Tag Archives: Mark Sisson

A New Cookbook: Does “Primal” Now Always Refer to Mark Sisson’s Version of the Paleo Diet?

Posted on July 9, 2015 | Comments Off on A New Cookbook: Does “Primal” Now Always Refer to Mark Sisson’s Version of the Paleo Diet?

Carolyn at All Day I Dream About Food brought my attention to a new cookbook called The Primal Low-Carb Kitchen, by Kyndra Holley.

The book’s detail page at Amazon.com doesn’t define “primal.”

When I see the word “primal,” I think of Mark Sisson’s version of the paleo diet. I’m no expert on Mark’s diet, but off the top of my head I know it includes dairy products. Also, one of the Amazon reviews of The Primal Low-Carb Kitchen mentions use of green beans, a staple in low-carb diets but not considered “paleo” by many because they’re legumes. So a paleo purist will find some recipes they won’t use.

You can’t please everybody. A reviewer of my Paleobetic Diet (barebones version) didn’t like it because she was expecting a raw-foods diet and also didn’t appreciate my allowance of canned tuna. (BTW, if you want that barebones version, you might grab it now because I’m thinking about killing it.)

Anyway…

I bring this to your attention mainly for the book’s inclusion of basic nutritional analysis like carb counts and calories. That’s important if you have diabetes, prediabetes, or are overweight. I wish more paleo diet cookbooks provided the same info.

If I’m wrong about Kyndra’s book being paleo-friendly, let me know.

Steve Parker, M.D.

Comments Off on A New Cookbook: Does “Primal” Now Always Refer to Mark Sisson’s Version of the Paleo Diet?

Posted in Recipes

Tagged , , , , ,

History of the “Modern” Paleo Diet Movement

Posted on June 9, 2013 | 3 comments

Here’s a timeline, certainly not comprehensive, but probably more than enough to bore you. I’m trying to hit the major developments.

  • 1939 – Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price’s is published.
  • 1973 – Stephen Boyden’s “Evolution and Health” is published in The Ecologist.
  • 1975 – The Stone Age Diet: Based On In-Depth Studies of Human ecology and the Diet of Man is self-published by Walter L. Voegtlin, M.D.
  • January 1985 – “Paleolithic Nutrition. A consideration of its nature and current implications” by S. Boyd Eaton and M. Konner in the New England Journal of Medicine.
  • 1987 – Stone Age Diet by Leon Chaitow (London: Optima).
  • 1988 – The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet and Exercise and a Design for Living by S. Boyd Eaton, M. Shostak, and M. Konner.
  • January 1997 – Paleodiet.com established by Don Wiss.
  • March 1997 – The Paleodiet listserv established by Dean Esmay and Donn Wiss.
  • April 1997 – The Evolutionary Fitness online discussion list is created. Art DeVany is its anchor and Tamir Katz is a regular participant.
  • April 1997 – Jack Challem published the article “Paleolithic Nutrition: Your Future Is In Your Dietary Past.”
  • 1999 – Neanderthin by Ray Audette is published.
  • November 2001 – Evfit.com established by Keith Thomas (“Health and Fitness in an Evolutionary Context”).
  • December 2001 – The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain, Ph.D., is published.
  • April 2001 – Wikipedia’s page on Palaeolithic diet is created.
  • 2005 – Art DeVany’s first paleo blog.
  • 2006 – Exuberant Animal by Frank Forencich is published.
  • 2008 – Art DeVany’s Las Vegas seminar.
  • 2009 – The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson is published. Art DeVany announces ‘The New Evolution Diet’.
  • 8 January 2010 – The New York Times features the paleo lifestyle in its ‘fashion’ pages.
  • 26 February 2010 – McLean’s (Canada) publishes a general audience review of the paleo movement.
  • February 2010 – Food and Western Disease by Staffan Lindeberg is published.
  • March 2010 – Paleolithic lifestyle page is created on Wikipedia.
  • September 2010 – The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet by Robb Wolf is published.

Contributors to this timeline include Keith Thomas, Paul Jaminet, and Ray Audette (the latter two via blog comments). Any errors are mine.

Of the folks above, my major influences have been Cordain, Eaton, and Konner.

What would you add? I’m tempted to include the Jaminet’s book (Perfect Health Diet) and Dr. Emily Deans’ blog. Paul Jaminet mentioned Jan Kwasniewski’s Optimal Diet of 1990 (or was it Optimal Nutrition?), but is that just “the Polish Atkins,” as some say? Very high fat.

—Steve

3 Comments

Posted in Paleo Movement

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Random Thoughts On Fitness

Posted on November 21, 2012 | 2 comments

A couple years ago, I was thinking about putting together a fitness program for myself.  My goals were endurance, strength, less low-back aching, flexibility, longevity, and being able to get on my horse bareback without a mounting block or other cheat.

I spent quite a bit of time at Doug Robb’s HeathHabits site.  He has a post called The “I don’t have time to workout” Workout.  I ran across some paper notes I made during my time there.  Doug recommended some basic moves to incorporate: air squat, Hindu pushup, dragon flag, shuffle of scissor lunge, Spiderman lung, hip thrust/bridge, swing snatch, dumbbell press, Siff lunge, jumping Bulgarian squat, band wood chops, stiff leg deadlift.  Click the link to see videos of most of these exercises.  The rest you can find on YouTube.

Another post is called “Do you wanna get big and strong? -Phase 1”.  The basic program is lifting weights thrice weekly.  Monday, work the chest and back.  Tuesday, legs and abs/core.  Friday, arms and shoulders.

  • Chest exercises: presses (barbell or dumbell, incline, decline, flat, even pushups with additional resistance  – your choice
  • Back: chins or rows
  • Legs: squats or deadlifts
  • Arms and shoulders: dips, presses, curls

Doug is a personal trainer with a huge amount of experience.  He’s a good writer, too, and gives away a wealth of information at his website.

Around this same time of searching a couple years ago, I ran across Mark Verstegen’s Core Performance, Mark Lauren’s book “You Are Your Own Gym,”  and Mark Sisson’s free fitness ebook that also  features bodyweight exercises. Lauren is or was a Navy Seal trainer.  His plan involves 30 minutes of work on four days a week and uses minimal equipment.  Lots of good reviews at Amazon.com.

I did the Verstegen program for 15 weeks and saw major improvements in my fitness and low-back aching.  It’s a good program.  The only drawback is that it required six hours a week of my time.

Newbies to vigorous exercise should seriously consider using a personal trainer.

If you’ve had any experience with these regimens, please share.  Or is there another you like?

Steve Parker, M.D.

2 Comments

Posted in Exercise, Genetics

Tagged , , , , , , ,