Page 46 - Winter2010

All Thumbs Book Reviews

The Primal Blueprint: of fat research includes that of Ancel Keys and
Reprogram your genes for effortless weight Mary Enig, and he arrives at the conclusion that
loss, vibrant health, and boundless energy saturated fat is good, trans fat or frankenfat, not
By Mark Sisson so. He also is generally correct in identifying
Primal Nutrition, Inc., 2009 good oils and bad oils.
When it comes to food, Madison Avenue
If each person on the planet tried out a dif- and the food industry have taught the average
ferent diet book, you would probably run out of person well. Sisson does a good job of cutting
people before you ran out of books. On the other through the smoke and illuminating where most
hand, if you count the number of diet books that information on nutrition is really coming from. If
are worth anything, you would run out of books conventional wisdom on nutrition and health is
before you ran out of fingers on that same hand. so good, why is the average person who follows
The Primal Blueprint, which author Mark Sisson that wisdom not healthier? Why is the health of
considers not a diet plan but rather a way of life, most Americans declining? We think we should
immediately distinguishes itself in its contrast of run with the pack but don’t notice the pack isn’t
the “primal blueprint” with conventional wisdom very healthy.
on a broad spectrum of health topics. Subjects Speaking of declining health, Sisson con-
that even some of the more intelligent authors get structs a disease pyramid similar to that of
wrong include saturated fat, exercise, water con- the food pyramid. Although there is no actual
sumption, sunlight, fiber, eggs and cholesterol. diagram depicted, the materials used to build
The Primal Blueprint scores much better than this pyramid include phytates, trans fats, soy,
conventional wisdom in all of these areas. processed food, and sugar.
To briefly run down the primal positions that Under Primal Blueprint Law #9: Avoid
Sisson delineates on that list, saturated fat, eggs Stupid Mistakes, Sisson offers some examples of
and cholesterol are not to be feared. We actually what he calls “Darwin Awards” to emphasize the
need that stuff. Sisson tracked down the apparent importance of this strategy. One features a man
origin of the belief that we need eight glasses of (why is it always men?) who tried to fly a rocket-
water per day and noted an important detail that propelled jet ski over Niagara Falls. His plan was
is usually omitted—much of that water can be to fly well away from the falls, open a parachute
obtained from food. You don’t need to nurse a and float to safety. Strangely, things didn’t go as
Sisson water bottle until you’re tempted to relocate your planned, and he plunged one hundred sixty feet,
constructs a office in the bathroom. You also don’t need all surviving the fall but with neither a life jacket
disease that fiber that conventional wisdom recommends, nor the ability to swim, he is no longer with us.
I don’t necessarily agree with every detail of
and if you plan to depend on exercise alone to
pyramid built be healthy without correct nutrition, you will be The Primal Blueprint. On the subject of dairy, for
from very disappointed. instance, Sisson’s first choice is no dairy, which
Sisson also displays above average intel-
I might grumble about, but second, third and
phytates, ligence in his discussion of genetics. Although fourth choices are all raw dairy, which placates
trans fats, soy, the subject has been around for a while, not many me somewhat. Buying this book will not win
processed people are familiar with epigenetics—the con- you any Darwin awards. It is sufficiently above
food, and cept that our genes are not as chiseled in stone average in intelligence to warrant a Thumbs Up.

as once thought, but can be switched on or off by
Review by Tim Boyd
sugar. lifestyle choices, such as diet. Sisson’s summary
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