  If you absolutely hate these foods, you can certainly find zinc and copper elsewhere. These are just the quickest way to obtain them (plus other important nutrients).

From “25 Ways to Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity”

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Dear Mark: Peanut Edition

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering a bunch of questions from last week’s post about peanuts. You guys had quite the reaction to it, and today I’m digging into some of your questions and comments. Does roasting create carcinogens in the fat? Should (and can) you sprout peanuts? Are peanuts used to soak up toxins from the soil? How do I know if my peanut butter comes from Valencia peanuts?

And many more.

Todd asked:

I thought the process of roasting peanuts caused the oil in them to become carcinogenic thus the reason to eat all nuts raw?

On the one hand, peanut proteins become potentially more allergenic when roasted. If you’re allergic to peanuts, don’t eat them.

On the other hand, roasting reduces levels of a confirmed carcinogen—aflatoxin—sometimes found in peanuts.

What makes an oil carcinogenic is usually the degree of oxidative damage it’s sustained. Most oxidative damage comes from heat exposure. Luckily, the fat of the peanut is fairly resistant to heat damage. An ounce of peanuts has 14.1 grams of fat, 7.4 of which are monounsaturated, 2.8 of which are polyunsaturated, and 2 of which are saturated.

Monounsaturated fat (MUFA) and saturated fat (SFA) are highly resistant to heat degradation. MUFA is a bit more susceptible to heat than SFA, but the roasting process doesn’t push peanuts high enough for it to matter. The main fat to worry about is the omega-6 polyunsaturated fat—the linoleic acid.

Of course, linoleic acid bound up in a peanut is different than linoleic acid in isolated seed oils. Whole peanuts contain vitamin E and various polyphenols (discussed in the original post), which protect the fragile linoleic acid from oxidation. It can’t protect it completely, but it does inhibit the oxidation. 

Other research on roasted nuts, many of them higher in omega-6 than peanuts, find they have beneficial effects on oxidative stress and oxidative damage to lipids. Peanuts in this respect are likely fine.

Dave wondered:

If you purchase raw peanuts should you or can they be sprouted?

You certainly can. This method for sprouting, drying, roasting, and then grinding peanuts down into sprouted peanut butter is a good one.

Sprouting tends to reduce phytic acid, increase nutrient bioavailability, and even create novel micronutrients—so it’s worth doing if you have the time and inclination. Certainly doesn’t hurt.

Monika asked:

Can you confirm the truth to this? Apparently peanut crops are used to prepare fields for organic agriculture as they absorb toxins readily. So be sure to eat ORGANIC peanuts only.

I’ve heard that too but haven’t seen strong evidence, just uncited assertions. Has anyone else heard this? I’d love to see evidence.

Let’s table that for the time being and talk about pesticides, for which there is data.

The most prevalent pesticide (found in 25% of samples) found on conventional peanuts is piperonyl butoxide, a pyrethroid synergist used to enhance the toxicity of other pesticides. By itself, piperonyl butoxide is less dangerous than some other pesticides. Prenatal exposure to airborne piperonyl butoxide, however, is associated with slightly lower neurodevelopment at 36 months. But that’s airborne piperonyl butoxide; orally ingested piperonyl butoxide presumably follows a different metabolic pathway.

Levels of other, more harmful pesticides show up far less frequently.

Organic is probably better (as is often the case), just to be on the safe side, but I don’t see strong evidence that conventional peanuts are loaded with pesticides.

Eric asked:

Do you know which brands of peanut butter use Valenica peanuts?

Every time I run across a peanut butter using Valencia peanuts, that fact is proudly advertised on the label. If it’s not called “Valencia Peanut Butter,” the ingredients will list “valencia peanuts.”

Zaira asked:

Hi, I have a severe form of arthritis which I treat with high doses of vitamin D. I seem to be sensitive to gluten as it causes the arthritis to flare. I normally avoid peanut but I really like it! Would the agglutinin in peanut have a similar effect to the gluten in wheat, barley, rye and oats for the ones of us with auto-immune diseases?

I’d definitely be careful. Dietary lectins tend to show immunoreactivity to connective tissues in autoimmune arthritis. One older study even specifically fingered peanut agglutinin as showing reactivity in the synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Let’s put it this way: You’re not missing out on anything important by avoiding peanuts. If you really love peanut butter, you can certainly try. Just make sure to note any worsening of symptoms.

Madeleine asked:

Thanks for the comprehensive analysis Mark! Wondering how peanuts compare to other nuts, like macadamias, almonds, etc. in the same terms, i.e. lectins, mycotoxins, micronutrients, and other long term benefits/risks.

Also, I always eat all nuts raw to avoid damaged PUFAs; is that over-cautious?

Thanks all!?

For micronutrients and other benefits, check out the Definitive Guide to Nuts I did a couple years back.

As far as mycotoxins, peanuts are worse because they grow in-ground and have that much more time to pick up fungal growth. Tree nuts only begin to develop mycotoxin contamination—if at all—during storage.

Peanut agglutinin appears to be the most problematic lectin among the nut lectins.

Regarding raw nuts, see the first answer on today’s post and my older post on roasted nuts. (Yes, it’s probably unnecessary.)

Linda mentioned:

I’ve never really missed peanuts to be honest, but I do crave peanut butter from time to time. As a Dutchie it’s very much part of my cultural background (we’re second only to the US in peanut butter consumption, IIRC).

I’ve discovered that a spoonfull stirred into Greek yogurt makes a very satisfying breakfast, nice and thick and more filling than the yogurt alone, and it takes care of my cravings!

Ever try it stirred into cottage cheese? Not bad.

Mathieu wondered:

The omega3/6 ratio is not an issue ?

From my reading of the evidence, it seems like two factors are more important than careful tracking of your omega-3:omega-6 ratio:

Making sure the omega-6 you do consume isn’t oxidized, damaged, or rancid. Eat whole food sources of omega-6 (nuts, seeds, avocados) and when you do consume oils containing omega-6, choose high-quality oils with endogenous antioxidant compounds that inhibit degradation (avocado, olive, etc).
Eating adequate amounts of long-chained omega-3 fats. These are the ones found in marine foods like fish and shellfish, as well as pastured eggs.

The trick, if you’re on a high-fat or keto diet, is to keep the portions of high-O6 foods to a reasonable level. Just because a greater proportion of your calories are coming from fat doesn’t mean you should freely consume all sources of fat. Consuming more fat means you should be more careful of the fatty acid composition of your diet, not less, as the imbalances and effects become magnified at greater concentrations.

A standard low-fat dieter might allot a tablespoon of peanut butter in his or her diet. A standard keto eater (who wants to eat peanut butter) should do the same, even though he’s eating more fat overall and has more “room” for fat, in order to keep omega-6 levels at a reasonable level.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for your peanut questions!

The post Dear Mark: Peanut Edition appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Primal Starter: Talking to Kids About Health

It’s pretty easy for kids to grow up not having a clear understanding of health. Hey, most adults don’t get it either. If I’m not sick, I must be healthy, right? Health as a concept can be a random swirl of disconnected images for kids: food pyramids, sweaty gyms, sports icons, a salad bar. How do they put it together? What does it mean to be healthy? To feel healthy?

In the vast array of images and messages out there, kids have to be pretty thrown by the paradoxical shape of it all. On the one hand, there’s infinite fun to be had in downing every variety of fast food, sodas, energy drinks, chips and other snack abominations (just look at the youth-centered commercials). On the other, there are tabloid articles about celebrity crash diets and stories of their three hour a day workout routines. Our culture encourages either disregarding or punishing the body—making a joke of physical health or exercising/depriving ourselves into the ground. The result? As a culture, we don’t have the most comfortable relationships with our bodies. It’s little surprise that many of our kids absorb this mindset.

Parents, unfortunately, have a lot of ground to fill in. Find a chance to talk about what health means to you personally. How did you come to learn about healthy eating? Why do you make the choices you do? What gets you motivated to stay active, to keep your stress under control? When do you feel the best physically? Ask them what makes them feel healthy, strong and rejuvenated? Is there a way you can help support those experiences (e.g. emotional support or family activities)? Let it be an open and continuing conversation. Let it be a catalyst for healthy changes and experimentation. Let it be a challenge to your family to play more, cook more, do more, get out more.

This website is all about health, yes. Nonetheless, I put health squarely into a large picture of happiness and vitality. Too often the messages kids get come off as instructive but less than relevant and inspiring. In the midst of navigating the social scene, figuring out an identity, and finding their way through school and other responsibilities, dry details can quickly fall on deaf ears. Consider a different angle.

We hear a lot of success stories from people who have overcome serious health issues, dropped weight that they’d wanted to lose for years (or decades), and/or turned around their lifestyle to gain a whole new sense of energy in their lives. A common thread in so many of their accounts is a sense of self-investment. Whether a serious medical scare that made them realize how precious (and endangered) their lives were or the culmination of a deep soul-searching, something sparked a novel sense of ownership. Their health mattered more because they’d chosen to see it and value it in a new way.

Maybe talking to kids about real health ultimately means talking about life. Owning your health necessitates—on some level—knowing and respecting yourself. It’s a self-commitment after all. The more self-confidence and self-respect we have, the more likely we are to invest in ourselves.

For kids who struggle with weight and body image, too often the goal is outside themselves, remote and elusive. How can the goal finally be authentically personal? What does it mean to dig down and learn to tune out the noise in life—the social clamor, the media messages? What’s there to listen to once you reach the other side of the commotion? How, finally, do they see themselves there? What does their vision of a healthy and happy life look like from that vantage point? Kids, like the rest of us, shape their health a step at a time. Maybe a parent’s best role is to help them start down their own path.

Further Reading on Kids’ Health:

Parenting Dilemma: Kids and Weight
An Open Letter to Kids and Teens (and Infant Prodigies)
How We’re Setting Our Kids Up To Be Fat, Sick and Unhappy

The post Primal Starter: Talking to Kids About Health appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekend Link Love — Edition 493

Research of the Week

Serotonergic psychedelics can induce personality changes that last months or even years.

The skin biome affects skin cancer risk.

IV saline may not be the best choice.

“…youth with low levels of muscular fitness tend to become weak adults…”

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 223: Norm Robillard : Host Elle Russ chats with the digestion expert himself.

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

Get active today, reap the benefits decades later.

Were hominids living on Crete almost 6 million years ago?

Media, Schmedia

Western men’s sperm counts are still dropping.

NPR discovers the right way to bend over—by hinging the hips.

Andrew Sullivan explores the root causes of the opioid epidemic.

Everything Else

The world’s largest family tree includes, of course, Kevin Bacon.

Luckily, “it’s fun” is an eminently reasonable excuse for climbing a tree.

That’s why you have to switch it up. Don’t just stand there.

This is pure, unadulterated Soylent.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Podcast I just appeared on: The Feel Good Effect, where I talked about thriving, repairing, and restoring.

I bet this explains some of those vitamin D studies that got poor results: Magnesium deficiency makes vitamin D ineffective.

I can never pass up a good haka: This one was to honor a favored high school teacher’s passing.

So do I: “We believe it is implausible that each sex, age, and ethnic group, with massive differences in life experience and attitudes, had a simultaneous decline in willpower related to healthy nutrition or exercise.”

I’m not surprised: 14,000 year-old puppy fossil shows evidence of extensive human care through multiple illnesses.

Recipe Corner

Easy buffalo wings for your Instant Pot.
Chinese pepper steak, for when you crave takeout but not the soybean oil.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 4– Mar 10)

10 Uncommon Exercises for Maintaining Strength, Agility, and Power with Age – Is grandma doing these? She should be.
The Secret to Athletic Longevity – How to maintain.

Comment of the Week

“That was funny! “I like my nuts dry roasted”. I got a little chuckle from that. . was wondering if anyone else would think the same way I did! Hee hee!”

– I have no idea what you’re implying, Tiny Tina.

Want to make fat loss easier?

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

The post Weekend Link Love — Edition 493 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Beef & Broccoli with Sesame-Peanut Sauce

This meal comes together in three easy parts. One, toss the broccoli in the oven and roast it. Two, whisk together an amazing sesame-peanut sauce. Three, quickly stir-fry sliced steak and then toss everything together in a bowl. Yum.

The sweet and salty sesame-peanut sauce is what makes this a favorite beef and broccoli recipe. The sauce is addictively good—and versatile. Drizzle it over beef, chicken and salmon, or over grilled and roasted vegetables, sautéed greens, and rice or cauliflower rice. The peanut sauce can be thinned out with coconut milk to create a creamy salad dressing, and if you like spicy, go ahead and add a pinch of red pepper flakes.

The sesame-peanut sauce is rich with nutty flavor and has a thick, creamy consistency. The recipe doesn’t make a huge amount of sauce, because a little bit goes a long way. Enjoy every bite – moderate amounts of peanut butter can be a healthy part of a solid diet, lifestyle and exercise program. https://www.marksdailyapple.com/frenc...

Recipe Note: This recipe can also be made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

Servings: 4

Time in the Kitchen: 45 minutes

Ingredients

Beef and Broccoli

1 ½ pounds sirloin steak, thinly sliced (or boneless, skinless chicken thighs not sliced) (680 g)
2 tablespoons plus ¼ cup Primal Kitchen® Avocado Oil (divided) (15 ml + 60 ml)
2 tablespoons rice vinegar (15 ml)
1/3 cup coconut aminos (80 ml)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 large heads broccoli, trimmed and cut into florets

Sesame-Peanut Sauce

1 tablespoon tahini (15 ml) https://www.marksdailyapple.com/my-16...
1/4 cup unsalted, unsweetened peanut butter (60 g)
3 tablespoons coconut aminos (45 ml)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (15 ml)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar (15 ml)
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and grated (2.5 cm)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon warm water (15 ml)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425 ºF/218 ºC.

In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons avocado oil, plus rice vinegar, coconut aminos, and garlic. Pour over steak (or chicken). Let marinate while preparing the rest of the recipe (or marinate several hours, if there’s time).

Lightly coat the broccoli with the remaining ¼ cup avocado oil. Season with salt and pepper. Spread into an even layer on a rimmed sheet pan. Roast 20 to 25 minutes, until broccoli is tender and deeply browned around the edges.

If using chicken, place the chicken thighs on a separate rimmed baking sheet, or in a 9-inch baking dish. Roast 25 minutes or until internal temperature reads 165 ºF.

To make the sesame-peanut sauce, whisk together tahini, peanut butter, coconut aminos, sesame oil, rice vinegar, ginger, garlic and water until smooth (for a thinner sauce, add more water or coconut milk). Set aside.

To cook the steak, first remove the meat from the marinade. Heat a wok or wide skillet with a drizzle of oil. When the oil is hot, add the meat in small batches, browning 1 to 2 minutes on each side.

Toss together the cooked meat and roasted broccoli. Drizzle sesame-peanut sauce on top. Enjoy!

The post Beef & Broccoli with Sesame-Peanut Sauce appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

The Benchmark For Me Is “What Works?”

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!

Write a success story. Success? Really? Me? This is no rags to riches story, no 50lb weight losses or disease turn around. In fact, by Western world standards I was probably considered pretty “healthy” (or at least ‘normal’) and probably well above average in terms of general fitness and energy.

So let’s define what “then” was: I was over 40, could get close to a 3hr marathon, worked out… ate (by SAD standards) ‘sensibly’, drank a bit too much (alcohol) but (thought I) was doing pretty well. Right? However, in my early forties I also had a 36 inch waist, I was hypertensive and taking medication (along with various off the shelf supplements), I had an enlarged prostate (measured at 38g). I could be up over 80kg if I wasn’t running 100km a week… and as for those chronic exercise issues, well even now I still try and justify them! (Looking back it is amazing I didn’t see more of these signs as ‘abnormal’.)

What made sense to me then? My breakfast was super healthy as I saw it… cereal and fruit… tasted and felt great… and fresh… and hungry two hours later… but that was because I exercised right? Sandwiches are healthy options so lots of those. Pasta? Well, I was running so of course plenty of pasta… and when it came to race time well what could be better than a carb loading pizza party with friends and a couple of days of downing pocari sweat and Gatorade to prepare?

But it didn’t make sense. While I thought I was relatively sensible and moderate in my eating habits there was this nagging feeling that the exercise/eating balance and what I actually ate just wasn’t right.

Three years ago I arranged lunch with a friend, Chad Davis, who was starting out as a wellness coach. Besides wanting to learn more about diet I was also looking for a panacea for long distance (marathon and ultra marathon) running and thought that a low carb, high fat diet might be just the thing. Turned out there are not any magic fixes. But that lunchtime meeting to talk about food and fuel was the start to many other things.

What I didn’t know at the time was that much of Mark’s work had steered and guided Chad to his low carb, high fat diet recommendations—recommendations which I took on wholeheartedly. Something made sense from day one. Cupboard and fridge cleaning complete I embarked on my journey to eliminate carbs and sugar and start fat-burning at a lightning pace.

However, the story (if there is one?!) is more about what happened around the diet changes: I started reading—I devoured books on calories and carbs and tried to debunk what I was being told. But it made sense… and worked. Those books on diet led to books on sleep…books on meditation…on productivity…you get the picture. I began to see diet as part of a ‘holistic’ approach to being ‘healthier’ and ‘happier’.

And that worked too. I was able to integrate a much improved diet with other all round well-being philosophies. For example a year ago I started meditating, something that has changed my life. I understand the importance of good sunlight, grounding and of course sleep as well as other areas of improving my life.

That all said, the ‘crux’, so to speak of my journey, and by the tales on these pages that of many others, is the dedication of Mark (and those in his field) to making incredibly complex ideas make sense to laymen like me…and making it fun and digestible—quite literally. Common sense ways of bringing together diet, exercise, sleep and the like is something that I will be forever grateful.

The benchmark for me over the last three years has been continually asking, “what works?” What can I see make a difference—both in myself and those who follow similar practices (good or bad) around me? I place little faith in studies or statistics, but more in common sense and results.

So where am I “now”? Still on my journey (which I describe on my blog, Ways To Wellness) is the short answer. Still learning and in some instances relearning diet, sleep, gratitude and more. I am now 48, I have a 32 inch waist (it has changed for at least a couple of years), I am stable between 70 and 72kg, I take no blood pressure medication (or other supplements) and my prostate was measured 25% smaller (than it was three years ago) eighteen months ago. More importantly, while maybe not quite fast, I only run 20km a week, balance that with lifting heavy things and swimming and have more time for my family and when I do ‘go for it’ I recover quicker.

Advice: Don’t stop learning (stay in touch with MDA, new books and alike) and don’t stress: an extraordinary life is all about daily continuous improvements in areas that matter most. Knowledge is power and the vast knowledge that Mark and his team impart are both fascinating and invaluable (even if I don’t make sense of all the science).

None of us know what tomorrow will bring, but you can chart your way to a happier, healthier and more productive life now and well into old age—and have fun doing so. Wellness is not the answer to long life itself but the means to being happier and healthier through the one we are given—no limits.

The post The Benchmark For Me Is “What Works?” appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.