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Did a Wrinkle in Human Evolution Predispose Us to Diabetes?

February 28, 2011
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A new mice-with-an-engineered-human-genetic-deficiency study is out that promises to shed light on why humans are so darn diabetic and obese – and the cause is an evolutionary “mistake.” A deficiency that apparently slipped through the cracks without somehow leading to our species’ demise. You see, we’re missing a genetic component shared by pretty much all other mammals besides ourselves. While mammals generally produce two types of sialic acids, N-acetylneuraminic acid (Neu5Ac) and N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), thanks to a mutation in a gene called CMAH, humans produce only the former. We don’t have the enzyme necessary to convert Neu5Ac to Neu5Gc. Why is this important? Sialic acids act as “contact points” for our cells to interact with the environment and other cells, and the latest research indicates that mice with the humanesque CMAH mutation are more prone to diabetes, especially when they’re overweight.

Both mice with the genetic mutation and without grew […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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WOW: Persistence Hunt

February 28, 2011
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You have 50 minutes to:
Move/Run/Walk 2.5 Miles Unencumbered
Move/Run/Walk 2.5 Miles With Object 1/5 Bodyweight

How-to:
Warmup: One minute Grok Squat.
Whoa, whoa, whoa – 50 minutes of cardio, Sisson? Isn’t that dangerously close to “Chronic”? And besides, I thought our ancestors weren’t long distance runners… what gives?
Maintaining a 10-minute mile pace for 50 minutes performed every now and again doesn’t qualify as Chronic Cardio. For one, chronic refers to frequency. Running a half marathon just to see if you can do it isn’t really problematic; training for that half marathon by obsessively running seventy miles a week probably is. This is a challenge, not something to do three times a week.
Mostly, though? This is something to test your mettle and drive you to greater heights. It’s designed to measure how far you’ve come – and how far you can go. Five miles isn’t a huge distance, but when you’re forced to carry a […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Curry Spiced Kangaroo Loin with Savory Coconut Cauliflower

February 26, 2011
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There might be some of you out there who can’t imagine eating a kangaroo because of something called the “cute factor.” It’s true that most advertisements promoting tourism Down Under feature kangaroos so cuddly-looking that the last thing on your mind is throwing one on the barbie. Most people just want to catch a glimpse of a kangaroo hopping around in its natural habitat. The odds of this are pretty good; kangaroos are year-round, prolific breeders. In fact, there are so many kangaroos hopping around in Australia that commercial harvesting of the species is necessary to keep the ecosystem in balance. Given these circumstances it makes sense to eat the meat rather than letting it go to waste – luckily, it’s tastier than you might imagine.
Rich and slightly sweet with only a hint of gaminess, high in protein, zinc and iron and always free range (there is no farming of […]

Original post by Worker Bee

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Training Frequency and Muscle Growth

February 25, 2011
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Here’s something to consider when you read all of those infrequent training success stories where people gained large amounts of muscle while only training once every 10-15 days.
People on steroids who are NOT training have the ability to gain more muscle weight and muscle size then those who are not on steroids but who ARE training.
In other words, by being on steroids you can gain more by sitting on the couch playing playstation than your buddy can by busting his ass in the gym.
If you take that into account while reading HIT reviews, it illustrates that steroids MAY (note: I’m not saying are) be a confounder.

In this bar graph the people on the left were not working out. First bar is placebo. Second bar is people taking testosterone.
The people on the right were working out. First bar is placebo, second bar was taking testosterone.
Notice the Testosterone no exercise bar is […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

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Eat This, “Eat This, Not That!”

February 25, 2011
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For all those college kids not sure what to do about getting healthy, you’ll enjoy Matt’s story. Going Primal worked so well for him, he even started his own blog, Three New Leaves, about living a simpler, more mindful, healthier life (check out his recent series of beginner’s guides to Primal living, part 1, part 2, and part 3).
If you have your own Primal Blueprint success story and you’d like to share it with me and the MDA community please feel free to contact me here. Have a wonderful Friday, everyone, and thanks for reading!
—
Ever heard of the Freshman 15?
I had. And I was determined, the minute I stepped into college, that I would not pack on the pounds that I’d already carried for most of my childhood. I even gave myself a lofty goal: a six pack, that holy grail of chubby kids everywhere.
I spent the next few years […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Tortoise and Hare: Two approaches to losing Body Fat

February 24, 2011
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Today I’d like to share two different theoretical approaches to losing body fat and getting shredded. So not just lean, but really lean..borderline contest ready (just without the water depletion) Let’s say around 5-6% body fat for men, 12% ish body fat for Women (That’s really low).
In order to share these two theories with you, I need to start with the assumptions we’re going to be working with today.
Assumption One:  There is a finite ‘rate’ for which each body fat cell can supply free fatty acids. Kind of like a speed limit… X number of free fatty acids per hour (FFA/Hr)
Assumption Two: Any Lean Body Mass / Volume that is lost during dieting is transient. It’s not ‘gone for ever’ and can be built back up.
Now that we have our assumptions down…here are the two theories.
Approach One: THE HARE – STRIP, Then Build […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

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How the News Impacts Your Health (and What You Can Do About It)

February 24, 2011
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Like everyone, I’ve had ample opportunity in my life to sit in waiting rooms. In the last several, however, I’ve noticed a trend that admittedly gets under my skin: the ubiquity of television news – and the negative events it routinely emphasizes. It’s been part of the airport scene forever now, it seems, but lately I’ve come across it in more restaurants and even in clinic waiting rooms. (Nothing beats watching multiple cycles of the latest grisly murder story as you eat your lunch or are waiting in agony for a doctor, eh?) In some respects, I appreciate having more than the morning paper or the 5 o’clock newscast if there’s a story I’d like to follow. With cable news and the Internet, we can assuredly keep on all the latest – what our go-to media sources choose to report of it anyway– 24/7. More than ever, we can get […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Birthday Cheesecake Mastery

February 23, 2011
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The best way to celebrate your 29th birthday is with some good old cheesecake mastery. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it.

The official Leangains Cheesecake (TM) weighing in at a respectable 7 lbs.

This one was au naturele. No cherries, no blueberries, no raspberries, no nothing. A no bullshit cheesecake. I actually prefer it that way because I want to be able to add whatever I damn please. Whipping cream, peanut butter, more whipping cream, etc.

I tried it with protein fluff this time around. Fits perfect. The protein fluff above is made with blackberries by the way. I should probably do a protein fluff special some time. Making perfect fluff is an art and my techniques have evolved by leaps and bounds.

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

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Is “8 Uninterrupted Hours a Night” Flawed Conventional Wisdom?

February 23, 2011
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Conventional Wisdom always gets an eyebrow raise from me. I can’t help it. Eventually, I take an honest look at whatever the experts are saying, but skepticism gets first dibs. I’d call it an instinct if it weren’t learned behavior from years of being burned. For example, I once took to task the most pervasive “truth” around: that everyone needs to drink eight glasses of water a day or risk kidney failure, toxin buildup, bladder cancer, and debilitating constipation. It was pretty easy to do.
But it’s not all BS. Smoking is bad for you, for example. See? I can admit when they’re right!

I wonder about the CW position on sleep, though. We generally agree on the recommended duration of sleep. “About eight solid hours” is what you’ll see everywhere, from official governmental health guides to paleo nutrition blogs (I’m sure there’s some niche community out there claiming to have “transcended” […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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Is “8 Uninterrupted Hours a Night” Flawed Conventional Wisdom?

February 23, 2011
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Conventional Wisdom always gets an eyebrow raise from me. I can’t help it. Eventually, I take an honest look at whatever the experts are saying, but skepticism gets first dibs. I’d call it an instinct if it weren’t learned behavior from years of being burned. For example, I once took to task the most pervasive “truth” around: that everyone needs to drink eight glasses of water a day or risk kidney failure, toxin buildup, bladder cancer, and debilitating constipation. It was pretty easy to do.
But it’s not all BS. Smoking is bad for you, for example. See? I can admit when they’re right!

I wonder about the CW position on sleep, though. We generally agree on the recommended duration of sleep. “About eight solid hours” is what you’ll see everywhere, from official governmental health guides to paleo nutrition blogs (I’m sure there’s some niche community out there claiming to have “transcended” […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

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