The Primal Kitchen Podcast

Mark Sisson interviews Dr. Cate Shanahan to discuss the launch of the exciting new Primal Advantage metabolic consulting program. In this podcast, Dr. Cate discusses her work with elite athletes, such as Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers; how your dietary choices affect your metabolic function (especially how adding oft-ignored food categories like bone broth can help improve joint function); how mainstream medical care essentially ignores the role of diet in promoting health and preventing disease; how the Primal Advantage can help everyone, from athletes stuck in a performance rut, to people who have sustained significant metabolic damage from years or decades of poor food choices, or even people with serious medical issues taking Rx drugs.To be clear, while Cate is a practicing family physician in California, the Primal Advantage is a metabolic consulting service that cannot be construed as a formal doctor’s appointment (due to the remote nature of the interaction). However, the Primal Advantage allows Dr. Cate to work 1:1 with clients interested in improving their health, increasing energy, and minimizing disease risk factors through personalized metabolic consulting—while honoring the Primal/paleo/evolutionary health principles. This is a unique opportunity to engage with a Primal-friendly doctor instead of feeling the disconnection that is common when visiting mainstream practitioners.The program, available at PrimalBluprint.com/product/The_Primal_Advantage, includes a 90-minute telephone consult with Dr. Cate where she discusses your Metabolic Snapshot, a representation of your health in six essential categories. You will complete a detailed health questionnaire, obtain specified Primal Advantage blood tests, and complete a food diary so the doctor has plenty of information to work with during your consultation. Dr. Cate will help you make the right choices with your new knowledge and use diet and exercise advice to coach you towards becoming the healthiest person you can be.

In this podcast, Mark interviews Dr. Sinha about his battle on the front lines trying to convince the mainstream medical community that fat and cholesterol are not your energy, and that the true risk factors for heart disease lay in overly stressful lifestyles, poor exercise habits, and a high insulin producing diet. Dr. Ron is an internal medicine physician who specializes in cardiovascular prevention. He is the medical director of employer services, serving major employee groups like Google, Oracle, and Yahoo. For these large employers, he designs health education lectures and wellness programs. Ron describes how mainstream physicians are seeing actual results with his alternative methods and hence embracing the principles of primal/paleo eating slowly but surely.  Dr. Sinha describes the challenges of dealing with a highly intelligent, goal-driven population of Silicon Valley tech workers – particularly those of South Asian descent whom he works with extensively - who unfortunately have neglected health in favor of career goals. Dr. Ron describes how, when this numbers and results-obsessed population sees actual improvement in blood numbers, they embrace Primal Blueprint lifestyle recommendations: a Primal-style eating pattern, getting adequate sleep, engaging in more everyday movement, and following a sensible exercise program. Mark and Ron talk about stress as being a major risk factor for heart disease and other health problems, and how to slow down the pace of our hectic days to improve cardiovascular and immune function.

Mark Sisson talks about some of the stumbling blocks to losing that last 5, 10, or 20 pounds of excess body fat, and how to overcome them. Experiencing a plateau is common (especially when lots of weight has been dropped over a relatively short period of time), and continued progress requires attention to some of the finer details of healthy living. Beyond the Primal Blueprint eating strategy basics of ditching grains, sugars, and processed oils, and moderating carb intake overall by the Primal Blueprint Carbohydrate Curve, Mark addresses other topics like moderating all forms of life stress, building more muscle mass, avoiding chronic cardio, increasing all forms of daily movement, engaging in intermittent fasting, and cultivating a healthy attitude and positive mindset.

Host Brad Kearns has a lively discussion with Leslie Klenke, who has just released her long awaited book, Paleo Girl. This truly is the first book in the Primal/paleo/evolutionary health space to target teenage girls, and Leslie does a masterful job speaking directly and emphatically to teens on issues that matter most to them.The foundation of Leslie’s approach is to encourage teens to reject the superficial and judgmental elements of modern culture, and pursue happiness as the primary goal and motivator for healthy lifestyle behaviors and dietary changes. Leslie shares some of her own experiences struggling with yo-yo dieting and fatigue from poor lifestyle habits in college, and how she pursued a more sensible and balanced approach to healthy living; a journey that sent her west from her home in Ohio to Los Angeles, and eventually into the inner circle of the Primal Blueprint movement.

Mark Sisson answers questions from listeners varying from eating green bananas in order to integrate resistant starch, to accepting legumes in the paleo diet. Mark also addresses relieving stomach acidity, intermittent fasting, and he takes a deep look at ketosis, with all the pros and cons. Then he answers the question you’ve all wondered about: How do you know when you have become a good fat-burner?

Chris Adams and Tina Leaman, the Primal power couple from Phoenix, AZ, have a lively discussion about their long history as PrimalCon group leaders. Chris and Tina have attended all seven PrimalCons held, and list some of their highlights and humorous memories. Included are the Oxnard ocean plunge/jacuzzi sprint, where the resort jacuzzi (a 2 minute sprint from the chilly ocean) overflows beyond capacity; an impromptu Oxnard beach house party where 100 people danced the night away; the beautiful hike to Angora Lakes above Lake Tahoe; the amazing connections formed where strangers traveling from across the world become close friends and vacation together beyond PrimalCon; and the great work of presenter Angelo Dela Cruz, another 7 for 7 PrimalCon attendee, who starts each day off with his VitaMoves session and does 1:1 bodywork with guests to promote natural healing.Chris and Tina then detail their role as beta-testers for the Primal Blueprint Expert Certification course. They, along with Primal Transformation Seminar presenter Mike DiLandro, became the first three graduates of the course. They provided intensive feedback on the text material, making suggestions for additions and clarifications. They, along with DiLandro, also scrutinized every test question to ensure fairness and relevance to the course. They describe how taking course renewed their enthusiasm for Primal living, and how the material will be appealing to a broad audience of not just trainers but all Primal enthusiasts.

  Mark gets back into the Q&A rhythm with some great commentary on an assortment of questions related to peak performance and Primal living. We begin by reviewing a unique training approach where you “stack” hard workouts on consecutive days, which allows for additional recovery time afterward, and also respects the idea that stress hormones flow for a sustained period of time after challenging workouts. Then, we discuss the importance of maintaining intensity during tapering to preserve blood volume for peak performance events. Mark also examines the dilemma of whether to refuel with carbs after tough workouts or to fast to optimize the flow of adaptive hormones into the bloodstream. This leads to the topic of how you can adopt an intuitive eating and exercise approach, which helps with disciplining for healthy habits. Mark then closes the show with a discussion on how endorphins can have pro and con effect on the body.

“Leaky Gut” is the common name for intestinal permeability, where the digestive tract becomes damaged and permeable. This happens from the ingestion of objectionable foods – mainly gluten, as well as from traumatic brain injuries/frequent concussions, excessive NSAID use, excessive alcohol consumption, and poor sleeping habits. When leaky gut is developed, toxins, food particles, bacteria and leak out of the digestive tract into the bloodstream, triggering an undesirable immune response (note that 80% of immune system located in intestinal tract). The immune system responds to this invasion of foreign agents with systemic inflammation, setting the stage for an assortment of health problems. In many cases, the inflammatory cascades cause chronic diseases in the area of your genetics that is your “weakest link.” It could be actual digestive conditions like celiac or IBS, or it could be arthritis, ADHD, allergies, asthma, or thyroid conditions. Leaky gut is becoming increasingly linked to heart disease, cancer and numerous other serious health problems.Zonulin is the substance that triggers leaky gut; it directs the “tight junction” cells in the intestinal lining to open up undesirably. Chronic cortisol production is also involved in the leaky gut story. Steve Wright discussed a couple tests for leaky gut that are okay but not perfect. One test measures rate of sugar absorption, while another tracks antibodies in the bloodstream. Listeners who think they might have leaky gut should visit primalblueprint.com/leakygut. Here you can access extensive details about this condition, and enroll in an extremely detailed multimedia educational course that will provide you with all the tools and information you need to identify your particular vulnerability and make decisive lifestyle changes to quickly heal your gut and regain your health. Mark and Steve emphasize that many people are not aware they have the condition and are suffering accordingly (including Sisson himself for many years before he eliminated grains). Take a few minutes to review the information at primalblueprint.com/leakygut, as it could be tremendously beneficial to your health.

Mark extends the thread from the previous week's show about human performance by discussing the role of doping in professional and Olympic sports today. Far from a black and white issue, Mark explains that inconsistencies in the testing procedures and random demarcation lines for what constitutes a performance enhancing substance (e.g., Gatorade enhances performance when you are thirsty!). Also discussed is how the public perception that certain athletes cheat to gain an advantage is actually a more complex cultural issue than a true morality weakness. For example, in pro cycling, recent controversies have affirmed that an athlete was virtually compelled to boost blood with doping products to have a chance at being competitive. Furthermore, the highly selective and competitive nature of elite sports compels athletes to search for every possible recovery advantage, including those that cross the line into doping offenses. Mark explains that we might view modern pro sports as theater, where athletes are performing for the pleasure of fans, with big money on the line, and hence we will always be fighting a battle - perhaps a losing battle - against dopers who might remain a step ahead of the testing efforts. And how there is a bit of hypocrisy with society at large, where use of "performance enhancing" substances (such as caffeine or prescription drugs to treat ADHD for example) is viewed differently than an athlete trying to recover faster.Mark has an inside perspective on the topic, having served for over a decade as the anti-doping commissioner for the international governing body of the sport of triathlon. In that role, he helped draft the original guidelines for elite triathletes across the globe to be tested fairly and regulated for substances they can and cannot use as elite athletes. His efforts helped the sport of triathlon first gain acceptance into the Olympic Games in 2000.

Mark Sisson departs from the usual Primal Blueprint lifestyle topics for an interesting discussion with Brad Kearns about human fitness. For starters, Mark discussed the recent Outside Magazine article "How Far Fitness Has Fallen". Researchers claim that our hunter-gatherer ancestors, and even early farming ancestors, were far fitter than modern humans.While it's granted that the average citizen today is soft compared to primal humans, Mark takes exception to the scientist's conjecture that, “Even our most highly trained athletes pale in comparison to these ancestors of ours." While hunter-gathers were likely excellent general physical specimens well-adapted to challenging primal life, it's ludicrous to imagine any of them competing in the specialized endeavors of today's Olympic sprinters, or marathon runners, NFL athletes. "It's hard to imagine Grok dunking over Kevin Durant". Mark then comments on the work of Tim Noakes, PhD, a South African considered by many to be the world's leading exercise physiologist and author of the acclaimed Lore of Running. Noakes is a recent devotee of the Primal Blueprint, a lifestyle transformation that has caused him to rethink his life's work in the carb-paradigm of mainstream exercise physiology (and take a ton of heat in the process from colleagues wedded to status quo thinking). Mark also comments extensively on Noakes's mind-blowing Central Governor Theory, which suggests that our brains are the true regulators of peak performance, in contrast to the long-held belief that performance is limited peripherally – that is by the fatiguing of the arm muscles on your final rep or your legs getting tired at the end of the marathon. Mark's takeaway message is that while we can respect our "mind over matter" powers, we must take care to balance stress and rest in a modern world that is devoid to life or death peak performance challenges.