Dear Mark,
I was wanting to know if there is any danger in eating hybrid foods. I recently tried broccolini and then discovered that it was a hybrid between broccoli and Chinese kale. Is this dangerous to eat? Is it similar to GM? I would greatly appreciate your input on this before I start eating more of it.
Thanks, Angelina
Thanks, Angelina, for the question. It’s a good one, because even when we don’t explicitly seek out the obvious hybrids (broccolini, pluots, apriums, etc.), we’re still exposed to them. In case you didn’t know, hybrid fruits and vegetables are created by cross-pollinating two closely related species of the same genus or two cultivars or varieties within the same species. Though we’re talking about the artificial, man-enabled variety in today’s question, this phenomenon happens quite frequently in nature. Random hybridization is essentially how new species of plants arise – stretched out over time. […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Time for another success story. This one is from Danielle Reutter who used the Leangains approach to get in amazing shape.
Actually, “amazing” is a huge understatement, as she won her class in the 2010 NPC Nationals (Figure) and earned an IFBB Pro Card.
This makes Danielle the first the first American “professional” Figure competitor which uses Leangains (as far as I know).

We need people like Danielle in the health and fitness community. People that aren’t afraid to go against the mainstream. Why? Their success motivates others to change. Bodybuilders and fitness competitors tend to be very locked in their thought processes when it comes to nutrition. They’re usually slaves to diet myths and these superstitions dictate how they approach contest dieting.
The problem is not that the “6-meals-a-day”-approach doesn’t work, because it does for some, but that it just isn’t right for everybody. And if people are afraid to […]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Martin Berkhan)

I’ve always been a bit leery about the overwhelming amount of attention paid to high-fructose corn syrup in the media and among the online health-conscious community. Sure, it’s bad stuff, maybe even especially bad when compared to other forms of sugar, but it is not enough to simply ditch the “corn sugar” and use “healthy cane sugar” (even if it’s evaporated!) instead. Sugar is the issue – fructose. Namely, excessive amounts of it (I’m not going to lambaste blueberries and raspberries) are what you need to avoid. Focusing on HFCS alone and not the general “fructose” is an incomplete and, frankly, counterproductive mode of opposition.

You knew that already, though. It’s just nice to see others – like a couple of renal (to the best of my knowledge, that word does not carry an ulterior meaning – unlike “anal”) MDs from the University of Colorado, for example – do the same. […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

These Primal Blueprint success stories seem to have become a regular feature on Mark’s Daily Apple in recent weeks. I love to hear from readers and I’m more than happy to publish these stories as long as they keep coming in. I know that every MDA reader out there has their own health story. If you’d like to take a moment and tell me yours shoot me an email here and I’ll respond ASAP. Thanks everyone and have a great Friday!
Dear Mark,
In March of 2010, I went to my sister’s wedding, and had a great time. When I got home, I saw the pictures and was horrified. Over the past five years, I had put on a lot of weight, and I was at the heaviest I had ever been. I wanted to do something about it, but I felt like I failed at every diet I tried.

I was feeling […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Original post by Brad Pilon

You know the scenario. It’s the morning after Thanksgiving and you’re recovering from a day of marathon cooking and pulling off a holiday feast with all the fixins, Your kitchen still looks like it’s been ransacked, you still have dishpan hands and the only thing you want to do is pull your duvet cover over your head and sleep in. But everyone else in the house seems to be awake and suddenly you hear someone say the four words you’ve been dreading. “So, what’s for breakfast?”
Breakfast?
After killing yourself putting together a holiday meal, the last meal any host wants to think about is breakfast. But the thing about house guests (especially those permanent house guests also known as your kids) is that it doesn’t matter how much turkey they ate the day before, they’re going to wake up hungry.  As any veteran host knows, the best defense is a pan […]

Original post by Worker Bee

With all the talk of food this week, I didn’t want to give the impression I’d missed the forest through the trees. Primal or traditional eats aside, it’s really about gratitude, isn’t it? Gratitude for those we love, for all we have, and for how far we’ve each come in one way or another. For my part today, I’m grateful for the love of my family, the benefit of health, and the continuing inspiration and support of the MDA community. While I appreciate the many emails I get from readers saying how the PB has changed their lives, this community has, indeed, changed mine. I want to thank you all today for reading and contributing. I value the wisdom, perspective, challenge, humor, and personal stories you have offered here over the years. MDA would not be what it is without you – the active, intelligent, and supportive community behind it.

As […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Can you avoid fat gain during cheat days and holiday feasts like Thanksgiving and Christmas? Sure, you can – but if you’re a big eater that loves food, like me, it’s more a question of minimizing fat storage than attempting to avoid it. And trust me, there’s a few nifty strategies that can be used for damage control while still enjoying holiday hedonism, cheesecake mastery and spontaneous feasts of all sorts.
The key to damage control during ad libitum (“at one’s pleasure”) eating sprees lies not only in how much you eat but also with the choice of macronutrients. Food combination voodoo? No, just pure facts based on nutrient metabolism and science.
The question is also how to quickly get back on track for there is no doubt that big eaters can eat thousands of surplus calories that do lead to fat gain and post-holiday bloat. One of the “secrets” to maintaining […]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Martin Berkhan)

One last muscle building post for this week.
Obvious fact…unplanned breaks from working out suck.
(Mostly because they typically happen as a result of an injury).
But here’s the truth about lay offs – They can actually help you build muscle.
Now, I know that mentally time off from training can be really, really tough, but physically they may hold a lot of benefit.
So here’s the basic premise…We don’t know exactly why, but after a two week period of being in a cast the cross sectional area of the muscles in your leg can decrease by around 10% (you lose muscle size).
After 10 weeks of rehab, the cross-sectional area can increase by around 15% (you gain muscle size)
Lose muscle now to build muscle later?
Again, I have no idea why this occurs..call it supercompensation or look to myogenic transcription factors like myogenin, MRF4, Myf5 and MyoD…whatever the case may be, time off could be […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

Anyone who has ever watched Bloodsport or Kickboxer knows who Jean-Claude Van Damme is. He was basically the face of martial arts for people everywhere, and his movies had such a large influence that many current-day fighters say his movies were the reason they went into fighting to start with.

So needless to say, Van Damme’s movies have had a large influence on a lot of people around the world. Which is why it’s unfortunate that Van Damme destroyed his career and wasted years of his life by falling into alcohol and cocaine.
Van Damme Looking to Redeem Himself
It’s easy to believe that no one is taking the fall to rock bottom harder than Van Damme himself. He used to represent a lot of things, and not only martial arts – but also keeping in amazing shape, flexibility and fitness. By letting himself get addicted to cocaine and alcohol, he really did let all his fans […]

Original post by rafael@thefitnessadviser.com (Rafi Bar-Lev)