Lots of chocolate love this week. First, a cacao-extract added to premade meals reduced oxidized LDL levels in middle-aged overweight/obese people. Second, cocoa flavanols have neurocognitive benefits, stimulating blood flow in the brain, promoting neural connectivity and neurogenesis, and improving resistance to neurodegeneration. Translation: eat dark chocolate.
When you lift heavy things, sacrifice weight (and, perhaps, ego) before compromising on range of motion. A new study confirms that performing movements with full range of motion and lower weight builds more size and strength than going heavier with a lower range of motion. Word of caution: one should never compromise safety, form, and technique for the sake of range of motion. Don’t squat ass to grass if you have to displace a vertebrae to do it.
Interesting Blog Posts
There’s nothing I like more than an utterly unrepentant former vegetarian (who only did it for Morrissey in the first place) gone Primal. Check out Leeann’s story here – it’s a great read.
Speaking of Dr. Ron, his upcoming book The South Asian Solution is being published by Primal Blueprint Publishing early next year. It’s an important book that I think many MDA readers will really appreciate. In it he teaches readers how to interpret their cholesterol numbers and provides useful strategies that have helped his patients get off cholesterol medications. He also discusses the intrinsic flaws with the new cholesterol guidelines, provides a more global approach to risk assessment and cholesterol control addressing all ethnic groups rather than using the Framingham, Massachusetts white person’s risk calculator which repeatedly misses heart disease in high risk, insulin resistant patients, and discusses the role of advanced cholesterol tests (advanced lipid tests, CRP, EBCT, etc.) and how he has used these in his practice to avoid statins in patients who don’t need them. Check back and learn more mid-January, 2014.
Rickets is on the rise in the UK because kids are staying indoors too much (and we’re not even getting any economy-boosting child labor out of it).
Satire or Serious?
Moms, if you’re not covering your kids with sunscreen all day, every single day of the year, you are incredibly irresponsible because they are going to get a “bad sunburn and ultimately cancer as an adult.”
Everything Else
The Moscow subway has a new vending machine that has you complete 30 squats in two minutes and ride for free. The catch is if your lumbar rounds or you don’t break parallel, you have to pay up. Harsh, but preferable to the first prototype’s penalty: a polonium-soaked pin that emerges from the base to prick your heel.
A guy who invented inexpensive window inserts that do the job of storm windows is now making inserts that keep any outside light out – specifically for paleo-minded consumers who want to sleep in total darkness.
Forget guesswork. If it receives sufficient funding, the SunFriend wearable gadget promises to keep you apprised of how much UVB light you’ve received throughout the day and let you know – depending on your skin color – when you’ve made sufficient vitamin D.
Statistical significance isn’t necessarily all that significant.
10 Healthier Ways to Spend Black Friday – Wading through the flood of humanity that coalesces around Black Friday may be a great physical workout, but it’s not exactly healthy.
Alcohol: The Good and the Bad – ‘Tis the season where alcohol abounds. Here’s what you need to know to make a good decision when faced with proffered beverages.
Comment of the Week
Mark, thanks for the detailed info although I’m having trouble reading the entire post because the mid-day sun here in So. Cal is causing too much glare and I keep dripping water onto my Kindle after I get out of the pool. I’m trying to keep up a good attitude but sometimes it’s tough, ya’ know?
Mark Sisson is the founder of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal food and lifestyle movement, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet. His latest book is Keto for Life, where he discusses how he combines the keto diet with a Primal lifestyle for optimal health and longevity. Mark is the author of numerous other books as well, including The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the growth of the primal/paleo movement back in 2009. After spending three decades researching and educating folks on why food is the key component to achieving and maintaining optimal wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food company that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.