Once organ meats are cooked, they really don’t look that much different than other, more common cuts of meat. In their raw state, however, organs can be a little challenging. For some, the sight of a raw heart on a kitchen countertop doesn’t exactly stimulate the appetite. If you’re tempted to try cooking offal but don’t want too much face time with the raw product, then a Crock-Pot is the way to go.
A slow-cooker is the perfect “out of sight, out of mind” cooking method for organs that need a little tenderizing, like the heart. Christopher Williams’ “Heart on Fire’ recipe (submitted for the Primal Blueprint Reader-Created Cookbook Contest) is the perfect recipe for easing into offal. If you can manage to get the heart into a slow-cooker, then you don’t have to think about it for another 6 hours. It will emerge fully cooked and tender, looking not much […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

I’ll be honest with you…with BCAA’s becoming popular again I had high hopes that there was some new research proving there worth…
I was really excited that there was something new…some new research that was really well designed that showed actual changed in Lean Muscle Mass, or even better maybe MRI quantified cross-sectional area (that would be awesome!)
but alas, it’s the same old stuff I used to push supplements back in the day..
The same research, written by the same people…same assumptions, same surrogate end points…just recycled wishing for something to work.
So sadly the new BCAA bandwagon (which isn’t much different then the old BCAA band wagon) is something I will have to pass on.
BP

Original post by Brad Pilon

Truth be told, we humans are an eccentric lot. Healthy food, vigorous activity, sleep, sun and shelter represent basic necessities for living, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fully thriving. That’s been the Friday theme these last few weeks. We’re social animals, nature lovers, intellectual organisms, imaginative creatures. The evolved brain begs to be used, and the body is stressed – or at least falls short of optimal functioning – when the mind isn’t engaged. A couple weeks ago I wrote about the power of an enriched environment – how intellectual challenge literally boosts immune function. There’s more to this picture than the Sunday crossword, however. We evolved to be creative, artistic, inventive. Wouldn’t you know it, the natural impetus lingers to this day with practical – and sometimes dramatic – results for our physiological well-being.

Anyone who’s watched young children play for more than […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Success is much easier when your friends are cheering you on. And in a month, you’ll have an entire community right beside you as you take the plunge into Primal living. I’m bringing back the 30 Day Primal Challenge this September. For 30 days, MDA will transform into a hub of reader-generated content and activity, where you can read about how others are going Primal, watch videos of people cooking their favorite Primal meals, and start your own 30 Day Primal Challenge journal. Whether you’re new to the blog and still a little timid about the whole “ancestral health” craze, or a seasoned veteran with a closet full of Vibrams just looking to add some more Primal schwag to your collection, September is the perfect time to actively participate.
And yes, there will be prizes.

In addition to the regular post each day, there will be a contest post. Some contests are […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

The Modern Paleo blog’s been doing chocolate reviews recently, which struck me as a novel but totally understandable practice for a blog called Modern Paleo. In my mind, good dark chocolate – high cacao content, high fat, low-ish sugar stuff – makes any downsides to living in this modern world well worth it. Good dark chocolate really is that good. And one of the best parts about going Primal has been the way my heightened sensitivity to the slightest dash of sugar enables true appreciation of the bean’s slightly sweet product.

I’ve eaten a lot of chocolate in my day. Cheap American milk chocolate with an absurdly low cacao content was regularly gobbled up in my endurance days, but I’ve since moved on to more bitter pastures. About five years ago, I could enjoy your standard mid-grade bittersweet dark chocolate without worrying about the cacao content percentage. Now, I find the […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

Primal Blueprint Fitness. It’s finally here! What can I say? My team and I wanted to get it just right, so we spent over a year developing the program before unleashing it on the world.
I originally planned for Primal Blueprint Fitness to be a new hardcover book sold in bookstores as a companion to The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Blueprint Cookbook. In the end I decided to take a different approach. As you’ve probably heard me say, I want to help 10 million people take control of their health. It’s why I started Mark’s Daily Apple and it’s why I’m giving this program away for free.
You see, I’m confident that Primal Blueprint Fitness is the right formula for people of all ages and skill levels to get lean and functionally fit for life with minimal time commitment, pain, suffering and sacrificing and with as much fun, enjoyment and ease […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

So you’ve ditched the bags of chips and boxes of crackers and cookies. You’ve found creative uses for all the junk food that used to make up your regular diet. And you’ve Primalized your pantry, stocking up on all the Primal essentials. With nary a can of Cheese Whiz or a bag of Funyuns in sight, what’s a Primal guy or gal to do when a snack attack strikes? I get this question fairly often, and my answer is usually pretty straightforward. But this one from Melanie got me thinking about it again.
I’ve given up chips and crackers and pretzels and granola and all the other high-carb, processed snacks I use to eat between meals. I’ve been Primal for about 6 weeks now and though I’m finding that I rarely have a craving for snack food (I’m hardly ever hungry!) it would still be nice to have a list of […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

It’s time for another success story. I’m sitting on tons of these. People are getting amazing results following the Leangains guide and I’m stoked to see success stories dropping in by the dozen. This one is pretty damn impressive.
I was quite pleased with my results after an intermittent fasting style “bulk” back in 2006. I gained about 20 lbs of weight in a little more than three months. When I did the math, I came to the conclusion that the ratio of muscle:fat gain was approximately 2:1, meaning 67% of the weight gained was muscle.
What’s a standard ratio of fat and muscle gain for the average weight trainer with a non-retarded diet and training routine? Based on the DXA readings I’ve seen from some folks that have been tracking this, I’d say about 50-60% of the weight gain is typically muscle. With that in mind, I certainly didn’t complain. Even […]

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

The embrace (some might say exaltation) of butter is, in some respects, what sets the Primal eating plan apart from strict paleo. It is essentially pure animal fat with only minor traces of dairy proteins and sugars remaining, and for that reason I consider it a worthwhile staple. But, to answer the question posed in the title, not all butter is created equal. Most of us are in agreement that the nutritional content of the animal’s flesh depends on the content of its diet, and the same goes for butter.
We’ve covered similar ground with other foods – olive oil, cheese, chocolate, to name a few – but butter’s special. A quick glance around the forum and other online paleo/Primal/real food communities reveals that people are mad for butter. Perhaps it’s because we’re subject to a steady barrage of anti-butter propaganda from day one on this earth; perhaps it’s due to […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

People who have trained in the gym for years often look at something like the simple push up as a beginner's exercise. I mean, why would they want to perform push ups when they can get a "real" chest workout with heavy sets of bench presses. This is a big mistake, and one that I have been guilty of. It is easy to look at the simple push up as working the exact same muscles as the bench press, but with less resistance. I would like to talk about why you should include the push up in your routine, even if you are someone who trains with free weights.

[Here are a few guys “benching” on the edge of the River Thames in London using decent form. Yes…a bad joke, but better than the typical bench press article picture…a bulky guy in a lifting suit bench pressing a ton with his […]

Original post by admin