Natural Health Buzz

Keeping Your Heart Healthy - Have You Got The Flax?

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Good heart health is important to pretty much everyone and its key to a long healthy life. One of the foods that you can add to your diet to help protect your heart is flaxseed or flax seed oil. This ancient seed has actually been around for over 4000 years and is full of fiber, antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids. Research to show that it can lower cholesterol levels as well as blood pressure in me even help in fighting certain cancers as well as reduce the inflammation caused by arthritis, asthma and Parkinson’s disease

In one study, participants who ate flax seed every day ( flaxseed bread along with 15 grams of ground flax seed) showed lower cholesterol levels and less of a tendency for their blood to clot after three months.

The great thing about flax seed is that it contains Alpha Linoleic Acid which your body can convert to EPA the healthy oils found in fish. This oil can help protect you against risk of stroke and heart attack. So, if you don’t like fish or it’s too expensive or you simply can’t eat enough to protect yourself you can try eating more flax seeds.

Along with added fiber, flax seeds can also give you other nutrients like magnesium to aid your health. When you buy flax seeds, you should always look for organic whole seeds and you want to get a coffee grinder along with them because you want to grind your seeds fresh each day. If you grind them ahead of time, the oils will oxidize and turn rancid. And if you don’t grind them, the seeds will pass right through your system intact and you won’t get any benefits from the oils.

When you eat flax seeds you should be sure to drink a lot of water with them because the flax seeds have a lot of fiber, both soluble and insoluble. This is great as it means he can help soften your stools if you have a problem with constipation but if you don’t take enough water with it the opposite may happen.

Flax seeds have a nutty taste and you can sprinklee them on cereal, salads, and just about any dish you want They are great to have with cottage cheese and, in fact, the combination of flax seeds and cottage cheese is thought to have cancer fighting properties.

If grinding up flaxseed’s every day seems like too much trouble for you, you can buy flax seed oil and use that on your salads and in other dishes. Just be sure to store in the refrigerator as it becomes rancid very quickly. You can also freeze the oil and that will last about a year in your freezer.