Give Me the Flax

Posted on April 19, 2014
Written by Marty Davey

      

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Many of us hear about the health benefits of adding flax to our diets, but how can that be accomplished? Of course it depends on your lifestyle, but since mine is pretty crazy I’ll give you some suggestions:

  1. First, I don’t take flax oil because it has a very short shelf life. Even in really good health food stores where you know the owner, you can get a bad bottle. Or you open it and don’t use it, and it goes rancid fairly quickly.
  2. Grind the flax instead; being a control freak, I want my flax to be cheap and fresh. I recommend purchasing an inexpensive coffee grinder and reserve it for flax grinding.
  3. Buy flax seeds, it doesn’t matter brown or golden, and keep them in the freezer or refrigerator. Grind as much as you will use in a week. For the three of us, I grind about a cup, and store it in an opaque container in the refrigerator.
  4. Flax does not change the flavor of food, so sprinkle it on your salad, oatmeal, soup and hide it burritos and lasagna.
  5. The recommended amount is two tablespoons a day so just use a little at a time throughout the day.
  6. If you are traveling, there are Flax Packs you can purchase in most health food stores. They sell two tablespoons of flax in a small bag. You can open them in the morning and put some in your smoothie, close them with a paper clip and use them with your lunch salad and toss on your sandwich, and you got the flax.