Let me introduce myself. My name is Mark Sisson. I’m 63 years young. I live and work in Malibu, California. In a past life I was a professional marathoner and triathlete. Now my life goal is to help 100 million people get healthy. I started this blog in 2006 to empower people to take full responsibility for their own health and enjoyment of life by investigating, discussing, and critically rethinking everything we’ve assumed to be true about health and wellness...
I am about halfway through the writing of Primal Endurance, a breakthrough book that will change the way we look at endurance training and competition. The main emphasis is on low-carb and/or ketogenic diets and training strategies. I am looking for Success Stories that exemplify this approach. If you compete in any event and have had success training and racing on a low-carb or ketogenic diet, I would love to hear details and maybe even feature your story in the book. Please submit your story here. Thanks!
A new Paleo documentary – “We Love Paleo” – is in production. Donate to the cause and see the important message disseminated.
Southern California pastured chicken and lamb outfit Primal Pastures wants to implement a low-cost, large-scale method for pastured poultry farming that could eliminate the need for industrial battery farms. To support them, follow the link, click “Like,” and hit “Vote.”
This two year case study on the effects of minimalist running shoes on arch height, heel alignment, and toe orientation (duck feet) is extremely convincing – particularly the before and after photos.
More and more people are using “elimination diets” that look awfully familiar to uncover and even treat food sensitivities.
The gut biomes of Hadza hunter-gatherers look wildly different from those of modern Italians. The Hadza show high levels of strains thought to be pathogenic and low levels of strains thought to be beneficial without having any of the associated health problems. Big differences exist between Hadza men and women, too, with the tuber-gathering (and snacking) women showing greater levels of fiber-digesting gut flora.
There may be problems with the Hadza gut study, though, since “the team stored their Hadza stool samples in alcohol, which can seriously affect the proportions of different species found within them.”
Everything Else
There’s a new kind of attention deficit disorder called “sluggish cognitive tempo,” characterized by “lethargy, daydreaming, and slow mental processing.” Critics are rightly skeptical. It sounds (at first glance) like they’re talking about restless kids who’d rather be moving their bodies and exploring the world than sitting in a chair.
The saying is actually “pore over”–the verb “to pore” means to study or read closely. (In this case, the old ladies are studying the pile.) So it’s misspelled, but Mark’s usage is correct.
– Actually, the old ladies were figuratively holding metaphorical pitchers full of their ancient wisdom, which was poured over the piles. Ah, who am I kidding? You’re right.
The protein utilization per meal for “How Much Protein Should You Be Eating?” should be broken down sometime if it hasn’t. I have read a lot of studies recently concluding we can’t do much with more than 20-30g protein/meal, which leads us to more frequent “snacking”, which is highlighted as not good above!
Some neat stuff today. The one abstract about dairy helps ally my concern a bit about consuming dairy, I’ve been eating a little goat cheese and some Greek yogurt. I stopped taking glucosamine because I read so much about studies that suggested it did not seem to help joint health (although the “Cooling Inflammation” guy seems to think it would be advisable to take it). I might have to reconsider that supplement. The BPA article is wild, and I agree with Mark’s assertion “This is bound to turn out well”, pretty scary stuff they are attempting, I don’t think scientists have enough species-hacking expertise to safely attempt what they are trying to do.
I wonder what the mice were being fed. It might be a result of glucosamine being the only healthy component of the diet, thus having dramatically positive effects that wouldn’t be seen in an individual that is already very healthy. The diminishing returns of each successive health conscious change in behavior or diet might cause glucosamine inclusion to be completely unnoticed.
Speaking of edible water, why not just use unflavored gelatin, which breaks down into water? Not only would you get water from it, you’d also get glycine, collagen, and other nutrients.
Make up a batch in an old ice cube tray or silicon mold if you need shapes. Flavor/color it however you want.
Thanks. I need all the info about type 2 and insulin sensitivity I can get. After 4 years of primal, nearly everything about my mental and physical health is better, in some cases dramatically better. I’m doing fairly strict primal (I do use pastured, organic cream, butter and hard cheese), I’ve lost about 6 inches around my waist, but my glucose, which had been pretty good for 5 or 6 years, has suddenly gone out of control. Metformin no longer helps much.
Harry, I posted this the other day in Mark’s
“You Are What You (Think You) Eat” article comment section, but you might find this interesting re: metformin and a potentially superior natural substance (not trying to give you any medical advice, just something you might wish to research): http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0057622
Harry,
You might also check out the upcoming 2014 Reversing Diabetes Summit scheduled for May 5 thru May 16. Apparently Mark is one of the featured speakers on it ,as well, so he may post something here on MDA about it. It’s presented by Dr.Mowll. URL is the diabetes summit dot com.
The loco moco recipe site says this about its recipes: “The recipes are healthy which means low fat, high protein, and high fiber 80% of the time.” And I noticed that the meat in the recipe was “lean ground beef”, and yet the article also refers to the author as following a paleo regime. Hmm.
The photos of the 13-year-old Mongolian girl and her eagle are magnificent. The Korean stinky fish seems to be much like the Icelandic fermented shark. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl
I saw a Bizarre Foods episode where the host, Andrew Zimmern, got a taste of the fermented shark. He had a hard time with it.
I wouldn’t write off SCT too quickly, there are many people (including grown ups) who have significant issues that are not “exactly” ADHD (PI/C/H) but somewhat in the same category (executive functions, etc.) with those brain foggy daydreamy additions of SCT. Still, it’s already quite hard to properly diagnose ADHD (even harder if it’s ADHD-PI, if the person has a high IQ, etc.). ADHD is not even a proper name for ADHD. And many other mental or non-mental illnesses might mimic some ADHD symptoms and/or appear in combination. Oh, and SCT might appear in combination with ADHD, too.
I, for example, would fit the SCT symptoms quite well, but it would be pretty hard to diagnose me properly as I also (seem to) have ADHD-PI (although this might be wrongly diagnosed or in combination with SCT) and dysthymia and recurrent depressive episodes – which might make it look a lot like SCT.
It’s very important to be sceptical of things like this, I don’t want to say otherwise, but one should also be sceptical of oneself being “automatically sceptical” about things.. 😉
(Just as a precaution: Yes, I’ve tried (V)LC paleo, moderate LC-paleo, higher-carb-paleo, very-strict-RobbWolf-style-paleo, I’ve checked my thyroid, I’ve done CBT and psychoanalysis, I’ve added Vitamin D, I’ve checked pretty much anything else (and found many interesting things), I’ve stopped coffee for a while, I’ve added running, walking, lifting things, Parkour, Sleep, supplements and nootropics, and whatever I can’t think of right now. Some of these things might have helped a little, but the biggest impact has been made CBT and some of the many medicines I’ve tried. I would still suggest that people should try all those things, but I’d also say medicine might be necessary for some individuals – probably less from the group of those who take some already and maybe more from the group of those who don’t. Many drugs are overprescribed while many things are underdiagnosed.
More importantly: Someone who’s really depressed, for example, might just not be able to fix his diet, go outside, exercise or be more social. Asking him to “just do it/try it” would be the same as asking someone without legs to run a mile. In such cases therapy and/or medicine might be the only way to actually make doing all those things a possibility.In the long run the medicine might not be necessary anymore, but getting out of such a hole in the first place can be close to impossible.
—
Well, I might’ve digressed a bit here, sorry that this reply is now under your comment. I just had to write this somewhere because sometimes it feels like some people of the primal/paleo/whatever-group assume just because their mood/… is better now that paleo/… should work for everyone and everyone’s (mental) problems – without really knowing what someone with severe depression, ADHD, anxiety etc. actually has to go through and how hard it might be to “just do” something.
It’s not made easier by DSM-changes which make more and more non-illnesses to illnesses or pharma companies that publish the “bad” studies in obscure journals or not at all, do bad science etc., I can understand that.
Oh well. Even more digressing.
TL;DR: SCT might or might not be “a thing”. Let’s wait for more science being done.
I’ve had the fermented skate in Korea. I was at a restaurant with a prix fixe menu and umpteen courses, so I had no idea what exactly I was going to eat. They brought out what looked like sashimi with a side of dates. It looked like sashimi and there actually wasn’t much of a smell either. But once I put it in my mouth, there was like this delayed wasabi effect–but instead of wasabi burning my nose, it was something like ammonia. I immediately ate a date and the sweetness took away the sting. I pushed away the rest of the skate, saying that that was one of those “I’ll try it once just to say I tried it” things.
And then after a few minutes, I decided to try another piece, and then another. I can’t explain it, but they are strangely addicting.
Not read all the links yet, but I do a mean pork vindaloo. According to my Indian friend, they do use pork in the Goa region (where vindaloo hails from) partly because Muslims are not the majority religion there, but also because of the Portuguese influences, which tend to favour pork. And even the name Vindaloo comes from the Portugese “vinha d’alhos” which means wine (or vinegar) with garlic. Either way, I LOVE vindaloo, especially in it’s more spicy forms… But I suspect that is the Brit in me.
Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, na na
Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, na na
Vindaloo, Vindaloo and we all like vindaloo
We’re England!
What’s your deadline for Primal Endurance submissions and how low-carb? I’m training to do an event the last weekend in June called the Ultimate Hike, a one day 28 mile hike for charity. I follow a Primal Blueprint lifestyle and I even plan to do the hike barefoot!
I recently started a blog to document my training.
“This two year case study on the effects of minimalist running shoes on arch height, heel alignment, and toe orientation (duck feet) is extremely convincing – particularly the before and after photos.”
When I read that I kind of expected to jump to a page with a satirical article about how wearing minimalist footwear made someone develop potentially ornithologically webbed feet with before and after photos.
Photo 1: Brutalized, swollen feet.
Photo 2: Cartilaginous Big Bird feet.
SUBSCRIBE
The protein utilization per meal for “How Much Protein Should You Be Eating?” should be broken down sometime if it hasn’t. I have read a lot of studies recently concluding we can’t do much with more than 20-30g protein/meal, which leads us to more frequent “snacking”, which is highlighted as not good above!
Already covered quite well in this article: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-how-much-protein-can-you-absorb-and-use-from-one-meal/#axzz2zRvzvgon
Thanks!
Some neat stuff today. The one abstract about dairy helps ally my concern a bit about consuming dairy, I’ve been eating a little goat cheese and some Greek yogurt. I stopped taking glucosamine because I read so much about studies that suggested it did not seem to help joint health (although the “Cooling Inflammation” guy seems to think it would be advisable to take it). I might have to reconsider that supplement. The BPA article is wild, and I agree with Mark’s assertion “This is bound to turn out well”, pretty scary stuff they are attempting, I don’t think scientists have enough species-hacking expertise to safely attempt what they are trying to do.
Yes I think that comes under the:
” what could possibly go wrong? ” category.
I wonder what the mice were being fed. It might be a result of glucosamine being the only healthy component of the diet, thus having dramatically positive effects that wouldn’t be seen in an individual that is already very healthy. The diminishing returns of each successive health conscious change in behavior or diet might cause glucosamine inclusion to be completely unnoticed.
Speaking of edible water, why not just use unflavored gelatin, which breaks down into water? Not only would you get water from it, you’d also get glycine, collagen, and other nutrients.
Make up a batch in an old ice cube tray or silicon mold if you need shapes. Flavor/color it however you want.
Incredible photos and story of the 13 year old Mongolian girl with her golden eagle. Thanks for the link.
Thanks. I need all the info about type 2 and insulin sensitivity I can get. After 4 years of primal, nearly everything about my mental and physical health is better, in some cases dramatically better. I’m doing fairly strict primal (I do use pastured, organic cream, butter and hard cheese), I’ve lost about 6 inches around my waist, but my glucose, which had been pretty good for 5 or 6 years, has suddenly gone out of control. Metformin no longer helps much.
Harry, I posted this the other day in Mark’s
“You Are What You (Think You) Eat” article comment section, but you might find this interesting re: metformin and a potentially superior natural substance (not trying to give you any medical advice, just something you might wish to research): http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0057622
Thanks!
Harry,
You might also check out the upcoming 2014 Reversing Diabetes Summit scheduled for May 5 thru May 16. Apparently Mark is one of the featured speakers on it ,as well, so he may post something here on MDA about it. It’s presented by Dr.Mowll. URL is the diabetes summit dot com.
Hope this helps and good luck!
The loco moco recipe site says this about its recipes: “The recipes are healthy which means low fat, high protein, and high fiber 80% of the time.” And I noticed that the meat in the recipe was “lean ground beef”, and yet the article also refers to the author as following a paleo regime. Hmm.
The photos of the 13-year-old Mongolian girl and her eagle are magnificent. The Korean stinky fish seems to be much like the Icelandic fermented shark.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl
I saw a Bizarre Foods episode where the host, Andrew Zimmern, got a taste of the fermented shark. He had a hard time with it.
Doesn’t sluggish cognitive tempo sound like brain fog?
Brain fog is a symptom of SCT, yeah.
—
Something not directly related to your comment:
I wouldn’t write off SCT too quickly, there are many people (including grown ups) who have significant issues that are not “exactly” ADHD (PI/C/H) but somewhat in the same category (executive functions, etc.) with those brain foggy daydreamy additions of SCT. Still, it’s already quite hard to properly diagnose ADHD (even harder if it’s ADHD-PI, if the person has a high IQ, etc.). ADHD is not even a proper name for ADHD. And many other mental or non-mental illnesses might mimic some ADHD symptoms and/or appear in combination. Oh, and SCT might appear in combination with ADHD, too.
I, for example, would fit the SCT symptoms quite well, but it would be pretty hard to diagnose me properly as I also (seem to) have ADHD-PI (although this might be wrongly diagnosed or in combination with SCT) and dysthymia and recurrent depressive episodes – which might make it look a lot like SCT.
It’s very important to be sceptical of things like this, I don’t want to say otherwise, but one should also be sceptical of oneself being “automatically sceptical” about things.. 😉
(Just as a precaution: Yes, I’ve tried (V)LC paleo, moderate LC-paleo, higher-carb-paleo, very-strict-RobbWolf-style-paleo, I’ve checked my thyroid, I’ve done CBT and psychoanalysis, I’ve added Vitamin D, I’ve checked pretty much anything else (and found many interesting things), I’ve stopped coffee for a while, I’ve added running, walking, lifting things, Parkour, Sleep, supplements and nootropics, and whatever I can’t think of right now. Some of these things might have helped a little, but the biggest impact has been made CBT and some of the many medicines I’ve tried. I would still suggest that people should try all those things, but I’d also say medicine might be necessary for some individuals – probably less from the group of those who take some already and maybe more from the group of those who don’t. Many drugs are overprescribed while many things are underdiagnosed.
More importantly: Someone who’s really depressed, for example, might just not be able to fix his diet, go outside, exercise or be more social. Asking him to “just do it/try it” would be the same as asking someone without legs to run a mile. In such cases therapy and/or medicine might be the only way to actually make doing all those things a possibility.In the long run the medicine might not be necessary anymore, but getting out of such a hole in the first place can be close to impossible.
—
Well, I might’ve digressed a bit here, sorry that this reply is now under your comment. I just had to write this somewhere because sometimes it feels like some people of the primal/paleo/whatever-group assume just because their mood/… is better now that paleo/… should work for everyone and everyone’s (mental) problems – without really knowing what someone with severe depression, ADHD, anxiety etc. actually has to go through and how hard it might be to “just do” something.
It’s not made easier by DSM-changes which make more and more non-illnesses to illnesses or pharma companies that publish the “bad” studies in obscure journals or not at all, do bad science etc., I can understand that.
Oh well. Even more digressing.
TL;DR: SCT might or might not be “a thing”. Let’s wait for more science being done.
Sluggish cognitive tempo sounds like me in a high school. Mind numbing boredom. That was a greater waste of four years than any time in my life since.
I’ve had the fermented skate in Korea. I was at a restaurant with a prix fixe menu and umpteen courses, so I had no idea what exactly I was going to eat. They brought out what looked like sashimi with a side of dates. It looked like sashimi and there actually wasn’t much of a smell either. But once I put it in my mouth, there was like this delayed wasabi effect–but instead of wasabi burning my nose, it was something like ammonia. I immediately ate a date and the sweetness took away the sting. I pushed away the rest of the skate, saying that that was one of those “I’ll try it once just to say I tried it” things.
And then after a few minutes, I decided to try another piece, and then another. I can’t explain it, but they are strangely addicting.
Not read all the links yet, but I do a mean pork vindaloo. According to my Indian friend, they do use pork in the Goa region (where vindaloo hails from) partly because Muslims are not the majority religion there, but also because of the Portuguese influences, which tend to favour pork. And even the name Vindaloo comes from the Portugese “vinha d’alhos” which means wine (or vinegar) with garlic. Either way, I LOVE vindaloo, especially in it’s more spicy forms… But I suspect that is the Brit in me.
Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, na na
Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, Vindaloo, na na
Vindaloo, Vindaloo and we all like vindaloo
We’re England!
Most definitely Christian Indians eat pork. Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbooks have lots of pork recipe too.
What’s your deadline for Primal Endurance submissions and how low-carb? I’m training to do an event the last weekend in June called the Ultimate Hike, a one day 28 mile hike for charity. I follow a Primal Blueprint lifestyle and I even plan to do the hike barefoot!
I recently started a blog to document my training.
http://barefoottrails.blogspot.com/
Will July be too late to share my experience for your book?
“This two year case study on the effects of minimalist running shoes on arch height, heel alignment, and toe orientation (duck feet) is extremely convincing – particularly the before and after photos.”
When I read that I kind of expected to jump to a page with a satirical article about how wearing minimalist footwear made someone develop potentially ornithologically webbed feet with before and after photos.
Photo 1: Brutalized, swollen feet.
Photo 2: Cartilaginous Big Bird feet.
That water blob thing will revolutionize water balloon fights.