The Real Secret of Successful SleepIt May Involve Redefining “Success”

Falling in Love With Sleep

I’ve read many — likely too many — scholarly papers and popular articles about “optimizing” sleep, “maximizing” sleep, and wringing “efficiency” out of limited sleep hours. It’s the key, these articles contend, to a happy, productive, turbocharged waking life.

But consider: How well would this imperative work in a rela-tionship between two people? Do you believe your spouse’s sole purpose should be to op-timize, maximize or otherwise turbocharge you?

If you do, allow me — as a guy who has been happily married for 30 years — to suggest it doesn’t work that way.

The insight that you should nurture the relationship between your sleeping and waking selves is — like most of the intelligent observations you’ll read in these pages — not my own. Rubin Naiman, author of Healing Night, The Science and Spirit of Sleep-ing, Dreaming, and Awakening, is the leading sleep expert in the nation. I’ve been privileged to call him a friend for a decade.

“I urge you to fall in love with sleep,” Naiman once told me.

It’s brilliant advice because it is based on a deep truth. Your waking self is not the only “real” you, just as you are not the only “real” person in your marriage or relationship. You’ve been encour-aged to think that way because modern life aims to wring the last juicy bit of profitable wak-ing-hours productivity out of all

continued on next page >>>

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

Ever feel like a failure at sleeping? I certainly have.

We both know how it goes.

Hit the sack at 11. Set the iPhone for 7. Eyes closed.

Then, in myriad ways, our plans to log a solid eight hours begins, as the Scots would say, gang agley.

Some nights, we can’t fall asleep. Others, we’re up from midnight–3:00. Still others, we’re up at 5:00 and, though far from refreshed, just can’t get back to dreamland.

The following day requires copious coffee, carbs, and concerted effort just to stay awake as the boss tells the staff, once again, that the company must remain “110 percent commit-ted” to excellence, or authenticity, or some damn thing.

Part of our trouble is due to the usual slumber-robbing suspects: too much caffeine and stress, too little exercise and daily solar exposure. Lifestyle, food, and supplement choices can help with all of these, and I am an enthusiastic supporter of all three.

But it’s important to note that part of the problem is built into the idea that eight continuous nighttime hours is the optimal way for human beings to sleep.

Sleep scientists call this pattern consolidated sleep. As a social and personal ideal, it’s only about 200 years old. It’s largely the result of the gas, then electric, light’s abil-ity to tack hours of brilliant, sun-simulating illumination onto the end of each day.

Since the productive “day” is now 16 hours long, the only way to log eight hours of sleep has become squeezing them into one block.

But there are other, potentially better ways to sleep.

Historian A. Roger Ekirch spent 16 years digging up over 500 pre-industrial sleep-pattern references dating back to ancient Greece. In his fascinating book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, he makes a convincing case that segmented sleep used to be the norm in Western Europe and possibly the world.1

Most typically, people had two distinct sleep periods, called first

Natural HealthBrad Lemley’s

SolutionsJULY 2015, VOLUME 1 | Issue 4

Five Proven Benefits of Coconut Oil

The Uncomfortable Truth About Cardio

An Insidious Drain on Your Health and Life Span

The Diet Soda Scam

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Gorgonzola

3

5

6

7

8

WHAT’S INSIDE

“Sleep is like a cat — it comes when it will, and chasing af-ter it ensures it will return even later

than usual.”

2 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

and second sleep, divided by one–three hours of wakefulness shortly after midnight.

During this interlude, sometimes called “the watch,” people talked, smoked, prayed, even chat-ted with neighbors or rounded up stray herds.

Thomas Jefferson par-ticularly enjoyed writ-ing during the silent, distraction-free hours of the watch. Ben Franklin took “cold air baths” while reading naked in a chair.

A further diversion popular during the watch was as old as sleep itself. Sixteenth-century French physician Laurent Joubert concluded that sex during the watch “enabled plow-men, artisans, and other laborers to beget numerous children,” because the refreshment these exhausted folks felt after the first sleep allowed them to have “more enjoyment” and “do it better.”

This means, as Ekirch explained to The New York Times, that what’s labeled a sleep disorder these days “may simply be this traditional pattern, this normal pattern, reasserting itself. It’s

the seamless sleep that we aspire to that’s the anomaly, the creation of the modern world.’’

In fact, it does not appear to be difficult to engineer an environment that awakens, so to speak, this ancient rhythm. A

National Institute of Mental Health study notes that “human subjects, deprived of artificial light at night over a span of several weeks, even-tually exhibited a pattern of broken slumber — one practically identical to that of preindustrial households.”

So…

I used to play out the modern, com-mon scenario — wake at 3 a.m. and try, desperately, to get back to sleep immediately, knowing that failure meant another zombified day ahead.

But trying urgently to sleep never works. Sleep is like a cat — it comes when it will, and chasing after it ensures it will return even later than usual, probably with a bad temper.

Since I learned about two-segment sleep several years ago, the solution I’ve found is twofold:

• The hard part: Go to bed earlier. Many Americans are actually ashamed to turn in early, as it suggests being unproductive, boring, and/or old. It also takes discipline, as

of us, foot soldiers in the indus-trial-cum-digital revolution.

But it does not work. An idée fixe that what you can accomplish while awake is all that matters leads, paradoxically, to both bad sleep and bad wakefulness.

“The problem with virtually everything that’s written about sleep is that it’s from an awake-centric perspective,” Naiman told me. “I like to use the phrase ‘the treasure of sleep.’ If you can see sleep as a treasure rather than an inconvenience, everything changes.”

Deciding to fall in love with sleep changes everything. You come to realize that sleep in and of itself — with its gentle release of physical and mental tensions, exotic dreamscapes, and magi-cal ability to allow the brain to assimilate the day’s data — is as worthy of true love as any part of your waking life.

So there is nothing at all wrong with taking the nuts and bolts of “sleep hygiene” seriously. Exer-cise, eat right, take appropriate supplements — all can improve your sleep immensely.

But do it for sleep, not for what sleep can do for you in your waking life. Both of your lives — which are, of course, one life — will become immeasurably better.

Sincerely,

Brad Lemley Editor, Natural Health Solutions

Falling in Love With Sleep continued from Page 1

Copyright © 2015 by Brad Lemley’s Natural Health Solutions, 808 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202-2406. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced by any means or for any reason without the consent of the publisher. The information contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

All material in this publication is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. No action should be taken based solely on the contents of this publication; instead, readers should consult appropriate health professionals on any matter relating to their health and well-being. The information and opinions provided in this publication are believed to be accurate and sound, based on the best judgment available to the authors, but readers who fail to consult with appropriate health authorities assume the risk of any injuries. The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

Contact our Customer Care Center:

1-877-453-1177 or 443-268-0474

or e-mail contact@lfb.org

Natural Health Solutions is published monthly for US $99 per year by Laissez Faire Books LLC, 808 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202-2406, www.lfb.org. Laissez Faire Club President: Addison Wiggin Club Director: Doug Hill; Managing Editor: Luke McGrath; Graphic Design: Mena Fusco

“Part of the problem is built into the idea that eight continu-ous nighttime hours is the optimal way for human beings

to sleep.”

3brad lemley’s natural health solutions

electrification has packed the night with glowing, entranc-ing entertainments. But turn-ing in at 9 p.m. gives you 10 hours until 7 a.m. — eight hours for sleep and two for the nightly watch

• The easy part: En-joy being awake at night. During the watch, I calmly turn to small, quiet occupations such as read-ing, writing, making story idea

lists (this idea came from last night’s list), and generally just enjoying the peace and quiet.

Even embracing this pat-tern, I don’t always sleep perfectly. No one does. In fact, I doubt any such Platonic ideal as perfect sleep exists. I will say that I sleep more than I did before and feel more

rested during the day. (I also credit a sleep supplement that features L-theanine, which reduced my waking

from three or more times nightly to just once.)

For this new view of sleep, I thank historical investigators such as Roger Ekirch, who set out in his book to defy the dictum that history is “only the history of waking men.” Sleeping men and women have fascinating stories to tell as well.

Citations

1. Ekirch, A. Roger. At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition. Oct 17, 2006.

Contributor ListBrad Lemley, Editor, Natural Health Solutions; Jasmine LeMaster, Health Researcher; Nate Rifkin, Underground Health Researcher; Mark Sisson, Founder, Mark’s Daily Apple; Todd Becker, Founder, Getting Stronger; Kris Gunnars, Chief Editor, Authority Nutrition; Addison Wiggin, Laissez Faire Club President; Doug Hill, Laissez Faire Club Director; Luke McGrath, Managing Editor.

“Segmented sleep used to be the

norm in Western Europe and possi-

bly the world.”

Five Proven Benefits of Coconut OilA Once-Shunned Dietary Fat Makes a Well-Deserved Comeback

by Kris Gunnars Authority Nutrition

Coconut oil is one of the few foods that can be classified as a “super-food.”

Its unique combination of fatty acids can have profound positive effects on your health, including fat loss, better brain function, and various other amazing benefits.

Following are the top five health benefits of coconut oil that have been experimentally confirmed in human studies.

1. Coconut Oil Contains a Unique Combination of Fatty Acids With Powerful Medicinal Properties

Coconut oil has been demonized in the past because it contains saturat-ed fat. In fact, it’s one of the richest sources of saturated fat known to man, with almost 90 percent of the fatty acids in it being saturated.

However, new data are showing that saturated fats are harmless.

Many massive studies that include hundreds of thousands of people prove that the whole “artery-clog-ging” idea was a myth.1

Additionally, coconut oil doesn’t contain your average run-of-the-mill saturated fats like you would find in cheese or steak.

No, they contain so-called medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) — which are fatty acids of a medium length.

Most of the fatty acids in the diet are long-chain fatty acids, but the medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are metabolized differently.

They go straight to the liver from the digestive tract, where they are used as a quick source energy or turned into so-called ketone bodies, which can have therapeutic effects on brain disorders like epilepsy and Alzheimer’s.

Bottom Line: Coconut oil contains

a lot of medium-chain triglycerides, which are metabolized differently and can have therapeutic effects on several brain disorders.

2. Populations That Eat a Lot of Coconut Are Among the Healthi-est People on the Planet

Coconut is kind of an “exotic” food in the Western world primarily consumed by health-conscious people.

However, in some parts of the world, coconut is a dietary staple that people have thrived on for many generations.

The best example of such a popula-tion are the Tokelauans, who live in the South Pacific. Over 60 percent of their calories come from co-conuts, making them the biggest consumers of saturated fat in the world. These people are in excel-lent health, with no evidence of heart disease.2

Another example of a popula-tion that eats a lot of coconut and

“Coconut oil is loaded with satu-rated fats, which actually do not

harm the blood lipid profile like previ-ously thought.”

4 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

remains in excellent health are the Kitavans of Papua New Guinea.

Bottom Line: Plenty of populations around the world have thrived for multiple generations eating massive amounts of coconut.

3. Coconut Oil Can Increase Your Energy Expenditure, Helping You Burn More Fat

Obesity is currently one of the big-gest health problems in the world.

While some people think obesity is only a matter of calories, others (my-self included) believe that the sources of those calories are critical too.

It is a fact that different foods affect our bodies and hormones in differ-ent ways. In this regard, a calorie is not a calorie.

The medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) in coconut oil can increase energy expenditure compared with the same amount of calories from longer-chain fats.

One study found that 15–30 grams of MCTs per day increased 24-hour energy expenditure by 5 percent, totalling about 120 calories per day.3

Bottom Line: The medium-chain triglycerides in coconut oil have

been shown to increase 24-hour energy expen-diture by as much as 5 percent, potentially leading to significant weight loss over the long term.

4. Coconut Oil Can Kill Your Hunger, Making You Eat Less Without Even Trying

One interesting feature of coconut oil is that it can reduce your hunger.

This may be related to the way the fatty acids in it are metabolized, because ketone bodies can have an appetite-reducing effect.4

In one study, varying amounts of medium- and long-chain triglyc-erides were fed to six healthy men. The men eating the most MCTs ate 256 fewer calories per day on average.

Another study in 14 healthy men discovered that those who ate the most MCTs at breakfast ate signifi-cantly fewer calories at lunch.

These studies were small and only done for a short time. If this effect were to persist over the long term, it could have a dramatic influence on body weight over a period of several years.

Bottom Line: The fatty acids in coconut oil can significantly reduce appetite, which may positively affect body weight over the long term.

5. Coconut Oil Can Improve Blood Cholesterol Levels and May Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease

Coconut oil is loaded with saturat-ed fats, which actually do not harm the blood lipid profile like previ-ously thought.

Saturated fats raise HDL (the good) cholesterol and change the LDL cholesterol to a benign subtype.

In one study in 40 women, coconut oil reduced total and LDL cholester-ol while increasing HDL compared against soybean oil.5

There are also rat studies showing that coconut oil reduces triglycerides and total and LDL cholesterol, increases HDL, and improves blood coagula-tion factors and antioxidant status.

This improvement in cardiovascular risk factors should theoretically lead to a reduced risk of heart disease over the long term.

Bottom Line: Studies in both hu-mans and rats show that coconut oil

improves important risk factors like total, LDL and HDL cholesterol, which may translate to a reduced risk of heart disease.

Citations

1. Patty W Siri-Tarino, Qi Sun, Frank B Hu, Ronald

M Krauss. Meta-analysis of prospective cohort

studies evaluating the association of saturated

fat with cardiovascular disease. Am J Clin Nutr

2010. First published online January 13, 2010.

2. I A Prior, F Davidson, C E Salmond and Z Czo-

chanska. Cholesterol, coconuts, and diet on Poly-

nesian atolls: a natural experiment: the Pukapuka

and Tokelau island studies. Am J Clin Nutr 1981.

3. Dulloo AG, Fathi M, Mensi N, Girardier L. Twenty-

four-hour energy expenditure and urinary catechol-

amines of humans consuming low-to-moderate

amounts of medium-chain triglycerides: a dose-

response study in a human respiratory chamber.

Eur J Clin Nutr. 1996 March.

4. McClernon FJ, Yancy WS Jr, Eberstein JA, Atkins

RC, Westman EC. The effects of a low-carbohy-

drate ketogenic diet and a low-fat diet on mood,

hunger, and other self-reported symptoms.

Obesity (Silver Spring). 2007 January.

5. Assunção ML, Ferreira HS, dos Santos AF, Cabral CR

Jr, Florêncio TM. Effects of dietary coconut oil on the

biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women

presenting abdominal obesity. Lipids. 2009 July.

Kris Gunnars is CEO and founder of Authority Nutrition.

“The medium-chain triglycerides in co-conut oil have been shown to increase

24-hour energy expenditure by as

much as 5 percent.”

“Coconut oil doesn’t contain your aver-age run-of-the-mill saturated fats like you would find in cheese or steak.”

5brad lemley’s natural health solutions

The Uncomfortable Truth About CardioWhen It Comes to Burning Fat, It’s Not All It’s Cracked Up to Beby Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

Running (truthfully, jogging) has been my exercise of choice since I was 20.

It seemed to keep the bulges at bay for a couple of decades, but as age 50 approached, roughly 25 pounds of avoirdupois had formed a “muffin top” cantilevered over my ever-tighter jeans.

How could this happen? I was grit-ting it out, still jogging daily, even in 100-degree Phoenix heat. I am a pretty disciplined guy about eating, too — no sodas and little to no sugar, refined carbs, or grains in general.

So I kicked it into higher gear and trained for and completed multiple half-marathons. This trimmed the overhang a bit, but post-race, the weight always came roaring back and then some.

It was almost as if the jogging was making me fatter.

As it turns out, recent research re-

veals that it wasn’t my imagination. Sustained, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise — popularly termed “cardio” — trains our bodies to accumulate fat, particularly as we get older.

How?

First, the body accli-mates to these sus-tained levels of aerobic exercise and becomes ever more efficient at fueling them, leaving us two unpalatable choices:

• Continually boost duration/intensity

• Eat progressively less to maintain the same muscle-to-fat ratio.

It’s especially cruel because car-dio has been definitively shown to increase appetite. In fact, stud-ies show that people eat about 100 calories more than the calories they burn through cardio workouts.

Adding to the problem, the body naturally loses muscle mass over time — 5–7 pounds per decade after about age 20, accelerating to roughly 10

pounds in the span from ages 60–70.

Since muscles, even at rest, burn roughly three times the calories that fatty tissue does, losing muscle reduces your 24/7 metabolic rate.

Result: Those unburned calories hang around as fat, particularly belly fat.

Cardio doesn’t help much, because it can further reduce muscle size and density beyond natural age-related losses by scavenging muscles for fuel sources. If you doubt this, Google photos of marathon runners — their toothpick arms reveal shockingly little muscle mass.

What we want to do is increase mus-cle mass, and, therefore, metabolic activity, burning away the annoying middle-age spread day in and day out, even when we rest.

Turns out that weight training is the best way to do that.

A long-term study of healthy mid-dle-aged men who ranged from thin to overweight looked at the effects of weight training versus cardio on abdominal fat and muscle mass.1

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that 20 minutes of weight training was superior to 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous cardio in reducing abdominal fat. It also showed increased muscle mass in the weight-training group was a key factor in keeping their base metabolic rate up and the fat at bay.

Now, running has its place — par-ticularly high-intensity versions like sprints and intervals, which appear to “turn on” the protein synthesis that builds muscles, similar to weight training. This explains why champion sprinters sport muscular arms and shoulders, even though their workouts may include little to no weightlifting.

“Sustained, moder-ate-intensity aerobic exercise — popularly

termed ‘cardio’ — trains our bodies to

accumulate fat.”

6 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

So is long, moderate cardio use-less? Not at all. Especially if you are new to exercise and overweight, this kind of exercise can help you lose fat — until the body becomes efficient at fueling your efforts.

But if you’ve been around the block a few times, the best way to drop fat and keep it off is to emphasize the kind

of exercise that maximizes muscu-lar size and strength.

Consequently, I’m in the gym circuit training at least five times a week in the winter. I switch to serious high-intensity interval swim-ming in summer. I throw in some long bike rides (which can build serious

muscle — check a pro cyclist’s quad-riceps) to round out the week.

I jog perhaps once every two weeks, just to keep loose, but when I get busy, it’s the first activity I jettison.

So far, the muffin top remains at bay.

Citations

1. Rania A. Mekary, Anders Grøntved, Jean-Pierre

Despres, Leandro Pereira De Moura, Morteza As-

garzadeh, Walter C. Willett, Eric B. Rimm, Edward

Giovannucci, Frank B. Hu. Weight training, aerobic

physical activities, and long-term waist circumfer-

ence change in men. Obesity, 2014.

“A University of Cambridge study found time spent watching TV was

associated with all-cause mortality.”

“Is long, moderate cardio useless? Not at all. Especially if

you are new to exer-cise and overweight.”

An Insidious Drain on Your Health and Life SpanThe High Cost of Watching Televisionby Nate RifkinUnderground Health Researcher

In an episode of The Simpsons, Police Chief Wiggum and his wife are watching television

while resting in bed when the signal suddenly cuts out. An automated announcer reports, “Your cable TV is experiencing difficulties. Please do not panic. Resist the temptation to read or talk to loved ones. Do not

attempt sexual relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless.”

Wiggum lifts the blankets to check and confirms, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

This short sketch isn’t too far from reality.

I won’t bore you with statistics asso-

ciating television with obesity. You might already have an inkling that

sitting on your duff for hours while eating chips may have something to do with gaining weight. So here are some more interesting figures:

A 2015 study out of the U.K. found that, among

men and women aged 48–92, the more television they watched per day, the slower their average walk-ing speed.1

Here’s why you should care: A 2011 study found walking speed was as-sociated with longevity.2

OK, one more: A University of Cambridge study found time spent watching TV was associated with all-cause mortality.3 There. Are we all in agreement that television sucks… the life out of you?

This issue is near and dear to my heart because I’ve flushed years down the toilet staring at the idiot box… and I’m not alone. There are all kinds of statistics showing the average American watches almost five hours per day.

That could add up to 16.2 years of your life!

Steve Kelley Editorial Cartoon used with permission of Steve Kelley and Creators Syndicate. All rights reserved.

7brad lemley’s natural health solutions

“Cancel your cable. Toss the television in the garbage. At the very least, get

a DVR.”

Nate Rifkin is an obsessed health and mind-power researcher and author. To hear more from Nate, visit his website: www.NateRifkin.com.

I “woke up” when I asked myself, “Nate… if you took all the time that you spend watching television today… and dedicated that time to exercise, meditation, and work-ing on your business instead… how much more progress would you make?”

The answer shook my world. So I told my cable company to cancel my service. As a result, I became more productive, happy, and ful-filled. I began writing more, and

creative ideas flooded my brain. And my income went up.

So what’s the best action plan for you?

Cancel your cable. Toss the television in the gar-bage. At the very least, get a DVR, so you can pick and choose what

you want to watch when you want to watch it. Counterintuitively, this will actually reduce your TV time, because you’ll find your standards going up. Plus, it’s a friendly option

in case you have a TV-loving spouse (say it’s a gift for him or her!).

Citations

1. Keevil VL et. al., Med Sci Sports Exerc. April 2015.

2. Studenski S, Perera S, Patel K, et al. Gait Speed and Survival in Older Adults. JAMA. 2011.

3. Katrien Wijndaele, et. al., Television viewing time independently predicts all-cause and car-diovascular mortality: the EPIC Norfolk Study Int. J. Epidemiol. first published online June 23, 2010.

by Jasmine LeMasterHealth Researcher

Ever notice the differ-ence between the folks in a diet soda commercial versus the people in real

life you see drinking diet soda?

Not only are the people in the com-mercials all young, good-looking, and having tons of fun, but they’re also quite svelte. But it seems three out of four people you see in real life drinking diet soda are somewhere

on the spectrum between over-weight and obese.

It’s probably no coincidence. A new study suggests that there may not be just a correlation between being drinking diet soda and overweight, but perhaps a causation.

The new study examined 749 individ-uals over the age of 65 for about 9.5 years.1 Every two years, researchers had the study participants estimate their average diet soda intake.

The results were striking.

Those who drank no diet soda experienced a waist circumference increase of less than an inch over the 9.5 years. Occasional diet soda drinkers gained 1.83 inches. Surpris-ing even to the study authors, how-ever, was what happened to those who drank the most diet soda: Their waists expanded by over 3 inches!

The authors theorized that artificial sweeteners actual drive our desire for additional consumption of sugar and carbohydrates in general because our bodies aren’t getting the calories that they expect to follow the sensation of a sweet taste.

Studies in mice have shown that

fake sugars actually mess up the gut bacteria and increase the risk of insulin resistance and glucose intoler-ance, which can lead to weight gain. Artificial sweeteners have also been shown to reduce leptin, which is the hormone that inhibits hunger.

Though the diet soda industry would have you think otherwise, diet soda is not a good way to help you lose weight. Coupled with all of the other potential health concerns that have been linked to artificial noncaloric sweeteners — including increased risks of several kinds of cancer, mul-tiple sclerosis, and gut dysfunction — your best bet is to stay as far away from these fake foods as possible.

If you want a fizzy drink, try spar-kling water flavored with a squeeze of lemon or lime.

Citations

1. Fowler et al. Diet Soda Intake Is Associated with Long-Term Increases in Waist Circumference in a Biethnic Cohort of Older Adults: The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging. J Am Geriatr Soc., March 2015.

Jasmine LeMaster is head of quality assurance for Laissez Faire’s Living Well brand and is an integral part of their product research and development team.

The Diet Soda ScamDrinking Diet Soda Does Not Lead to Weight Loss

8 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

Brad Lemley is a science and health writer and former senior correspon-dent for The Washington Post and Discover magazine.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and GorgonzolaHigh Fat, Low Carb, Maximally Deliciousby Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

In recent weeks, my wife, Laurie, and I ate a swath through three American cities with active culinary scenes — Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Portland, Oregon, — and were pleased to find a variation on this dish featured in “foodie” desti-nation restaurants in each city.

Clearly, Brussels sprouts, bacon, and Gorgonzola are having a mu-tual moment in U.S. food culture. And why not?:

• While mushy steamed or boiled Brussels sprouts offend man and God, these miniature crucifers offer delightfully nutty-sweet taste and appealing toothsome texture if treated with dry heat and respect. Brussels sprouts are, in my view, close to the perfect vegetable: filling, highly nutritious (especially rich in vitamins K and C) and offering po-tent protection against cancer due to their abundance of glucosinolate, a major chemical building block of numerous cancer-protective compounds created by the body

• Gorgonzola, the love child of full-fat cow’s milk and Penicillium glaucum, is the Italian upgrade of French bleu cheese and utterly irresistible. Look for the real deal, imported from the north Italian regions of Lombardy and Pied-

mont, where they give it a full four months to ripen

• Do I — does anyone — need to explain bacon’s appeal? I recom-mend digging deep and getting a quality, locally-sourced, thick-cut variety. Expensive, but this recipe does not use much.

So back at the Arizona homestead, Laurie began replicating, crossbreed-ing, and selectively upgrading the delightful dishes we found and came up with this “recombinant” synthesis.

IngredientsOne pound Brussels sprouts

½ cup virgin coconut oil

Three slices of thick-cut natural bacon

1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola

Salt to taste

DirectionsFry bacon until just short of crisp. (You can also bake it, using parch-

ment on a baking sheet, at 350 F for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. I do this on weekends with a pound of bacon and then throw pieces into salads and other dishes throughout the week.)

Rinse the sprouts, remove their stem ends, and cut into pieces roughly 1/2 inch square.

Saute sprouts in about 1/4 cup co-conut oil until they start to brown, roughly 10 minutes.

Salt to taste. We use about 1 tea-spoon coarse or ½ teaspoon fine salt.

Transfer to baking sheet, put into 475-degree preheated oven. Give it a stir just once when the sprout tips get brown. Roast about 10 minutes total.

Remove from oven and stir in chopped bacon and coarsely crum-bled Gorgonzola. Let sit for five minutes and eat.

U.S. Seniors Now Eligible To Benefit From “Canadian Social

Security”

Without living, working or even visit-ing Canada… Thousands of Americans

are now receiving up to $4,700 in “monthly benefits” by piggybacking “Canadian Social Security.” A new

website shows you how…

Click here to discover it now.