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Avocados are essentially a gift from the heavens. Slice one onto toast with a squeeze of lime and a shower of red pepper flakes for a sublime breakfast, mash it into totally irresistible guacamole — the options are endless. And delicious.

Everything is all nice and heavenly until you only need half to top off your tacos and don’t know how to store the rest of that avocado without letting it turn into a brown, mushy mess. (This is definitely why everyone lost their minds over the tiny avocados Trader Joe’s started selling; because they are perfectly portioned for one.)

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Inline_How_Does_Keto_Fit_into_Primal_BlueprintToday I’m going to address a big question some of you have been asking in the comment boards and via email:

Where does the Primal Blueprint eating plan fit into the Keto Reset diet?

It’s a good question. An expected one. It’s true that I’ve been focusing almost entirely on the Keto Reset in 2017. I’m passionate about it. I truly believe it can help almost everyone, and I want to get the word out to as many people as possible.

When I started out on this keto journey, I wasn’t sure where it would take me. I was completely content with my own diet and the results it gave me. I had energy, good athletic performance and recovery, and good cognitive function. The food was great. I loved to eat and never felt restricted.

Going keto was an experiment to see:

  • If I was missing anything.
  • If I could improve the nutrient density of my diet.
  • If reducing carb intake further could deliver some metabolic or genetic-signaling benefits.
  • Most importantly, if keto could be an effective option for my readers.

I wasn’t trying to replace the Primal Blueprint. And yeah, it worked out very well, but it still doesn’t replace the Primal Blueprint.

What I realized—from personal experience, reading clinical research, and talking to keto experts—is this: the most powerful effect of ketogenic dieting is that it supercharges your fat-burning ability. Not ketone-burning (although it definitely does that), but fat-burning.

See, one of the most common misconceptions is that ketogenic eating is all about getting into ketosis.

Actually, the most worthy goal of ketogenic eating is to enhance your fat burning abilities. Keto-adaptation begets fat-adaptation. Once you switch over to a  ketogenic diet and your body realizes that glucose is no longer an unlimited resource, it’ll learn to burn the hell out of free fatty acids. But before it can build new fat-burning mitochondria and retrofit the existing ones to take advantage of all the free fatty acids you have at your disposal, your body will rely on ketones for its energy.

Building up that fat-burning machinery takes time. Initially, burning ketones is a stop-gap for your glucose-deprived muscles. And because your brain can’t burn free fatty acids directly, it will gradually transition over to obtaining more of its energy from ketones over the long haul. While a carb dependent brain burns 100 percent glucose, a highly keto-adapted brain can get around 2/3 of its estimated 150 grams of daily energy expenditure from ketones, and the remainder from glucose. Even this paltry 50 grams of absolute necessity glucose doesn’t necessarily have to come from dietary carbohydrate; it can be obtained as a by-product of fat metabolism or from gluconeogenesis (the conversion of protein to glucose).

What this all means is that keto doesn’t replace the Primal Blueprint way of eating. It augments it. It enables it to work even better. Once you build those fat-burning mitochondria and train your old ones to burn fat more effectively, those changes don’t just disappear overnight. You can go back to regular eating and retain those benefits.

In fact, I think most people shouldn’t stay keto for life. There’s no good reason for the majority of people to forever abstain from Okinawa sweet potato and never again eat more than a single slice of a summer nectarine. Food is too good, and too good for you.

However, it’s quite apparent that most people would benefit from going keto some of the time. And that’s where the Keto Reset fits snugly into the realm of the Primal Blueprint way of eating. By increasing metabolic flexibility, building new fat-burning mitochondria (and training existing ones to get better at it), and getting off the sugar-burning roller coaster, keto a supplement to the standard Primal way of eating. Like nutritional supplements, the Keto Reset doesn’t replace Primal. It fills in a hole. It increases the effectiveness of Primal-style eating. It makes sticking to a Primal/paleo/low-carb eating style easier and more productive.

If I had to make a blanket recommendation, I’d suggest anyone interested in long-term ketogenic dieting spend most of their time in the “keto zone.” That’s where your diet is fluid. You’re regularly slipping in and out of ketosis. You’re a bit higher carb one day to help with an intense training session and go right back to lower carb the next. And throughout it all, because you’ve put in the work necessary to build up that fat-burning machinery, you’re always great at burning fat and you retain your ability to burn glucose/glycogen when needed.

That’s where I am these days—the keto zone. From the outside, it’s actually not that far off from how I ate before the keto reset. Same basic foods promoted and eliminated. Similar macronutrient ratios. But with my newfound metabolic flexibility and the improvements in mitochondrial function, it feels different. I eat a little less. I’m a little more efficient with my calories. And I’m not getting any of the negative effects usually seen in diehard adherents to calorie restriction. I’m still killing it in the gym, on the board, and on the Ultimate field. I’m sleeping great. My cortisol levels are in a good place because my body isn’t perceiving this way of eating as a stressor. I’m productive and busier than ever.

Honestly, my increased metabolic flexibility really does seem to give me more flexibility; I can fast for 24-hours traveling to Greece, get there and indulge in much higher carb consumption than my baseline with fewer ill effects than with past carb binges, and generally allow for much more intuitive eating instead of regimented eating.

The integration of keto into your dietary arsenal goes to show the special power of the Primal Blueprint—as a jumping off point for interesting nutritional experiments, and as a safe and reliable home to which we can return after extensive forays into the wild around us. It is, after all, the foundation of eating our species rests upon.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I’d love to hear how you have (or haven’t) integrated keto into your Primal way of eating.

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The post How Does the Keto Reset Fit Into the Primal Blueprint? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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When it comes to my favorite holiday traditions, building a gingerbread house with my two kiddos is chief among them. But as they get older and our schedules get busier, I find making time to bake and decorate a cookie house at Christmas to be harder and harder. I have a genius friend who decorates sugar cookies and sends them as Valentines in February instead of doing them during all the hubbub of the regular holiday season.

The idea of spreading holiday traditions out over the rest of the year means this year we are building a haunted cookie house for Halloween instead of waiting until December to build a gingerbread one — and we’re loving every spooky second of it.

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I am always on the hunt for clever gifts to give for the impending holiday season. Here’s how it usually goes: Months before the holidays, I stumble across something that would be perfect for my sister or my best friend. I make a mental note. Then, suddenly it’s the first week of December and I’ve completely forgotten what that great gift was — and I have zero other ideas.

This year, I wrote it down (and published this story just in case!). I found the ultimate French press and I plan to share the goodness with my closest friends and family members this year. Even if they already have a French press, it’s not anything like this one — this one is sure to change anyone’s home coffee routine for the better. (It starts at $100, however, so not everyone on my list is getting one. Just a few of my favorites!)

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Last week Chrissy Teigen posted many photos on Instagram where she was on set for her forthcoming cookbook, which we can only imagine is a souped-up sequel to Cravings. Since then, we have been doing some sleuthing across her social channels to track down as many details about the book as possible. Here’s everything you need to know about “Cravings part two.”

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We have quite a collection of slow cooker recipes on our site. We really just can’t get enough of the appliance’s versatility and ease. And while we’d have a tough time picking out our favorite recipes from the bunch, you, our readers, definitely have your favorites. These 10 slow cooker recipes are the most popular of all, and for good reason — they’re comforting crowd-pleasers that can easily go on repeat on the dinner roster.

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The best thing about fall is that it’s technically pie season. Apple! Pumpkin! Pecan! It’s time to make all the pies! Even if you’ve already been baking and have an existing pie dish in your kitchen, you should still consider this Pyrex two-pack — especially if you don’t have a glass dish.

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When it comes to architecture and decorating, nothing beats the design porn that is Houzz! While Pinterest may find you the hack-iest hacks, the solutions you’ll find on Houzz are just breathtaking. Which explains why their most-saved pantry by users in the United States is a totally drool-worthy professional built-in instead of a DIY solution.

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Active flexibility, power, and building strength in a position of mechanical disadvantage are just some of the benefits of including kettlebells in your workouts.

 

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To an American, carrot cake means a rich spiced cake frosted with super-sweet cream cheese icing. But to a Tuscan, this moist cake has no spices at all. In fact, cinnamon is rarely used in desserts and only occasionally used in some savory cooking. This recipe comes straight from my family recipe box. Served with the mascarpone cream, it is a lovely dinner party dessert, but it also works well with your morning espresso or afternoon coffee. Try to let the cake stand overnight before serving so the flavors settle.

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