Blood and Skins

It's probably really weird how much I love buying school supplies. So, if you're looking to get me a present for my birthday (it's only 11 months away), get me an Office Depot/Target gift card and I'll go nuts. Anyway, if you aren't convinced already on why eating Paleo will put your body in optimal health and fitness, I'll lay down some more facts. And, since I just got out of class, I'm in the mood for some science. Lucky you. If you have a heart and blood in your body, this pertains to you, so don't skip it.

Hypertension is abnormally high blood pressure, or high pressure/tension in the arteries. Arteries are the vessels that carry/take blood from your pumping heart and deliver it to all other organs and tissues. Preeetty important things going on here.  You always hear doctors talk about why it's bad, what you need to do to fix it, commercials about medications and considering it affects nearly 60 million Americans, you most likely know someone who has it. But, do you really know how serious it is? Not only does it force your heart to work twice as hard to do it's job (keep you alive), it causes your arteries to harden, damaged blood vessels in the eyes, and excess pressure on critical organs such as kidneys, brain etc.; eventually, leading to heart failure, kidney failure, strokes, blindness and other things that you don't want to experience. And what's even scarier than all of that, is the it's known as "the silent killer" because most people don't even know they should be concerned until it's too late. Usually, there are no symptoms of hypertension. In severe cases, people experience morning headaches, epitaxis (nose bleeds), blurry vision, or a palpitations (fluttering in chest). A normal blood pressure reads 120/80. Anything between that number and 139/89 is called "pre-hypertension", a reading of 140/90 or above is classified as high. The top number represents the systolic pressure, which is the amount of force created while your heart beats. The bottom number represents the diastolic pressure, the amount of pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats. In people under 50 years old, the diastolic blood pressure is a more important risk factor than elevation in systolic pressure. We will come back to diastolic pressure and resting heart rates in a minute.

                                    (Spoiler Alert: You don't need milk for calcium or protein.)

How does eating Paleo tie into this? Well, most people know that a high salt, or any other sodium, intake will contribute to high blood pressures, but most people don't know that other contributing factors are deficiencies in calcium, magnesium, and most importantly potassium (also, very important for proper cellular function). I'm aware you're not going to go around counting up how many grams of potassium you've had every day, but just in case you do, you need at least 174 per day. The easiest, fastest, best way to get these essential nutrients? Bread? Cheese? Milk? Wrong, wrong, wrong. Real, WHOLE foods. One cup of raw spinach contains 839mg of potassium, one cup of acorn squash has 437mg, fish has 534mg; avocados, sweet potatoes (also good for blood sugar regulation), bananas etc.. you see where I'm going with this. Also, fun fact: trans fats were developed to stray away from lard to help people their lower blood pressures/cholesterol levels, but ended up doing exactly the opposite, because the digestive system couldn't recognize such a foreign substance. Surprise! We're not made to ingest processed, genetically modified junk!

How does fitness tie into this? Exercise increases number of capillaries in the skeletal muscle, which increases blood flow, supplies blood and oxygen to organs and helps to remove wastes when needed. Physical activity also improves neural regulation of blood vessels and reduces peripheral resistance,  which is the resistance to the passage of blood through the small blood vessels. Post-Exercise Hypotension (PEH) is the temporary reduction in blood pressure levels immediately after exercises, that may last for up to 24 hours. PEH is part of the rationale for encouraging those with high blood pressure to exercise daily. Other controllable factors are to stop smoking, limit drinking to 2 drinks or less per day (excessive alcohol will effect magnesium levels and the liver's ability to produce renin and angiotensin), reduce sodium and saturated fat intake and definitely avoid processed foods/trans fat completely.

Bottom line, Paleolithic cavemen may not have lived a long life due to lack of modern medicine, warfare, infectious diseases and injuries, they damn sure didn't even come close to having heart disease. While, the Egyptians, on the other hand, loved their beer and bread....
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/04/110415-ancient-egypt-mummies-princess-heart-disease-health-science/

Avocado-Chorizo Stuffed Sweet Potato Skins

1lb chorizo
4 sweet potatoes
½ red onion, diced
2 ripe avocados, halved and seeds removed
½ lime, juiced
½ lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon cumino
2 tablespoons Coconut Oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon almond flour

1.     Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2.     Use a fork to poke some holes in your sweet potatoes. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes or until sweet potatoes are soft when you poke them. (Time will range depending on how fat they are. I used thin ones)
3.     While your sweet potatoes are baking, pull out a large skillet, place over medium heat and add your chorizo and onions to it. Use a wooden spoon to break up your chorizo while it cooks.
4.     When your chorizo is cooked completely through, put your chorizo mixture on a plate with a paper towel to soak up some of the excess fat and to cool.
5.     Plug up food processor.  Spoon a scoop out the inside of your two avocados and place in the food processor. Mix until you get a smooth paste.
6.     Add your lime, lemon, cumin and a bit of salt. Pulse until mixed thoroughly.
7.     Place your chorizo and ¾ of your avocado mixtures in a large bowl to incorporate. Leave the other ¼ of avocado mixture for toppings.
8.     When your sweet potatoes are done cooking, let cool, cut in half, scoop out insides (leaving about ½-1 inch of sweet potato still inside) of sweet potato,
9.     Use a pastry brush to brush on coconut oil on the inside and all around the sweet potato.
10.   Place back on cooking sheet and in the oven for another 10-15 minutes or until crispy.
11.   Once potatoes are crispy, add your avocado and chorizo mixture into your sweet potato, top off with a little sprinkle of almond flour, and place back in the oven for around 5 minutes.
12.   Top off with leftover avocado mixture.

Not as hard as it sounds, I swear! I ended up making more and ate them all week as a side to whatever else I was eating.. definitely a new favorite. Totally making them again for the Superbowl. Peace!