What is the Meat and Fruit Diet?

Many carnivores have begun adding fruit into their animal-based diets, transitioning from a carnivore diet to a meat and fruit diet. This is one of the most common diets I get asked about, in fact—is the meat and fruit diet a good idea? Does it make sense to add fruit to your meat? Is there anything absent from the strict carnivore diet that adding some fruit can help?

I actually think it’s a good idea for a lot of people. Here’s why adding the meat and fruit diet might make sense for you:

Fruit “wants” to be eaten.

The most common reason why people switch to carnivore is to avoid chemical anti-nutrients that plants expressly produce to dissuade animals and insects from eating and digesting them. Seeds and grains employ lectins and other allergenic proteins that impair digestion and cause gastric distress and mineral imbalances so that the herbivore that eats them is less likely to actually digest it or come back for more. They can’t run or fight back with claws and teeth so they go the chemical warfare route.

Animals can run, hide, fight, bite, and struggle. They don’t need the chemical defenses. Once you get past those claws, teeth, hide, and foot speed they’re incredibly nutritious and easy to digest. Meat doesn’t “want” to be eaten, but it’s neutral on the matter once the presiding central nervous system has been nullified and silenced.

Fruit, meanwhile, wants to be eaten. If an animal eats fruit to get the sugar and nutrients and tosses or poops out the seeds, the fruit wins. The seeds have a chance to germinate and grow into another plant—to keep the genes flowing through time. There’s no reason for the flesh of the fruit to have a robust arsenal of anti-nutrient compounds. And sure enough, fruit is quite low in these compounds.

Fruit is easy to digest. Some of the more fibrous varieties can cause issues if you have preexisting issue with fiber. Some of the FODMAPs found in certain fruits can also mess with digestion in susceptible FODMAP-sensitive people.

Fruit has polyphenols

One of my biggest criticisms of pure carnivore has always been the lack of polyphenols—of the plant compounds found in fruits, vegetables, coffee, wine, chocolate, and pretty much every plant on earth. Polyphenols are defense chemicals that plants employ to ward off disease, fungal infections, and other microbes. For instance, when a plant is stressed, it will often produce more polyphenols. Cut a purple sweet potato on the vine and it will up regulate anthocyanin content. This is a common feature and it’s meant to fight against pathogens that could invade.

But when an animal like a human eats these polyphenols, good things happen. They are minor stressors that induce a hormetic response—we adapt to the stressor and get stronger, healthier, fitter, and more robust in the process. On the cellular level, a polyphenol like blueberry anthocyanin can appear stressful in the acute time frame. It “damages” the cell, but then the cell recovers. On the organism level, blueberries create a rebound effect that leaves us healthier. The organism and all the cells within grow more robust. Pure carnivore diets almost never contain these compounds and thus suffer from their lack.

Some of these compounds, like quercetin (found in apples and onions) may even show efficacy against many of the autoimmune issues that bring people to carnivore in the first place.¹ Berries and pomegranates also show potential against rheumatoid arthritis.²

Fruit may improve digestive health

Now, many people get into carnivore because they have issues with fiber. Either it constipates them, gives them diarrhea, or both. It can even exacerbate certain patients with digestive disorders like IBS. But fruit fiber may be different than grain fiber. Now, some people will have different reactions, but by and large fruit fiber is easier to digest than grain or vegetable fiber. Some of the more fibrous varieties can cause issues if you have preexisting issue with fiber. Some of the FODMAPs found in certain fruits can also mess with digestion in susceptible FODMAP-sensitive people.

Take constipation. Carnivore often fixes constipation, but in a sizable minority it seems to worsen or even cause it. Some would say that you’re not actually constipated, that there’s just “less waste.” Very possible. But what if you truly are constipated on carnivore?

Kiwis may help. Two kiwis a day have been shown to reduce constipation.³ A review of kiwis for gastric disorders found that kiwifruits have the potential to improve GI function via many different mechanisms.⁴

Studies in large populations find that fruit fiber is even linked to lower levels of diverticulitis, while vegetable fiber is linked to higher levels.⁵ This suggests that fruit fiber may be gentler on the gut. The bulk of the evidence suggests that fruit is more helpful than not for constipation.⁶

It’s true that none of these studies are looking at people on carnivore diets. They’re using regular people on standard diets—results may not apply. But if carnivore doesn’t seem to helping your gut issues, or they could at least be better, you might consider incorporating some fruit.

Fruit may reduce carcinogen formation and inflammation when eaten with meat

We’ve known for awhile that consuming polyphenol-rich plants—like cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, and red wine—with your meals reduces the inflammatory response upon eating, even lowering postprandial lipid oxidation and the formation of carcinogenic compounds in the gut. That’s true for fruits, too. One found that adding fruit solids to meat sausages reduced the oxidation of lipids in the meal upon consumption and during storage.⁷ I don’t recommend blending fruits into your meat, but eating an orange with your steak will have much the same effect.

Speaking of oranges, concentrated sources of orange—orange juice—reduce the inflammatory effects of a junk food meal. They reduce lipid oxidation and make an otherwise unhealthy meal healthier.⁸ Imagine if you added an orange to your healthy steak dinner.

Fruit may provide nutrients your carnivore diet is missing

If you’re not eating many shellfish, your carnivore diet could be a little low in manganese. Eating blueberries or pineapple will top you off.

If you’re not eating your meat rare with all the juices, your carnivore diet might be low in potassium. Eating almost any fruit will provide ample amounts of potassium.

Fruits also provide vitamin C, which is often lacking on carnivore diets. The vitamin C requirements are also lower when you’re carnivore, but just in case it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit more.

Fruits are rich in carbohydrates, which can be useful if you’re engaged in a ton of intense physical activity that burns through glycogen. Fruit is a great way to top off your glycogen stores.

Fruit provides variety to your meat-based diet

Fruit is more than you think. Tomatoes are a fruit. Squash are fruits. Avocados are fruits. Anything with a seed surrounded by edible flesh is a fruit, even if we normally treat it more like a vegetable.

That means you can have tomato and avocado salad. You can have mashed butternut squash or roasted kabocha squash. You can eat pickles or fresh cucumbers. You can grill zucchini. You can have peppers of all kinds.

Allowing fruit into your carnivore diet provides the opportunity for far more variety than you’d think. It’s not just eating mangos and pineapples and berries. If you find the carnivore diet boring or difficult to maintain despite health benefits, incorporating a little fruit may be just the thing you need to make it more sustainable.

Let’s go through a definitive comprehensive list of fruits that qualify for the meat and fruit diet:

• Stone fruits—nectarines, peaches, cherries, apricots
• Tropical fruits—mangos, pineapple, breadfruit, papaya, banana
• Apples
• Pears
• Melons—cantaloupe, watermelon, honeydew, Tuscan
• Citrus—oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, lemons, limes
• Figs and dates
• Berries—strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries
• Winter squash—delicata, butternut, kabocha, pumpkin, acorn, honey nut
• Summer squash, zucchini
• Cucumbers, pickles
• Avocados
• Tomatos
• Peppers—hot and sweet and in between

The meat and fruit diet is anything but restrictive. You can really diversify your diet by including fruit. And if you’re worried about the sugar content, you can eat low sugar fruits like berries, avocado, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and squash.

Do you eat the meat and fruit diet? If so, what fruits do you include? If you don’t, what fruits do you miss (if any)?

Thanks for reading everyone.

References

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8260830/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29227497/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36537785/
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28557573/
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31397679/
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9583540/
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36890873/
8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29068453/

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Primal Essentials Sweepstakes Celebrating 2024

I’ve got a great sweepstakes for you guys leading into the New Year: 6 months worth of Primal Essentials. That’s Primal Probiotics, Primal Omegas, and Primal Sun. These are our most essential supplements.

Primal Probiotics is one of the most potent probiotics on the market. After several iterations, we settled on the four specific strains with the most support in the literature for promoting good digestive health, immune function, and mood benefits. This is a fantastic supplement to deal with all the immune insults this season.

Primal Omegas is a high-potency purified omega-3 fish oil. Not everyone wants to (or has access to) high quality wild-caught fish. Taking Primal Omegas can give you most of the benefits without all the hassle. Plus, they’re just helpful to have around when you need a quick dampening of inflammation.

And finally, Primal Sun is our vitamin D supplement. It’s the only supplement I still take every day, and it’s probably the most important supplementary factor in immune function and bone health. These things only get more important as time goes on.

Here are the details to enter the sweepstakes…

The Sweepstakes

Mark’s Daily Apple is giving away a 6-month supply of Primal Essentials, including Primal Probiotics, Primal Omegas, and Primal Sun to THREE lucky winners. Total value of this prize package is $509.10 per recipient. 

To enter for a chance to win, complete the entry form below, including your full name, email address, and opt-in. Submit your phone number for a double entry. Limit one (1) entry per person per household. Entrants may receive one (1) bonus entry for providing their phone number on the entry form. You will automatically be subscribed to Mark’s Daily Apple newsletter but you can opt out at any time.

NO PURCHASE TO ENTER TO WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.
All entries must be received between December 19th, 2023 and December 31st, 2023 by 11:59pm PT to be eligible. Promotion is open to residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are at least 18 years of age. CLICK HERE for complete terms and conditions, including all eligibility requirements.

About Primal Kitchen

Mark Sisson started the Primal Kitchen® brand with a simple mission: to change the way the world eats. As a New York Times bestselling author, media personality, ex-endurance athlete (5th place USA Marathon Championship, 4th place Hawaii Ironman finish), he has been educating the world on nutrition and the benefits of fat for over a decade via his pioneering blog, MarksDailyApple.com. Our life and our overall wellness are defined by the thousands of choices we make for ourselves and for our families every day, and choosing real food and investing in your health can lead to a more empowered you. Primal Kitchen condiments and sauces are crafted with purposeful, high-quality ingredients that make mealtime easy and delicious, so you can get the most out of life.

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Mark’s Daily Apple Primal Essentials Sweepstakes Official Rules

Mark’s Daily Apple Primal Essentials Sweepstakes

Official Rules

NO PURCHASE TO ENTER TO WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING.

MARK’S DAILY APPLE PRIMAL ESSENTIALS SWEEPSTAKES (the “Promotion”) starts on December 19th, 2023 at 1pm Pacific Time (“PT”) and ends on December 31st, 2023 at 11:59pm PT (“Promotion Period”).

ELIGIBILITY: Promotion is open to residents of the fifty (50) United States and the District of Columbia, who are at least 18 years of age. Employees of Primal Nutrition LLC (“Sponsor”), and their respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, promotion and advertising agencies and members of their immediate family (spouse, parent, sibling or child and their respective spouses, regardless of where they reside) and persons living in the same household of such employees, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter or win. Void where prohibited by law. Promotion is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws.

HOW TO ENTER: To enter this sweepstakes during the Promotion Period, complete the entry form, including completing your name, email address, and opt-in, on the dedicated Sweepstakes Landing Page, here: https://www.marksdailyapple.com/primal-essentials-sweepstakes Limit one (1) entry per person/email/household. Entrants may receive one (1) bonus entry for providing their phone number on the entry form.

All entries must be received between December 19th, 2023, and December 31st, 2023 by 11:59pm PT to be eligible. Use of any robotic, automatic, programmed or similar entry method or more than the stated number of entries will void your entry/entries and result in disqualification.

RANDOM DRAWING: Three (3) winners will be selected in a random drawing on or about January 3, 2024 from among all eligible entries received. Drawing will be administered by Arrowhead. Odds of winning will depend upon the number of eligible entries received.

WINNER NOTIFICATION: Administrator’s decisions are final and binding on all matters relating to this Promotion. The potential winner will receive an email from Arrowhead Promotion and Fulfillment Co., Inc., (“Administrator”), to confirm their acceptance of the prize. Potential winner must respond to notification within three (3) calendar days. If the potential winner confirms, he/she will be asked to submit their full name, date of birth, complete mailing address and confirm email address within a time period specified by Sponsor or prize will be forfeited and Sponsor will have no further obligation to such winner. Potential winners may be required to execute and return an affidavit of eligibility, a liability release and, where lawful, a publicity release, within seven days of date of issuance. If such documents are not returned and signed within the specified time period or if Sponsor is unable to contact a potential winner within such time period, prize or prize notification is returned as undeliverable, or a potential winner is not in compliance with these Official Rules, prize will be forfeited and, at Sponsor’s discretion an alternate may be randomly selected. If any potential winner is an eligible minor in his/her jurisdiction of residence, prize may be awarded in the name of his/her parent or legal guardian, and such parent or legal guardian will be required to fulfill all requirements imposed on winners set forth herein.

PRIZES: Three (3) prize winners will receive a 6-month supply of Primal Essentials which will include:

– Six (6) Primal Probiotics (60 capsules per bottle)

– Six (6) Primal Omegas (120 capsules per bottle)

– Six (6) Primal Sun – Vitamin D (180 capsules per bottle)

(ARV: $509.10).

Total prize value of all prizes awarded: $1,527.30. All prize details are at the sole discretion of the Sponsor. All prizes are awarded “as is” with no warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. No substitution, transfer, or cash equivalent of prize is permitted, except by Sponsor, which reserves the right to substitute a prize (or portion thereof) with one of comparable or greater value, at its sole discretion. Any and all federal, state and local taxes on the prizes, and any other costs, fees, and expenses not explicitly stated herein as being awarded, are the sole responsibility of the winners. Gift Card terms and conditions apply.

GENERAL CONDITIONS: By participating, each entrant (and, if an eligible minor, his/her parent or legal guardian) agrees: (a) to abide by these Official Rules and decisions of Judges; (b) to release, discharge and hold harmless Sponsor, and their respective parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and advertising and promotion agencies, and the respective officers, directors, shareholders, employees, agents and representatives of the forgoing (collectively, “Released Parties”) from any and all injuries, liability, losses and damages of any kind to persons, including death, or property resulting, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from entrant’s participation in the Promotion or the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of any awarded prize; and (c) to the use of his/her name, voice, performance, photograph/video, image and/or likeness for programming, advertising, publicity and promotional purposes in any and all media, now or hereafter known, worldwide and on the Internet, and in perpetuity by Sponsor and its designees, without compensation (unless prohibited by law) or additional consents from entrant or any third party and without prior notice, approval or inspection, and to execute specific consent to such use if asked to do so.

Released Parties not responsible for any technical problems, malfunctions of any telephone lines, computer systems, servers, providers, hardware/software, lost or unavailable network connections or failed, incomplete, garbled or delayed computer transmission or any combination thereof. Released Parties are not responsible for late, lost, damaged, misdirected, incomplete, undeliverable, destroyed, garbled or stolen entries; or for lost, interrupted or unavailable network, server, Internet Service Provider, website, or other connections, availability or accessibility or miscommunications or failed computer, satellite, telephone or cable transmissions, lines, or technical failure or jumbled, scrambled, delayed, or misdirected transmissions or computer hardware or software malfunctions, failures or difficulties, or other errors or difficulties of any kind whether typographical, human mechanical, electronic, computer, network, printing or otherwise relating to or in connection with the Promotion, including, without limitation, errors or difficulties which may occur in connection with the administration of the Promotion, the posting of questions, the processing of entries, the announcement of the prize or in any Promotion-related materials. Released Parties are also not responsible for any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by site users, tampering, hacking, or by any equipment or programming associated with or utilized in the Promotion. Released Parties are not responsible for injury or damage to participants’ or to any other person’s computer related to or resulting from participating in this Promotion or downloading materials from or use of the website. Sponsor may disqualify anyone from participating in the Promotion or winning a prize (and void all associated entries) if, in its sole discretion, it determines that such person is attempting to undermine the legitimate operation of the Promotion by cheating, deception or other unfair playing practices. Sponsor reserves the right in its sole discretion to cancel or suspend any portion of the Promotion for any reason, including should any cause corrupt the administration, security or proper play of the Promotion and, in the event of termination, to determine the winner from among all eligible entries received up to such time.

ENTRANT’S PERSONAL INFORMATION: Any personally identifiable information collected during Entrant’s participation in this Sweepstakes will be collected by Sponsor and used by it and its agents for purpose of the proper administration and fulfillment of the Sweepstakes as described in these Official Rules, for any additional opt-in information Entrant agreed to upon participation, and in accordance with Sponsor’s Privacy Policies, posted, respectively at https://www.primalkitchen.com/pages/privacy-policy as allowed by law.

REQUEST FOR WINNERS’ NAMES: For of the name of the winner available after March 1, 2024 send a self-addressed, stamped, envelope to Primal Nutrition LLC (Mark’s Daily Apple Primal Essentials Sweepstakes), 1101 Maulhardt Avenue, Oxnard, CA 93030.

SPONSOR: Primal Nutrition LLC, Oxnard, CA

ADMINISTRATOR: Arrowhead Promotion and Fulfillment Co., Inc., 1105 SE 8th Street, Grand Rapids, MN 55744.

© Copyright 2023 (Primal Nutrition LLC). All Rights Reserved. Primal Nutrition LLC is the trademarks of their respective companies and their use in this promotion is not an endorsement or sponsorship of this promotion. Used with permission.

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New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 249

Research of the Week

Scythians made leather out of their enemies’ skin.

5 liters of alkaline water a day is too much.

Dialysis patients with lower potassium and magnesium levels have higher mortality.

Neanderthals were morning people.

Caffeine gum increases deadlift.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Kitchen Podcast: Get to Know Your Inner Parts with Richard Schwartz, PhD

Primal Health Coach Radio: Judson Brandeis

Media, Schmedia

Do fertility-enhancing genes lower lifespan?

Interesting Blog Posts

Test scores are down across the globe.

Social Notes

Sign up for Keto Month.

Everything Else

A doctor shortage doesn’t cause a rise in mortality.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Interesting: Low-carb might reduce the risk of gestational diabetes.

Of course: Opioid abuse disorder linked to lower cognitive function.

Unpopular but true: BMI is still accurate for most people.

We know: Meat and dairy are good.

Would be cool: Is AI leading to new math discovery?

Question I’m Asking

What are you having for Christmas dinner?

Recipe Corner

• Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad (sub in avocado oil instead of “neutral oil”).
• Lamb chops, Greek style.

Time Capsule

One year ago (Dec 9 – Dec 15)

• 10 Natural Health Benefits and Healing Uses of Lavender—How to use it.
• How to Handle Youth Sports as a Parent—What to do.

Comment of the Week

“Basic technologies such as bicycles, clean burning wood stoves and even the humble apple corer seem to provide much benefit with fewer downsides. The more sophisticated world changing technologies not only have the most downsides but they tend to create their own need. Consider cars as an example. They allowed us initially to get places faster but the end result was that the places people needed to go tended to get further apart. Now we can’t live without them.
Some technologies deliver the opposite of what they promise. Social media for example is supposed to bring us together yet loneliness has become pervasive in our society. A recent survey reveals that 61 percent of Americans, 3 out of 5 describe themselves as lonely. The Plains Indians of the 19th century likely suffered little from loneliness. They lived in tribes of 300 or so and the lines between family and community were quite blurred. Basically the entire tribe was one’s family.
Choose your technologies wisely. I live in Maine where snow is plentiful. My neighbor’s snowblower needs gas, maintenance and sometimes clogs or breaks down. My snow shovel has never broken down and helps me maintain 6 pack abs at age 65!”

-Well said.

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What is Tabata Training?

In a busy world, efficiency is king. Everyone wants the most payoff for their efforts in the least amount of time—especially when it comes to fitness. That’s one of the reasons that high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, has become so popular. Workouts lasting just 20 or 30 minutes can deliver tremendous cardiovascular benefits, help you burn fat and lose weight, build stronger muscles and bones, lead to better blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity, and make you stronger.

But what if you didn’t need to devote 30, 20, or even 10 minutes to your workout? What if you could achieve the same results, maybe even better results, in just 4 minutes? Enter Tabata. 

Tabata is a specific type of very-high-intensity interval training. When done correctly, the entire workout takes just 4 minutes. The rub here is that doing it “correctly” means taking yourself to the limit in just 160 seconds of work. Tabata is tough. It’s also, according to research, incredibly effective. 

If you’ve been hanging around the blog for a while, you probably know that I’m a big proponent of workouts that are short and sweet—or rather, short and intense. This former marathoner has seen the errors of his ways, and I’ve spent years trying to convince my readers that the typical fitness paradigm has people engaging in workouts that are too long and that exist in the so-called “black hole.” They’re too hard to be aerobic but not hard enough to yield max anaerobic benefits. In other words, workouts that break you down at least as much, if not more, than they build you up in the long run. 

But Tabata isn’t your typical HIIT protocol. It’s not your typical sprint protocol (my preferred type of high-intensity exercise). It’s not your typical microworkout (despite being bite-sized). Tabata is its own beast altogether. 

The questions at hand today are: Should you be incorporating Tabata into your workout routine? If yes, how? If no, why not?

The Tabata Workout Protocol

Tabata workouts are named after Dr. Izumi Tabata, researcher and former fitness coach for the Japanese National Speed Skating Team. Dr. Tabata was the first person to systematically measure and publish the results of the training protocol that now bears his name, although he, apparently, did not actually come up with the idea. (That was 1980s speed skating coach Kouichi Irisawa.)

A true Tabata training protocol, according to Dr. Tabata himself, involves 7 to 8 “exhaustive sets” of exercise performed at 170 percent of VO2max for 20 seconds, with 10 seconds rest in between.¹ If you quit after 6 reps, that’s not really Tabata. Nor is it Tabata if you can eke out a 9th round, if you do 30-second work intervals, or if you rest for more than 10 seconds. 

Dr. Tabata conducted his studies using a stationary bike, which allows you to crank up the resistance and quickly get to that hard effort. Now I don’t know if you’ve ever pedaled a bike at 170 percent of VO2max (which equates to the intensity you are able to maintain for just 50 seconds of hard pedaling before you fall off the bike in a pool of sweat), but let me tell you, a 4-minute workout will feel like plenty. Even though you’re only going hard for 20 seconds at a time, the 10-second rest intervals aren’t enough for you to truly recover, so you start each new interval already in a deficit. After 8 rounds, you’ll be spent. 

That’s what Tabata is. What is it not? 

Tabata Versus HIIT

Tabata is not HIIT. Or HIIT is not Tabata? One of the two. 

In any case, Tabata differs from HIIT in several key ways.

• HIIT workouts generally last 20 or 30 minutes, perhaps up to an hour. Tabata workouts last exactly 4. No more.
• With HIIT training, recovery periods last anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes, and they can involve either total rest or lower-intensity activity—pedaling at a lighter resistance, for example. Tabata workouts involve 10 seconds of total rest, period. 
• True Tabata, as described by the eponymous doctor, must be conducted at the prescribed intensity. HIIT workouts, though challenging when done correctly, aren’t nearly that intense.

That last point is where a lot of people get confused. There’s simply no way to keep going for 20 minutes, much less an hour, at the intensity the Dr. Tabata prescribes. Even the world’s fittest elite athletes would struggle to complete multiple rounds with proper form and at the right intensity, much less your average bloke hitting an hour-long “Tabata class” at the local gym. To go for that long, you’ll be forced to decrease your output. These so-called Tabata workouts that stack together multiple rounds of 20-second on/10-second off exercises are not Tabata in the truest sense. Tabata-style, maybe. HIIT, definitely.

Which is fine. There are plenty of demonstrated benefits to HIIT—but it’s not Tabata. 

Tabata Versus Sprinting

Tabata and sprinting have a lot in common: Very brief, very intense work intervals. Relatively short. Leave you feeling more invigorated than wiped out for the rest of the day.

But Tabata isn’t sprinting. 

The two biggest differences are that with sprinting, you take longer rest intervals so that you start each sprint fairly fresh, and you might conduct up to 8 or 10 repetitions.

Benefits

For my money, the biggest benefit of Tabata, compared to other types of HIIT training especially, is its efficiency. My biggest gripe with HIIT training in general is that it’s easy to overdo it, in exactly the way that Primal Blueprint Fitness discourages. The line between HIIT and chronic cardio is often blurry. An hour-long HIIT class is almost assuredly going to keep you pegged at a black hole heart rate. Tabata won’t. 

In that way, Tabata is much more similar to the sprint workouts I advocate. And all the things I love about sprinting—short, all-out efforts that boost growth hormone, upregulate fat burning, promote insulin sensitivity, and deliver full-body fitness benefits—should likewise be true with Tabata. 

The other thing to note about Tabata is that, compared to other types of exercise, it seems to uniquely maximize gains to both the aerobic and anaerobic energy systems. According to research out of Dr. Tabata’s lab, ² the 20-second intervals at 170 percent VO2max hit a sweet spot for targeting both.³ Most types of exercise preferentially benefit one or the other.

Tabata Workout How-to

You’re familiar by now with the basics: Do a proper warm-up, hop on a stationary bike, crank up the resistance, and start doing your 20-second work/10-second rest intervals. Do eight reps, cool down, hydrate, call it a day. Maybe go for a walk. 

Tabata really is that simple. You’ll know you’re hitting the right intensity if you have to dig deep to complete those seventh and eighth reps. 

What if you don’t have access to a stationary bike? Dr. Tabata cautions that we don’t know whether the benefits extend to other modalities beyond the bike,⁴ but I see no reason to think they’d be bike-specific. Any exercise that allows you to achieve high work outputs in 20 seconds should be similarly effective. The beauty of the bike is that you can go from total rest to pedaling hard with a quick turn of the resistance dial. You could probably replicate that with a Versaclimber, battle ropes, sled push, or even an elliptical. 

I see lots of Tabata workouts that involve four or five 4-minute circuits of exercises like burpees, kettlebell swings, Russian twists, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, and the like. They utilize the same 20/10 splits, but the fact that they involve 16 or 20 total work intervals tells you that the intensity just isn’t the same—which you can feel. There’s no way 20 seconds of planking is as hard as 20 seconds of pedaling a bike at high resistance. Hence, they aren’t really Tabata. 

That’s not a dig on those types of workouts. They’re still HIIT, and you will reap the benefits accordingly. For beginners, this type of lower-intensity (but still challenging) Tabata-style HIIT workout is a safer starting place. That said, since you aren’t doing a strict Tabata workout anyway, there’s no reason to strictly limit yourself to the 20/10 intervals either.  

The Bottom Line

Although I think Tabata is great, I wouldn’t only do Tabata workouts. Plenty of research shows that intervals of other lengths and intensities are also worthwhile. Just as I don’t always do the same types of deadlifts or squats, and I change up the surfaces I sprint on, it makes sense to do different types of interval training. Mixing it up probably gives you the best bang for your buck over the long term. 

If you do want to do a Tabata session, I’d recommend doing it in place of your weekly sprint. Or you can do it in addition; just watch your recovery and make sure you’re not overdoing it. Remember, true Tabata workouts are hard. Very hard. Not for the faint of heart. (Literally. If you have heart problems, talk to your doctor before undertaking a workout this strenuous.)  

How about you? Have you worked Tabata into your training routine? Notice any benefits?

References

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004287/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9309642/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9139179/ 
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31004287/

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How to Move and Get Fit the Primal Way

There are certain fundamental inputs every person needs to be healthy: nutritious food, plenty of sleep, social connection, and the one we’re talking about today, movement.

Movement is an essential part of the Primal Blueprint master plan for crafting your strongest, fittest, most dynamic, most enjoyable life. That’s what I want for all my readers—a long life well lived until the end. To reach that goal, you need a strong foundation of physical health and mobility, starting as young as possible to stave off the inevitable physical decline that comes with age. 

Everyone knows how to move. We’ve all heard that exercise is important, that we should be aiming for 10,000 steps a day, building core strength, and actually using our gym memberships. Yet many, nay most, people don’t do the right amount, either moving too little or too much (the former being far more common). Nor do they move in diverse enough ways to achieve their optimal fitness and longevity potential. In short, they don’t move in accordance with the Primal Blueprint. 

What Does It Mean to Move Primally?

Humans are designed to move through the world. To be active. To physically manipulate our environments. 

Our ancestors, of course, had no choice in the matter. They didn’t worry about becoming strong or physically competent. Their fitness was a natural result of living in an unforgiving environment that required them to work for everything—food, shelter, water, transportation, socializing, defense, and every other aspect of survival. But life is easy now, at least when it comes to physical demands. We modern folks do need to work at being fit. 

When I was devising the Primal Blueprint, I considered how our ancestors moved, what qualities they embodied, and what, therefore, our genes need and expect for optimum health. Here’s what I came up with:

• Humans are designed to move a lot—mostly slowly, sometimes very fast. 
• The human body is meant to move through all planes of motion: to push, pull, lift, jump, spring, sprint, throw, and balance.
• Our ancestors had to be physically strong, powerful, and quick on their feet, with a good strength-to-body weight ratio and plenty of endurance.

With this in mind, I came up with the following Primal Blueprint movement laws.

The Primal Blueprint Movement Laws

Four of the ten Primal Blueprint Laws speak to how you should be moving. It’s that important. 

Primal Law #3: Move frequently.

We know that our ancestors spent, on average, several hours each day moving about at what today’s exercise physiologists might describe as a “low-level aerobic pace.” They hunted, gathered, foraged, wandered, scouted, migrated, climbed, and crawled. This low level of activity prompted their genes to build strong muscles, bones, and joints; to build a robust cardiovascular system; and to burn fat for fuel. 

Today’s sedentary-dominant lifestyle is about as far from this as we could possibly get. Yet, our genes still expect us to move frequently, mostly at a slow pace. From a chronic health perspective, this is arguably one of the most detrimental discrepancies between Primal and modern life. 

Read more about Primal Law #3 here. 

Primal Law #4: Lift heavy things.

By the same token, until relatively recently, there was simply no way to get by without moving heavy things like wood, stone, water, animals killed many miles from home, and one’s own body weight. Moving heavy things, what we’d now call “resistance training” when done in an exercise setting, makes you strong. 

Strength isn’t just about having an attractive physique or succeeding in sport, although those are perfectly good reasons to want to be strong. Muscle is metabolically active tissue and a major repository for blood glucose (glycogen). Too little muscle means a greater risk for insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction. A weak musculoskeletal system equals frailty, and frailty is strongly associated with mortality as we age. 

Read more about Primal Law #4 here. 

Primal Law #5: Sprint once in a while.

Going all-out delivers a powerful signal to your genes, telling them, “Hey, we need to be ready to perform at maximum capacity at a moment’s notice.” For Primal humans, this would have been a matter of life and death. The resultant hormonal cascade and adaptation make the body fitter and more resilient to future challenges. 

Read more about Primal Law #5 here. 

Primal Law #7: Play.

(Yes, I skipped Law #6. It’s covered in the Primal Lifestyle Laws post.)

Hunter-gatherers generally worked fewer hours and had more leisure time than the average 40-hour-plus American worker. Once the day’s catch was complete, and the roots, shoots, nuts, and berries had been gathered, our ancestors spent hours involved in various forms of social interaction that we might categorize today as “play.” 

The net effect was to solidify social bonds and sort out the social hierarchy, stimulate creative thinking and problem solving, practice important skills like climbing or spear throwing in a low-stakes environment, and pass on wisdom. Play was also important to prompt the release of endorphins (feel-good brain chemicals) and to mitigate any lingering stress effects of life-threatening situations.

You might not need to be adept at spear throwing in your daily life, but the other benefits of play remain as relevant today as ever for kids and adults alike. 

Read more about Primal Law #7 here. 

Putting the Movement Laws into Action

The Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid provides a handy visual reference for how I think the average person should move in a week’s time (more or less).

Within this general framework, there’s plenty of room for you to find ways to move that you enjoy. I think of the Primal Blueprint as endlessly malleable, eternally scalable. Maybe your goal is to hike the Pacific Crest Trail. Maybe it’s to be able to spend the whole day on your feet at Disney World with your family. Maybe you love CrossFit or you want to run your first 5k. Maybe your job requires that you meet certain physical fitness standards. Perhaps you just want to live a long, healthy life, but you never want to see the inside of a gym. These are all valid. As I’ve said before, the best exercise is the one you will do consistently. 

Whatever your goals, the Primal Blueprint Movement Laws provide a springboard to build a broad base of fitness. Crucially, the Primal Blueprint will also help you avoid the pitfalls of chronic cardio and other overly stressful exercise patterns. 

These movement laws provide the right formula for getting lean and functionally fit for life with minimal time commitment, pain, suffering, and sacrifice—and, more importantly, with as much fun, enjoyment and ease as possible. It’s not the only way to get fit, but it might just be the most efficient, effective, and pleasurable way.

The Primal Blueprint, and the book of the same name, offers a framework for achieving your personal best health, vitality, and longevity. It is organized into 10 Primal Laws derived from anthropology, sociology, biology, psychology, and common sense. These laws describe the diet, movement, and lifestyle practices that lead to optimal gene expression—the practices that have allowed humans to thrive for hundreds of thousands of years, but which many people struggle to achieve in the modern world.  

The post How to Move and Get Fit the Primal Way appeared first on Mark's Daily Apple.

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What Does Pre-Workout Do?

Pre-workouts are supplements or combinations of supplements, often in powder form, that you take before a workout session in order to improve your performance and boost training adaptations. As fitness culture has exploded and grown by leaps and bounds, so have the available pre-workout products that promise to boost your workout performance.

Some of the things that pre-workouts claim to do:

• Improve energy utilization
• Increase muscle protein synthesis
• Boost the anabolic response
• Provide fuel for muscles
• Improve performance

But does pre-workout work? Let’s go through some of the most popular and common pre-workout ingredients and see if they actually help as advertised.

Creatine

Creatine helps us store more phosphocreatine in the muscles, which is one of the most potent fast-acting energy systems for high-intensity rapid movement like weight lifting. Taking creatine:

• Improves performance in every lift that’s been studied, particularly more complex multi-jointed compound lifts like squats and deadlifts.
• Improves strength and muscle gains, even in elderly.
• Improves sprint performance.

Creatine works. It improves strength training performance, and it’s one of the few remaining supplements I still take on a daily basis. Creatine is especially important for vegans and vegetarians who aren’t getting any dietary creatine from meat and fish.

L-citrulline

L-citrulline is an amino acid that increases nitric oxide synthesis and improves endothelial function. In short, it improves blood flow. This enhanced blood flow to your heart and muscles:

• Improves performance during intense activity.¹
• Improves the “pump,” that feeling of your muscles being engorged with fluid and blood. Important subjective feedback that makes lifting more pelasurable. Arnold Schwarzenegger famously compared the feeling of the pump to the feeling of sex. Exercise scientists generally discount the importance of the pump, but I find it correlates strongly with a better workout and improved adaptations.

L-citrulline works. Enhancing blood flow to all areas of your body is great for performance—in all areas, not just the weight room.

Beta-alanine

Beta-alanine is most effective in longer sessions. In bouts of exercise lasting under 60 seconds, it doesn’t seem to help. In bouts of exercise lasting over 60 seconds, beta-alanine begins to show beneficial effects on performance and capacity.²

You know beta-alanine is working when you get the “tingly” feeling in your muscles. It’s not necessarily a pleasant feeling, but it does mean you’re ready to start training and if you have a great session, you’ll learn to appreciate the tingles. Given the overall modest effects of beta-alanine in the literature, I’d wager that the tingles act as a placebo of sorts and provide a psychological signal to your muscles that they’re ready to work hard. That isn’t to discount them.

Caffeine

Caffeine might be the most effective pre-workout supplement in the world. It’s certainly the most ubiquitous. I wrote an entire post about using caffeine before a workout, but here’s the gist of what it can do for you as a pre workout:

• Enhances upper body strength in women.³
• Improves the desire to workout.⁴
• A funny illustration of just how effective a pre-workout caffeine is lies in one study where a combo of ketones/taurine/leucine had no effect on performance unless you added caffeine. Sounded great on paper but boring old caffeine was needed to make it work.⁵

Sodium

Salt is the most important electrolyte in our bodies, and exercise increases our requirements. When you sweat, you’re losing salt. When you’re losing salt, your muscles can’t contract effectively. When your muscles can’t contract, you lose strength and performance.

Instead of waiting for you to sweat all the salt out, get a head start by adding a pinch or two (or three) of salt to your water as a “pre-workout.”

Exogenous ketones

Ketone supplements are a way of having your cake and eating it too. The idea is that you can be on any diet you want, take ketone esters or salts, and get the benefits of ketones without having to follow a strict diet. There is some mixed evidence that exogenous ketones can help top-end endurance training performance, but it’s not clear how helpful they are to the average exerciser. They still have utility for many different health conditions. For more info, read my post on exogenous ketones.

Be careful, though. Some ketone supplements when taken in excess will have you running to the bathroom. It’s hard to perform in the gym when you have to take a bathroom break every half hour.

BCAAs

Branch chain amino acids—leucine, isoleucine, and valine—are potent stimulators of mTOR, the pathway of growth, of anabolic recovery, of muscle gain. Most people don’t need BCAA supplements, before a workout or ever, but they can help certain people.

BCAAs are most useful for people engaging in fasted training, because they preserve muscle, stave off muscle loss, and improve mTOR signaling post-workout.⁶⁷

BCAAs are also helpful for people abstaining from animal products, as meat, eggs, and dairy are the best sources of them.

Baking soda

Baking soda reduces lactate accumulation and acidity in the muscles, allowing you to train longer and harder without getting as fatigued. Reducing muscle acidity also allows energy transfer to improve and muscles to contract harder. Take it about a half hour before your training or competition and you will enjoy several interesting effects:

• Improved time to exhaustion. You can work out longer and harder. One study found that baking soda increased time to exhaustion while cycling by 20-30 seconds.⁸
• Improved recovery. Lowering muscle acidity allows your muscles to recover quicker.
• Increases rep count. Baking soda has been shown to improve the number of reps a lifter can complete.⁹
• For all you runners out there, baking soda may reduce runner’s high by suppressing endorphin release. Those endorphins, it turns out, are a response to acidity.¹⁰
• Baking soda definitely works. To minimize GI upset, take in smaller doses throughout the day totaling up to 1-2 teaspoons and avoid taking it close to meals.

Collagen

Though not a classic pre-workout that increases performance acutely, collagen when taken before a workout with 60 mg of vitamin C does improve collagen deposition in connective tissue. It’s more of a pre-workout with a long term goal of building tissue resilience and strength.

Is there a Primal pre-workout?

If I were putting together a pre-workout, here’s what I would do. Actually, here’s what I do:

1. Fill my bottle with 32 ounces of water. I usually use Mountain Valley Spring water and a stainless steel bottle.
2. Add a packet of LMNT. This is a great electrolyte supplement providing a gram of sodium plus magnesium malate (which has ergogenic effects) and potassium. Tastes great, works great. Essential for Miami heat.
3. Add a scoop of creatine. 5 grams, give or take.
4. Add two scoops of collagen peptides.
5. Give it a good shake and sip on that in the minutes leading up to the workout and right on through it.

Baking soda would be a good addition here if you can tolerate it. You could add a source of caffeine, but I prefer to just drink coffee. I’ll occasionally add 20 grams of whey isolate powder if I’m doing a particularly hard, energy-intense session and I haven’t eaten. This is a quick and dirty way to supplement BCAAs (which taste horrible).

That’s about it. I don’t like to get into crazy pills and powders—those days are long gone. What about you? Do you take a pre-workout?

References

1. https://ift.tt/aREbCNA
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270875/
3. https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/1550-2783-7-18.pdf
4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-015-0412-x
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35213817/
6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7810616
7. https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpendo.00430.2003
8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33015125/
9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22941193/
10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7836218/

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