The Primal Blueprint (35 page)
Read The Primal Blueprint Online
Authors: Mark Sisson
I recognize how addictive sweets are. After all, our genes were programmed to appreciate those rare sweet natural sugars our ancestors discovered on occasion. Unfortunately, today we are bombarded by sugar everywhere. Sugar products greatly stress your insulin sensitivity and reinforce an addiction to both sugar and all simple carbs.
No discussion of sugar would be complete without mention of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Fructose has long been considered a superior sweetener to table sugar (sucrose), since it is the primary sugar in fruit and generates a lower insulin response (fructose must be converted into glucose in the liver before it can be utilized in the bloodstream, thus muting both the glucose and insulin spikes). Unfortunately, the fructose that sweetens most processed foods and beverages today – HFCS - is derived from corn, not fruit. This inexpensive and extremely sweet chemically processed agent is found in the vast majority of sodas, energy drinks, teas, juices, baked goods, desserts, and snack foods in your grocery store.
It has been well-established that HFCS is even more lipogenic (fat-promoting) than glucose, since it is readily converted into either glucose or triglycerides in the liver. Diets high in HFCS have been shown to substantially increase triglyceride levels, increase risk of obesity (particularly in kids, since their soda consumption is so excessive in relation to their body weight), and contribute to the development of serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Many health-conscious consumers believe that honey or agave nectar are superior alternatives. Unfortunately, honey has a similar effect on blood sugar levels as table sugar, while agave has a higher fructose concentration than even HFCS (and thus prompts undesirable triglyceride production). There’s no free ride here!
Artificial sweeteners are to be strictly avoided also, not only due to the health risks of ingesting chemically processed agents, but because they trick the brain into thinking you have just consumed a very sweet food or drink. As a result, your confused hormone response system stimulates an inappropriate insulin release, and the “high-low, high-low” cycle begins. Some research suggests that your brain will seek even more “replacement” calories in reaction to being tricked with a sweet food that provides no energy. Supporting this theory are the ever-increasing obesity rates despite widespread use of non-caloric artificial sweeteners in beverages and other foods (which, absent any other variables, should predict a collective decrease in caloric intake and obesity).
All forms of natural and processed sugars and sweeteners have a deleterious effect on your insulin system and general health. The less you eat sweeteners of any kind (yes, even the supposedly healthy Stevia) the less you will crave them. Try cutting way back on sweets and sodas for even a couple of days and notice how your life improves immensely. If you can do away with them, you’ll be well on your way to eliminating the addiction.
Chapter Summary
1. Avoid Poisonous Things:
Make a sincere effort to reject the powerful manipulative influence of corporate advertising pushing you in the direction of poor food choices and cultural traditions favoring unhealthy meal habits. Processed carbohydrates, including sugars and products derived from grains (wheat, rice, bread, pasta, cereal, corn, etc.), should be eliminated or strictly moderated due to their effect on insulin levels and immune function and their inferior nutritional value to plants and animals.
2. Grains:
While grains (and legumes) have been presented as healthy staple foods for thousands of years of civilization, our genes are maladapted to ingesting them because they elicit an high insulin response compared to the foods that have sustained human life for two million years: vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and animal products. The regular pattern of stimulating high blood insulin levels from a diet of excessive grain and sugar products leads to difficulty burning stored body fat (hence, lifelong weight gain) and serious long-term health problems, including heart disease and diet-related cancers.
Grains offer minimal nutritional value in comparison to Primal foods, ironically making grains a leading cause of nutritional deficiencies across the globe. Objectionable agents in grains compromise health mildly to severely, depending on your sensitivity. The phytates in grains can inhibit the absorption of minerals. Glutens can disturb healthy immune function and promote inflammation. Lectins can inhibit healthy gastrointestinal function. Whole grains can have a worse impact on health than refined grains in many cases due to higher levels of the aforementioned agents.
3. Trans and Partially Hydrogenated Fats:
These chemically altered molecules found in heavily processed foods are highly toxic to the body and are a major contributor to inflammation, accelerated aging, and many cancers. Trans and partially hydrogenated fats promote rampant oxidation and free radical damage in the body and disturb the healthy composition and function of cell membranes.
4. Other Foods:
Legumes are often incorrectly considered vegetables. While offering decent nutrient value, they can stimulate a high insulin response, may also contain lectins, and are best replaced with Primal foods. Processed foods and sugar are devoid of nutrition, stimulate excessive insulin, and are the leading factor in the modern decline of human health.
The Primal Blueprint Exercise Laws
Here’s a Hint: Walk, Lift, and Sprint!
In This Chapter
I detail the rationale and benefits of the three
Primal Blueprint
exercise laws: Law #3, Move Frequently at a Slow Pace; Law #4, Lift Heavy Things; and Law #5, Sprint Once in a While. Following these laws will enable you to approximate the active lifestyle of Grok and develop what I call
Primal Fitness
. Primal Fitness represents a versatile and diverse set of abilities that allow you to tackle varied active lifestyle or athletic challenges safely and competently. In contrast, many pursue narrow, specialized forms of fitness that are minimally functional and often compromise general health (endurance athletes and bodybuilders fall in this category). Following the
Primal Blueprint
exercise laws will also help delay the aging process by preserving lean muscle mass, which correlates with enhanced organ function, a concept known as organ reserve.
I contrast the benefits of
Primal Blueprint
exercise with the many drawbacks and health risks associated with Conventional Wisdom’s fitness recommendations. Moving frequently at a slow pace is superior to an exhausting routine of Chronic Cardio. These workouts often lead to sugar cravings that compromise weight-loss efforts as well as hamper immune system and endocrine function. Lifting heavy things involves brief, intense sessions (lasting 7 to 60 minutes) that promote optimal hormone secretion and prevent the catabolic effects of prolonged sessions where you leave the gym exhausted and depleted.
Few things are more Primal than running for your life once in a while! Short, intense sprints (or other maximum efforts on cardio machines, on a bicycle, or with plyometric drills) trigger optimal hormone balance, lean muscle development, accelerated fat metabolism, and incredible fitness breakthroughs. I discuss the best strategic approach for conducting workouts for each of the three
Primal Blueprint
laws, including form pointers for running and cycling and the benefits of going barefoot. Specific workout suggestions for strength training and sprinting are provided online at
MarksDailyApple.com
.
Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness
.
—Lord Edward Stanley
Three-time United Kingdom
Prime Minister (1799-1869)
The movements that dictated how our genes evolved were simple: squat, crawl, walk, run, jump, climb, hang, carry, throw, push, pull, and more stuff we probably don’t even have names for! This primal “training program” helped Grok survive the rigors of a hostile environment, explore new territories, track and exploit new types of food, build shelters, and basically become ripped. If we simply emulated these movements with lots of low-level work and intermittent bouts of higher-intensity efforts, we’d get most, if not all, the results we seek. We would have little need for the incredible complexity of today’s fitness scene—the outrageous gym equipment, obsessively detailed and regimented training programs, and fancy contraptions, such as cyclometers and GPS units. This stuff, while possessing a high “cool” factor, can also lead us astray from the benefits of having a simple, varied, and intuitive approach to exercise. By the way, most young kids will employ many of Grok’s movements (squat, crawl, walk, etc.) when left outside to play in a suitable environment. If your fitness regimen consisted of simply playing with school kids at recess, you’d be in super shape!
Unfortunately, commuting, work, digital entertainment, urban living, and a to-do list a mile long hinder our opportunities to enjoy spontaneous play and get fit naturally. Furthermore, Conventional Wisdom has brainwashed us to believe that a lean, fit body comes from either lucky genes or following a regimented, physically stressful exercise routine. Accumulate endless hours and miles of vigorous aerobic exercise, hit the strength-training machines religiously for several hours a week—oh, and count every calorie that enters your mouth—and you, too, can look like a magazine cover model! It’s no wonder that many well-meaning enthusiasts have become either exhausted or totally turned off to getting fit. Millions more endure with flawed approaches that leave them disappointed and discouraged when they fall far short of their ultimate peak performance potential and ideal body composition.
A healthy, fun, successful exercise program is as simple as moving around frequently at a slow pace, lifting heavy things regularly, and sprinting once in a while. At the bare minimum, you can get healthy and fit on two hours a week of walking around, one mini-strength workout a week lasting less than 10 minutes, one complete strength workout a week lasting less than 30 minutes, and a sprint session every 7 to 10 days with perhaps 10 minutes of hard work (bookended by sufficient warmup and cooldown).
Primal Fitness Pyramid
for functional, diverse athletic ability, and a lean, proportioned physique
Exercising according to the three
Primal Blueprint
laws will optimize gene expression and promote Primal Fitness.
•
Law #3: Move Frequently at a Slow Pace
strengthens the cardiovascular and immune systems, promotes efficient fat metabolism and gives you a strong base to handle more intense workouts.
•
Law: #4: Lift Heavy Things
stimulates lean muscle development, improves organ reserve, accelerates fat loss, and increases energy.
•
Law #5: Sprint Once in a While
stimulates the production of HGH and testosterone, which help improve overall fitness and delay the aging process - without the burnout risk of excessive prolonged workouts.
The Conventional Wisdom approach to fitness is clearly not working! Stress is excessive, weight loss goals are compromised, and many are misguided to pursue narrow fitness goals that are unhealthy.
•
Avoid Chronic Cardio
(frequent medium-to-high intensity sustained workouts)
•
Avoid Chronic Strength Training
(frequent and/or prolonged sub-maximal lifting sessions ending in exhaustion)
•
Avoid Regimented Schedules
(instead, allow for spontaneous, intuitive variation in type, difficulty and frequency of workouts)
That’s less than three hours out of the 168 at our disposal each week. You don’t need to invest in a gym membership or fancy equipment. You don’t have to thrust yourself into uncomfortable situations, like an ear-splitting aerobics class with a bunch of hard bodies. You don’t have to devote huge chunks of time to drive to the proper venue at the appointed time, change into the appropriate gear, learn complex techniques, and endure the fatigue and exhaustion that so many have suffered when following Conventional Wisdom’s recommendation to adopt a consistent and unnecessarily complex exercise program. You don’t even have to be consistent; in fact it’s better if you are
inconsistent
with your workout routine. Heck, the old saying “All you need is a pair of shoes” doesn’t even apply—you don’t even need shoes! (See my sidebar “Happy Feet” later in the chapter.)
It’s clear that there are many folks on the sidelines intimidated by the daunting “all or nothing” mentality of Conventional Wisdom’s fitness movement. I’ll assert that a 10-minute workout is not only worthwhile but can be a centerpiece of your weight-loss and peak performance efforts. Furthermore, slowing down the pace of your cardio will get your fitter, faster, and healthier, and I’ll explain why in great detail in this chapter.