The Primal Kitchen Podcast

It’s incredible what happens in just a year’s time. New Year’s for me is the time to appreciate all that—what we’ve explored here and what others have contributed. Let’s take a look at some of what we’ve discovered, shared, cooked and experimented with for 2015! (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

An important piece of living well as you age that most never consider is taking advantage of the fact that time perception is entirely a construction of the brain. By slowing down the perceived passage of time, you seemingly have more of it and live longer—and better. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Today’s show features a lively (and mouthwatering) talk between host Elle Russ and paleo cook Cindy Barbieri. In the last few years, there’s been a huge movement within the primal/paleo community to find more nutritionally friendly ways to recreate traditional recipes we all love. Of the many cuisines that present unique challenges to paleo adaptations, Italian food is probably one of the hardest that comes to mind. With gluten or grains as a staple to what many consider timeless recipes (whether we’re talking about pizza or pasta), one would think that making Italian food paleo is a pretty foolhardy pursuit. But on today’s show Cindy shares how she’s been able to crack the code!Cindy and Elle discuss how Cindy got into cooking as a pastime, why going paleo was the right switch for her and her husband, and how’s she’s been able to adapt a whole slew of her favorite, non-paleo dishes into nutritionally sound versions of their former selves.Do you miss Italian food like a long lost friend? Then you won’t want to miss out on today’s episode for a welcome primal/paleo reunion!Today’s episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, the leading direct-to-your-door provider of all your health food favorites at a fraction of their retail price. Go to thrivemarket.com/mda to get a free two-month membership and 15% off your first order.

This time of year it’s fun to remember the Christmases when my kids were young, and I’d venture many of us can recall similar experiences—whatever holiday they were part of. The night before, each of them would be practically leaping out of their own skin in excitement. Falling asleep was a near impossibility as they laid in their beds anticipating the next morning—finding the cookies they’d left for the man in red (with carrots for the reindeer) half-eaten, seeing the colorful wrapped gifts under the tree, wondering what new and fun thing they’d be creating fantastical scenarios with. It was their giddy, animated exhilaration that was so fun to observe—their imaginative suspense about how it would all reveal itself. When was the last time you felt anything close to that in your life? When was the last time you really looked forward to something—felt the thrill of anticipation?(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

The popular story of how low-carb diets work goes something like this:Reducing your carbohydrate intake lowers your insulin levels. Since insulin keeps fat locked into adipose tissue, lowering insulin can increase the amount of fat released to be burned for energy.For the portion of the overweight/obese population with insulin resistance and chronically-elevated insulin levels, this is a fairly accurate description of why low-carb diets work so well. When you’re an insulin-resistant hyper responder in whom even a baked potato can cause elevated, protracted spikes in insulin that hamper fat-burning for long periods of time, or a person living under the backdrop of perpetually-elevated insulin, dropping the most insulinogenic foods can be your way out of obesity.(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

On today’s show, Brad sits down with world renowned biomechanist, author, and blogger Katy Bowman. Katy, a previous guest on the show, has started an entire movement (pardon the pun) around getting people to rethink exercise in the context of their everyday lives. The world of exercise is usually divided up into two camps: those who don’t exercise at all and those who overdo it. But Katy makes the case for how introducing fluid, varied movement in our everyday experiences can pay dividends for health in the long run. She takes the concept of the golden mean and applies it to the kinds of activity our bodies have evolved to require for optimal health. Brad and Katy cover topics from Active Coach Potato Syndrome, fluid mechanics as nourishment, reevaluating the definition of exercise, the compromise between physical activity and productivity, the evolutionary roots of why we need to move, and the practical application of exercising holistically. So if you have a body, you won’t want to miss today’s episode! Today’s episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, the leading direct-to-your-door provider of all your health food favorites at a fraction of their retail price. Go to thrivemarket.com/mda to get a free two-month membership and 15% off your first order.

From the intricacy of Japanese tea ceremonies to the ornateness of holiday dinners, food related customs hold big sway in every culture. They all reflect in some way an element of that culture’s values and common story—whether long inherited or deliberately chosen. While some of our rituals can be traced to particular religious traditions, others are more secularly instituted, family oriented or even individually constructed. Those grander social customs might evoke more conscious nostalgia, but science suggests even the small practices we enact around our eating can have surprising results. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

In a world of cold empiricism, with doctors and pills and psychiatrists and online resources storing every bit of knowledge and wisdom available, does a legitimate role for psychedelics remain?(This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

A recent review suggested “that in humans the changes in gut microbiota are an association with rather than the cause of obesity.” Rather than take their word for it, Let’s examine whether anything mediated by gut bacteria also changes body weight. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Hydration. It seems like it should be so easy: drink some water, go about your day, the end. If only it was that simple. In fact, there are many (often contradictory) opinions out there about what we should be drinking, and how much, and when, especially for the athletes among us. I have written about hydration before, and kept up to date with breaking research in recent years. Now, as I am working on the completely revised, updated, and expanded edition of The Primal Blueprint (slated for release in December 2016), I’d like to share a more sophisticated and nuanced opinion on the subject. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)