Healthy Foods: Flax Facts

Flax is one of those foods that’s extremely good for us but many folks simply aren’t using it properly.
This magical plant was cultivated in Babylon in 3,000 BC. Clothing made with flax fibers has been found in early burial chambers. Hippocrates once wrote about using flax to relieve pain in the abdomen. And would you believe that Charlemagne once considered flax to be so important that he made laws requiring his subjects to consume it?
Most of us know flax as a little brown seed chock full of fiber, nutrients, and omega-3 fatty acids. Flax seeds are also a very rich source of lignans which are little compounds proven to protect against colon and breast cancer by inhibiting tumor formation.
I hope you’re not buying your flax already ground. If so, I forgive you! It’s an honest mistake. 🙂 But flax goes rancid very quickly; so don’t buy the actual oil (it’s extremely unstable) and don’t buy the seeds already ground. Buy the seeds (organic and non-GMO please!) and grind them yourself. (FYI, eating the seeds whole isn’t effective because they pass right through your system without you getting any of the real benefits from them if you know what I mean! lol)
A simple coffee grinder does the trick (you can buy one for under 20 bucks at a big box store). Grind a small amount of flax seeds at a time and only grind what you need.
You can add flax to everything. A couple of spoonfuls of this healthy fat every day will help your body rid itself of stored fat (very cool benefit) and it will keep you regular, too! That is a definite contribution to your overall health, don’t you think?
Flax also lends a nice nutty taste to muffins, pancakes, and other baked goods. Put it in your oatmeal and sprinkle it on your fruit and yogurt. You can even toss some into your smoothies!
Just remember not to go overboard on the flax or you might be making more trips to the restroom than you’d like! Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
How do you like your flax? Tell us here!

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