With the mild nutty flavor and crunchy consistency, flax seeds bring, they add the perfect amount of healthy dose to your daily diet! Want to make your salad bowl flavorful or make your mornings better with a punch of nutrition in your smoothies? Just add some flax seeds, and you are good to go. Don’t have any fruits to top your pancakes? Flax seeds are here for your rescue!
These tiny seeds of nutrition are multitasking agents loaded with flavor and health. In this article, let’s explore the several benefits of flax seed!
What are Flax Seeds?
Grown in countries all over Europe, Asia, and the Mediterranean, these golden-yellow to reddish-brown seeds are high in phytoestrogen. The Asian continent mostly used this nutritious crop as an Ayurvedic treatment for the last thousands of years!
Flax seeds, also known as linseeds or common flax, have recently gained popularity as a functional food. Some experts even quote them as a superfood and recommend including them in your daily diet. Eating seeds regularly carries numerous advantages as they are high in nutrients like fiber, protein, lignans, polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega-3, and antioxidants.
Considering all of the above benefits, no wonder the flax plant, referred to as Linum usitatissimum, literally means “the most useful” in Latin!
What is the Nutritional Value of Flax Seeds?
Here are the nutritional value and calories of one tablespoon of ground flax seeds:
- Calories: 37
- Protein: 1.3g
- Fiber: 1.9g
- Calcium: 1% of the RDI
- Carbohydrates: 2g
- Sodium: 2.1mg
- Magnesium: 6% of the RDI
- Potassium: 56.9mg
- Total Fat: 3g
- Iron: 2% of the RDI
What are the Health Benefits of Flax Seeds?
With studies to back us up, it is safe to say that these tiny seeds can be labeled as one of the most powerful foods to grace the earth! Several preliminary studies say seeds have the benefits of helping fight crucial health conditions. Let us further explore the six most significant health benefits of flax seeds:
1. Aids Your Weight Loss Process
Flax seeds play a crucial role in your daily diet if you aim to lose or manage your weight. However, here’s something you should understand first. Consuming only seeds with the hope of losing weight is not ideal. To achieve weight loss, you need to exercise regularly and make a proper diet plan. Including flax seeds in your diet is just one part.
Since these seeds are high in fiber, they make you feel full without letting you overeat. This results in lower calorie intake, which further leads to fat loss. Hence, you don’t end up binge eating. A study by the NIH showed that consumption of 2.5g of flax seeds led to a sensation of fullness in the stomach, reducing hunger and appetite. These rich fibrous supercrops slow your digestion, triggering the hormones controlling your appetite, making you feel full for more hours and ultimately acting as an aid to your weight loss journey!
2. Helps in Lowering the Risk of Cancer
Flax seeds contain plant compounds called lignans that carry cancer-fighting properties, estrogen and other antioxidant properties. A study showed that consuming seeds supplementation reduced prostate cancer proliferation in men before their prostate surgery. While the number of men with prostate cancer keeps increasing, it is believed that several dietary factors play a major role in the association with cancer. Among these, seeds have a huge influence.
Lignan reduces testosterone and 5α-reductase, an enzyme that converts the most active form of testosterone. Additionally, the presence of omega-3 fatty acids helps by killing cell activity.
3. Might Lower Your Cholesterol Levels
A one-month study on people with peripheral artery disease concluded that daily consumption of four tablespoons of milled flax seeds led to a dip in bad cholesterol levels by 15%. The benefit of flax seeds consumption does not end here. Another study revealed a noticeable increase of 12% in good cholesterol after consuming one tablespoon of flax seed powder daily for one month.
4. Gives You Relief from Constipation
Flax seeds are high in insoluble fiber, which binds more water to the stool. This results in softer stools. Eating seeds can act as a laxative and relieve your constipation. Seeds are also high in soluble fiber that slows your digestion rate and increases the consistency of your bowel movement.
5. Contributes to Lowering Sugar Levels
The presence of insoluble fiber is not only great for relieving you from constipation, but it is also helpful to slow down the release of sugar into your blood. This results in reducing your blood sugar levels. Research showed that type 2 diabetic patients who consumed 10-20 grams of flaxseed powder daily for a month saw a reduction in their blood sugar levels by at least 8 to 20%.
6. Reduces Inflammation
Flax seeds contain a rich amount of lignans and ALA that reduces the inflammation of several health conditions like asthma or Parkinson’s disease. It works by blocking the release of inflammation agents in your body. ALA shows a decreased inflammation in humans, while lignans reduce the inflammation levels of pro-inflammatory agents in animals.
How to Wisely Consume Flax Seeds in Your Diet?
Now that you are aware of all the health benefits flax seeds come with, here’s how even you can start incorporating this superfood into your daily diet:
- A tablespoon of ground seeds in your hot or cold breakfast cereal make it full of nutrition
- While making a sandwich, add one tablespoon of seeds to the mustard or mayonnaise and mix health with taste
- Make your yogurts more yum and nutritious with a tablespoon of flax seeds
- Mix ground flax seeds in your bread, muffins and cookies, and create a recipe full of deliciousness and nutrition
Like every other source of fiber, ensure you mix your seeds with plenty of water! Before including flax seeds in your daily diet, consult your doctor to know whether you have any restrictions. Lastly, remember that these seeds are not a replacement for any medical treatments and should only be consumed as an additional supplement for a better quality of life.
