Brendan Brazier, vegan professional Ironman tri-athlete champion, performance nutrition consultant and best-selling author of the Thrive book series, has a few tried and true methods to thriving during the holidays. See below for a few tips and recipes or register for Brendan’s “Learn it Live” session at 6 p.m. PT (5pm, EST) on Monday, December 3, 2012
Here are a few tips and some great recipes from Brazier to help you Thrive:
Managing nutritional stress: Food is not necessarily synonymous with nutrition, especially not during the holidays. Being fed is not the same as being nourished. When the body doesn’t get the “biological building blocks”— the nutrients—it needs to keep pace with cellular regeneration, it experiences nutritional stress. And the body reacts to nutritional stress just as it does to mental or physical stress.
The holidays are not completely within our control. Fortunately, what we choose to eat is. Therefore, we can have a commanding influence on our overall stress levels. Once we have lowered our overall stress by eating well, we can more easily address some of the other daunting issues causing us traditional stress. But nutrition is a good place to start. Make sure you are getting plenty of nutrient-dense plant-based nutrient-dense whole foods, every day.
A salad day is a great place to start.
Enhancing sleep quality: Sleeping during the holidays with a running “to do” list in your head can be difficult, but nutrition can help. Balanced nutrition provides building material to replace aging cells with new, vibrant ones. Since nutrient-dense food reduces stress, a healthy diet improves cortisol levels and thus the quality of sleep. Better rested people do not crave sugary and starchy foods, since they simply do not require their stimulating energy. And in turn, high-quality sleep makes it easier to maintain a healthy diet. A person needs to have his or her nutrition needs met through quality food, or quality sleep can’t be had at all.
Getting high net-gain nutrition: So many processed foods and snacks during the holiday season are really just empty foods. With little if any nutritional value, such foods still have plenty of “empty” calories, and usually starch and sugar, all of which can lead to quick weight gain and a feeling that hunger is never being satisfied. Instead, opt for foods with high “net gain.” Net gain is the term I use to refer to the usable nutrition the body is left with once food is digested and assimilated. Food that is nutrient dense and requires little energy to digest and assimilate can be referred to as high net-gain food. The higher the net gain of food, the more energy that can be garnered from it.
Immune function: The holidays are of course smack in the middle of the flu and cold season, so building your immunity is very important. A great way to give yourself a boost is to aim for a high percentage of raw and low-temperature cooked foods, or foods that have not been heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit.
There are several advantages to eating a large quantity of raw food in place of its cooked counterpart. Ease of digestion and assimilation, which directly translates into additional energy by means of an increase in net gain, is the most significant. Enzymes that contribute to overall health and aid digestion are not present in cooked food; heating above 118 degrees Fahrenheit destroys them. Before the body can turn cooked food into usable fuel, it must produce enzymes to aid in the digestion process. A healthy person can create these enzymes, but it costs energy, which creates a nominal amount of stress. As well, as we get older, our enzyme production naturally slows down; if we are not getting enough enzyme-rich foods in our regular diet, our enzyme-production system will have to work even harder.
Overtaxing the system can weaken it further and lead to major digestive problems. Including enzyme-rich foods in our diet on a regular basis will help safeguard our bodies’ ability to manufacture enzymes.
Enhance your efficiency and conserve energy: It’s no coincidence that the cultures that have their largest, heaviest meals for lunch are the same ones who have afternoon siestas. Digestion is tiring.
When the body doesn’t have to expend a lot of energy digesting, it can conserve energy for other functions. High-net-gain foods deliver us energy by way of conservation as opposed to consumption. At the onset of eating, we begin spending digestive resources in an effort to convert energy stored within food—also known as calories—into usable sustenance to fulfill our biological requirements. And, as we know, whenever energy is transferred from one form to another, there’s an inherent loss. However, the amount of energy lost in this process varies greatly and depends on the foods eaten.
Highly processed, refined, denatured “food” requires that significantly more digestive energy be spent to break it down in the process of transferring its caloric energy to us. While it’s true that a calorie is a measure of food energy, simply eating more calories will not necessarily ensure more energy for the consumer. If there were such a calorie guarantee, people who subsisted on fast food and other such calorie-laden fare would have abundant energy. And of course they don’t. This is a testament to the inordinate amount of digestive energy required to convert such “food” into usable fuel.
((Brendan Brazier is a former professional Ironman triathlete and two-time Canadian 50km Ultra Marathon Champion. He is now a successful performance
nutrition consultant, best-selling author of the Thrive book series and formulator of the award-winning line of plant-based Vega nutritional
products. Recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on plant-based nutrition, Brendan has dedicated his life to spreading the word about an ethical, environmentally-friendly, and healthy lifestyle through plant-based foods. Brendan currently works with elite athletes throughout North America, including athletes in the NFL, MLB, NHL, UFC, PGA and several Olympic athletes. For more information, please visit www.brendanbrazier.com.))
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Brendan Brazier’s Healthy Winter Recipes
Yacon Dessert Ravioli
The mild taste and satisfying crunch of reconstituted yacon is complemented by a delectable sweet citrus-spice filling. Serve with a good non-dairy vanilla ice cream. An impressive holiday dessert with gorgeous flavor notes that are not to be forgotten!
[ Time: 10 minutes active; about 6 hours to freeze • Makes 12 ravioli (serves 2–4)]
Ingredients:
2 cups orange juice, or enough to immerse yacon slices
24 large yacon slices (try to pick larger, rounder slices)
½ cup walnuts
¼ cup raisins
1 ½ tbsp yacon powder
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp orange zest (grated orange rind) + some for garnish
One scoop non-dairy ice cream (if you have his Thrive book, check out p.279 for ice cream recipe)
Yacon syrup, for garnish
Method:
- In a large bowl, pour orange juice over yacon slices until submerged. Allow to reconstitute for 1 hour.
- In a food processor, combine walnuts, raisins, yacon powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and orange zest. Process until a sticky filling has formed. Remove the mixture from the processor and knead to combine ingredients completely, if necessary.
- Remove yacon slices from orange juice and blot on a paper towel to remove any extra juice. To make the ravioli, place a small teaspoon of the filling in the center of a yacon slice. Top with another yacon slice, and pat the edges slightly to form a ravioli. Repeat until all yacon slices are used
To serve:
- Place 3 or 4 ravioli on a dessert plate, and top with a scoop of the non-dairy ice cream. Drizzle with yacon syrup and dust with orange zest, if desired
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Apple-Pear Energy Tartlets
Of course, simply doubling the recipe and making one large tart works too.
[ Time: 10 minutes • Makes 6 3-inch tartlets]
Ingredients:
1 medium sweet crunchy apple (Fuji or Gala work well)
1 medium soft pear (Bartlett or Bosc)
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon
1 tbsp yacon syrup (optional)
3 Vega Whole Food Vibrancy Bars, Original Flavor
Method:
- Chop the apple and the pear into a fine mince. Toss with pumpkin pie spice and yacon syrup until well combined. Set aside.
- Using a standard-size muffin tin or tartlet molds, tuck a layer of plastic wrap into one of the cups to use as a mold.
- Break the energy bars into halves. Take one of the bar pieces and press it firmly into the lined cup, coaxing the bar “dough” evenly along the bottom and up the sides about ½ inch with your fingers to form the tartlet base.
- Use the plastic wrap to remove the packed base from the muffin tin, then peel away the plastic. Use the plastic again to form the remainder of the tartlets.
- Liberally spoon in the apple-pear filling evenly into each of the tartlet crusts and serve.
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Purée of Turnip Soup
A comforting holistic soup made from the delicious yet often forgotten turnip.
[ Time: 40 minutes • Makes 4 servings]
Ingredients:
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, minced
3–4 turnips (about 1 pound), chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 medium sweet potato (about ½ pound), peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
¼ tsp salt, or to taste
½ tsp black pepper
Method:
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Melt the coconut oil, and add the onions and garlic. Sauté for 3–5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.
Add the turnips and the sweet potato and sauté for 2 minutes longer. Pour in the vegetable broth and almond milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20–25 minutes, or until turnips and potatoes are tender.
Transfer soup contents to a blender, and purée until completely smooth (blend in a couple of small batches, if necessary).
Pour soup back into pot and reduce at a low simmer for 5 minutes longer. Add salt to taste and black pepper.
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Mashed Kabocha Squash with Toasted Coconut
This delicious recipe makes a great side dish.
[ Time: 10 minutes • Makes 4 servings]
Ingredients:
¼ cup shredded coconut
1 pound cooked kabocha squash
3 tbsp light coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
Method:
- In a pan over medium-low heat, toast the coconut for 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly, until golden brown. Coconut burns easily, so remove from heat immediately after cooking.
- Mash the squash and coconut milk together with a fork or handheld blender. Season with salt and pepper if desired, and top with toasted coconut.
I’ve had the privilege of interviewing Brendan a few times about his workout regimen, eating a plant-based diet and his new book Thrive check out the links below to read the articles:
http://blog.timesunion.com/healthylife/qa-with-vegan-triathlete-brendan-brazier/7690/
http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/On-the-run-with-Brendan-Brazier-1369423.php
