The Primal Kitchen Podcast

Engineering the good life is about removing negative inputs as much as it is about adding positive ones. If a negative input confers momentary pleasure, removing it will remove some pleasure but add more. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with Primal Pastures farmer and co-founder Paul Greive. Today's discussion includes how to navigate the various "grass fed" and other tricky food labels along with what it means to be a holistic, pastured livestock farmer. Paul Greive is a pastured livestock farmer located in Southern California.  His company, Primal Pastures, focuses on raising animals outside on green pasture with fresh air, sunshine, and a species-appropriate diet. In addition to over 4,000 retail customers that order their meats online for home delivery, they also supply some of the best restaurants and butcher shops in Southern California, including the LA Dodgers and LA Lakers team meals. Currently they ship to CA, AZ, and NV. You can find more about Paul and his company via the links below.

Though few people reading this consider insects anything but a novelty, for many human cultures they were (and are) staple foods. Humans have been eating insects for millions of years, starting with our distant ancestors and continuing through the present day. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

All of us are at various points in life subject to pain, loss and suffering. Whether we contend with something as severe as trauma or something difficult but normal like grief, anxiety or resentment, how do unresolved emotions linger within our physiology or even particular locations or functions within it? How might these feelings that we retain act as a wild card in our overall health? Finally, in keeping with this possibility, does “moving through” emotional suffering oblige us to move bodily toward healing? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

You’re reading a blog about nutrition. You’re clicking links to scientific studies and abstracts. You’re in deep. You obviously care about the quality of the food you eat and the effect it has on your health. But you also know that perfect is a myth. We can’t achieve it, and if we think we can and spend all our time obsessing over perfection, we usually subvert our own goals. Perfection becomes the enemy. But better is always within reach, and today I’m going to give you a few ways to improve your nutrient intake and make your food healthier and safer. Who’s in? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Aaron has been working with clients of all ages seeking a variety of goals from pain relief to improved athletic performance for over 10 years. He is currently seeing clients at his office, Align Therapy, in downtown Bend, Oregon. Aaron began the journey as a nationally certified personal trainer specializing in corrective exercise and nutrition consultation. During that time Aaron studied psychology at the University of Hawaii. Soon after, he evolved into becoming a licensed manual therapist studying myofascial release, neuromuscular therapy and trigger point therapy at Maui School of Therapeutic Massage. A fascination with connective tissue lead him to study structural integration at the Rolf Institute in Boulder, CO. Being a LMT and CPT on top of a Rolf Structural Integration Practitioner, Aaron has a strong understanding of the intricacies of the body and mind.

You all know about intestinal permeability, or “leaky gut.” The job of the gut lining is to be selectively permeable, allowing helpful things passage into the body and preventing harmful things from getting in. Nutrients get through, toxins and pathogens do not. Leaky gut describes the failure of this vetting process. But what about “leaky brain”? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

For hundreds of years, the localizationism theory of the brain reigned: the idea that the adult brain is composed of distinct regions, each responsible for a separate function. Most people still hew to this, assuming that vision goes here, memories there (with separate sections for short and long term memories), smell here, verbal fluency over here and quantitative processing over there. We assume the number of neurons is fixed and their wiring soldered. But the emerging science of neuroplasticity shows how wrong this is: rather than fixed and immutable, the neural connections between different “regions” of the brain can reorganize themselves. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Elle Russ chats with integrative physician, Dr. Gary E. Foresman, MD, about breast health (this episode will be Breast Health, Part I, focusing on general breast health. Breast Health, Part II will delve deeper into diagnosis and treatment). Dr. Foresman is not only a Primal doctor well-versed in all things paleo/primal, but an informed integrative physician whom Elle chose to interview for her book, The Paleo Thyroid Solution. When Dr. Foresman opened a private practice, he quickly became dissatisfied with the inability of established Western medical treatments to effectively treat many of his patients—many of which suffered from thyroid disorders. Determined to help his patients, he began investigating alternative therapies and has since expanded his training in many systems of healing—not just through Ayurveda, meditation, and stress management, but also using botanical, orthomolecular and functional medicine systems. His precise, scientific mind, combined with a holistic integrative perspective, makes him not only an exceptional diagnostician, but also a skilled practitioner who can therapeutically synthesize optimal healing modalities for each individual. More in-depth commentary on thyroid issues by Dr. Gary Foresman can be found in The Paleo Thyroid Solution written by Elle Russ which is available on Amazon. If you would like to learn more about Dr. Gary Foresman and his medical practice, visit: Middlepathmedicine.com. If you would like to learn more about Elle or contact her, visit her website at: ElleRuss.com

Over the past several years, I’ve noticed a subtle shift in the way the media discusses dietary protein, with many experts promoting lower intakes. The push for lower intakes hasn’t only come from the mainstream crowing about red meat and colon cancer. Many voices from the alternative health communities are urging a reduction in protein. Even the ancestral health community counts among its ranks protein skeptics. Am I one? I’m not sure. In past posts, I’ve discussed how my own tastes have changed, going from eating high protein to more moderate amounts. Today I’m addressing the standard arguments levied against high protein intakes. Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of the issue. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)