Flax joy

Another thing to add to your list to purchase while at your local bulk/health food store!  Flax. 

I add flax to most of the things I make, especially any of the breads or smoothies that I make, it has very high nutritional value and can benefit your life, and may even help you get those nutrients you currently think you need to take supplements to get! 

What is Flax?

Flax comes from a beautiful flower and is grown in Canada (yay!).  It is awesome because we can grow it in our temperate climate, and the cold weather here actually favors this nutritious crop! It contains healthy good fats that tend to be lacking in the general public diet, and has a lot of the up and coming healthy parts that are often suggested to be part of a diet that keeps you healthy and well. 

Omega-3, Protein & Fibres

 Omega-3, for those who don't know, is getting a lot of press in the nutrition field.  It has been attributed to many health benefits including heart disease reduction, aiding in prevention of diabetes, and the use of it for arthritis to reduce inflammation.  Omega-3 are indeed fats, but what makes them different from other other fats that you may be seeing in your ice cream or dairy, if that these fats cannot be made in the body, making them essential, we get them only from the diets.  

Our bodies are great wonderful systems that has an amazing ability to create what it needs from the foods we eat.  When we consume protein, it comes in the form of long chains, our body breaks it own and remakes it into what we need, this is true, somewhat, for fats too.  The exception though, is the Omega-3 & 6 fatty acids.  We get lots of omega-6 fatty acids in our diet, and the ratio between the amount of omega-3 and omega-6 is important to maintain to get the benefits (Having too much omega-6, like may people do, can be problematic for health issues).  Eggs, poultry, and wheat products contain omega-6 and ironically, this can cause inflammation problems, this would mean joint issues and more!  Omega-3 increase has been suggested and I know from watching Dr. Oz he sugggests taking a supplement containing the omega-3, I do not do this, because you cna get wonderful benefits from Flax!  Ground flax allows your body to take in the most benefits, including the omega-3.  

Protein is a wonderful thing to keep you feeling full, and are needed for the body, especially perhaps if you consume minimal animal products like I do.  Although protein is not a main amazingness of flax, it is a nice additional quality to increase the nutritional punch of this Canadian crop!

Fibre!  I have yet to do a post about fibre, but stay tuned!  It is a non-digestible carbohydrate and keeps your digestion system happy by helping to remove build up in the intestine, increasing stool excretion, making it a must have in your diet!

What to do with it!

Add it to many things!  This includes smoothies, and salads, and adding it to your breads and cereals too.  This helps to make sure that foods you like are giving you more than just taste.  

Here are a couple Recipes!

Zucchini Sweet Potato Flax Bread (modified from Finding Joy In My Kitchen)

2 C wheat flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 C applesauce

1 eggs

1 Tbsp of stevia powder

1 Tbsp of flax mixed with 1 Tbsp of water
1 tsp. vanilla
1 C sweet potato puree
1 1/2 C shredded zucchini

3-5 Tbsp ground flax seeds

2-3 Tbsp of whole flax seeds and any other bread seeds, like sesame.

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and make sure they are mixed well.

Next, mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and combine well.

All that is left to do is mix them together!  Mix until they are just combined, making sure you don’t over mix the batter.  Put it into a well-greased loaf pan.  Sprinkle extra seeds on top of the bread before putting it in the oven for 45-50 minutes (time may vary depending on the oven you use!)  It will be done when you can put in a wooden object like a toothpick and can remove it cleanly.

This bread turns out rather dark, more than I was expecting, but don’t get worried, it was still soft and fresh throughout the week.  I always make tomato and red pepper soup and this went so well with that! It was really tasty too when I toasted it and put some creamy butter on it.

Add flax to your smoothies!  Here is a super tasty interesting one I made up recently!

Chocolate fruit flax glory

Blend together:

Handful of Spinach

Handful of Kale

couple oranges

cup of berries, frozen

teaspoon of cacao

teaspoon of lemon juice

enough water to get it to your preferred consistency!

Blend this until you can blend no more!  Then, add in the flax, about a tablespoon, give yourself that extra nutritional kick to this already high fibre tasty morning treat! 

ENJOY YOUR FLAX PEOPLE!