Is Organic All It’s Cracked Up to Be?

Several months back, a major study comparing the nutritional value of organic food to conventional food made the rounds. Organic food, it found, was “no healthier” than ordinary food. There were no significant “differences in nutrient content,” and the study’s authors found “no evidence to support the selection of organic over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.” Hmm, so there were “differences,” but they were “unlikely to be of any public health relevance.” Okay – even if I accept that the differences were unimportant, there was a major, glaring qualifier: “nutritional superiority.” Going organic, then, doesn’t suddenly change the essential composition of a plant. A grape remains a grape (small differences aside), whether you use artificial pesticides or “natural” pesticides. I buy that, and I don’t think many people who support organic are arguing that industrial organic farms produce purer, more “appley” apples than conventional farms. They’re simply wary of ingesting the artificial chemical cocktails applied to conventional crops.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Dear Mark: Arachidonic Acid

I spend a lot of time highlighting the importance of omega-3 fatty acids and downplaying their poly cohorts, omega-6s. Of course, I do this for good reason. Western dietary patterns and modern agricultural practices have made omega-3s harder to come by and blown any semblance of omega-3/omega-6 dietary balance out of the water. As maligned as omega-6s are these days, however, they’re still essential fatty acids. Our bodies need them and can’t produce them on their own – straight and simple. The problem comes when we mistake emphasizing the omega imbalance in modern diets with disparaging omega-6 entirely. Although the Primal Blueprint promotes a healthy fatty acid balance – one that parallels that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors – I still get questions about omega-6s, particularly reservations about the role arachidonic acid (part of the omega-6 fatty acid family) plays in the PB.

Dear Mark,

While I totally agree with the importance and value of meat/eggs and vegetables, minus all grains and added sugars…my question is about the arachidonic acid (AA) found mostly in meat and egg yolks. It has been demonized by many, Barry Sears, etc., as the cause of all inflammation in the body. Is that a concern for us on the PB plan?

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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The Definitive Guide to Fermented Foods

Life in the Paleolithic wasn’t a pristine, sterile existence. There were no fun-sized hand sanitizers or pasteurized eggs. Meat didn’t come shrink-wrapped, and it wasn’t stored in sub-40 degree temperature to prevent spoilage. I’ve never seen evidence of vegetable cleaning liquid containers at prehistoric dig sites, nor have any tiny tubes of antibiotic ointment been discovered among the arrowheads, flint shards, and stone spears. In fact, for the better part of human history, man was entirely ignorant of the existence of microorganisms, let alone the crucial role they played in our everyday lives. The Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro, in his 1^st century BC book “On Agriculture,” wrote of “certain creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases,” but he was just guessing (the Romans used a pseudo-soap to occasionally remove sweat and visible grime, but not for any supposed anti-microbial effects). It wasn’t until the 17^th century that microorganisms were even discovered, and it took another couple hundred years for us to realize that the little guys could cause disease and that boiling or sufficiently heating a substance could kill or mitigate the worst of them.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Dear Mark: Primal Trail Food

Just when you feel you’ve made the successful transition to Primal eating in everyday life, you stumble upon a scenario that sends you back to the drawing board. For some people, it’s the holidays. For others, it’s travel. For reader Brian, it’s regular camping trips into the real “primal environment”:

Dear Mark,

Each summer and throughout the year, I spend weeks at a time leading hiking, backpacking and camping trips in the backcountry. While this seems like it’s definitely a primal activity, traditional backpacking fare consists of oatmeal, tortillas, granola, peanut butter, pasta, rice, and beans. These foods are light, compact, durable, will fill you up, do not need to be refrigerated, and are easily packable. At the end of each week, though, I always feel worn out – depleted, almost – and I realize now that it is probably because of what I eat. Do you have any primal menu suggestions for those of us who actually live, at times, in a primal environment? (Hunting and gathering are unfortunately not viable options.) Thanks!

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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Dear Mark: Your Brain on Junk Food

Clearly, we eat not just to fill our stomachs but to satisfy a whole host of biochemical drives. The brain is built to incentivize our efforts not just with the quieting of hunger pangs but the kick-starting of an intricate hormonal “reward” system. When it comes to diet, I’ve always said what nurtures the body nurtures the brain. The proof is in the biochemical picture. And while I wholeheartedly believe that we each choose what we eat and how we treat our bodies, there’s something to the science that shows addictive properties in junk food. I occasionally get emails on this topic. Here’s a timely one from last week.

Posted By: Mark Sisson

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