Seed Breakdown - Flax Power! | Fun, Fit and Fabulous!

Happy Tuesday!
How are you this morning? I hope your week is off to a nice start. For me, yesterday was one big sweat session. I started off with a Pilates reformer class, followed by a Piloxing class and an abs workout of my own, then rounded out the day with a crazy Zumba class.

A few days ago, we talked all about the benefits of chia seeds and now it's time to dive in to all of the powers that flax seeds hold!

Two tabelspoons of flax seeds contain:

75 calories
132% of your DV of omega-3's
.35mg of manganese or 17.5% of your DV
.23mg or 15% of your DV of vitamin B1
3.82g of fiber or 15.3% of your DV
.04g of tryptophan or 12.5% of your DV
89.88mg of phosphorus or 9%of your DV
.17mg of coppoer or 8.5% of your DV

Pretty impressive stats huh? Well the goods don't stop there. Flax seeds have been shown to have tremendous health and wellbeing benefits.

Benefits of Flax Seeds:

· Can help reduce cholesterol, including the LDL(bad) cholesterol and triglycerides.

· Fight Diabetes- research has shown that theomeg-3 fat and high fiber content of flax seeds may play a role in preventingdiabetes. The University of Toronto conducted a study which found thatparticipants who ate flaxseed bread had blood sugar levels 28% lower an hourpost consumption than the participants who ate whole wheat bread.

· Protects against cancer – Flaxseeds are high inlignans, which have been labeled natural cancer-protective compounds. Flaxseedsare also high in alpha linolenic acid (ALA) which has been found to help fightcancer as well.

· Keeps you regular – The high fiber (both solubleand insoluble) content of flax seeds keeps things running smoothly! Once ounceof flax provides 32% of the USDA’s recommended intake of daily fiber.

· Helps reduce inflammation- A study by theAmerican Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that participants who tool flaxoil daily reduced their inflammatory responses by as much as 30%.

· Can help prevent heart disease – Regular intakeof flax seeds can protect against arrhythmias and help keep the arteriesclear and pliable.

· Improves your immune system - Flax’s lignans and ALAs have both beenfound to beef up immune cells and compounds that control immune response.

· Helps fend off the blues –The DHA (docosahexaenoicacid) found is essential for healthy brain function; however, up to 85% ofwomen aren’t getting adequate amounts of DHA. A diet rich in omega-3’s are alsoessential in healthy happy brain development.

Not only is flax very beneficial to your health, but it is also very versitile. You can sprinkle the seeds on salads, in soups, or blend them up in smoothies (like I did this morning). Ground flax is great to pump up the fiber in baked goods such as muffins, pancakes, and bread, and flax seed oil is a wonderful addition to salad dressings.

Chobani Orange Vanilla Smoothie