Flaxseed that is, take a little flaxseed for a step towards healthier eating. Some of you may know already that over the last couple of years I've been moving my family more and more towards healthier eating. It's not always easy to do with two full-time working parents and a now 10 almost 11 year old daughter. In fact when I worked as a Manager at a university up until last year with a crazy schedule and work hours it was down right challenging and it seemed almost impossible.
For me and my family the solution was to take baby steps towards healthier eating and living. We weren't even that bad I think with our eating overall but there was definitely more than there should have been when it came to pre-packaged foods and some eating out. We haven't regularly eaten at the likes of McDonalds in more than 3 years especially myself as they just don't appeal to me so cutting that out was already done. Don't get me wrong we do get the occasional fast food meals but I"m talking a once every few months at the most so much so that my daughter considers it a major treat!
We have made lots of changes over these last few years but as I mentioned it was baby steps so I'm not going to overwhelm you with all the changes we made but instead offer up 1 tip today and some suggestions on how to incorporate it so you can take a baby step towards healthier eating and living. Back to the title of this post take a little flax!
You might be surprised at how easily you can incorporate flaxseed into your everyday eating if you're not already. If you don't know why you should incorporate flaxseed do a quick search on "health benefits to eating flaxseed" you'll find a ton of information. I don't want to load you down with all the technical/nutritional info on this but here's a few very good reasons:
- High in Omega-3 fatty acids the good fat we need (you can read a great article about Omega-3s from my friend Renee Sullivan HERE)
- Flaxseeds are a a great source of fiber
- There’s some evidence it may help reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes*
There is of course a lot more benefits than what I just listed but again trying to keep it short and simple for all of us:
Here are my tips and what I personally do to incorporate flaxseed into my family's eating:
- Put it in smoothies you probably won't even notice it (check out my smoothie recipe and post HERE)
- Add it to scrambled eggs - start with just a bit at time to give your family time to get used to it. It's pleasant tasting nutty flavor now my family doesn't even notice it because they are used to it.
- Put in pancake and/or waffle batter along with some vanilla which I love! In fact my daughter and her friends love my whole wheat flax pancakes so much they've told me they're the best pancakes ever. I'm not bragging here (okay maybe a little) they seriously love my pancakes and don't even realize that they're a healthier version between the whole wheat flour and the flaxseed. I also will put in frozen berries or fresh bananas and sometimes I will throw in a few dark chocolate chips. Yes I know chocolate but a few won't hurt and they're still a healthier version of pancakes.
- Put some in your favorite yogurt if you like yogurt like me it's quite yummy
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I have lots of other ways you can incorporate flaxseed or flaxseed oil which I forgot to mention, if you don't like the texture of ground flaxseed you can use flaxseed oil which is also very beneficial. I use both depending on what I'm making but the majority of the time I do use ground flaxseed as I always have some on hand.
On my next healthy eating tips post I'll try and provide some recipes and pictures of the food I've made with flaxseed or perhaps will sneak in another healthy eating baby steps tip 🙂
What do you do to incorporate healthier eating? I'd love to hear leave a comment below! (Don't worry if your comment doesn't show up right away they have to be "approved" I love reading all the comments so this is how I make sure to catch them all)
PS: the flaxseed and berries in the picture were not wasted, right after I wrote this post they went into a smoothie yum 🙂
Flaxseed may provide some protection against cancers that are sensitive to hormones without interfering with the breast cancer drug tamoxifen. Flaxseed is high in most of the B vitamins, magnesium, and manganese, but this little seed is just getting started. Flaxseed is high in lignans, up to 800 times the amount as in any tested plant food. Flaxseed is high in fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and phytochemicals called lignans.
I've recently starting making a lot of smoothies and I'd love to add flax to them. But, I've never actually found it at the store. Where exactly do you find it?
Hi Ash, depends on where you live I guess, I live in Canada but I've found it at Safeway in the US & canada, usually in the flour/pancake mix area for some reason, health food stores, I know Trader Joes in the US usually carries them 🙂 Check out big grocery stores, some may have it in the refrigerated section too or at least the Flaxseed oil. hope that helps!
Ash, you can find the GLA supplement which has flaxseed in it by going to Michelle's website at http://www.healthylivingpoweredbymom.myshaklee.com. Shaklee is the purest of all brands.
Renee
Michelle,
Great post...full of great information. It reminds me that I need to try your smoothie recipe. 🙂 I do put flaxseed in my muffins or pancakes. I also take a flaxseed supplement every day called GLA.
Renee
Yes I've started to use the Shaklee GLA Renee great stuff! Thanks!
Good girl! I thought you were taking GLA.
yep got it on my last order 🙂
Michelle,
I put flaxseed in my cereal or muffins. I also take a supplement called GLA that has flaxseed in it as well. This reminds me that I need to try your smothie recipe too. This is great information. I will be sharing it on twitter, Facebook and Google +
Renee