Dirty Secrets of the Mediterranean DietIt’s More Hype Than Substance…

Spare Me From Fictional Diets!

I’ve been writing about nutri-tion for nearly two decades now, and I must say — the Mediterranean Diet, also about two decades old, has been the bane of my existence.

The fact that this diet even exists is incontrovertible evi-dence that American dietary recommendations are based on corporate profit potential and cultural bias… with sci-entific efficacy coming up a distant third.

Think that’s too harsh? Then here’s a question:

What’s essential about grains?

If a healthy diet consists of fish, olive oil, vegetables, fruits, and grains — whole or other-wise — what essential nutrients (popularly known as vitamins and minerals) do grains add to that mix?

Consider the nutrient profile and percent daily value of 100 grams of the following foods:

continued on next page >>>

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

For the last 25 years, mainstream nutrition writers have touted the Mediterranean Diet as

the absolute, incontrovertible, ne plus ultra way to eat.

And what is it, exactly? Here’s the graphic representation:

Got it? It’s pretty simple.

Meat is bad — as bad as candy! Fish, eggs, and dairy — OK. Plant-derived foods — even carb-inten-sive ones, such as grains — good! Olive oil is good too; it’s essentially the only acceptable form of fat.

Since the early ’90s, a nonprofit group called Oldways has been the

principal force pushing this diet re-lentlessly on the Web and elsewhere.

Here’s Oldways’ description of the diet:

The Mediterranean Diet is a way of eating based on the tradi-tional foods (and drinks) of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea… It has been studied and noted by scores of leading scientists as one of the healthiest in the world.

Yet…

Virtually no one, including its many worshippers, understands certain basic facts about this diet — facts that cast it in a decidedly less favorable light.

Look closer and it becomes clear that the reason the MD has a lock on American nutrition recommen-dations has more to do with cor-porate agendas and profit potential than incidentals such as your health.

So let’s explore three truths.

1. There is no such thing as a Mediterranean Diet, except in the fevered brains of nutrition aca-demics bribed by Aegean junkets.

First-rate journalist Nina Teicholz did the world a great service in her 2014 book The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat, & Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by digging into the MD’s dodgy origins.

As she points out, there are many different diets followed by the Euro-peans and North Africans on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea:

The Mediterranean Diet with

Natural HealthBrad Lemley’s

SolutionsNOVEMBER 2015, VOLUME 1 | Issue 8

The Heart-Health Threat as Dangerous as Smoking

A Vitamin Almost Everyone Should Be Taking

Delicious… but Toxic

Stop Doing This Now

To Flip — or Not to Flip?

4

5

678

WHAT’S INSIDE

WHEATVitamin A: 0%

Vitamin C: 0%

Iron: 19%

Vitamin B-6: 20%

Vitamin B-12: 0%

KALEVitamin A: 133%

Vitamin C: 134%

Iron: 5%

Vitamin B-6: 10%

Vitamin B-12: 0%

BEEF LIVERVitamin A: 813%

Vitamin C: 28%

Iron: 177%

Vitamin B-6: 54%

Vitamin B-12: 1083%

Meats &

sweets

Poultry, eggs cheese & yogurt

Fish & seafood

Fruits, vegetables, grains (mostly whole), olive oil, beans, nuts, legumes, seeds,

herbs & spices

2 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

a capital “D,” the nutritional concept and program that has been endorsed worldwide by sci-entists and government bodies alike, didn’t really exist before the nutrition experts themselves invented it.

Consider... though France occupies a big chunk of the Mediterranean coast, the “experts” concocting the MD tossed out the French diet alto-gether. The fact that it’s high in satu-rated fat yet heart-healthy (France has the lowest cardiovascular disease rate in Europe) didn’t fit their agenda.

Further, some of the diet’s princi-ples are based on research into what peasants in Crete ate in the 1950s. These folks seemed to consume very little meat or dairy. But according to Teicholz:

• This survey hap-pened right after WWII, when food supplies were still scarce

• Astoundingly, “Their diet was sampled during Lent, when animal foods were severely restricted.”

As it turns out, the MD was largely a from-scratch creation of Anto-nia Trichopoulou, a professor at the University of Athens Medical School. It rose to prominence in the 1990s via a variant of junk science that might be called junket science. Again from Teicholz:

The method involved inviting academic researchers, food writers, and health authorities into a slice of paradise: travel, free of charge, to some sun-kissed country

around the gorgeous Mediter-ranean Sea, for the purpose of a scientific conference… In Italy, Greece, and even Tunisia, scientists rubbed elbows with cookbook au-thors, chefs, journalists, and public officials. Harvard provided the scientific prestige, while Oldways organized the financing.

According to Teicholz, Oldways organized an astounding 50 con-ferences between 1993–2004 — which, you may recall, is the decade in which the MD transitioned from unknown to dietary dogma.

Oldways teamed up with the Interna-tional Olive Council to sponsor these events, got some big, grain-pushing American food companies to help

foot the bill, et voilà — a grain-and-olive-oil-cen-tric diet was born!

Meanwhile, the research-ers ignored the more meaty, less “grainy” diets of, for example, Mongo-lia, Siberia, and Germany.

All of these also had long-lived populations and low heart disease rates — but they possessed, as Tei-cholz puts it, “fewer sun-drenched conference spots.”

2. Actual clinical trials are show-ing that a diet higher in animal protein and/or saturated fat, and lower in carbohydrates, decisively trounces the MD in virtually any health measure you choose.

Research that compares what’s termed a paleo or low-carb diet (consisting mainly of meats, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, and nuts) against the MD consistently indi-cates that the MD is sorely lacking.

The dismal quantity of vi-tamins and minerals found in wheat is typical of grains. Clearly, there are superior sources of micronutrients.

And as for fiber — vegetables have plenty, and whether the fi-ber in grains is actually healthy is highly debatable (see Mark Sisson’s article on Page 6 for more on this).

Wheat is clearly nutrient-poor and inflammatory as well.

I like a pizza and a crusty loaf of bread as much as the next guy, and I will eat a bit of wheat now and then at social events.

But in my view, everything you consume should contribute to your overall health. Grains — especially wheat — not only don’t help but have inflamma-tory and other health-robbing characteristics.

My advice: Take the good ele-ments from the Mediterranean Diet and leave the rest.

Sincerely,

Brad Lemley Editor, Natural Health Solutions

Spare Me From Fictional Diets! 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.

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“Research that com-pares a paleo or low-carb diet against the Mediterranean Diet consistently indi-

cates that the latter is sorely lacking.”

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Contributor ListBrad Lemley, Editor, Natural Health Solutions; Dave Asprey, founder, Bulletproof; 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; Andréa Albright, Founder, MyBikiniButt.com; Cecilia Wong, Founder, Cecilia Wong Skincare; Gary Watson, Founder, Wake the Fork Up; Addison Wiggin, Laissez Faire Club President; Doug Hill, Laissez Faire Club Director; Luke McGrath, Managing Editor.

The paleo diet:

• Provides more satiety (the feel-ing of fullness that lets you easily restrict calories)1

• Supports the heart health of people with a genetic tendency toward high cholesterol better than Mediterranean-type diets2

• Is far more successful when it comes to weight loss.3

The reason the MD seems so success-ful in studies is that many of its clinical trials pit it against the execrable “Stan-dard American Diet,” also known by the appropriate acronym SAD.

The fact that the MD beats out a diet rich in soda, doughnuts, and french fries does not necessarily mean it is the optimal human diet. Nutrition-ally, the SAD represents a very “low bar,” one that virtually any diet con-taining unprocessed food can hurdle.

3. Oldways, the nonprofit behind the Mediterranean Diet, has some interesting sponsors.

“Oldways’ mission is to guide peo-

ple to good health through heritage. We like to say let the old ways be your guide to good health and well-being,” reports its website.

Riiiiiiggghhht. Except grains and olive oil have been eaten in quantity for no more than 3,000 years.

Meats, vegetables, and fruits have been part of human diets for as long as there have been human beings. Depending on how you classify hominids, that’s any-where from 200,000–2 million years.

Grains, in particular, are relentlessly pushed. But not because they are “traditional.” Rather, thanks to modern tech-nology, they are cheap to grow, harvest, store, and process, so the potential profit margins are vast.

So what motivates Oldways? I would not care to speculate.

But according to Oldways’ web-site, its “recent supporters” roster includes grain-centric corporations

including Coca-Cola, Arby’s, Cargill, ConAgra, Domino’s Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts, Frito-Lay, General Mills, J.M. Smucker, Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, and Nestlé, as well as an assortment of bakery and snack companies.

The Good Aspects of the MDI like some aspects of the MD, espe-cially its emphasis on fish, vegeta-

bles, and fruits. These should be major parts of any healthy diet.

I think it’s also clear that olive oil — princi-pally a monounsaturat-ed fat — is a healthier choice than polyunsatu-rated seed-oil fats such

as corn, canola, or soy oil. The latter fats oxidize easily when heated, are highly inflammatory, and are prob-ably major drivers of heart disease.

But I’ve seen absolutely no evidence persuading me that that olive oil is a healthier choice than highly satu-rated oils such as coconut oil, but-ter, or leaf lard from free-range pigs. These oils, rather than olive oil, are the best choices for the principal fats in a healthy diet.

Bottom line: No one needs grains, whole or otherwise. Each mouthful of grain in the daily diet drives in-flammation and obesity and displac-es a potential mouthful of nutrient-dense animal or vegetable food.

The high-fat, real-food diet that I laid out in issue No. 3 is closer than the MD to many truly tra-ditional diets that have sustained healthy human populations for many millennia.

I stand by that recommendation.Citations available here.

“The reason the MD seems so success-ful in studies is that many of its clinical

trials pit it against the execrable ‘Standard

American Diet.’”

Mediterranean delights: can you pick the good foods from the bad?

4 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

The Heart-Health Threat as Dangerous as SmokingA 50-Year-Old Discovery Is Now Receiving the Attention It Deservesby Nate Rifkin Underground Health Researcher

In 1969, a young, hotshot medical researcher named Dr. Kilmer McCully made the discovery of a lifetime.1

He found that a certain amino acid in the bloodstream rips apart artery walls like a rabid wolf tearing open a freshly killed deer carcass.

His discovery was well received by the medical community. At least initially. But as he continued his in-vestigations, many of his colleagues at Harvard Medical School began to turn on him.

Even decades ago, medical schools were at the mercy of massive pharma-ceutical companies and government organizations that doled out funding.

The big money wanted to villainize cholesterol. Why? Because expen-

sive, patentable drugs could lower it. Anyone who went against this doctrine was considered an enemy.

“They moved my lab into the base-ment, where I had no contact with other people,” said Mc-Cully many years later.

“They made the situ-ation so unpleasant I decided I couldn’t work there.”

Shortly after leaving, a Canadian television show interviewed him. He got a call from the public-affairs director of his former hospital, Mas-sachusetts General. “He told me to shut up,” McCully recalls. “He said he didn’t want the names of Harvard and Mass General associated with my theories.”

As time went on, it seemed like Mass General made good on its

threat. Every time McCully applied for a new job, things would seem to go well… but then the opportuni-ty would suddenly evaporate.

McCully sniffed out rumors of “poison phone calls” from Har-vard. “It smelled to high heaven,” he said. “Eventually, I went to an attorney friend of mine… He made a few phone calls and it was all over.”

It would take four decades of patient, careful research be-

fore other scientists recognized the importance of his findings.

The dangerous amino acid Dr. McCully was researching is called homocysteine. And a 2014 study

published in The Journal of the American Medical Association found high homocysteine is as dangerous to your heart health as smoking!2

Precisely how homo-cysteine raises heart disease risk isn’t clear.

But as McCully discovered so many decades ago, this amino acid attacks the lining of arteries.

It may be that atherosclerosis (i.e., hardening of the arteries) is the result of the body’s attempt to heal those damaged arterial linings.

Plaques — roughly equivalent to scabs on wounds — accumulate as they patch the lesions. In the short term, the arteries narrow and stiffen, boosting blood pressure.

In the long term, they clot and burst, causing stroke and heart attack.

If that weren’t bad enough, homo-cysteine also shrinks your brain. Seriously.

Fortunately, it’s simple and cheap to keep your homocysteine levels in check (another reason you prob-ably haven’t heard about it before… selling this cure isn’t lucrative). How, exactly, do you do that? Jasmine LeMaster will show you.

Citations available here.

“Even decades ago, medical schools

were at the mercy of massive pharma-ceutical companies

and government organizations that doled out funding.”

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

5brad lemley’s natural health solutions

by Jasmine LeMaster Health Researcher

There are three vitamins that are crucial for keep-ing homocysteine levels low: B-6, B-12, and folate.

The good news is most Americans likely don’t need to supplement with B-6 or folate. If you eat a balanced diet with meat and seafood (for B-6) and dark, leafy greens (for folate), you’re likely getting enough of both.

If you do decide to supplement, you need to be careful with B-6, as too much can build up in the body and lead to nerve damage. And if you supplement with folate, never choose folic acid, which is the synthetic version of folate. Up to 39 percent of people have trouble metabolizing it. A buildup of unmetabolized folic acid has been linked to cancer.

(As an aside, most refined grain products like cereals, breads, and cereal bars have been fortified with folic acid. Just another reason to avoid these products!)

Vitamin B-12, on the other hand, is one almost everyone should con-sider taking. Research suggests that up to 40 percent of adults have low B-12 levels, and that statistic climbs with age. B-12 is plentiful in red meat, but the body requires sufficient stomach acid and a carbo-hydrate-protein compound produced by the stomach, called intrinsic factor, to absorb B-12 from the food you eat.

As you age, both stomach acid and intrinsic factor levels decrease, mak-ing B-12 deficiency a major problem. Many older adults also take medica-tions to lower stomach acid, further increasing their risk for low B-12.

In fact, the Institute of Medicine sug-

gests that all adults over age 50 take a B-12 supplement or eat foods forti-fied with B-12. And if you’re a vegan (i.e., you don’t eat any animal-based foods, not even eggs or milk), you absolutely must get B-12 from a supplement, as it does not occur naturally in plants.

Even though B-12 deficiency is so wide-spread, many doctors do not regularly test their patients’ blood levels. To make mat-ters worse, even though the “nor-mal” range for B-12 is 200–900 pico-grams per milliliter (pg/mL), you can be in the normal range and still suffer symptoms of B-12 deficiency.1

Aside from high homocysteine, other symptoms of B-12 deficiency include fatigue, neurological problems, poor memory, and mood disorders.

Getting enough of this vitamin is crucial to keeping your heart, brain, and nerves healthy.

Shellfish and animal liver are both excellent whole-food sources, but many people dislike or don’t have regular access to these foods.

For most of us — even those under 50 and those who eat animal-based foods regularly — supple-menting is usually a best choice.

Supplementing With B-12Not all B-12 supplements are cre-ated equal.

There are two main forms of B-12 in supplements: cyanocobalamin and methylcobalamin.

Cyanocobalamin is the B-12 mol-ecule attached to a cyanide molecule.

Supplement makers like this form because it is cheap and shelf-stable. However, as long as the two molecules remain bonded, it’s completely inac-tive in the body. The cyanide molecule

must be removed so that it can be converted to the active form of B-12.

Even though there is no definitive research show-ing that the amount of cyanide from this form of B-12 is harmful, why

take the chance and make your body go through an extra conversion pro-cess when better options are available?

The form of B-12 I recommend is methylcobalamin. It is already in the form that is bioactive in your body, so no conversion is necessary. By taking the methylcobalamin form of B-12, your body will use it to keep your homocysteine levels low.2

The other main thing to consider with B-12 supplements is the delivery system: capsule, liquid, or sublingual (under-the-tongue) tablets. So many people age 50 and older are deficient in B-12 because they lack the stom-ach acid and intrinsic factor neces-sary to absorb B-12. Both capsules and liquids still rely on stomach acid to be properly absorbed.

Sublingual tablets, however, don’t require digestion and can increase the absorption of B-12. Absorption from sublingual forms may be up to 10 times greater than capsule forms. With sublingual tablets, the tablet dissolves and is rapidly absorbed through the membranes in your mouth. There is also no need for wa-ter, making it much more convenient.

Citations available here.

A Vitamin Almost Everyone Should Be TakingIt’s Essential for a Healthy Heart, Brain, and Nerves… but Almost One in Two Are Deficient

“The Institute of Medicine suggests that all adults over age 50 take a B-12

supplement or eat foods fortified

with B-12.”

“Not all B-12 supplements are created equal.”

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.

6 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

by Mark Sisson Mark’s Daily Apple

Apart from maintain-ing social conventions in certain situations and obtaining cheap

sugar calories, there is absolutely no reason to eat grains. Believe me, I’ve searched far and wide and asked everyone I can for just one good reason to eat cereal grains. But no one can do it. They may have answers, but they just aren’t good enough. For fun, though, let’s see take a look at some of the assertions.

“You need the fiber!”OK, for one: No, I don’t. If you’re referring to its oft-touted abil-ity to move things along in the inner sanctum, fiber has some unintended consequences. A few years back, scientists found that high-fiber foods “bang up against the cells lining the gastrointestinal tract, rupturing their outer cover-ing,” which “increases the level of lubricating mucus.”1

Err, that sounds positively awful. Banging and tearing? Rupturing? These are not the words I like to hear.

But wait! The study’s authors say, “It’s a good thing.” Fantastic! So when all those sticks and twigs rub up against my fleshy interior and literally rupture my intestinal lining, I’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s all part of the plan, right?

Somehow, I’m not con-vinced that a massive daily infusion of insolu-ble grain fiber is all that essential.

And that “lubricating mucus” sounds an awful lot like the mucus people with irritable bowel syndrome complain about. From personal experience, I can tell you that once I completed my exodus from grains, the IBS completely stopped. If you’re not yet convinced on the fiber issue, I’ll refer you to Konstantin Monas-tyrsky’s terrific book Fiber Menace. Anyway, there’s plenty of fiber in the vegetables and fruit I eat. Which takes me to the next claim.

“You need the vita-mins and minerals!”You got me. I do need vitamins and minerals, like B-1 and B-2, magne-sium and iron, and zinc and potas-sium. But do I need to obtain them by eating a carb-heavy, bulky grain? No, no I don’t. You show me a serv-ing of “healthy whole grains” that can compete — in terms of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals — with a meal I call the “Big Ass Salad” (find it here). What’s that? Can’t do it? Thought so.

“Toxic anti-nutrients? Do tell.”Living things generally do not want to be consumed by other living things. Being digested, for the most part, tends to interrupt survival, procre-ation, and propagation of the species — you know, standard stuff that fauna and flora consider pretty important.

To avoid said consump-tion, living things em-ploy various self-defense mechanisms.

Rabbits, for example, with their massive ears, considerable fast-twitch muscle fibers, and nasty claws, can usually hear a predator coming, outrun (outhop?) nearly anything, and (in a pinch) slash a tender belly to shreds. Blue whales are too big to fit into your mouth, while porcupines are walking re-verse pincushions.

The point is animals have active defense mechanisms. They run, fight, jump, climb, fly, sting, bite, and even appeal to our emotions (if you’ve ever seen a puppy beg for a treat with sad eyes, you know that isn’t just acciden-tal cuteness) in order to survive. All the while, predators are constantly evolving and generating adaptations.

Delicious… but ToxicYes, Most People Love Them — but Here’s Why Grains Are Unhealthy

“I’m not convinced that a massive daily infusion of insoluble grain fiber is all that

essential.”

“Grains have toxic anti-nutrients:

lectins, gluten, and phytates.”

7brad lemley’s natural health solutions

“A surprising side effect of using the Premack principle is that unpleasant activities eventu-ally become more tolerable or even

pleasant.”

Plants, though, are passive organisms without the ability to move, think, and react (for the most part).

They must employ different tactics to ensure propagation, and they gen-erally have to rely on outside forces to spread their seed. And so various methods are “devised” to dissuade consumption long enough for the seed to get to where it’s going.

Nuts have those tough shells, and grains have toxic anti-nutrients: lectins, gluten, and phytates.

Lectins are bad. They bind to insu-lin receptors,2 attack the stomach lining of insects, bind to human intestinal lining,3 and seemingly cause leptin resistance.4 And leptin resistance predicts a “worsening of the features of the metabolic syn-drome independently of obesity.”5

Gluten and phytates are no better. Gluten can cause intestinal permeabil-ity (punch holes in the gut, allowing food particles to enter the blood-stream. The body interprets these as invaders, ramping up inflammation in response). And phytates interfere with

the body’s ability to absorb essential minerals. Fun stuff, huh?

We do not need grains to survive, let alone thrive. In fact, they are naturally selected to ward off pests, whether they be insects or hominids. I suggest we take the hint and stop eating them.

Citations available here.

Mark Sisson is the author of the best- selling book The Primal Blueprint; publisher of Mark’s Daily Apple, the world’s most well-trafficked blog on paleo, primal, and ancestral health; and owner of Primal Nutrition Inc.

Stop Doing This NowBeat Procrastination With the Most Effective Time-Management System Knownby Todd Becker Biotechnologist

There is a simple change you can implement today that will help you stop procrastinating.

It won’t cure it, but I think it will help. It’s called the Premack prin-ciple, named after David Premack, a behavioral psychologist who has studied the reinforcement of behav-ior. Here is what his principle says:

A high-probability behavior can serve as reinforcement for a low-probability behavior.

What that means in plain English is that something you really like do-ing (playing games, relaxing with a drink or good book, calling a friend) can make it easier to do an unpleas-ant activity — if you put the pleas-ant activity after the unpleasant one.

What David Premack understood is that pleasant tasks are reinforc-ing tasks. And so when we put reinforcing tasks after something, we get more of that something. Ergo, put the pleasant tasks last in the sequence! Sometimes this is called Grandma’s rule, because your

grandmother told you to eat your spinach first and then you can have your dessert.

The Premack principle also pro-vides us with the most effective time-manage-ment system known. Make a list of the things you have to do. Rank them from the thing you most like to do to the thing that you least like to do and then start at the bottom.

If you start at the bottom — with the thing you least like to do — a curious thing happens. As you move up the list and complete more items, the tasks become more rein-forcing. If you are like most people, you will be inclined to start at the top, but look what happens then: When you complete the first task, the next one is less desirable. The further you go, the more punishing the tasks become. Is it any wonder that people who start at the bottom get two or three times more done than those who start at the top?

I think this method is sheer genius, and it has helped me fight procras-

tination. One specific change I’ve made is to no longer start my day by checking email. I find reading email very “reinforcing,” so I do it

twice a day now: right before noon and again at the end of the day.

A surprising side effect of using the Premack principle is that un-pleasant activities eventually become more tolerable or even pleasant! This follows

from the principle of reinforcement. I didn’t believe it at first, but it has been validated by my experience.

[Brad’s note: In my view, Todd Beck-er is one of the pre-eminent health thinkers in the world today. His eru-dition is so deep and broad, however, that his articles are invariably long. I’ve excerpted this one but urge you to visit his blog, Getting Stronger, to absorb the scientifically validated things he has to say about harnessing stress to become more physically and psychologically powerful.]

Todd Becker is a staff scientist for a biotechnology company in Palo Alto and runs the blog Getting Stronger.

8 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

To Flip — or Not to Flip?Here’s How to Grill the Perfect Steakby Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

My wife, Laurie, and I eat steak roughly once a week. We’ve been married for 30 years. That’s north of 1,500 steak-cooking sessions, along with (cumulatively) days of book and online research on various techniques.

Suffice it to say, I’ve studied this.

The glories of steak as a regular meal are manifold — quick and easy to make, always delicious, and excep-tionally healthful. (I covered these benefits and more in the February 2015 issue.) To quickly recap, beef is an excellent source of vitamin B-12, vitamin D, and saturated fat — all of which promote brain and heart health.

We incline toward grass-fed, grass-finished beef whenever possible. We purchase from a local rancher, but even Trader Joe’s sells such steaks these days.

Now, my hard-won insights:

Cooking steaks outdoors on a propane or charcoal grill is abso-lutely, positively, the way to go.

They can be pan-fried, oven-broiled, and otherwise cooked indoors, but it is a godawful mess that invari-ably mucks up the oven, sets off the smoke alarm, and generally destroys domestic felicity.

Some people argue that propane makes an inferior steak compared to charcoal. That hasn’t been my experience. The ability to fine-tune temperature to create perfect doneness, I’ve found, more than compensates for any subtle flavor imparted by charcoal.

My local Lowe’s is practically giving propane grills away these days. Just $99, the price of a nice steak dinner for two at a good restaurant, will set you up with a small grill. The notion that grill cooking must wait on warm weather is nonsense — I cooked plen-ty of these in the snow in Maine. If you can’t stand to be outdoors in the cold for 10 minutes, you have more problems than I can address here.

Flip your steak more than once. There are two schools of thought

regarding flipping frequency — the flip-once school and the flip-more-than-once school. I am a firm believer in the second technique, due to the fluid dynamics of steak. Flipping often reverses the gravitational flow of juices, so they don’t drain out (the same princi-

ple that makes rotisserie meat so luscious).

So here’s the whole technique.

With all burners on high, preheat the

closed propane grill to 450 degrees F. This takes about five minutes.

Turn all burners to medium-low.

Put naked steaks on the grill. I don’t pre-salt or pre-pepper, as the former can draw juices out prema-turely and the latter gets burned.

If the steak is 1 inch thick, cook two minutes on each side, then one minute on each side, for a total of six minutes (I use my iPhone’s stopwatch feature).

If the steak is 1½–2 inches thick, cook three minutes on each side, then two minutes on each side, then one minute on each side, for a total of 12 minutes.

I always close the lid during these cooking intervals. Again, it seems to help keep dryness, the bane of a good steak, at bay.

Let the steak rest for 10 minutes before eating. It will keep cooking during that time, and warm steak tastes better than hot steak.

Yield: glorious, medium-rare steaks that never disappoint.

“Flipping your steak often reverses the

gravitational flow of juices, so they don’t

drain out.”

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