The Primal Kitchen Podcast

On today’s special show, Mark Sisson himself takes some time to interview Stacy Toth in the Malibu studios. Stacy blogs about a family-friendly approach to an ancestral lifestyle at the popular website, PaleoParents.com. A full-time working professional, Stacy incorporates her paleo beliefs in everything that she does. By utilizing a walking desk in a corporate setting, sharing paleo creations at work events, and mastering the art of eating paleo on the go, Stacy has successfully maintained a 100+ pound weight-loss for more than five years now.  Motivated by her passion for teaching others about healthy living, Stacy has been a speaker at national conferences focusing on health and wellness, appeared on television shows to share her story, been interviewed by leading national publications (such as Woman's World Magazine) and has appeared on international radio shows and podcasts. Stacy has authored multiple bestselling paleo cookbooks, such as Eat Like a Dinosaur, Beyond Bacon, and Real Life Paleo, as well as the popular ebooks 3 Phase Paleo and Paleo to Go. In addition, the Paleo Parents' award-winning recipes have been featured in several national publications and on many websites.  During today’s talk, Mark captures Stacy’s journey to getting fit within a corporate environment and delves deep into her tips for anyone looking to do the same. What are the benefits to switching to a standing and/or treadmill desk? Are there downsides? What are the hurdles to making the switch in a corporate environment? Find out the answers to some of these and other questions in today’s conversation. 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.

After last week’s look at what winter does in terms of physical symptoms, I’d be lax to not address the obvious elephant in the living room: mental health in the colder, darker season. I’ll admit I don’t know too many people who look forward to this time of year past the holidays. The adventure of winter sports aside (for those who love them) and the chance for a little social hibernation (for those who prefer that), winter can take an exponential toll on people past the New Year. That said, just how much is relative inconvenience versus clinical reality? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

A couple weeks ago, I linked to an article discussing the “obesity paradox”—the idea that across many different studies and populations, people with slightly overweight and even obese BMIs often have the lowest mortality risk. The author is Harriet Brown, a supporter of the “Health At Every Size” movement, comes down hard on the side of overweight/obesity as safe and even beneficial. At first glance, she makes a strong case. She appears to cite compelling research. She talks to obesity researchers who’ve found protective links between higher BMIs and better health and been lambasted by their colleagues. And if the general consensus is right, and carrying extra weight is so unhealthy, why are obesity and overweight consistently associated with a lower risk of death? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Join us on today’s show with Andrew Magness, a renaissance man who is a father, husband, trained physicist, former high school teacher, race director, climber, surfer, writer, endurance junkie, conservationist, philosopher, critical thinker, apocophiliac, and an avid neologist, to name a few. He learned the art of suffering from a decade long love affair with climbing and mountaineering that started during his university years. It was a spectacular but at times abusive relationship, resulting in three of his four broken bones (the other was rollerblading!), but left him with a healthy and perhaps rare sense of what his mental and physical limits actually were. This knowledge has served him well over the more recent decade when he's turned his affections towards the slightly more forgiving mistress of endurance racing. During that time, he's participated in a range of events from marathon swims to ultra-distance winter bike rides to 10-day adventure races. His book, UltraMental, explores the mental components of such undertakings and describes how he has effectively used extreme low volume training to approach some of the hardest endurance events in the world.  On today’s show, Andrew tackles the exciting evolution of endurance training and the new perspectives that are maximizing results and minimizing health risks. So if you have any interest in training less but gaining more, then this is the show for you. Today’s episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, the top 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.

Humans evolved within a seasonal context—without any of the modern accommodations that would buffer climate or weather influences. Why would our bodies not have adapted with responsive wiring? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Winter is nearly here, and it’s getting cold out there. We’re staying inside, cloistered together, sharing bodily fluids, and trading germs. The sun is weak, if it’s out at all, our vitamin D levels are shot, and our immune system is suffering. Many of us are traveling in planes, trains, and automobiles tightly packed with other people in the same immune predicament. It’s the perfect breeding ground for the dozens of viruses responsible for upper respiratory tract infections like the common cold and flu. What can we do? (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

Today’s episode, hosted by Elle Russ, is chock full of reflections, history, and tips based on host Brad Kearn’s earlier career as an endurance athlete gone primal. The perils of chronic cardio are now a well-known fact within most primal circles these days, but there was a time when pretty much every top performing athlete was on the chronic cardio bandwagon. And it wasn’t until some of its biggest adherents (people like Mark Sisson and Brad Kearns) started scratching their heads after getting burned out by the process that a newer, healthier approach to endurance training has started to take form. But that took a lot of reevaluation of the fundamental concepts, motivations, and assumptions of endurance training as a practice. So tune into today’s show as Brad discusses the ins and outs of the endurance community, performing as a triathlete, meeting Mark Sisson for the first time, the health risks of running your body ragged through endurance training, and the new ways endurance sports can be done in a way that’s more in line with promoting health instead of injury. Today’s episode is brought to you by Thrive Market, the top 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.

Will antibiotic-resistant superbacteria take over the world? Will bacterial biofilms blanket the globe, supplant nations, and battle each other for global supremacy? Will the few human survivors be forced into personal bubbles, impermeable to any and all microbes, gathering resources until the chosen one (who looks a lot like Keanu Reeves) emerges to lead a Purel-soaked rebellion against the microbial overlords? Don’t despair. All is not lost. We don’t have to wait for Keanu to save us. There is hope. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

I thought I’d offer some of my favorite responses (some serious, some not) to the common questions we field at the holiday dinner table. To all of our MDA community, I’m grateful for your valued following and your incredible contributions over the years. I hope you’ll add your own favorite personal retorts, strategic redirects and discussion starters for the dinner table today! (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)

A couple nights back, I found myself hovering over a pair of lamb shoulder chops sizzling on a charcoal grill, watching the marrow render before my eyes, anticipating the blackened lamb fat and caramelized marinated meat. Could it really be so bad? Should I have dropped these chops into a pot of boiling water instead? As it turns out, I may have overstated the danger of the carcinogenic compounds found in charred meat. (This Mark's Daily Apple article was written by Mark Sisson, and is narrated by Tina Leaman)