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The entire premise of the Primal Blueprint is enabling you to be the architect of your health and happiness. If we can identify the environmental triggers and selective pressures under which the human genome developed, we’ll have a great roadmap for engineering our optimal lifestyle. And for the most part, it works. Not everyone will get the exact body they desire. You won’t all lose every extra pound. I can’t guarantee a six pack or a complete eradication of baby weight. But all in all, eating and living this way seems to produce good results. You can, it seems, affect your health, body composition, and fitness.

But genes still matter. And there’s a large trove of evidence showing that a person’s genetics are really good at predicting their risk of obesity.

A 1990 study took 12 pairs of adult male identical twins—with identical genes—determined their base metabolic rates and calorie needs, then overfed them by 1000 calories per day, six days a week for 12 weeks. Mean weight gain was 8.1 kg, ranging between 4.3 to 13.3 kg—all over the board, except for within the pairs of twins. When you compared one twin pair to another, weight gain was very different. When you compared twins within a pair, the weight gain was extremely similar. Not only that, but twins within a pair showed remarkable similarity in where fat was deposited (belly, hips, etc) and how much body fat was actually accrued. Overall, there was three times more variance in the various obesity measures between pairs than within them.

Genes explain how two people can have a vastly different responses to the same number of calories. They also explain how two twins can have the same response, and how two family members can have a similar response.

Subsequent papers have confirmed that obesity is highly heritable and that most of the heritability comes down to genetic factors.

How does it all work, exactly? What are these genetic variants doing that predispose us to obesity?

We don’t know most of them. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where vast reams of a population’s genetic data are analyzed to find patterns and associations between health conditions and genetic variants, can only point to genetic regions, not specific polymorphisms. Here are some specific ones, though:

Insulin resistance: The PTP-1B regulates insulin signaling, and polymorphisms to the gene have been shown to protect mice from otherwise obesogenic high-fat/high-sugar diets. Deletion of the gene protects mice against insulin resistance and diet-induced obesity, while mice with the full homozygous set easily gain weight. Another genetic variant increases insulin resistance by way of hypersensitivity to stress hormones. Folks with the variation tend to have more insulin resistance, higher body weights, larger waists, and a greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Leptin signaling: Leptin affects bodyweight by regulating both satiety (increases it) and energy expenditure (increases it). If you have low leptin levels, or your leptin receptors aren’t responding to the hormone, you’ll likely eat more and burn less. Homozygous mutations to the leptin receptor gene which truncate its structure and inhibit its ability to interact with leptin increase the risk of obesity in humans. People with a genetic inability to produce leptin grow massively obese; supplementary leptin makes them lean.

Basal metabolic rate: BMR determines your baseline energy requirements—the number of calories you’ll burn just sitting around maintaining normal physiological function. Higher BMRs protect against obesity, while lower BMRs predispose you to it. That jerk who can sit around eating entire pizzas all day and stay lean? He’s probably got a high basal metabolic rate, which he got from his parents. Studies show that some portion of the obese population have a genetic variant that reduces their metabolic rate.

Hypothalamus signaling: The hypothalamus is the seat of obesity in the brain. It controls energy balance. It’s where the rewarding properties of food are determined. It’s where satiety and hunger originate. It’s riddled with leptin receptors that ultimately decide how much food we eat. And certain polymorphisms of the genes that regulate production of the compounds the hypothalamus uses to communicate and enact these decisions predispose us to obesity. Major polymorphisms to these genes are rare but almost always lead to severe obesity, while more minor variants may nudge us toward higher body weights.

Circadian rhythm: Polymorphisms in circadian rhythm genes can predict how a person’s energy expenditure will change in response to diets. If you’ve got the variant that causes a huge drop in energy expenditure when you diet, you’ll be less successful, more likely to eat extra food to compensate for the lost energy, and more susceptible to the negative side effects of calorie restriction (fatigue, malaise).

The tendency of most diets to fail also supports the primacy of genetics.

For most people, dieting just doesn’t work. They’ll lose weight, but gain it all back within a year. They’ll lose weight, and only keep it off if they subject themselves to ever-lower calorie counts that produce other unwanted health effects. They’ll keep it off as long as they have a team of clinicians hovering over them. In the real world, dieting to lose weight usually fails. If genes determine obesity, we’d expect this to happen.

Twin and adoption studies (where researchers see whether adopted children inherit their biological parents’ or adopted parents’ bodyweight) agree that obesity and being overweight are highly genetic. Overall, about 40-70% of obesity is hereditary. That sounds like a lot. That sounds like genes are your destiny.

But not everyone fails at their diets, do they?

We have hundreds of Success Stories right here on the blog that defy that claim. Many, maybe most of them are dealing with genetic propensities toward obesity, yet they figured out how to beat the odds.

Insulin resistant because of your genetics? Maybe a low-carb diet will work best for you. You can also lift heavy things, sprint sometimes, walk a ton, and do other things that improve insulin sensitivity.

Circadian rhythm gene polymorphism making you more sensitive to obesity-inducing effects of sleep deprivation? Get your sleep hygiene under control.

Basal metabolic rate lower than you’d like? It’ll be hard, but you’ll have to figure out a diet that inadvertently reduces caloric consumption.

These aren’t silver bullets. Swimming upstream against your own genetics is hard, and many, maybe most, people fail. But you don’t have to.

And another wrinkle in all this is that genes affect behavior. Got enough willpower to stick to your diet? It’s probably genetic. Open minded enough to consider that everything you’ve ever learned about health and nutrition is wrong and perhaps this Mark Sisson guy is onto something? You got it from your parents.

So yes: genes play a huge role in obesity.

Only genes can’t wholly explain the huge rise in obesity rates because genes don’t change that fast. People aren’t suffering from in vivo mutations to their “obesity genes” en masse.

The real problem is that almost everyone in the western world exists in a shared food environment which is obesogenic. If you live in America, you’re awash in drive-thrus, Big Gulps, and inexpensive, delicious processed food that’s been engineered to interact with the pleasure centers in your brain. Most modern countries are in similar boats, and obesity rates are climbing across other nations as they adopt our food-ways and work habits. The genes aren’t changing (at least, not quick enough to account for the stats).

The environment is changing. But because the environment has changed for everyone, and most people never really question its obesogenic nature—they eat the pizza, they buy the processed food, they sit for eight hours a day at work and watch TV for four, they slog away on the treadmill—researchers looking for the genetic origins of obesity miss or discount the effect of environment. Almost everyone whose genetic data they’re examining is exposed to the same obesogenic food environment, and its ubiquity masks its effects. The result is researchers pointing the biggest finger at genes. They’re not even “wrong.” The genes still play the major role.

Their mistake is assuming the environmental conditions cannot be changed. But they can.

Few researchers and genetic determinists consider the outliers, the ones who extricate themselves from the yoke of the yolkless omelets. The ones who read nutrition blogs and buy ancestral health books, and only use mayo made with avocado oil. They exist in the modern environment but resist its pull. They may have the genes for obesity but manage to remain—or get—lean. These are our people.

Genetic determinists might say that everything we’ll ever do is ordained by our genes. If we gain weight, it’s our genes. If we want to lose weight, our genes will determine how we choose to do it. If we choose to diet, our genes determine the best one, how our body responds, and how strict we are. If our body responds poorly, our genes determine whether we’ll give up or try something new. If we decide to start lifting weights, our genes determine whether it has any effect. And because we “can’t change the environment,” nor can we opt out of eating junk food or decide to drink water instead of soda if our genes won’t allow it, genes are all that matter.

That’s malarky.

You can view everything through the prism of genetics and heredity, but why?

I’m not even saying they’re wrong. Genes really do determine many things, including metabolism, behavior, and body weight. I just don’t see the point of thinking like that. Even if agency is an illusion, and I didn’t actually decide to pattern my eating and exercising habits around an evolutionary, ancestral blueprint but instead was ordained by my genes to do it, it’s a helpful one that I think we need to believe in.

Maybe belief in free will is genetically determined. I don’t know.

But I know that some people have figured out how to lose weight and keep it off in the modern obesogenic food environment. Have you?

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care and be sure to leave your thoughts down below. I’m really curious to hear what you all have to say.

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Back-to-school means packing not only lunches for my two small children, but also school snacks. While I enjoy making their lunches, I primarily rely on packaged foods for snacks. Most weeks we load up on crackers, cheese sticks, and fruit from our regular grocery stop, but we occasionally switch things up with a trip to Costco or Trader Joe’s.

Just before school started, I took my 5-year-old daughter, Ella, with me on a snack-stash trip to Trader Joe’s and asked her for her help. Here are her 12 favorite Trader Joe’s products for school snacks (plus a few from me).

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Charred Corn Salsa

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Open Slideshow

We might be in the waning days of summer, but that doesn’t mean all the delicious produce is gone quite yet. There are still those late-season tomatoes, zucchini, and corn. Plus, berries and watermelon are still to be had depending on where you live.

Before we enter the fall season and enjoy apples, squash, and the first round of root vegetables, these are the must-try recipes to put that summer bounty to good use.

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Let’s talk steak — a big, beautiful slab of beef. I used to only eat steak when my parents treated us to an old-school steakhouse, and while I relished every minute of those meals, the menu always intimidated me. What was the difference between a New York steak and a ribeye? Why was filet mignon so freakin’ expensive?

Whether you cook steak at home or save it for a special occasion out like we did, it’s important to know your high-end steak cuts. Here are the four most popular ones, and we’ll cover where they’re cut from, what they taste like, and how best to cook them. Are you ready for your steak primer? Let’s go!

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A mistake had been made. My mother absentmindedly asked for an iced tea at the roadside barbeque joint in rural North Florida. To her chagrin, before she could chase down the waitress and clarify unsweetened tea, a beverage appeared with a glycemic index somewhere between that of a Coca Cola and straight simple syrup.

At 8 years old, I was more than happy to drink the sweetened beverage, the sucrose completely masking any bitterness in the tea that my immature pallet would have rejected. I could see my mom hesitate as she allowed me to drink it, pretty sure the combination of sugar and caffeine would have me trying to climb out of the car windows during the last leg of the long hot drive to Hartford, Alabama. But she relented — it was summertime, after all, and I was about to spend the next three weeks being filled to the brim with sweet tea, biscuits with homemade fig preserves, and heavenly hash. It couldn’t hurt to start the sugar high a few hours early.

Sweet tea has become ubiquitous with hospitality in the American South, but southerners aren’t alone in their taste for the juxtaposition of tannins and sugar. From Senegal to Southeast Asia, people prefer to prepare their tea, whether hot or iced, with a scoop (or more) of sugar. Here is a look at the tradition of sweet tea in the States and further afield.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

This is a guest post from Camp NF Headmaster, Kate Galliett of FitForRealLife.com.

Living with foot pain? Think you’ll be wearing orthotics your whole life? Ack!

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is to “never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well-known is: “do not believe that you are stuck with weak, flat, bunion’d, or heel-spur’d feet.”

Ok, so Vizzini the Sicilian didn’t say it quite like that.

But this statement is no less true than his original one.

I’ve had the pleasure of helping a lot of people fix their feet up to be super strong, pain-free, orthotic-free, and awesome, and I’m going to teach you what I taught them.

Given that your feet are your base of support, they influence your power output of your hips and glutes, and they carry you off to every adventure you go on – it’s crucial they function well.

Your feet have a lot of working parts: bones, joints, muscles, tendons, connective tissue, and nerves that all need to work together properly. When this anatomy doesn’t get to express itself well, any number of things can go wrong. From developing “flat feet” to the more scary stress fracture, and everything in between.

Sometimes our shoes make this a real challenge. But do not fear! Today I’m going to fix your feet and make sure you can walk all the way to Mordor.

Are shoes the worst?

In short, constrictive “modern” shoes make it difficult for your foot anatomy to express itself well. From moving as it was built to move. 

A healthy foot doesn’t just have one arch shape in it. It has three arch shapes. There is the main ‘arch’ on the inside of the foot, an arch that runs parallel to it on the outside edge of your foot, and an arch running across the metatarsal heads (you may know these as the “balls of your feet”).

Most feet have lost the two less famous arches (or possibly even all three!), and this is in part because the foot muscles have not been able to maintain strength and tone while inside modern shoes.

Yes, shoes do provide support. But, like anywhere else on your body, if an external object is providing support for your body, your body won’t need to to provide that support itself. Like a cast on your arm that supports the bones while they heal, your muscle tissue in that area is not providing that support, and thus it atrophies from disuse (this is the theory behind “fragile vs antifragile“).

Shoes do the same thing for your feet.

But it’s not all bad, the right shoes provide plenty of benefit: for starters, they protect your feet from things on the ground that might impale into your foot if you didn’t have the shoe material between you and the ground. This is less important if you are a Hobbit.

Shoes also provide a dampening effect, making the hard ground easier on your feet, and lessening any thermal energy that would otherwise come up from the hot ground and burn your feet. The same applies for taking your feet out onto a freezing ground.

[Note from Steve: I actually developed Plantar Fasciitis last summer when I moved to New York City from suddenly walking 10+ miles a day on hard concrete in minimal shoes. Too much, too soon, on hard ground = gonna have a bad time.]

Shoes are not meant to replace what your feet should be capable of doing on their own, but rather enhance what your feet can already do and keep them safe.  Many people think if they have sore feet or foot problems that they solution is MORE support, MORE padding, MORE arch support. The reality might be that your feet have been ‘coddled’ and need to be rebuilt and restrengthened so they can support themselves!

Let’s get after it. For starters, shoes should not squeeze or scrunch or limit your feet from expressing their anatomy fully:

So what should you look for in a ‘better’ shoe?

Find a Better Shoe

There are four components to look for in a shoe.

If the shoe doesn’t meet these four criteria, then your foot is going to be compromised.

A good shoe has:

• No heel lift of any kind.
• A wide toe box that allows your foot to spread as it lands on the ground with each step.
• A pliable bottom that allows your toes to bend to a full ninety degrees of flexion as you step.
• Something to attach it to your ankle area.

Let’s look at each in a bit more detail:

1. No heel lift of any kind. When your shoe raises your heel higher than your forefoot (aka heel lift), your ankle and lower leg are being positioned in a slightly shortened position for the duration that you’re wearing the shoes.

When your leg muscles are thrown into a slightly unnatural position, it means your mobility of your ankle will suffer… and this will limit all sorts of things: your squatting ability, interfering with your running gait, etc.

This doesn’t just mean high-heels either! This includes most regular shoes which have a bulky heel and lower toe. In many shoes you’ll see this difference between heel and forefoot referred to as a “drop,” so “zero-drop” shoes are shoes where heel and forefoot are at the same height.

2. A wide toe box that allows your foot to spread as it lands on the ground with each step. With each step you take, your foot actually spreads wider upon landing. This is impossible for your foot to do when it’s in a shoe that is too narrow.

If the toe box is not at least as wide as your foot when you’re standing on your foot, while it’s bearing your weight, that’s a problem for your foot. Know that as your foot becomes more ‘natural’ it’s possible it will widen further, as the muscles and bones reposition themselves.

Feet crammed into a shoe is like putting a leash on Sonic the Hedgehog: they want to be free!

3. A pliable bottom that allows your toes to bend fully as you step. Your great toe is meant to flex to ninety degrees as you move through the gait cycle. See below:

If your shoe does not allow this due to a hard sole, your feet won’t be able to move as well, and the soft tissues of your foot will get weaker from not being used fully. PLUS, when you aren’t flexing your big toe regularly, your body will start to lose the ability to use that joint fully. This can lead to all sorts of problems. Doh!

4. It’s strapped to your foot. If the shoe isn’t strapped around your ankle, your toes are going to grab at the shoe to keep it on with every step you take. This makes some of your foot bones push down and some of your foot bones lift up. That shift means you change the amount of forces on each bone. Over time, this can lead to stress fractures and tissue injuries.

“But Kate, it’s summer! sandals! Is this really a big deal?” Yes, it’s a big deal. If you’re looking for more, check out the below video from movement specialist Kelly Starret.

I understand that it’s now possible you’re very upset with me because I’ve just told you every shoe you own is causing a problem. The answer is not to immediately toss out whatever shoes you’re wearing for something that is fully ‘minimal’ in nature.

Also, this isn’t an “all or nothing” scenario. Similar to your nutrition, do the best you can when you can, and if you occasionally wear heels/flip flops for whatever reason, it’s certainly better than nothing.

There is a healthy and safe progression to take when it comes to moving towards a minimal shoe, and I’ll cover that at the end of the post.

Here’s how you can begin fighting for your feet…

For starters, determine how far you are from the ‘ideal’ shoe that meets all four criteria above. If you’re wearing a very cushion-y and/or very supportive shoe, or you live your life in high heels, know that there will be several iterations of a “better shoe” for you to go through.

And if you’re already wearing something you’d call ‘fairly minimal’, then your journey may be a bit shorter.

It doesn’t matter where begin your foot journey. What matters is that you can see a place you’d like to get to: your feet are more functional, stronger, and better supported, and happier.

Who doesn’t want happy feet?!

FIRST THINGS FIRST, I’m the realest you will want to immediately start improving the mobility and strength of your foot. Having better foot mobility means every tissue and joint can play it’s part in flexing, extending, and stabilizing. Developing foot strength means you start developing your arches back into your foot, and your feet will be better aligned to actually take advantage of all the muscles in your body which holds itself up. The more strength and mobility you have, the less support you’ll need from your shoe. In addition, having proper foot and ankle mobility is crucial in performing a proper (below parallel) bodyweight squat.

Perform the mobility work daily, and start with the strength drills every other day. Work gently, and go slow. For some, the foot hasn’t been well-attended to in decades. Try the following while you’re watching TV, or sitting at your desk, or whenever you can.

Do what you can, when you can:

• Rolling Out The Lower Leg A
• Rolling Out The Lower Leg B
• Toe Stretching Drill
• Seven Drills To Strengthen Your Foot

Transition to a Better Shoe

Since it’s not realistic to be barefoot all day in the modern world, we need a transition strategy.

1) The first and easiest way to start making this footwear change to make is to start wearing your shoes less total time during your day.

The more time your foot gets to be free from the restrictions of shoes, the more your anatomy gets to learn new signals and create new responses. It’s the equivalent of letting your dog run around the dog park regularly instead of having to stay cooped up inside an apartment.

Our feet were born free, and they deserve to be reminded daily what life is like on the outside (of a shoe!).

2) Begin strengthening and stretching. The drills above will get you started on a path to healthier feet. 

3) Start the shoe transition process. Now, while you’re spending a little less time in shoes during your day, start taking a look at what options exist for a better version of the footwear you have currently.

• If you spend your day in flip-flops, take a look at brands like Unshoes, who makes sandals that strap to your ankle.
• If you spend your day in dress shoes, determine what freedom you have at the office to adjust your shoes to something less restrictive but still professional. Can you begin by buying a new dress shoe but one without a slight heel? Or, can you switch to a soft bottom shoe that is still dressy looking on the top of it? (Soft Star Shoes is great for this)
• If you’re wearing athletic shoes all day, what about them can you change? You could try a wider toe box, a more bendy bottom, or a reduced heel (many athletic shoes still have a heel on them, so take a look to see if yours does too). See our favorites below.

As much as I’d like to recommend some specific shoes, every person and every foot is different. For example:

• Steve trains in the Merrel Vapor Glove 2
• NF Rebel Ops Leader Staci rocks the Reebok Nano 6.
• Head NF Trainer Jim prefers to walk around in Daytona sandals.

Remember: no heel lift (aka “Zero drop”), wide toe box, pliable bottom, and strapped to your foot. The perfect shoe for someone may be lacking for one person may be lacking for someone else.

That said, here are some brands that tend to make shoes that jive with these requirements:

• Unshoes
• Otz
• Vivobarefoot
• Vibram
• Xero Shoes
• Sanuk
• New Balance Minimus

Make it a Priority, But Go Slow

What you absolutely do not want to do is jump ahead to straight minimal shoes and go run a marathon – your feet will let you know quickly that they are not happy.

There is a real risk of injuring yourself if you make too big a transition in your footwear too quickly and then do too much. So if you are wearing a heavily supported, cushion-y shoe, you should not immediately begin wearing a Vibram five-finger shoe.

You wouldn’t jump right into a powerlifting meet on your first day ever of weightlifting, right? Don’t do something similar to your feet: slowly build up arch strength, flexibility, and insurance by introducing your feet to a slightly greater challenge regularly.

I took a full year to transition to traditional footwear to minimalist options. For many, the transition will be longer. I started in a basic running shoe that had some support, and slowly started reconditioning my feet to be more mobile, have healthier soft tissue, and to be stronger.

I introduced a new stimulus to my feet every few months by wearing a slightly less supportive pair of shoes. From the classic running shoe, moving down in cushion and support through the Nike Frees, to eventually get to the Vibram five-finger (the shoe of choice for me, but it doesn’t have to be your shoe of choice!).

I now spend as much time barefoot as I can, donning shoes only for the fact that they are required for places of business. If I’m not in a place that requires shoes by law, I prefer to be barefoot. (this doesn’t have to be how far you want to take it, it’s simply what feels best for me and my feet).

But don’t spend too much time stressing about achieving level 50 foot progress. 

In fact, it’s a Rule of the Rebellion: We don’t care where you came from, only where you’re going. Simply make a commitment to give your feet the attention they deserve.

Whether you want to transition to minimal footwear, barefoot living, or simply want to make your feet function better and support your athletic endeavors, make an effort to improve your feet: it’s worth it.

You are not stuck with feet and ankles that hurt or are chronically injured!

Change the signals in and you’ll start to see a change: you’ll get stronger, better, more functional feet.

Do you have a feet horror story to share?

A Foot Redemption story?

Questions for me?

Let me know in the comments below!

-Kate

Kate Galliett brings together body, mind, and movement to help people become pain-free, highly-charged, and ready for anything at her site, Fit For Real Life. She coaches clients in-person, online, and through her foundational strength & mobility program, The Unbreakable Body. She holds a BS in Exercise Science and has worked as a coach for 14 years. She is House Gryffindor.

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Kristina Alexanderson: Lego in Shoe, Jay Galvin: Different Shoes, Reiterlied: Walking Lego, DocChewbacca: Clean Shoe

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Caramelized onions are the backbone of many dishes, but it’s time to give these humble alliums a turn in the spotlight. Sweet and deeply flavored, a tart covered with caramelized onions needs little embellishment and is a great way to use up the big bag of onions you picked up at the grocery store or farm stand.

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From Apartment Therapy → 7 Ways to Eat Your Sunscreen: Can You Help Prevent Sunburn from the Inside Out?

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When getting a hearty, delicious meal on the table night after night feels like a chore, turn to the one-skillet meal. This recipe features chicken thighs in a mustard-bacon sauce — and it’ll restore your faith in your ability to whip up a quick weeknight supper with tons of flavor.

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During these last few weeks of summer, we’re drinking all the rosé we can get our hands on. And our tastes run the gamut from sweet to dry, and ever-so-slightly pink to full-on strawberry-hued. You can find out more about what we’re drinking, but maybe you’re also curious as to what everyone else is sipping.

We know we were. That’s why we did some digging to find out the most popular bottle of rosé this summer. Can you guess what it is?

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