Episode-1215- Gary Collins on Primal Nutrition
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.5MB)
Gary Collins, Creator of the Primal Power Plan
Gary Collins, MS was born in Southern California and raised in the High Desert at the basin of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He has been involved in organized sports, nutrition and fitness for over 30 years.
A self-declared sports junkie, he participated and excelled in various organized sports since the age of seven. He is extremely passionate about the pursuit of optimal health in mind, body and soul. Collins has two goals: To make being healthy as simple and enjoyable as possible and to give people the truth.
Collins’ background is very unique and brings a much-needed perspective to today’s fields of both health and nutrition. He holds an AS degree in Exercise Science, BS in Criminal Justice and a MS in Forensic Science.
After an exciting career in military intelligence Collins worked for the U.S. State Department, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a Special Agent. His career took him around the world and gave him a unique perspective on not only how the United States, but the world is affected by our food, drug and healthcare policies.
The highlights of his career took him from protecting some of the most powerful people in the world to investigations involving the biggest tainted pet food death case in the U.S. to the intricate dealings of one of the largest counterfeit prescription drug rings in the world. He has often said, “If Americans really knew what was going on in the area of healthcare and nutrition in this country, they would be appalled.”
It can be safely said no one in the health and fitness industry has the inside knowledge and background that Collins has. He is a hybrid of a high intensity health expert and an investigator rolled into one.
An author and college professor, Mr. Collins advises specialist and is a consultant for high-level organized sports programs and gyms. He is currently an exercise and nutrition consultant for the San Diego City College Men’s Basketball team, one of the most successful Junior College sports programs in California. Some of his other clients include college football players for high profile programs, to include Purdue and Kansas State University.
In addition to his published articles and Primal Power Method Series, his total lifestyle reboot, Factor X: The Last Health Program You Will Ever Need, blows the lid off of conventional wellness expectations and is essential for every American seeking better health.
Collins is a Master level personal trainer (only a few people in the world hold such a designation) with specialized training in fitness nutrition, exercise therapy, strength and conditioning, youth fitness, and senior fitness.
He is a CrossFit member, a member of the International Sports Science Association, International Mountain Bicycling Association, Nutritional Therapy Association, National Association for Nutrition Professionals, IDEA Health and Fitness Association, and the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.
Resources for today’s show…
- The Year 1215
- Members Support Brigade
- MSB Insider Video Series
- Join Our Forum
- 13Skills.com
- Walking To Freedom
- Shop for TSP Silver
- TSP Gear
- Survival Gear Bags – (sponsor of the day)
- Safe Castle Royal – (sponsor of the day)
- New American Nutrition – Gary’s Website
- Gary’s Health Tips – Gary’s Blog
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.
Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.
Our Expert Council is Made Up of…
- Kerry Davis – Dark Angel Medical – Emergency Medicine and Life Saving Care
- Bryan Black – ITS Tactical – All Things Tactical, E&E, Lock Picking, etc.
- Frank Sharp Jr. – Fortress Defense Consultants – Weapons and Security
- Darby Simpson – DarbySimpson.com – Livestock and Farm Management/ Homestead Consulting
- Ben Falk – Whole Systems Design – Permaculture (Specializing in North Eastern Climates)
- Paul Wheaton – Permies.com – Permaculture (Specializing in North Western Climates)
- Tim Glance – Old Grouch’s Military Surplus – Bug Out Vehicles, Military Surplus and Communications
- Stephen Harris – Solar1234 – All things Energy
- Chef Keith Snow – Harvest Eating – Cooking
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
If you like Idiocracy, you’ll like this. This is my favorite movie clip ever and it runs through my mind every time I watch a political debate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq-v1TTUyhM
…and may God have mercy on your soul.
Hilarious!
AWESOME!
Thank you, Gary! I agree with almost everything.
I have argued with Jack time and time again is allowing everybody to eat what they want, but get rid of the stress and get moving. Eating healthy is so far down the road for most people to get healthy; people are basically tweaking the noise.
After people get their new habit loops working, eating better will happen. Without fixing the first two, working on food habits will get you nowhere.
You know what Scott you absolutely DO NOT agree with Gary, eating anything you want is absolutely NOT what he is saying. Frankly this horse is dead and I am beginning to tire of it. Now go eat Big Macs then meditate and let us know how it works out.
LOL!
As you know Jack I absolutely agree with you, but I did read a book years ago by a guy who had chronic illness and went on every diet tried working out and nothing worked he went to an Aboriginal Elder in his native Australia to find a cure and the man told him to lighten up, have a few drinks and smoke a cigar without beating yourself up over it, start enjoying life again…the man swore that’s what cured him…if it’s true or not only he knows but it made sense to me.
A good cigar and a drink or 3 once in a while works WONDERS for helping to cure one of the BIGGEST killers out there… STRESS! Not to mention I personally would rather die happy at 80 than live miserably until I’m 100.
Scott-I agree with you that stress reduction and movement are important, but if you don’t have your sleep and diet dialed in it’s pretty hard to reduce stress or be efficient in movement.
That being said, this is the first podcast I’ve turned off before the theme music rolled at the end in quite some time. I’m kind of worn out of people “tweaking the noise” on the whole paleo/primal gig. While it might be hard for some to eat this way, the concept is pretty simple. When I used to listen to Robb Wolf’s podcasts you could hear the fatigue in his voice when he has to answer another question involving someone “geeking out” on paleo. Can’t we all just avoid grains and go make some swales together?
dittyfish, I agree with you on the sleep AND diet. My entire point, which I will admit is a dead horse at a certain level, is that the main problem is stress. Jack even admitted in this interview that when he finally started letting go, things got better. If the cortisol is flowing, nothing you do will be any good.
Believe it or not, I am not beating-up on paleo. I think it is fine. My main concern is people thinking of paleo as some type of silver-bullet which it is not. Much to Shannon’s point, we all probably have or had people in our lives that lived long lives and didn’t think twice about their diet, and still puffing cigarettes until they were done in their 80s or 90s, and they never walked around with oxygen tanks. I think many present day individuals are just wound too tight for their own good.
Getting out and digging some swales is a fantastic idea. Just make sure you are doing them by hand. That old saying about what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is so true.
But on topic, sleep, yes, 8 hours is a must, 9 is you can afford it. Again, you will sleep better if you get rid of stress. I know it is a chicken/egg situation for a lot of people, but you have to start somewhere, and the break that I try to give people is worrying about what they are eating. If that is causing you stress, then stop it. You can work of your diet later.
I think one reason for Idiocracy not getting much play is because it was written and directed by Mike Judge of Bevis ans Butthead fame and he isn’t one of the Hollywood crowd he’s from Texas and has made a living from pointing out how stupid people are in America today!
I prefer to think of him as the guy who did King of the Hill which was hilarious and Office Space, which is quite popular.
He did another cartoon a few years ago called the Goode Family which was really funny too. I think it hit a little close to home for some in the entertainment industry and sadly didn’t get renewed. His exploration of the unintended consequences of forcing the family dog to eat a vegan diet was a real gut buster.
I know people who are vegans and feed their dogs what they eat every night, their dogs never had a problem, but when they got a cat they realized cats are true carnivores and had to buy cat food…..the dogs suddenly realized they loved cat food LOL!!!! They still ate the food my friends ate every nite but their cat food bill increased 3 fold LOL!!!!!!!
My number one thing that I think is screwing up American’s health today is STRESS!
I don’t remember my Grandparents worrying about anything, it stuff broke we fixed it, if something went wrong they shrugged it off and said it will all work out, my Mother is a ball of stress over stupid shit and I see it all around me, people stress themselves today beyond what a normal person can handle over things that aren’t really that important.
Another great interview. I really like Gary’s take on this. There is no one size fits all. Everyone is different and different foods affect each person differently.
I listened to the last couple of minutes of the interview and Gary said the book was available on Amazon. The Amazon page says that it is unavailable.
Greg it is available now.
Greg, Sorry about that there was an inventory error, I just fixed. Amazon it could take up to 15 minutes for it to show the new inventory and be available.
Thanks
Gary Collins
Creator Primal Power Method
Ok I just checked it is all fixed on Amazon and available now.
Outstanding episode Jack. Your podcast is hands down the most useful and informative that I have found. The range of topics and the amount of information you make freely available is simply amazing.
Those that bring up how close we are genetically to other primates in order to assert vegetarian diets are ignorant of a much larger factor involved – epigenetics. Epigenetics determines how the genes we have are expressed and it plays the dominant role in why we are so different from chimpanzees and other primates. The recent discoveries in this field are mind blowing especially in regards to not only how our diets, lifestyles and environments can affect our own gene expression but how these factors can affect gene expression in our descendants.
Again Jack, thanks for all that you do. When I am not so dirt poor I will definitely be joining the MSP. While I am as broke as a barn full of hobos I am completely debt free and I thank you for constantly driving home how important that is.
Cheers
Very interesting show. Was going to skip it, but glad I didn’t. Good job and thanks guys. Headed to amazon now to check out the book.
great show! How about adding Gary to the expert council?
Likely I will be adding both Gary and Evan once we get though all the stuff going on in Oct.
Still listening to the episode, but I have to disagree with something that Gary said. I don’t believe that it’s misguided to want to change for someone else IN THE BEGINNING. Some folks find that initial motivator VERY helpful when making big life changes. I know I sure did. When I started on my journey, I wasn’t strong enough to want it for me. I wanted it for my family because I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them without a wife and a mother. I didn’t feel worth it for ME, but being that I want to put others’ needs before my own, it was easy buy-in. THEN, as I started making changes in my life, it was easy to KEEP going for me.
So now, I do it for me, but I needed a different sort of buy-in in the beginning to get me here. I don’t think I’m alone in that need, especially as a mom who tends to want to put everyone else’s needs ahead of my own.
I think that Gary’s point is it usually leads to failure, in my years of counseling friends and employees I can say that is factual.
I think your point is well made too though. Some people need to be told, look at the people that love you, look how you are not there for them or won’t be there if you keep it up etc.
To me though that ONLY WORKS as a wake up call. If along the way you don’t have a “I need to do this for myself” moment, you are absolutely going to fail.
Living for yourself is hard enough, trying to live for another no matter how much you love them is impossible. There is a reason we all carry our own individual life force, our own spirit and our own sense of being and purpose.
You can’t outsource your health.
And no quantity of ‘extreme intervention’ by the ‘professionals’ can fully repair the damage done by misuse, neglect or abuse.
[Imagine taking your car, pouring any old combustible thing into the tank, and some things that aren’t, leaving it open in a field through the winter, and then getting drunk and driving it cross country at high speed. Do that for ten years, and then have a mechanic ‘fix’ it. Except the mechanic can only prescribe that you use only ‘good gasoline’, start parking your car in the garage, and replace three of the engine components.]
Jack,
I just wanted to say thank you. I enjoy your pod casts so much that I download them to listen to while I work. I have to restrain myself and not listen all week so that on Friday I have your shows to distract me from the hard work. And, now I carry a scrap of paper and pen in my pocket as I work to write down notes. I always learn something. Thanks so much!
This is a great interview. Thank you! I’m still listening, but I am agreeing with this guy 100% so far.
Well shit. That explains why medical care is so damn expensive…
I loved this episode. A couple comments:
1. Grape Seed Oil is another great oil for cooking with.
2. If you don’t want to fry in oil, you could always use a chicken or vegetable broth.
3. Chose frying pans that don’t have tefelon or poorly design replacements.
4. Another great resource is “The Grain Brain” Dr. Perlmutter. He is an MD and site research but it is easy to read.
5. Dr Amen (the brain doctor) has done a lot of good work relating to brain health and overall health.
6. FarmMatch.com is great resource for finding local grass fed, free range, organic meats or produce.
Big agreement on the cookware, we are about 100% cast iron except we use good stainless for boiling and the like.
Learned how to cook? Gotta be Tim Ferris 😉
Man, Jack, two home runs in short order!! Between Even and Gary, I’m psyched! Such great guests!! I also wish we could “like” the comments because today I wanted to pat some backs or high five some folks. Don’t know when I’ve enjoyed the comments so much!
I’d like to add the word,”balance” to the discussion. Nature freely provides about seven doctors of sorts. If we balance them, everything should be good. They are: exercise, pure water, fresh air, sunshine, nutrition, rest, and a belief in a higher power. On the rest side of things, people used to rest on Sunday, and one reason was that stores and offices were closed, so they spent the day resting, and visiting family and friends, or going fishing. Some of us choose to rest on Saturday, and it really does rejuvenate the nerves, and body. It’s a good idea, but at first, the body just jerks as it slows down. That’s not a scientific term, just experience. So, my comment, and suggestion is to look for balance, more than a diet, and the body will take care of itself.
And now your wish is granted, like and dislike away on the comments.
Love the comments from everyone, when it comes to living the Primal Lifestyle there is no one way that is right for everyone. I just give you the tools and correct information, because we have been sold a bag of sh*% by the gov, drug companies and food industry. Once you take control of your health and life it is amazing how a lot of those problems you used to have just go away. Let’s face it we pay about 3 trillion a year in this country on health care, you get healthy and their just isn’t any profit in that. I have said on numerous occasions I could cut that three trillion dollar amount in half in 60 days, if I could get people to follow my concepts. Oh I know I dream, but maybe someday…
Good conversation.
I would ask that people not make blanket statements like “docs aren’t taught nutrition”. I’m not a doc, I’m a vet, but we have people use that all the time, usually to sell a pet owner something they don’t need. I know Gary’s purpose wasn’t to sell anything but:
-some medical schools do teach nutrition
-a background in the physiology of disease is part of nutrition
– some docs undergrad or masters degrees have heavy nutritional emphasis
-some docs put heavy nutritional emphasis on their continuing education training and apply it to their practices regularly.
Perhaps Gary didn’t mean it to come across as an absolute. My philosophy is to find a primary care doc that does discuss nutrition, and works with you on their knowledge and the way you choose to eat.
I think some docs don’t bring up nutrition much because so many people reject that discussion in favor of being handed a pill. And doubtless they also get discouraged by people who won’t change their nutrition or exercise. Let your doc know that YOU want to discuss it and you might get a completely different reaction than you are used to.
Let me tell you in mass, DOCTORS ARE NOT TAUGHT NUTRITION in medical school. It is a blanket statement I am happy to make.
One of the most outspoken voices about this is Dr. Andrew Weil. He goes into great depth on the subject in two of his books. It is all quite well documented. I have never met and MD in my life with a solid understanding of nutrition unless it was gained outside of medical school, generally about the point and time they start to realize how much they don’t really know about health, let alone nutrition.
Most vets do have a solid understanding of nutrition as it relates to the animals they treat. Honestly vet school is in many ways more difficult to pass then med school.
Here is what most people do not know, and that is the drug companies have been big contributors to all the major medical schools for decades. This is why nutrition can no longer be found in the medical school curriculum. People who eat a healthy diet do not need drugs, plain and simple. So the easiest way to keep us on the hamster wheel of big pharma is to keep us sick and eating the Standard American Diet.
I have interviewed hundreds of doctors, while a special agent and during my time running my nutrition business and I can say first hand they do not teach nutrition in medical school today. Vets get far more nutritional training than MD’s, that I can guarantee as well. I actually had piece in one of my writing’s about Vets saying they were having to give pet owners advice on how to eat healthy and exercise, because there pets resembled the owner….obese!
I’m not saying it’s great on average, I’m saying that some of them have the interest and the background. (25 nutrition hours during med school is the average; that’s total hours not credit hours)
I remember the cardiologist writing my husband an Rx. Husband asked about diet/exercise. Cardiologist said “well I can make recommendations but almost no one actually keeps it up so I think you need a prescription”. Perhaps the doc is at fault in that conversation, or perhaps he has become cynical with good reason.
Either way, I think it’s worth asking the doc and see if you get one whose ears perk up and will work with you. We found a good doc on our 3rd try.
If that isn’t a total indictment of the drug and medical community at the same time I don’t know what is? How do you not see how totally F’d up that is Kim? Seriously?
First 25 hours of nutrition? Holy F but really a MD gets 25 hours of nutrition but can tell you the name of a dent in a bone in Latin, really which has more value to human health? And that 25 hours, likely, it is main stream BS and telling them that nutrition doesn’t matter that much. It is part of the brain washing.
Then, “Cardiologist said “well I can make recommendations but almost no one actually keeps it up so I think you need a prescription”.
Oh I see, it is the patients fault, not Doctors who for years have not said a damn thing to people about nutrition and when they do their nutrition advice is “eat a varied diet, avoid high fat foods and minimize sweets”.
I don’t know how any informed person doesn’t see the trap of modern medicine and big Pharma. It defies all logic that any remotely informed person would defend this system in any way.
Hey, Kim, how many drug reps do you think visit that cardiologist a week? How many times do you think he has been to “conferences” in places like Hawaii all expenses paid? How many of the materials he studied in med school do you think were written by Pfizer, Merck and Bayer?
I mean seriously Doctors don’t know about nutrition, how can you say they do? The ones that do certainly didn’t learn in school.
Lastly, what they do “know” is mostly wrong. They recommend a high carb, low fat, moderate protein diet. That is the diet that is making most Americans sick.
Did you know in WWII despite rationing of fat and meat most people in England gained significant weight? They sacrificed a lot, they went without a lot but they at mostly bread, bread derivatives, potatoes and other starches. In the end most gained between 10-20 pounds. The lie is they were healthier then any time in history, yea, in Paul Wheaton’s words, “that’s just marketing”.
My problem with taking nutrition advice from doctors is that almost 100% of the time, you get the normal “healthy whole grains, low fat” BS that helped me become diabetic and sick. Patients don’t want to hear nutritional advice from their docs when it simply doesn’t work! There are a lot of prominent doctors on the low-carb scene who experienced that for themselves. Dr. Peter Atilla comes to mind immediately. He was “doing everything right” (according to the government), and it was making him sicker and sicker.
I had to fight to find a low-carb-friendly doc, and it was HARD. I know if I were seeing the internist that I used to see, I’d be in big trouble. The first time I went to see him, I got handed a sheet on “healthy eating”; no fatty foods, no pop…”
The nutrition info that’s conveyed to docs by the American Heart Association MAKES people sick, and patients don’t want to have that conversation because it makes them miserable AND it doesn’t work. At least with low-carb, you’re only miserable for a very short time, but it DOES work!
These days, it’s hard for me to give doctors the benefit of the doubt. I tried when I knew of someone who was going to a nutritionist for his diabetes. He was fed the normal party line, and I truly wanted to cry because I care about this person dearly. He works for Big Pharma though, so I doubt he’ll ever be able to accept that the way I’m managing my disease is the right way/best way. His “expert” told him what he wanted to hear. If she’d told him to follow a low-carb diet like my “expert” tells folks, then she would have been a quack in his eyes. It’s so hard, and it’s so sad.
Awesome interview! For those interested in more details on the gluten connection, here are two podcasts that came out last week
http://www.bulletproofexec.com/61-gluten-sensitivity-celiacs-bulletproofing-your-gut-with-dr-tom-obryan-podcast/
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/undergroundwellness/2013/10/02/why-isnt-my-brain-working-w-dr-datis-kharrazian
Mike Judge’s the Goode family is a hoot! I don’t watch much tv, but my friends recommended the series and it is well worth tracking down! The mainstream media didn’t like the message it was sending, so they canceled it
🙁