Having studied the "Primal Laws" and absorbing some wisdom from Mark Sisson, I walked away from this book with several "a-ha moments." The first and most profound for me is the simplest of all concepts. Are you ready...?
Corn is not a vegetable, it is a grain!
I knew that, I just forgot. All this hatred I have for High-Fructose Corn Syrup and all the corn by-products in the processed foods, and the corn-fed cattle that is supposed to be grazing on grass, and corn being the first ingredient in our beloved pet's food, and corn, and corn, and more corn. It suddenly all makes sense why I should be so concerned that Americans who were tested by hair follicle showed a make-up of 69% corn, whereas are European counterparts, who eat fewer processed foods and have banned the use of HFCS, tested at only 5%. Because corn is a grain! If it were a vegetable, there wouldn't really be much wrong with that now would there be?! But if grains are what are causing the rise in insulin production, Diabetes, and other related health issues as Mark claims, well it sure makes a lot of f*ckin' sense now why Americans have such a high instance of Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes as compared to other industrialized nations.
It's like having all the pieces of a puzzle and you know they somehow all fit together, but you can't quite make out the picture. You see how doing that sea shell puzzle is helping my reasoning...LOL
Believe me, I have plenty more to say about America's dependence on corn but I will save that for a future post.
I would say my next biggest breakthrough concerns the origin of my insulin problem. As I've mentioned before, I have yo-yo dieted nearly my entire life. I have been on a diet of some sort from as early as eleven years old, quite possibly age ten. I've been trying to figure out at exactly what age, and at what point, did my dependence on carbohydrates become so strong? Thanks to Mark, I pin-pointed the time- frame precisely! For years I grew up on bacon and eggs, meatloaf and gravy, steaks on the grill with mushrooms and onions and a baked potato, roast beef dinners, barbecue, chef salads with turkey and hard-boiled egg. My mom would make kettles of vegetable soup with a chunk of meat in the center that would feed a lion in the wild. Looking back on that time and having some renewed insight, I really don't think what we were eating was that bad. If I had a few extra pounds on me it was for one simple reason- an adult-sized portion fed to a child.
Then something happened about a year or two after I finished high-school. I was going to school full-time and working full-time and was just beginning to slim out from my pudgy teenage years. The low-fat, high-carb diet came on the market and made every one of us feel like fat, wolf-eating, saturated-fat, mongers. Suddenly a dinner of roast beef and gravy was being replaced with bow-tie pasta in a light tomato cream sauce. Go ahead, have some bread, but remember to use margarine and not butter! The egg at breakfast time was almost completely eliminated. People were pouring out giant bowls of cereal in the name of low-fat and high-fiber! Suddenly pizza was a health food! Do you remember how many "authorities" came on TV to tell you that as long as you skipped the pepperoni you could have as many slices as you'd like? And I did! Suddenly low-fat snacks were all the rage. Goldfish weren't just for old people anymore! Remember melba toast and bagel chips?! Bagels suddenly became a "healthy" breakfast choice. Try using cream cheese instead of butter though! O-KAY...You got to be kidding me! This is probably why I refuse to follow a diet plan to this day! I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the day my carb addiction began and I've been losing the battle ever since! Prior to this phase, I never even heard of a bagel!
Mark says that the push of low-fat diets has produced a high-carb intake. People have given up meats, eggs, fish, and natural fats in lieu of grains, cereals, pasta, breads, and low-cal snacks. They've also traded natural fats for "franken-fats" like hydrogenated and other trans-fats. I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty that I was better off eating bacon and eggs. It may have been a good idea for me to switch to a hormone free/nitrite free turkey-bacon instead of Oscar Meyer, but it was certainly a better choice than Wheaties. Carbohydrates control insulin and insulin controls fat storage. Simple as that!
The next biggest breakthrough has me questioning my workout routine. It really struck a chord with me when Mark said...
I will finish up the conclusion to the Primal Blueprint on my next post. Here's another fabulous quote straight from the pages of Mark Sisson's book.
"When it comes to eating right and exercising there is no 'I'll start tomorrow.' Tomorrow is disease." -V.L. Allineare
Corn is not a vegetable, it is a grain!
I knew that, I just forgot. All this hatred I have for High-Fructose Corn Syrup and all the corn by-products in the processed foods, and the corn-fed cattle that is supposed to be grazing on grass, and corn being the first ingredient in our beloved pet's food, and corn, and corn, and more corn. It suddenly all makes sense why I should be so concerned that Americans who were tested by hair follicle showed a make-up of 69% corn, whereas are European counterparts, who eat fewer processed foods and have banned the use of HFCS, tested at only 5%. Because corn is a grain! If it were a vegetable, there wouldn't really be much wrong with that now would there be?! But if grains are what are causing the rise in insulin production, Diabetes, and other related health issues as Mark claims, well it sure makes a lot of f*ckin' sense now why Americans have such a high instance of Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes as compared to other industrialized nations.
It's like having all the pieces of a puzzle and you know they somehow all fit together, but you can't quite make out the picture. You see how doing that sea shell puzzle is helping my reasoning...LOL
Believe me, I have plenty more to say about America's dependence on corn but I will save that for a future post.
I would say my next biggest breakthrough concerns the origin of my insulin problem. As I've mentioned before, I have yo-yo dieted nearly my entire life. I have been on a diet of some sort from as early as eleven years old, quite possibly age ten. I've been trying to figure out at exactly what age, and at what point, did my dependence on carbohydrates become so strong? Thanks to Mark, I pin-pointed the time- frame precisely! For years I grew up on bacon and eggs, meatloaf and gravy, steaks on the grill with mushrooms and onions and a baked potato, roast beef dinners, barbecue, chef salads with turkey and hard-boiled egg. My mom would make kettles of vegetable soup with a chunk of meat in the center that would feed a lion in the wild. Looking back on that time and having some renewed insight, I really don't think what we were eating was that bad. If I had a few extra pounds on me it was for one simple reason- an adult-sized portion fed to a child.
Then something happened about a year or two after I finished high-school. I was going to school full-time and working full-time and was just beginning to slim out from my pudgy teenage years. The low-fat, high-carb diet came on the market and made every one of us feel like fat, wolf-eating, saturated-fat, mongers. Suddenly a dinner of roast beef and gravy was being replaced with bow-tie pasta in a light tomato cream sauce. Go ahead, have some bread, but remember to use margarine and not butter! The egg at breakfast time was almost completely eliminated. People were pouring out giant bowls of cereal in the name of low-fat and high-fiber! Suddenly pizza was a health food! Do you remember how many "authorities" came on TV to tell you that as long as you skipped the pepperoni you could have as many slices as you'd like? And I did! Suddenly low-fat snacks were all the rage. Goldfish weren't just for old people anymore! Remember melba toast and bagel chips?! Bagels suddenly became a "healthy" breakfast choice. Try using cream cheese instead of butter though! O-KAY...You got to be kidding me! This is probably why I refuse to follow a diet plan to this day! I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the day my carb addiction began and I've been losing the battle ever since! Prior to this phase, I never even heard of a bagel!
Mark says that the push of low-fat diets has produced a high-carb intake. People have given up meats, eggs, fish, and natural fats in lieu of grains, cereals, pasta, breads, and low-cal snacks. They've also traded natural fats for "franken-fats" like hydrogenated and other trans-fats. I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty that I was better off eating bacon and eggs. It may have been a good idea for me to switch to a hormone free/nitrite free turkey-bacon instead of Oscar Meyer, but it was certainly a better choice than Wheaties. Carbohydrates control insulin and insulin controls fat storage. Simple as that!
The next biggest breakthrough has me questioning my workout routine. It really struck a chord with me when Mark said...
While exercise moderates the insulin response, burning lots of calories through chronic cardio and then eating lots of carbs will simply make you carb dependent for energy. Your body will overcompensate by tempting you to eat slightly more than you need to refill the tank as if it's thinking, "what if this clown decides to do this again tomorrow! I better be ready!" Bottom line, you will not lose fat effectively with exercise driven weight loss, nor will you maintain fat loss, unless your eating habits moderate insulin production. The minute the exercise stops, the eating often continues and the weight comes back!TALK ABOUT AN "A-HA MOMENT!" AMEN MARK! AMEN!
I will finish up the conclusion to the Primal Blueprint on my next post. Here's another fabulous quote straight from the pages of Mark Sisson's book.
"When it comes to eating right and exercising there is no 'I'll start tomorrow.' Tomorrow is disease." -V.L. Allineare
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