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 am more with you NOW Mark,then ever!!!! GO common sense, DOWN with irrational vegan fanatics!!!
Mark,
As an emergency medicine physician who is equally frustrated with the mantra churned out by mainstream medicine, I’d like to share my perspective. I agree that it would be great if these “experts” welcomed you into their club, but I’m afraid that’s just not going to happen. Or maybe I should say, it’s not going to happen any time soon. But so what? There are always going to be those who lag in their understanding. Do the good you are doing regardless.
Another point is this: as bizarre as it is that these individuals have yet to embrace a paradigm that honors our ancestral roots, they are not evil. Consider these docs’ experience…they have seen healing occur on the diet they endorse. If anything, they have shown the courage to step away from the current fix-everything-with-drugs-and-surgery model that is as prevalent as it is ridiculous. Granted they haven’t integrated paleo (for lack of a better term) ideas into their models, but they are rattling mainstream medicine with their message. It may not be where we want to be eventually, but it is likely better than the status quo. I don’t think it can be denied that their recommendations are an improvement on what mainstream medicine communicates to patients.
I am not endorsing their slamming your product. Their thinking is limited and they are clearly speaking out without considering all the available data. I am just offering it as a possibility that when the big picture is considered, these folks may be more allies than enemies. Continued open communication is what will resolve all of this in the long run.
Lastly, to me it seems silly that anyone, doctor or otherwise, would stand in support of a one-diet-fits-all model to healing. As much as we are the same, we are all unique. Everyone is in a particular situation calling for a particular set of conditions for growth. I won’t say that everyone ought to be on a vegan diet, but I also won’t say the same for a paleo diet either. Nutrition is certainly a powerful tool towards moving away from suffering, but (speaking from personal experience) approaching it dogmatically can be a disease in itself.
Like I said, keep doing the good you are doing. Those that are ready will hear you.
Cheers.
oh mark, i am sooo proud of you. and they say there isnt a santa clause…
Unbelievable…
“The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. PCRM is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, meat, and seafood from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its operational and financial ties to other animal activist groups and its close relationship with violent zealots, PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that its pronouncements about the superiority of vegetarian-only diets represent the opinion of the medical community.
‘Less than 5 percent of PCRM’s members are physicians,’ Newsweek wrote in February 2004.”
http://activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/o/23-physicians-committee-for-responsible-medicine
Congrats Mark I have your book and it is fabulous!
A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous and then dismissed as trivial, until finally, it becomes what everybody knows.
William James (1842-1910) American philosopher and psychologist.
I find it interesting that vegans must take supplements or go to extream means and be well educated to enrich their diets, and even more interesting that bread and grain product must be “enriched” in order to be worth while to eat it!
Im just sayin’
Lori
“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!”
My first outloud laugh of the day, thank you Sir.
I, can not believe they did that!!!!
We had been doing primal since July, I’ve lost around 12 to 15 lb, and average of 1 lb. a week, but the best is I feel great, I use to suffer from urine infections constantly almos every 3 to 5 days, and believe me is no fun at all. I haven’t have them. best of all I do not feel exausted all the time. thanks, I think the book is great, I am a Chef myself and with those recipes and all the ones I create myself I had been able to feed a family of 5 and I have picky eaters, they all love the cauliflower rice.
THANKS FOR THE BOOK> IS IN MY FIRST BEST BOOKS.
Brilliant!!
Hahahaha. God forbit anyone east offal or an internal organ. Don’t they know that these days meat only comes boneless, 99% fat free, and conveniently prepackaged after being washed in a bath of clorine?:)
Way to take it like a trooper, Mark:)
I now must get all the other “worst” books, they sound murderously tasty!
“…States in the Southeast have the highest rates of obesity in the nation, yet Deen continues to fill her restaurant and cookbooks with ham hocks, Velveeta cheese, butter, and heavy cream.”
Oh my God, I’m drooling reading this. Is this supposed to DETER us from buying them?…
Way to go Mark
Need harder work to have`The Worst(!) Cookbook` of 2012.. What an idiotic world it is!
How old is the oldest Palaeolithic diet subscriber? What is the average life expectancy? Do they have increased risk of other diseases (colon cancer, heart attack, etc)? Until we see some studies comparing vegans vs. paleo-adherents I don’t think anyone here is in a position to judge the merits of this diet.