Facts about FLAX

image via Anytime Fitness

Flax is a major nutritional power food. The seeds are nutty, mild in flavor and they're so versatile. You can add them to muffin or pancake batter, smoothies, homemade soups or toss them on top of your salad.

Then there's all the health benefits of incorporating more flax into your diet. Flax seed oil contains the fatty acid alpha-linolenic acids (ALA), omega-6 and omega-9, antioxidants, fiber, protein, lecithin, magnesium, potassium and zinc, in addition to vitamin B. The properties in flax seed oil can benefit the immune, reproductive, cardiovascular, nervous and circulatory systems.

But there's a couple of quick and easy things you need to know before buying and using flax seeds:

Don't just eat the whole seed. Most nutrition experts recommend you eat the ground or milled variety, otherwise your body has a hard time digesting and absorbing flax. What happens when you eat the whole seed is that you just pass it undigested the exact same way you ate it...whole. Which translates to you getting none of the health benefits. Booooooo.

But you also don't want to buy it pre-ground at the store, either. First of all, it's expensive to buy this way and it breaks down really quickly too. Also, the ground form of flax seed is next to useless because right after it's been ground, the flax seeds starts losing their nutritional value. So in essence, when you buy pre-milled flax seed, you're basically buying really expensive fiber. That's about it.

So what I suggest is to buy a really cheap spice or seed grinder - clean and dump it out - and fill it with flax seeds. I even keep mine next to my hand held salt and pepper shakers. That way, whenever I'm whipping up a smoothie or preparing a salad, it's so easy to grind some fresh flax seed whenever I need it. You can also grind flax seed in a coffee grinder or food processor, if you already have those. Just make sure you grind some stale bread to neutralize the flavor after you grind up your coffee beans.

And in terms of flax seed oil, when you buy flax in the oil form, you're really missing out on all the protein and dietary fiber, leaving you only with the omega-3 fatty acids. If you want the most out of your flax, I suggest you buy it in the whole form and grind it up fresh!

♥ Cheers to your health♥