One of the biggest complaints about keto is that meals aren’t exactly quick to prepare. Lunch can feel especially tricky. Before keto, you might have made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or grabbed a quick sub on your lunch break. Keto-friendly lunches aren’t quite so simple.
But that doesn’t mean keto lunches are hard. Lunch can be as easy as grabbing last night’s leftovers or throwing together a quick salad with a can of tuna and your favorite Primal Kitchen dressing. You can even still have your favorite savory sandwiches; you just have to be more creative with the bread options.
Here are some of our favorite easy keto lunch ideas and recipes to prep ahead to make low-carb lunches a breeze.
Easy Keto Lunch Recipes
Mini Smoked Salmon Hand Rolls
These hand rolls are essentially rice-less sushi you can make at home in just a few minutes. They also make a great appetizer for your next get-together.
You can’t go wrong with a big salad made with tons of greens (which have virtually no net carbs), healthy fats from avocado, nuts and seeds, and salad dressing made with olive or avocado oil. Add any protein, and voila, a complete (and completely satisfying) meal.
Creamy loaded chicken salad in bell pepper “cups” are a tantalizing low-carb alternative to a sandwich—easy to eat with your hands! Use Hot Buffalo Sauce to turn up the heat.
Many low-carb breads you find at the store contain ingredients that a Primal eater wouldn’t want to consume. (Wheat gluten and canola oil? Pass.) This savory bread contains only Primal-friendly ingredients and is worth the effort.
Did the Internet ever decide whether or not a hot dog is a sandwich? Guess it is now. This recipe uses the bread recipe above to make keto-friendly hot dog buns, but you can also enjoy these loaded hot dogs without a bun. They’re great either way.
This sandwich features mouthwatering pork and ham paired with Swiss cheese, salty pickles, and mustard in a combo that’s more than the sum of its parts. It’s an ideal way to use up leftover shredded pork.
If you pack a lunch to take to work or school, you need pre-made keto lunch recipes. Here are some things you can prepare the night before, or in a big meal prep blitz on the weekend. Pack them in individual portions in the fridge so they’re easy to grab on your way out the door.
Primal Sloppy Joes
This recipe also includes low-carb buns that you can use for sandwiches and burgers, too! Pack the bun and meat separately, then heat up the meat and assemble when you’re ready to chow down.
Every keto eater should have a basic chicken salad recipe in their back pocket. Use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken to make meal prep even easier. Serve wrapped in lettuce or collard greens, over a big mixed salad, or just eat it with a fork.
Today’s guest post is offered up by Katy Bowman, biomechanist and author of the bestsellingMove Your DNA. Her recent book,Rethink Your Position examines how in our overwhelmingly sedentary culture, we don’t just need to “move more.” We need to move—and sit, and lie, and work, and rest—better, in positions that give us the varied and targeted motions our bodies need to thrive. I’m happy to welcome a good friend back to Mark’s Daily Apple to share on this topic.
Take a quick look around and you’ll see bodies everywhere—in most venues, across all ages—staring fixedly at a smartphone (to notice this, you might need to stop looking at your own phone for a minute). Not only are people’s eyes fixed on the screen, it’s like their entire body is being bent and pulled down towards these tiny black holes we call our “phones” (but which are more often used as multimedia entertainment devices).
When it comes to our device-shape, what’s mostly at play here is mindlessness plus gravity. We’ve got these new devices with an endless stream of captivating content, and when we dive online (which is often), we’re not only logging on with our eyeballs, we’re also logging on with our bodies.
Discussions around phone posture focus primarily on forward head/tech neck, but being on your phone is a whole-body sport with whole-body effects… from your eyeballs to your feet.
Your Phone Is Moving Your Head and Neck
Remember back in the olden days (fifteen years ago) when if you wanted to talk on the phone “hands-free,” you had to crane your head to one side and hold the phone between your shoulder and ear? Phones have always been a pain in the neck.
Today’s smartphone movements look different, but they still often involve the head and neck moving in extreme positions for long periods of time. Fortunately, our devices don’t require that we get into specific “device-shape” for them to work; we’re just not thinking about positioning ourselves in a sustainable way. We have options when it comes to our position—yes, even when using the smartphone.
Head ramping
Instead of letting your head dangle forward when you’ve logged on, put some strength in your swipe and use a little muscle in your upper back to hold your head and spine up.
Keeping your eyes on the horizon, and without lifting the chin or chest, lift and slide your head back toward the wall behind you and up to the ceiling above at the same time. This easy adjustment immediately decompresses the vertebrae in your neck, stretches the small muscles in the head, neck, and upper back, and makes you taller.You can look down at your phone with your eyes—you don’t have to look down with your entire spine.
I’m also a fan of modifying your environment to make moving well more reflexive. Adding a head ramp decal to your phones or tablets or a “WHERE’S YOUR HEAD AT?” post-it on the corner of your computer screen can be a fixed reminder to adjust your position.
Your Phone Is Moving Your Eyes
There’s a ring of muscles in each of your eyeballs called your ciliary muscles. When you focus on something close to your face, like a smartphone or a book, this muscular ring shortens and constricts. You need to focus on something far away—at least a quarter mile—to allow these muscles to lengthen and loosen their ring.
We can keep our eye muscles healthy, just like the muscles in our hips and shoulders, by taking them through their full range of motion many times a day. Instead, though, our copious amounts of screen and indoor time means we use our eye muscles (also like those of the hips and shoulders) over a very small and repetitive range of motion.
Back your face away from that screen
You’ve already learned the head ramp exercise above. Turns out it’s not only great for the curves of the middle and upper spine, it’s also a great way to change the distance between your eyeballs and their point of focus.
Set a timer on your device that reminds you to regularly move your eyeballs off the screen to the world that’s literally screen-adjacent. If you’re inside, get to a window and focus on something off in the distance for a minute or two. Back away from your devices a bit (or entirely) in the whole-body sense. Swap watching one of YouTube’s cool animal videos for watching the actual birds, bugs, and nature that surrounds you no matter where you live.
Look for more non-online solutions or ways to connect. If you can’t break away from your device just yet, look for ways to listen via your phone versus just looking. Just because we can video call doesn’t mean we have to. Voice-only chats free up our eyes and body to do other things.
Your Phone Is Moving Your Lungs
To be precise, prolonged periods of sitting and using the phone with your upper back rounded forward can prevent your lungs from moving well.1 This isn’t really the phones’ fault; it’s more about how we use them. Lots of stillness (which already keeps the lungs pretty sedentary) plus lots of kyphosis (the forward curve of the upper spine) affects the way the lungs move. Sitting up straighter (see “Head ramping”), swapping scrolling time for movement time, and doing exercises that decrease excessive upper back curvature and shoulder tension can all help.
Start with this move:
Stretch your shoulders and upper back
Place your hands on a counter, desk, or wall at counter height. Then, walk your feet back to bring your hips away from your hands, and lower your chest toward the ground to stretch out that phone-hunch.
Your Phone Is Moving Your Hands
Raise your hand if you’re on your phone more than ever before. Is your raised hand gripping a phone? Then these stretches are for you.
Here are three moves that will get your hands moving more and moving differently from the phone death-grip, index-finger swipe your upper body has grown accustomed to. Bonus: you have to put your phone down to do them. Find more stretches like this inRethink Your Position(Propriometrics Press, May 2023).
Stretch your thumbs
Whether it’s the curl of one thumb to hold your phone or the rapid-fire pecking of two contracted, texting thumbs, these digits are integral to smartphone use. To keep them from clawing forever, try this stretch: Make a loose fist with your right hand with the thumb pointing up. Grasp the thumb as low as you can with your left hand and move it like it’s an old-fashioned Atari joystick, slowly moving it toward you and side to side at varying angles (“PEW PEW” noises not required).
Stretch your wrists
Keeping your shoulders down and relaxed, touch the backs of your hands together including the thumbs, then bring them down to waist level. Hold there or move them slowly up and down, or right to left, in front of your torso. Keep those thumbs touching!
Stretch your nerves
That’s right, nerves need to move through their ranges of motion too! Reach your hands out sideways from your shoulders, making a T with your arms and a “STOP” motion with your hands. Spreading your fingers away from each other, slowly work your fingertips toward your head. Keep your middle fingers pointing up, thumbs forward, and elbows slightly bent toward the ground. Think of reaching the upper arm bones away from you as you work your fingers back toward your body’s midline.
Your Phone Is Messing with Your Walk
Why have so many people ditched shoes with stiff soles and narrow toe-boxes for minimal footwear? Because conventional shoes keep parts of the feet from moving well. Certain features can even mess with elements of gait, like stride length, speed of walking, and which muscles are being used. Well, guess what? Smartphones can similarly mess with your gait when you’re on them while you walk.
As more people struggle to put their phones down, more people are also using their phones even when they’re on the move. Simply talking on or listening to the phone while you’re walking takes up some of the attention you’d normally use to process visualinformation,2but it’s texting or scrolling while walking that really messes with you. When walking becomes a task secondary to “being on the phone,” it slows you down, shortens your step length, and impacts with your walking cadence.3 Walking becomes less stable, and you’re much more likely to miss important visual information around you.4
There’s no body exercise that remedies the way scrolling affects your walk—just a little exercise in self control, especially if you’re on the street. Swap the video for audio when possible, and stop walking when you need to scroll, especially if you’re already at an increased risk of falling.
Use Your Phone to Be an Influencer
Part of belonging to a culture means we’re all influencing each other. While it might be hard to imagine going anywhere or getting anything done without your smartphone, these devices are actually a brand new technology that’s barely been with us for a decade. We have very little understanding of how our bodies and minds will respond to such ubiquitous use in the long term.
Until we do, create your own good-use practices and keep your body mobility and strength (and other smartphone-affected) skill sets up—and pass this intention on to your friends and family, too. Share some steps you’re taking to use your smartphone more mindfully. Be an influencer! Not by selling something via smartphone technology, but by modeling more sustainable phone-using positions and an ability to extract the best from this new technology without the large dose of adverse consequences.
Bestselling author, speaker, and a leader of the Movement movement, biomechanistKaty Bowmanis changing the way we move and think about our need for movement. Bowman teaches movement globally and has written 9 previous books on the importance of a diverse movement diet, includingMove Your DNA,Dynamic Aging, andGrow Wild. Her latest book,Rethink Your Position, is a much-needed guide to how our bodies move, why we need to move more, and the intentional steps anyone can take to feel, move, and even think better—one part at a time. Find her atNutritiousMovement.com,@nutritiousmovement, and on theMove Your DNA Podcast.
“Don’t pay attention to the haters, Mark. I love this blog, the PK lineup, and hope to check out Peluva in the future. The only mayo my family buys nowadays is PK, and we’ve enjoyed many of your dressings, too.
There’s a lot of skepticism in this community, and I get it. Those with an interest in alternative/ancestral health have been burned in the past. But in the years you’ve run this incredible blog, you’ve earned my trust, and I feel confident that you wouldn’t put your face on a product that you couldn’t stand behind in good conscience.
Maybe it’s dumb, but every time I see PK products at the grocery store, I grin as though I’ve bumped into an old friend. Your body of work means a lot to me, and even now, as you reach new heights of success, you still find the time to share a lot with the community. Those who think you’ve “sold-out” aren’t paying attention.
Congrats on turning 70, and keep doing what you’re doing!“
I’ve been seeing a lot of skeptical or downright hostile comments about the Kraft Heinz acquisition of Primal Kitchen and my involvement in the company on ads, Instagram posts, and comment sections.
Look, I understand the skepticism, but I want you to know that the decision to partner with Kraft Heinz was not one I took lightly. I wanted to grow Primal Kitchen, but only by working with a company that would fully support the Primal Kitchen mission. While there was no guarantee how things would turn out, almost five years later, I can confidently say partnering with Kraft Heinz for growth has been overwhelmingly positive. Our partners believe in our mission and have given us the tools to bring Primal Kitchen into millions of homes.
You can now find us in retailers such as Costco, Walmart, Publix, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Target all over the country now in addition to Whole Foods Market and natural health stores. We are reaching more people in more places, which is actually how I believe we can successfully change the food landscape.
Despite all that, Primal Kitchen remains autonomous. We decide what we do, what we produce, how we market, and what we sell. We just have the support and scale to opt into the Primal Kitchen nutritional philosophy.
In fact, we’ve had almost the exact same team for the 4 1/2 years since we sold Primal Kitchen, only we’ve added even more talent. The core team remains, including myself and Morgan, my co-founder. As the founder, I am still involved in product creation, research and development, and ingredient and quality oversight. Our commitment to using high-quality Primal-approved ingredients hasn’t changed one iota and never will as long as I’m involved.
For these reasons, Primal Kitchen is probably the greatest success story in recent food and beverage acquisitions. We continue to grow every year, we maintain the same team that got us here, and with your help we continue to elevate the quality of food and ingredients on grocery shelves across America.
The best part for me is that instead of worrying about hiring and the day-to-day of running a company, I can focus on the fun parts, the stuff that got me interested in starting a food company in the first place: developing new recipes and trialing new ingredients. Actually, that’s also the best part for you all, because that’s where I shine—coming up with great new additions to the lineup.
I’ve also been able to expand into other arenas and focus on growing as a person. The hardest part of a startup is getting started and making it viable. Just like how once you get past the newborn years parenting opens up a bit and starts getting a bit more free and clear, once you know your business is going to succeed is when you can really start to grow.
I’ve got my new shoe company, Peluva I founded with my son, Kyle. I’m a grandpa twice over now. I get to spend more time with my wife and family. My marriage has never been stronger. And in turn, I’m more committed than ever to fulfilling the ultimate mission of Primal Kitchen. All these things are possible because of each other. They all feed into one another.
On a general note, I’d caution against letting skepticism graduate to cynicism. That’s when pessimism wins and the world turns against you. That’s when your luck runs out. I don’t have a real explanation for why this happens, but I just know that it happens. Seen it a hundred times in my life in dozens of people I’ve known over the years.
Now that I’ve got you here, I’d love to know what you want to see from Primal Kitchen. Anything, lay it on me. What’s working for you, what isn’t? What new products do you think we should be putting out?
As always, thanks for helping us change the way the world eats.
One of my missions is to get more people enjoying the great outdoors without fearing the sun. We should respect the sun, sure. Sunlight is a powerful agent that, like so many enjoyable and beneficial things in life, can become harmful in excessive doses. But the sun is also a great life force, powering every living thing on the surface of this planet.
As you may know, I’m not a huge fan of sunscreen. I just don’t think it’s all that necessary. If you’ve had enough sun for one day, and you’re worried about burning up, using physical barriers like shirts, hats, umbrellas, and shade trees to impede the sunlight is my preferred course of action.
Our ancestors used various methods to protect themselves from blistering sun rays,1 but modern sunscreens were only invented in the last century. Since then people have become obsessed, with the encouragement of doctors, to slather their skin with powerful chemicals every two hours to avoid even a whiff of color, even as deadly skin cancer rates have risen since the mid-twentieth century.2
So no, I’m not on the side of Big Sunscreen. I certainly avoid the chemical compounds that most commercial sunscreens contain. These chemicals act as carcinogens, at least in animal models, and harm the oceans’ ecosystems.
Still, in the event that the only thing standing between you and a second-degree sunburn is the application of some sunscreen, that’s an obvious choice. You should always opt for safer sunscreen ingredients, though. That’s what we’re talking about today.
How Does Sunscreen Work?
Mineral vs. chemical sunscreen
The sunscreens you’ll see on your supermarket or pharmacy shelves work in one of two ways.
Chemical sunscreens contain chemicals that are absorbed into the skin. When UVA and UVB rays hit the skin, they react with these chemicals and dissipate as heat. Common chemical sunscreen active ingredients are oxybenzone, avobenzone, octocrylene, octisalate, and homosalate.
Mineral sunscreens sit on top of the skin and provide a barrier using zinc oxide or titanium dioxide to block UVA and UVB rays from penetrating the skin. That’s why these are also called physical sunscreens.
Pros and cons of chemical sunscreens (mostly cons)
The only good thing I have to say about chemical sunscreens is ease of use. They go on smoothly and are usually clear on the skin. That’s not enough to weigh all the cons in my book.
Con: endocrine disrupting UV filters
Most of your typical commercial sunscreens use chemical UV filters like benzophenone and oxybenzone that in addition to blocking UV possess a hidden feature: endocrine (hormone) disruption.
Certain forms of benzophenone, for example, inhibit the action of thyroid peroxidase, an enzyme necessary for the production of thyroid hormone.3 Another study showed that applying sunscreen containing benzophenone-2 for five days lowered T4 and T3 thyroid hormones in rats.4
Other researchers applied a UV filter called octyl-methoxycinnamate to rat skin and found that amounts typically present in sunscreen were enough to disrupt hormonal function and exert other, non-endocrine health effects.5
That might not be a problem if UV filters in sunscreen weren’t designed to be absorbed into the skin, and therefore the body, but they are. The only way the chemical sunscreens work is if they are absorbed into the skin—and into systemic circulation. Two studies in 20196 and 20207 demonstrated that common chemical sunscreen ingredients are readily absorbed into the body. More worryingly, even after a single application, these chemicals were present at levels higher than the FDA’s limit for requiring additional safety testing.
Con: imbalanced UV protection
Another downside of chemical sunscreens is that they’re selective screeners. They tend to block UVB while allowing UVA passage.89
UVB rays penetrate the epidermis, the upper layers of our skin, and trigger vitamin D production. UVA rays, on the other hand, penetrate more deeply into the basal section of the dermis, which is where most skin cancer develops. Excessive UVA exposure is also associated with wrinkling, immune suppression, oxidative stress, and related aging. Research shows that concurrent exposure to UVB actually serves to counteract skin damage and inflammation from UVA. We need both together. Blocking one while exposing our skin to the other is a recipe for danger.
Con: environmental concerns
There’s clear evidence that chemical sunscreen ingredients are damaging to coral reefs and sea life.10 This is such a concern that Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Aruba, and other countries have banned chemical sunscreens in their waters. Only mineral sunscreens are allowed. Other regions are sure to follow suit, so if you have a seaside vacation planned, look for non-chemical sunscreens with the Protect Land + Sea Certification seal.
Pros and cons of mineral sunscreens (mostly pros)
Physical sunscreens contain either zinc oxide or titanium dioxide. These are the only sunscreen active ingredients recognized as safe by the FDA. The active ingredients in chemical sunscreens are permitted for use by the FDA, but as of 2019, the agency admits that there isn’t enough evidence to give them the GRASE (generally regarded as safe and effective) stamp of approval.11 Yikes.
Mineral sunscreens are also broad spectrum: they block both UVA and UVB. Because they don’t dissipate UV rays as heat, they are better for people with skin conditions that can be exacerbated by heat. They’re generally less irritating for those with sensitive skin, too.
The biggest con to physical sunscreens is that they can be unsightly because they don’t absorb into your skin, often leaving a ghostly white cast that people don’t like. On the plus side, if you can see the sunscreen on your skin, you know it’s still working, unlike chemical sunscreens that may rub or wash off without you noticing. Manufacturers have also started to develop better formulations, including clear and tinted versions that are better suited for darker skin tones.
Physical sunscreen in nanoparticle form does rub in, but there’s conflicting evidence about the degree to which it’s absorbed and whether it matters from a health perspective. I wouldn’t want to inhale them in any case.
Zinc oxide and titanium dioxide nanoparticles are also not considered reef safe, so read labels carefully if you’re headed to the beach. Choose mineral sunscreens with regular, non-nano, active ingredients.
Sunscreen ingredients to avoid
Look at both the active and inactive ingredients lists on the back of the bottle or tube. If you see any of these, just say no.
Oxybenzone
Avobenzone
Octocrylene
Benzophenone
Homosalate
Octisalate
Octinoxate
Cinoxate
Dioxybenzone
Ensulizole
Meradimate
Padimate O
Sulisobenzone
PABA (aminobenzoic acid) and trolamine salicylate have been banned by the FDA, but you might see them in sunscreens if you’re traveling internationally. Strictly avoid these.
There are two other ingredient categories to avoid:
Parabens
Parabens are ubiquitous preservatives used in cosmetic and skincare products, including sunscreens. They show up in our urine because humans can readily absorb parabens from topical application.12 Although the health effects haven’t been explicitly proven, human studies suggest a link between urinary paraben levels and certain health conditions, such as sensitivities to airborne and food allergies,13 elevated stress hormones in pregnant mothers and their newborn children (who, by the way, are showing up with parabens in their first urine!),14 and DNA damage to sperm.15
Retinols
Vitamin A in the diet is protective against sun damage, so manufacturers figured they’d start putting it in topical sunscreens. Except a 2012 study in hairless mice found that applying retinyl palmitate to bare skin and exposing it to UV increased tumor incidence and skin damage.16 Now, humans aren’t hairless mice, and the results from the 2012 paper may not apply to us. But even if retinyl palmitate isn’t carcinogenic, it’s useless. Avoid sunscreens containing retinyl palmitate, retinol, or vitamin A just to be safe.
Sunscreen Best Practices
Here’s what I recommend when it comes to enjoying the benefits of the sun while also protecting yourself against the harms of overexposure.
1. Use sunscreen alternatives first.
Given the option, I’ll always go for hats, clothing, and shade first when I feel myself baking. Lightweight wool garments are surprisingly suited to warm and cold environments alike and provide good sun protection.
2. Opt for zinc oxide or titanium dioxide sunscreens.
SPF 30 is probably as high as you need. There’s no harm in going up to SPF 50, but there’s also no benefit to going higher.
3. Apply wisely.
Don’t forget the backs of your hands, tops of your ears, and your part or areas of thinning hair if you’re not wearing a hat. Mineral sunscreens generally have good staying power, but reapply as needed.
4. Toss expired sunscreen.
The active ingredients can break down, and there’s no point in dousing yourself with stuff that isn’t even effective.
5. Don’t neglect the inside-out factors.
Sun protection isn’t just a surface-level issue. It’s always good to be proactive and to take steps to make your body more resilient against any potential damage. Consuming a Primal diet rich in antioxidants bolsters your skin’s ability to fight free radical formation.
I hear all the time from folks who go Primal and find themselves less prone to sunburns than they were before. I can’t say for sure what’s going on here, but my hunch is that it has something to do with the link between chronic inflammation and skin damage.17 A healthy Primal lifestyle probably factors in here, too. Our ability to repair UV-derived damage depends on a well-functioning circadian rhythm.18Sleeping well and maintaining a good eating schedule both entrain your circadian rhythm appropriately.
Whatever it is, I’ve seen it often enough to believe that there’s something to this phenomenon. I spend tons of time in the sun and know for a fact that I am less likely to burn now than I was when I was younger. I’m still smart about my sun exposure. No hubris here. I know that in a battle of me versus one of the most powerful forces in the universe, I’m no match when it comes down to it.
But I also don’t fear the sun like it seems so many medical agencies and doctors want me to. I want all the vitamin D I can get. I rely on time outside on my bike or paddle board, hiking with Carrie, or just reading poolside to balance the unavoidable stresses of modern life. The sun recharges me, and I have no intention of avoiding it.
What about you? What steps do you take to make sure your fun in the sun doesn’t leave you burned?
Take a quick look around and you’ll see bodies everywhere—in most venues, across all ages—staring fixedly at a smartphone (to notice this, you might need to stop looking at your own phone for a minute). Not only are people’s eyes fixed on the screen, it’s like their entire body is being bent and pulled down towards these tiny black holes we call our “phones” (but which are more often used as multimedia entertainment devices).
I’ve been seeing a lot of skeptical or downright hostile comments about the 
One of my missions is to get more people enjoying the great outdoors without fearing the 
