Uncensored Cure: Defeating Heart Disease with “Activator X”Lower Your Risk of Disease and Boost Overall Well-Being With This Incredible Nutrient

The Calcium Conundrum

I’m excited about this issue because we’re putting the smackdown on a major health fallacy — one that’s likely causing serious harm.

It centers on calcium.

At estimated 60 percent of American women over age 60 take calcium supplements — often at the urging of their physicians — to keep their bones strong.

After all, it seems to be common sense. Bones are made of calcium. Osteoporosis — literally, “porous bone” — appears to be an obvious sign of calcium shortage. So take calcium and all will be well.

Except… when it comes to some-thing as complex as metabolism, common sense can lead one astray.

A huge meta-analysis in the De-cember 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that taking calcium supplements doesn’t lower hip fracture risk in women or men.

In fact, it may increase it.

Then, results from a 2011 meta-analysis published in BMJ showed that taking calcium supplements — with or without vitamin D — signifi-cantly boosted the risk of heart at-tack or stroke in postmenopausal women.

So… taking the white pills leads to zero improvement in bone health and increased heart disease risk.

So what should you do to keep your bones and heart optimally healthy as you age?

In this issue, I take a close look at vitamin K2, and Jasmine LeMaster examines vitamin D3.

continued on next page >>>

by Brad Lemley Natural Health Solutions

To understand perhaps the most important nu-trient you can consume — one that dramatically

lowers risks of heart disease, osteo-porosis, and many other grave condi-tions — let’s visit a great year, and a great man.

The great year was 1945. The allies had just triumphed in WWII.

The great man was not, however, a war hero — at age 75, combat duty wasn’t an option. He was a mild-mannered Cleveland dentist named Weston A. Price.

And he was about to reveal an amazing substance to the world.

The Discovery of “Activator X”Throughout the 1930s, Price had crisscrossed the planet to study and write about the physical — includ-ing the dental — health of tradition-al societies.

His theory: The “industrialized” Western diet of the early 20th century — especially its flour, sugar, and veg-etable oils — was destroying Ameri-cans’ health. He could see it daily in the copious cavities and general lousy health of his dental patients.

But examining the teeth, bones, muscles, and heart health of Native Americans, Polynesians, Australian aborigines, and Inuit, he consis-tently found them impressive.

In his native subjects, he discovered little or no cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hemorrhoids, multiple sclerosis, Par-kinson’s or Alzheimer’s diseases, osteoporosis, or other ills of civilized life.

They tended to have robust mental health too, characterized by cheer-ful, gracious dispositions.

After publishing his seminal Nu-trition and Physical Degeneration in 1939, in 1945, he proposed that a “vitamin-like” substance that he termed “Activator X” was a major contributor to the enviable health of these native peoples.

It seemed to be abundant in the or-gans, milk, and fat of animals that ate fast-growing green grass in the spring and fall.

It was also rich in seafood includ-ing fish eggs, and in fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and Japanese nattō.

Natural HealthBrad Lemley’s

SolutionsSEPTEMBER 2015, VOLUME 1 | Issue 6

Where’d Your Food Come From?

An Invisible Source of Wellness

Power up Your Meal With These Potent Additives

Liver for Liver Haters

346

8

WHAT’S INSIDE

“People who con-sume more ‘Activator X’ tend to have lower all-cause mortality — meaning it lowers

the risk of dying from anything.”

2 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

Indigenous eaters who regularly consumed these foods displayed two particularly outstanding traits:

• A notable lack of cardiovascular disease

• Strong, well-developed bones, teeth, and overall facial structure.

Price died in 1948. Subsequent research has revealed that his “vita-min-like activator” was indeed a true vitamin, now known as vitamin K2.

A Special K PrimerFast-forward 67 years. Though Price accurately believed that his “Activa-tor X” was the most vital nutrient in a healthy diet, today relatively few people have heard of vitamin K.

That’s probably because most of the good research about its value is quite recent. The USDA didn’t even officially calculate the vitamin K levels in foods until 2006.

Even fewer know that it has two forms — K1 and K2. These both

prepare calcium to do tasks in the body. Aside from that, they are quite different:

• Vitamin K1, also known as phyl-loquinone, is abundant in green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and kale. The liver uses it to activate special proteins that bind to cal-cium and help to clot the blood

• Vitamin K2, or menaquinone, is found in fermented and animal-based foods. (Also, the human body converts K1 to K2 in the intestines, but very inefficiently — most must come directly from food.) Vitamin K2 tells calcium to go into bones and away from tissues.

Vitamin K1 deficiency appears to be rare, so I’m going to focus exclusive-ly on K2 for the rest of this article.

K2 is the most vital — and, for a generation of Americans who have been warned to avoid animal foods — the one in which we are most likely to be deficient.

At least one researcher — Dr. Kate Rhéaume-Bleue, author of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox: How a Little-Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life — has estimated that 80 percent of Americans are deficient in K2.

While that’s just an estimate (as nei-ther Daily Value nor optimal blood levels have been established for K2), that percentage sounds quite plau-sible based on my own research.

K2 Against Heart DiseaseOne of the major drivers of cardiovas-cular disease is a buildup of calcium

They are the missing links in the calcium chain.

These two nutrients work together to keep calcium crystals out of the blood vessels and within bones and teeth, where they belong.

Almost miraculously, K2 can even reverse arterial calcification.

So taking supplemental calcium without also consuming optimal amounts of K2 and D3 is a bit like trying to build a wall while drunk and blindfolded.

Conversely, adding K2 and D3 to your diet or supplement mix puts a cold-sober, sharp-eyed mason on the jobsite, directing virtually all of the calcium-crystal “bricks” where they belong.

Now… should you panic if you’ve been taking supplemental calcium?

Not necessarily. Another recent study including more than 74,000 women found no increase in heart disease in women who took calcium supplements. Welcome to the con-tradictory world of nutrition science!

So there is some ambiguity here, but the majority of evidence — combined with what we know about how calcium, K2, and D3 work together — points to the wis-dom of taking all three together.

So if your doc suggests calcium supplements, ask about K2 and D3 supplementation as well.

If you get a blank look, get another doc.

Sincerely,

Brad Lemley Editor, Natural Health Solutions

The Calcium Conundrum 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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Weston A. Price

3brad lemley’s natural health solutions

in the arteries around the heart.

Arteries “hardened” by rogue cal-cium are no longer supple — they are likely to clog, break, or both, causing heart attacks and strokes.

As it turns out, research shows vitamin K2 has a near-miraculous ability to keep calcium from encrusting the arteries.1

In one large European study, people with the highest intake of vita-min K2 were 52 percent less likely to have calcified arteries. They also had a 57 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease over a seven-to-10-year period.2

By contrast, the popular statin drugs do not reduce the risk of death for people with no history of heart dis-ease, they are expensive, and have multiple side effects.3

Better Bones… and More!Here is the “genius,” if you will, of K2. While preventing calcium from collecting in arteries, keeping them supple and resilient, it simultane-ously sends it to bones and teeth, making them stiff and strong.

It does this by stimulating the calci-um-binding activity of two proteins that help to build bones.

Seven trials of Japanese women found that vitamin K2 reduced spinal fractures by 60 percent, hip fractures by 77 percent, and all nonspinal fractures by 81 percent.4

And there appear to be plenty of other benefits from a higher-than-average K2 intake.

A study recently published by the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) showed increased K2 intake may reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent.5

Perhaps the most excit-ing result is that people who eat more vitamin K2 tend to have lower all-cause mortality — which simply means it lowers the risk of dying from anything.6

In short, K2 is a stunningly valu-able nutrient. It boosts the health and disease resistance of virtually every system in the body, including the bones, heart, skin, brain, and prostate.

The Two Best “Flavors” of Special KVitamin K2 comes in several forms. Those known as MK-4 and MK-7 are the two most significant from a health perspective.

They behave quite differently in the body.

The MK-4 form has a mere one-hour half-life. (Half-life means the time it takes half the measurable quantity of a substance to be metabolized.)

The MK-7 form’s half-life, however, is three days. This means consuming it regularly gives you a good chance at building up a therapeutically valu-able concentration in your blood.

Putting it all together, I recommend aiming for a minimum daily dose of about 180 micrograms of vita-min K2 in the MK-7 form. That’s an amount associated with better health in a variety of studies.

How to Get ItIdeally, you should obtain K2 from healthy animals that feast on grass (see the “Where’d Your Food Come From” sidebar for more information).

But if you lack access to grass-fed meat and foods produced by pasture-raised animals, what do you do if you want to keep your K2 levels optimal?

My favorite way is to buy the fermented soybean dish known as nattō from my local Asian grocer.

For just $1.99, I get four 46-gram (a little under two ounces) packets of frozen nattō, each in a polystyrene container. One of these yields about 600 micrograms of MK-7 vitamin K2.

That’s roughly three times the dose that research has found improves cardiovascular and bone health. Overdosing with K2 is unlikely

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; Addison Wiggin, Laissez Faire Club President; Doug Hill, Laissez Faire Club Director; Luke McGrath, Managing Editor.

“K2 boosts the health and disease resistance of virtu-ally every system in the body, including the bones, heart, skin, brain, and

prostate.”

Where’d Your Food Come From? A Word of Warning on K2Now that K2 is becoming somewhat better known, misinformation about how to consume more of it abounds. For example, the USDA has listed these foods as rich in K2:

• Nattō• Cheese • Eggs, especially the yolk• Butter• Liver• Chicken breast• Ground beef.

However, actual K2 concentration in these foods depends a great deal on their origin.

Weston Price himself analyzed some 20,000 butter samples from all over the world. He discovered that the concentration of “Activator X” varied 50-fold among them.

Animals that ate lush grass, rich in K1, produced copious amounts of K2 that showed up in their milk and fat.

Conversely, feedlot cattle, fed grain and storage hay, appear to produce milk and meat with little to no K2.

4 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

An Invisible Source of WellnessSolar Exposure Is Vital… But How Much Vitamin D3 Do You Really Need?by Jasmine LeMasterHealth Researcher

By now, you’re likely aware of the importance of vitamin D to overall health.

But the fact is many Americans aren’t getting enough.

Some experts estimate that up to 40 percent of the general population and nearly 100 percent of seniors are deficient in vitamin D. So how

much should you be getting to en-sure you don’t become deficient?

For light-skinned people, exposing your face and arms to sunlight long enough for your skin to just start turning pink results in your body producing 10,000–25,000 IUs of vitamin D. Those with darker skin may need longer exposure. Your body will produce only as much as you need, though, so you don’t have to worry about getting too much from sunlight alone.

Only UVB rays stimulate vitamin D production, so if you wear sunscreen or are exposed to sunlight through a window, UVB rays will be blocked and you won’t produce vitamin D.

Dr. Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology, and biophys-ics at Boston University Medical Center and author of The Vitamin D Solution, has been studying vitamin D for over 30 years. He states that you need to get sunlight between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to

— a study with rats showed that MK-7 doses more than 1,000 times higher than this resulted in no ill effects.7

So I eat one of these packets each morning. It does not take long. Each portion is about five small bites.

But Nattō Tastes Awful!However, you may never be able to accept to odd texture and flavor of nattō, which has been likened by Americans to “sweat socks,” “puke,” and, my favorite, “death itself.”

My wife, a typically adventurous eater, says it’s the one food that in-variably triggers her gag reflex.

Oddly enough, how-ever, I am not kidding when I say I love the stuff. I’ve gone from indifference to an absolute craving for my morning treat, which I think suggests, at a ba-sic level, my body simply needed it.

In my four-month experience with daily nattō, my health, generally good, has never been better.

In particular, my endurance has surged. As I write this, I sit in a coffee shop 20 miles from my home. I biked here in 105-degree Phoenix heat and was moving considerably faster in the last five miles than in the first five.

Aside from nattō, if you can find but-ter and cheese from grass-fed cattle, it likely has K2 in it — though, again, there is generally no way to know how much.

So for most Americans, the best way to get it is via a vitamin D3/K2 supplement.

Vitamin D3 and K2 make a potent, synergistic pair.

That’s because D3 helps the body ab-sorb (as opposed to excrete) calcium, while K2, as noted, tells it where to go.

You must make sure that the D3/K2 supplement provides K2 in MK-7 form, which gives it a long ef-fective life in the body. It should also be GMO-free.

However you get your K2, get ready to feel a subtle but unmistakable lift in your overall well-being. It is in-deed, as Price so wisely observed, an “Activator” with a profound ability to upgrade your overall health.

Citations available here.

A dish of nattō.

“Ideally, you should obtain K2 from healthy animals

that feast on grass.”

5brad lemley’s natural health solutions

“Only UVB rays stimulate vitamin

D production, so if you wear sunscreen or are exposed to sunlight through a window, UVB rays will be blocked.”

effectively produce vitamin D.

But if it’s winter and you live in the northern half of the U.S. or in Can-ada, you’ll get virtually no vitamin D synthesis, as UVB rays must pass through too much of Earth’s atmosphere due to the sun’s low angle.

The bottom line is, given all the variables, calculating the solar exposure needed to pro-duce sufficient vitamin D is tricky.

One way to do it precisely is to use this solar calculator developed by Norwegian researchers. It’s got a rather daunting user interface — you’ll need to do a little Googling to get info on your town’s altitude, latitude and longitude — but once you load in the basics, it will tell you everything you need to know.

Whether you use the calculator or not, if you spend a lot of time indoors, live at northern latitudes, and/or are over 40 (vitamin D conversion gets less efficient with age), you will probably need to take a vitamin D supplement to keep from becoming deficient.

SupplementationThe Institute of Medicine recom-mends 600 IU per day for adults up to age 70 and 800 IU for ages 70 and

above. The Endocrine Society recom-mends 1,500–2,000 IU per day. Some researchers say you may need 4,000 IU or more to get your blood levels in the optimal range.

With vitamin D, there is no perfect dose for everyone. You have to consider how much sun exposure you get, how much dietary vitamin D you eat, and what your vitamin D status is to begin with.

Really, the best and only way to know if you’re getting enough D is to have your blood levels checked often, preferably twice a year (end of summer and end of winter).

Blood LevelsAccording to Dr. Holick’s research, vita-min D levels should be at least 30 nanograms per milliliter (abbrevi-ated as ng/mL) to maxi-mize the use of dietary calcium, and the opti-mal range is between 40–60 ng/mL.

Up to 100 ng/mL is still consid-ered to be in the normal range, but there isn’t really enough evidence that there are any health benefits of blood levels over 50 ng/mL for the

general population.

If you don’t have insurance, or you prefer to test more often than your insurance allows, there are a few services that allow you to test at home and send the samples away for analysis. The least expensive one I could find is sold by the Vitamin D Council for $50. They also sell a four-pack for $180.

Can I Get Too Much Vitamin D?Vitamin D is fat soluble, so it can build up in your body. Therefore, it is pos-sible to get too much vitamin D. How-ever, research is showing that’s not as easy to do as previously thought.

Many doctors are reluctant to rec-ommend more than the RDA (600

IU) due to concerns of toxicity. Dr. Holick, however, performed a study in 2002 that dem-onstrated that 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily for six months resulted in no toxicity concerns.

And toxicity may be a concern only when vitamin K2 and vitamin A lev-els are too low. Vitamins A, D, and K all depend upon each other, and a deficiency in one could cause a toxic buildup of the others.1

And So…Get your D levels tested. Then, start supplementing daily with a modest amount, around 1,000 IU. Be sure to use the D3 form, rather than D2, to ensure maximum absorption. Have your D levels checked again in a few months and adjust from there. And make sure you get adequate K2 and vitamin A.

Citations available here.

“The only way to know if you’re get-ting enough D is

to have your blood levels checked

often, preferably twice a year.”

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 Dave AspreyBiohacker

Many chronic diseases result from inflammation on the cellular level or in one or more (or all)

body systems.

That’s why it’s crucial to keep in-flammation in check. Doing this will allow you to achieve optimal functioning, enhanced immunity, vibrant en-ergy, and mental clarity.

One important way is to eat a diet high in foods with anti-inflammatory properties. Chief among them, vegeta-bles — especially dark-colored greens and cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cabbage — Omega-3-rich fish, egg yolks, and grass-fed meats.

But spices and herbs deserve a special consideration too. On an ounce-per-ounce basis, they are extremely potent compared with other foods. So not only will add-ing a few carefully preserved herbs to your food improve the taste, but it can also amplify the antioxidant power of your meal.

How Herbs and Spices Reduce Inflammation In Your BodyChinese and Indian medical practi-tioners have used herbs and spices to treat all manner of ailments, thanks in large part to their anti-inflamma-tory and antioxidant properties.

Inflammation and oxidation are closely related: Antioxidants quell free radicals that damage cells and lead to inflammation. Nutrients can also prevent inflammation through other pathways, notably by turning off genes that trigger inflammatory

proteins or processes, by boost-ing the concentration of proteins that counter inflammation, or by modulating the gut biome.

This power is highly concentrated in herbs and spices. For example, just half a teaspoon of ground cin-namon has as many antioxidants as half a cup of blueberries, while

half a teaspoon of dried oregano has the anti-oxidant power of three cups of raw spinach.1

So what are some of the best herbs and spices that you should be incor-porating into your diet?

Inflammation Crusher #1: TurmericIf ever a spice were life-enhancing, turmeric is it.

Rigorous scientific studies in recent decades confirm that turmeric has “antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, an-tiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities, and thus has a potential against various malignant diseases, diabetes, allergies, arthri-tis, Alzheimer’s disease, and other chronic illnesses.”2

Turmeric’s benefits are largely pinned to curcumin, a potent antioxidant that dramatically reduces inflam-mation (while also giving the spice its vibrant yellow color). Curcumin inhibits the growth of tumor cells in a variety of cancers and improves insulin resistance in subjects with altered metabolic function.3

But the story doesn’t end with cur-cumin. Turmeric contains two dozen other anti-inflammatory compounds, including six different COX-2 inhibi-tors (the COX-2 enzyme speeds up the formation of substances that cause inflammation and pain, and causes tumor cells to grow).4

Include turmeric in your diet by adding it to salad dressings and meat or fish marinades, or by making a turmeric-infused tea or latte. Turmeric’s bioavailability is low, though, so take it with black pepper or black pepper extract to dramatically increase its benefits.5

Inflammation Crusher #2: Cayenne PepperCapsaicin is the compound responsi-ble for both the medicinal properties of cayenne pepper and its spicy taste. The hotter the pepper, the more cap-

Power Up Your Meal With These Potent AdditivesThree Herbs and Spices to Help Your Body Crush Inflammation

“If ever a spice were life-enhancing,

turmeric is it.”

Cayenne pepper helps protect against the cellular damage that leads to inflammation and disease.

7brad lemley’s natural health solutions

Dave Asprey, founder of Bulletproof and creator of Bulletproof Coffee, is a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur who spent 15 years and $300,000 to hack his own biology, lose 100 pounds, upgrade his IQ, and lower his biological age.

saicin it contains. It’s used widely in ointments and creams as a pain-relief aid because it depletes nerve cells of substance P, a chemical that trans-mits pain signals to the brain.6

Cayenne contains a range of flavo-noids and carotenoids — antioxidants that scavenge free radicals to protect against the cellular damage that leads to inflammation and disease.7

Cayenne may also promote weight loss by raising core body and skin temper-ature, thus inducing greater energy expen-diture.8 There’s even a study showing that if you mix it with XCT Oil or Brain Octane Oil as a carrier, it can increase thermogenesis over either one used alone!9

A warning, though: Cayenne is a member of the nightshade family, and you may be sensitive to it.

Inflammation Crusher #3: GingerGinger is another spice that’s been used for centuries for inflammation and pain, to soothe sore muscles and throats and combat general aches and fatigue. Ginger attacks inflamma-tion through the action of gingerols, shogaols, and paradols.

As a group, these ginger compounds act like nonsteroidal anti-inflamma-tory drugs (NSAIDS), such as ibu-profen, Aleve, and Celebrex, which are widely used in this country to relieve arthritis pain. But why turn to drugs when science has shown that ginger blocks the pain-causing chemicals associated with arthritis?10

Ginger goes well in Asian dishes (and really anything, if you like the kick). It’s great added to tea for a

sore throat or cold, and it’s effective in fresh and powdered form. You can even apply it directly to a painful joint for relief.

Low-quality or poorly stored ginger powder is at high risk for myco-

toxin, and fresh ginger molds easily in the fridge. So get the fresh stuff, or store your dry ginger away from heat, moisture, and light.

Hint for cooking: If you cook ginger in fat, it tends to get bitter. Adding it toward the end of cooking with oil preserves flavors better!

Hint for sushi: All sushi ginger has sugar in it, but if your sushi ginger is pink, it also contains artificial dye. Eat only the yellow version, and not a lot, unless you want the sugar.

Hint for joint wraps: Peel and mince 1–2 Tbsps. of ginger and

mix with enough XCT Oil to form a paste. Warm the paste and apply to joint for 10–15 minutes with or without a wrap.

How to Avoid Mold Toxins in Spices and HerbsOne thing you must watch out for are mold toxins in your spices and herbs.

The herb and spice industry is pain-fully aware of spoilage issues, which is why it’s become so common to ir-radiate spices, but herbs and spices can still easily go bad in your home.

For example, when you get that canister of paprika down from the back shelf, pry it open, and dump some into a steaming pot of food, you’re also likely dumping a substan-tial amount of toxins in too. How? Because the last time you did this, the steam entered the paprika pack-age and started the mold growing. You’ll always find a few mold spores in natural products, and the environ-ment in your spice cabinet above the stove is a perfect incubator.

One of the simplest things you can do to increase your performance, then, is to always use high-quality, recently opened, fresh or dried herbs and spices. If they’re more than a few months old, toss them out.

(I go into more detail on all the best practices to picking superior-quality herbs and spices in The Bulletproof Diet book.)

But the bottom line is, if you’re eating an anti-inflammatory diet and not including ample amounts of spices and herbs, you’re missing out!

Citations available here.

“Why turn to drugs when science has shown that ginger blocks the pain-

causing chemicals associated with

arthritis?”

Ginger is a versatile spice that can be used to fight inflammation and reduce joint pain.

8 brad lemley’s natural health solutions

Liver for Liver HatersEnjoy Nature’s Superfood With This Delectable Dishby Laurie Lemley Natural Health Solutions

If you are squeamish about liver, try pate.

I’d recommend starting with this quick, classic recipe, which is adapted from one by master chef Jacques Pepin. A little bourbon and a lot of butter provides a luscious “cover” that allows the liver to arrive at the party nearly unde-tected. Served on parmesan crisps — or even on a toasted round of crusty baguette, if you tolerate the gluten and don’t make it a habit — it’s heaven in your mouth.

Once you make it, you’ll see that there are basically three ways to experiment with the flavor:

• Liquor. I like to use bourbon, which has a nice, smooth, come-hither taste. Cognac or brandy will give you a similar result. Port/Madeira will add a darker, fruity note. If you want something more aggressive, try Jack Daniels, or a flavor-forward single malt scotch. Personally, I’m looking forward to using a smoky Laphroaig in my next batch

• Spices. This recipe uses thyme, salt, and pepper — the classic flavor profile. But feel free to add marjoram and sage, or some of the sweeter spices like nutmeg and allspice, or even grated orange

rind (which might suggest experi-menting with Grand Marnier as the liqueur). There are no wrong answers when a recipe is as quick and easy as this one!

• Butter. More or less — that’s basically it. Cutting back on the butter intensifies the liver flavor.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients • 1/2 pound chicken livers, well-

trimmed

• 1/2 small onion, thinly sliced

• 1 small garlic clove, smashed and peeled

• 1 bay leaf

• 1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves

• Kosher salt

• 1/2 cup water

• 1½ sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 2 teaspoons Cognac or Scotch whisky

• Freshly ground pepper

• Toasted baguette slices, for serving

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the chicken livers, onion, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon

of salt. Add the water and bring to a simmer. Cover, reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring occa-sionally, until the livers are barely pink inside, about three minutes. Remove from the heat and let stand, covered, for five minutes.

2. Discard the bay leaf. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the liv-ers, onion and garlic to a food processor; process until coarsely pureed. With the machine on, add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time, until incorporated. Add the Cognac, season with salt and pep-per and process until completely smooth. Scrape the pâté into two or three large ramekins. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pâté and refrig-erate until firm. Serve chilled.

Make AheadThe pâté can be covered with a thin layer of melted butter, then wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to two months.

Laurie Lemley is a singer and arts administrator, and has been a pas-sionate healthy lifestyle cook since she got her Easy Bake Oven at age 6.

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Baguette included for styling purposes. I actually spread this on 100 percent Parmesan crisps, which are not quite as photogenic.