As you guys know I start my morning with a tablespoon of ground flaxseeds in my oatmeal or smoothie depending on the weather. Here is another reason to eat your flaxseeds. According to this abstract the lignans in flaxseeds may reduce breast cancer risk in post menopausal women by reducing estrogen. Additionally there seems to be link to a reduction in prostate, hair loss, skin cancer, colon cancer and blood sugar. Those are all good reasons to add a little flax to our food, in my opinion. This is the main reason I prefer flaxseeds to chia seeds for the lignans.
From other things I have read a tablespoon or two of ground flaxseed per day seems to be enough to provide benefits. That is very easy to add to your morning cereal, smoothie or sprinkle on your salad. You can always add raw flax crackers as well.
On a related note when I was in Costco last week the 2 pound bag of milled organic flax (pictured above) was priced at $4.79 which I think is lower than I saw it previously. If you belong to Costco you may want to look for it at your store.
This morning for breakfast I was craving strawberry banana yogurt. Of course I didn’t have it but that was what was stuck in my head. Instead I had oatmeal with cinnamon, flax, strawberries and banana slices. This was an excellent combination. I have no idea why I didn’t try this sooner.
Ali, Are the flax seeds ground? Do you keep them in the freezer, that is where I keep mine. I am heading out tomorrow to pick up some organic oatmeal, I am thinking of getting some scottish oats too. What do you prefer? I am going to try this asap. Maybe Monday? lol
ReplyDeleteBrandi,
ReplyDeleteI always use ground flax. The body can't process whole flax. I also keep mine in the freezer.
We eat either oat bran, rolled oats or scottish oats. It depends on what I buy. I mix it up. The Scottish oats do have the best texture but I don't always have them on hand.
I really liked the strawberry and banana oatmeal. What took me so long to think of that combo? It seems so obvious.
Alicia
I also had strawberry-banana oatmeal for breakfast! I had bought a gallon of strawberries from a street vendor the other day and they weren't looking so great this morning, so I washed them all and froze some.
ReplyDeleteI was curious why you don't seem to eat yogurt or tofu very often. I bought a yogurt maker and have now made about 5 batches of soy yogurt, the last with a little almond milk mixed in. In general it's turned out quite good, but I lose a lot of liquid when I strain it. The last two times I used both agar and arrowroot and it seemed to help a little.
I buy organic flax seeds from Amazon (their subscribe and save program) and keep them in the pantry. I grind about a cup at a time and keep it in the fridge.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteI try to keep our soy milk and tofu to a minimum because they aren't "whole" foods. Now if you make your own soy milk and eat the strained okara that is a completely different issue. Then I think it is fine to consume daily. I do sometimes make soy milk and we use the okara in veggie burgers. Tofu is still on my list of things to make. So until I do I try to keep that consumption down. Having now said this I know this is taking things further than most would but cancer has a way of making me want to push things as far as I can. I am sure you understand.
Alicia
Yes I understand your need to be very cautious. I'm going to try making soy and almond milk today and to use the okara in something, maybe crackers. I think I can find organic non-GMO soybeans, but not sure about almonds -- do you think it's as important that the almonds be organic?
ReplyDeleteLaura,
ReplyDeleteOrganic almonds are tough to find. I have only seen them online, Wegman's or our health food store. Whole Foods probably has them. I have not read about almonds being a highly sprayed crop so organic is probably not critical. If I see something different on that I will post it.
I have seen recipes for okara hummus that looked good. I posted a recipe for okara miso pate that that was really good. The idea came from a friend you had modified a Bryanna Clark Grogan recipe. You may want to try that.
talk to you later,
Alicia