Mark Sisson's Blog, page 329

Sauerbraten: A Classic German Pot Roast

Sauerbraten is “sour roast,” a traditional German recipe made by marinating then braising a big hunk of meat in vinegar and spices. The vinegar isn’t just used for a sour zing; it also tenderizes the meat.

Bottom round is commonly used for sauerbraten, but any less-expensive cut of meat, including wild game like venison, can be tenderized by a soak in vinegar. Sauerbraten takes this to an extreme, soaking the meat for 3 to 5 days. It takes this long for vinegar to tenderize a large roast all the way through and give the meat sauerbraten’s signature vinegary flavor. Be warned: If you marinate a steak that long it’ll turn to mush. For smaller cuts, the meat doesn’t need more than a few hours in a vinegar marinade.

A tablespoon or two of vinegar can also be added to any braising liquid (or soup broth) during the cooking process to make meat extra-tender. Again, sauerbraten takes this to an extreme, using vinegar as the sole braising liquid. Traditionally, sugar or even gingersnap cookies are whisked in at the end, turning the sauerbraten braising liquid into a sweet and sour sauce.

This less-sweet but still tasty version throws in a few dates for sweetness, leaving the option of additional sugar (or some sour cream) up to you.

As tender as it is, this meat holds together in slices, especially after the cooked roast has been refrigerated overnight. Sauerbraten is great the first day but even better as leftovers.

Servings: 6

Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour of hands-on cooking, plus 72 hours to marinate and 3 hours of roasting

Ingredients:

4 pounds of boneless beef roast, bottom round or chuck (1.8 kg)
2 cups red wine vinegar (or 1 cup vinegar and 1 cup red wine) (475 ml)
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot sliced
2 bay leaves
6 thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon whole allspice (5 ml)
1 teaspoon peppercorns (5 ml)
4 cloves
2 tablespoons tallow, lard, butter or coconut oil (15 ml)
6 pitted dates, roughly chopped

Instructions:

Bring 2 cups (475 ml) of water plus the vinegar, onion, carrot, bay leaves, thyme, allspice, peppercorns and cloves to a boil. Let cool. Place the meat in a glass bowl or stainless steel pot (avoid plastic, aluminum and cast iron) and pour the marinade over the meat. Cover the container and refrigerate for at least 72 hours and up to 5 days. The meat won’t be completely submerged, so you’ll need to turn the roast several times while it marinates in the refrigerator.

Take the meat out of the marinade and pat it dry. Generously season the roast with salt and pepper.

Strain the marinade and discard the solids. Set the liquid aside.

Heat oven to 325 °F (190 °C).

Heat the lard/butter/coconut oil over medium heat in an ovenproof pot. Brown all sides of the meat. This will take a total of 15 minutes or so.

Pour the marinade in the pot, scraping up any browned bits of meat on bottom. Add the dates.

Bring the liquid to a simmer. Cover and put in the oven. Check the roast after 30 minutes. The braising liquid should be at a very gently simmer; if the liquid is bubbling really rapidly, then turn the oven heat down to 300 °F.

Braise the meat for 1 hour more, use tongs and a spatula to turn the roast over, and braise for another 1 1/2 to 2 hours, for a total braising time of around 3 hours. The meat should be very tender.

Remove the meat from the braising liquid.

Skim excess fat off the top of the braising liquid. Pour the liquid into a blender and puree until the dates are smooth. Return what is now the sauerbraten sauce to the pot and simmer on the stove for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, to reduce and thicken the sauce. If you find the sauce to be unpleasantly acidic, a teaspoon or two of sugar can be added. Or, once the sauce is off the heat then stir in a few large spoonfuls of sour cream to give the sauce a smoother, richer flavor and texture.

Slice the meat and spoon the sauce on top.

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From an Auditor’s Cubicle to Real Life Shepherd – My Primal Success Story

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!

Hi Mark,

Let me start with a massive “THANK YOU”.  I’m a longtime reader and fan and you have truly inspired me in multiple ways. It’s not likely I would be where I am today without your insights, advice, and expertise.

My name is Paul and I’m a 28 year old shepherd in Southern California.  Yes, you read that right – I own and farm Primal Pastures, the largest 100% pastured, grass fed/grass finished lamb farm in Southern California, about an hour away from Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego in the city of Temecula. In addition to “Primal Lamb”, we also raise pastured chicken for meat and eggs. But things have not always been this way…

I grew up in the city (Seattle, WA), about as opposite from an agricultural upbringing as possible. In college I was an All-American spear thrower and found my 22 year old body in a degenerative arthritis state with increasing pain in my knees and shoulders from heavy Olympic lifting combined with lots of beer and pasta. Ice baths and Motrin were the prescribed fix-all, but it wasn’t working and things were getting worse.

After college I went on to become an Intelligence Officer in the Marine Corps. I was trained in infantry tactics, sniper command, and some spycraft and interrogation skills. After a deployment to Southern Iraq I learned about paleo from some CrossFit buddies. I was immediately hooked on all things Primal, and my entire worldview was affected by this revelation of health, wellness, longevity, and happiness.

After having the opportunity to lead a 500-man Amphibious Tank unit, I departed the Marine Corps and dove headfirst into corporate America. I proceeded to stare at a computer screen for a few thousand hours (stand up desk of course), and three years later a CPA license popped out. What a change from the Marine Corps days, I thought to myself. Obviously I had no idea what was coming next…

My entire family’s lives were affected by Primal principles. My father-in-law Tom lost 80 pounds, and my brothers-in-law Jeff and Rob trimmed down significantly back to their days as college basketball players. We were on board and feeling great with the Primal plan, but kept struggling to find a good clean source of real, pastured, soy and GMO free chicken here in Southern California. Finally after some discussion, Rob walked into the living room beaming as he stated that 50 chicks were on order and would be delivered in less than two weeks. So in April of 2012, we received our first 50 birds and raised them the way we believed they should be: outside, on grass, with room to roam, picking and scratching for bugs and worms, and when supplemented, fed an all-organic, GMO-free, soy-free feed.

We really didn’t know what to expect demand-wise, but we were shocked when the birds completely sold out even before harvest. By the time we harvested (a skill we picked up via Youtube) and had birds ready for market, “Primal Pastures” had a waiting list of over 100 families. The company grew organically – going from 50 birds to 100, to 150, to 200 per month. People were ecstatic about the product (I remember one lady jumping up and down and dancing in excitement) and enjoyed being able to visit the farm and see things for themselves since we are within an hour of the major urban centers of LA, OC, and SD. We provided tours, spoke at local events, interacted with gyms and CrossFit boxes, and constantly posted updates, photos, and stories to our social media sites.

The farm continued to grow through 2012 and 2013, but we were all still working full-time jobs. As a CPA I was working 10 hour plus days and running the farm business on the side. I also started the MBA program at UCLA Anderson and my wife and I were blessed with our first child during this time. Tom was running a construction company, Jeff was teaching full0time, and Rob was working full-time as well. Our combined “plate” was overflowing.

Just when we thought our capacity was maxed out, we received a call from a neighboring farm. Before this phone call, we considered venturing into grassfed sheep and were trying to decide between starting with 10 or 15 head, but definitely not more than 20 head. This would be a manageable number that we could get comfortable with before expanding, we thought. However, fate had other plans and this neighboring farm had 100 head of grassfed sheep and they were leaving town the next month, needing to sell everything quickly. They loved the way that we operated and even though they had multiple higher offers for the herd they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, and that night we became shepherds in addition to chicken farmers.

Now things were really moving along, and right at the same time we were introduced to an excellent cattle rancher in Southern California. Previously, we hadn’t re-sold beef products because we did not feel comfortable with the quality or locality of our options for doing so (we don’t have our own cattle…yet). We have built Primal Pastures around the concept that we will provide the absolute highest quality meat products in and from Southern California. This old rancher is less than 2 hours away with 4,000 acres of free-ranging cattle that have access to 4 miles of running river and only grazed on local, seasonal, native forage. We inspected the ranch and confirmed that this was all true and the highest quality beef we had ever seen. After a taste test we decided to add grassland beef to the Primal Pastures lineup of product offerings, and it is excellent.

Grassfed beef, grassfed lamb, pastured chicken and eggs – this was becoming a real farm, not just a backyard hobby! Primal Pastures continued to grow and word of mouth spread like wildfire as people continued to demand high quality meat that they could trust. Something had to give, and Farmer Rob was heading off to PA school in a couple of weeks. The opportunity was there, I loved everything about farming, and business was growing exponentially. I was awarded the Larry Wolfen Entrepreneurial Spirit Award out of more than 100 applicants through UCLA Anderson which allowed me the financial flexibility to chase this dream. After some thought and discussion with my wife, we decided to “take the plunge” into full-time farming.

As you might imagine, life on a beyond organic sustainable farm is incredible. I feel a patriotic sense of importance, meaning, and purpose for my work that I hadn’t experienced since service in the Marine Corps. I am excited to wake up in the morning and see what the day is going to hold. Instead of spending 13 hours per day away from my family, they can now accompany me out to the fields for daily chores or give me a hand with projects. It is certainly not easy, and my workload has increased if anything, but the satisfaction, amazement, and beauty are nearly incomprehensible. The greatest satisfaction has been developing relationships with our customers through local drop sites. We always offer product pickup on the farm in Temecula, but also provide monthly drop sites in Pasadena, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Orange County, North San Diego, and Downtown San Diego.

So what’s next for Primal Pastures? We want cattle of our own! We also want to add pastured turkeys and pastured ducks (meat and duck eggs) to the farm. There are incredible synergies that take place when running all of these animals together. The trick is – we don’t have grandpa’s cattle herd to fall back on. We don’t have investors with deep pockets, and cattle are expensive! We have budgeted out the cash requirements for animals, fencing, and infrastructure and $40,000 is the golden number. We hope to add cattle both for grassfed beef as well as raw grassfed dairy products like milk and cheese.

So what’s a millennial to do? You probably guessed: On August 9, 2013 we launched our Kickstarter campaign. The community has come out in full force and as of August 22 we have already raised over $26,000! We are beside ourselves with the support that we have received from the Primal community so far. Now we are asking for your help to push us the rest of the way to our goal. If you aren’t in Southern California I would encourage you to still consider supporting this project – interested farmers from across the world are watching, reading, and planning, and our success will undoubtedly inspire new pastured farms to spring up everywhere. And if the time isn’t right financially, simply sharing this project with your network will be the difference in building this farm or not. Here’s that link again: http://bit.ly/primalpastures

Drawing on inspiration from guys like Mark, my goal is to start a food revolution. After learning about the horrors of CAFO production methods, I want to flip the US factory farming industry upside down and reclaim health in animal based foods. I want to change the direction of meat in America. I want Primal Pastures to be a place that you can bring your friends and your children and show them what real food farming looks like in practice. And most importantly I want to feed families with nourishing food that they can feel good about eating.

Mark, like I said, this probably would have never happened without being inspired by you, the staff, and the readers of MDA. Thank you and GROK ON!

Farmer Paul

Primal Pastures

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Chong
Help Farmer Paul Kickstart a Pastured, Beyond Organic & Sustainable Livestock Farm Before the Campaign Ends!

Sheltered: Missing the Primal Power of Nature

In her book about human-animal relations, Made for Each Other, Meg Daley Olmert tells the story of C.J. Buffalo Jones, a 19th Century frontiersman who, in her words, “witnessed one of the last demonstrations of the natural order that shaped the logic of our ancestors” and left record of it. “On a hill in Canada’s Northwest Territory,” she explains, “he watched herds of caribou congregate until all the eye could see for ten of miles around was a giant mast of animals whose antlers became a mighty forest. For several days this living landscape flowed past him day and night.” The number, which Jones estimated at 25 million, absolutely staggers the modern imagination.

Whether or not his approximation was accurate, still the size and force of such an experience seem beyond comprehension. Yet, it’s exactly the kind of natural event that inhabited our ancient ancestors’ communal consciousness and, not surprisingly, directed their cosmology. As Olmert suggests, it’s a major mental stretch for us moderns “to fathom a world in which we were not the top predators.” Yet, we evolved not in a state of dominion but coexistence, observance and even reverence for nature’s many forces.

What a far cry from our experience today of course. Few if any of us (at least among the Internet connected readership) live at the whim of wilderness anymore. Our society has done a good job at erecting a pretty solid wall between us and these experiences. For better and worse, the power of nature can feel like a remote concept at least in day to day living. Seldom are we humbled by it with the exception of random, localized weather emergencies.

Even if we fit in our “green hours” and get the kids to the local preserves on a regular basis, even if we live in the countryside, even if we’re avid outdoors people, as great as these are, there are whole dimensions we miss, I believe. How many of us have ever hiked – and camped- above the tree line? How many have come face to face with an animal predator? How many have taken on a wave or mountainside that could easily undo us? The beauty of nature is one thing. The power of it is another.

Anyone who’s ever sat with a dying animal (dying by natural/hunted means), experienced first hand true natural devastation or had a genuinely life-threatening run in with the wildlife knows what I mean here. Experiencing the wild world in all it’s glory means encountering its fierceness as much as its grandeur, the danger as much as its sublimity. As reader Kyle Rife put it to me in an email when describing a nasty experience with a hive of yellow jackets he’d had, it was somehow “satisfying,” this “encountering nature and losing.” I think there’s something essential and revealing to that.

While nature was the living, looming backdrop of our ancestors’ experience and imagination, for many of us moderns it can seem more like postcard material – remote places we go “visit” that have relatively little meaning to our lives or how we perceive them. When we manage to get out of the city or suburbs or farmland to spend time in the wild, we definitely enjoy ourselves. The day or weekend or week fulfills a primal desire but probably also modern expectations – a story much tamer than frontiersmen, let alone hunter gatherers, would’ve witnessed. No judgment. That’s simply the age we live in.

What happens, however, when we change not only our itinerary but our attitude? It’s not about consciously donning a Grok style mindset but more about shedding the modern mental baggage to even give our primal awareness room to breathe. We can head deeper into the woods, farther into the state or national park, but it’s ultimately about letting go of expectations, being in the moment and encountering the particular environment fully on its own terms – as a force as well as a setting.

What’s possible when that happens? What opens up? What rises to the surface? How do we come away changed as a result? Do we need the hair-raising peril to get in touch with that humbling energy? I’m guessing it helps but isn’t necessary. The days of massive migrations are gone, and seeking out danger is as foolhardy now as it would’ve been in Grok’s day. Perhaps there’s something to the authentic fight or flight response though. An encounter with death, after all, can be profoundly life affirming.

Yet, brush with death or major injury aside, I think there’s plenty of room for our experiences in nature to change us without threatening life and limb. For me sometimes it’s just spending the day in the dustiness and brightness of the SoCal chaparral. In the face of something bigger and harsher, we can come undone – bared down to our essential primal humanity. We can perhaps imagine a kindred hunter gather spirit some 20,000 years earlier gazing with the same open observance. It’s enough to take us out of ourselves and put us at the center of life – a force greater than our own, an experience more timeless than our individual existence.

I think that’s when we get at the heart of it – when, for so many readers who write me about this – Primal living becomes a way of seeing and experiencing parts of life, particularly the natural world and their part in it. Once you’ve felt that inherent energy and ancient sense of proportion, you gain a different (some would argue pretty counter cultural) perspective on modern life. You live less sheltered and more grounded for it.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Have a good end to the week. Share your thoughts and comments.

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Slacklining – My New Obsession

Because I know how even a moderately busy day can make actually watching a video an impossible dream, I’m going to summarize the main points for you guys.

I’m always trying to have more fun, as you well know. In fact, my whole reason for being in the gym is to train so that I can play – so that my body is fit enough, strong enough, and mobile enough to continue having fun for years to come. The best is when I can combine play and training in the same activity, because having fun while getting more fit is the absolute pinnacle of training. It makes both more effective than either alone.

About a year and a half ago, I discovered and fell in love with slacklining. The slackline is a strap of flat nylon webbing slung between two anchor points that you walk on. Because the line isn’t totally taut, it bounces and wobbles and shifts in every direction as you stand on it. Slacklining is almost like navigating a narrow trampoline. It requires – and develops – an insane amount of balance. As a guy who just turned 60 and hopes to stay active for decades to come, I’m going to need all the balance I can get. That’s why I dig it so much. It’s frustrating, and fun, and makes you more secure and stable on your feet. Slacklining also hits muscles in ways you’re not going to be able to target on conventional gym equipment. Not that it takes a lot of strength (anyone can slackline). All those subtle balance corrections will make your core incredibly strong, though.

Why develop any more balance than you already have, you say? Well, it’s not just about staying upright on a stand-up paddle board in choppy seas or navigating a powder-filled, tree-lined chute on skis or a snowboard. Consider how many people in their twilight years simply lose balance for an instant at night or trip and fall in their living room, resulting in a broken hip, resulting in extended bed confinement, resulting in pneumonia, resulting in death. OK, maybe that’s a bit morbid, but you get my point. I would argue that as we age, balance becomes as important as strength in real-world situations.

Another benefit? You can’t be worrying about bills or work when you’re on the slackline, or else you’ll fall off. You have to be completely and utterly present and in the moment, focused on how your weight is distributed and how the line is moving. For me, it offers a brief respite from the pressures of writing day in a day out. If I’m stuck, I can just take a few minutes off and hop on the slackline in my backyard. There’s definitely a meditative and clearing aspect to it.

Beginner Tips

Learn to trust that as soon as you smoothly transfer your weight to the foot on the line, it won’t swing out from under you. You just have to commit. In that regard, slacklining is a metaphor for life…

Use ski poles or a standing partner to acclimate yourself. Slowly drop the support as you become acclimated to the sensation.

Try to stand still in one spot using one leg. Don’t do too much too quickly. Get used to the feeling of standing on one leg without support until it becomes second nature.

Make subtle balance corrections – don’t wave your arms wildly. Another life metaphor.

Correct from the lower body first, torso and arms are last resort. As you get stronger, you will see that using the muscles in your hips and thighs to bring the line back underneath you can be more effective than correcting with your arms alone.

Intermediate/Advanced Tips

Count maximum number of steps before falling to track progress. This will give you objective feedback.

After walking full-length, try to turn around and head back.

Try some aerials when you master walking and turning!

Slacklining is really tough for most beginners, but it gets better each time you try it. Even if you can’t tell, your brain is constantly rewiring its neural pathways based on new experiences, and slacklining is a powerful new experience that forces a massive amount of neural adaptation. I find that just 10 minutes a session when you start can be maximally effective at this neural rewiring.

Check the World of Tomorrow YouTube channel to see the experts (and get a little discouraged and then, eventually, inspired!). Last, you can get your own slackline at gibbonslackline.com or at major sports retailers like REI, and start working on your balance today.

This was the first in a series of new videos I’ll be producing. What do you think? Also, share your own slackline experiences in the comment board below!

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Does Life Purpose Enhance Longevity?

Turning 60 a few weeks back was quite a trip. It’s one of those milestones that prompts reflection as well as plenty of celebration. (My wife, Carrie, is always good about getting me to do that part.) I’ve known for many years that hitting 60 wouldn’t be the bleak event our culture often makes it out to be. Personally, I don’t feel like I’m slowing down any. Nor do I have plans to. I don’t feel like life is shifting into retrospect. Doors of opportunity and innovation aren’t closing. Honestly, I find life to be more full of possibility than ever. A huge part of this, I believe, has been refining my life’s purpose. As always, I want to be a good father, husband, son, friend, etc., and I feel more deeply and confidently about these roles at this point. In terms of my vocation (because it’s much more than a job for me), I feel like I’m just getting going. I’ve been involved in health and fitness all my life, but in the last several years I’ve come closer than ever to feeling like I’m centered in the crux of that vision. I’m interested in helping people get healthy and thrive to their fullest potential. That’s exactly what I get to do each day, and it gives me satisfaction – and purpose. The whole reflection got me thinking about the physiological (and maybe even Primal) connection: does a sense of personal meaning translate into health and longevity?

The Protective Effects of Purpose

Some days we all feel like we’re going through the motions. When you take the sum total of your experience, however, what do you feel? How directed do you feel in life? How connected to a larger purpose (not necessarily metaphysical) would you say you are? Research has looked at how a sense of purpose can extend (as well as expand) our lives, and the results are impressive.

A well controlled study conducted by Rush University Medical Center experts, for example, found that over 1200 senior subjects who described themselves as having a higher sense of purpose were approximately half as likely to die during the five year study observation than those who claimed little sense of purpose. Among the statements most associated with the difference in mortality risk were three: “I sometimes feel as if I’ve done all there is to do in life;” “I used to set goals for myself, but that now seems like a waste of time;” and “My daily activities often seem trivial and unimportant to me.” Although the researchers note the importance of these questions for seniors, there’s clearly something to be gleaned here for all of us across the lifespan.

In related studies by the same Rush University team, those with a strong sense of life purpose were less likely to develop the neurological damage seen in Alzheimer’s and to actually experience Alzheimer’s or cognitive impairment.

Other research, including a study of over 12,600 Hungarian citizens, also suggests the protective effects of life purpose. A greater sense of “life meaning,” the researchers found, was associated with decreased risk for cancer, cardiovascular disease and mortality. Likewise, Dan Buettner, global longevity researcher and author of The Blue Zones, has cited the sense of life purpose as one of the pivotal traits supporting longevity in the world’s longest living populations.

To explore the topic from another angle, experts have looked at the effect of retirement on mortality risk. Although the results are mixed, some studies show a significant increase in mortality in people who retire early (PDF).

The Primal Point of Meaning

Why the connection? What’s the purpose of, well, purpose? Patricia Boyle, head researcher for the Rush University Medical Center studies, suggests the sense of meaning is an element of “human flourishing” and reflective of the “tendency to derive meaning from life’s experiences” as well as meet life with “intentionality.”

It’s not a huge leap of logic to imagine how this “tendency” could’ve served our ancestors. When they were inclined to “derive meaning from life’s experiences,” they were primed to live in tune with – and productive curiosity about – their surroundings and human community. Exploration simultaneously satisfied something in them and (often, at least) spurred them toward greater opportunity and security. They were rewarded for feeling and finding purpose in their roles within the band community and in their endeavors for the sake of the group.

The same holds true for us today. We gain the same satisfaction from successfully filling the roles we value. We are gratified by contributing to the larger needs of the circles we inhabit – particularly when we can do so from a place of personal effectiveness and passion. The more we feel engaged with life, the healthier we are. Once we feel cut off from the flow and interaction of life, however, we’re more likely to wither in body and mind.

Hunting for Purpose

So, what if you don’t know your life’s purpose? What if you’re young and still exploring? What if you’re older and still exploring? What if you’re in the midst of a major life transition and questioning everything you ever thought your life was about? I don’t profess to have the answer, and I don’t think there’s one way to get there anyway. Nor do I think the answer can be forced into existence out of sheer willpower. That said, I do believe we often have more of an opinion about it than we think we do. A dose of patience in the right conditions can sometimes coax it to the surface. Here’s my take….

Sure, do the list making, the rational weighing, the free from brainstorming that experts suggest. Reflect on your passions, your priorities, your values, your talents and temperament. Consider where all of these can intersect with the needs you see in the circles or society around you. Talk to friends. Take a stab at writing a personal mission statement if you’re so inclined. Mull on the question while you’re washing dishes. Fill your head with the possibilities, the pros and drawbacks, the complexities and ambiguities. But then move out of cerebral mode entirely, get out of your own way, and hand the question over to your intuitive self.

Personally, I find there’s nothing more conducive to intuitive thinking than solo time outdoors (little surprise there, no?) – the farther away from civilization and other people the better. Don’t put the pressure on a single afternoon in the woods. Schedule a hike/climb/paddle/bike ride every weekend for, well, several weeks. As long as it takes (or as long as you just feeling like hitting the trail)… Think the question once – and only once – as you head out “into the wild” for your mini retreat. Then forget about it for the day. Just be and do and watch and smell and head home when you’re good and ready. Let the trees or mountain or river or whatever hold your place in the process like a living bookmark. Come back again the next week, and do the same thing. Keep coming.

One day you’ll leave with your answer. Maybe it will come to you like a vision as you round the corner of a trail one day. Maybe it will settle in quietly, almost imperceptibly until you finally notice it’s there with you. Either way, you’ll have let your answer come forth from hours of, call it, Primal meditation. Not a bad source to tap into when you’re seeking purpose – and time away worth the health benefits all on its own.

Thanks for reading today, everybody. Enjoy your week!

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Dear Mark: Cable Machine Weights, Plaque Regression, Lab Grown Meat, and Swiss Ball Chairs

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, we’ve got a four-parter. First up is a question about using the cable weights at the gym to build strength. Should they be discarded by the serious trainee in favor of exclusive barbell work, or do they offer something unique and worthwhile? Next, I discuss potential strategies for the reversal of arterial plaque. It’s not guaranteed, but there are some promising leads. After that, I give my take on stem cell meat. Am I opposed? Am I intrigued? Finally, I give my take on replacing your desk chair with a Swiss ball for a reader who can’t get a treadmill desk and wants the next best thing.

Let’s go:

Hi Mark,

I have been a victim of chronic cardio for a few years now, but I am starting to see that it is not working out so well. I want to start strength training so I can build muscle (I am borderline underweight, but skinny-fat) but I have no idea what kind of strength training will be both good for my health and effective for looking lean and muscular. I found a program by Jamie Eason on bodybuilding.com that uses lots of machines like cables and I have heard that those exercises simply add useless muscle that is good to look at. I was wondering what your thoughts are on these mostly machine workouts. Will they be ideal for health and actual strength too?

Thanks

Carrie

The arguments in favor of free weights over machines are compelling, and, save for a few exceptions, I agree with them for the most part, but cable machines are a different beast altogether and thus deserve a more nuanced look.

Consider why people eschew machines:

They eliminate the need to stabilize and balance the load.
They force you into unnatural movement patterns. Free weights conform to your body, your dimensions, while with the machine, you must conform to it. They only allow a fixed, linear path of movement. The real world, on the other hand, is not linear. You can be really strong on the overhead press machine, strong enough to lift your bodyweight’s worth, but be unable to do a handstand pushup against the wall.
They work individual muscles, rather than multiple body parts.

Even though cables are a kind of machine, those three reasons are not valid for avoiding cables (nor are they necessarily valid for avoiding all machines at all times in every instance, but that’s another post), because cables:

Can be used in such a way that requires stabilization and balance.
Are non-linear without a fixed, predetermined path of movement.
Can be used to work multiple body parts, not just muscles in isolation (although that’s possible, too).

Free weights are great because they pit you directly against gravity as we encounter it in the real world, along the vertical plane. One unique feature of the cable is the ability to load the horizontal plane. So, instead of lying down to push a weight horizontally (bench press or pushup), you can do it standing up. Instead of awkwardly flopping down on your side and using a dumbbell to do external rotational rehab, you can do so standing up with the cables. Since you’re more likely to be pushing horizontally from a standing position anyway (in sports and other physical encounters), cables offer a “functional” way to train that movement.

Are free weights superior for general strength and fitness? Yeah. If I could only choose one between the two, I’d pick free weights every time. But, since we don’t have to choose just one way to exercise, we should consider availing ourselves of all the options that make sense, and that probably includes cables.

If you do go with the cable workout, I’d consider supplementing with weighted lower body movements, as cables aren’t very effective for the lower body. Get a knee flexion exercise (squats, lunges, split squats) and a hip extension exercise (deadlifts, romanian deadlifts) and you’ll be good to go.

Hi Mark,

I was wondering if it is possible to reverse plaque buildup in our arteries through a primal lifestyle?

All the articles I’ve read only seem to explain how to prevent it, but I assume it is likely that years of poor nutritional habits have already left some marks.

Thanks in advance,

Nicholas

Yes, there are several lifestyle and dietary modifications that seem to offer not just protection from plaque progression, but hope for plaque regression. It may come down to activation of a mouthful known as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, or PPAR gamma, which helps regulate lipid metabolism. Basically, when PPAR gamma agonists – or drugs that activate PPAR gamma – are used in animal models, we see a regression of atherosclerotic plaque. Unfortunately, many drugs that activate PPAR gamma, like statins, often have unintended, unwanted, and even disastrous side effects. What we’re interested in are lifestyle and dietary modifications, which tend to have beneficial side effects.

Omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids, already strongly linked to protection from heart disease (even when marine contaminants are considered), are also PPAR gamma agonists.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D may play a role in plaque regression by reversing atherogenic lipid metabolism and inhibiting migration of macrophages (the cells that initiate the formation of plaque).

Vitamin K2

High intakes of vitamin K2 are associated with low rates of arterial calcification. Meanwhile, groups of rats given large doses of either vitamin K1 or vitamin K2 both reversed arterial calcification by around 40%. It should be noted that the only reason vitamin K1 was effective is that rats are great at turning K1 into K2; humans are terrible at it. When the rats were dosed with enough warfarin to interfere with K1 to K2 conversion, the K1 group no longer saw plaque regression.

Exercise

Low intensity exercise activates PPAR gamma and triggers an increase in serum oxLDL. On the surface, an increase in oxidized LDL – long suspected to be a causal agent in the progression of atherosclerosis – sounds bad. The authors propose an interesting plaque regression mechanism, however. Exercise by way of PPAR gamma activation is pulling oxidized LDL from the atherosclerotic plaque to be disposed of by oxLDL scavenger receptors, which have also been upregulated by exercise. Pretty cool, eh? This jibes with the already established and widely known negative association between exercise and atherosclerosis.

Meditation/Stress Relief

A transcendental meditation/stress relief program consisting of twice daily 20 minute meditation sessions was able to modestly reduce plaque in human subjects with hypertension. Meanwhile, the control group experienced modest progression of plaque.

There’s no magic bullet, of course. Just popping some fish oil without making other changes won’t reduce atherosclerotic plaque. It requires an entire lifestyle shift, and even then it isn’t guaranteed.

What are your thoughts on the recent development of a stem-cell beef hamburger patty? Although it is a wider gap from Grok than other options, it eliminates the industrial agriculture model of meat production and therefore the ethical dilemma is reduced, antibiotics eliminated, and it has the potential to give millions of people access to animal protein. It may become the great dietary equalizer.

It’s bizarre, yes. But what do you think? I’ve heard so many say we can’t feed the future world on meat, could this be a game-changer? Would you eat one?

Thea

You know, I would be open to it. I have no ethical hangups with consuming something created in a lab simply because it’s created in a lab. If they can perfect the stuff, I’d try it. And if I liked it, I’d probably eat it regularly. I’m just skeptical they can get it right.

After all, stem cell beef isn’t some grand gesture by benevolent scientists. It won’t be disseminated to open mouths and empty bellies as a charitable donation, but rather as a product. It will be sold, and marketed, and designed to appeal to as many people as possible. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just that like all other processed foods, its composition will be painstakingly designed to increase consumption and lessen satiety – only with stem cell meat, food scientists will have an unprecedented level of control over its physiological allure. Could nutritiousness and flavor coincide? In theory, sure, especially if you’re starting with a nutrient-dense, delicious food like meat (stem cells), though scientists have a long road to go if they want to recreate the complex and varied dietary and environmental inputs that determine the nutritional content of grass-fed beef. But it won’t be their proximate goal to save the world.

Also, I wouldn’t be so sure lab grown meat will eliminate the need for antibiotics. They’re already using them. In order to keep this most recent stem-cell burger “alive,” scientists had to bathe it in antibiotics to maintain a sterile growth environment. Will that change? Does it make it into the finished “meat”? I’m not sure, but they’re always going to require a sterile environment and that means using prophylactic antibiotics.

I won’t hold my breath.

So, I would love to work while on a treadmill desk, but that is not allowed at my office. I have just gotten it approved to sit on a bosu ball if I can give some information on the benefits. While looking around, I read that sitting on it long term could possibly cause more issues. So my question to you is, if I must sit at a desk, what would you suggest sitting in? Thanks so much! =)

Michelle

Do you mean you’re considering a Swiss ball? A bosu ball looks like this and might be a little low to the ground for desk work.

You’re right. The evidence in favor of Swiss balls for sitting is inconclusive and mixed. Short bouts appear to help some people manage and reduce their back pain and improve their posture, while spending all day sitting, whether it’s on a Swiss ball or an office chair, just isn’t very good for you.

That said, I think the studies are inherently limited. When you’re involved in a study researching the effects of different types of chairs on posture, you’re going to pay close attention to how you sit. They put you in a rocking chair and you’ll be on your best postural behavior for the duration of the study. White-coated clipboard-wielding researchers tend to have that effect on people. However, the differences come out over days, weeks, months. You might not slump in your chair with people watching and recording you, but when it’s Monday morning three months down the line and you’re struggling to wrap your brain around the load of mind-numbing busy work that just got dropped on your desk, your posture is going to be the last thing you worry about. If your chair allows slumping, you’re gonna slump. If your chair is a bouncy ball that rewards slumping with a quick deposition of your body onto the ground, you’re not going to slump as readily.

I don’t use balls myself, but I have on occasion and can vouch for the fact that sitting on them is very different than sitting on a chair. It’s a lot more active. All those normally imperceptible shifts in weight distribution that occur as we sit, stand, and just exist become suddenly perceptible on the ball, and you have to account for them. Even once you eventually get the hang of things and stop having to consciously balance yourself, your core musculature stays turned on. Swiss balls, then, require core musculature to work right. If you don’t have that musculature, you might not benefit until you do.

Plus, the Swiss ball isn’t magic. One study showed that people still manage to slump on an exercise ball; you can’t just sit on the ball and keep up your bad habits.

All in all, I don’t think the ball is necessary to get a good sitting experience. The main advantage of a treadmill desk lies in the absence of long periods of sitting and immobility. It’s not so important that you move constantly, but that you don’t sit for for long stretches of time. It’s a small but important distinction to make, and it makes choosing a sitting implement much easier because all you have to do is stand up every fifteen minutes or so to realign your body and move around a bit. You don’t actually need a treadmill desk, or even a standup desk, to get the benefits associated with them. You just have to remember to take regular walking/movement breaks!

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

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Weekend Link Love

Research of the Week

Adding an officially recognized as safe amount of sugar to mice’s daily diets didn’t make them fat, but it did render the males a bit more impotent and the females somewhat more dead. In human terms, it’d be like adding three cans of soda to your diet.

The world’s oldest gaming tokens have been uncovered, further confirming that people really, really like to play.

Interesting Blog Posts

What’s the point of a perfect diet and exercise routine if it detracts from a full life?

Chris Kresser lays out some health lessons to be gleaned from the French.

Media, Schmedia

This article on coconut oil is a prime example of the worst kind of conventional wisdom.

Are we killing the athletic prospects of millions of kids with the “sports gene” (which is linked to a powerful, dopamine-driven need to be constantly moving) with widespread administration of ADHD drugs?

Bill Clinton explains why he’s a vegan (who eats eggs and salmon every week). That’s the kind of veganism I can get behind.

Everything Else

Carrots may not improve your vision, but they will help you defeat fascist regimes.

This article laments the “sleep texting epidemic” destroying sleep quality among college students, but I have a feeling it’s spreading to other demographics, too.

Soon, we’ll all be able to take a test that uses a laser to determine the precise date of our death. I can’t wait to rush out and grab that one!

Something to keep in mind when reading studies or science reporting.

Recipe Corner

Here’s something you’ve probably never thought to try: cantaloupe soup. It even rhymes.
Ground beef can get kinda boring, no matter how grass-fed it is. Thai ground beef curry is a nice way to switch things up.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Aug 18 – Aug 24)

IE: The Power of Intermittent Euphoria – Because who wants to be euphoric all the time? That would just be exhausting.
Gender Differences in Fat Metabolism – No, men and women aren’t exactly alike. No, their differences can’t all be written off as cultural programming.

Comment of the Week

Don’t be.

I posted up above, but we’re all survivors. If you look back and thought, I did my best in a stressful circumstance, it’s enough. As far as I can tell, babies are somewhat parasitic beings (really) and tend to sap their mother’s nutritional base if the immediate food stuffs are less than ideal. (I’ve seen young women not eating right who look, well aged too fast, after multiple pregnancies.) If everyone seems in good health now, do what you can right now to improve everyone’s nutrition and let it go. I’ve heard rumors that the past is pretty well unchangable. 

- Extremely wise words that should be heeded by all.

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Fish Poached in Olive Oil

Just when you think you’ve cooked fish in every possible way, along comes an intriguing recipe like this one. This cooking method for seafood isn’t a new idea; the Italians and French have been doing it forever and many chefs today use it to keep fish moist while it cooks. But have you ever tried poaching fish in olive oil?

It’s nothing like deep-frying and a whole different thing than poaching in water. Why do it? The fish cooks quickly, with less of a chance of drying out and the flavor of the fish stays pure and mild without turning fishy or becoming bland. The flavor of fish poached in olive oil is not oily, although you should use olive oil that you like the flavor of.

You should also choose fish with firm flesh like halibut, cod, salmon or tuna (shrimp can also be poached). Poaching in oil work best with small pieces of fish, both because the fish will cook quickly and because it allows you to use less oil. The thicker the pieces of fish are and the bigger the pot is, the more oil you’re going to need. Try to keep each piece of fish around 3 ounces, or even less by cutting the fish into small cubes.

Place the fish in a small pot or skillet and cover with olive oil. You can also add sprigs of herbs or cloves of garlic. Although they don’t add a whole lot of flavor to the fish, they do make the oil taste great. Turn the heat to medium-low and no higher. During the entire cooking process, the oil should be warm but not burning hot (less than or right at 200 °F/93 °C degrees). You should be able to dip your finger in the oil and it won’t burn.

A 3-ounce piece of fish will cook in about 5-8 minutes, maybe a little bit longer, depending on how thick it is. When it’s done, the flesh should be moist, supple and pretty much melt in your mouth. The oil won’t have a fishy flavor. It can be strained and re-used for cooking or better yet, use it immediately to dress a salad or drizzle onto vegetables that you serve with the fish.

Ingredients:

Pieces of boneless, skinless fish (pieces that weigh 3-ounce/85 gram or less work best)
Olive oil
Optional: sprigs of herbs like thyme and rosemary and peeled cloves of garlic cut in half

Instructions:

Place the fish in a small pot or skillet. Lightly season with salt. Cover completely with olive oil. Add herbs or garlic if you’d like.

Set over medium-low heat. The oil should never get hot enough to boil and bubble, however, if bubbles start forming around the fish you’ll know it’s close or already done. Small chunks take around 5-8 minutes to cook. Tuna can take longer than other types of fish.

So as not to waste oil, use as small a pot as possible and/or cut the fish into small pieces.

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Primal Ripples: Deeper Than “Just Food”

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!

My name is Nathan and I am born of white Australian (English/Irish) and Maori (native New Zealand) ancestry.

My story is unlike most others. I have never had any lifestyle induced diseases and have very rarely fallen sick my entire life. I am 180(ish) cms tall and my abs are more than happy to show themselves. I am a mere 71kg and I have forever been labelled “the skinny kid” despite how many chin-ups I can do. So I was the thin picture of Primal health before I began my journey in April this year. Actually I am now keeping more lean muscle mass than ever before, funny that!

I was fortunate to have a healthier than average upbringing. That is, fast food and soft drinks were a rare occurrence and my family members are non-drinkers and non-smokers. I have been almost illness free my entire life (a couple bouts of childhood asthma brought on by a cold). This would indeed irk many who had it hard; including my sister who still suffers with chronic allergies (I’m talking a gentle breeze would cause a 20-sneeze-long fit). We both had teenage acne, but who didn’t suffer a little on that front? Still pretty boring stuff.

When I discovered Karate in my late teens I transformed from a gangly teenager into a slightly less gangly young adult and my self-esteem began to build. I suffered a shoulder injury (torn rotator cuff) which still haunts me to this day and is relevant later in my story. I had a physical job, often trained 6 days a week and even did weight training on top of that. Needless to say my hunger was NEVER satisfied. My mother used to complain that I had a tapeworm because I never stopped eating (I didn’t have one, I promise!) I would eat box after box of cereal and loaf after loaf of bread. I never gained any weight at all and I was still hungry! I would have dinner and two bowls of cereal after because dinner would not suffice. Though if I ate those bowls of cereal on an empty stomach my body promptly rejected them, I figured it was the milk; I never liked milk much anyway. I am also told that us “ethnic” people don’t handle milk well (true or false?). I ate plenty of meat, eggs, fruit and vegetables and I generally followed the food pyramid (Australian standards, probably similar to America) and loaded up on the grain-based carbohydrates as much as I could. It seemed to serve me well. I figured I was happy and fit enough.

My affliction, if that’s what you would call it, was more mental. At a young age (around 8, I think) my mother was informed by my teacher that I may have depression. So I received “counselling” that I barely remember and it took me a long time to realize that I thought and felt differently than those around me. I don’t think the other kids contemplated the futility of existence.

Sure, teenage angst and a few hard-hitting family matters would have played a big part later on, but when I entered my early twenties and moved away from home things darkened more. I began drinking copiously. I retrospectively diagnose myself with alcoholism.

It began with just having fun and being young and free and ended with drinking an average of 50+ drinks a week. I was still highly functional. I ate well (if I ever ate at all), I exercised, I always made it to work, I always paid my bills, I stayed away from drugs and cigarettes but I rarely slept. I worked night shift which does strange things to a person. So I never noticed that anything was wrong while I was in the thick of it because I met all my obligations. The only thing was that I went home and relaxed with a drink or 10. This was often with friends, but often alone. It was the highlight of my existence: “two more hours and I can go home and drink and be happy again!” I developed weird sleeping disorders; doing things while asleep and seeming like I was awake. I also started forgetting things and I would forget nights and eventually weeks. Everything became less enjoyable than drinking, which was the only thing that gave me the energy and inclination to keep breathing. I ate so I wouldn’t starve, I exercised to not be weak and I slept when I absolutely had to but I received little to no satisfaction or enjoyment from any of it.

Sounds dramatic, but it’s really just honestly how it felt.

I will also add that I have an addictive personality and when I like something I tend to go way overboard. Thankfully I never had an interest in any harder substances or I would likely not be around to write this. My band of close friends and my loving partner (whom I surprisingly found while enduring this “phase”) were the ones that helped me see through this mental fog.

When I settled down with my partner in a new city, new job, new life, things were no doubt better, but the shadow still loomed.

I was no longer permanently drunk but I still felt very cold to everything. It is almost an ineffable feeling. I suppose it was just a general indifference to everything. My health was improving but my outlook was still warped. I began to revert back to the way I was before my episode which was physically well, but mentally “off”. The way I was since I was a child. I was good most days but I would sometimes have a mental spasm which would result in drinking too much and having little mental breakdowns about this or that. I was just not happy being me regardless of having every reason to be happy.

One of my friends was trying a “30 day detox” program and the diet was mostly paleo/primal. I didn’t do the detox myself but I tried some of the food and the notion of “eating yourself well” piqued my curiosity. So I wandered into a bookstore in search of cookbooks and happened across The Primal Blueprint. I devoured it in the next couple days and I went straight Grok for two weeks. Not one single dalliance. And with that I was awoken. It utterly obliterated all my preconceived notions of health, fitness, nutrition, life and happiness.

My mind fired in phenomenal ways, my energy exploded and I was resurrected as an entirely new being. My aforementioned shoulder injury that was giving me trouble felt amazing. The tightness and creakiness lessened. It still persists today but is 90% better than before and I hope to fully overcome it (it happened over 5 years ago). I had to have two wisdom teeth removed in June and I made an awesome recovery. I was back eating solids two days after with minimal pain killers the entire time. I was told many horror stories prior to the extraction but the whole ordeal hardly even affected me.

My energy levels are consistently high despite working long hours and I sleep better than ever.

I look forward to eating and even cooking like I never have before.

My outlook and demeanor have taken this unbelievable positive turn that words cannot do justice.

Though the remarkable ripple effect it has had on those around me has been what has surprised and delighted me the most. Me being me, I crammed The PB down everyone’s throats. Because I was all of a sudden so upbeat and energetic I was very eager to tell anyone who would listen and some who wouldn’t. But looking the way I always have people can be skeptical and I am met with the usual “You’re too skinny to go on a diet!” Sigh…

So armed with my newfound mental clarity and a sweet batch of Primal knowledge I set my sights on my estranged parents. We live in separate states and we only spoke for minutes on the phone a month (if that) and our laboured conversations often ended in angered hang-ups. I gave them my copy of the Blueprint and showed them the ways of Grok. That was now over a month ago and they have completely given up the daily bread. They are in their mid-50s and have had bread their entire lives. My father says that he has more energy than he has had his whole life and can do 100 push-ups while my usually inactive mother goes on bike rides and says that her stomach no longer feels bloated.

Saturday is now the day that they call me and give me the latest updates on their Primal journeys. There are even brief messages throughout the week letting me know about any small victories they just had. These are the same people that I wouldn’t talk to for weeks at a time. For me and mine the PB has gone much deeper than “just food”, it has enriched my life more than I could ever have imagined anything could and I am continuing to rebuild myself and my relationships with those around me.

My partner and I cook our own meals and I amazingly convinced her to ease off the rice a bit, which is a big ask for an Asian woman! We try to stick to the “wholefood” idea and eat organic as much as possible. It is definitely worth the price when you consider the better taste, the additional nutrition and the important ethical practices. I still eat some legumes, mostly green beans and the like as I suffer no ill effects and I eat as many green things I can get my hands on. We also cook with soy sauce because many of our meals are Asian stir fries cooked with coconut oil. Our diets easily abide by the 80/20 rule but mine is usually higher and sometimes perfect for a few days straight. Though we love to eat out now and then, I usually make the Primal-est choice I can. There is also the occasional social drink, but it is for happy reasons and usually after a couple I feel like enough is enough and I naturally limit myself with no struggle. The control I have over it now is effortless.

I have managed to coax a few push-ups out of my better half which was no mean feat. We walk a couple kilometres daily out of necessity. I do bodyweight exercise either at home or the park if I feel so inclined. I do a sprint workout maybe once or twice a month and go to the gym once a week or two. My weight workouts adhere to the basic Primal compound movements; none of this bicep curl stuff. Because of these types of movements my shoulder keeps getting better. It makes me really doubt the physiotherapy I received for it when it happened. They told me I’ll likely need surgery and suffer from it for the rest of my life. They gave me static stretches and isolated muscle exercises which I feel made it worse so I stopped doing it. It now makes so much more sense to use my shoulder in a natural movement then to twist and turn it in strange ways. I think instinctively our bodies know how to recover.

I finally feel comfortable in my shoes (which are Vibrams, of course!) and I can feel the effect I have had on those around me. Change begets change and ours began with a little Primal living. The world needs more people like Mark and the community that he has helped build. The crux of my letter being that even the smallest change, shift in consciousness or awareness of our actions can have the most profound effect on ourselves, others and the world at large.

Mark wrote a book and changed my life and that of those around me. I believe this knowledge has the power to change the world.

Nathan

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You Are What Your Mother and Father (and Grandmothers and Grandfathers) Ate

On September 11, 2001, passenger jets struck the Twin Towers, leveling them, killing thousands of New Yorkers, and traumatizing tens of thousands more. Among those directly affected, but not killed, by the attack were 1700 pregnant women. Some of those women developed post traumatic stress disorder, some did not. When the PTSD-positive group had their kids, their cortisol secretion was lower and stress response to novel stimuli was impaired. Although as fetuses they weren’t conscious of the chaos, it affected them as if they had directly witnessed the blast. The affected children were no different genetically – they didn’t have “the stress gene.” Rather, the activity of the genes that regulate the stress response had been altered by an environmental input.

This was epigenetics in action.

Epigenetics isn’t just relevant to pregnant women and their offspring, either. Dads matter too. In one recent study (PDF), male mice were subjected to ongoing chronic, intense stress. They were placed in cages with and beat up by larger, more dominant males. Essentially, they were bullied for ten days straight. This gave them the mouse versions of PTSD, depression, and severe anxiety. After, they bred with normal females. Their pups were born “stressed out” and anxious, uninterested even in sugar water when subjected to stressors. The anxious pups avoided social contact with other mice as much as possible. The pups’ mothers weren’t exposed to stress during pregnancy; only the dads’ life experiences before conception could explain the differences, which correlated with changes to gene expression in the pups.

Epigenetic shockwaves can reach far into the future, too. Until the 20th century, the people of Overkalix, Sweden were at the mercy of the elements. Winter brought total isolation, with every route into and out of the municipality completely frozen over and inaccessible. That meant if the harvest was poor, the people flirted with starvation. If the harvest was good, they prospered and thrived. It was either famine or feast. In 2002, Swedish researchers analyzed the extensive birth, death, and health records of the area to see how this feast and famine cycle of the 19th century might have affected the health of the population. Amazingly, they found that boys who ate very well during late childhood were more likely to go on to have grandsons with health issues like heart disease, diabetes, and early mortality later in life. On the other hand, boys who experienced famine during late childhood had longer-lived grandsons with fewer health problems.

What does this all mean?

That our choices are bigger than us. It’s easy to see how the foods we eat, the exercises we do (or don’t), and all the other choices we make can affect our own health, in this lifetime. Anyone who’s ever made a positive change to their lifestyle and seen the subsequent health benefits can attest to that. But these stories indicate that those very same life experiences can send epigenetic shockwaves to your offspring – and in some cases your offspring’s offspring. There’s more to it than bullied mice, Swedish famines, and terrorist attacks, though, as you’ll see below. The life experiences of both moms and dads can exert a wide range of powerful effects. But how, exactly?

Maternal Epigenetic Transfer

Moms transfer epigenetic effects via two routes. First, as an epigenetic factor herself. After all, the mom is the primary environment for the fetus. Anything that happens to the mom – famine, stress, overnutrition, undernutrition, chronic sleep loss, terrorist attack – also happens to the fetus, sometimes even if it occurs pre-conception. Second, when a woman is pregnant, she’s not just carrying the fetus and transmitting epigenetic changes to the fetal genes from her life experiences. She also carries the fetus’ reproductive cells which will either develop into eggs or sperm. Any changes to the gene expression of these reproductive cells during their development in the fetus may also affect subsequent offspring. So at least three generations are affected by the environmental input during pregnancy: the mom, the fetus, and the fetus’ future offspring.

Paternal Epigenetic Transfer

Dads transfer epigenetic inheritance through changes to the sperm. If a male fetus is subjected to an epigenetic input in the womb as his reproductive cells are developing, he may grow up with forever altered sperm that in turn affects his progeny. As seen in the case of the Swedish village, male sperm may also be vulnerable in late childhood right before puberty, which is when sperm cells are maturing and “finalizing.” And then you’ve got the mouse studies that suggest inheritance can transfer even when the father’s experiences happen as an adult. The amount of research into paternal epigenetic transfer pales in comparison to that of maternal epigenetics, but it appears to play a role just the same (if perhaps not as prominent).

It’s easy to get bogged down in epigenetic mechanisms, but what you’re really here for is to learn how we can shape our offspring’s health. Let’s explore, shall we?

Nutrition

Nutrition – the types of foods we eat, the numbers of calories we consume, and our overall metabolic state – plays perhaps the biggest and best studied epigenetic role in the health of our offspring. A few examples:

Among isogenic (identical, genetically) mice, those born to obese and diabetic mothers showed changes in liver gene expression that predisposed them to obesity when faced with a Western-style diet. In other words, mice born to leaner mothers weren’t just leaner, they were somewhat epigenetically resistant to the obesogenic effects of the Standard American Diet.

Lesson? Avoid obesity and diabetes during pregnancy (and always, really). You can’t force your kids to eat Primal, but you can set them up for metabolic robustness. 

In contrast to the earlier example of grandfathers who spent the formative years of their childhood in lean times siring grandsons with better metabolic health and longevity, mothers who experienced undernutrition during pregnancy gave birth to offspring with altered hypothalamic gene expression, a propensity to overeat, disrupted glucose tolerance, and lowered energy expenditure – the kind of gene expression that would help someone survive starvation. Those same epigenetic changes to gene expression were also found in twin lambs born to both underfed (a period spanning 60 days prior to and 30 days after conception) and well-fed sheep, suggesting that it’s the “perception” of famine (whether actual or imagined) that triggers the starvation epigenome.

Lesson? Don’t try to diet and restrict calories while pregnant. Weight gain is totally normal, healthy, and necessary when building a tiny human inside your body.

Male mice who were fasted for a day or two a few weeks before mating sired offspring (both male and female) with consistently lower blood glucose levels than controls. It isn’t clear whether this is a positive alteration, however, as too low a blood glucose level can hamper growth and development.

Lesson? The occasional skipped meal, or series of meals, doesn’t just affect your health (in a mostly positive way), but the health of your offspring. Whether lower blood glucose is a good or a bad thing is conditional.

Pregnant women are advised to increase their intake of folate and other vitamins to prevent birth defects and make up for a substandard diet. This is generally good advice, but there is such a thing as “too many vitamins.” In one study, pregnant mice fed a high-folate diet (10 times the normal amount) had offspring with an epigenetically enhanced propensity for obesity unless they were weaned on a similarly high-folate diet. Another study found similar obesogenic epigenetic changes in male offspring of rats taking ten times the normal amount of a multivitamin.

Lesson? Get most of your nutrients from food whenever possible, and don’t overdo the prenatals (also, make sure you take folate, not folic acid).

In pregnant mice on an imbalanced diet (wildly variant ratios of folic acid and B vitamins), maternal omega-3 intake ameliorated some of the negative epigenetic effects normally caused by the nutrient imbalance.

Lesson? Get your omega-3s.

Even the source of maternal dietary protein during gestation seems to affect gene expression in the offspring. In pregnant mice given soy as a protein source, offspring were fatter and had elevated insulin when compared to offspring from casein-fed mice, an effect mediated by an increase in gene expression in the area of the brain that controls food intake.

Lesson? Skip the soy protein shakes.

Some pregnant women are advised to restrict dietary protein. In animal studies, this appears to have negative epigenetic effects on the fetus, including the “programming of hypertension.”

Lesson? Eat protein to satiety when pregnant. 

Maternal choline affects the expression of cortisol regulation in the fetus. This likely explains why mothers with a high intake of choline during pregnancy have kids who appear to be protected against stress-related disorders through epigenetic factors.

Lesson? Eat your liver and egg yolks.

Stress

Maternal (and paternal) stress is one of the largest area of study in epigenetics, probably the largest besides nutrition.

Using a mouse model of prenatal stress, researchers were able to epigenetically trigger neurological and psychiatric disease states in the offspring. Prenatal stress induced microRNA regulation at sites in the fetus that affect and/or induce multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, brain inflammation, and bipolar affective disorder.

Lesson? It’s not like a traffic jam in the 2nd trimester is going to give your kid schizophrenia, but it does illustrate the worst-case scenarios associated with prenatal stress.

Even the mom’s mood during pregnancy exerts an epigenetic influence on the outcome of the pregnancy. If a mom was depressed or anxious during the 3rd trimester, her offspring was more likely to have altered cortisol regulation, including increased cortisol responses to stress at three months.

Lesson? Relax, kick your feet up, and try not to let daily stressors consume you during pregnancy. Easier said than done, I know. Also, don’t let the stuff from the previous section – what you’re eating – turn you into a ball of stress. Eating anything can be hard when you’re pregnant. Just make the best choices you can, and make your “bad” choices better.

Six weeks of chronic stress were enough to alter the microRNA (a regulator of gene expression) of sperm in male mice, whether the stress occurred in adulthood or childhood. When those mice later bred, they sired pups with dysfunctional stress responses reminiscent of neuropsychiatric disease. Another stressed out mouse dad study had similar results: altered stress responses in the offspring.

Lesson? Stress matters for dads, their sperm, and their offspring, too. Not just the moms are vulnerable.

Other factors

Research into the prenatal or preconceptional epigenetic effects of other lifestyle factors is limited, but we can still make some predictions. Let’s take a look.

Exercise – One recent study found that exercise can affect the quality of sperm and upregulate gene expression across generations. Both maternal and paternal exercise, for example, improve memory and spatial learning in the offspring (paternal exercise only seems to benefit male offspring, but dads should probably still work out just to be on the safe side). A word of caution: though exercise is generally “a good thing” for your offspring, remember how vulnerable the fetus is to maternal stress. Don’t do too much!

Sleep - We know that melatonin (the “sleep hormone”) is an important player in “fetal programming,” and a recent study found that rats who were sleep deprived during gestation produced offspring with reduced antioxidant activities and/or altered homocysteine levels, so sleep clearly plays an important role in fetal epigenetics.

Sun - While there’s nothing that explicitly looks at the effect of sunlight exposure on fetal development, there are links between maternal vitamin D levels – a fair proxy for sunlight – and epigenetic regulation of fetal bone development and osteoporosis later in life.

Dirt – “Maternal exposure to animal sheds” and other farm environments during pregnancy might actually make the offspring more resistant to allergies right out of the womb.

Much of this is still up in the air, of course. We haven’t identified every lifestyle factor that triggers epigenetic changes in offspring, nor will we (likely) ever. But most of the evidence that we do have suggests that being healthy is good for our offspring and being unhealthy is bad for them. So, being an obese dad or mom? Not so good for the kids and grandkids. Being a healthy weight mom or dad? Probably good for the kids and grandkids. Smoking during pregnancy? Bad. Going for nature walks during pregnancy? Probably good. Getting a good 8-10 hours of sleep while pregnant? Good. Staying up late watching bad TV with a kid in your belly? Not so great, most likely. Playing? Good. Even if there isn’t a study for everything, it’s already been shown that most lifestyle modifications affect us on the epigenetic level. I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that they’re also affecting our children on the epigenetic level.

Some of you may find this a bit scary. You may even feel helpless, as if decisions were made concerning your longterm health before you were born, or even before your parents were born. For my money? It’s the opposite. It’s empowering, because knowledge truly is power, and now you have the power to not just transform your own health, but also the health of your unborn progeny’s progeny. That may sound like a lot of responsibility – and it is – but it’s not anything you aren’t already doing for yourself. Just stick to what you know works, eat right, stay active, avoid unnecessary stress, get plenty of sleep, get away from the city now and again, laugh everyday, give and get massages, walk a lot, lift heavy things, eat lots of plants and animals, and all that epigenetic stuff will take care of itself.

Most importantly, remember that you have just as much power to create lasting health benefits in your children with the choices you make. It’s not just about avoiding unhealthy outcomes, but creating healthy ones!

Anyway, that’s it for today. It was a long but important one; thanks for sticking around. Leave your thoughts, questions, concerns in the comment section, as well as any other bits of evidence you’ve found that shows how we can affect our offspring.

Thanks again!

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