Mark Sisson's Blog, page 79

Ask a Health Coach: Embrace Consistency, Squash Cravings, Find Time for Self-Care

Hi folks, in this edition of Ask a Health Coach, Erin discusses the benefits of being metabolically flexible, the physical and psychological reasons behind cravings, and what to do when you’re too exhausted to work out. Keep your questions coming in the MDA Facebook Group or in the comments section below.

William asked:

“I know eating Primally is right for me, but I’m struggling to stay consistent and end up making bad choices about 50% of the time. How can I be more disciplined?”

First, I want to commend you for having the awareness to know that eating this way works for you. Recognizing that is a huge step toward reaching your goals. The second thing I want to do is reiterate Mark’s 80/20 principle. If you’re eating Primally 80% of the time, the other 20% can be reserved for well-intentioned, but practical choices when eating that way just doesn’t work out—maybe an impromptu lunch with co-workers or a fun afternoon eating ice cream with the kids.

I use a similar approach with my clients that’s a little more laid back and intuitive, but the main goal is to create metabolic flexibility in the body. That means your body can run on whatever type of fuel (fat, protein, carbohydrates) that’s currently available. It can use these fuel sources, so it ends up storing less.

Remember, life is full of unpredictable moments, and learning how to roll with them sets you up for success by teaching resiliency (how you pick yourself back up after a slip-up), intuition (learning what not to do next time), and troubleshooting (understanding the triggers and avoiding them when you can).

Another thing to mention is your perception of how well you’re doing. You say you make “bad choices about 50% of the time.” What would happen if you reframed things to look at it differently? Cognitive Reframing, by the way, is a psychological technique that identifies and then disputes limiting thoughts and beliefs to create a more positive interpretation of a situation.

I don’t love using phrases like good or bad, but when we reframe your situation, I can see you’re making good choices about half the time. And that’s something to be proud of. You can also use reframing in how you talk about the foods you “get to enjoy” versus the foods you “can’t have”. Take a look at all the areas of your life where you’re having glass-half-empty moments instead of glass-half-full ones.

Veronica asked:

“My cravings are out of control. Help!”

When my clients first switch from a typical Standard American Diet of low-fat yogurt, sandwiches, and pastas to heartier protein-based meals, they have cravings now and then. So, you’re totally not alone here. But the longer they stay at it, the less tempted they are.

During this adaptation period, I encourage you to really dig into why you’re having these cravings. The obvious question is: Are you eating enough food? It’s never about calorie deprivation, so make sure you’re eating plenty of protein and healthy fat to keep you satiated.

It’s important to tune into the psychological reasons you might be having cravings, too. I recommend using a food journal to jot down how you’re feeling when those cravings come on (Are you stressed out? Lonely? Sad? Nervous? Excited?). Then, brainstorm alternative ways to deal with those emotional triggers in a healthier way that doesn’t involve food.

You might reach for a pint of Haagen-Dazs after a stressful day at work. But what are you really craving? Comfort? Security? Peace and quiet? Think about other activities that bring you that same feeling. It could be meditating, reading a book, or calling a friend you haven’t talked to in a while. Be curious about the whys.

I also firmly believe that it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you had something with carbs. A few months ago, I drank a full sugar, full dairy pumpkin spice latte and I didn’t die. Again, having an 80/20 approach to eating gets you out of that restrictive “I-can’t-have-that” mentality and lifts the heavy burden of needing to do it right all the time.

Tamzin asked:

“Any tips for a tired, stressed-out single mom with too much to do and not enough time? I rarely get a chance to exercise, and when I do, I’m too exhausted to find the motivation.”

Overwhelm is such a common feeling, especially when you’re tackling everything on your own. And I can see why adding a workout to your to-do list isn’t a top priority. That said, exercise doesn’t have to look like exercise. It doesn’t have to be a full 60-minute sweat session to count. Going for a walk outside, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and getting up and moving regularly—to refill your water bottle, play with the kids, or do air squats or pushups—goes a long way.

In fact, research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that any type of movement is beneficial, stating that women who get lots of light physical activity (versus women who don’t exercise at all) may have up to a 42% lower risk of having a heart attack and a 22% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Remember this: Self-care is going to serve you best during this time. That means making sure you’re getting high-quality sleep and fueling yourself with nutrient-dense foods. When my clients tell me they’re too busy to get to bed earlier or make nourishing meals for themselves, all I hear is “I don’t value myself.” If that’s true for you, ask yourself how important your health is, how important having good energy is, and how important it is to have a solid sense of well-being.

Find ways to integrate more self-care into your day, and if you need a hand restructuring your habits around exercise, sleep, or nutrition, working with a health coach can be a huge help.

The post Ask a Health Coach: Embrace Consistency, Squash Cravings, Find Time for Self-Care appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Pesto Egg Salad

Transform boring egg salad with Primal Kitchen®Pesto Mayo and roasted garlic. We served the egg salad in endive leaves, but you can also use celery, lettuce, or nori sheets. To avoid the garlic from touching aluminum foil when roasting, first wrap the cut head of garlic with a piece of parchment to make a pouch, and fold the parchment over the top, then wrap the foil around the parchment to make a sealed pouch.

Keto Pesto Egg Salad

Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

8 large eggs
1 head of garlic
Drizzle of avocado oil
3 1/2 Tbsp. Primal Kitchen Pesto Mayo
Belgian endive leaves
Dried or fresh basil
Salt and pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Cut off the top of a head of garlic and drizzle the exposed cloves with a little bit of avocado oil. Wrap the head of garlic up tightly in a small piece of parchment and then wrap a piece of foil around the parchment to make a sealed pouch.

Place in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the cloves of garlic are softened and golden. Squeeze out about 3–4 of the roasted cloves of garlic and mash them.

Meanwhile, bring a pot about half full of water to a boil on your stovetop. Add a pinch of salt to the water. When the water reaches a boil, carefully place the eggs into the water using a spoon.

Allow the eggs to boil for 12 minutes, then drain the water. Fill the pot with cold water, then drain the water and fill it one more time with cold water. Allow the eggs to rest for 15 minutes.

Carefully peel the eggs and mash them with a fork. Mash 3–4 cloves of the roasted garlic into the eggs. Add the Primal Kitchen Pesto Mayo and mash until well combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste and a few pinches of dried basil.

Serve the egg salad in endive leaves. Top with fresh black pepper and a sprinkle of dried or fresh basil.

Nutrition Information (¼ of egg salad):

Calories: 239

Total Carbs: 1 gram

Net Carbs: 1 gram

Fat: 21 grams

Protein: 12 grams

The post Pesto Egg Salad appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekly Link Love – Edition 72

Research of the Week

High blood pressure makes the coronavirus more dangerous.

How maternal obesity affects the offspring.

In women with PCOS, those going low-carb have better insulin sensitivity.

Homo erectus was probably really good at persistence hunting without water.

Dietary salt mitigates the damaging metabolic effects of a high-rice diet in rodents.

Low-calorie keto is safe for obese patients with mild kidney failure who want to lose weight.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 385: The Primal Endurance Revolution: Host Brad Kearns and I chat about how Primal Endurance principles have changed the endurance game—and how they can revolutionize your health and performance.

Episode 386: Catharine Arnston: Host Elle Russ chats with Catharine Arnston, CEO and founder of ENERGYbits—a company making nutrient-dense algae tablets.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 51: Laura and Erin chat with Brad Kearns about the long-term and sustainable benefits of the keto diet.

Media, Schmedia

Fecal transplants aren’t risk-free.

Plant-based activist group sues California for failing to list processed meat as a carcinogen.

Interesting Blog Posts

What’s it like to have a “mild” case of the novel coronavirus?

Digital stillface.

Social Notes

Natalie Grasso’s Primal Health Coach success story: “it helped me get out of my own way.”

On countering oxalate overload.

Everything Else

The fatality rate may be overestimated.

When analyzing the “healthiness” of a food, consumers are more likely to worry about sugar than other components like saturated fat or salt. Next up: seed oils!

It’s a good time to buy lobster.

This is funny.

Things I’m Up to and Interested in

Improvement in efficiency I found amazing: Using different grazing methods to go from each cow needing 250 acres to each cow needing just 20 in the desert of Chihuahua, Mexico.

Argument I found counterintuitive at first: How the coronavirus may have saved Chinese lives.

Article I found interesting: Why are children (seemingly) spared?

Twitter thread I found helpful: Reassuring facts about the coronavirus.

Old research I haven’t seen addressed much: Animal studies show that taking antipyretics (fever-reducers) during influenza increases mortality. Are fevers adaptive?

Question I’m Asking

You probably noticed a lot of coronavirus content today. Sorry about that. There wasn’t a whole lot else to share. Pretty much everyone and everything was focused on that singular topic.

Next week I’ll be doing a Dear Mark. Do you have any questions related to the coronavirus? I’m quite limited in what I can answer with any amount of expertise, but I can certainly offer my perspective.

Recipe Corner

Crab cakes, or paleo krabby patties.
One pan, some chicken, and a bunch of turmeric.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 8–Mar 14)

Ultimate Guide to Non-Dairy Milks – All about “milk.”
What’s the “Pegan Diet” (and How Does it Compare to Primal?)– Well, what is it?

Comment of the Week

“The coronavirus article seems an impressive case of willful ignorance for a man with PhD after his name. Experts have been at pains to emphasize the imperative to slow the spread because it will rapidly and completely overwhelm our medical system. Basically, very ill people will go essentially untreated, the virus will rage throughout our hospitals, which are full of especially vulnerable people, and countless senior living facilities of all kinds will become scenes of shocking carnage, at least by standards moderns are accustom to. I think a reasonable people can conclude this is a scenario worth trying to head off.”

– Good point, DBW.

The post Weekly Link Love – Edition 72 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

10 Ways to Stop Secretly Sabotaging Yourself

“I’ll start eating healthy again on Monday.”

“I’m not really a gym person.”

“I’ll probably gain the weight back anyway.”

I hear statements like these all the time. If any of them sound remotely like something you’ve said recently, there’s a good chance you’re secretly sabotaging yourself. You might not even know that you’re doing it—but what you do know is that nothing in your life is changing. That probably sounds a little harsh but hear me out.

Self-Sabotage Is Part of Human Nature

I’ve worked with hundreds of clients who’ve battled their self-sabotage demons and you can, too. It starts by understanding the science behind why you do it. When your logical, conscious mind has a goal (like swapping bacon and eggs for fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt) is at odds with your subconscious mind (the side of you that believes fruit, cereal, and low-fat yogurt are part of a nutritious breakfast), your subconscious or “inner critic” tries to protect you and keep you safe from potential failure by sabotaging your efforts.

This phenomenon is so common that psychologists conducted a study where college students were instructed to choose between a drug that allegedly interfered with their performance on a test and one that enhanced it. They found that participants were more likely to choose the performance-inhibiting drug, so they could purposefully set themselves up for failure and eliminate the fear of not succeeding.

In light of this research, and all of you who might be in this camp right now, I’m going to show you 10 ways to stop sabotaging yourself so you can start working toward your goals.

Recognize your inner critic

We all have one, me included. But you always have a choice whether or not you listen to the thoughts your inner critic thrashes you with. Your mind’s job is to interpret the world around you, creating stories based on limiting beliefs or stories from your past. And… it’s just trying to keep you safe, so it might say things like, “Who do you think you are?” or “You’ll never be able to stick with this.” Know that you are not your thoughts. Just acknowledge your inner critic, thank it for trying to protect you, and move on.

Forget about perfection

If you always jumped ship when things didn’t go as planned, you’d never get anything done. It’s not going to be perfect. Nothing is. That’s why I believe in progress over perfection. So maybe you ate some of your kids’ Valentine’s Day candy. So what? Just think about all the times you got it right! Focusing on the things you didn’t do won’t get you anywhere, so ditch the perfection mentality and aim for progress instead.

Get clear on your priorities

You’ve got to want it more than you don’t want it. That means resolving any inner conflict that may be going on. You might feel great when you have a whole week’s worth of groceries in your fridge, but you hate taking the time to make a list and meal prep. I hear you. But do you hate having nothing to eat and ordering a pizza (something that works against your goals) more than meal prepping? That’s for you to decide.

Step outside your comfort zone

Even if your habits are less-than-healthy—grabbing a muffin on the way into work, sleeping in instead of journaling, waiting for the elevator versus taking the stairs—they probably feel comfortable to you. Repeating the same behaviors over and over again gives you a false sense of safety and security since you’re used to doing them. And that can lead to unconscious self-sabotage because you want to avoid any uncomfortable feelings or situations that a new behavior might bring. Now is the time to get comfortable with a little discomfort!

Know that you deserve this

Worthiness and self-esteem play a huge role in self-sabotage. You might feel like you don’t deserve to be healthy, fit, or successful. Or you’ve failed before, so why try now? If your imagination is working overtime (and coupling up with that inner critic) you might come up with a million scenarios about why you’re not worth working toward your goals. But trust me, you are. Everyone deserves good health.

Create realistic expectations

Sometimes people try to overcompensate for their feelings of inadequacy by setting extremely high and unrealistic expectations. If you’re one of those people, pick one thing that you want to work on instead of attempting huge, sweeping changes all at once. Major changes to your diet and lifestyle can be hard to maintain, so get started by making small, doable changes that build your self-confidence rather than tear it down.

Set yourself up for success

One of the easiest ways to prevent self-sabotage is to set your environment up for success. Limit the time you scroll social media during the workday by taking Instagram and Facebook off of your phone. Or cut down on the amount of sugar and processed food you eat by removing from the house and shopping for high-quality proteins and fresh veggies instead.

Realize you don’t have to know it all

No one knows everything, so don’t let that keep you from working toward your goals. You may not know the best way to lose fat, how to get out of the “diet mentality”, or where to buy the best grass-fed beef, but there’s so much information out there about anything you could want to know. And if you can’t find it, you can always turn to one of our Primal Health Coaches for help.

Understand that fear is normal

Whether you’re in your first full week of paleo or committed to getting a solid eight hours of sleep, it’s natural to experience a little anxiety. You may fear the unknown or the unfamiliar, what others will say or think, that you may fail, or even that you’ll succeed. But just like your inner critic that you can listen to or ignore, you can choose to move past your fears with an understanding that the unknown is a normal part of the process as you move on to bigger and better things.

Reframe failure

Growing up, we’re taught that failure is something to avoid at all costs for fear of shame, guilt, or ridicule. However, failure is a necessary step for success. Just think about all the famous inventors, authors, and actors who failed several times before successfully getting to where they are now. If you hit the snooze button every day this week, ask what you can learn from it. If you indulged all week on vacation, don’t punish yourself—simply remember how far you’ve come.

10 Steps to Stop Self-Sabotage

Two of the most important questions you can ask yourself are: “Why am I self-sabotaging”, and, “How am I doing it?” Knowing why and how you’re getting in your own way can help you get past the obstacles that hold you back. Self-sabotage might be part of human nature, but you don’t have to let it derail your goals. Here’s how:

Recognize your inner critic
Forget about perfection
Get clear on priorities
Step outside your comfort zone
Know that you deserve this
Create realistic expectations
Set yourself up for success
Realize you don’t have to know it all
Understand that fear is normal
Reframe failure

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Should You Track Sleep?

Tracking certain things makes sense, if you go for that sort of thing. Tracking step count is hard without a device. No one’s going to count every step they take in their head. You’d quickly go mad doing that. Same with pulse rate and heart rate variability—you could count the number of beats for 30 seconds and double it to get BPM, but that gets unwieldy after awhile and HRV requires a special device. But tracking sleep? On the surface, sleep tracking seems futile and pointless. If there’s anything you should know intuitively without having to measure, it should be whether or not you got a good night’s sleep. You wake up and see how you feel.

Are you groggy? Irritable? Did you just crack an egg into the coffee maker, brush your teeth with light roast beans, kiss your dog good morning and let your spouse out to pee? You probably didn’t sleep very well.

Are you rested? Full of vim and vigor? Can you perform basic bodily functions without requiring a mug of coffee first thing? You probably slept fine.

Many people are fine with that much information. I’m one of them, actually. If I slept well, I slept well. But the argument for sleep tracking is more nuanced than that. It’s not just about knowing how well you sleep from night to night (which you can usually tell just from how you feel).

It’s about tracking how your daily actions, behaviors, exercise patterns, light exposure, food timing, and alcohol intake correlate with the quality of your sleep using actual numbers.

It’s about identifying the amount of deep sleep, REM sleep, and non-REM sleep you’re getting every night—and then using that information to make necessary changes.

Yes, with accurate sleep tracking, a person can do lots of things:

You can run experiments.

If you think something you’re doing, eating, taking, or implementing might be affecting your sleep, you can test it out. Eat the food/have the meal at said time/take the supplement/do the workout/etc. and track how you sleep. Remove the stimulus and track sleep again. What happened?

You can reinforce better behavior.

Sometimes it’s not about the accuracy of the device or the specific features of the device. It’s the simple act of measuring your sleep, thinking about your sleep, focusing on your sleep that compels you to get serious. It’s forking over a few hundred bucks on a sleep tracking device that finally gets you committed to a consistent sleep schedule. It’s the sunk cost of both attention and money.

You can discover triggers you weren’t even looking for.

When I asked people on Twitter about their biggest takeaways from using sleep tracking devices, one of the most popular answers was discovering a behavior, food, or exercise pattern that was hurting their sleep. Some named alcohol after 6p.m. Some named eating too large a meal after dark. Others mentioned too much exercise, or too little. The point is that people were using these devices to learn something about their own bodies. About what made them tick. They were gaining actionable information.

If you don’t have a strong intuitive relationship with your sleep, you can learn to develop it.

Many people have lost touch with their bodies. Using accurate trackers (like sleep trackers) can provide solid data that you can use to “sync up” with your subconscious intuition. Biofeedback can really help you become more intuitive, a better “body listener.”

At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. That’s assuming the device you’re using is accurate. Are they?

A 2017 paper compared the accuracy of an OURA Ring to traditional polysomnography (the gold standard for tracking sleep cycles, waking, and sleep time) in a group of teens and adults.

The OURA ring was pretty good at tracking total sleep time (87.8% accuracy) and waking after sleep onset time (85.4% accuracy).
It faltered when tracking light sleep (65% accuracy), deep sleep (51% accuracy), and REM sleep (61% accuracy).

Overall, it’s good as a total sleep time tracker, but not as impressive as a sleep cycle tracker.

In teens, researchers compared the accuracy of a FitBit Alta HR and a Philips Respironics ActiWatch2 (two wrist wearables) to traditional polysomnography. Both consumer devices were accurate in tracking sleep duration but not sleep staging, which, “would benefit from further refinement before these methods can be reliably used for adolescents.”

In adults, the FitBit Charge 2 was compared to polysomnography. The FitBit:

Showed 96% accuracy to detect sleep, 61% accuracy to detect wake, 81% accuracy in detecting light sleep, 49% accuracy in detecting deep sleep, and 74% accuracy in detecting REM sleep.
Overestimated total sleep time by 9 minutes and light sleep by 34 minutes, and underestimated deep sleep sleep by 24 minutes.
Accurately estimated REM sleep duration.

Another study had similar findings, concluding that commercial sleep trackers are good enough for tracking sleep time and time in bed.

Some of these devices track more than just sleep duration and cycles (however accurately). For instance, the OURA ring also has a body temperature sensor, a heart rate variability monitor, and a heart rate tracker because all three biomarkers—body temp, HRV, and HR—can give insight into how a person is sleeping.  Are they accurate?

According to a recent study in women, the OURA Ring could detect menstrual shifts with 72–86% accuracy and ovulation periods with 83% accuracy by using nocturnal body temperature readings.

A newish wrist wearable called WHOOP was recently tested against polysomnography and actually did quite well:

It tracked deep sleep with 85% accuracy and REM sleep with 74% accuracy.
It got breathing rate within 1 breath per minute and pulse rate within 1 BPM of reality.

Plus, the adults using WHOOP reported improved sleep quality.

There are definitely problems with most of the current devices. They’re not as accurate as medical trackers. They rarely muster up to polysomnography. But they’re good for tracking overall sleep duration, and they’re getting better at tracking sleep stages. I imagine at some point in the near future we’ll have consumer devices that rival the medical ones.

And some of the newer ones, like the OURA Ring and WHOOP, can also track respiration rate and heart rate variability, which give insight into not just how you’re sleeping but also general preparedness and stress tolerance. I’ve explained the merits of HRV in the past, and although I’m not a devoted HRV-tracker, I recognize its usefulness. If I were an athlete again, I’d get a lot of use out of tracking my heart rate variability and having a “readiness” number waiting for me upon waking.

But overall, I’m not sold on their necessity. 

Imagine this: You get the newest, bestest tracker to finally figure out what makes a good night’s sleep. Except things get weird.

On the days you feel exhausted, your tracker reports the previous night’s sleep as having been exemplary.

On the days you feel rested, your tracker reports poor sleep.

Who are you going to believe? The tracker or your own experience?

This mismatch can throw off your ability to derive value and insight from the device. On the day you feel exhausted but should be rested according to the tracker, you ate a large meal at night with a glass of wine. On the day you feel rested but should be exhausted according to the tracker, you ate a small supper and had sparkling water instead of wine. Which nighttime routine will you pursue? Will you trust the numbers of your own intuition?

How you respond to this disagreement—who or what you believe—will have major ramifications for the rest of your day.

If you feel rested but the tracker says you slept terribly, you just might be inclined to believe the tracker. Do that often enough and you could become conditioned to feel dissatisfied with “good sleep.” You could nocebo yourself out of appreciating a good night’s sleep, or worse.

In one sleep study, what the researchers told participants about the quality of the sleep they’d had the night before had a greater influence on cognitive performance than how they actually slept. If they slept well but were told they slept poorly, they performed poorly. If they slept poorly but were told they slept well, they performed better.

Or—and I’ve seen this happen—you could become wedded to the numbers. That if you’re not able to track and validate a good night’s sleep and post the results to your Instagram account, it didn’t happen. I’ve heard from people who end up waking up in the middle of the night, stressing out over the quality of their sleep. Will the dog waking me up to go pee show up in next morning’s report and ruin my record for the week?

I have my leanings. As I said earlier, if I were a competitive athlete again, I’d probably be more inclined to give a sleep tracker a shot, especially if it had great accuracy and HRV capability. But this isn’t about me. It’s about what’s right for you.

Are you an intuitive who likes to feel things out and go with the flow, listen to your body?

Are you a number-cruncher who likes quantifying as much of the human experience as possible?

Most of us are a mix of both. It all depends on you—what makes you tick, what gets you going, what your goals are.

So, tell me, folks: Do you use a sleep tracker?

What do you get out of it?

What don’t you like?

Can you recommend any specific devices or apps?

Sell me on it. Or do the opposite. Make your case!

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be well.

References

De zambotti M, Rosas L, Colrain IM, Baker FC. The Sleep of the Ring: Comparison of the ?URA Sleep Tracker Against Polysomnography. Behav Sleep Med. 2017;1-15.

Lee XK, Chee NIYN, Ong JL, et al. Validation of a Consumer Sleep Wearable Device With Actigraphy and Polysomnography in Adolescents Across Sleep Opportunity Manipulations. J Clin Sleep Med. 2019;15(9):1337-1346.

De zambotti M, Goldstone A, Claudatos S, Colrain IM, Baker FC. A validation study of Fitbit Charge 2 compared with polysomnography in adults. Chronobiol Int. 2018;35(4):465-476.

Lee JM, Byun W, Keill A, Dinkel D, Seo Y. Comparison of Wearable Trackers’ Ability to Estimate Sleep. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018;15(6).

Maijala A, Kinnunen H, Koskimäki H, Jämsä T, Kangas M. Nocturnal finger skin temperature in menstrual cycle tracking: ambulatory pilot study using a wearable Oura ring. BMC Womens Health. 2019;19(1):150.

Berryhill S, Morton CJ, Dean A, et al. Effect of Wearables on Sleep in Healthy Individuals: A Randomized Cross-Over Trial and Validation Study. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020.

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Dear Mark: Going Carnivore with Just Seafood, Protein Right after Fasted Workout?

For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering a pair of questions from readers. The first one comes from the comment section of the excerpt from Paul Saladino’s new book: Can a seafood-only carnivore diet work? Will it miss anything? Is there anything to watch out for, add, or consider? The second one comes from the recent post about exercising during a fast. If someone’s trying to gain muscle, should they prioritize eating protein after a fast-breaking training session, or should they keep the fast going?

Let’s go:

I have a question though. Is eating a seafood-only carnivore diet well rounded enough Mark? Will I cover all my bases nutritionally? I eat plenty of fish heads (caught that post with interest) plus whole mollusks. Basically any seafood. What do you think? And how long term could this diet be?

It can definitely be done. You’ll have no issues hitting your recommended nutrient intakes, since seafood is one of the most nutrient-dense classes of foods around. But you’ll have to keep a few things in mind to do it right:

You’ll want to avoid overloading on high-toxin fish. Don’t base your diet on shark, swordfish, king mackerel, and albacore tuna.
You may run into problems getting enough fat. Because while you can certainly eat fatty seafood like king salmon and mackerel and get “enough” fat, you’d be overdosing on omega-3s.

Wait, what? Too many omega-3s? Aren’t those good for you?

Yes, but there’s a limit. I for one love sockeye salmon with crispy skin, but there’s definitely an “off-switch.” I can’t sit there and put down two or three pounds of it in a single sitting. And if I do eat a lot, I usually don’t want any more for at least a few days. This effect happens with other fatty fish, too, like mackerel. It doesn’t happen with leaner seafood, like cod. I’ll eat a huge amount of cod cooked in capers and butter and lemon. I’ll eat shrimp forever.

Most populations who ate significant amounts of seafood got most of their fat from terrestrial sources. Northern Europeans and people from the British Isles ate a lot of cold water fish, but they also ate huge amounts of dairy fat and animal fat (and other plant foods). The traditional Mediterranean diet wasn’t just sardines and anchovies, but also cheese and lamb and olive oil (and other plant foods). Pacific Island nations whose populations ate mostly seafood for their animal protein weren’t eating king salmon and fatty tuna; they were eating low-fat fish and getting a lot of their fat from coconut (plus fruit and tubers).

The only peoples we know who got a huge amount of dietary omega-3 from seafood and ate a close-to-carnivore diet were the Inuit, and even they also ate high-fat terrestrial animals or marine mammals with abundant fat stores.

Eating a high-fat diet with most of the fat coming from fatty fish is evolutionarily novel and, probably, unwise. And maybe impossible, or extremely expensive.

If you want to do seafood-based carnivore, try these:

Incorporate leaner seafood (not just fatty fish) and branch out on your fat sources. Plus, it’s cheaper this way—wild salmon gets pricey.
Eat white fish like cod, halibut, haddock. Excellent protein and mineral content with low absolute omega-3 levels.
Eat sardines, salmon, mackerel—just not at every meal. Great protein and mineral content with high omega-3 levels.
Eat bivalves and crustaceans like oysters, mussels, crab, shrimp, clams. Very high in micronutrients, plus you get the “eating the whole organism” effect.
Use olive oil, butter, avocado oil, coconut oil for fat. Olives, avocados, and coconuts aren’t strictly carnivore, but their oils don’t contain any of the plant compounds that carnivores worry about—and butter is definitely carnivore-friendly, as it comes from an animal.
Eat cheese, if you tolerate it.
Eat egg yolks, if your seafood-centricity isn’t ideological.
Figure out folate. Folate will be hard to come by. There’s just not a lot of folate in seafood. Then again, folate is hard to come by on standard carnivore diets, too, unless you’re eating liver every day—which probably isn’t a good idea.

What can you do?

1. You can source really, really good eggs. Joel Salatin claims to raise chickens who lay eggs with 218 times the folate levels of normal eggs. That’s hard for me to believe, but I do know that chickens who eat lots of greens and other folate-rich foods will have more folate in their eggs than chickens who eat none. Another option is Eggland’s Best Organic Eggs, which have about 10% of your daily folate requirements in each egg (plus an impressive overall nutrient profile). Throw in a few of those each day and you’ll get a big boost.

2. You can eat some romaine lettuce. Hear me out. Romaine lettuce is actually a very good source of folate. Two cups of the stuff will give you a measly 1 gram of digestible glucose and over 30% of your daily folate requirement. Moreover, it’s very low in oxalates, the primary component in leafy greens that carnivores like to avoid.

I hope that helps. Let me know how it goes.

On the shorter fasts with fat loss AND muscle gain as the goal, would you recommend prioritizing protein intake following resistance training? I will typically lift weights in a fasted state first thing in the morning (4x week), and I’m wondering if I’m losing progress by prolonging my fast (and protein intake) until lunchtime.

Yes. Protein intake shortly after the workout is the best move for optimizing muscle protein synthesis and muscle gain. For fat loss, I’d also recommend doing some really light cardio after the training session before you eat to burn through the free fatty acids the exercise liberated from your body fat. By light, I mean light.

Go for a 20-minute walk around the block or on the treadmill.

Casually pedal the stationary bike.

Go for a hike.

Swim some laps.

Jog at a pace easy enough that you can hold a conversation.

I often prolong my fasts even after training because I’m not really interested in active muscle gain at this point. I’m mainly going for muscle maintenance, performance maintenance (train so I can play), longevity, and compression of morbidity. If I were to start a mass gain protocol, I would be eating lots of protein immediately after my workouts.

If you folks have any more questions about these (or any) topics, drop them down below. Thanks for reading!

The post Dear Mark: Going Carnivore with Just Seafood, Protein Right after Fasted Workout? appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

How Fasting, Calorie Restriction, and a Fasting-Mimicking Diet Can Encourage Longevity

Hi folks, today’s post comes from my friend Max Lugavere, New York Times best-selling author of Genius Foods and The Genius Life, which will be available for purchase on March 17, 2020. Max is a young guy, but he’s accomplished a lot so far, including an impressive bit of research and writing about longevity and how to age optimally with grace. I know you’ll enjoy Max diving into the weeds a bit about the nutrient sensors, proteins, and catalysts that may help us live long, healthy, thriving lives. This post comes from an excerpt from Max’s newest book The Genius Life.

From now until March 11, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. PST, enter for your chance to win a FREE copy of The Genius Life as well as Primal Kitchen salad dressings and Primal Sun. All you have to do is head over to Instagram, follow @marksdailyapple and @maxlugavere, and tag some friends in the comments of the giveaway post. Three winners will be selected and notified via DM. Good luck, and enjoy the excerpt.

When it comes to slowing down the clock, life extension is indeed possible. The catch? There are two: it involves calorie restriction, and it has only been successfully demonstrated in lab animals. Studying longevity in humans is a bit more challenging. We don’t sleep in labs, we live a lot longer, and we like to eat. (Correction: we love to eat.) So while most of us would happily opt for a 40 percent increase on our life spans like food-deprived lab rats seem to achieve, we need a better route to get there.1

Thankfully, longevity researchers have begun to look for calorie restriction mimetics—compounds or strategies that can mimic the beneficial effects of prolonged calorie restriction but without the misery that goes along with it. Some emerging food-based candidates include resveratrol, the antioxidant found in red wine; fisetin, found in strawberries and cucumbers; and curcumin, found in turmeric. The most promising of all, however, may derive from a practice as old as humanity itself: fasting.

How do the cells of the body know when we’ve decided to fast? Answering that question has been mission critical for longevity researchers. Why? Because if we’re able to find the signal that tells our cells “food is scarce,” we may be able to activate those signals on demand and reap the myriad cellular benefits that ensue. Plus, we’d be able to do it without committing to a lifetime of starving ourselves. The chief nutrient sensor that our bodies use to assess whether or not we are in a calorie-deprived state is—and it’s a mouthful—adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase or, simply, AMPK.

AMPK senses overall energy (i.e., calorie) availability. You may have heard of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the basic energy currency of cells. Under normal circumstances, ATP is able to be generated to meet the demands of our activity. But when ATP can’t get replenished fast enough, such as during calorie restriction or high-intensity exercise, AMP builds up in the cell. AMP is an energy-depleted version of ATP, and too much AMP leads to the activation of AMPK.

AMPK sits at the helm of coordinating the body’s response to the sudden lack of energy. It promotes increased fat burning, better glucose handling, improved insulin sensitivity, and reduced inflammation. It also decreases the liver’s synthesis of fats like cholesterol and triglycerides.2 And, since AMPK’s duties include making sure your cells are better prepared for next time, it spurs the creation of healthy, new energy-generating mitochondria (dysfunction of these little power plants is associated with aging and numerous age-related diseases). This is all why activating AMPK is considered a powerful lever for the life-extending properties of calorie restriction.

Other Potential AMPK Activators:

Astaxanthin (in krill oil and wild salmon)
Berberine
Coffee
Cold exposure
Curcumin (in turmeric)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Green tea
Heat (e.g., saunas)
Metformin (a type 2 diabetes drug)
Quercetin (in capers and onions)
Reishi mushroom
Resveratrol
Sulforaphane (in cruciferous veggies)
Vinegar

What might you do to support the activation of AMPK? Calorie restriction, of course. Other than that, high-intensity interval training, which I describe in more detail on page 122 in my book The Genius Life, is a potent AMPK activator, precisely because it creates a temporary state of energy deprivation. And new research suggests that a few hours of daily fasting can also activate this pathway. By simply eating less frequently, we allow AMPK to become active, whereas eating around the clock keeps AMPK perpetually subdued. Avoid food for the first hour or two (or three) after waking up and avoid food for two to three hours before bed.

Slowing the Clock

One pathway that AMPK stimulates is the FOXO family of proteins. One of them, FOXO3, has been proposed as a longevity protein. It boosts stress resilience (important if you want to live a long time) and may help prevent age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. Some lucky people have genes that make their FOXO3 more active, and those people have markedly higher odds of living to one hundred.

Genes or not, you can activate FOXO3 just as easily.

For FOXO3 to activate, it needs a signal, and AMPK is just that. While eating around the clock keeps AMPK chronically deactivated, constraining your feeding window to eight to twelve hours every day encourages AMPK—and subsequently FOXO3—to ramp up. (FOXO3 is also sensitive to insulin, which acts like a nutrient sensor for glucose availability and is discussed on pages 12–13. By keeping insulin within a normal healthy range with a lower carbohydrate diet among other things, we allow FOXO3 to come out of its hole.)

Finally, there’s mTOR, which may be the most potent antiaging protein of all. mTOR was discovered decades ago while scientists were investigating how a strange bacterial compound discovered on Easter Island seemed to exhibit powerful anticancer effects. It appeared to work by inhibiting a protein in the body involved in cell proliferation, which is increased in cancer. The compound was named rapamycin for Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for the island on which it was discovered, and its target, the anticancer protein, came to be known as mTOR, or mammalian target of rapamycin.3

mTOR promotes storage and growth. As with insulin, this can be highly beneficial when that growth occurs in your muscle tissue, which mTOR helps to achieve. It is also an important player in the formation of synapses—the connections between brain cells—and neuroplasticity, which is your brain’s ability to change over time. These processes all require mTOR-regulated growth.

But mTOR also has a dark side. Too much mTOR activity has been linked with autism, seizures, and certain cancers.4 It can even accelerate aging. When activated, it’s the central gatekeeper to the house-cleaning process known as autophagy. Autophagy clears away old and damaged cell components, such as old mitochondria—the energy generators of your cells—making way for new powerhouses to be created. But by being stuck in an always-on state, this rejuvenation process is blocked. We can see this play out in old mice, whose lives can be extended by up to 60 percent by inhibiting mTOR with rapamycin.5 Rapamycin is not a free lunch, however, and its chronic use is associated with numerous potential side effects such as insulin resistance, the hallmark of type 2 diabetes. This begs the question: is there a healthier way of inhibiting mTOR?

mTOR is sensitive to two things: dietary protein and energy availability. When protein is abundant and energy is flowing, mTOR is revved up. When energy is lacking or protein is restricted, mTOR is inhibited. By limiting our food consumption to eight hours a day—effectively half the feeding time of your average person—we can easily achieve both and spend more time in an mTOR-inhibited state.

And while the story on fasting and longevity is still being written, one proposed method has emerged, with clinical research to back it up.

The Fasting-Mimicking Diet

The raw power of activating AMPK and simultaneously inhibiting mTOR was on display with the results of a fasting protocol devised by scientists at the University of Southern California, led by gerontologist Valter Longo. The research suggests that a periodic very low-calorie diet can not only potentially extend life and health span, but even treat conditions like multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.

It’s known as the fasting-mimicking diet. When it was first tested in mice, Dr. Longo and company witnessed essentially a “resetting” of the immune system. The energy-restricted diet destroyed old and dysfunctional autoimmune cells, which were then re-created in a non-autoimmune state during the refeeding process.6 The rejuvenation of the immune system mimicked what Dr. Longo calls “an embryonic-like program,” causing an increase in healthy new stem cells similar to those seen in development.

We don’t often get to restart with a clean slate, but that’s what fasting seemed to do for these rodents’ immune systems. Moving on to higher-level organisms, the human version of the fasting mimicking diet involved five consecutive days of very low-calorie eating. How low? About half of participants’ normal calorie intake. And the calories were specifically intended to come predominantly from veggies and healthy Mediterranean fats like extra-virgin olive oil. It was then repeated monthly, for a total of three months.

By the end, the subjects had decreased risk factors and biomarkers for aging, diabetes, and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease, without any major adverse effects and with just a few days of calorie restriction per month. The diet was also deliberately low in protein, but it’s hard to know whether the benefits seen were due to protein restriction, or calorie restriction in general. Independent of calorie restriction, protein restriction hasn’t yet proved beneficial in humans—quite the opposite, actually—and is likely a recipe for weight gain and muscle loss, especially over the long term.

The takeaway here is that aside from minding your meal timing, occasional low-calorie dieting may be useful for a long and healthy life. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint that our bodies would know what to do once food became scarce, since it’s unlikely our ancestors had successful hunts all year round.

Pick up a copy of Max’s book, The Genius Life , on or after March 17, 2020, or pre-order your copy today and get a number of generous freebies, including “The 10 Supplements for Better Brain Function.”

References

1. Les Dethlefsen et al., “The Pervasive Effects of an Antibiotic on the Human Gut Microbiota, as Revealed by Deep 16S rRNA Sequencing,” PLOS Biology 6, no. 11 (2008): e280, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060280.

2. Tsepo Ramatla et al., “Evaluation of Antibiotic Residues in Raw Meat Using Different Analytical Methods,” Antibiotics 6.4 (2017): 34, doi:10.3390/antibiotics6040034; Khurram Muaz et al., “Antibiotic Residues in Chicken Meat: Global Prevalence, Threats, and Decontamination Strategies: A Review,” Journal of Food Protection 81, no. 4 (2018):619–27.

3. Marcin Bara?ski et al., “Higher Antioxidant and Lower Cadmium Concentrations and Lower Incidence of Pesticide Residues in Organically Grown Crops: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analyses,” British Journal of Nutrition 112, no. 5 (2014):794–811.

4. Jotham Suez et al., “Post-antibiotic Gut Mucosal Microbiome Reconstitution Is Impaired by Probiotics and Improved by Autologous FMT,” Cell 174, no. 6 (2018): 1406–23.

5. Ruth E. Brown et al., “Secular Differences in the Association Between Caloric Intake, Macronutrient Intake, and Physical Activity with Obesity,” Obesity Research & Clinical Practice 10, no. 3 (2016): 243–55.

6. Tetsuhide Ito and Robert T. Jensen, “Association of Long-Term Proton Pump Inhibitor Therapy with Bone Fractures and Effects on Absorption of Calcium, Vitamin B12, Iron, and Magnesium,” Current Gastroenterology Reports 12, no. 6 (2010): 448–57, doi:10.1007/s11894-010-0141–0.

The post How Fasting, Calorie Restriction, and a Fasting-Mimicking Diet Can Encourage Longevity appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Kalbi Ribs

Rich, intensely savory, and meltingly tender, ribs are about as Primal an eating experience as we can muster these days unless we’re out in the wild hunting or fishing and cooking protein over a campfire. Kalbi, a classic Korean BBQ dish, begins with a bath in a sweet and salty marinade before being cooked until caramelized on a grill or under other intense heat.

Flanken short ribs are cross-cut ribs about a half-inch thick. Ask your butcher to prepare them for you if you can’t find them. For the marinade, you can use any type of apple, or you can use an Asian pear. These ribs are broiled, but you can also put them on the grill for a few minutes on each side.

Kalbi Ribs

Time: 8 hours, 10 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients

1.5 lbs. Flanken beef short ribs
1/2 cup peeled and chopped apple
¼ cup coconut aminos
1 Tbsp. sesame oil
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger
2 large cloves garlic or 3-4 small cloves
5 roughly chopped scallions
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup Primal Kitchen No-Soy Island Teriyaki Sauce and Marinade
Sliced scallions and sesame seeds, to garnish
Optional: cayenne pepper, for kick

Instructions

Place the apple, coconut aminos, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, scallions and salt in a high-speed blender, and blend until smooth. Add the Primal Kitchen No-Soy Island Teriyaki Sauce. Pour the sauce in a large glass bowl or glass measuring cup and mix in the short ribs. Place them in the fridge and allow them to marinate for 6–8 hours.

Turn on the broiler of your oven. Lay the short ribs on a sheet pan in a single layer, making sure they don’t overlap. Broil for 1–2 minutes on either side, or until they are cooked through. Top the ribs with any juices from the pan and top with sliced scallions, sesame seeds, and cayenne pepper (if desired).

Nutrition Information (¼ of recipe):

Calories: 453

Total Carbs: 6 grams

Net Carbs: 3 grams

Fat: 34 grams

Protein: 24 grams

The post Kalbi Ribs appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekly Link Love – Edition 71

Research of the Week

Ketosis improves brain network stability in younger adults.

Egg consumption linked to improved cardiovascular health in Asian populations.

More fish oil, better sperm—and more of it.

More recess, less ADHD.

There never was.

Low-carb seems safe, and possibly beneficial, for men with prostate cancer.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 407: Meik Wiking: Host Elle Russ chats with Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute.

Episode 408: Dr. Michael Platt on Adrenaline Dominance: Host Brad Kearns chats with Dr. Michael Platt, an expert on adrenaline dominance.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 50: Laura and Erin chat with Brian Sanders, who just wants you to think big.

Media, Schmedia

The United States Dietary Guidelines panel is set to consider changes to its saturated fat recommendations.

The broad acceptance of psychedelics as psychotherapy tools faces a big hurdle.

Interesting Blog Posts

An interesting take on the coronavirus.

Social Notes

Introducing.

Immune support is always important.

Everything Else

What’s it like to swim under the Antarctic ice sheet (besides cold)?

Did you know you can use bones for campfires?

Scientists try using eyedrop-bound CRISPR tech to cure blindness.

Careful throwing dry ice in an indoor pool.

I mean, I get the move to insects as human food, but it will never replace actual butter.

Things I’m Up to and Interested in

Not sure how to think about this: Half of all Australian boys report using protein supplements.

Study I had a slightly different conclusion on: How about skipping both fries and soda?

I doubt this will work: Impossible Foods seeks to undercut the price of “conventional ground beef.”

I’m always reminded how much research is on “our side”: Even meals high in “native” and un-oxidized omega-6 fatty-acids increase circulating levels of endothelial microparticles.

Podcast I enjoyed doing: The one with Dr. Steven Gundry.

Question I’m Asking

Would you ever try CRISPR? What would it take for you to give it a try?

Recipe Corner

Asian chicken thighs from Nom Nom Paleo. For all the concern over excess linoleic acid, I still can’t resist a crispy chicken thigh.
Meat-free sukuma wiki (but feel free to add meat, it’s even better).

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 1–Mar 7)

My Favorite Way to Play: Ultimate Frisbee Workout– How I like to play.
4 Misunderstandings About Carbs and Stress– What do people get wrong about the two?

Comment of the Week

“Unless you’re looking to create your own Fight Club, a suggestion to go along with gazing uncomfortably at a stranger is to smile, nod or say ‘top of the morning!’ in a very strong Irish accent. Staring them down may not be in your best interest… well, unless a ‘mad dog’ moment is your desired ‘discomfort’.”

– Good point, Brandon.

The post Weekly Link Love – Edition 71 appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

Weekly Link Love

Research of the Week

Ketosis improves brain network stability in younger adults.

Egg consumption linked to improved cardiovascular health in Asian populations.

More fish oil, better sperm—and more of it.

More recess, less ADHD.

There never was.

Low-carb seems safe, and possibly beneficial, for men with prostate cancer.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 407: Meik Wiking: Host Elle Russ chats with Meik Wiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute.

Episode 408: Dr. Michael Platt on Adrenaline Dominance: Host Brad Kearns chats with Dr. Michael Platt, an expert on adrenaline dominance.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 50: Laura and Erin chat with Brian Sanders, who just wants you to think big.

Media, Schmedia

The United States Dietary Guidelines panel is set to consider changes to its saturated fat recommendations.

The broad acceptance of psychedelics as psychotherapy tools faces a big hurdle.

Interesting Blog Posts

An interesting take on the coronavirus.

Social Notes

Introducing.

Immune support is always important.

Everything Else

What’s it like to swim under the Antarctic ice sheet (besides cold)?

Did you know you can use bones for campfires?

Scientists try using eyedrop-bound CRISPR tech to cure blindness.

Careful throwing dry ice in an indoor pool.

I mean, I get the move to insects as human food, but it will never replace actual butter.

Things I’m Up to and Interested in

Not sure how to think about this: Half of all Australian boys report using protein supplements.

Study I had a slightly different conclusion on: How about skipping both fries and soda?

I doubt this will work: Impossible Foods seeks to undercut the price of “conventional ground beef.”

I’m always reminded how much research is on “our side”: Even meals high in “native” and un-oxidized omega-6 fatty-acids increase circulating levels of endothelial microparticles.

Podcast I enjoyed doing: The one with Dr. Steven Gundry.

Question I’m Asking

Would you ever try CRISPR? What would it take for you to give it a try?

Recipe Corner

Asian chicken thighs from Nom Nom Paleo. For all the concern over excess linoleic acid, I still can’t resist a crispy chicken thigh.
Meat-free sukuma wiki (but feel free to add meat, it’s even better).

Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 1–Mar 7)

My Favorite Way to Play: Ultimate Frisbee Workout– How I like to play.
4 Misunderstandings About Carbs and Stress– What do people get wrong about the two?

Comment of the Week

“Unless you’re looking to create your own Fight Club, a suggestion to go along with gazing uncomfortably at a stranger is to smile, nod or say ‘top of the morning!’ in a very strong Irish accent. Staring them down may not be in your best interest… well, unless a ‘mad dog’ moment is your desired ‘discomfort’.”

– Good point, Brandon.

The post Weekly Link Love appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.