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
I just bought two PB cookbooks for Christmas gifts. Before wrapping them of course I looked them. By far the best cookbooks I’ve bought. Simple, delicious looking meals with a ton of photos. The photos sell the book. Now I have to go out and by another for me.
Congrats Mark , you are on their radar now and it worries them .
all these success stories are surely made up ………..bahahaha !!!
lets see I ate like they suggest , and gained weight
I go primal and lose 100lbs in 10 months.
no brainer there
keep doing what you are doing
In reading the actual PCRM top 5 list they say:
“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.”
What (misleading) study are they referring to here?
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. Not that I would trust NIH, but it’d be interesting to know how they’re twisting it
It is this study:
http://www.annals.org/content/153/5/289.abstract
And Denise Minger tears it apart here:
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/08/brand-spankin-new-study-are-low-carb-meat-eaters-in-trouble/
Without knowing the whole study, I wonder if they are refering to diets that cut out carbs from all sources, including fruits and vegetables.
Not trying to defend the conclusion, but there is a wrong way to do a low carb diet.
Congrats Mark!!!
I love your cook book! Thanks to it I have lost 20lbs and finally learned how to cook a steak.
sorry – had to report this slightly off-topic anomaly – but it was *such* a good chuckle when i found it surfing–
do you all know about this new group “PETA” ? (no, not the oft–insane animal rights activists and vegans…)
http://www.last.fm/group/PETA+-+People+for+the+Eating+of+Tasty+Animals
Mark,
Congratulations. You know when the haters are coming out that you’re doing something right.
Also, congrats on a lot of recipes included in Tim Ferriss’ slow-carb cookbook. A step towards the right direction.
What a compliment. Congrats Mark!
CONGRATS!! You’re right up there with some of the best chefs I’ve seen on t.v and you only have a website and word of mouth!! So glad to be onboard with P.B. Well done Mark and Co.
You really, really need to issue a serious-toned press release.
You need to jump on this publicity, and that would be a good way. Someone might learn about the Primal way if you do it up right!
Bob, that is an incredible idea, and I’d second it heartily. There’s a lot of chatter out there, but the meaningful stuff has this wonderful tendency to go viral.
I just got an awesome idea: televised nutritional debates.
Get Mark to go head-to-head with Susan Levin, and Robb Wolf going toe-to-toe with Dr. Oz! It’d be like the presidential debates, but with WAY more consequence for health of the American people!
Okay… so depending on how cynical you want to be, you could debate that last point. But still, given the amount of confusion out there about how to eat (the NY Daily News article is a perfect indicator of this), a real, honest exchange of information (facts on our side… viewpoints on theirs) in a neutral setting where people can really explain the full picture. There’s no way that CW could still hold up in an environment like that.
Or, even better, a reality show! All you’d really need to do is to get two obese identical twins and have one follow a CW-inspired SAD, with the other eating primally, and track their progress throughout a “season” of reality TV. I mean, there’s a reason “the Biggest Loser” is so popular – flawed as that particular show’s methods are, the firsthand evidence it gives of people losing weight and taking control of their health is impossible to ignore.
I think that the kind of confusion and downright ignorance about health is going to persist until there is a forum where these issues can be discussed with the most minimal amount of bullsh*t allowable.
Hey, Mark – why don’t you take some of the money you’re making from your (terrible, unhealthy, crime-against-humanity) cookbook sales and bring this idea to some TV producers? Heck, it’s worth a shot – I’d watch it!
Oh I love your tv idea!
as far as the debates go, those would be mostly based on medical studies. Primal/paleo would probably lose based on the loads of poorly constructed medical studies out there supporting CW.
Oprah may not be offering you a chair, but while wrapping presents this morning, I was watching part of “the Doctors” and they seem to be moving in the right direction. One of them said soda was basically “liquid cigarettes” and at least two of them were agreeing that carbs are the problem, not fat. This might be the perfect time to get on a show like that. Should we start a campaign?
This is so awesome. Since it’s such a terrible book Mark, maybe you could start just giving it away
T. Colin Campbell and many low-carbers and primal eaters sparred in an infamous Amazon weight loss community thread here:
http://www.amazon.com/tag/weight%20loss/forum/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg64?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxUY10W22E27M9&cdPage=64&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=TxD811DYWQ7U21
The discussion with T. Colin Campbell begins on page 45, and on page 64, Dr. Campbell makes some statements about his family that I found remarkable. He has an epic hatred of meat, believing it killed his father. He attacks others for arguing with emotion not fact, but clearly he is out for revenge on meat.
Whoa… that’s messed up. Seriously, can’t we just talk about this rationally and with some emotional detachment? Isn’t that what science is all about, anyway?
Congrats, Mark– I’m glad we can all be unhealthy together!
“Point being, if it tastes great, it can’t possibly be good for you. Now go eat your porridge”
This reminds me of the “we are noble because we are poor and suffering” rhetoric found in debates about the moral superiority of communism. If we are all unhealthy, then none of us are unhealthy!
I think it’s also really disingenuous to group your cookbook amongst those others. The other four are expressly marketed as books selling “comfort food” or “convenient fare on the fly,” yada yada. The PBC is clearly a part of a program that promotes health & longevity. One could almost say that how it tastes – er, awesome, of course – is a secondary issue when compared to the health benefits.
PCRM is clearly doing this in order to take a poorly aimed cheap shot at the Paleo movement, which it perceives as presenting a threat to the beliefs that it espouses. And they thought we wouldn’t see through it… despicable!
To clarify… I meant “disingenuous of PCRM.” Mark is about as genuine as they come!
I can’t believe Mark Sisson just included the word “smegma” in an article.
haha, i noticed that too! eww…
i just looked it up and I now have to delete my internet history.
Congratulations, Mark! I’m going to eat a slab of grass-fed london broil in your honor…
Congratulations Mark. I look forward to receiving a similar award myself some day.
Mark should have a Primal Food Network show where he cooks shirtless!
Have you ever cooked bacon shirtless? It’s not a good idea.
Plus, in the culinary world that’s considered unsanitary. However, if he were to cook in a chef coat, then remove it and take his food outside shirtless, he’d probably get a lot of women watching his shows, fast.
Congratulations, Mark! I am a cookbook collector and have well over 100 cookbooks of all kinds, but my absolute favorite is The Primal Blueprint. It’s awesome that the PB has garnered national attention…maybe some people will be curious. I tried a vegan diet once, because a friend raved about it. Honestly I thought I was going to die. We really aren’t meant to eat that way. Anyway, in my little section of Wisconsin it’s about 5 degrees outside, and I fired up the outside grill to grill some NY Strip Steak I found in my deep freeze. The recipe was from the PB. I just love a grass fed steak, almost salivating just from the memory. I first learned about the Primal Blueprint from Doug Kaufman’s show, Know the Cause. I’m truly thankful for this community that shares experiences, workouts, blogs, recipes (Butter Chicken is my favorite) and anything else primal. Keep up the good work!
I think the Paleo community should start challenging these experts to fitness contests. Beware, though, they get quite a bit of exercise jumping to conclusions.
NOW THAT MAKES TO GO AHEAD AND ORDER THE BOOK ALTHOUGH I DID NOT NEED IT
I’m honoured to have purchased one of the 5 worst “unhealthiest” books. Good for you Mark.
PCRM are so f….d up.
I was just thinking earlier today how my fingers and ankles are never swollen any more and I have no aches and pains. Must be all that lard lubricating my joints. I haven’t found a bad recipe in the PB Cookbook yet. Can’t say the same for all those low fat recipes I suffered through in the past.
The funny thing is that we primal folks will eventually outlive the vegan lowfat crowd and will have the last laugh as we bask in the sun eating our pork ribs in our old age.
I assume the study referenced by the PCRM
is this one:
http://www.annals.org/content/153/5/289.abstract
Any thoughts or comments on it?
Hahah o how I love this piece of interspace.
I would LOVE to see you on OPRAH.
Although I hate her show with a ferrocious passion, I would love to
see her expression and remarks when you talk of the primal eating habits…And all its wonderful successes busting fat and equalising overall health.
Congrats for the illustrious award!
Mark, congratulations! Your site/information is free to everyone and they do not need to purchase anything if they can’t or won’t, but they can reap the benefits of your knowledge. Thank you for that.
The fact that you have been so honored by the vegans shows, as others have pointed out, they feel extremely threatened. Next year you’ll be number 1 on their list. Keep us updated and let us know how the sale of your books is going.
They say that ‘bad’ publicity is better than no publicity!
Seriously, recently my husband changed jobs and I had to fill out the new company’s “health and wellness” survey to see if I qualified as healthy enough to earn a nice little salary rebate. Well, I scored high in all areas except diet – and the survey recommended that I eat more whole grains and beans, and cut down on the butter and cream (the survey didn’t have a category for “pastured” dairy =( ..). I was a little upset, but of course the survey was done in accordance with the AMA and US Food Pyramid and all the other crap that I used to follow to a T — with skin breakouts, constant hunger, constant gas and bloating and stomach problems, etc etc… you all know the drill. Anyway, I didn’t earn as much of a rebate as I would have if the survey were Primal, but in a way I was happy to have scored lower on diet – it meant that I’m NOT following the ‘norm,’ and therefore, I’m feeling great!
The difference between your book and the others is that if they asked the other four if their recipes were healthy, they would acknowledge that they aren’t. Yours is the only book to claim that the recipes are healthy.
After a lifetime of hearing how bad meat and fat is, and how healthy grains are, it can be really hard at first to make the change at first. There’s always a voice in the back of your head saying this is the worst thing you can do to yourself and that you’ll have a heart attack before long.
However, after three weeks of being grain free, the results speak for themselves. The fat is melting off, all my lifts at the gym have gone up, I’m sleeping less and waking up more refreshed, and I get so much more done during the day since I seem to never run out of energy.
Your books and blog are brilliant. I really hope that in the coming years, people realise that advice from “reputable” sources is not as sound as it would seem after all.