How did we survive all these years without functional yogurt products? If it weren’t for Yoplait and Dannon enhancing our digestive facilities, I bet we’d never get anything done in the bathroom. I, for one, can’t recall the last time I had a satisfying bowel movement without concurrently sucking on an extra large Purple Gogurt as I sat astride the toilet.
Yoplait and Dannon are responsible for injecting more culture into our lives than Warhol, The Smithsonian, The New Yorker, and ancient Athens combined. I love the way those two superpowers ultra-pasteurize their yogurt so as to rid it of any naturally-occurring, unpredictable, rogue probiotic cultures (unfettered bacterial growth? – no thanks) before supplanting them with nice, orderly probiotic cultures (and not too much of them, thanks). Mother nature? Natural selection? Ha! As if natural foods could improve my immunity and digestive health better than multi-national corporations. You think sauerkraut has […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

I read an interesting study the other day.
In this study, the researchers argued that when it comes to Metabolic Syndrome (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, central adiposity {big belly}, high blood sugar) obesity may actually be a good thing.
Here’s why.

Metabolic Syndrome is a result of our Standard American Diet
The S.A.D. combination of too many calories and the over-consumption of sugar + fat-centric meals causes…
An increase in the secretion of insulin. When this happens on a regular basis, we end up with…
hyperinsulinemia, which…
Causes the expression of the lipogenic transcription factor SREBP-1c and its target enzymes and so on and so on and so on until we end up with Metabolic Syndrome and all of the wonderful ailments I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it?
And the first thing that your doctor is going to tell you if she suspects you have Metabolic Syndrome is to lose weight.
As if […]

Original post by healthhabits

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Original post by healthhabits

I am very pleased to announce that Maya White of the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center will be leading a breakout session at PrimalCon 2010. If you’ve ever wondered what it means to sit, stand and walk like Grok you’ll want to attend this event. Maya will be offering instruction on Primal body mechanics to help you correct years of poor posture and get you moving like you’re meant to.
Maya has graciously written the following guest post for Mark’s Daily Apple readers. Read on to learn why posture is an integral part of health and wellness and how you might be doing something as simple as sitting or standing all wrong.

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We all know that Grok ate well, moved frequently, and sometimes engaged in strenuous physical activities. One other piece that Grok had going for him was excellent form and optimized body mechanics. If you really want to live a long, healthy […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Jeff Garlin’s new book (my footprint) is the best & worst diet book I have ever read.
The worst because…. it’s not really a diet book.
There’s none of the eat this and don’t eat this that all diet books are supposed to have.
There are no promises of rapid and permanent weight loss.
There are no recipes.
The cover doesn’t feature an image of a person with taut muscles and a rippling six pack.
It features Jeff…and his still too big belly…walking on a treadmill….in the middle of a forest.
Not exactly the prototypical diet industry role model.
But that’s okay.
It’s okay because Jeff has written a book that should be read by:

People who find themselves unable to stop themselves from eating
People who identify themselves as food addicts
People who have to eat when they feel angry, sad, anxious, happy, etc..
People who eat when they are already full
People who eat to the point of nausea
People who eat past […]

Original post by healthhabits

Remember Blair Morrison? He’s the dude who got Primal in the Netherlands for his entry into the PB Fitness Video Contest, and also placed 7th at the 2009 CrossFit Games. Blair wrote to me with his latest workout video – which will close this post – and a reminder: don’t forget about urban Groks!
I live in Malibu, just outside of LA proper, and it’s not exactly an urban environment. LA itself isn’t a classic urban landscape; it’s more urban sprawl than anything else. We’ve got hundreds of miles of wilderness – mountains, beaches, trails, canyons – to climb, run, crawl, or hike, but very little skyscraper to scale or subway turnstile to hurdle. We give a ton of attention to the great outdoors, partly because of my affinity for it and partly because it fits the Primal theme really well. For today, though, I want to address the urban warriors […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

You’ve probably heard this logic before:
Low-fat diets failed because eating low-fat doesn’t work for weight loss.
I’ve always wondered about this logic, as it seemed to go against the common sense that eating more calories then we need to is what makes us fat, not the source of these calories.
So I decided to look into EXACTLY what happened with the whole Low-Fat trend.
The Low-fat foods trend really started picking up popularity in the early to mid 1980’s, and by the mid 1990 Low-Fat was all the rage.
EVERYTHING was low fat…even cookies…and ice-cream.
During this time, the population of the USA also got fatter.
A LOT fatter.
So what gives?
Was not eating enough fat to blame?
Was it replacing fat with sugar that was the mistake?
Nope.
As it turns out, it’s still highly correlated to Calorie Control.
According to the USDA food availability data charts, there was an average of  3,200 Calories per person available in the USA […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

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Original post by healthhabits

Like many people, I am a big-time movie fan. I appreciate great acting and Leonardo DiCaprio is quite possibly my favorite actor. My two favorite movies of his are "The Beach" and "Catch Me If You Can" (I own both of those movies). "Blood Diamond" is also right up there. Anyway, Leonardo DiCaprio's personal trainer for "The Beach" tracked me down and asked if I wanted to do a Q&A session. What is cool about his story is that he was flown to Thailand and only had a little over 2 weeks to whip everyone into to top shape. Leo needed to drop 17 pounds in roughly two weeks. Cornel explains how he accomplished this feat, along with other cool things about his experience, in this interview.

[I like it when actors like DiCaprio do volunteer work for causes they believe in. One of his causes is to save polar bears […]

Original post by admin