Mark Sisson's Blog, page 190

The Secret to Athletic Longevity

Today’s guest post is written by Tim DiFrancesco, PT, DPT, ATC, CSCS, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Los Angeles Lakers and owner of TD Athlete’s Edge. Tim is a longtime friend of the Primal community, and I’m thrilled to have him contribute today. He’s offered to lead us through a portion of the screening he uses to evaluate players as well as exercises to improve weaknesses. I think you’ll find a great deal to apply to your Primal  fitness in the tips and demonstrations.

Just the fact that you’re reading this tells me that you’re ahead of the pack. You already have what many don’t: the motivation to get out there, grind workouts, and train your body to be its best day after day. That’s clutch, but unfortunately it’s not enough to keep you ahead of the pack! One of the secrets to helping NBA athletes get ahead and making sure they stay there is a sound movement assessment. A movement assessment is an appraisal of how a player moves before they hit the court. Movement assessments don’t have to be restricted to a defined and organized battery of tests. Although I use something of the sort, I’m also constantly assessing players’ movements as they train, warm up, and play.

Without ongoing movement assessments, you run the risk of sending a player out to compete and perform with underlying limitations and weaknesses. Often these limitations and weaknesses are hidden by the highlight reel athleticism that we all see during game time action. This scenario is a huge problem because as we’re all cheering at their big plays, damage is being done to tissues, structures, or joints that can ultimately lead to debilitating injury.

This doesn’t just apply to high level, high paid athletes. It applies to anyone putting work in at the gym, pounding the pavement, hitting the trails, playing sports, or generally testing the physical limits of the body. I know what you’re saying: “That’s great, TD, but where do I get a movement assessment to know if I’m ready to train and play?” Not to worry—I’ve got you covered!

I’ve put together a series of movements that I want you to test yourself on. I want you to use these to see just how ready you are to train, play, and compete for the long haul.

1. Single Leg Squat

This appears simple but like many “simple exercises” it can be tricky to do right. This is testing your ability to be on balance and strong during single leg stance. No matter what you do for sport, play, or training, you will end up in a single leg stance. You better be able to stay strong and balanced in a controlled setting if you want to perform safely in a dynamic and random setting. Your performance on this test will give insight into your lateral (outside) hip muscle strength and function. Keep in mind that your hip’s ability to perform can make or break what happens at your knee and on down the line. In other words, there’s a lot at stake here.

Coaching Keys:

Stand on one leg while you bend the other knee, bringing the heel to your butt.
Sit your butt back and down into a single leg squat and return back to standing single leg position.
Imagine having a laser pointing out of the front of the knee. Your goal is to keep the laser pointing straight forward.
Keep your chest up and back flat.
You should be able to get your hips below parallel without knee collapse or allowing your chest tip to the floor.

2. Half-Kneel Stand-Up

This movement looks at your ability to control your body from a split or lunge stance. Even if you rarely perform an activity that requires lunge positions or actions, this test is very important. It generally shows how capable you are of producing power through one hip at a time while controlling your pelvis and surrounding core musculature. This is fundamentally critical during any physical activity. Your hips need to be both appropriately mobile and strong to allow you to perform physically over time. Performance on this test will tell a lot about general hip strength and mobility.

Coaching Keys:

Start kneeling with one knee on a pad and the other foot/knee in front of you. The front knee needs to be in line with the rest of the body.
Stand up from the lead knee/leg into a single leg stance position.
Return back to the start position in a slow and controlled way.
Imagine having a laser pointing out of the front of the lead knee.
Your goal is to keep the laser pointing straight forward for the entire motion.

3. Airplane

Your core is responsible for holding everything together while your arms and legs do work. That’s the essence of any physical activity. The Airplane test allows us to see how competent your core is while you work to be stable on one leg. It requires one leg to be stable and balanced while you move the body around the hip. The only way this is possible is if your core is operating at a high level. It doesn’t indicate a strong core necessarily, but it does indicate your core’s ability to communicate effectively and in a timely fashion with your hips. If the core is unable to communicate smoothly with your extremities, you’re going to have trouble functioning in any physical activity over a lifetime.

Coaching Keys:

Begin by standing on one leg and taking a bow.
Place your hands in an “X” across your chest.
With your chest parallel to the floor, open and close your hip on the non-stance side.
When opening and closing the hip, you should see the same open/close motion at the shoulder. In other words, your hip and shoulder should be completely connected and opening/closing together.
Your goal is to open and close the hip/shoulder together at a slow and controlled pace 3 times without losing balance on the stance leg.

Now that you’ve put yourself through your own personal lower body movement assessment, you may have found a few areas that need work. Here are 5 exercises that will help you to bolster your single leg performance and your physical performance overall.

1. Sidelying Single Leg Hip-Drive

Benefits:

This exercise is a great way to strengthen your core and lateral hip/glute muscles. The action of this exercise will challenge these muscles during movement patterns that occur during running. This will help you to refine your running mechanics and performance.

Coaching Keys:

Stay tall through the shoulder on the floor side (avoid the sagging on the shoulder).
Keep the rib cage away from the floor.
Avoid allowing the low back to arch when you touch the hips to the floor.
Avoid low back arch at the top of the action.
Keep the chin tucked.

How To Use:

Use this as a warm-up to a lift, sport, or any activity. It’s also great as a standalone exercise to strengthen the hips. Shoot for 2-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions.

2. Elevated Single Leg Squat with Counterweight

Benefits:

This exercise will target your glutes in a single leg position. If you notice that your knee caves in uncontrollably when you do a basic single leg squat, then you need to develop your glutes. The glutes control what happens at your knees and below. There’s a good chance that you’re spending ample time in single leg stance during any physical activity. This exercise will not only help you to develop better control while on a single leg but also better strength, power, and performance from a single leg.

Coaching Keys:

Be sure that the counterweight doesn’t exceed ~10lbs.
Add resistance or weight by applying a weight vest if the form is perfect with just a 10lb counterweight.
Sit your butt back like there’s a chair.
Keep the knee from caving in or losing control.
Picture a laser pointing out of the front of the chest. Keep the chest facing forward so the laser doesn’t point to the ground.
Keep the core tight or the belly button close to the rib cage. This will ensure that you avoid a hyper-arch position of the low back as you drop into the squat.
Finish the move in a tall knee position. You want to be statue tall—no less, no more. The knee should be locked out, but be careful of letting this cause a rock-back position through the low back.

How To Use:

Use this as a warm-up to a lift, sport, or any activity. Use a weight vest to add resistance and use this exercise as part of a super set during a lower or total body lift. Shoot for 2-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions.

3. Medicine Ball Single Leg Deadlift with Rotation

Benefits:

This is a great exercise to train single leg balance the right way. This exercise will challenge your single leg balance in a functional position while your upper body is active. This is what happens in sport and performance.

Coaching Keys:

Move the ball across your chest instead of rotating your chest or upper body.
Keep your foot still in your shoe or on the ground.
Keep your stance leg knee from caving in or moving side to side significantly.

How To Use:

This is a great warm-up for any workout or activity. It can also serve as part of a balance and core specific workout. Shoot for 2-4 sets of 8-20 medicine ball rotations on each leg.

4. Cable Bowler Squat

Benefits:

The Cable Bowler Squat will strengthen your single leg balance and stability during rotational single leg action. Sport or activity of any kind happens in all planes, so you need to train in all planes.

Coaching Keys:

Don’t let the shoulder sag or dip at the bottom of the movement. Keep the shoulder packed with the rest of the body.
Be active with the outside leg. Reach the heel up and back behind you at the bottom of the movement.
Slowly lower yourself into it. Avoid falling into the bottom position.
Finish the move in a tall knee position. You want to be statue tall – no less, no more. The knee should be locked out, but be careful of letting this cause a rock-back position through the low back.

How To Use:

This is a great warm-up for any workout or activity. It can also serve as part of a balance and core specific workout. Shoot for 2-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions on each leg.

5. Kettlebell Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat

Benefits:

This exercise will help you to strengthen the muscles around the hip and the knee while in a single leg position. The glutes, quadriceps, and even the hamstrings are targeted. Developing strength in these areas will help you to protect your lower body and enhance your lower body performance. If you want to avoid lower body injury and train to have better balance, run faster, jump higher, or land better, then you need to be doing the Kettlebell Rear Foot elevated Split Squat.

Coaching Keys:

Don’t let the knee drift too far over the toes, but don’t keep it too far behind the toes either. The lead knee should ever so slightly cover up the toes when you look down.
Avoid letting the knee cave in during the motion.
Keep the core tight or the belly button close to the rib cage. This will ensure that you avoid a hyper-arch position of the low back as you drop into the squat.
Finish the move in a tall knee position. You want to be statue tall – no less, no more. The knee should be locked out, but be careful of letting this cause a rock-back position through the low back.
Be sure to keep the shoulders from rolling forward while you hold the weights.
Select a height of the surface to place the rear foot up on that feels comfortable throughout the entire range of motion of the exercise.

How To Use:

This exercise fits perfect in a lower body or total body lift. Ideally, you should super set or pair this with an exercise that is grip neutral (doesn’t require grip action). Shoot for 3-5 sets of 4-12 repetitions.

Do the assessment, train up the deficiencies, and visit us across all of our platforms (Twitter/Instagram: @tdathletesedge) for more insight on how to perform like a pro for the long haul.

The post The Secret to Athletic Longevity appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Egg Replacements, Bruxism, Fermenting Frozen Veggies, and Ferments While Breastfeeding

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering four questions. First, I give a few options for recreating, or at least approximating the emulsification power of the mighty egg yolk for a reader who’s allergic (and give a quick preview of an upcoming Primal Kitchen product). Next, I explain why people with sleep apnea often grind their teeth, and mention an nutritional factor that might also cause grinding. Third, can you ferment frozen vegetables? Should you ferment frozen vegetables? And fourth, is fermented food safe while breastfeeding?

Let’s go:

I just took the plunge at New Year’s after following your blog for a while now. My question is that I’m allergic to eggs. I work around that for breakfast, but I’m wondering what to do about actual recipe substitutes when eggs are called for. What’s a good Primal option?

The most important part of the egg is the yolk, and the most important   culinary application of the yolk is emulsification. Egg yolks contain lecithin, an amphiphilic substance that attracts both water and fat, which allows emulsions to form. Luckily, there are others.

Lecithin from soy or sunflower oil works. And, like egg yolk, lecithin provides choline—that crucial vitamin we need for good liver health.

Mustard. A great salad dressing emulsifier is a teaspoon of dijon mustard whisked into the mix.

Garlic. Smash garlic into a paste, add some olive oil, and whisk it all together until it emulsifies. Unfortunately, the emulsion doesn’t last very long.

Black garlic. Black garlic is one my newest discoveries. The product of several weeks of slow and low heating, black garlic is exactly that: garlic with so thorough a Maillard reaction that it’s turned black as coal. Only instead of tasting like burnt garlic, black garlic tastes sweet, mild, and almost balsamic vinegar-esque. It’s also smooth and creamy, which makes it perfect for emulsions.

Except for the lecithin, none of those really work for mayo, though. You can make some delicious stuff, but mayo eludes. Luckily, in the coming weeks I’ll be releasing a brand-new Primal mayonnaise with a twist: It’s egg-free. It’s totally free of allergens, in fact. Stay tuned for that.

Curious to know Mark’s thoughts on bruxism, or teeth clenching / grinding. The newish school of thought is that it is a sign of sleep apnea. I can’t quite get my head around why clenching or grinding one’s teeth at night, especially to such an extent, would be a way to open up the airways.

Try it for yourself. Breathing normally with relaxed jaws, tilt your head back until your airway starts closing and your breath begins resembling a snore. Now clench. Bite down hard. Notice how much easier the breathing gets? You’ve just opened your airway back up.

Clenching may also indicate magnesium deficiency. As far back as the 1970s, clinicians have been reporting connections between magnesium levels and bruxism. One French doctor even found that magnesium supplementation “nearly always” resolved bruxism.

Hey there. I’d really like to try fermenting, but many vegetables I can’t buy fresh. Is it possible to ferment flash-frozen veggies (green beans for example). Will they still be as nutritive?

Also, I’m breastfeeding a newborn. Are ferments possibly dangerous in any way for my newborn?

Thanks!

Frozen vegetables don’t ferment really well for a couple reasons.

First, freezing bursts the cell walls of many vegetables. The water expands, rupturing the stability and integrity. I suppose the resultant mush could be fermented, but it wouldn’t be very appetizing.

Second, freezing kills or deactivates a lot of surface bacteria, which you need for proper ferments. Making sauerkraut out of cabbage, for example, utilizes the native bacteria present on the fresh leaves. Freezing cabbage would hamper the viability of the bacteria.

It’s probably possible to use a fermentation starter, like kraut juice, to ferment frozen veggies, but, again, it might get a little weird texture- and taste-wise.

The majority of probiotic/baby research focuses on probiotics in formula. We don’t have a ton of research on breastfeeding’s interaction with sauerkraut, yogurt, kimchi, pickles, or kombucha, but we do have a fair amount of research on supplemental probiotic usage—which is basically a more extreme, concentrated version of fermented food. If probiotics are safe and helpful, fermented food shouldn’t be a problem For the most part, fermented food is a safe addition to a nursing diet that could even be helpful.

When mothers supplement with probiotics while pregnant and breastfeeding, their breastfeeding babies have a lower risk of eczema. The effective combos include L. rhamnosus with B. longum and L. paracasei with B. longum. L. paracasei is found in most yogurts and L. rhamnosus and B. longum are found in most kefirs.

When mothers drink milk fermented with L casei (a strain found in most kefirs) while pregnant and breastfeeding, their nursing babies experience fewer GI disturbances.

It’s not only good for the baby drinking the milk. Probiotics may even help prevent mastitis, or infection of the milk ducts. Left untreated, mastitis can lead to terrible outcomes, like abscesses, impaired milk production, and even breast surgery. You don’t want to get it. In one study, taking probiotic bacteria isolated from breast milk actually outperformed antibiotics in the treatment of infectious mastitis. It also prevented the reoccurrence of mastitis, which is quite common. A later study using the same strain derived from breast milk—L. fermentum—found that it reduced breast pain during nursing (a potential harbinger of mastitis).

Any dangers? Maybe.

In a study of the diets of Japanese mothers and their effects on the women’s breastfeeding babies, researchers determined that yogurt, cheese, miso, bread, soy sauce, fermented soybeans, and tree nuts were common aggravators of atopic dermatitis in the kids. I’m not sure you can pin this on fermentation, however. It could be a dairy, soy, wheat, and nut protein issue, too.

Kombucha could be problematic. A kombucha SCOBY is by its very nature an unwieldy, diverse motley crew of competing interests maintaining a tenuous coalition just so long as there’s plenty of sugar for everyone. Don’t go drinking moldy kombucha. If you’re brewing it at home, be sure you know what you’re doing, how to distinguish between mold and normal growth. The longer it’s active on the same batch of tea, the higher the alcohol content. And black tea kombucha will contain some residual caffeine, which most people don’t want their babies consuming.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope these answers help, and if you have anything to add, do so down below!

Take care.

The post Dear Mark: Egg Replacements, Bruxism, Fermenting Frozen Veggies, and Ferments While Breastfeeding appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekend Link Love – Edition 442

RESEARCH OF THE WEEK

Your back really could be killing you.

Anti-smoking ads that use nostalgia are more effective than ads that use shame.

For people with the rarest and most severe form of epilepsy, keto might be the best option.

Fasting regenerates the pancreas in diabetic mice.

Pregnant women should avoid licorice.

Lullaby as the first salvo in the great child-parent war.

Your testes didn’t borrow much from the Neanderthals.

Diverse gut microbiomes improve cancer immunotherapy efficacy.

Auditory and visual distractions make runners hit the ground with more force.

Prebiotics improve sleep, especially after stressful periods.

NEW PRIMAL BLUEPRINT PODCASTS

Episode 158: Cindy Lu and Earl Martin: Host Elle Russ chats with the husband and wife duo who founded Malibu Essential Oils and provide the most honest, actionable aromatherapy advice around.

INTERESTING BLOG POSTS

Terry Crews does IF.

If you’re not cleaning your hands with a zebra’s stomach contents and eating baboon colon sashimi, your gut health is garbage.

MEDIA, SCHMEDIA

Consumer demand for organic food rises.

Porn kills.

EVERYTHING ELSE

I made the Greatist’s top 100 most influential people in health and fitness.

Someone’s made a video game based on Thoreau’s Walden.

A new documentary on the psychiatric effects of psilocybin.

“Yeah, but have you ever worked out… on weed?”

Pools have a lot of pee. Hot tubs have even more.

THINGS I’M UP TO AND INTERESTED IN

Deal you shouldn’t miss: Buy a Whole 30 Primal Kitchen kit between now and March 8, noon PST (use coupon code FREERANCH17 at checkout) to get a free bottle of PRIMAL KITCHEN® Ranch.

Public appearance I’m making: If you’re going to ExpoWest next weekend, come by the PRIMAL KITCHEN® booth (H1013) at noon on 3/11 to chat with me and Melissa Hartwig of Whole30® fame.

ICYMI: In case you missed my Facebook Live chat last week, here’s the video.

Image that made me chuckle: This one (yes, plants are still important).

No pressure: New smart condom that tracks your performance.

RECIPE CORNER

Sometimes you just want some classic chicken salad.
Pickled carrot soup with bacon is an unconventional three-way marriage between salty, sweet, and acidic.

TIME CAPSULE

One year ago (Mar 5– Mar 11)

Minimalist Living: Is It Primal? – Do the two lifestyles coalesce?
Should You Be Getting More B Vitamins? – How to tell if you need more of the essential nutrients.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

“My favorite birthday was my 70th one. I always thought 70 was old. I was elated to find out that wasn’t even close to being true. At almost 73, I’m still wondering when or if I will ‘get old’. Right now it looks a long way off.”

– Beautiful, Penny.

The post Weekend Link Love – Edition 442 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Kerala Lamb Curry

Kerala lamb curry forgoes the thick, soup-like sauce often associated with curry. Instead, chunks of meat soak up almost all the sauce, creating a fragrant stew of spices and meat that can be eaten with a fork, no spoon or rice needed.

Recipes for Kerala lamb curry vary slightly in their cooking methods and ingredient lists. What the recipes all share are tender chunks of lamb, plus lots of spices. This recipe uses ingredients you probably have in your kitchen already—coriander, turmeric, onion, garlic, shallot, ginger, coconut milk—and a few you might have to search out, like Kashmiri chili powder and fresh curry leaves.

If you have an Indian grocery store in your city, this recipe is a good reason to visit. Or, you can hunt and gather the ingredients on the Internet. You’ll be rewarded with a richly flavored and complex dish with outstanding levels of antioxidants from the wide array of spices. Plus, you’ll also get all the good stuff that lamb brings to a dish, like 8 essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and protein.

This curry is great the night it’s made, and tastes just as good the second or even third day after.

Servings: 6

Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour

Ingredients

2 pounds lamb shoulder, cut into 1-inch/25 mm pieces (1 kg)
2 teaspoons kosher salt (10 ml)
2 teaspoons Kashmiri chili powder, divided* (10 ml)
2 teaspoons coriander (10 ml)
½ teaspoon turmeric (2.5 ml)
¼ cup coconut oil (60 ml)
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (5 ml)
2 shallots, thinly sliced
2 sprigs curry leaves (leaves pulled from stems)
2 inches/50 mm ginger, peeled and grated
1 or 2 green chilies, sliced (optional)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup coconut milk (240 ml)
½ teaspoon garam masala (2.5 ml)
Garnish: unsweetened coconut flakes and cilantro

Instructions

Recipe Note: Kashmiri chili powder can be found in some grocery stores and most Indian food stores. It adds bright red color and medium heat.

Season the lamb with salt, Kashmiri chili powder, coriander, and turmeric. Rub the spices into the meat. Let the meat sit and “marinate” while you prep the rest of the ingredients for the recipe.

Sear the meat in batches, browning on all sides. Pour ½ cup water into the skillet, using a spatula to scrape up any bits of meat or spices that have stuck to the skillet. Pour the water into a pressure cooker and add the meat. Cook the stew meat in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally. If the meat is not tender, set the pressure cooker for 10 more minutes.

In a Dutch oven or wide, deep skillet, warm coconut oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until very soft, 10 minutes or more. If needed, turn heat down slightly so onion doesn’t burn.

When onion is soft, turn heat up to medium high. If the skillet is dry, add a little more oil. Add mustard seeds. Cook 1 minute, then add shallot and curry leaves. Cook 3 to 5 minutes, then add ginger, garlic, green chilies, garam masala and remaining teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder.

Add coconut milk, lamb and ½ cup of the liquid in the pressure cooker. Simmer until the sauce is almost entirely absorbed by the meat.

Garnish with coconut flakes and cilantro.

The post Kerala Lamb Curry appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

How My World Changed!

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. In fact, I have a contest going right now. So if you have a story to share, no matter how big or how small, you’ll be in the running to win a big prize. Read more here.

 My story is a fun one. Nothing crazy drastic, but fun nonetheless. It started January of 2012, when I first started reading success stories from MDA. At this point in my life, I was no stranger to the human body and how best to treat it. I exercised moderately, and ate plenty of vegetables and fish as part of my normal diet. I tried to get at least 6-7 hours sleep and remained injury-free. So when I first started reading, I thought this makes sense. It’s working obviously—however, I’m not going to take the plunge quite yet.

Also, wasn’t quite sure what exactly this Mark guy was selling. My problem, like everyone else’s, with taking that leap was giving up my wonderful sources of carbs. I freaking loved bread and pasta—they made up the better part of my diet. I, however, did ramp up my fat intake immediately.

It wasn’t until the first week of April that I decided to pull the trigger. And how my world changed! After 7 days I lost 9 lbs and was able to pull a 29-hour fast like it was nothing! I was able to feel for the first time in my life, what true hunger felt like—much less mild than the crippling “starving” feeling. Two weeks into it, I was squatting on the potty—not with a Squatty Potty mind you—and my lifelong constipation and hemorrhoids were gone. After three months I was down 25 lbs, corrective lenses forgotten, hours in the sunshine without protection and burning, and just boundless energy.

As soon as I made the plunge in April, I could not get enough info crammed into my brain. I would spend up to 8 hours a day reading article after study after lecture, and podcasts, back to articles. I would jump from MDA to Chris Kresser, Chris Masterjohn, Robb Wolf, Dave Asprey, Jimmy Moore, Abel James, Denise Minger, Peter Attia, etc. The more I read and listened, the stronger the fire grew to learn. By June of 2013—just a little over a year into it—I had amassed approximately 2000 hours devoted to learning as much as I could though reading, watching and listening.

And then I had a baby. I lost sleep, lost hours at work (translates to lack of money), so I ate less. Fasting 18 hours everyday became part of the routine, and certainly not with enough nourishment. I of course ended up losing even more weight, and got all the way down to 136 by August ’15! As a reference, my starting weight was 170 back in April of ’12, and I am 5’10. I made the conscious effort to eat more, and naturally my sleep improved—both from eating and from a baby who was more often sleeping through the night.

Also in August ’15, I finished the Primal Expert Certification (now the Primal Health Coaching Program) and started my own Health & Wellness business, Revolution Food. I started out with a couple clients and transitioned into cooking meals for families—primarily Primal meals of course. In May ’16 we ended that service and suspended our business as we were about to embark on a transitional period. My wife enrolled in the NASM Personal Trainer course, and became certified in August ’16. I had taken a retail job to have a regular paycheck, and even more so ate and slept more regularly. In December 2016, I finished my classes for culinary school and was able to take on a new client. My first real (paying) client as a Primal Health Coach, and one that I was able to devote more time to.

As of today, I sit between 150 and 155, and am now making a conscious effort to exercise more—whether it be doing MovNat or hitting the gym. I am enrolled in the NASM Personal Trainer program myself, with the goal of being MovNat certified by this time next year. One can never have too many certifications.

This is my story of lighting a fire, rolling with life’s punches, and turning that fire into blaze. Mark is right, don’t let a bad decision one day, or a few days out of the year define you. If you are thinking of leaping into this community, just let the damn bread go—trust me, you’ll thank yourself for it.

Jamie Farrington

The post How My World Changed! appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Join Me on Facebook Live This Morning

Good morning, everybody! We’ve got another fantastic success story today, but first I want to invite you all to join me on Facebook Live at 9 a.m. PST today. I’ll be chatting with my Community Outreach Manager, Liz Mostaedi, about our Whole30®-approved products and how Whole30® can complement your Primal journey. AND I’ll be sharing the first announcement for some major things coming down the Primal pipeline. Catch me this morning on the Primal Kitchen Facebook page. You won’t want to miss it!

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Is Snoring Really a Health Problem?

There’s a saying that people who snore always fall asleep first. My days of overnight sports chaperoning and group camping trips have frequently confirmed that notion. Most people would say that snoring is less a problem for the snorer than anyone lying awake in the vicinity, and on those specific nights in memory I probably thought as much. But the health researcher in me knows there’s more to the story.

We know sleep apnea is a big deal. No one wants that. But regular, run-of-the-mill snoring? Is it really an issue? Everyone has someone in their family who does it. It’s often a running joke, in fact. Some estimates suggest more than half of us snore (although that might be an exaggeration, given that the estimated range is so extensive). How concerned should we really be? And what is there to do about it anyway?

What exactly is snoring?

Snoring is simply a case of air moving over the relaxed tissues of the throat, causing those tissues to vibrate during sleeping. That vibration creates the sound.

The causes of snoring vary but include swollen nasal tissues due to allergies, upper respiratory infections, or a misaligned nasal passage. Certain meds also contribute (especially those that cause drowsiness), as does knocking back a few too many drinks.

Sleep apnea, however, takes snoring to a whole new level, with a physical closing of the airway along with the usual snoring. If you’ve ever been witness to sleep apnea, you’ll probably agree it’s a little alarming. The closing of the airway means a person literally stops breathing for what seems like an eon, until he/she wakes momentarily, sucks in a noisy gulp of air, and then resumes snoring. It may happen every 2 minutes, or it may only happen a couple of times per night. Either way, it’s a classic case of obstructive sleep apnea.

The most common cause of actual obstructive sleep apnea is excess weight and obesity. The tissues of the throat and tongue literally get fat, meaning that air has a hard time passing through when they relax during sleep. Sleep apnea might also be caused by engorged tonsils or a hefty overbite.

The thing is, the majority of all these causes shouldn’t really be much of an issue for the avid Primal enthusiast. Or…?

Snoring is more than a nuisance.

Let’s push sleep apnea to the side for a minute. No one would argue that sleep apnea is just a mild inconvenience. The medical establishment already treats it as a serious condition.

The same can’t be said for snoring. Very few people seek help for their snoring, regardless of how vehemently their partner complains every morning. Sure, snoring can be a symptom of sleep apnea, but most people who snore don’t actually suffer from apnea itself. Does that mean they’re in the clear? Unfortunately, no.

Research shows that snoring can exact a serious physical toll, even when it’s not classified as sleep apnea. A 2014 study found that snorers had a greater risk of developing a thickened carotid artery. This is a thickening in the lining of the two primary blood vessels that supply the brain with oxygenated blood—in other words, a big deal for cardiovascular health risks like heart attack and stroke. The increased risk from snoring was even greater than that for smokers or those who were overweight.

Even more alarming is the effect it has on children. In one study, children who suffered from primary snoring experienced more issues with attention, social skills, anxiety and depression. Overall cognitive ability and certain language and visuospatial functions were lower in children who snored compared to those who didn’t.

Sleep apnea, on the other hand, ups the ante considerably. Research shows it’s strongly associated with metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer, and diabetes. Because excess weight is the primary cause, for many people it becomes part of a self-perpetuating cycle. Strangely enough, it seems that women are perhaps even more seriously affected by snoring and sleep apnea than men, at least when it comes to greater risk of heart failure and diabetes.

What are the options?

If you’ve ever asked your doctor for treatment ideas, you’ve likely heard a few of the following:

using nasal strips to pull your nasal passages open
using oral inserts (essentially glorified mouth guards) to keep the airways open
using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device
undergoing surgery to remove the soft tissue from the throat

You’ll notice that I listed those recommendations from least alarming to most alarming. Ideally, you shouldn’t need to employ any of those conventional “band-aid” methods, and you especially shouldn’t need to go slicing out bits of your throat. Unless you have true obstructive sleep apnea, you probably don’t want to rely (at least long-term) on a CPAP either, which can sound eerily like Darth Vader.

Other CW dictates avoidance of alcohol and sedatives, sleeping on your side, and staying well away from smoking. These are all good recommendations that essentially speak for themselves.

Next, what lifestyle changes can do…

A 2012 study showed snoring and sleep apnea improvements during REM sleep in those who made the shift from a “prudent diet” (a.k.a. one rich in “whole grains” and, presumably, low in fats) to a Mediterranean diet. I’ve spoken before about how I give a half-hearted thumbs up the the Med diet because, in many ways, it strikingly emulates the Primal diet—plenty of healthy fats, lots of veggies, less junk.

However, researchers also increased the physical activity of both groups, so it’s fair to say that a Mediterranean diet combined with more exercise was responsible for the improvements. But then again, was it the weight loss that improved the snoring, the increase in nutrient-dense and anti-inflammatory foods, or the exercise? It’s hard to say which was the catalyst (or if all of them together played a part).

That leads us to exercise as a form of snoring treatment.

A small 2014 study examined the effect of an “individualized exercise training program” on 22 patients with severe to moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Over the course of the month, those who undertook the exercise program experienced significant improvements in their sleep apnea compared to the control group, who just got “education activity sessions” (whatever that means). They also showed reductions in weight, fasting glucose, and blood pressure.

Once again, it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario. Were the sleep apnea improvements due specifically to the personalized exercise program, the weight loss that resulted from this, or the participants simply being more “zonked out” when they hit the hay each night? Once again, maybe a combination of all 3 or maybe not.

What is clear, however, is that not all exercise is good exercise when it comes to treating your snoring problem. Grok was all about regular exercise, but he also knew when enough was enough—over-exerting the body by working out too long or too hard means exposing your body to excess stress. More stress means more inflammation, and we’ve already established that one of the root causes of snoring is inflammation of the upper respiratory system.

A couple additional/anecdotal options…

A friend of mine recently invested in a humidifier as he was concerned about excessively dry air in his apartment during the winter months. He began switching the unit on every night and letting it run until the morning, and found an interesting correlation. His partner’s snoring intensity and frequency dropped with increasing humidity, implying that excessively dry air may also play a role in snoring. It’s just one person’s story, but worth looking into if you’re already eating well, moving frequently and managing your weight.

But then there’s a wholly different kind of exercise for those with simple snoring issues—specifically exercise involving the mouth and tongue. In one small study, a regular practice of certain oropharyngeal exercises over three months time resulted in significant improvements for both snore frequency and snore “power” (there’s a concept).

Final thoughts…

Weight loss can be an effective tool for mitigating the effects of snoring, but as we’ve seen it may be difficult to achieve weight loss without first improving sleep. And how do you improve sleep without solving your weight issue?

If you’re a healthy weight, you might still suffer. It’s at this point you should look to your diet. Are you getting enough anti-inflammatory foods? Have you considered adding anti-inflammatory herbs and spices? Are you sure there aren’t any unaddressed allergies?

If you’re full Primal, you’re probably already investing in these choices, but it doesn’t hurt to do a little investigation. If necessary, get your partner to jot a few observations every morning regarding the night before. Maybe a rating system, with 10 being “I didn’t realize we lived on a fault line” and 1 being “ah, all’s quiet for once.” See if there’s a pattern with anything you did (or didn’t do) the day before.

Start experimenting with your diet and exercise routine, maybe throw in some pre-bed meditation, condition yourself to only sleep on your side, and try a humidifier to loosen mucus. Talk to your doctor about any medications you’re taking and if they might be contributing to the issue. Experiment with different pillows (there are so-called “anti-snore” options that tilt the head back slightly to keep the airway more open). Try the oropharyngeal exercises. Maybe try the nose strips. Take notes, recognize linkages between snoring reduction and certain lifestyle or dietary changes, and you may just become the next authority on snoring solutions.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Have I missed any Primal-friendly snoring treatments? Share your experiences and solutions. Take care.

The post Is Snoring Really a Health Problem? appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

How to Move through Life with an Edge

Every former competitive athlete’s worst nightmare is that moment when you lose to a younger person doing the sport you love. When the cocoon of invincibility and superiority you’ve erected around yourself comes crashing down and a piece of your self-identity shatters. It can truly feel like the end.

I know the feeling. Several years ago on a family ski trip, my son challenged me to a downhill snowboard race. We’d been doing these races—and I’d been winning them—ever since he was old enough to board. It was tradition that we race, and that I win. It’s just how it played out.

This time was different. I was a newly minted member of the 6-decades club. He was a young man, fully grown, years of sports under his belt. He smoked me. It wasn’t even close. And suddenly I realized that despite being in the best shape of my life relative to my age, that upper limit was trending down.

Luckily, the existential crisis was short-lived if it ever really happened. A few moments were all I needed to realize this wasn’t a tragedy. It was the opposite: the graduation of my son into manhood, the passing of the torch.

Our snowboard race also highlighted a simple fact of human biology and aging that we all have to face. Performance inevitably declines. Michael Jordan in his 40s can’t beat Kevin Durant one-on-one. Usain Bolt won’t beat his WR 100M run from 2009. Arnold will never regain his Mr. Olympia title. It transcends physical output as well—the Rolling Stones won’t ever match “Sticky Fingers” or “Exile on Main Street,” the concluding books of “A Song of Ice and Fire” (if they ever come) will probably be worse than the first two.

And that’s okay. I’m fine with it. You should, too. Denying reality never goes well. It’ll ruin you. You can’t win.

But we still fight it.

A reader passed along a link to a paper entitled “Early and extraordinary peaks in physical performance come with a longevity cost.” The researchers tracked top Olympians from the early 20th century, recorded during which phase of life they attained “peak performance,” and recorded when they died. Those who peaked early tended to die younger than those who peaked later. The relationship was stronger the bigger and earlier the achievement.

They propose a few potential mechanisms, including excessive early mTOR activation or lopsided growth hormone/IGF signaling on the part of the early achievers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that were part of the story. But I have another idea. This was the early 1900s. There weren’t million dollar endorsement deals with Nike or Gatorade waiting for them. They weren’t famous after weeks of ceaseless media coverage. Jim Thorpe, one of the greatest Olympians of the early 20th century, died penniless. Olympians were true amateurs who, after the glory faded and the medals rusted over, had to figure out what to do with their lives. They often failed.

I’ve talked about peak performance before, about wringing out every last drop of performance and realizing your full potential. Well, peaks come and go. Once you hit it, you either have to keep pushing onward and working harder and harder, which isn’t sustainable for long, or you trend downward. You can’t stay there forever.

Some of the best athletes I’ve known haven’t figured it out. Either they try in vain to hold on to their past glories, maintain their output, and fail miserably or burn out, or they flounder aimlessly. Maybe that’s what happened to those Olympians in the study. 

There are people who figure that out.

My good friend (and dad to my great friend and Primal Blueprint colleague Brad Kearns) Dr. Walter Kearns is probably the world’s top 90+ golfer, who at 94 is on his third round (pun intended) of golfing buddies. He’s always complaining about not being able to see the ball and track its flight. Well, it’s because he hits the ball so damn far. He knows he’s not going to beat top guys fifty years his junior. He’s okay with that, but he’s also not hanging up his clubs anytime soon. That’s edge living, and it carries over into all areas.

When he was in the hospital recovering from emergency bowel obstruction surgery, Walter refused pain meds to avoid being drugged up and immobile. This allowed him to walk right out several days ahead of schedule. A nurse later pulled Brad aside and said most people his father’s age never recover from a surgery like that. Many never even leave the bed. She was convinced refusing the meds made the difference.

My chief marketing officer, Aaron Fox, a man who’s been with the company from the very beginning, has a great-grandmother who turns 100 this year. She’s avoided doctors and meds all her life and still lives in the same house she shared with his great-grandfather. After a check-up this year, her blood panel came back pristine, but she had high blood pressure. The doc recommended blood pressure meds—”With your excellent health, it could extend life another five years”—and she’s considering taking them. Even if she goes for it, it’ll be on her terms and only because she decided to. It’s really an attitude or spirit that seems to have kept her in good stead: It’s her life, her home, her body, and she’ll be damned to hand over control of any of it. 

I’ve often said that retirement kills only because people waste their free time. A buddy of mine has a father-in-law who retired several years ago. Rather than sit around watching bad daytime T.V. and getting angry on Facebook, he started a fledgling eBay business. A former mechanic and all-around automotive expert who had to give up his shop when he had a series of bad heart attacks and couldn’t maintain the rigorous pace of running a business, he now goes to L.A.-area swap meets and hunts for old car brochures, rare automotive tools, engine parts, and other collector’s items, then sells them for big profits to people across the world. He’s arguably more engaged and in better health than he was before retiring, and he’s doing it by repurposing his talents.

What’s this have to do with health and wellness?

Everything.

Living life on your own terms isn’t just a quaint turn of phrase. It has huge effects on your health.

A large body of research shows that the less control you think you have over your life, the higher your mortality risk. That persists even when you control for other health variables and biomarkers. It’s even true for animals. Self-agency—or even the illusion of it—appears to be a requirement for healthy, happy aging.

And unlike some of the characteristics shared by centenarians, like good genes, control is malleable. You can’t change the structure of your DNA. You can, however, wrest control over your own life.

How?

Pay attention to that voice inside urging you onward. If something speaks to your soul, answer the call. Check it out. See where it leads. It’s usually guiding you to a good place.

When something feels right, stay with the moment, even if you can’t articulate what’s happening. Suss it out. What are you doing? Who are you with? What were you thinking about? That feeling of “this is right, this is good” is a physiological hint that you should pay attention to what you’re doing—and maybe keep doing it.

Ignoring the call, however, is an abdication of control. 

How do you move on and keep going through life while maintaining and indulging that edge? How do you ride the edge?

In reading this blog, eating this way, questioning conventional wisdom, heeding the science, and listening to your body, you’re already doing it. You’ve made—or are in the process of making—some major changes to your lifestyle, changes that will pay dividends.

Moving through life along the edge isn’t necessarily about fitness training. It’s about having a good reason to get up in the morning. A business, a hobby, a project, a job, a family, a physical pursuit, or yes, a workout—anything that calls to you and provides meaning. And whatever that thing is, you go after it. 

Keep the fire going, but don’t get into battles you can’t win. Acknowledge and accept your weaknesses. Repurpose your skills and passions. Ride the decline into something new—and maybe better.

Challenge yourself. Maybe not every day, but often enough that you’re always excited about and engaged with something.

Think about ascending a mountain peak. You’re there. The view’s great. It’s frankly exhilarating being on top of the visible world. But you can’t go higher. There’s nowhere to go from there but down. How do you do it? Do you just head straight off, tumbling down over loose gravel to arrive at the bottom, bruised and disheveled? Do you plunge headfirst over a cliff, totally giving up? Or do you ride the edge, walk the range toward the horizon, gradually descending while remaining on a pinnacle? 

I know what I’ve chosen. How about you?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be sure to let me know if and how this post resonates with you.

The post How to Move through Life with an Edge appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

8 Primal Food Challenges You Can Take

Humans are competitive animals. We like a challenge because it compels us to rise to the occasion, prove ourselves, get better at something, or become a bigger version of ourselves. For people, challenges are like hormetic stressors—they often cause suffering and require hard, unpleasant work but provoke a beneficial response that makes us stronger than we were before the challenge.

How does that apply to the challenges I’ve laid out in today’s post, which are all about food, diets, and cooking? Each one unlocks a tangible benefit (eating more vegetables helps you obtain more nutrients, stopping the meal before you’re too full lowers energy intake), but there are also less obvious benefits to meeting a challenge.

Let’s get right to it:

Stop when you’re 80% full.

In Japan, they say “hara hachi bu,” which translates to “eat until 80% full.” It’s the inverse of Louis CK’s philosophy of “eat until you hate yourself.” Don’t eat food just because it’s on your plate. Don’t cram in every last morsel. Ask for a to-go box, bust out the tupperware containers, push the plate away.

If you can figure out how to make this a regular habit, you may find that adhering to a healthy eating plan even easier. One study found that habitual “80% fullers” tended to eat fewer grains and more servings of vegetables.

Eat 10 servings of vegetables each day for two weeks.

The number just keeps climbing. First it was “3 a day,” and that didn’t do much. Then it was “5 a day,” and the results disappointed. Now they’re saying that 10 servings of vegetables each day is where the magic really happens. Is it true?

There is a study just out showing that people who ate 10 servings or more of vegetables each day had lower risks of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and early mortality. There’s definitely some “healthy user bias” going on here, but I suspect at least a touch of causality too. Maybe more convincing is the recent study where giving healthy 18- to 25-year-olds extra servings of fruits and vegetables across a two-week period led to improved psychological well-being.

Cook a whole mammal.

You’ve cooked whole chickens. Maybe you’ve cooked a whole fish. (No? Go do that, too.) It’s time for the next step: cooking a whole mammal.

Get your hands on a small pig, lamb, goat, or, if you’re really adventurous, cow. I’ll even accept rabbit. Cook it whole. Roast it on a spit or a Patagonian cross over a wood fire. Cook it in the ground.

My only stipulation is that you keep it intact. Don’t dissemble the animal so it fits in your oven. That’s cheating.

Cooking an entire mammal marries two Primal inputs we no longer get enough of: the starting of and caring for a large fire over the course of five to six hours, and the transformation of large animal into food.

It’s an incredibly powerful experience.

Go vegan once a week.

What? Sisson, you’ve gone too far this time….

Hear me out. I’m not urging you to do this to save the world, cut down on emissions, save your life, save a cow’s life, strike fear into the CAFO industry, or anything particularly high-minded. I just think it’s an interesting thing to try. And for a great many of you, it will be an entirely new, entirely foreign. Pure novelty.

What would this even look like?

Well, grains and sugar and vegetable oils are still out. I foresee a lot of coconut, avocado, leafy greens, nuts, and seeds. Add in your favorite veggies for taste. Maybe this is a good time to experiment with legumes. Well-prepared, creative vegan food can be among the best tasting—truly.

Go keto for two weeks.

Ketogenic dieting isn’t for everyone. It may not even be for the majority. But you won’t know unless you try. So ditch the sweet potatoes, the bowl of berries you enjoy after dinner, the white rice on cheat days, the honey in your coffee. It’s only two weeks. See how you feel. Hard-charging athletes have more leeway with the carb intake, as they’re burning through loads of glycogen and creating glycogen debt.

Coming off a Primal eating plan, you’re not starting from scratch. Your fat-burning machinery should be well-oiled and humming along, so full-blown ketosis won’t be a huge leap. Chances are, you’ll slip right in without missing a beat. 

Master five recipes.

Get really good at making five things. These would probably be my five. Yours will vary.

Roast chicken. A roast chicken with carrots, shallots, onions, and garlic cloves in the roasting pan? With gravy made from the drippings? Nothing better.

Steak. Learn how to sear a good steak.

A soup of some kind. The key to most great soups is a great broth, so you’d better learn to make that too.

A stew/pot roast/chili. Something meaty and fall-apart tender with rich flavors and hearty sauce/broth that you can slip veggies into without anyone caring.

Something “ethnic,” for lack of a better word. Check out the post I did a few months ago and master one of those if you’re coming up blank.

Keep random veggies around—bags of kale, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, beets—that you can quickly steam or sauté alongside any of these dishes, and you’ve got yourself a solid dinner.

Eat a Big Ass Salad every day.

The Big Ass Salad is my nutritional anchor. It’s my insurance for the day. If I eat poorly for my other meals, I don’t feel too bad because I know I’ll be eating—or will have eaten—an enormous bowl of leafy greens, nuts, seeds, avocado, meat, cheese, healthy dressing, and whatever else I want to include.

Get yourself a huge mixing bowl, either stainless or glass. Plan your BAS every week in advance. Have greens on hand (currently digging a blend of baby kale, spinach, and butter lettuce), plus chopped veggies, protein, seeds, nuts, cheese, hard boiled eggs, avocado, and dressing. Almost everything but the avocado can be prepared days in advance. The easier it is to build a salad, the more likely you are to eat one.

Ferment something.

Everyone talks about the importance of probiotics and fermented food, but few want to shell out $15 for a pint of kraut or pickles from the farmer’s market. It’s easy to make your own. Way easier than you think.

I recommend sauerkraut (basic recipe at the link). It’s easy to make, requires just two ingredients (cabbage and salt), and you can embellish it with all manner of extra ingredients. Try this mix: purple and green cabbage, diced garlic, sliced beets, shaved ginger, grated carrot, salt.

Kefir is another option, but you’ll need kefir grains to make your own. Craigslist is your friend. Pickles or kimchi work, too.

You now have your assignments. Choose at least one, but ideally several, and go try them. If it all works out, you’ll find yourself several months down the line with a slew of awesome new food habits.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Which food challenge are you going to take on? Others you’d offer up to the group?

The post 8 Primal Food Challenges You Can Take appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Dear Mark: Fasting Followup

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering questions from the comment section of last week’s fasting post. You guys brought up some great points, and I’ll be addressing some of them. First up, do you need to follow a vegan diet to maintain the health benefits of long fasts? Second, I give a tip or two for appetite suppression during the fast. Then I discuss my definition of a long fast, the potential effect of fasting on gut bacteria (and whether we should consume prebiotics and probiotics while fasting), the reason why fasting makes some people have short fuses, and whether green tea k0mbucha breaks the fast.

Let’s go:

Mark–For the autoimmune case reports, you failed to mention that the patients preceded and followed the fast with a vegan diet, and that the authors conclude the paper by saying a vegan diet appears to be necessary to sustain the results.

Good catch, Margaret. I saw that, knew someone would mention it, and decided to address the inevitable query in a Dear Mark rather than drag it out in the middle of a post.

For one, these are case studies, and case studies notoriously lack the ability to imply causality or make conclusions. They are rigorously-recorded anecdotes containing a seed of a hypothesis for further, more serious study. So even though all the subjects followed a vegan diet, and the authors opine that such diets are necessary for long-term maintenance, we don’t have anything to compare it to. The same applies to the long fast, of course—the case studies can’t establish whether the fasts are actually responsible for the improvements.

Second, my guess is that they’re just assuming the validity of the conventional wisdom. “Of course, vegan diets are the healthiest, least inflammatory diet in the world, so let’s have these recovering fasters follow the healthiest diet in the world.” Is it really necessary?

Your “average” vegan gets more of certain nutrients than your average omnivore, particularly folate, magnesium, vitamins C and E, copper, and fiber. Your average omnivore gets more protein, vitamin D, vitamins B2 and B12, zinc, and iodine than everyone else. Fish eaters eat the most calcium and selenium.

Why not be all three?

There’s certainly strong evidence that healthy omnivorous diets aren’t any worse than plant-based ones for cancer risk, and sometimes they’re better.

Unless the contention is that the recommendations for adequate intake of vitamin D, vitamin B2, vitamin B12, protein, zinc, iodine, calcium, and selenium don’t apply to patients with autoimmune disease….

Lifelong vegetarianism has no effect on breast cancer risk, nor does it affect prostate, colorectal, or (again) breast cancer risk. If anything, “vegetarians” who eat fish have a lower risk of colorectal cancer than strict vegetarians.

For rheumatoid arthritis—the autoimmune disease featured most prominently among the case studies—removing gluten might be the crucial piece of these plant-based diets. A gluten-free vegetarian diet improved symptoms in RA patients, for example, and another gluten-free vegan diet reduced symptoms and improved biomarkers in RA patients. As immunoreactivity to dietary allergens reduced, so did RA symptoms.

Could you get the same results by keeping the gluten out and adding some wild caught salmon and pastured eggs to go with your “vegan” diet? I think so, and I hope we find out for sure some day.

I occasionally do a fast for 24 hours. For an appetite suppressant, I drink ginger tea made from boiling chopped ginger root. Do any of you have suggestions for other appetite suppressants?

Coffee is a good appetite suppressant. The literature is mixed, but caffeine seems to reduce food intake, probably due to increased lipolysis. With more body fat available for burning, you have less desire for food.

Staying active might be the best, though. Not active as in hiking the Appalachian trail or taking CrossFit classes. Active as in busy. Engaged. Walking, working, reading, creating, gardening. Keep mind and body busy, and your thoughts will be less likely to stray toward boredom-induced hunger.

What is considered a long fast. My usual is 36-45ish, that still be considered short?

In my book, a long fast lasts at least three days. But even two days is “long” for most people. Heck, skipping lunch is absolutely bonkers these days.

What’s the impact of extended fasting on gut flora (the microbiome)? Those lifeforms are obviously going to be stressed, perhaps to net benefit, but that would be conjecture.

And if there are hazards there, could they be mitigated by supplementing with probiotics and daily non-caloric prebiotic fiber to keep the critters happy?

Fasts can be good for us. Maybe a fast is good for those tiny guys living in your gut, too. They’ve co-evolved with humans, relying on us for food. We don’t always get food, so they must be adapted to occasional bouts of not getting any either. They may also be adapted to our current practice of perpetual snacking, given that bacterial generations can be as short as 20 minutes and evolution happens rapidly. (Although since bacterial generations can be as short as 15-20 minutes, perhaps they’ve adapted to the grazing.)

Also, many species of gut bacteria feed on mucin produced by the gut lining. This isn’t sustainable in perpetuity, as mucin maintains the integrity of the gut lining, but there’s no problem for a few days. They’re equipped for it. A 2015 study on “fasting”—mostly fasting with some low-calorie soups and juices—found big increases in mucin-degrading bacteria.

I’ve used a three days fast to clear up some pretty bad stomach issues. Whenever my dogs have diarrhea, I fast them for least a whole day and it always clears up. If “lack of diarrhea” indicates good gut health, I’d say fasting has a neutral or beneficial effect—at least if there’s an existing problem.

Hold off on the probiotics and prebiotics until you’re back. It probably wouldn’t hurt, but I’m interested in fasting the bugs, too.

One thing worth considering with longer fasts is the effect (or possible effect) on mood/personality… I saw Rachel Hunter (on her tv series Tour of Beauty) do a week or 2 fast and she admitted that she got very angry/aggressive/ easily annoyed etc… However she wasn’t primal/paleo to begin with so maybe someone who is already a fat-burning-beast wouldn’t have such side effects, and it was a “TV Series” so I’m not sure how much faith we can put in that, but she did seem genuinely irritable (maybe try meditation, yoga etc when doing longer faster for your family’s sake ?

That’s certainly possible, but I find—and the research backs this up—longer fasts imbue me with euphoria. It’s tough to get angry when the mundane suddenly seems profound. The most likely explanation is exactly your instinct: She wasn’t an effective fat burner. Fat-burners hit the ground running. They can tap into their fat stores and avoid the worst of it. Sugar-burners will go through major withdrawals and deal with a terrible case of low-carb flu.

My question is about the use of green tea Kombucha during an extended fast – would this be something you recommend as I have been using it for a while now and love it…?

Sure. As long as the kombucha culture has digested the majority of the sugar, and there’s not enough residual sugar to break your fast, it should be fine.

The green tea component of the kombucha could actually be really helpful. One study found that green tea protects against the fasting-induced damage to the intestinal lining during a 3-day fast. 

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!

The post Dear Mark: Fasting Followup appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.