Mark Sisson's Blog, page 266

Dear Mark: A New Whole Grain Study, Advice for a Teen, Broken Leg Sprints, and The 3 Mules

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, we’ve got four questions and four answers. First up, there’s a new whole grain study, and some people are claiming it demonstrates that low-carb diets will lead to early mortality. Does it do anything of the sort, or is this yet another flawed observational paper? Next, a teen on top of his diet game who hopes he’s doing it right writes in with a list of questions. I answer them. Next, what can a person recovering from a broken leg do in the way of sprinting? Or should she just focus on recovery? Finally, a wild and free man is roaming California with three pack mules, flouting convention and leading a nomadic existence. Police are occasionally called and media attention is often attracted. What are my thoughts?

Let’s go:

Now I am confused. Did you see the new study published in JAMA which states that the newest research demonstrates that a diet without grains decreases ones longevity?

Trying to do the right thing, however it becomes confusing when JAMA publishes a recent study that says the opposite.

I would love your review and opinion.

Thank you,

Geri

Yeah, I saw it. I don’t think much of it, to be honest.

Did you see the article in Shape magazine? Because the author of that piece made the same mistake I worry you’re making: she used an observational study which looked at the association between whole grain intake and mortality to conjure up a conclusion about low-carb diets and mortality. The original JAMA paper found modest associations between whole grain intake and protection from all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality. It made no mention of low-carb diets.

The authors were using existing data from older and ongoing studies (Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals’ Followup Study) to find associations. They didn’t place one group of subjects on a high-grain diet and one group on a low-carb, low-grain diet. This was a hodgepodge of data requiring extensive massaging.

Now, could it be telling us something? Maybe. I think it’s fairly clear that whole grains are better than refined grains. Whole grains retain the fiber, the bran, and whatever vitamins, minerals, and antioxidant compounds that grain refinement eliminates. Moreover, whole grains are less likely to appear in processed junk foods, while refined grains provide the bulk of baked goods, junk food, and other packaged garbage. So whole grain eaters are by extension consuming less processed junk food.

What’s interesting is that controlling for bran intake eliminated some of the positive associations with grains in the paper. That is, according to the data, it probably wasn’t the “grain” doing it (if any food was “doing” anything, of course) but the “bran” — which contains most of the fiber (some of it prebiotic), the fat, and the antioxidants. As for the germ of the grain, germ intake had almost no effect on cardiovascular mortality.

There’s nothing to see here. If you eat grains, make sure they’re whole (and possibly fermented), I guess?

Hey Mark, I love all your content!

As a teen, I would like some help with my diet!

Quick background: I’m a 17 year old male, lean at 145 lbs, weight lift every other day, and I’m super into nutrition and fitness!

I have some questions about optimizing my diet:

1. Teens and occasional intermittent fasting?

2. Should I restrict protein once a week at my age?

3. What minimum amount of carbs should I make sure that I get per day if I work very hard at school and every other day a 45 min intense workout? I feel good slightly under 200g, but is this enough to support my body and brain at this age?

4. How important is rotating foods?

5. Is 40-55g of fiber every day too much? (these factor into my carbs)

6. Is up to 130g of fat every day okay?

I’m very in tune with my body: I’m carb sensitive, digestive sensitive, and so on. Eating very low carb all day and having a large carb dinner seems to be working for me, but is restricting carbs during the whole day and having a fairly low carb total (200 or less total: up to 50g of fiber and under 70g sugars) perfectly safe for a teenager?

If it helps, let me know if I should send you my daily diet.

Thanks so much

Brandon

1. A skipped meal cause you’re late to class or have butterflies before a date or big game or final exam? Sure. Go for it. Don’t sweat it. But don’t do it on purpose. You’re still in the healthy growth phase where you’re extending bones and developing your brain and and autophagy — the “cleaning up” of discordant, harmful parts of cells promoted by fasting — is more important for older people.

2. No. If you’re not hungry for protein don’t it. But don’t force yourself.

3. I’d say around 200 grams is a good amount of carbs, if you’re feeling good. By all means, increase the carbs just as a trial to see if you feel even better and your gym/school performance improves. You’re obviously a curious guy and it might be fun and illuminating to experiment with more. Also, I wouldn’t count the fiber toward your carb count. Fiber’s good but doesn’t contribute to glucose load.

4. I think there’s value in rotating plant foods. Instead of eating spinach every day, you eat broccoli, kale, chard, bok choy, green beans, cauliflower, and spinach throughout the week. Instead of just eating blueberries, you eat blackberries, raspberries, bananas, pineapples, and blueberries. Rotating plant foods gives you access to a greater variety of antioxidant compounds. If there’s a danger in overdoing any single antioxidant, eating a variety will sidestep it. Otherwise, there’s nothing wrong with staple foods or a reliable, even “boring” meal plan. I often eat very similar things day in, day out.

5. If your digestion is adequate, large amounts of fiber from vegetables and other Primal sources will only be beneficial. You may have to scale back the fiber if you’re experiencing bloating, excessive and ill-timed flatulence, diarrhea and/or constipation, but if you’re happy with the toilet visits keep up the fiber. Make sure enough of it is fermentable stuff, things like Jerusalem artichokes, cold potatoes (resistant starch), green bananas, jicama, fruit, and other prebiotic fiber sources to keep your gut bacteria healthy and fed.

6. Absolutely. Fat’s an important nutrient, particularly for younger people. Keep it up if you feel good and you’re not gaining any weight.

Brandon, you sound like you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. If I could make one suggestion, it would be to relax a bit. I detect a lot of micromanagement in you. Some people are just wired like that and thrive by drilling down every last detail. That’s cool, if so. Do what works and what you enjoy. But don’t be afraid to relax and kick your feet up a bit, too.

You’re lean and active and intelligent. There’s no need to hamstring yourself with an overly strict approach to diet and life in general. Maintain your regimen as long as you enjoy it and genuinely wish to continue with it. Don’t impose arbitrary restrictions is all I’d recommend.

It’s a big world out there. You might end up really liking it.

Hi Mark,

Back in December I slipped on some ice and broke my leg in two places. I am just now getting rid of the second crutch and able to walk unaided. However, I am unable to run and the surgeon tells me it will be quite some time before I can.

Do you have a suggestion for what to do instead of sprinting for the 21 day challenge? Obviously, my options are limited for quick movements at the moment.

Your recommendations would be appreciated.

Rebecca

Do you have access to a pool? If you do, and you’re out of your cast (or have some way of waterproofing it), you can do some work in there. Stick to light swimming, mostly freestyle. Avoid frog kicks/breaststroke, as that could place weird stresses on the healing leg.

But don’t sprint, not yet. You can probably skip the sprinting. You should skip the sprinting. At this point, recovery from your injury is the most important thing. Pain free movement will help your recovery, but sprinting of any kind is too intense to risk re-injury or re-aggravation. You could be feeling great until you don’t and something goes terribly wrong.

Then you’re back to square one. And sprinting is even more out of the question.

If no pool is available, don’t sweat it. Just eat well, walk as much as you can comfortably, do some upper body strength training — which, if done at a quick enough pace, can be a sort of “sprint” or at least elicit similar metabolic effects — and get tons of sleep. Your job is to recover.

Okay: if you really need to sweat (a need which I totally understand; I hate sitting around when I’m injured), maybe something like seated battle ropes would work well. Those are surprisingly taxing.

Hi Mark and crew,

I live in Ventura County, and I was wondering if you have heard of The 3 Mules. As a horse person, I had heard about him – a man in is 60’s traveling up and down our state for decades, accompanied only by his pack mules, walking continually, sleeping and living outside full time. A few days ago, I happened to see him (and the mules) going to REI in Oxnard. All I could think was that here is a real live Grok. Coincidentally, I saw him the following day in Ventura (this time surrounded by police, as it is now apparently illegal to live a nomadic lifestyle and travel with mules …) Here is a humble, unassuming man that lives a life he believes in, day in and day out. (I can’t vouch for his diet, though). He has garnered over 30,000 FB followers. Pretty interesting story. FB: The 3 Mules.

Rene

Hey, neighbor. You’re right next door!

I love the 3 Mule story. The guy is clearly doing what he loves, and that’s about as healthy and happy as you can get. Lots of slow movement doesn’t hurt, either.

As for me, I love my life. I love having my wife and kids nearby. I like where I live. I don’t like to imagine not being able to go to the beach or the canyons or the mountains or the desert when I wanted, or go to a great farmer’s market for local meat and produce every Sunday, or use the salt water pool in my backyard, or roll around on the grass with my dogs, or hop on the slackline. I’m sure most people feel like that about where they live and whom they live with. We all started as hunter-gatherers, but most of us have a large amount of farmer blood in us, too. We’re a settled people, modern humans. Most of us like having roots.

Yet a piece of me understands why the mule guy is doing what he’s doing. The urge to roam, to get rid of all the extraneous possessions (which, let’s face it when you get down to it, is almost all of them), to hit the road, to forge your own road lies in everyone. Even if your idea of roaming is travel for two weeks once a year in Hawaii, that’s still the human propensity to wander and explore and discover new lands expressing itself.

Maybe if I was forty years younger. And maybe goats instead of mules. I’ve always liked goat dairy. If we’re getting really fantastical, though, I’m bringing along a gigantopithecus. Not as a pack animal, but a companion. Given enough time together, we’d develop a mutual linguistic understanding. He’d learn to understand English, and I’d come to understand his grunts, clicks, and snorts. A Chewbacca to my Han Solo.

That’s it for today, everyone. Thanks for reading and, as always, I’d appreciate your feedback and input in the comment section down below.

Weekend Link Love – Edition 341

Research of the Week

Older really can mean wiser, depending on which cognitive ability you’re studying.

Bad sleep kills sexual desire in women. Extra sleep makes sex more likely and increases genital arousal.

Too much homework is an independent predictor of obesity in children.

Vitamin D seems to keep low-grade prostate cancer from getting too aggressive.

A brisk walk can curb snack cravings and reduce stress-eating.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 60: Brad Pilon: Host Brock Armstrong hangs out with one of the foremost experts on intermittent fasting. In this podcast, you’ll learn how to fast responsibly, what you can do to avoid “hangriness,” how women and men respond differently to fasting, which style of fasting is right for you, and much more. Brad’s a really sharp dude.

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.

The Definitive Guide to Seeds
How to Safely and Enjoyably Transition to a Barefoot-Dominant Lifestyle
When Grok Lives with Korg, or How to Cope With an Unsupportive Partner
The Definitive Guide to Walking
Are We Thwarting Our Children’s Instinct to Explore?

Interesting Blog Posts

Dr. Eades rouses from slumber to strike down the latest garbage from Dean Ornish.

Fatigue can boost creativity.

The (misguided?) war on raw milk.

Media, Schmedia

Monsanto shill claims glyphosate is safe to drink, balks when the interviewer produces a jug of it. “I’m not an idiot.” You sure about that?

Shailene Woodley on why she eats clay (and paleo).

Everything Else

Scientists “discover” resistant starch in cooked and cooled rice.

The WHO’s cancer agency recently concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans” (PDF).

Antibiotics use in meat is only getting worse.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is eating bugs, albeit ones prepared by top chefs.

The best way to cook a frozen steak (without thawing it first).

A New York school has stopped giving homework so kids can play instead.

San Diego’s suing Monsanto for polluting its bay.

IV glucose as a “pick-me-up” doesn’t seem like the best idea.

Our forests are getting more fragmented.

Recipe Corner

The last time you had fried green plantains this good, the generalísimo’s men were pounding at your door and you were fumbling a goodbye to sweet, simple Maria. Maria, who arranged for your ride out of town past the checkpoint in the back of a mule cart. Maria, who taught you how to salsa and make moros y cristianos. Maria, who carried your child and cried when you left, scattering tears into the humid black of the Havana night.
Paleo cumin cauliflower rice, for the next time you make anything vaguely Indian/North African/Mid Eastern.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 30 – Apr 5)

Will We Ever Accept that Exercise Is Often the Best Medicine? – It really does work, so why don’t we prescribe it more?
11 Surprisingly Effective Exercises You Can Do Without Being “That Guy” in the Office – Stay active and get fit without looking insane in your cubicle.

Comment of the Week

Wouldn’t “Rectal Bezoars” make a great name for a punk band, though?

– Oh, absolutely it would.

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Anchovy Butter

Just when you thought butter couldn’t get any better, there’s anchovy butter. It’s an umami-rich secret ingredient that transforms simply cooked meat and veggies into an amazing meal. Don’t worry, anchovy butter won’t make your food taste fishy. Rather, it gives everything it touches a subtle, savory flavor boost. Meat tastes meatier. Veggies taste bolder.

A batch of anchovy butter can be kept in the fridge (or freezer) and sliced as needed. Melt it over steak and roasted and raw vegetables. Use it to sauté just about anything. When you have anchovy butter in the fridge, elevating a meal from good to great is so much easier. Don’t worry about fancy sauces or seasonings – just come home, throw your steak on the grill and your veggies in a pan. Then smother it all in luscious anchovy butter. It doesn’t get much easier, or much tastier, than that.

Servings: ½ pound of butter

Time in the Kitchen: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

½ pound (230 g) unsalted butter (ideally grass fed), at room temperature
8 anchovies packed in oil

Instructions:

Rinse the oil off the anchovies and use a chef’s knife (or mortar and pestle) to finely chop then mash the anchovies into a paste.

Using a fork or food processor blend the anchovies into the butter.

Scrape the butter onto a piece of waxed or parchment paper and roll and shape into a cylinder. Chill, and slice as needed.

Not Sure What to Eat? Get the Primal Blueprint Meal Plan for Shopping Lists and Recipes Delivered Directly to Your Inbox Each Week



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Primal Eating Gave Me My Life Back

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!

Primal eating gave me my life back. Allowed me to stay in shape, enjoy eating, and not suffer. Living the Primal life is now my passion, it’s become that topic I always bring up to friends and strangers that causes my wife to roll her eyes and shh me – well, Primal and Star Wars…

I was born with a leaky valve in my heart (split aortic) and an enlarged aorta. When I was a kid I was told I could never play contact sports, weight lift or really do anything a healthy North American (Canadian) boy wants to do! It was devastating to watch other boys play…

I don’t know about you, but I hate being told I “can’t” do something. So, at the age of 22, after I quit smoking and drinking, I started weight training and quickly realized I had the right genetics to grow some decent sized muscle. I started on a path of competing as an amateur bodybuilder. I stayed natural (no illegal substances just over the counter supplements), so as to not worsen my heart condition any further. I had a pretty good go at competing. My stage weight was around 170 lbs at about 4 to 5% body fat. I had become really good at catering my diet on and off season to get the most out of what I was eating, mostly on a modified standard American diet. I always placed top three in my class and I am proud of my accomplishments.

In September 2013, I was at the tail end of prep for a show in October when I met with my cardiologist for a check-up that I will never forget. He told me that my aorta’s size was bigger and I was at a greater risk of an aortic dissection. Meaning if it got any worse, I’d be risking a tear –death or emergency surgery. Needless to say I was devastated. Bodybuilding was my passion, but I had to stop training. I was a new Dad and the thought of not seeing my daughter grow up was even more frightening than stopping a lifestyle that I adored so much.

From September 2013 to January 2014 I was a mess. I had no direction, no clue on how to change my lifestyle so I could remain healthy. All I knew was the old method of six to seven small meals, lots of protein, grains and training. In January, I met with a surgeon who later advised me that I could get back to the gym, but change my approach. He even said that I could run a marathon tomorrow if I wanted to! (I was never much of a runner and I’m still not) What a relief!

With light weights and high reps (to avoid the drastic changes in blood pressure and the Valsalva maneuver) I was back! Relief doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings that went through me. This gave me a new lease on life! Now all I had to do was figure out how to eat again. By this time I had put on a bit more weight than I was used to having. I was sitting around 190, and I didn’t look athletic at all anymore. My wife had been following MDA since around the same time, but I stubbornly refused to read much on it. So naturally, she would periodically send me some interesting MDA articles. Then she told me about The Primal Blueprint book. So I started listening to the podcast and reading the book, along with the 21 Day Challenge. I started to move towards the Primal/paleo lifestyle, but not as intently as I am now. Making subtle changes, and seeing improvements in overall health, energy and little bit of weight loss. Finally I had some direction.

I got sick less often. A flu bug would hit the house and I was miraculously spared! I was sleeping a lot better. It changed the way I approached eating and playing. I cut down my gym time to three days a week (much to my wife and daughter’s relief). Giving my body sufficient rest and improving the work-life-gym balance. On training days I am in and out in no more than an hour a day, and that includes 10 minutes of interval cardio with a minimum of 3×1 minute sprints thrown in. I no longer feel guilty if I miss a day at the gym. I know that I can make it the next day if I am not feeling up to it.

Since January of this year, I have taken it a lot more seriously. For a couple reasons to be honest. First, is to see how lean and how far I can go with this, and secondly, I have a friendly wager with my best friend. He is getting married down south in April and I’m his best man. So we decided to see who would have the best beach body with our different workout and eating strategies. The race is on. In January, I was 180-185 lbs and a solid layer of body fat. I went completely grain free, and incorporated the intermittent fasting approach. I usually don’t eat after 8 pm and won’t eat again till 10 or 11 the next morning. I have my coffee with full fat cream, no sugar or sweeteners and I do use BCAAs (branched chain amino acids).

I make sure that I maintain as much muscle as possible during this whole transformation. I eat about 3 to 4 times a day. Typically, I eat cashews as my 1st solid food, (coffee doesn’t count) then later on I have a solid 8-10 ounces of protein and a good portion of veggies slathered in butter, if I need one, I will have a whey isolate shake, then a complete meal later on in the evening. I cut booze all together. I do love scotch, but have abstained for now.

I love to eat, and am always taking old family recipes and converting them into a Primal state. They most often turn out amazing. I am becoming quite the Primal kitchen guru at home. My three year old daughter seems to love the food – She thinks my cauliflower mash is mashed potatoes – I am ok with that! My wife is down close to 20 lbs as well, however not as strict as me. I am now roughly 160 lbs and I am a very comfortable 6% body fat. I don’t deprive myself of things, as I love food too much, but everything in moderation. Even now, I eat cheese a couple times a week, 85% dark chocolate I have almost everyday (2 squares only) and I am happy. I have never felt this good, this healthy in a long time, and I owe it in great abundance to The Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily apple. I listen to the podcasts religiously. Sometimes more than once just so I better understand, and am able to incorporate more into the routine. I love the structure.

I don’t want people think this is hard, because it really isn’t. The toughest part of The Primal Blueprint is taking the first step towards a better you. Ignore what other people say, and do something for yourself. I want people to know that anyone can take charge of their life and make smarter, healthier choices. The food tastes amazing, and it really doesn’t feel like a diet. This is a strategy to make you feel good inside and out. I hope my story reaches someone, somewhere, somehow and inspires you to make a change. Change is good. Doesn’t have to be dramatic. The smallest of changes allows you to reap the biggest rewards. I am thankful every single day that I found The Primal Blueprint and Mark’s Daily Apple. It has been an incredibly useful tool. I have coined the phrase primalite as part of a blog that I am ashamed to say I am not as faithful on. It was more for me than anyone else anyways. So with all that being said. Peace, Love and Primal primalites and thanks for reading my story.

Michael

How to Overcome Inertia and Get Yourself Unstuck

The 17th Century physicist Isaac Newton observed in his famous laws of motion that objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. You’ve perhaps experienced this phenomenon as you chase your kids’ baseball while it rolls for a block and a half as you curse under your breath. You’ve also maybe observed it when you’re parked comfortably on the couch after a long, stressful day and know it would take all the king’s men to move you from that spot.

While I’m half kidding about the second example, I’ve seen the principle of inertia up close in my work over the years. People who are genuinely committed to better health often fight a certain physical and mental resistance for a while before the force of their own hard-earned momentum finally begins working for them. Likewise, I’ve seen people who struggled early on to get their fitness routine off the ground eventually experience it as second nature. They breeze through their new lifestyle where before the push to change left them in frustrated tears. (Maybe you’ve been there.)

We tend to think of health change solely as an attitude adjustment. If our mental game is good enough, then the physical effects are sure to follow. If we “fail” or backslide, it’s because we weren’t committed enough. Likewise, if we’re healthy and fit, we can look at those who aren’t and automatically judge their perceived lack of effort: “I got my workout in. The same choice is just as easy for that person.” or “I can walk by the vending machine without temptation. It’s obvious he/she doesn’t have any willpower.” Are these statements really fair – or even accurate?

Is the inertia all in our heads? Should exercising on “day one” really be any harder than on “day ninety-one” when workouts are tailored to respective fitness levels? What about eating? Does healthier eating really become more appealing over time, or is just a matter of mental discipline and habit? Is it just our tastes and routines that adjust, or do our brains change as well? You might be surprised….

There are some unfortunate facts about heading down a bad road. Our choices, especially when they become patterns, have more than short-term impact. While eating a cookie this afternoon won’t induce any serious changes in your brain or body (although there will be short-term consequences), having a cookie most afternoons – particularly when paired with other unhealthy choices – can over time put you on a physiological track.

For example, obesity and inactivity, obesity and poor eating – they’re more chicken versus the egg questions than we sometimes give them credit for. The easy assumption, of course, is to assume that inactivity causes obesity (or significantly contributes to it), but it’s also a result of it. Studies increasingly highlight how obesity can result in a persisting fatigue as well as how processed foods make us “more tired and sedentary.” Additionally, established routines of processed junk food alter our brain’s reward circuitry and decreases our interest in novel foods and balanced dietary choices.

The take home message here? It’s not a simple, straight line of bad choices to bad results. It’s a messy cul-de-sac of poor choices, unwanted results, and established physiological resistance to change. In other words – it’s a miserable cycle that feeds on itself.

So if being obese contributes to making us more obese, being inactive and eating crap food contribute to making us be further inactive and eating more junk, where’s the solution? Clearly, millions of people make progress and change their health for the better all the time. So, where is the exit ramp?

The path is clear, I’d say. You can move out of the cul-de-sac anytime you want, in fact. The issue appears to be this. There’s no shortcut or leisurely cruising our way out. It’s more of a leave your car by the side of the road and walk (maybe literally and figuratively).

In a culture hell-bent on selling convenience and latching onto quick-fixes, it’s critical to kick that mindset to the curb on your way out of Dodge. Count on the beginning of the endeavor to be the most arduous part and plan for that. If it’s not, you’ll be fortunate and have extra energy and support for further progress, but if it is, you’ll be prepared.

A study of nearly 100 people over several months, for example, suggests it takes an average of 66 days of repeating a new behavior for that new addition to become “automatic” habit. Not all behaviors take equal time either… New exercise routines took approximately 50% longer to cement into habit as eating/drinking behaviors.

On the other, more positive side of the coin, sticking with our good intentions eventually can reward us multiple-fold as our efforts end up supporting each other and our bodies gradually build momentum. (Objects in motion stay in motion….)

As an example of our efforts cross-pollinating, so to speak, research has demonstrated how exercise actually reduces our brain’s neuronal responses to food rewards. In other words, when we exercise, we have a lower motivation to eat, we anticipate eating less and we don’t get the same heightened pleasure from eating.

Likewise, persistent healthy food choices will over time recalibrate our brain’s reward system. Brain scans of study participants who began a healthier diet protocol after six months showed enhanced reward sensitivity to healthy foods and a reduced response to unhealthy choices. In other words, the brain takes a while to catch up, but we can rewire our way out of bad patterns.

I tend to believe knowledge is power in those situations – particularly knowledge about where you’re starting from and what you can expect. I’ve heard people say they’d rather not know if they’re up against a tough row, that they don’t want their parade rained on, that their motivation will be enough to carry them if people just don’t “discourage” them with warnings and so-called reality checks. Maybe that works for them. But I’ve seen plenty of folks who mimic the language earlier and tell themselves it’s no different for them – that they can just as easily do what others are already doing. A large percentage of them later give up before they’ve gotten off the ground.

Would you want to know these points right out of the starting gate?

At issue here is what can we do with these findings. How can we use them to build effective strategy rather than apply them as excuse to not even bother starting? I think the key is to imagine a rocket launch. It takes a massive and sustained boost to get beyond gravity, but once you’re above the strongest pull backwards, you find yourself in an amazing space.

What we’re looking at here is more than inertia really. It’s not just about getting moving but about the extra effort and patience to overcome negative physiological as well as behavioral patterns. If we can understand that there will likely be a lag time between our mental decisions and our bodies’ progress we’ll be more apt to have patience with our own process. Likewise, we’ll know to front load that process with effort, support and other motivation-boosters. We can create a series of lower threshold goals along the way and choose to value quicker advances and small wins even if they’re not the big results we’re really gunning for. (Those will come, too.)

The tipping point in behavior change, it appears, isn’t scare tactics or additional justification but simple accessibility. Making your process more accessible – easier, clearer, more blatantly simple to follow – can be the best strategy to begin.

Knowing the behavioral and physiological trends in addition to the essential knowing yourself – what cues you’re likely to respond to – will help you establish the routines that will be most effective in your daily life. With time, you brain and body will catch up with your intentions, and you’ll be working with the added bonus of momentum on your new Primal track.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Share your thoughts on inertia, momentum and your Primal gains. Have a great end to your week.

Prefer listening to reading? Get an audio recording of this blog post, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast on iTunes for instant access to all past, present and future episodes here.

The Definitive Guide to Seeds

Last week, I gave yo the definitive guide to nuts, focusing on the ten most widely available types. Today I give the same treatment to edible seeds. If you’ve ever wondered whether chia seeds are good to eat, or sesame seeds can be legitimate snacks, or flaxseed actually isn’t as good (or bad) as you may have thought, this is the post for you. If you need to choose sides in a long-standing and bitter blood feud pitting the sunflower seed farmers on your mother’s side of the family against the pepita producers on your father’s, this post will help you decide. If your trustafarian friend’s obsession with the industrial applications of hemp is getting on your nerves, this post will give you the tools to analyze his arguments.

As you’ll see below, seeds are nutrient-dense little guys that can really pack in the minerals. Let’s get to it:

Chia

Multi-level marketers hawk it. Food manufacturers add a teaspoon of it to juice drinks and double the price. Bulk bins in health food stores across the world stock it. The prominence of the chia seed as a dietary supplement has supplanted its prominence in the “As Seen on TV” market. Should you be eating it?

In an ounce:

137.8 calories
11.9 g carbs: 9.8 g fiber
8.7 g fat 0.7 g MUFA, 1.7 g LA, 5.1 g ALA (omega-3), 1.1 g SFA
4.7 g protein
11% vitamin B3 (niacin)
23% vitamin B6
167% vitamin K
15% calcium
29% copper
58% iron
26% magnesium
34% manganese
28% selenium
12% zinc

Benefits:

Chia seed supplementation may modestly reduce CRP levels, at least compared to an equal amount of wheat bran.
I’m not gonna lie. The broad range of nutrients you get from just an ounce of chia seeds is impressive.
Chia seed fiber absorbs a lot of water. So much that if you let whole chia seeds sit in liquid, they’ll become gelatinous globules. If you blend the seeds in a liquid, it becomes gelatinous pudding. This is handy for creating dishes with interesting textures, and although no studies show this to be definitively the case, it also indicates prebiotic potential.
Great for thickening smoothies.

Concerns:

The magical health claims, which are overblown and exaggerated. In overweight women, chia seed supplementation increased plasma levels of ALA and EPA, suggesting the successful conversion of short chain omega-3s to long chain omesga-3s. However, chia seed had no effect on inflammatory markers or risk factors for metabolic diseases, and DHA decreased slightly in another study of postmenopausal women. Chia also seems to have no effect on bodyweight (good or bad) or disease risk factors in overweight adults. Chia seeds aren’t miracles, in other words. They’re probably just a decent source of micronutrients, (hopefully prebiotic) fiber, and vegetarian-friendly omega-3s.
The fiber is mostly insoluble, large amounts of which can aggravate IBS and other intestinal conditions.
Short chain omega-3s (ALA from chia, flax, and hemp) cannot replace long chain omega-3s (EPA and DHA from seafood). Conversion from ALA into EPA/DHA is just too inefficient in humans.
Phytic acid.

Flaxseed

Flaxseed gets a bad rap in the ancestral health community. Sure, when it goes bad it smells like paint thinner. Sure, flaxseed oil is actually used as paint thinner. It doesn’t taste particularly good, and the seeds get stuck in your teeth if you’re not careful about thoroughly milling them. The accolades it receives in both conventional and alternative health circles can be cloying, I know. And yeah, the omega-3s aren’t a good replacement for fish fats. But don’t count flaxseed out just yet. As you’ll see, it has some interesting components that may offer unique health benefits — even if you eat plenty of wild salmon.

In an ounce:

151.4 calories
8.2 g carbs: 7.7 g fiber
12 g fat: 2.1 g MUFA, 6.5 g ALA, 1.7 g LA, 1 g SFA
5.2 g protein
39% vitamin B1 (thiamine)
38% copper
20% iron
26% magnesium
31% manganese
13% selenium
11% zinc

Benefits:

Can reduce hypertension. A total of 30 grams of milled flaxseed every day “induced one of the most potent anti-hypertensive effects achieved by a dietary intervention,” but only in those patients with actual hypertension; it didn’t reduce blood pressure if subjects were normotensive.
Flaxseed lignans reduce oxidized LDL, an independent risk factor for heart disease.
A milled mixture of 18 g flax, 6 gsesame, and 6 g pumpkin seeds administered to hemodialysis patients lowered inflammatory markers, improved omega-3 status (due to the flax, no doubt), and lowered insulin resistance.

Concerns:

Whole flax is notoriously indigestible. If you want to make the flax components more bioavailable, mill or blend it before consuming.
Phytic acid is high. It’s a seed, so there’s really no getting away from phytic acid.

Hemp

If you’ve spent any time in hazy college dorm rooms with towels blocking the space under the door and “Buffalo Soldier” playing on repeat, you’ll have heard about the universal utility of hemp. It makes better, stronger, and more breathable clothing than cotton. It can replace synthetic building materials. It doesn’t use many pesticides. It’ll save the world, man. And, they say, it can even feed it. Yeah? Well, I wouldn’t go quite that far, but hemp seed is a viable food source, certainly edible and pleasantly nutty. How does it stack up nutritionally?

In an ounce:

149.1 calories
7.8 carbs: 7.8 g fiber (all fiber)
10.1 g fat: 1.1 g MUFA, 2.2 g ALA, 4.8 g LA, 0.8 g SFA
7 g protein
24% vitamin A
63% copper
50% iron
33% magnesium
86% manganese
13% selenium
18% zinc

Benefits:

Hemp seed is one of the few sources of stearidonic acid, an intermediate omega-3 fat in the conversion pathway from ALA to EPA with a knack for increasing the EPA content of red blood cells in humans.
Hemp seeds contain a host of bioactive compounds with potentially beneficial health effects (PDF), including cannabidiol, beta-sitosterol, methyl-salicylate, tocopherols, and unique antioxidants.

Concerns:

Hemp seed is high in phytic acid, like essentially all seeds. A recent study into Italian and French cultivars found a range of 64.9-74.1 g phytate/kg hemp seed (PDF), or 6.49-7.41 g/100 g.
Allergy (though uncommon).

Pumpkin/Squash

Pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, are my favorite. Roasted with a light dusting of sea salt and eaten as snacks, scattered across a salad for texture and crunch, lightly toasted and ground up to make a green mole sauce? It’s a versatile little seed. I have fond childhood memories of scooping out the innards of Halloween jack-o-lanterns, separating the seeds, and roasting them in the oven. That pumpkin and squash seeds get lumped into the same category whichever online nutritional database you use, though, has always irked me. But that’s what I have to go on. Don’t blame me if you rely exclusively on delicata squash seeds for your magnesium and they end up having very little.

In an ounce:

162.7 calories
4.2 g carbs: 1.8 g fiber
13.9 g fat: 4.5 g MUFA, 5.6 g linoleic acid (LA), 2.4 g SFA
8.5 g protein
40% copper
29% iron
37% magnesium
55% manganese
20% zinc

Benefits:

Most research has looked at the health effects of pumpkin seed oil rather than the pumpkin seeds themselves. Still, since the seeds contain the oil, any benefits the oil confers should also apply to seed eaters.

Pumpkin seed oil has been shown to:

Improve nocturnal urination in patients with overactive bladders (and by “improve” I mean reduce).
Increase hair growth in men with androgenetic alopecia.
Reduce aflatoxin toxicity in mice.
Have antihypertensive effects.

As for the seeds?

“Pumpkin byproducts,” aka seeds, contain significant levels of antioxidant and bioactive compounds. Same for the seed fiber. The pumpkin seed lipids also contain bioactive compounds relevant to human health.
In men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, a year of supplementing with pumpkin seeds every day reduced their International Prostate Symptom Score compared to placebo.
They can increase iron status in adult women.

Concerns:

Pumpkin seeds are quite high in phytic acid, with one recent study placing the content at 4.2 g phytate/100 g pumpkin seed. If that holds for other pumpkin seeds, you’d be looking at close to a gram of phytate in an ounce. Somewhat reassuring is the fact that adult women who added pumpkin seeds to their diet saw an increase in iron status
Rectal bezoars.
Pumpkin seed aspiration.
Allergy.

Sesame

We don’t normally think of sesame seeds as a snack item because trying to snack on a baggie of sesame seeds doesn’t really work. They’re too small to chew and they don’t handle like larger seeds. Instead, sesame seeds are garnishes. They’re sprinkled over dishes as finishers and flavorers. If you want to use larger amounts of sesame, you grind it up into tahini paste, like in hummus, or mix the whole seeds with molten sugar to form clusters or brittle. As a result, sesame seeds rarely contribute much caloric bulk to a person’s diet. Is that a mistake?

In an ounce:

178.9 calories
3.3 g carbs: 3.3 g fiber (all fiber)
17.4 g fat: 6.8 MUFA, 0.1 ALA, 7.2 LA, 2.6 g SFA
5.8 g protein
17% vitamin B1 (thiamine)
10% vitamin B3 (niacin)
44% copper
23% iron
23% magnesium
18% manganese
18% selenium
17% zinc

Benefits:

40 grams a day of sesame seed improved clinical signs and symptoms in patients with knee osteoarthritis.
Sesame paste (just ground seeds) improved triglycerides and triglyceride/HDL ratios.
In hyperlipidemic patients, sesame seed consumption improved lipid numbers and (most importantly) lowered lipid oxidation.
Sesame meal lowered oxidative stress, improved hypertensive status, and increased antioxidant capacity in pre-hypertensive patients.
A potential benefit to sesame seed consumption are its bioactive lignans, which show anticancer, antihypertensive, cardioprotective, and antioxidant effects.

Concerns:

It’s really hard to eat enough sesame seeds to get into trouble. I guess you could just spoon the things into your gaping maw and chew for a few minutes and hope for the best, but why?
Phytic acid.
Allergy.

Sunflower

Growing up a young lad in Maine, my summertime roaming radius was a dozen miles across. And if you wanted to find me, you followed the sunflower seed hulls I spat out at a steady clip all day long. Eating sunflower seeds and spitting out the hulls is about as American as apple pie. Actually, seeing as many Native American tribes grew and harvested sunflowers right along with their squash, corn, and beans, sunflower seeds are way more American than apple pie. And even though they exist, let’s ignore those deviant monsters who eat the entire shell along with the seed inside.

In an ounce:

165.6 calories
5.7 g carbs: 2.4 g fiber
14.6 g fat: 5.3 g MUFA, 6.5 g LA, 1.3 g SFA
5.9 g protein
35% vitamin B1 (thiamine)
15% vitamin B3 (niacin)
22% vitamin B6
16% folate
66% vitamin E
57% copper
19% iron
22% magnesium
24% manganese
27% selenium
13% zinc

Benefits:

Sunflower seeds possess considerable levels of antioxidant compounds which may reduce oxidative stress.
Rich in phytosterols, which lower cholesterol.

Concerns:

Rich in phytosterols, which lower cholesterol. Huh? Isn’t that a benefit? Maybe, but there’s also considerable evidence that elevated plasma levels of phytosterols — which are kinda like the plant version of cholesterol — are associated with atherosclerosis and heart disease. Meanwhile, save for studies in animals (who are largely herbivorous and habitual consumers of a high-phytosterol diet), phytosterol supplementation has never been shown to reduce the incidence of heart disease or inhibit atherosclerosis in people. My inclination is to avoid “phytosterol-enriched” products and inordinate amounts of phytosterol-rich foods like sunflower seeds. Normal amounts of seeds should be fine.
Springtime fecal impaction.
Allergy.
High in phytate.

Seeds are potent, made all the more so by the diminutiveness that masks them. It’s easy to absentmindedly snack all day long and end up eating an entire cup of pumpkin or sunflower seeds. They’re almost uniformly high in phytic acid, which may have its good side but definitely can impair mineral absorption at high levels. Many are high in omega-6 fats, which aren’t really a problem in the context of whole foods but may be if those foods are eaten to excess. And the rich body of evidence supporting regular nut consumption just isn’t there for seeds. I suspect seeds are quite beneficial in the right amounts given their nutrient levels and the limited research that does exist in their favor, particularly if you soak and perhaps even sprout them, but exercise caution just the same. We are neither birds nor rodents, and a seed-based diet probably doesn’t suit us.

That’s it for today, folks. How’s your relationship to edible seeds? Do they agree with you? What are your favorites?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care.

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How to Safely and Enjoyably Transition to a Barefoot-Dominant Lifestyle

The way we wear them, shoes are a real problem. They sever our physical connection to the earth, perturb our natural running and walking gait, and probably increase our risk of running injuries by increasing the forces acting on our joints when we land. That’s fairly basic stuff for readers of this blog, many of whom are intellectually on board with the barefoot thing and convinced of the benefits. And yet actually going barefoot is a big leap for most people. Something holds them back.

The actual ditching of the shoes isn’t the problem. Baring your feet to the world isn’t your hang up. You’re willing to get rid of your shoes and buy minimalist ones; maybe you already have. The main impediment to your complete embrace of the unshod foot is the necessary transition from years of wearing shoes to a barefoot-dominant lifestyle.

People just don’t know how to do it safely or effectively. They’ll read a blog post or two, ditch their shoes, buy a pair of Vibrams, strap ‘em on, and resume their normal activities: CrossFit WODs, marathons, long hikes, and general ambling around town conducting daily business. If they’re blessed with incredibly resilient feet, the transition is smooth. If they’re not, they can get injured. And when the newly barefoot show up with a strained Achilles’ tendon or crippling calf cramps or even a stress fracture in their toe because the shock of the transition was too much for their shoe-soft lower limbs, everyone goes “Told ya so” and the barefoot-dominant lifestyle’s “faddishness” is confirmed for everyone involved. Recently, a ridiculous lawsuit against Vibram made national headlines, as one poor user challenged their claim that the shoes could strengthen feet and prevent injuries. So hey, don’t sue me when i suggest that transitioning to more barefoot time–safely–can help strengthen your feet! Disclaimer: Transitioning to more barefoot time frivolously can get you injured!

Yeah: the vast majority of people need to nail the transition between the shod and barefoot ways of life. And until now, there simply hasn’t been a reliable, comprehensive resource for making that transition in a safe and effective way.

Enter my latest eBook: Amazing Feets! – How to Safely and Enjoyably Transition to a Barefoot-Dominant Lifestyle

It’s a comprehensive guide to safely making the transition to a barefoot-dominant lifestyle.

Because an important, but underrated Primal Law is “Avoid stupid mistakes.” Needless risk is foolish, and taking them can put you out of commission and jeopardize your quality of life. Going barefoot without doing due diligence and easing through the transition is one of the stupider mistakes a person can make.

I decided to write this because I’ve been to the other side and back. I spent a decade running hundreds of miles every week. As an endurance athlete, my choice of shoes was predicated on its ability to absorb the impact of the road and deaden my nerves enough to allow me to continue running hundreds of miles every week.

But, after years of chronic injuries, poor posture, and tissue inflammation, I realized my errors and changed my ways.

I’ve now spent the better part of a decade leading a barefoot-dominant lifestyle. I own my own business, partially so I can wear whatever the heck kind of shoe I want while working. I often work from home, so I can go entire days without even looking at a pair of shoes. I live near the beach and make it a point to feel the sand between my toes on a daily basis. Whenever possible, I’m barefoot. When it’s not, I’m in minimalist shoes that place the feet in barefoot-like conditions.

I go barefoot primarily because it feels good. I’ve always preferred being barefoot, but until about ten years ago I thought I “had” to wear protective shoes to, well, protect my feet, joints, and legs from all the running.

But there are other benefits to leading a barefoot-dominant lifestyle:

Renewed connection to the earth: In shoes, ground is ground. Whether we walk on cobblestone, lava rock, loamy earth, sand, or concrete makes no difference to our rubber soled feet. It all feels the same. Going barefoot, or wearing thin-soled minimalist shoes, allows the thousands of nerve endings lining your footbed to feel the ground and transform how we experience the simple act of walking.

Safer running: A forefoot landing is more economical, reduces loading on the joints, and is the type of landing your body defaults to when barefoot. Running with an elevated heel forces you into a heel strike that’s less efficient and produces greater peak impact forces on joints. Although further research is sorely needed to confirm the protective benefits, most reviews of the literature admit that the available data “suggest barefoot running may be associated with positive biomechanical changes in regards to injury prevention.” For example, barefoot running decreases stride length, which reduces the ground reaction forces (GRF). Excessive GRFs may contribute to non-contact knee injuries.

Better posture: Posture starts at the feet. When you wear shoes with an elevated heel, you’re forced into a forward lean. To account for the lean, you compromise the position of at least one (but likely all) of the major joints along the kinetic chain. Maybe you tuck your pelvis, which stresses your lower back and puts it into hyperextension, which causes you to slump your shoulders, which gives you tight pecs and a sore neck, which leads to chronic headaches and anterior shoulder issues. By ditching the shoes with elevated heels, you can reclaim your natural posture.

Better balance: Giving those nerve endings in your feet access to the sensory information provided by the environment also improves something called “foot position awareness,” a fancy name for stability and balance. Thick shoes remove this proprioceptive awareness, reducing balance and stability and increasing the risk

Gentler walking: When you walk barefoot or in minimalist shoes, you know if you’re plodding along abrasively because you feel it in your bones. That’s why barefoot walking is easier on the joints and can even reduce pain in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee — you get instant feedback from your own body.

The benefits to going barefoot are considerable, but you really do have to get it right or you risk ending up worse than when you started. After reading Amazing Feets!, you’ll have learned:

How being barefoot made us human
Why shoes sever our connection to the natural world
Why the minimalist shoe industry has exploded in popularity — and how it’s not a temporary fad
How a barefoot-dominant lifestyle can improve your physical health, posture, and performance
How ditching protective shoes can improve your running efficiency and reduce the risk of injuries
The right way to stand, walk, and run
How to safely and effectively transition into a barefoot-dominant lifestyle using a detailed 3-tiered program
What to do, step-by-step, from the moment you remove your shoes
Specific exercises and stretches to prepare your feet, ankles, and legs for the barefoot transition
The best minimalist shoes, barefoot accessories, and additional resources to help your transition

Amazing Feets! is now available – and only available – as part of the Bodyweight Bundle 2.0, a premier collection of bodyweight strength and conditioning programs, bodyweight mobility guides, bodyweight fat loss manuals, bodyweight nutrition eBooks, and bodyweight workout videos.

For just $37, you get everything you’ll ever need to get strong, fit, fast, lean, flexible, and healthy using only your bodyweight. Purchased separately, the products in the package are worth $1033.97. So this is an insane deal.

Plus, if you hate it, you have 30 days to get your money back. No questions asked. But I’m pretty sure you’re going to love it.

$37 is worth it for the ease of a safe transition into barefoot living alone. That you also get 36 of the best bodyweight fitness and health eBooks around. This just sweetens the deal and, frankly, makes it a no-brainer in my estimation.

If you’re wondering how last year’s Bodyweight Bundle 1.0 compares to this year’s 2.0, Bodyweight Bundle 2.0 contains 20 completely new programs. So even if you were lucky enough to get in on 1.0, this year’s version has plenty of new eBooks to love.

The deal’s only good through Friday, March 27, though, so get on it. This is a huge opportunity that you don’t want to miss.

I’m extremely proud of Amazing Feets!, and if you pick up the bundle in the next few days, I think you’ll agree. Even if you’re not ready to make the barefoot transition today, taking advantage of this bundle now will secure the means to safely do it when you are.

Once you’ve read and digested the book, please let me know how it’s helped your transition to a barefoot-dominant lifestyle. It’s been very helpful to the beta-readers, and I can’t wait to hear how it works for everyone else.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Get Your Copy of Amazing Feets! and the Entire Bodyweight Bundle 2.0 Here>>

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Dear Mark: Preventing Age-Related Muscle Loss, Sprouted Barley-Fed Meat, and a Pistachio Downside

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, we’ve got three questions and three answers. First up is a question from Casey, whose father is losing strength and muscle despite maintaining an active lifestyle. What can he do — dietarily and otherwise — to staunch and reverse the losses? Next, Australian cattle farmers are increasingly turning to sprouted grain as a replacement for standard grain feed. How does it compare to pasture feeding? Are there nutritional differences between sprouted and regular grain fodder? And finally, what do we make of the recent study showing negative effects in cyclists who ate a high-pistachio diet for two weeks? Should we rethink our stance on pistachios — and nuts in general?

Let’s go:

Dear Mark,

My father (64, fairly lean, very healthy given his diet) mentioned to me yesterday that he feels like he’s losing muscle and strength. He mostly follows what you recommend for exercise with lots of slow movement every day, but also mild strength training every day am/pm for work, so that’s non-negotiable. I looked, but had trouble finding much information about muscle loss from you and was wondering if you could write about it a little further. Thank you!!

Casey

Protein is key, and becomes even more vital the older a person gets. The protein RDA simply does not suffice for older people, who lose thigh muscle mass and exhibit lower urinary nitrogen excretion when given the standard 0.8 g protein/kg bodyweight. They’re just less efficient at processing, metabolizing, and turning protein into muscle. More recent studies indicate that a baseline intake of 1.0-1.3 g protein/kg bodyweight or 0.5-0.6 g protein/lb bodyweight is more suitable for the healthy and frail elderly to ensure nitrogen balance. 

He sounds pretty active, too, and that will increase the amount of protein he needs. I wouldn’t expect massive gains or anything. But moderate gains, especially in strength, and putting a stop to the loss of muscle is extremely realistic — and important for a healthy rest of life. Evidence suggests that increasing protein can both improve physical performance without necessarily increasing muscle mass and, if you’re into that sort of thing, increase muscle mass when paired with extended resistance training in the elderly.

Look at overall calorie intake, too. Low-calorie diets often lead to muscle and strength loss even when protein is high. If he’s active all day long, he just needs more food — not just protein. Make sure he’s consuming adequate calories to ensure weight maintenance. He shouldn’t be losing weight, unless it’s excess body fat which it doesn’t sound like he even has. In the elderly, weight loss tends to portend ill health. He needn’t fear a moderate amount of carbs, either. Since he’s lean, he can get away with healthy Primal carb sources like potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squash, fruit, and even rice on occasion.

This is a longshot and it may be a little controversial, but testosterone replacement therapy is a viable (and totally understandable/justifiable) option for older men with waning strength, muscle loss, lower libido, and other symptoms of low testosterone levels. He’d have to talk to his doctor about that, of course. I suggest he considers pursuing it if increased protein doesn’t do the trick and he’s not satisfied with his quality of life.

Also, he might consider a day or two a week of less mild, more intense strength training.

Hi Mark,

I’m from Australia, I recently became a certified primal expert. I recently met a sheep and goat farmer from the Toowoomba region where I live and he was telling me about how he uses hydroponically grown sprouted barley as fodder for his livestock. Have you done any research on this method of feeding? How does this method of feeding stack up compared to grass feeding? I tried doing a bit of digging about sprouted barley as fodder but I couldn’t find anything that compared it to pasture feeding. I love your work and I hope one day I can attend PrimalCon or any other Primal/Paleo convention and have the opportunity to meet you in person. Thank you so much, you have enhanced my life

Regards,

Luke

Luke, glad to have you aboard the cert program!

Pasture is generally superior to everything. That’s pretty much a given at this point. Sprouted grains are more grass-like than their seed-like un-sprouted counterparts, as a recent review concludes (PDF):

Vitamin content increases dramatically, particularly vitamin E and beta-carotene. If the fat’s yellow, that’s the carotene. More vitamin E increases the oxidative stability of the animal’s fat.
Enzyme activity increases, promoting greater micronutrient bioavailability (which, as you know, ends up in the meat).
Protein content increases. Animals need protein to be healthy and happy, and healthy/happy animals produce better meat.
Protein quality improves. Again, healthier animals are better for everyone.
Fiber content increases. Animals who eat a higher fiber diet have more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in their fat.
Essential fatty acids increase, especially the crucial omega-3s.
A study in livestock found that cattle fed sprouted barley experienced remarkable weight gain that coulnd’t be explained by the energy intake alone. That means more efficient feeding and, hopefully, lower prices for the consumer.

Plus, from my research, the Australian farmers (the pioneers in sprouted barley as fodder) using sprouted barley are doing it in the offseason when natural pasture is less available. They’re generally not using it to replace fresh grass, but to replace regular old grain feed. This is a big win in my book, and I’d love to try some sprouted barley-fed lamb and goat meat. Make sure that the animals are also receiving fresh pasture when available in addition to the sprouted barley. Let me know how it is!

Since you are always up to date on the research, I was surprised to see the omission of a recent study on pistachios and leaky gut in your discussion on nuts today:

Influence of Pistachios on Performance and Exercise-Induced Inflammation, Oxidative Stress, Immune Dysfunction, and Metabolite Shifts in Cyclists: A Randomized, Crossover Trial

Although the authors try to make the case that the increased intestinal permeability seen during exercise was the result of chronic pistachio ingestion, it isn’t clear based on their experimental design that it wasn’t an acute interaction between the pistachios and exercise. Either way, this is one of the best in vivo studies we have to date showing how foods can increase the permeability of the intestine and have negative cellular consequences.

Eric

This is an interesting paper. Thanks for sending it. If you guys want to read it yourselves, the full text is available in the link Eric provides, but here’s how it went down:

Trained cyclists were split into two groups. One group ate 3 ounces of pistachios every day for 2 weeks. The other group did not.

After two weeks, everyone showed up to the lab for a 75 km time trial on the stationary bike. The pistachio group ate another 3 ounces of pistachios before and during the trial. The other group drank only water. Both groups fasted overnight.

Time trial performance was 4.8% slower in the pistachio group.

The pistachio group showed elevated plasma levels of raffinose (a type of pistachio fiber), sucrose, and certain markers of oxidative stress. Both groups experienced exercise-induced leaky gut, as exercise leads to acute increases in intestinal permeability as a general rule. So it wasn’t the pistachios causing the leaky gut, although the pistachio group had unique stuff pass through the gut into the blood.

Okay, so what’s going on? Are pistachios bad for you?

They ate 3 ounces, almost 100 grams, of pistachios every day. That’s close to a half cup of nuts. I don’t recommend eating a half cup of nuts daily. The occasional nut binge? Sure, it happens. But daily? No.

They appeared to simply add the pistachios on top of their regular diet without replacing any calories. According to three-day meal records, pistachio eaters routinely ate 35% more calories than the no-pistachio group. 3 ounces of pistachios is 477 calories, or an extra medium-sized meal — comprised entirely of nuts.

One of the elevated markers of oxidative stress was 9,10-DiHOME. 9,10-DiHOME is a toxic metabolite of linoleic acid oxidation. In cell culture studies, 9,10-DiHOME causes mitochondrial dysfunction and increased oxidative stress to cells. It alters the inner membrane stability in mitochondria and increases the release of a protein involved in cell death. The pistachio eaters’ elevated post-exercise levels of lysolipids — lipids that form the mitochondrial membrane — may indicate 9,10-DiHOME-mediated disruption of the membranes. If the power plants of our cells and, ultimately, muscles, aren’t working well, our physical performance will be compromised.

Another marker of PUFA oxidation — azelaic acid — was also increased in the pistachio group.

So, are pistachios, and any other nut with moderate to high levels of linoleic acid, bad? At first glance, it certainly seems like it.

But consider that the pistachio eaters were also eating 35% more calories than the non-pistachio eaters. In other words, they were in a state of energy excess. And when linoleic acid contributes to caloric excess — when you start eating a half cup of pistachios on top of your normal diet without changing anything else — problems may arise. The toxin 9,10-DiHOME increases, potentially enough to start disrupting mitochondrial function. Markers of PUFA oxidation and subclinical atherosclerosis rise. That may have been what happened to the pistachio-eating cyclists, who ate 22 grams of linoleic acid to the water-drinkers’ 9 grams on top of their already-high calorie intake.

I suspect as long as you’re hypocaloric or eucaloric, linoleic acid from healthy sources won’t be a problem.

In the end, this study isn’t about pistachio-induced leaky gut. The leaky gut happened irrespective of pistachio intake. But it does reinforce the advice I always give to people wondering about nuts:

Nuts are snacks. Don’t make meals out of them.

Nuts aren’t “free calories.” If you can’t account for your nut intake by reducing food intake elsewhere, you shouldn’t be eating them.

That eating some nuts is good doesn’t imply eating more is better. It’s safe to assume that, like many things in life, nuts have an upside-down U-shaped dose-response curve. Where the peak of the U lies is up in the air, but it’s probably not at nearly 500 calories of pistachios every single day.

That’s it for this week, folks. Thanks for reading and be sure to chime in with your input down below!

Weekend Link Love – Edition 340

I had a great time cooking, chatting about paleo tricks, and busting paleo myths on Camille’s Paleo Kitchen cooking show. Go check out the full episode, and wait for the paleogasm at the end.

The 2015 Diabetes Summit kicks off tomorrow. Register today to get free access to my presentation and dozens of others over the next week.

Research of the Week

8000 years ago at the dawn of agriculture, 17 women were reproduced for every one man. Man, the life of your average early farmer must have just been great!

Infants who received the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus for the first six months of life went on to develop zero neuropsychiatric disorders by age 13. Among 13 year olds who didn’t get the probiotic as infants, 17.1% had developed ADHD or Asperger Syndrome.

Natural sleep cycles are preserved in a rural Brazilian community.

Outdoor play and exposure to bright natural light can lower the risk of myopia in kids by up to 60%.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 59: Dr. Kelly Starrett: Host Brad Kearns sits down with the supple leopard himself, Dr. Kelly Starrett, for a wide-ranging discussion about what it takes to become a healthy, well-rounded athlete, prevent common injuries, increase mobility and performance, and make the right training decisions. You’ll learn the five practices K-Starr prioritizes for anyone interested in improving their physical health, performance, and general wellness.

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.

The Definitive Guide to Nuts
The Autoimmune Protocol: What to Do When Nothing Else Has Worked
How We Die: End of Life Planning

Interesting Blog Posts

The potential health effects of whisky polyphenols.

A dying neurosurgeon’s ruminations on time, meaning, joy, and life.

Media, Schmedia

Many dairy farmers are breaking the law on antibiotics usage in their animals.

Light manufacturer conducts survey concluding light at night not responsible for sleep disturbances.

Everything Else

An ongoing study is checking if the oft-reported survival benefits to pet ownership in older adults is related to changes in gut bacteria from dog kisses.

The British coconut oil boom.

The evolution of the anus.

Can maple syrup replace glucose gel for endurance athletes?

The Kitchen of the Unwanted Animal, an Amsterdam food truck and caterer, serves up pigeon, pony, parakeet, and other uncommon (and initially unwanted) animal meats.

Recipe Corner

Ever try creole puchero? No? Then get on it.
Peruvian shrimp chowder, or chupe de camarones, involves a lot of ingredients, but it’s well worth it.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 23 – Mar 29)

The Definitive Guide to Resistant Starch – Get the scoop on this powerful prebiotic.
Why Squatting is So Important (plus Tips on How to Do It Right) – Squatting is our human birthright, and it’s massively beneficial. Here’s how and why to do it.

Comment of the Week

When I first read the article, I read “You need a rat breakfast on a regular basis.” I wasn’t ready to go THAT primal.

– Oh, The Definitive Guide to Road Kill, Vermin, Rats, and Other Varmints is coming soon.

Paleo Spinach & Artichoke Crab Dip

This a guest post from Kim and Amanda of PaleoSchmaleo.

Kim and I were gifted with a glorious bottle of pre-made paleo approved (REAL FOOD) mayo from Primal Kitchen. I say glorious, and I don’t use that term lightly, mostly because of the word pre-made AND also the fact that it’s all clean ingredients! SCORE! Let me share a little something with you…as much as I enjoy cooking, I am not above a pre-made or chopped shortcut on occasion, especially during a busy workday. As long as it’s ingredient list passes my inspection of course, I’m in even if it costs a little extra money. I figure sometimes, the money is worth the time I’ll be saving.

In other-words; yes, the juice is worth the squeeze.

So, when we got Primal Kitchen’s mayo and it held up to our taste buds approval, it was ON! Mayo dishes were flowing and it was one less step for us to do in the kitchen, less dishes…woohoo!!! I don’t know about you but I do NOT have a dishwasher but it’s defiantly on my bucket list to own one day…until then its just me and blue dawn. Besides making the usual dishes we already make we wanted to create a new recipe specifically using this mayo. We brain stormed it up and decided to try and create a “cream” style dip. Then the Spinach & Artichoke Crab Dip evolved…true story.

I went over to Kim’s house last Sunday and we had a cooking party in our PJ’s! Hence the no face pictures either, we were AL-natural (scary) no make up. It was fun! We always have a good time when we are being silly in the kitchen.

We hope you enjoy this dish as much as we did! This would be the perfect addition to any party potluck! And you can leave out the crab if you aren’t a seafood fan! ENJOY! Let us know what you think!

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 green and 1 red roasted bell pepper
1 14 ounce can artichokes – chopped roughly
1 6 ounce can wild caught LUMP crab meat (we used Crown Prince)
1 8 ounce can water chestnuts – drained & roughly chopped
4 cups spinach – packed
3/4 cup paleo mayo – homemade or Primal Kitchen pre-made Mayo
1 can full fat coconut milk – just the top fat part of the can
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt & pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon arrowroot

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 ºF.

Take your chopped shallots and begin to caramelize them in a large skillet. While they are caramelizing, roast your peppers. Multitask!

Once your shallots are caramelized, remove from the pan and let them lay on a napkin to dry and crisp up. Leave the oil in the pan.

In that pan, on medium heat, add the artichokes, water chestnuts, crab meat, garlic and heat for 2-3 minutes stirring occasionally. (You might have to add more ghee or cooking oil/fat of your choice.)

Add in the spinach and cook down until soft.

Incorporate your peppers.

Stir in mayo, coconut milk and all the seasonings (except the arrowroot) including the lemon juice and bring to a boil.

Take the arrowroot and dissolve it in 1 tablespoon of water, stirring it to a liquid then pour it into the dish and stir until blended.

Put your whole skillet into the oven to bake 15 minutes or until it bubbles.

Serve with some of your favorite dipping veggies!

Note: Some people are allergic or do not like certain seafoods. When taking this to a party, you can always leave out the crab meat.

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