Mark Sisson's Blog, page 338

Dear Mark: The Purpose of Body Hair and the Non-Essentiality of Dietary Cholesterol

In today’s edition of Dear Mark, I finally field a question that has been weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of the ancestral health community: body hair. I will tell you that there has been a lot of behind the scenes chatter between big names in the community about just how to tackle this question, and until now, no one has stepped up. To be frank, no one really knew what to say. No one wanted to commit. I certainly didn’t, but then I got this email from Natasha and I realized that something had to be done. The people couldn’t wait til the roundtable discussion on chest hair scheduled for the next PaleoFX or Loren Cordain’s keynote speech at AHS 13 on the evolutionary purpose of arm hair. They needed to know why body hair exists, and they needed to know now. After that, I cover the less exciting topic of the non-essentiality of dietary cholesterol. In other words, if we can make it, why do we need to eat it? I go over why that question misses the entire point, and more.

Let’s go:

I don’t think you’ve addressed this topic yet. People, especially women, today are obsessed with hair removal in various parts of the body. Grok and Grokette didn’t shave, wax, do laser hair-removal, etc and I’m sure they grew body hair for some evolutionary purpose (protection, temperature control, etc). My question is does all this hair removal lead to adverse effects or it is simply cosmetic and harmless? I personally don’t participate in this trend, but most do.

Natasha

What’s the purpose of body hair?

It may have aided in the detection of parasites, like ticks or fleas. In one study, subjects with a single arm shaved had bed bugs placed on both arms. Overwhelmingly, bed bugs were detected first on the hairy arm. Arm hair also seemed to impede the bugs from feeding; bugs on bare arms began biting before the bugs on hairy arms. You’d think it would be the opposite, that you’d notice them first on the bare skin, but body hairs tend to be fairly sensitive to slight movement, almost like built-in motion detection sensors. You’re going to notice a tick threading its way through your arm thatch because it’ll kinda tickle.

It may have helped thermoregulate, but I think clothing, fire, and architecture have made that mostly irrelevant. Hominids have definitely been trending toward less and less body hair over the past couple million years.

How about facial hair? Face hair protects the face, blocking up to 90% of UV rays. Beards block pollen and dust, reducing the symptoms of seasonal allergies, while locking in moisture and keeping the skin fresh and young-looking.

Although you didn’t mention it specifically, I think it bears mentioning that pubic hair does seem to have a purpose, too: scent wick. Human pubic regions contain apocrine sweat glands whose pheromone-rich secretions are acted upon by bacteria to produce even more pheromones – chemicals that trigger a social response in other people, usually of the opposite sex. Pubic hair essentially acts as a hangout for these secretions, allowing them to to stick around a little longer so that bacteria has more time to interact with them and produce interesting pheromones, which in turn have more time to exert their effects on others (and maybe attract a mate or set into motion a shot at procreation). Without pubic hair, pheromone production will likely drop and what pheromones are produced may not have as much longevity. It’s easy to think of pheromones as “bad smells” we no longer need or want, but they are a crucial aspect of attraction that likely remain relevant (even if we don’t know it and assuming we’re dealing with people face to face). Of course, seeing as how most of us keep that region covered up, I wonder how much really “gets through.”

So no, I don’t think there are any acutely adverse effects, other than razor burn, extreme itchiness or inappropriately placed lasers. According to some, pubic hair removal may inflame the area, lead to microscopic abrasions, and increase the risk of infection, but I haven’t seen any official statistics showing this to be the case. You certainly want to exercise caution and minimize trauma to the area, whatever your method of removal.

Your site talks a lot about how every cell in the body can make its own cholesterol, because cholesterol is so vital to the human body. But if every cell can make its own cholesterol, then why should we (or why do we) need to eat foods with cholesterol in them? Isn’t this just another reason for choosing veganism instead? A vegan recently said to me that she is healthy because her body already produces cholesterol on its own, so there is absolutely no need for her to ingest more cholesterol. Her logic seems to make sense, since the body can produce its own cholesterol. Thoughts?

Scott

Technically, this is true for most people. But in certain cases, when cholesterol requirements are elevated or cholesterol synthesis is impaired, dietary cholesterol may be incredibly useful and perhaps even necessary.

People with Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) produce very low levels of 7-DHC reductase, an enzyme involved in cholesterol synthesis, and may need to supplement with dietary cholesterol to make up for the lack of endogenous production. However, SLOS is a recessive disorder, meaning both parents must contribute a recessive gene to their child in order for him to have it; it’s fairly rare.

As you probably already know, testosterone is made from cholesterol. Since testosterone is an anabolic hormone involved in muscle building and strength development, people engaged in strength training need more testosterone. In these populations, cholesterol supplementation (via whole eggs) has been shown to increase strength considerably.

All this talk misses my major point concerning cholesterol: it’s not so much that we need dietary cholesterol (although it’s clearly beneficial in certain groups and under certain contexts), but that cholesterol-rich foods also tend to be incredibly nutritious. The cholesterol itself doesn’t hurt, and it may even help, but the stuff that comes along for the ride with cholesterol is what we truly want. Let’s just go through three particularly cholesterol-rich foods that you might stumble across when going Primal.

Eggs - Not only delicious and high in cholesterol, whole eggs are also loaded with vitamin A, choline, iodine, selenium, highly digestible protein, and, depending on what the chicken ate, good levels of vitamin E, vitamin K2, and DHA.

Liver – Nature’s multivitamin, liver is rich in iron, vitamin A, copper, B-vitamins, choline, and folate. Oh, and yes, it has a decent amount of cholesterol.

Shrimp – In addition to cholesterol, shrimp is also good for selenium, iron, and a neat little antioxidant known as astaxanthin.

These are good, healthy foods by any sane measure. Because they contain some cholesterol, though, they should “be limited.” Or “avoided.” Or “minimized.”

Just marvel at the preposterousness of this line of thinking by checking out an insightful article from “HealthAliciousNess.com” (those jerks totally stole my name and I had to settle for Mark’s Daily Apple) warning us to “limit or avoid” the following high-cholesterol, highly-dangerous foods: the aforementioned egg yolks, shrimp, and liver, plus squid, caviar, pate, butter, sardines, cheese, liver sausage, crayfish, and shellfish. Do those really sounds all that dangerous to you?

I don’t know. Maybe your vegan friend is magic. If her body can manufacture adequate amounts of choline, selenium, iodine, B-vitamins, folate, iron, copper, protein, vitamin A (retinol, the pre-formed animal form, the good stuff), vitamin E, vitamin K2, and DHA, then sure, any foods that contain dietary cholesterol are probably unnecessary and she’s totally correct. If not, though, if she’s like the rest of us sad sacks with our pathetic reliance on exogenous vitamins and minerals, she may derive benefit from incorporating certain cholesterol-rich foods into her diet.

As for you, don’t go vegan. The fruits and vegetables are great, but you’ll really be missing out on some nutrient-rich-foods-that-happen-to-be-high-in-cholesterol-which-isn’t-essential-but-may-actually-confer-additional-benefits-or-at-the-very-least-be-entirely-innocuous. Don’t go seeking out cholesterol, don’t buy supplementary cholesterol, don’t make scrambled caviar every morning (but only because it’s so expensive). Just don’t shy away from foods that have it.

That’s it for today. Email me your questions here and I’ll try to answer them in a future Dear Mark. Grok on!

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Weekend Link Love

The Arctic apple, a non-browning GMO varietal, is about to be unleashed upon the American public. Check out this impassioned plea from the Caltons and sign their Change.org petition to keep it off store shelves.

Research of the Week

A recent review of dietary fats and health “in the context of scientific evidence” makes a few interesting and refreshing conclusions. They find “adverse health effects that have been associated with saturated fats in the past are most likely due to factors other than SFAs,” question whether the “dietary manipulation of serum cholesterol may be moot in view of numerous other factors that increase the risk of heart disease,” and discuss the considerable evidence that omega-6 PUFAs promote inflammation and augment disease while omega-3s “seem to counter these adverse effects.”

A new study discusses the interference of mobile communication technology – smartphones and the like – on the quality of face-to-face conversation, particularly during conversations about important topics.

Interesting Blog Posts

Does sunscreen cause cancer?

What if kids didn’t have to wear shoes at school? Would things fall apart?

If the food industry were to write a letter to the American consumer, it might look a little something like this.

Media, Schmedia

I remember catching a ton of grief from the endurance community when I suggested that spending more than 4,000 calories a week doing exercise was counter-productive. That’s about 40 miles of running. In a recent Wall Street Journal article they suggest that 30 is the tipping point (where the possible risks may outweigh the benefits).

The NY Times – plus countless physicians, Silicon Valley execs, and Matt Drudge – are wising up to the power of Esther Gokhale’s Primal posture.

Outside Magazine says paleo living is here to stay, citing a few familiar names. I tend to agree with their assessment of the situation.

Everything Else

That guy I discussed in a recent Dear Mark who’s hiking around the world responded in the comment board of that post. It’s a good, informative one.

Great, now the only reliably effective treatment for C. difficile infection that doesn’t involve removing a person’s colon is buried under hours of paperwork.

Remember that French study from last year that reported organ damage in GMO corn-fed rats? The journal that published it is apparently shoring up its standards by hiring a former Monsanto employee to sit on its editorial board.

Recipe Corner

This is a fairly involved recipe, but it pays off in the end: bouillabaisse.
Again, you have to plan ahead a bit to make the marinade in time, but these Thai spiced pineapple short ribs are an incredible way to eat a favorite cut.

Time Capsule

One year ago (May 26 – Jun 1)

A Primal Primer: Brown Adipose Tissue – How one might cultivate brown fat, the body fat that helps us burn more energy.
The Tall Tail of Telomeres – Dr. Ron Rosedale gives us the extremely detailed low-down on telomeres, those little chromosome tips that may tell us how long we have to live.

Comment of the Week

Imagine you’re at a friend’s house enjoying a piece of homemade cake. It’s absolutely delicious, the best you’ve ever eaten. You ask the friend for the recipe. The friend lists the ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, eggs. Then the friend adds, “Oh yeah, and pee. I peed in the cake batter before baking the cake.” You immediately put down your fork. Just a moment ago it was the tastiest cake you ever ate. Now you don’t want to take another bite. The next time your friend serves cake you don’t take any. Even if everyone around you is eating the cake and saying how great it tastes you don’t need any special will power to avoid it. You simply don’t want it because you know what’s in it.

The next time you pick up a package of some highly processed food, look at the ingredient list. It’s pee cake. Just walk away.

- Now that’s an analogy.

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Primal Beef Enchiladas

Enchiladas are often a mess of ingredients in a casserole pan, the two main ingredients being tortillas and a heavy blanket of cheese. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this Primal enchilada recipe, it’s all about the meat.

Chuck roast is slow-cooked with fresh tomatoes and dried chiles. The result is tender, shredded beef and a thick, mildly spicy sauce. Serve in a bowl with avocado, green onion and other garnishes, or spoon the beef onto Primal tortillas. Either way, Primal enchiladas are a filling and healthy meal.

Set aside an hour for cooking and then walk away while the meat and sauce do their thing in the oven. Ancho chiles give the sauce a smoky, earthy flavor and are only mildly spicy. They can be found at most grocery stores. If you want a sauce with more kick, chop up a hot pepper and throw it in the pot, too.

Serves: 4 to 6

Time in the Kitchen: 1 hour, plus 4 hours in the oven

Ingredients:

2 Ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
1 1/2 cups beef stock (350 ml)
4 pounds boneless beef chuck roast (1800 g)
2 teaspoons kosher salt (10 ml)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper (2.5 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (2.5 ml)
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano (5 ml)
1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, chopped into small pieces (680 g)
Garnishes: avocado, green onion, sautéed green bell peppers, sour cream, cotija cheese

Instructions:

To soften the chiles, boil them in the beef stock for 10 minutes.

Use a scissors or knife to cut the chiles into thin strips. Set the chiles and stock aside.

In a small bowl mix together the salt, pepper and cumin.

Cut the roast into 4 or 5 pieces. Rub the salt mixture all over the meat.

Melt the coconut oil in a wide Dutch oven or heavy oven-proof saucepot. When the pot is hot, add the pieces of roast (you might have to do this in batches), browning each piece of meat well on all sides. This will take about 10 minutes total for each piece of roast.

Remove the meat from the pot and turn the heat down to medium. Add the onion and garlic. Saute for 5 minutes or more, until the onion begins to soften.

While the onions and garlic cook, preheat the oven to 325 ºF (163 ºC)

Scrape the onions and garlic into a blender. Add the chiles and beef stock and oregano. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Add the enchilada sauce back to the pot. Add the tomatoes and their juice.

Bring to a boil, using a spatula to scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits of meat that have stuck to the bottom.

Add the meat back to the pot, cover with a lid, and transfer to the oven. Roast for 4 hours, until the meat is tender and the sauce is thick.

Serve the meat in a bowl with garnishes or on top of Primal tortillas.

*This recipe has not been tested in a slow cooker, but you can give it try on low heat for about 8 hours.

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I Feel Like I Can Do Anything

It’s Friday, everyone! And that means another Primal Blueprint Real Life Story from a Mark’s Daily Apple reader. If you have your own success story and would like to share it with me and the Mark’s Daily Apple community please contact me here. I’ll continue to publish these each Friday as long as they keep coming in. Thank you for reading!

Mark,

I don’t even know where to start, but I’ll try to be short .

Basically, after 21 days I’ve lost 16 pounds and haven’t added exercise yet. Thank you for… well… answering all the questions I had via your site. It gave me enough belief to try this for 21 days. Having done so well, I’m now putting away the scale and going to continue for another month or two without daily monitoring of my weight.

The week before I came across Primal/Paleo I yet again decided to count calories, eat 6 times and day, workout like crazy, etc. The same ol’ same ol’. Of which I’ve done for 15 years of being obese.

That week I failed yet again. By Friday of that week I was literally famished and by Sunday I found myself at Wendy’s eating TWO combos so as not to pass out. I went home sad and told myself I’m never going to lose weight. Another week wasted.

As I laid in bed Sunday night it became clear to me that being hungry and having no energy was my enemy. No matter how good a diet and exercise plan was, I would fail again and again if I was hungry.

So I decided to google other diets that you could eat more or not be hungry. Paleo kept popping up in my searches. I’d give it some reading but would ultimately tell myself I could never do Paleo due to the many restrictions of dairy or yummy fruits, lean only meats etc. Too restrictive I thought.

Then I came across your site and from 8pm till 2am I read and read and read. You’re approach was much more reasonable. I felt I could do this. Bought all your books for my iPad.

By 2am I was beat but before I went to bed I decided I was going to try at least 21 Days when I woke up.

Week #1 – lost 8 lbs

Week #2 – lost 5 lbs

Week #3 – lost 3 lbs

I battled with energy dips, general sick and foggy feelings, sleep problems and being hungry before I started. Within just 3 days I had constant energy, solid sleeping and overall felt great right away.

As a leader in a large local church, a lot of close friends and loved ones are now starting their 21 day journeys based on the basic info I could impart to them.

My goal is 180. I have another 60 lbs to go, but for the first time in 20 years I have deep down hope that I’ve found the way so to speak. I’m expecting to get back to about 1-2 lbs of weight loss a week. I know the first few weeks are unusual.

Just wanted to say thank you. I’m still in my infancy figuring all this out but your resources have been exceptional. I was so happy this morning I even made a video on YouTube.

God Bless.

Scott

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Raising Your Kids on Primal Foods (plus Mealtime Strategies for Picky Eaters)

The fact is, feeding children is never for the faint of heart or stomach. It’s an entirely different solar system when it comes to dining experience – the noise, the spills, the frantic pattern of go-get-this, can-you-help-me, cut everyone’s food until your own is stone cold, precise timing of chewing to complement your expected participation in knock-knock jokes – you get it. In the years my children were small, Carrie and I would relish the times when we were able to go out to dinner alone or when family members took the kids and we had a solo meal at home. The silence and ability to eat – uninterrupted – at a normal pace were enough to make us ecstatic. I think most of the time we didn’t even talk – not a word, and we each understood exactly why.

I think it’s safe to say this mismatch in preferred ambience often coincides with a mismatch in tastes. While the Primal Blueprint can be plenty child-friendly, in many cases it’s a trickier proposition for the small set, particularly if they’re used to conventional fare. Although we’d all, I’m sure, like the same perfectly Primal family affair, a lot of us don’t end up there. As hard core as we might be, sometimes the kids just aren’t so much.

You’re Primal. Maybe even your spouse is Primal (or close enough). It’s not that you haven’t tried. You’ve spent weeks – maybe months trying to transition your child to the Primal eating plan. For some, maybe it’s recurring cycles of effort over the course of years! You’ve read the books and the boards for ideas. You’ve laid out carefully crafted menus, collected all the ingredients, and experimented with an insane number of recipes. You’ve perused and “pinned” hundreds of ways to manipulate the plate presentation. You buy mini-swords, doilies, and cocktail toothpicks in bulk. Martha Stewart would be proud. Your kids, however – meh.

Sometimes it’s the taste. Other times it’s the texture. For some, it’s just the sheer, staggering force of habit. They know what they like, and that’s it. Research confirms what parents have observed: a child’s familiarity with a food determines how full he’ll feel as a result of eating it. Familiar foods are just more satisfying to kids. After a while, even the biggest believers get worn down if they’re trying to instill a significant shift in their children’s diet. With hundreds of dollars of food thrown away and dozens of cooking hours gone, it’s hard to keep justifying the misery.

I know folks – good, healthy, well-intentioned people who are strongly committed to eating Primal – but feed their kids SAD. They themselves wouldn’t touch the Cheerios or Gold Fish crackers their kids are snacking on, but there’s the paradox. It boggles the mind, sure. Still, having had kids, I get it. Having been worn down by the fatigue and the arguments and the cajoling, fed up with the wasted time and money, they finally just throw up their hands. Though perhaps bothered by guilt in certain moments, over time they learn to justify it in their minds – as we all justify many things in life. The kids are so young, they tell themselves, their bodies will burn it off. They don’t see any obvious differences in behavior or general health. They give them a multivitamin. Maybe they look at the way they ate growing up and tell themselves, “If I survived that, my kids can too.” They’ve given up the internal conflict.

However much I identify with the fatigue and frustration – and respect parents’ needs to make independent compromises based on their given situations, the actual science is less understanding. Research suggests early nutrition impacts cognitive functioning in the adult years and even by the age of eight appears to reduce IQ. In terms of overall health, we know  how nutrition sets us up for epigenetic changes – positive or negative. We know how even the roots of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity can begin in childhood.

In other words, good nutrition matters even more to them than it does to us. Though we might be motivated to stave off mortality or aging – i.e. maintain what we have longer, their bodies’ and brains’ very ability to reach their basic potential is on the line. What they eat today will determine what they’re capable of for the rest of their lives. Likewise, the habits they begin early on can cement pretty quickly. The older they are, the more the window closes on making dramatic change in diet and exercise. Unfortunately, there’s no way to sugar coat that point.

I don’t mean to throw those points out there in the interest of inciting a massive guilt trip. I didn’t feed my kids 100% perfectly all the time. It’s not passing judgment, but it is about passing on information. Doing so, with support and strategies, can help us individually brainstorm and prioritize. The fact is, I think there’s major stress in our culture – now more than ever – to be the perfect parent in dozens of ways that weren’t even on the radar screen when most of us were growing up. I’m sure we could go on for days talking about all the things we used to do that we’d never let our kids try today (e.g. lay on the floor during car trips, bike across town alone, etc.). I’d say the vast majority of today’s pushes toward perfection should be chucked, repudiated, scorned and named the worthless wastes of time and energy (and often hindrances to personal development) that they are. Nonetheless, one of the few genuine priorities worth having, I think, is nutrition. When it comes to kids’ food, fighting the good fight matters – as early and as often as you can.

Creating Strategic Versions/Substitutions

Many people find focusing on strategic substitutions allows them to preserve their sanity while making sure their kids are fed decently. Grass-fed organic hot dogs, sans buns can win over most kids. Homemade jerky or nut butter offers a healthier version of less desirous packaged foods. Parents learn to make gluten free versions of chicken fingers. They make their own sweet potato fries. They figure out how to make better fish sticks. They bake root veggie chips with healthier oil options and sea salt. I can’t tell you how many parents I’ve heard from already – on the boards and in emails – who say Primal Cravings has been a godsend (their words) for this very reason. The recipes look like food their kids would recognize and want to eat. There’s a mind to texture and simplicity that will work well with kids’ palates. Most children I know want uncomplicated food.

Using Copious Varieties (or Quantities) of Desired Condiments

There’s the assumption that most kids will eat a lot of things if they can put ketchup on them. Why not? I’d suggest making your own, but why limit it? Kids love the concept of dips and sauces, and I think I’ve got a good book somewhere for that, too.

Planting Forbidden Fruit

This defies reason, but sometimes the best strategy is to prepare a healthy (but kid-friendly) Primal dish and put it aside, tantalizingly almost – almost out of reach, in a place or position that makes the the child suspect it’s “for the adults” (for guests, even better) or not ready to be brought to the table. There’s something in children’s impish (or reptilian) little brains that makes forbidden food – even when healthy – seem that much more appealing. A friend’s daughter was so anti-meat that she wouldn’t even eat bacon. (Collective gasp.) One day, the husband was cooking a second batch of bacon for dinner and had put the plate with the first on a far counter to keep himself from eating it. His little girl ran in, saw the slightly obscured plate, gleefully grabbed a piece and absconded with it while he teasingly called after her to get back there and help, police. Within 10 minutes, she’d repeated the same move a few times and eaten half the batch. Since then, they’ve used the same technique to get her to eat other meats. For the “harder sells,” they go all out in making the platter look more enticing and forbidden looking (e.g. on the fancy china, in behind one of their wine glasses). Of course, it means she ends up eating most of her dinner on the run instead of at the table (so much for family dinner), but their perspective is this: at least she’s eating well!

Bartering Food for Freedom

This introduces another strategy – one we used with our children. Make certain foods or meals “roaming” approved. In other words, the parent grants freedom to skip sitting at the table if the kid will eat the healthy fare. Lay it out in a fun, festive, or otherwise eye-catching buffet style. Put on music. Teach and practice conventional manners at easier meals.

Some people might cringe at the idea of a toddler run amok and family dinner down the tubes – especially if there are other, older children. It highlights another important point. We all have our personal priorities, our chosen compromises, our sacred cows, our deal breakers as parents. This goes far beyond issues of decorum to the food itself. As I’ve said often, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Getting your kids to eat better isn’t an all or nothing proposition. It’s your call. Maybe you’re a solid no-GMO above all else. Maybe you’re first and foremost anti-gluten or grains. Perhaps your main goal is promoting veggie intake. Whatever goal you commit to, you’re making a positive difference in your children’s health and opening your mind – and theirs – to the idea that food choices matter.

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5 Helpful Analogies for Understanding Complex Health Issues

For millennia, the best teachers have used stories, analogies, and parables to break down complicated concepts into understandable bits that everyone can grasp. Aesop’s fables, the greatest religious texts throughout history, and Plato’s allegory of the cave are some of the most famous, showing us how to live morally, contemplate our existence, and make our way through the dilemmas that comprise everyday life. Today, I’m going to discuss five simple analogies that can help you understand five complex health topics a bit better, or perhaps be able to introduce them to the people (often skeptical or less-than-scientifically-inclined friends and relatives) around you who could use the lesson.

Let’s get right to it:

Insulin as Doorman at a Fat Cell Nightclub

From Kurt Harris’ “Insulin is a doorman at the fat cell nightclub, not a lock on the door“:

The hormones that are influenced by what you eat don’t work by locking the door or closing the nightclub and kicking everyone out. It’s not all or nothing. It’s not a switch. They work by changing the relative ease of entering or leaving the building. So think of fat storage in fat cells the same way. The same way patrons can leave and enter a nightclub simultaneously in opposite directions, fat is constantly being stored and released at the same time – the question is not “on or off” but what is the ratio of the two processes. Insulin is like a bouncer at the door – maybe he lets the prettier young women in, and maybe he tosses some obnoxious drunks. Maybe he is neutral when not many patrons are in the bar, maybe he turns you away if the joint is at capacity. But the door is not ever locked, and people come and go even as the number of drinkers grows and shrinks throughout the evening. And as you can see, other factors besides the doorman or bouncer affect the rate of patrons coming or going (time of day, the band is no good tonight, etc.) just as insulin’s action to promote fat storage is always in the context of other factors.

Although Kurt Harris no longer blogs much (if at all), he’s left a mark on the paleosphere. One post that always stuck with me was “Insulin is a doorman at the fat cell nightclub, not a lock on the door.” In it, he described the nuanced role of insulin in fat loss and deposition, using the analogy of insulin as discerning doorman to a fat cell nightclub. Like a doorman, insulin influences the flow of fat into and from a cell. Like a night club, the fat cell exists in a state of constant flux, with fat – or patrons – leaving and arriving all the time, at the same time. It’s not an on-off switch, where fat is either coming or going – it’s both at once with varying ratios. The doorman is a powerful influence on who goes in and out of the club, but he’s not responsible for all the reasons why patrons might be arriving or leaving. Maybe it’s morning and there’s not much of a demand for drinking. Point is, it’s not all up to the doorman. Insulin’s the same way. It’s a big determinant but not the only factor in fat deposition and loss.

The Crowded Restaurant

From Gary Taubes’ “The Inanity of Overeating”:

Say instead of talking about why fat tissue accumulates too much energy, we want to know why a particular restaurant gets so crowded. Now the energy we’re talking about is contained in entire people rather than just the fat in their fat tissue. Ten people contain so much energy; eleven people contain more, etc.. So what we want to know is why this restaurant is crowded and so over-stuffed with energy (i.e., people) and maybe why some other restaurant down the block has remained relatively empty — lean. If you asked me this question — why did this restaurant get crowded? — and I said, well, the restaurant got crowded (it got overstuffed with energy) because more people entered the restaurant than left it, you’d probably think I was being a wise guy or an idiot. (If I worked for the World Health Organization, I’d tell you that “the fundamental cause of the crowded restaurant is an energy imbalance between people entering on one hand, and people exiting on the other hand.”) Of course, more people entered than left, you’d say. That’s obvious. But why?

Much of the opposition to a Primal/paleo way of eating lies in the misguided assumption that we think calories are immaterial. That you can cram as much food into your mouth, as long as it’s Primal, without gaining weight. I said as much in a recent post, but I still see this misconception pop up, time and time again. At the same time, I see way too many people – even supposed health “experts” – claim that “it’s all about calories,” that “you need to burn more calories than you take in,” that people are fat because “they eat too many calories.” All those statements are technically true. Weight gain and loss does come down to caloric balance. If you want to lose weight, you have to expend more calories than you take in. And eating more calories than you expend can increase body weight. But so what? Who doesn’t agree with those statements? They aren’t telling us anything new. They’re just restating the problem.

To use Taubes’ analogy, a more helpful question is ”Why are a lot of people entering that restaurant as opposed to this restaurant?”, or “Why are a lot of people staying in that crowded restaurant?” And you can’t just say “well, they just are, so there,” because that’s saying the same thing a different way. It’s about as helpful as saying a restaurant is crowded because there are lots of customers, or a kid got taller because he grew several inches, or you got a divorce because you signed the papers. Sure, if you want to be a smug jerk about it, you could say those things and “be right,” but what’s the point? It explains nothing.

I’ve found that using this analogy helps people understand why “eat less” is shoddy, incomplete advice. It’s not “wrong.” It’s just mostly useless. I encourage you to read the full article linked to above if you haven’t already.

LDL: Cars and Passengers

From “How to Interpret Cholesterol Results“:

Measuring the LDL/HDL-C and then making potentially life-changing health decisions based on the number is like counting the number of people riding in vehicles on a freeway to determine the severity of traffic. It’s data, and it might give you a rough approximation of the situation, but it’s not as useful as actually counting the number of vehicles. A reading of 100 could mean you’re dealing with a hundred compact cars, each carrying a single driver, or it could mean you’ve got four buses carrying 25 passengers each. Or it could be a couple buses and the rest cars. You simply don’t know how bad (or good) traffic is until you get a direct measurement of LDL and HDL particle number.

Cholesterol test results are confusing and often troubling. You’ve got a white coated doctor rattling off lifestyle and pharmaceutical prescriptions and scary triple digit numbers foretelling your impending vascular doom, all based on some numbers and acronyms that you don’t actually understand. LDL = bad, HDL = good, according to the lab, but what do they really mean? But isn’t there more to it? I mean, those aren’t just numbers and letters. They represent physiological processes occurring inside your body at this very moment. We vaguely think of cholesterol as a sort-of-fat that just kinda chills out in our blood and every so often gets stuck on or in the arterial walls, or something. You don’t really know. I doubt the doctor really does. What is LDL-C actually measuring? Who knows, most probably think.

The cars and passengers analogy lets those numbers and acronyms mean something. You don’t have to get the biochemistry of it. All you have to do is think of the basic traffic law that more vehicles (LDL particles) means more traffic jams and accidents (hardening of the arteries), all else being equal, and you get the gist of LDL-C versus LDL-P. A reading of 100 could mean you’re dealing with a hundred compact cars, each carrying a single driver, or it could mean you’ve got four buses carrying 25 passengers each. Or it could be a couple buses and the rest cars. You simply don’t know how bad (or good) traffic is until you get a direct measurement of LDL and HDL particle number.

Digging a Hole to Install a Ladder to Fix the Basement Windows

From the post of the same name:

Picture a house with absolutely filthy exterior basement windows, the kind that just barely peek out above ground level. The owner can’t see through the things, and they need a thorough washing. He could grab the bucket and a rag and squat or kneel down to commence cleaning. He could make it easy on himself, but for some bizarre reason, he doesn’t.

Instead, he spends the entire day slaving away with a shovel and a pick axe, hacking at the earth to loosen it and shoveling the loose dirt out. A deep hole appears, about eight feet in depth and wide enough to accommodate him and a ladder. In goes the ladder, and he follows with the wash bucket and rag. Dirty, grimy, sweaty, and disheveled, he ascends the ladder to finally reach the basement windows. He manages to clean them, but his alternate self in a parallel universe – that guy who decided to just kneel down to wash the windows – has clean windows, a killer tan from spending hours at the beach doing pushups and sprints, a couple racks of ribs on the barbecue, and a nice glass of Cab paired with a wedge of French brie. He enjoyed his day, while the ladder enthusiast had to work for hours just to arrive at the same point.

This encapsulates the ultimate goal of Primal living: to do things efficiently, to take shortcuts that don’t shortchange your results. This will give you more free time to do the stuff you truly enjoy, and make you healthier, happier, and more productive. It’s a nice way of saying don’t think you have to engage in hours of miserable cardio every week to get fitter (unless you enjoy it) when you can lift some weights, sprint a bit, and walk a lot and end up just as fit with more free time and less negative health effects. Or, don’t assume you have to agonize over counting calories, weighing yourself every day, and hiring a dietitian to get healthy when focusing on food quality, how you feel and look in a mirror, and trying the basic Primal laws will work better and save you time and effort.

Everyone’s trying to get to the same place, give or take a few details. We all want to be healthy and happy. Why not do it the more efficient way?

What Would You Feed a Lion?

From the PB Fundamentals:

What do you feed a lion?

Meat.

Meat is the obviously correct answer. You would feed the lion raw meat. I think even the most ardent vegan would admit that lions are supposed to eat meat.

Lions hunt and eat animals, and they and their feline ancestors have been doing so for hundreds of thousands of years. Millions, even. That’s the key.

The hunting, killing, and raw meat-eating informed the evolution of the lion over many millions of years. The lion’s genetic makeup was shaped by meat-eating.

Humans are animals, too. We may be relative newcomers to this planet, but we’ve been around for a good 200,000 years, and our ancestors have been around for millions of years. And for a good 190,000 years of that, we were hunter-gatherers, living off the land, big game hunters who feasted on plant and animal alike. If you accept that the biology of animals, like lions, functions best on ancestral, evolutionary diets, wouldn’t the same likely be true for humans?

This is a quick, easy way to get people to understand what this Primal thing is all about, on a gut level. People tend to think of animals as, well, animals. Natural beings subject to the objective laws of nature, passive creatures whisked along a path determined by outside forces. Meanwhile, humans are different. We’re animals, sure, but people don’t think of themselves as animals. We’re people. We’re above nature. We impose ourselves on nature. We create and shape our reality.

The lion analogy bridges that gap. People intellectually know that humans are animals, they just never think in those terms. If you get them to start thinking in those terms, you almost see thought bubbles form, lightbulbs go off. “Huh, that’s true. We technically are animals. If lions do best eating the types of foods they evolved eating, why not humans? Hey, what did humans evolve eating, anyway? And what about other stuff – I mean, I bet lions don’t like being cooped up in a tiny cage at the zoo. They’re probably happier out on the African plains…” You can pretty much set them up and let them go and watch the evolution of their notion of a healthy human environment unfold right before you. It’s pretty cool to watch.

That’s it for today. Do you find these analogies helpful? Do you have any to add to the list? If so, hit me up in the comment board!

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Mental Toughness Training in the Primal World

This is a guest post from Jack Yee. Jack’s Primal Blueprint Real Life Story “Free at 50” was published a few weeks ago here on Mark’s Daily Apple. In this article, Jack shares his four strategies for conquering intense workouts, and becoming both physically and mentally stronger as a result. Enter Jack…

When I first made the transition from conventional bodybuilding training to full body primal workouts, I quickly realized it was one of the best things I ever did. I used to look forward to doing the primal workout of the week or the contest WODs that were sent in by some of you. There was something so liberating about pounding a sledgehammer, crawling on grass, or throwing a stone and running as if I was being chased by a saber-tooth predator (all while being outside soaking in some much needed vitamin D). The primal workouts were fun, but very difficult to get through due to the high intensity that each workout demands. Many times, I wanted to quit, but I didn’t. As a result of this training – along with the Primal eating plan – I was able to get in the best shape of my life. But, something unexpected also changed in me; I became mentally tougher.

Now whenever I coach an athlete or train a client I tell them my first priority is to get them mentally tougher. High intensity training will teach your mind how to push your body to do amazing things. The byproduct of mental toughness training is having a better body; by focusing on the mind first, the aesthetics will follow.

More importantly, I teach my clients how a strong mind will improve their overall quality of life by teaching them how to persevere. However, the majority of them couldn’t care less about being mentally tougher as they have the misconception that being mentally tough is about being a macho rough neck. This is hardly the mental toughness I teach my clients. Mental toughness is the ability to overcome adversity. It is a skill that can be honed and strengthened.

The problem is most people don’t see how advantageous it is be mentally strong. They think toughness development is only for competitive athletes. However, we all participate in the cruelest sport of them all – life. Just living day-to-day life is full of painful ordeals and unfairness. If you are weak, the harshness of this world can destroy your spirit and hinder your health recovery. When adversity strikes, it does not discriminate between age or gender. It doesn’t matter how great of shape you are in or how long you have been grain-free. If you are you are mentally weak, you will always be susceptible to falling apart during a personal crisis. This is why men and women, young and old can all benefit from some mental toughness training. We all need some improvements in learning how to stay in the fight.

The best thing about mental toughness training is that you don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to join a navy SEAL boot camp and get yelled at by a muscle bound sergeant. But, you do have to go through some difficult and challenging physical training to get there. There just isn’t a shortcut to become mentally tougher. This doesn’t mean you have to give up your current workout protocol. All you have to do is add one high intensity workout per week to your schedule. Mark’s recent article on 10 Full Body Workouts You Can Do in 10 Minutes Flat is loaded with great workouts that will test your perseverance skills. CrossFit WODs or the Workout of the Week from the Primal Blueprint Fitness series also fit the bill.

Now, let’s take a look at my four strategies for destroying tough workouts and cultivating mental toughness in the process:

Strategy #1 – Prepare Yourself to Be the Aggressor

When it comes down to the workouts, there are only two outcomes – either you get through them or you don’t. Aggression is a primal instinct necessary for survival. It doesn’t need to be expressed through violence. It can manifest from your mind into positive action. The behavior you want to achieve is to finish the workouts. How you prepare for each workout will ultimately be the difference in your mental toughness progression or regression. Sun Tze’s “Art of War” is all based on winning the battle before you begin the fight. Same philosophy with this program as well.

One of the best ways to develop the mindset of one who is relentless is to understand your need to be mentally tough. Ask yourself empowering self-questions like, “Why do I need to become mentally tough?”, “What is my purpose with my training today?” Confront yourself for the truth in your preparation. Dig deep in yourself for personal reasons.

A wide range of emotions from desire to passion will be sure to surface. Stimulating your emotions can be a very powerful source of self-motivation. It doesn’t matter what the emotions are as long as they provoke aggressive ideas and thoughts to you. The more personal your answers, the more provoking they will be to arouse you to become the aggressor in the upcoming feud between you and the primal workouts. If you do not have a strong purpose or need, you are not going to be able to handle the demands from the training sessions. Finding a sense of great urgency with your purpose and need will help you pack some much needed heat going into the fight. You should do it before every training session. Let it be a ritual where you load and reload your mind’s chamber. You can go over your purpose and need when you drive to the gym or think about it during your warm-ups. Just let it build up and stew with you until you begin the workout. You want your mind and body overflowing with pure aggression before the workout. I don’t care if you are a law abiding citizen, mild-mannered person, soccer mom, or a nerd like me. When it comes to getting ready for a tough workout like Mark’s burpee ladder, you must transform your soul to become a merciless caveman with primitive aggression with only one thing in mind – you will finish the workout, no matter what.

Strategy #2 – Strengthen Your Connection with Your Will

Your ability to overcome obstacles is all dependent on your will. Your will is what imposes your thoughts and desire into action. You have to think of your will as something concrete that can be molded and shaped.

The primal workouts is a great system that you show you how powerful your will is. Constantly putting your will to the physical test and demands of these workouts is how you raise your pain and fatigue tolerance. If you don’t quit during the workouts, you are teaching your will to be defiant. With repeated practice at even higher levels of discomfort is how you develop a will that is indomitable. The only caveat is that the workouts must provide some level of anguish like Mark’s brutal car pushing workout. When you’re struggling to get a single inch out of the car push, you have to remind yourself over and over that what you are doing is honing your skill to persevere.

After you finish each workout, you must acknowledge your will as one of the sole reasons for your accomplishment of getting through them. The more you recognize your will, the less elusive it becomes. As your will becomes more accessible, it becomes a solid tool or better yet, a weapon that you can use against any adversity that is trying to break your morale. Being mentally tough means continuing the fight, no matter how much your strength seems to be fading.

On the contrary, let the discomfort you are feeling stimulate your will even more, so it can deliver strength to your body. This is the “second wind” great athletes all have as they are able to supply a rush of energy from the power of their will. The more your mind practices pushing your body to do things it doesn’t want to, the stronger your will becomes. The ultimate sign of a tough-minded person with a strong will is they have the ability to come back stronger than ever even when they seemed completely down and out.

Strategy #3 – Optimizing Positive Self-Talk and Visualization Skills

We talk to ourselves all the time. What you say to yourself can have a profound effect on your actions and feelings. Even if we don’t say things directly to ourselves, our thoughts can unconsciously manifest in our body. You must learn to optimize your inner positive dialogue to your advantage, especially when you do a devastating workout like Mark’s challenge that requires you to carry ½ your body weight for 10 minutes. I just did this workout and by the first minute my mind was filled with negative thoughts to quit. By the fifth minute, my mind was pleading with me to stop and by the ninth minute, my mind was screaming negative profanities to drop the weight! Suppressing my mind’s negative chatter was 90 percent of this battle.

Positive self-talk is a subtle change that can put whole different meaning to your thought process. Remember, this training is all about how your thoughts influence your behavior so you want to have as much positive and aggressive action statements roaming around in your head. The good news is that most people repeat the same negative statements over and over like “I can’t do this” or “This is too hard.” Look for certain negative verbs in you thought patterns like “can’t”, “don’t” or “won’t” and replace with positive verbs like “must”, “can” or “will.”

Strategy #4 – The Power of Mantras

Mantras are strong one sentence phases that motivate you to be aggressive and relentless. They should be short and full of action words as you will repeat them often during the workouts. They are meant to inspire you in times of need. If a mantra doesn’t motivate you to keep on going, they are not effective. They should cause your body to take on a life of its own.

Mantras are a great way to teach you the relationship of how the mind can lead the body. Repeating them over and over can be very hypnotic as they will lead you into action. This is why you want to create as many different types of mantras as possible, especially the ones that really push your buttons. With every workout, there is that pivotal moment when the workout is becoming overbearing and you are close to quitting. When this happens, you need a mantra that will create some rage in yourself to force you into action. By seeing red, you’ll be able to re-energize yourself and finish the workout with some authority.

One of my potent mantras that I have is “I refuse to give up on myself anymore.” When I repeat this mantra, I always am able to jump-start my energy no matter how exhausted I’m at during a workou. This mantra causes my mind to be fuming with past memories of me when I was at my most mentally weakest. In an instant, these words are all I need for my body to regenerate itself and push through. This mantra has so much personal meaning to me, I can’t count the numerous times it saved me from letting a classic primal WOW like “I’m Gonna Be (500 reps)” from burying me.

Remember the challenge of the workouts in this program don’t start until the point when you want to quit. Only when you have reached the throes of your suffering and can’t take any more of your muscles burning or psychological stress, does the real toughness training begin. Many times the demands of primal training were close to shattering my combative caveman spirit, but my mantras that incite me, always came through. Grok on!

Learn more about Jack Yee’s take on mental toughness training from MentalToughnessGuy.com.

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Dear Mark: Your Primal Cravings Questions Answered

The response to the early release of Primal Cravings: Your Favorite Foods Made Paleo has been incredible. I understand that thousands of you have now received your copies and bonuses in the mail, and from the Facebook comments and emails I’ve received, you’ve made it loud and clear that you’re loving these innovative new Primal recipes. Thank you so much for your feedback.

Some of you have emailed with questions about the book, so I thought I’d use today’s Dear Mark to answer your inquiries. Below you’ll find the Table of Contents, the Index, the Nutrition Index and some words from the authors of this book, Brandon and Megan Keatley, to hopefully give you a better picture of what this book includes and is all about.

Let’s go!

I am very interested in the book, but is there a way to find out what types of ingredients they use? I am almost sugar free (no honey, dates etc, almost no fruit) and nightshade free also. I’d like to find out how many of the recipes I can have without complicated conversions.

Thank you!

Allyson

As far as added sugar in recipes, some type of fruit or sweetener is used in all of the “Sweets”. We’re proud to have many recipes that use only 100% fruit jam or fruit concentrate to sweeten. Others are typically sweetened with coconut sugar. That said, we estimate there to to be at least 85 remaining recipes that have no added sugar of any kind. These are various recipes from the “Rise-n-shine”, “Meats and Mains”, “Salads and Sides”, and “Snacks” sections. Of those, some will contain nightshades (tomatoes and peppers would be most common). Please see the index below where recipes are listed under said ingredient if they feature in it prominently.

I took a look at the new recipe book and I noted that one of the preview recipes called for heavy cream. Do you know how much of a percentage of the recipes call for milk, cream or cheese? I’ve noticed in the past that a lot of recipes don’t turn out right if you substitute (I’ve had a problem with dairy my entire life).

Kara

We do cook with butter in recipes. As noted in the book for substitutions, however, in savory recipes where the butter is used to sautè, any of your favorite primal fats can be substituted. For butter used in baked goods we recommend non-hydrogenated palm shortening be substituted 1 to 1. The flavor and texture should be very similar with this substitution. There are only a handful of recipes including cheese or heavy cream and in all but one case (Cheese Crackers) the dairy is simply a topping that can be easily removed from the recipe. This is why we feel that ALL recipes are “Dairy Optional” except the Cheese Crackers.

Hi Mark,

I’m interested in your new recipes BUT, are all the flour recipes using nut flours? I ask because I can’t use nuts and can only use coconut flour.

Thanks,

Ellen

We are so excited to have almost completely eliminated nut flours and nut butters from our cooking in this book. We are trying to minimize using huge amounts of almond flour for treats because of their phytate and omega-6 PUFA content…and because it’s so expensive! And we know many others are too. We use a new tapioca and coconut flour mixture in our breads, crusts, biscuits, muffins, and sweets. The only recipes that contain nuts are used as nut pieces or in our peanut butter flavored macadamia nut butter (that contains no peanuts)…and two recipes call for almond butter. All in all we’d estimate less than 10 recipes that contain nuts out of the 125+.

Dear Mark,

Could you publish a Table of Contents for the Primal Cravings book? I’d like to see what kind of recipes are included in it. Thank you!

Jim

You got it!

Are there macronutrient figures for the recipes?

Marcus

Yep. As you’ll see below, the listed recipes get broken down into calories, fat, carbs, protein and fiber.

This is a great idea. Is there a sample recipe we could see before actually buying the book?

Nikko

Yes. A few, actually. There’s the Gyro Taco Salad & Tzatziki Guacamole and the Hazelnut Coffee Pancakes recipes published here on Mark’s Daily Apple. And if you scroll to the bottom of the book excerpt on this page you’ll find one additional sample recipe: Strawberry Shortcake Waffles.

Will this book be available in eBook/Kindle format?

Samantha

Yes, you can pre-order the Kindle version of Primal Cravings on Amazon.com. It will be released on June 4.

Many thanks to everyone that has already purchased a copy of Primal Cravings. Let me know what you think of the cookbook now that you have a copy in your hands and have, perhaps, had a chance to give some of the recipes a test drive. Grok on!

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Weekend Link Love

Research of the Week

When given a diet based on farmed salmon, lab mice got fatty liver and developed insulin resistance if the salmon was raised on soybean oil.

Eating Splenda (sucralose) has a negative impact on a person’s glucose tolerance in response to subsequent sugar ingestion.

Interesting Blog Posts

Should vegans and paleos stop bickering and join forces?

Media, Schmedia

Dr. Hamilton Stapell, the professor responsible for putting together the 2013 Ancestral Health Survey, discusses the future of paleo in a recent Paleo Magazine podcast.

Well-known (former) vegan Alex Jamieson recently started eating meat again after 12 years without, and she’s only had a few death threats. Watch this video of her explaining her decision.

Everything Else

When you examine their brains and circadian rhythms, people suffering from depression look like they’re living in a different time zone.

There’s no real benefit – and some apparent actual harm – in sharply cutting one’s salt intake, according to “them.” I fully expect this tentative position of “theirs” to be reversed in a year’s time. Until (and after) then, I’ll keep salting my food to taste.

Looks like Skechers is gonna pay up to $40 million for false claims regarding its ridiculous Shape-up shoes.

Last week, I spoke to Tech Cocktail about a number of topics, including entrepreneurism, Primal living, and alcohol.

Recipe Corner

If you could eat a North African sunrise, this is what it might taste like: shakshukah.
If you make paleo horchata, don’t get sneaky and try to substitute cauliflower rice. Coconut works far better.

Time Capsule

One year ago (May 19 – May 25)

What Does It Mean to Have “Balance” in Your Life? – The ability to walk across narrow surfaces without falling, of course. Oh, wait, the other kind of balance.
Top 8 Most Common Reactions to Your Grain-Free Diet (and How to Respond) – What to do when people think you’re crazy, suicidal, or both when you tell them you don’t eat grains.

Comment of the Week

Moms cleaning pacifiers: Mom spit is the best thing in the universe, the universal solvent. It cleans your cheek, provides lifetime immunity. What can’t it do? Happy Mothers Day to our mothers and all our ancestors!

- Amen to that.

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Gyro Taco Salad & Tzatziki Guacamole

This is a recipe from the brand new Primal Blueprint Publishing book Primal Cravings: Your Favorite Foods Made Paleo . Order your copy today and claim a bunch of free gifts while the limited-time offer lasts. See all the details here.

A theme we like to play with a lot is taking flavors you know and love and adding a twist…we want our food to be familiar yet interesting. Gyro Taco Salad is a good example of just that. We took the components of a traditional taco salad, but flavored it like a traditional gyro. Gyro spiced ground lamb (or any ground meat) over lettuce (plus any of your favorite veggies) and topped off with a fresh mint and cucumber guacamole AKA Tzatziki Guacamole. Wouldn’t that just be a real Mediterranean fiesta?

Servings: 6

For the Gyro Taco Salad

2 pounds ground lamb
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1⁄2 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste
3 heads romaine lettuce

1. In a large sauté pan, brown the lamb. Once the lamb looks about halfway cooked through, add the onion and garlic. Continue to cook until onion is softened. Add the oregano, thyme, coriander, chicken stock, lemon juice, and salt. Cook about 5 minutes more, until the stock has reduced a bit.

2. Chop the romaine lettuce and serve with gyro meat and a spoonful of tzatziki guacamole.

For the Tzatziki Guacamole

2 ripe Haas avocados
1 English cucumber
1 tablespoon fresh mint 1 tablespoon fresh dill
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt to taste

1. With a cheese grater, shred the cucumber with a box grater over a tea towel.

2. Twist the tea towel up and squeeze it over the kitchen sink to remove excess water from cucumber.

3. Blend avocados, squeezed cucumber, mint, dill, lemon, and salt in a food processor until smooth.

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