FANTASTIC FLAXFeatured this week on Fiber Focus Friday is a food not well known by most. Flax is indeed a seed that is versatile, amazingly healthy, and tasty!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s food rundown. I appreciate the fact that you are reading this, and I hope to be able to provide you with some excellent information on flax seed.

As always, please free to comment below with foods you would like to see featured next time!

Fantastic Flax Quick Fact Card

Fantastic Flax is awesome for you

Types of Flax Seed

The main types of flax seeds are golden, brown, and organic. You can buy each one ground or whole. To see an excellent post on the taste differences between the three, click on the link!

For me, I prefer to get the organic whole seeds and throw them in my smoothies to add a little bit extra health kick!

How to Grow Your Own Flax Seed

Flax seed can be grown just about anywhere if you have the right kind of patience and fortitude. It will take about 100 days for the seeds to be ready to be harvested, but stick with it and you will be growing your own flax seeds in no time at all!

Additionally, growing flax seeds make for a great do it yourself project that can be done fairly easily. Follow the steps provided in the link above and let me know how you do!

Where Did Flax Seed Come From?

Flax seed was first discovered to be used as a textile when it knotted wild flax fibers were found in a Dzudzuana Cave, over 30,000 years ago! It was then extensively cultivated in Northern Egypt and its use has only grown since.

How Much Fiber in Flax Seed?

So how much fiber does flax seed have? When weighing in at 1 TBSP flax seed has about 2.8 grams of fiber. This means you can easily add 1-2 tablespoons of flax seed to a smoothie and not even notice a taste difference!

For more flax seed recipes and ways to eat it, keep on reading, and while you are it, sign up for the Fiber Guardian Mailing list below! You will be sent a good number of content bonuses, along with a sweet PDF of all the foods that we have focused on during Fiber Focus Friday!

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Health Benefits of Flax Seed

  • Flax seeds are high in fiber which, as we know, is the reason why they are being featured on this article series! However, if you are new to flax seeds, it is important to recognize the amazing health benefits of adding them to your diet!
  • Flax seed is high in Omega-3 essential fatty acids and this is great news! These good fats bring with them an abundance of heart healthy benefits.
  • Lignans, which have antioxidant qualities, are readily found in flax seed. In fact, There is an overwhelming amount as flax seeds have many times more lignans than most other plant species.
  • It has been found that eating flax seed regularly is an proven way to help prevent some cancers including: breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer.
  • Eating generous amounts of flax seed can also help to aid in the fight against cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, and even diabetes.

Fun Facts About Flax Seeds

  1. About 2 months after planting the flax plant will flower  This makes for a lovely decoration, producing beautiful sky blue flowers.
  2. Canada is the top producer of flax seed worldwide.
  3. The flax plant can reach 3 feet 11 inches in height.
  4. Flax seed should not be cooked with as doing so destroys all nutrients.
  5. Flax fibers are used in the industry of paper to create cigarettes, tea bags and banknotes.
  6. It is a good idea to store flax in your fridge or your freezer as it can get rancid over time.
  7. In other parts of the world, including the UK, flax seed is known as linseed

How Do I Eat Flax Seeds?

I personally mix them into a smoothie. My personal favorite is to throw in a few table spoons of flax seed in with a banana, blueberries, kefir, and a touch of honey! Yum! 🙂

Other Awesome Flax Seed Recipes Include:

Final Thoughts on Flax Seed

What are your thoughts on flax seed? Hopefully you learned something from this post! When I first discovered flax seed I was like “uhh what the heck do I do with this??” But it is indeed an amazing food, and if you can work it into your diet, your will be much better off!

Thank you so much for reading!

-Jordan