The Primal Blueprint Cookbook Receives Illustrious Award
I am pleased to report that the Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has just listed my very own “The Primal Blueprint Cookbook” as one of the five worst (most unhealthy) cookbooks of 2010, along with cookbooks by Gordon Ramsay, Barefoot Contessa, Trisha Yearwood and the creators of Top Chef. Why am I glad to be the author of one of the worst cookbooks of the year, you might be wondering? Look who’s giving out the award. None other than the PCRM, home of such vaunted nutritional giants as Fuhrman, McDougall, Esselstyn, Barnard, and T. Colin Campbell and a celebrated bastion of vegan propagandists. This is Bizarro food world, guys, where “unhealthy” means “healthy” and “desiccated wheat grass smegma” means “grass-fed butter.” The PCRM official “New Four Food Groups,” for example, consist of whole grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. (Sugar’s still sugar, though.) Even the American Council on Science and Health nailed these guys for “emphasizing only data that support their [vegan] agenda” and “exaggerating the reliability and importance of such data.” They’re described as a “subtle” PETA who mistakes statistical significance for biological significance. With detractors like these, who needs supporters? If these guys are against your dietary recommendations, you’re probably doing something right, so I’m going to take this one as a win.
You know, I never expected to garner such acclaim, so I was completely taken aback by the deluge of press releases and coverage announcing my award that popped up on my feed. Those scoundrels didn’t even warn me I was about to win such an esteemed award. They just dropped it on me. Heck, they’re lucky I didn’t drop dead from a heart attack from the shock given all that atherosclerotic plaque that’s no doubt welling up inside!
Jokes aside, this tells me that we still have a lot of work to do. This exposure’s great, but where’s the Physicians Committee for Ancestral Medicine (hey, coming soon, maybe, actually) making press releases about the five most dangerous low-fat cookbooks? Why isn’t Bill Clinton toting a dog-eared copy of “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” onto talk shows, instead of following the advice of Dean Ornish? Where’s my spot on Oprah? Why doesn’t Robb Wolf have a show opposite Dr. Oz? People need to know this stuff. They need to know that butter maybe isn’t so decadent, or that maybe decadent isn’t even really a bad word. (As Susan Levin (nutrition education direction for PCRM and the woman responsible for the “New Four Food Groups”), admits, one of the reasons so many cookbooks have gone to this “unhealthy” extreme is that a lot of these recipes taste great. Point being, if it tastes great, it can’t possibly be good for you. Now go eat your porridge…)
This also tells me that we’re getting work done without the support of the experts. Heck, we’re getting things done despite rancor from some of the experts. Yeah, we may not be carried by Whole Foods in the check out section and vegetarian is still synonymous with healthy for most people, but things are changing. I can tell because I have to hit the farmers’ market an hour earlier than I used to if I want to stock up on pastured beef liver and soup bones, and because the success stories keep coming in week after week. I can tell because with nothing but the support of the Primal community and virtually no other publicity we’re atop the Amazon Low-Carb top seller list and listed with giants like Ramsay in this recent award. I can tell because blog traffic grows each month and because major media outlets are finally reporting on things we’ve been saying for years. Bottom line: if Primal/paleo is on their expansive radar, I take it as a good sign.
As they say, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” For every borderline vegetarian who reads the press release and mentally crosses me off their to-read list, several others will see me aligned with the likes of the Barefoot Contessa (who, you know, makes the most delectable delicious foods and I do like watching that show of hers) and Gordon Ramsay (who’s got the tough exterior going but it’s just a cover for his gooey baked brie center), and before you know it they’re checking out the PB cookbook, buying it, making some recipes, losing some weight, and getting interested in the rest of this stuff. They end up with all the back episodes of Robb’s podcast on their iPod, a Google reader feed full of Primal blogs, a triple-digit reputation on Paleohacks, and the tendency to annoy their friends with anti-grain talk. Even if just one ailing citizen gets exposed to the Primal Blueprint thanks to the PRCM singling out the PB cookbook, I’m happy, because that’s another person with a better chance to take control of their health and turn their life around.
There are numerous fun quotes from the press coverage. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites from NY Daily News: “Finally there’s a cookbook that, according to the doctors, ‘sets back evidence-based nutrition nearly 2 million years.’ It’s called ‘The Primal Blueprint’ cookbook and includes ‘an entire section of cholesterol-laden recipes for offal – entrails and internal organs.’” Indeed.
Get Your Own Copy of One of the Worst (Unhealthiest) Cookbooks of 2010 for Less Than $20
Posted By: Mark Sisson
a badge of honor!
congratulations
HILARIOUS!!! Because so many of your readers have had such terrible results with recipes like those in the cookbook.
Yeah, I gained 47 pounds and have no energy at all!! *sarcasm* I’ve been eating primal for a few days, I haven’t noticed any lost weight (I don’t have a scale) but I feel great. Quite energetic.
What?!!
Seriously?! They say the cookbook sets back “evidence-based” nutrition 2 million years? It shocks me that these people are allowed to call themselves physicians.
They aren’t – the CCF states that only 10% of their membership are physicicians. They are also closely linked with PETA and appear to have a similar agenda, though they do approach it from the angle of “discrediting” animal foods.
Wow…2 billion years…that’s a long time. What evidence-based nutrition are they talking about? The “evidence” that eating saturated fat gives you heart disease? Or the “evidence” that eating refined carbohydrates doesn’t cause diabetes?
It’s such a great cookbook!
Congrats Mark!
Hahaha this!
Congratulations!
Congrats Mark, I also love Ina Garten (one of my favourite cooks on food network) and Gordon Ramsey
You have earned a very special spot indeed!
Congrats Mark, looking forward to buying one of the worst cookbooks out there.
Numerous MDA readers have alerted me of this award. Across the board the alert is accompanied by a success story. Here’s one from reader Matt…
Thought it was interesting that your book made the list.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/hc-weir-unhealthy-cookbooks-20101217,0,7184984.column
Apparently they didn’t do case studies, because since going primal in July, I’m down 50 lbs of fat, and have gained 15 lbs of lean muscle. Sometimes “conventional wisdom” and “what is good for you” is dead wrong.
Having my first child in June made me realize I wanted to stick around for a while. Thanks to you, I’ll be able to do that.
“Of course, something with tons of fat and tons of butter and sugar are going to be appealing to the tastebuds,” she says. “And all of these cookbooks use all of that stuff. To me it’s like cheating.”
Levin apparently didn’t actually read the Primal cookbook, otherwise she would have known that sugar is not a primary ingredient, nor is it used in quantities that constitute “tons”.
It appears that almost nobody knows about
the comprehensive study of Dr. Mario Martinez, a world famous psychoneuroimmunologist. Mario studied centenarians around the world and he found that every one of them was NOT a vegan.
Here’s another from reader Colin:
You may have already seen this but just in case you haven’t…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1340355/Gordon-Ramsays-Fatty-Nightmare-TV-chefs-cookbook-voted-worst-year-unhealthy-recipes.html
Congratulations you are ranked with Ina Garten and Ramsey! I have both your books and have been following the primal lifestyle for a few months now and have gone from 192 to 171lbs in that short time. Probably in the best shape of my life at 41 so hopefully next year you can shoot for #1 with another ‘unhealthy’ book.
Many thanks and Happy Holidays
This article leaves Mark standing accused of using ‘tons of butter and sugar’. Seems they may conveniently confused on some aspects of the Primal Cookbook. And apparently tasting good is synonomous with ‘cheating’. That’s bonkers! Using guilt to control the general population is just plain wrong.
…and the foundation of most major religions, INCLUDING veganism.
Glad I’m Pagan. No control, no guilt! Not conventional.
Actually, the criticism of PB was that “The book includes ‘an entire section of cholesterol-laden recipes for offal – entrails and internal organs’.
Cholesterol-laden. Offal and internal organs are also vitamin and mineral laden, but nevermind THAT. And if you have recipes for entrails, which are intestines if I’m not mistaken, that IS disgusting.
The criticisms of the doughnut and tater tot recipes, I get. But I think any columnist who wasn’t just regurgitating a press release, and read the cookbooks in question, would wonder what the problem was with PB. Its a pretty moderate, healthy, vegetable and healthy fats approach. And Gordon ramsay’s pheasant with bacon and cream sounds delicious! I might have to check that one out!
Yumm, organs are great! I did read that as a criticism, but was happy to ignore Susan Levin’s blatant disregard for respectfully consuming the entire beast. I was just a little shocked by the final paragraph:
‘Of course, something with tons of fat and tons of butter and sugar are going to be appealing to the tastebuds’, she said. ‘And ALL OF THESE COOKBOOKS use ALL of that stuff. To me it’s like cheating’.
Which, implies all five cookbooks use tons of sugar(Ick!).
:0)
You think intestines are disgusting? Uh, what about sausage? Actually, I had a meal of goose intestines once. Looked like pasta, consistency of squid and tasted like the delicious herb & butter mushroom sauce they were bathed in. Totally Paleo, too. In Grok’s world, nothing was wasted…every calorie counted.
You just couldn’t make it up could you!
Any comments on these lines?
“In 2010, studies linked meat-heavy diets to increased diabetes risk, weight gain, decreased bone health, and increased bladder cancer risk, among other health problems.”
“But a recent study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that a low-carbohydrate diet based on animal food sources increases mortality risk from all causes, including cancer and heart disease.”
As I have reversed my Type 2 diabetes, dropped 90+ pounds while increasing LBM, lowered my cholesterol and heart disease markers, decreased diabetes-related kidney disease markers, among a thousand other benefits, I can definitively say, at least for me, this is bunk. Pastured-animal sources shouldn’t be lumped in with conventional meat. Not even close. PB is the penultimate in healthy tomes & lifestyles.
I eat primally myself. I was wondering if anyone knew which studies where being referenced and how they were carried out or what the flaws might be.
PS Penultimate means next to last, not very best.
Likewise, I’ve dropped over 100 pounds, gone from a 68+ waist to a 48-inch (and shrinking) waist, brought my diabetes under control solely through diet, minimized and/or eliminated my arthritis and migraines and IBS, and my cholesterol levels shock my doctors with how good they are.
Couple of things. 1st off, those are epidemiological studies, and it is effectively impossible to study diet using epidemiology (so says my very mainstream epidemiology prof). Even if you think it is possible, I would still be skeptical until I read through the actual study. There’s a lot of ways these things can go wrong, and its generally impossible to know from a news story. Also, who are the researchers? Generally, people end up confirming their biases, whether in design or interpretation. I still have yet to find any example of a good study that shows any problem with eating meat at any level.
Then, there’s the anecdotal evidence. I don’t know anyone, not one single person, as in I have never met….. anyone who has ever consistently lost weight while eating a conventional wisdom type diet. I know of a couple of people who have lost weight eating “moderate” diets, when that has included not eating refined sugar, but even those are few. Everyone I know (yes, everyone, really) who has tried anything akin to a primal diet (low carb, no carb, paleo, etc) has lost fat.
Finally, all of those studies are almost certainly based around industrial meat. While I have no hard evidence of this, I would expect industrial meat to have less benefit, if not even detriment on some level, when compared to pastured meat. I do have data on the makeup of the different meats, but any judgements on that make the assumption that we know what is important in the meat. And we don’t.
Its also noteworthy that I keep coming across papers that read to the effect of “X Animal fat not as bad as we thought.”
To me, this is the really important point. Almost everybody who tries a diet like Mark’s feels and looks better (usually A LOT better) and also improves their scores on medical tests. So, what more is there to say? How can these very complicated and questionable nutritional studies out-weight the undeniable, plain-as-day, irrefutable experiences of thousands of people?
Now that I’m thinking about it, I might remember one or more of those studies. There was a meta analysis recently that went over a number of studies that claimed that meat was unhealthy. They found that if you stratified for processed meat, the correlation went away for the unprocessed meat, but intensified for the processed. Just one example of how this stuff often works out. And I don’t think anyone is advocating Oscar Meyer lunch meats (especially since they typically contain HFCS and dextrose).
I used to be vegetarian, and vegan for a year or so. I’m a sugar addict with a strong family history of diabetes and heart disease. I struggled with all of the no-fat, tons of starch plans like Ornish and MacDougall. I only gained weight and suffered through chronic cardio with little to no results.
Less than four months of PB and I’m leaner than I’ve been in years. I’ve been lifting weights and CrossFitting, and I’m determined to not be diabetic. So far I’ve been a lot happier, calmer, and have lost almost two dress sizes.
Now there’s an idea – get Oprah onto Primal. She can lose weight and make up with all the Texas cattlemen she upset a few years ago.
Hahah pretty embarrassing for them to do that when you have so much recognition.
Here ya go Mark, you’re almost there:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” Mahatma Gandhi
Great Quote! Very fitting, thanks
Except that Gandhi was a vegan (and advocated as such) for most of his life…
Way to completely miss the point of citing that quote from Gandhi.
Of course Gandhi was a vegan–you know, since ghee and goat-milk (both of which he consumed) come from plants…
Congratulations! When a vegan says you’re eating wrong, go back for another plateful.
I also find it useful to read Yahoo’s “Eat This, Not That” column–since usually ‘This’ is being bashed for a load of saturated fat, and the replacement is some sort of sugary ‘low cal/low fat’ mess.
You can glean a surprising amount of good data from the negative space around the positive recommendations of someone who is dead wrong.
Awesome. Congrats, Mark. You are now officially perceived as a threat and not just a faddish nut out on the fringe. Now they’ve actually got to deal with us and the battle can be joined. Thank you again for all the work you have done to help get the Primal movement out into the mainstream. You’re helping thousands of people every day! Going Primal was the best gift I ever gave myself.
Mark,
Maybe you can leverage this to get some big time exposure?
*laughs* I love your snark, Mark. And I’m just hearing the section of “Fat Head” that deals with “The Guy from CSPI!” – which is probably the sister corporation of PCRM.
Awesome job. I’m really amused at this, and pleased, because – as you say – there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Well done!
I do believe congrats are in order. I can’t wait for the next edition of artery-clogging madness! Sign me up for 3 please!
sean croxtons attempt at getting that oprah show deal was probably the closest weve gotten to the mainstream…. so close…
Just before I read this, I was going through my closet discarding 5 pairs of pants that are now too large for me. This is the second time I have done this in the last year. Just a week ago I had my yearly blood tests and they were the best ever. I have not consumed a whole grain or oat bran in a year and have been eating steak and butter on a regular basis. My doctor noticed I had lost weight – a lot of weight. He said “whatever you are doing, keep doing”. Seems like common sense to me.
This PCRM reminds me a lot of the CSPI which I found was behind a lot of BUNK even before I went primal.
Are they all not bread addicts, all those neat physicians ? “oh yeah, you should have some bread every day as it contributes to the amount of protein that you get”… oh please, come on xD they can’t be serious.
I just hate NYTimes.
BTW, I know that’s not a very helpful comment. Just random thoughts.
And another:
http://www.courant.com/health/connecticut/hc-weir-unhealthy-cookbooks-20101217,0,5732768.column
I don’t agree, this book has changed my life, but of course CW reigns its ugly head again. Just thought you would want to know what is being said out there.
Congrats Mark! You know how to keep good people.
I’ve been following the PB since November 1st. Already my wedding is so big on my finger that if I hold my hand straight down it will fall off!
Heh, I have the same issue with my favorite thumb ring. I keep flinging it off! I guess it’s time to get a new one before I lose this one!
HURRAY! Kudos and double kudos for you Mark – to be spurned by the likes of Colin Campbell is **** truly *** and honor– (one Denise Minger received earlier this year…)
keep up the good fight…
… and doesn’t PCRM stand for “politically correct rancid matter”? or perhaps “positively cocky rabid mongrels”?
somethin’ like that–
any other ideas on what PCRM stands for?
Congrats Mark!!
Saw your cookbook ranked in PCRM’s press release and smelled a rat. I’ve been toying with the idea of going paleo lately and think I’m finally going to pick up a copy of your cookbook today. Also didn’t realize you’re an Eph, which makes me like you even better. Keep on fighting the good fight.
Wow! Congratulations! Two million? I would have said a measly one million. This is great!
Congrats, you know you are shaking up the status quo when they target you like that.