Thrive Pizza... Oh So Good

It’s been a while since I’ve shared a recipe, so I am making up for it with an especially delicious one! This pizza is unique in that its crust is made from legumes and vegetables as opposed to flour; therefore, the crust is a complete protein and packed with nutrients, which makes you feel as good as it tastes!

This Buckwheat Sunflower Seed Carrot Pizza comes from the creative-mind of former professional Ironman, Brendan Brazier, and is found in his new book, Thrive Foods. In Brazier’s third book, he turns his attention toward explaining how nutrient-dense, plant-based foods are the best form of proactive health care as well as more environmental sustainability than the standard western diet. Boasting over 200 recipes (all of which avoid common allergens such as wheat, yeast, gluten, soy, dairy, and corn) this book is a must have if you are moving towards a plant strong diet.

The recipe is pretty easy, but takes a bit of prep work (I have made this pizza a few times and each time I make it faster than the last). In total, I’d say the pizza takes about 15 - 20 minutes of prep (including time for a homemade sauce) and then 35 - 40 minutes in the oven depending on how crispy you like the crust.

Homemade Marinara Sauce (raw)

This is a light but sweet tasting sauce that I created by blending a few other recipes together. Makes around 4 cups.

3 or 4 sundried tomatoes (soaked)

2 medium size heirloom tomatoes

¼ cup hemp, flax or olive oil (I typically mix all three)

2 tbsp Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon oregano

1 handful fresh basil (dried works as well, but fresh is best)

2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 date

1 large clove of garlic

Sea salt

Reconstitute the sun-dried tomatoes by soaking them in warm water for 15 minutes or until tender. While the sun-dried tomatoes are soaking, blend the rest of the ingredients in a high-powered blender until smooth. Then add the soaked, sun-dried tomatoes and blend again. Pour into a bowl or container and set aside. (if you do not have a high-powered blender, cut the dates and sun-dried tomatoes into small pieces and use a food processor for a slightly chunkier consistency.)

Buckwheat Sunflower Seed Carrot Pizza 

This pizza is highly nutritious and can satisfy any craving for pizza you may be having. I also really enjoyed a few slices after a long ride last weekend. It keeps well in the refrigerator for a few days, but the real question is why wait to enjoy something so good?

The Goods for the Crust

Crust:

1 cup ground sunflower seeds

1 cup raw buckwheat (soaked for 15 minutes in warm water)

1 cup shredded carrot

¼ cup coconut oil (I use less than this)

Parsley, pizza seasoning and crushed red pepper, to taste

Sea salt, to taste

Topping:

1 tomato, sliced

1 cup lightly sautéed dinosaur kale

½ cup raw arugula

½ cup raw shredded beats

2 chopped green onions

1 clove diced fresh garlic

The Goods for the Toppings

First, preheat oven to 300˚. In a food processor, process all the crust ingredients. Similar to making a smoothie (see comments section) you want to put the ingredients in from densest to lightest to ensure best results. So start with the sunflower seeds then the carrot and buckwheat. Follow with herbs and salt and finally the oil. Blend until the mixture starts to ball up.

While the mixture is processing, oil a cooking pan with coconut oil (I like to use a cast iron, no chemicals and it gives the food an extra boost of iron!). Remove the mixture out of the processor, and spread into the pan so it is about ¼- ½ thick depending on personal preference.

 Now pour your sauce onto the flattened crust and then spread your choice of ingredients evenly on the crust. I typically add a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast to the top of the sauce before putting on the other toppings. This gives it a light and cheesy taste as well as much needed vitamin, B-12!

Ready for the oven!

Bake your beautiful pizza for 35 or 40 minutes at 300˚. Check the pizza around 30 minutes for desired crispness.

Fresh and piping hot!

Take your pie out of the oven, sprinkle crushed red pepper and garlic salt over the pizza. Add a handful of hemp seeds to add an extra source of complete protein and enjoy!

Bone appétit!

Vegan Doping: Forget Carbo-Loading, Lets Talk Nitrate Loading

By now, I assume you’ve all heard about Lance Armstrong who was recharged with doping last week and is currently suspended from all athletic events including Ironman and is threatened with having his seven Tour De France victories stripped (Armstrong qualified earlier in the season for the Ironman World Championship in Kona.) Rather than going into a rant about if I think he did it or not, the ethics behind doping, how this helps or hurts the sport, or any of the other mumbo-jumbo that is currently trending, I’d rather offer an alternative to people looking to get that extra little push from their training that is not only legal but is also incredibly healthy.

(Side note: Regardless of what he did nearly a decade ago, his performances in recent Ironman competitions have been stunning, and Armstrong credits his new experiments with plant-based veganism for much of his recent ability.) 

Several new studies over the past few years have found that a diet high in beets can actually do amazing things for athletes, including drastically improving performance. In the past I’ve written about how plant-based diets can lower inflammation allowing an increase in training, as well as increased energy and stamina all while decreasing your risk of many lethal diseases. But the power of beets seem to leave even these attributes in the dust.

In 2009 a study found that beet juice has the ability to dramatically lower the muscles need for oxygen. The reason athletes train is to strengthen their heart and lungs. As this happens the body becomes more efficient, delivering more oxygen throughout their system allowing their muscles to perform more work. However, no matter how good of an athlete a person is, once the oxygen reaches the muscles, it does the same amount of work. Superior athletes only advantage is the ability to pump more oxygen to their muscles more quickly and efficiently. This can be compared to a car. A sports car and a normal sedan both use fuel exactly the same, however the sports car will be fast simply because it has a stronger engine which can use the fuel more effectively. However the fuel is doing the same amount of work in both the sports car and the sedan.

At least that is what traditional sports science always told us.

A new study took eight cyclists and measured their oxygen levels while cycling on an indoor trainer. They did the test at several times, including before and after taking placebos, as well as after having consumed two glasses of beet juice for several days. After drinking beet juice for a few days in a row, the cyclists were able to perform the same amount of work with 19% less oxygen. When they were cycling at full pace to exhaustion, they were able to increase their endurance to fatigue by an astounding 16%.

It is worth mentioning that before this experiment, there was no known food, drug, or steroid that could actually increase energy extraction from oxygen.  However, it appears that beet juice made their bodies significantly more efficient.

Why Beets? Well, besides being packed with macro, micro, and phyto-nutrients, beets offer one of the most concentrated sources of nitrates. When compared to berry juice (also packed with goodness, absent the nitrate) performance after beet consumption improved while the berry juice did nothing to affect normal performance. 

This is where it gets a bit complex, so hold on to your hats. After consumption, nitrate is absorbed in our stomachs and then actively pumped back into out mouth through our salivary glands. This is done because our body knows we have special bacteria living on our tongues which takes the nitrates and converts them into nitrites which are then re-swallowed, re-absorbed and finally sent off to the cells in our muscles. Here the nitrites are converted yet again into nitrate-oxide. This nitrate-oxide then helps take the place of oxygen in the muscles, therefore requiring less oxygen to perform more work. Because the nitrate needs to be absorbed by bacteria on the tongue using antiseptic mouthwash or excessive spitting after absorbing the nitrates was found to cancel the benefits.

So if you are preparing for marathon season, have a big cycling event or racing in a triathlon, instead of worrying about carbo-loading before your race, perhaps you should consider a diet high in nitrates, including beets, and dark leafy-greens such as kale, collards and arugula. But be warned, while nitrates found naturally in fruits and vegetables can increase performance, the nitrates added to cure meat (think bacon and hotdogs) are actually highly potent carcinogens that are linked to all types of cancers. This is because instead of turning into nitrate-oxide as they do when nitrates are ingested from beets and dark greens, they convert into nitrosamines. As it turns out, this is because meat is void of vitamin C, which blocks the conversion of nitrates to nitrosamines. As such, the nitrates found in bacon and hotdogs convert into the harmful nitrosamines during the processing stage, making all cured meats harmful regardless of what they are eaten with; while veggies continue to have beneficial affects. As such, perhaps you should consider trading your next BLT for an arugula and beet salad or simply add those ingredients to your smoothies!

(my favorite way to add beets to my diet is by peeling and shredding them)

Besides running a bit faster and a bit longer, beets have other advantages that make them beneficial to everyone’s diet. According to Dr. Mikhail Tombak, a scientist and longevity expert, beets have also been shown to that improve “blood structure and cure diseases of the circulatory system, large intestine, and digestive system." Tombak also says beet juice helps dissolve liver, kidney and bladder stones.

 So what is the take from all of this? Well, athletes will see their performance improve if they ingest a large amount of nitrite-rich foods before they race. Perhaps I am bit of quixotic but I’d like to think Lance was simply benefitting from the power of the beet.

Dr. Greger of NutritionFacts.org has nearly an hour of video lectures on the topic.

These were the most relevant sources considered:
Schorah CJ, Sobala GM, Sanderson M, Collis N, Primrose JN. Gastric juice ascorbic acid: effects of disease and implications for gastric carcinogenesis. Am J Clin Nutr. 1991 Jan;53(1 Suppl):287S-293S.

Webb AJ, Patel N, Loukogeorgakis S, Okorie M, Aboud Z, Misra S, Rashid R, Miall P, Deanfield J, Benjamin N, MacAllister R, Hobbs AJ, Ahluwalia A. Acute blood pressure lowering, vasoprotective, and antiplatelet properties of dietary nitrate via bioconversion to nitrite. Hypertension. 2008 Mar;51(3):784-90. Epub 2008 Feb 4.

Eaton SB, Eaton SB 3rd. Paleolithic vs. modern diets--selected pathophysiological implications. Eur J Nutr. 2000 Apr;39(2):67-70.

Vermeer IT, Moonen EJ, Dallinga JW, Kleinjans JC, van Maanen JM. Effect of ascorbic acid and green tea on endogenous formation of N-nitrosodimethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine in humans. Mutat Res. 1999 Jul 16;428(1-2):353-61.

Liu CY, Hsu YH, Wu MT, Pan PC, Ho CK, Su L, Xu X, Li Y, Christiani DC; Kaohsiung Leukemia Research Group. Cured meat, vegetables, and bean-curd foods in relation to childhood acute leukemia risk: a population based case-control study. BMC Cancer. 2009 Jan 13;9:15.

Crinnion WJ. Organic foods contain higher levels of certain nutrients, lower levels of pesticides, and may provide health benefits for the consumer. Altern Med Rev. 2010 Apr;15(1):4-12.