Mark Sisson's Blog, page 383

Weekend Link Love

Dogs: man’s best friend and Neandertal’s worst nightmare? A recent article in the Atlantic explains how dogs might have helped us beat the Neandertals.

Meet Chris Sturdy, chickadee-conversationalist (they have regional accents!) and Primal eater (which he’s incorporated into a health studies course he teaches at the University of Alberta).

A high-fructose diet made rats remarkably stupid and unable to easily navigate a maze (the rodent version of an IQ test), while adding omega-3s counteracted this effect.

The Art of Manliness recently published a nice introductory guide to barefoot running. I look forward to seeing hordes of bow tie-wearing, straight razor-shaving, corn cob pipe-chomping barefoot runners.

This just in: higher HDL for higher HDL’s sake may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the lifestyle that usually associates with said levels. Nah, that couldn’t be it.

Mice kept to an eight-hour feeding window ate as much food as a control group of mice fed round-the-clock, but they remained slim (with less inflammation and liver damage) while the controls got obese. Somewhere, Martin Berkhan is digging into a celebratory cheesecake.

McDonalds has just unleashed the McVegan. “Cruelty free,” they say, but I’m not so sure.

Recipe Corner

Ever watch Pulp Fiction and find yourself ravenous because Samuel L. Jackson makes his burger look so dang good, only to realize dejectedly that you’re Primal and don’t eat buns? Try the bunless Big Kahuna burger.
You know, a dish doesn’t always require meat. Saffron cauliflower with raisins and olives is one such dish.

Time Capsule

One year ago (May 20 – May 26)

Meat Glue: Separating Fact from Fiction – Are the horror stories about meat glue true?
A Guide to Maintaining a Healthy Sex Drive – Because let’s face it: isn’t this what it’s really all about in the end?

Comment of the Week

I can’t wait until science “Jurassic Park’s” some Aurochs.

- The comment is gold (and I completely agree), but the name – Paleo Bon Rurgundy – is even better.

Grab a Copy of  The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation  and Start Getting Primal Today!

Silky-Smooth Chicken Liver Pâté

If you’ve only ever had chicken livers fried with onions or chopped up with hardboiled eggs, then it’s time to experience liver in a more decadent way. Not that Grandma’s chopped liver doesn’t hit the spot sometimes, but the smooth, whipped texture and buttery flavor of Chicken Liver Pâté is really something special.

The secret to silky, smooth pâté is twofold. First, simmering the liver in liquid instead of browning it prevents the liver from drying out while cooking. The second “secret” – and actually, this shouldn’t be a surprise, since we’re talking about French cuisine here – is butter. Lots and lots of butter. Some traditional French recipes call for so much butter that the end result is more like butter pâté with a little bit of chicken liver thrown in. Some recipes also add whole cream and many have a dash or two of Cognac or other liquor for good measure.

This recipe, which is based off one by the great French chef Jacques Pépin, uses a little bit more restraint and gives the chicken livers first billing. With less butter, the result is no less delicious. The liver flavor is slightly stronger but the texture is still perfectly smooth and creamy. If you want to add more butter, by all means, go for it. Either way, this chicken liver pâté is a perfect snack, one loaded with flavor as well as protein, vitamins and minerals. Eat it by the spoonful, or use the pâté as a dip for raw vegetables or Primal crackers.

Makes between 1/2 and 1 cup of pâté

Ingredients:

1/2 pound chicken livers
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1/2 cup water
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 to 6 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature). For pâté that is very dense and buttery, add between 8 to 12 tablespoons of butter

Instructions:

Rinse the chicken livers and pat them dry. Cut off any white connective tissue.

In a saucepan, combine the chicken livers, shallot, garlic, bay leaf and salt. Add the water and bring to a simmer.

Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer 3 to 5 minutes, stirring once. Turn off the heat and let stand, covered, for 5 minutes.

Discard the bay leaf. Drain the liquid out and transfer the livers, shallot and garlic to a food processor. Add nutmeg. Process just until the livers are finely chopped, then, with the blade still running, start adding the butter 1 tablespoon at a time.

Once the butter is blended in, season with salt and pepper then continue to process until the pâté is completely smooth.

Scoop the pâté into one large or two small ramekins or bowls. Decorate the top with fresh herbs if you like. Cover with plastic wrap pressed down onto the pâté (to protect it from air) or pour melted butter on top, creating an edible seal (when melting the butter, skim as much white foam off the top as possible).

Refrigerate 4 to 6 hours or overnight so the pâté firms up. The pâté will stay fresh up to 1 week.

Grab a copy of Primal Blueprint Quick & Easy Meals for over 100 Primal Recipes You Can Prepare in 30 Minutes or Less

Rebel Musician Goes Primal After Years of Hard Living

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!

Dear Mark,

Here follows a detailed timeline of how I came across MDA and your book The Primal Blueprint along with more details about my health history:

I was born in Houston, Texas and adopted by a family of Czech origin. I was diagnosed with hypoglycemia as a kid. I don’t so much buy into that diagnosis. I think I was just bored and constrained within the typical public school system. However, unbeknownst to me at the time, the breads, kolaches, pastries and potatoes that were so prevalent in my mother’s native food were spiking my blood pressure to the moon.

I was always involved in gymnastics, competitive swimming, baseball and basketball as a child, so I was never really overweight. Since I was adopted, my mother, who is very wise, took the time to cook differently for me and I ate a lot of seafood and vegetables growing up.

When I got to college I started eating out a lot and since I was physically active and involved in Jeet Kun Do and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu I was always in relatively good shape. However, a few pounds a year adds up after twenty years, and at the age of forty I found myself creeping up on the scale to 240 pounds. I am 6’2” so I was able to hide it fairly well with a big frame, but I felt sluggish. I was living a musician lifestyle and waking up every day at 11 AM.

I have a good friend who is authentic and real. I went to see him in Vegas, and the minute I walked in his door he told me I didn’t look good with three chins and I would never attract a decent woman fat. He has a way with words and I decided to take control of my life and my fitness. My friend and his wife had lost forty pounds a piece utilizing the Atkins diet. I understand enough about psychology to realize that I could simply model their behavior and achieve similar results.

I did and I lost a lot of weight and I felt a lot better. However, I found the shakes and the bars that had the fake sugar in them to taste very repulsive. I believe how you do anything is how you do everything. I have dedicated my life to music and consider it a fine art. I try to make all my relationships a masterpiece and consider friendship a fine art. I was happy with the results of the Atkins approach, but found many of the meals and supplementation boring, and far from fine art when it comes to cuisine.

I have a lot of friends who are foodies and gourmet chefs and I knew there had to be a better way. One night I Googled “no carb recipes” and MDA popped up in my search. I was hooked from the front page and once I started taking a look at the recipes my mouth began to water. Real food in its natural state, no strange ingredients, nothing in a box or can – I was hooked.

I was using Evernote at the time and I copied recipe after recipe from your site. I fell in love with eggs all over again. I had such misinformation about eggs. You mentioned on your site how every grandmother who lived to a ripe old age had that can of bacon fat on top of her stove that she cooked everything in. Mark, that was my grandmother Sophie Slansky. I loved all her food as a kid and she grew up on farm.

Your site elegantly and with fortitude debunked every foolish myth there was about food. Fat, including animal fat, is essential to our well-being, and you have the moxie and the courage to step out on the edge and challenge all of these myths.

The number one thing I learned from MDA and that I encourage everyone who wants to get lean and mean with a great low body-fat percentage is to understand this: 90% of all body composition begins with what you put in your mouth. You could join all the gyms in the world, buy every ab machine, personal trainer and run thirty miles a day and never have the body composition of someone who adheres to the aforementioned principle.

Since I started the Primal approach I have woken up every day for the last two years at 5:30 in the morning. I crave my fennel and dill omelet I learned from you. I crave poached eggs, I look forward to breakfast. I honestly in the deepest depths of my soul can not imagine how anyone could convince me that they honestly crave a bowl of oatmeal or Captain Crunch.

The differences I have seen are incredible. All my friends tell me I look fifteen years younger. It’s completely revived my music career as a performer. There aren’t that many fat rock stars. I can see my abs for the first time since I was fourteen years young. I can’t believe how much I enjoy what I eat. A typical day for me might be a vegetable omelet for breakfast, grilled chicken wings with scrumptious crispy skin for lunch along with a side of celery and real blue cheese, then at dinner a prime dry aged rib-eye with cauliflower mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus, a glass or three of Cabernet, and a piece of 85% cocoa chocolate.

I feel completely satiated and content after every meal.

Here is a video I made featuring me preparing my Primal Sushi Rolls, which are really not sushi at all. They are made with beef and asparagus. They are always a huge hit at parties!

Your post about drinking ten to twelve big glasses of water a day being ridiculous was spot on as well. I was drinking way too much water before I found your site.

This is the greatest thing that drew a rebel musician like myself to your site. Just about everything on MDA is counterintuitive. I found that to be where the truth lies these days you have to seek it out. That food pyramid they stuffed down our throats all those years is a complete joke.

I also want to note that Adelulf – my beloved, non neutered, all black male German Shepherd – eats Primal as well. Every morning I walk out into the yard and give him two fresh eggs in the shell. I set them down in the yard and it’s like Easter. Even as a puppy he knew what to do. He carefully picks up the egg, puts it in his mouth, takes it where he wants, pokes a hole in the shell with his canines and slurps up every last drop of both eggs. He eats raw chicken with the bones, turkey necks, liver, kidneys, and raw beef. His teeth are completely white, and his coat incredibly shiny. If I had a dollar for every so called animal lover, dog expert and veterinarian who told me my dog is going to die from salmonella poisoning from the raw eggs and choke on the raw bones I would be retired on a beach in Hawaii right now drinking margaritas. Here’s a picture of me and my dog where I landed at about twelve to thirteen percent body fat.

Thanks Mark. Pardon the long email, but I have a lot of deep appreciation for what you are doing.

All the best and Grok on, Mark.

Eric

Check out Erik’s website EricKeyes.com and his music video of an original song titled “Words of a Song“.

Grab a Copy of The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation and Start Getting Primal Today!