Thoughts on Primal BluePrint?

Just curious to know what sherdog thinks about Primal BluePrint. This diet/lifestyle pretty much attempts to create a diet and exercise plan from 40k years ago.

Here are the "10 rules" and quotes.

1. "Eat lots of plants and animals - Focus on
quality sources of a nimal protein (organic, free-range, or wild
sources of meat, fowl, and fish), an a ssortment of colorful
vegetables and fresh fruits, and healthy sources of fat (nuts,
seeds, their derivative butters, certain oils, avocados, etc.).
Instead, eat when you are
hungry and finish when you feel satisfied"

2. Avoid poisonous things -" The big
offenders, including sugars and sodas, chemically altered
fats, and heavily processed, packaged, fried, and preserved
foods, are obvious.
What’s less accepted and therefore more insidious as a
dietary “poison” are processed grains (wheat and flour
products, such as bread, pasta, crackers, snack foods, baked
goods, etc., as well as rice, corn, cereals, etc.).
On insulin.
"Your pancreas compensates for this
excess of glucose in the bloodstream (too much glucose is
toxic to the body—hence the importance of timely insulin shots
for diabetics) by secreting excessive levels of insulin. While
insulin is an important hormone that delivers nutrients to
muscle, liver, and fat cells for storage, excessive insulin
released in the bloodstream causes glucose to be removed
so rapidly and effectively that it can result in a “sugar crash”:
mental and physical lethargy and (because the brain relies
heavily on glucose to fuel it) a strong craving for quick
replacement energy in the form of more high-carbohydrate
food. This leads to a vicious cycle of another ill-advised meal,
another excessive insulin response, and another
corresponding blood glucose decline"
"Because insulin’s job is to transport nutrients out of the
bloodstream and into the muscle, liver, and fat cell storage
depots, its excessive presence in the bloodstream inhibits the
release of stored body fat for use as energy. Insulin’s
counter regulatory hormone, glucagon, accesses carbs,
protein, and fat from your body’s storage depots (muscle,
liver, fat cells) and delivers them into the bloodstream for use
as energy. When insulin is high, glucagon is low. You don’t
have fuel in your bloodstream, so your brain says, “Eat now!
And make it something sweet so we can burn it immediately!”
Unfortunately, the mobilization of stored body fat has been
humans’ preferred energy source (and weight-control device)
for a couple of million years. It’s as simple as this: you cannot
reduce body fat on a diet that stimulates excessive—or even
moderately excessive—levels of insulin production. Period."

3. Move frequently at a slow pace - eg. walk a lot,hike and perform low level aerobic activity. I think he is basing this on !kung society in africa. He asserts that hunter-gatherers used to walk around a lot when hiking /hunting or gathering.
"Today most of us either are too sedentary or conduct
workouts that are too stressful and misaligned with our primal
genetic requirements for optimum health. The exercise gospel
for decades has been to pursue a consistent routine of
aerobic exercise (jogging, cycling, cardio machines, group
classes, or any other sustained effort), supposedly leading to
more energy, better health, and weight control. However, too
many lengthy workouts at elevated heart rates (between 75
percent and 95 percent of maximum) can put you at risk of
exhaustion, burnout, injury, and illness. The high-carbohydrate
diet required to perform these workouts day-in and day-out
only adds to the problem. At the extreme—such as with the
overtrained marathon runner or ironman triathlete—a
commitment to fitness can actually accelerate the aging
process"
4. Lift heavy things
5. Sprint once in a while. "Today occasional maximum effort sprints help increase
energy levels, improve athletic performance, and minimize the
effects of aging by promoting the release of testosterone and
human growth hormone (these are beneficial for women as
well as men). Once a week (or more frequently if you are an
experienced athlete)"
6. Get adequate sleep.
7. Play "
Primal humans might also have practiced spear- or rock-throwing for
accuracy, chased small animals just for sport, or spent
relaxing time hanging out and grooming each other. The net
effect of their play was to support family and intergenerational
bonding, unwind from frequent life-threatening stress, and also
keep their bodies primed for the physical challenges of daily
life."
8. Get enough sunlight. "Adequate vitamin D is
nearly impossible to obtain from diet alone, and we cannot
manufacture it without sufficient exposure to sunlig ht."
9. Avoid stupid mistakes
"Buckle your seat belt; don’t
drink, text, or phone and drive; and be prepared and
hypervigilant when you go backpacking in the wilderness,
descend a steep hill on your 15-pound racing bike, or use a
blowtorch, chain saw, or tile cutter"
10. Use your Brain. "
"Numerous studies of general intelligence qualities
identify curiosity as one of the most profound markers and
nurturers of intelligence."

All quotes are from Mark Sesson's book - Primal Blueprint. Please let me know if i need to edit it out.
My main concern about this plan is rule 3. Have you ever hunted? Or have been hiking? Well, I have. And it is not "low level aerobic activity". It is very very hard. You have to walk around the mountains carrying 20kg in your backpack with a 3 kg rifle on your shoulder. Then, after 10-15 miles , you finally get to see the animal, and you spent 3-6 hours stalking it and shooting... that is if you have a rifle, with bows and spears it must have been much harder.
Then, you get another 10-30 kg in your backpack of meat/furs, and you have to go all the way back. It is comparable to jogging for 6-9 hours a day.

Thoughts?

 

I have followed it and got on great with it, however, once I went to college my lifestyle changed somewhat (and diet along with it) and I still feel great. Point being, it works but I wouldn't get too anal with it. In my opinion so long as you're eating high quality food and keep track of what you eat you'll be fine. All dependent on your goals, obviously. I'm speaking generally.

 

Quite a bit of what Sisson says is good stuff. No one person should be taken at 100% face value though. You must always interject you own common sense at times.

You are a hard core hunter, I walk 10-15 minutes from my truck, climb a tree, play on my phone until a deer comes along, shoot it and take it back to the truck. Then make my wife skin and quarter it. Much easier than what you described.

There have been a few threads on this discussed in the past too ...

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f15/primal-blue-print-few-questions-1233227/

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f15/primal-blueprint-mark-sisson-1054289/

 

Grains aren't dangerous, and neither is moderate-intensity aerobic exercise.

 

This.

And, sugars aren't poison.

 

My son just ate some waffles this morning. Should I call poison control?

 

Huh, you make your wife skin it lol. I only been on mountain sheep and bear hunts. And those are pretty rough.
Hunting deer is different I suppose,

 

RIP

goodnight sweet prince

 

Basically it's like an organic atkins with a catchy evolutionary narrative. A bunch of just-so stories about evolution and some rather stupid romanticizing about the life of "Grok". Ignoring the cult like followers, The diet itself isn't bad. It's basically eggs, vegetables, meats/fats, some fruits and grass-fed dairy.

 

*dials child abuse hotline*

 

Another prepackaged diet for people in search of a religion that restricts them for no real reason whatsoever.

And what's the deal with all the cave-man stuff? Do we go by "what did cavemen do?" in ANY other area of our lives? No. So why would we with nutrition?


"But, but....this is how we were MEANT to eat". No. No, we weren't. Again, religious thinking. Humans aren't meant for anything.

 

Don't like the prepackaged diet, but the articles tend to be decent and I like his receipe ideas. The caveman shit is annoying.

 

As a physician at a research hospital ill say this: they might not be poison per se, but in the next 5-7 years you are going to see a lot of credible research about limiting sugar intake, especially with regards to those who have cancer (solid tumors more so than leukemia)

 

sweet, that will surely apply to all us non-cancerous folk too

 

absolutely!

 

The future of diet tailoring will without a doubt deal with evolutionary biology, DNA/epigentitics etc. To act as if some generalizations don't hold true for most people though is ignorant IMO. Of course most processed/refined/packaged goods are not good for most people. Of course vegetables, fruit, and animal protein is what you should be eating.

 

primal blueprint is a lot of marketing hype designed to make a dude a career - simple as that. is it better than mainstream crap? Yes. Does it require buying all his stupid "grog" supplements and books? No.

 

Just checked out his website. Never realized supplements were so popular 40,000 years ago.

 

Goji berries and acai berries dude