Tag Archives: heart disease

What Is Flax Seed and How Can It Improve Your Health?

More and more, health-conscious individuals are turning to flax seed and it’s inherent flax seed oil as a natural, affordable solution. Are you frustrated in your search for a natural food What Is Flax Seedsupplement? One that can help you feel healthier and lose weight? without side effects?

Flax Seeds Benefits the Entire Body!
Flaxseed is claimed to benefit every molecule in the body! It improves the quality of hair, nails, and skin, as well as helping to regulate body weight, lower cholesterol and blood pressure and prevent arthritis and cancers.

What is flax seed?

The flax plant, an ancient crop, yields the fibre from which linen is woven, as well as seeds (linseed or flaxseed) and oil. The oil, also called linseed oil, has many industrial uses, it is an important ingredient in paints, varnishes and linoleum for example.

Flax is a grain crop which has several substances that can be healthy. It has fiber, omega-3 fatty acids and lignans. You can add flax to your diet by either using the flaxseeds or flaxseed oil. Both will add the essential omega-3 fatty acid, alpha linolenic acid (ALA) to our bodies. We need this fatty acid and are unable to make it on our own. This fatty acid may help reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease and sudden cardiac death. It is believed that flax’s fatty acids, as well as fiber, help in lowering blood cholesterol.

Flaxseed has been a part of human and animal diets for thousands of years in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and more recently in North America and Australia, says Kaye Effertz, executive director of AmeriFlax, a trade promotion group representing U.S. flaxseed producers. As flax gained popularity for its industrial uses, however, its popularity as a food product waned, but it never lost its nutritional value.

What does Flax Seeds look like?
Flax seeds are slightly larger than sesame seeds and have a hard shell that is smooth and shiny. Their color ranges from deep amber to reddish brown depending upon whether the flax is of the golden or brown variety. While whole flaxseeds feature a soft crunch, the nutrients in ground seeds are more easily absorbed.

Today flax is experiencing a renaissance among nutritionists, the health conscious public, food processors, and chefs alike!

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What Are Antioxidants? Why Eating Fish Prevents Cancer!

What Are Antioxidants?

Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with free radicals and terminate the chain reaction before vital molecules are damaged. Although there are several enzyme systems within the body that scavenge free radicals, the principle micronutrient antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C.

Selenium, a trace metal that is required for proper function of one of the body’s antioxidant enzyme systems, is sometimes included in this category. The body cannot manufacture these micronutrients so they must be supplied in the diet. So it is important to know what are antioxidants.

Why Eat Fish Weekly?

what are antioxidantsBest choices are oily fish rich in healthy omega-3 fatty acids, such as herring, sardines, salmon, lake trout, mackerel and albacore tuna. But forgo fish oil capsules unless you have been diagnosed with heart disease and can’t eat at least two meals of fish per week. People with high triglyceride levels who are under the care of a physician may benefit from omega-3 fatty acids in capsules. The U.S. guidelines also recommend two servings of fish per week, but they doesn’t address fish oil capsules in the same detail as AHA.

Can antioxidants prevent cancer?

That is a good question. And what are antioxidants role? Considerable laboratory evidence from chemical, cell culture, and animal studies indicates that antioxidants may slow or possibly prevent the development of cancer. However, information from recent clinical trials is less clear. In recent years, large-scale, randomized clinical trials reached inconsistent conclusions.

Various new researches show that a serving of almonds, for instance, contains the same amount of antioxidants called flavonoids as a serving of broccoli. And a one ounce serving of almonds provides as much of these antioxidants as found in a cup of brewed black or green tea, in addition to being an excellent source of vitamin E!

Furthermore, the researchers noted that the main antioxidant compounds found in almonds, catechin, epicatechin and kaempferol, are also the ones that provide the highest degree of protection against cell death from oxidants, a mechanism that appears to play an important role in reducing the risk of chronic diseases.

By knowing what are antioxidants, you will learn that antioxidants are abundant in fruits and vegetables, as well as in other foods including nuts, grains and some meats, poultry and fish. We urge you to find out more about Antioxidants today!

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