Index of References

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After years of trying out home remedies, prescription drugs, and fad diets in our efforts to improve our health, isn’t it time we all learned the simple truth that “we are what we eat”? As a physician, I like to encourage my patients to take charge of their health by giving them choices based on science, not fads, and backed up by ongoing research. Flax represents one such option. Flax an old food source that is currently being rediscovered by scientists in the lab, by the medical community, and by nutritionists. As Jane Reinhardt-Martin explains in this book, choosing to add flax to your diet is one way to help improve your heart’s health, and it has benefits for fighting cancer, renal disease and other health problems as well. As Reinhardt-Martin makes clear, a big part—but by no means all— of the benefit from flax comes from its oil. In these “anti-fat” times, recommending the addition of a food that is high in oils may seem counterintuitive, but it’s not. The use of oils can actually be healthy. Monounsaturated cooking oils such as canola and olive oils have established their reputations as heart healthy alternatives to corn and other vegetable oils. Now research attention is being directed to grapeseed and flax oils to discover their benefits as well. And benefits there are. Flaxseed and its oils have been shown to help raise HDL-cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) while lowering LDL-cholesterol. This is good news for your heart, and it can contribute to your healthy longevity. In this book, Reinhardt-Martin provides you with a solid grounding in the current state of research knowledge about the benefits of flax, but she doesn’t stop there. She knows that, for all our best intentions, most of us are unlikely to incorporate a new food in our daily diet unless we can do it conveniently, so she’s tracked down a host of sources where you can get the product. She also knows that we generally don’t make a particular food a regular part of our meals if we don’t know how to make it taste good. With that in mind, she has taken the trouble to put together some tempting recipes, all of which incorporate flaxseed. Think of them as “the proof in the pudding.” So read on, and remember you are learning to make better choices.

Robert A. Flowers, M.D. Internal Medicine

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Most people who know me will agree that I practice what I preach. As a Registered Dietitian, I am truly passionate about my work. My interest in nutrition began when I was a severely overweight teenager in high school. I learned about the profession of dietetics from my Home-Ec teachers. When attending college, I thought that if I could help myself with my weight problem, then maybe I could also help others become healthier—and feel better about themselves. Since graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 15 years ago, I have had the privilege of making that dream a reality. Over the years, and after working with hundreds of patients, I truly came to understand how difficult it is to make simple lifestyle changes, for I still battle my weight every day. So, how did all this lead me to becoming interested in flaxseed? In 1998 I was working for Coram Healthcare, and an important part of my job was to do cancer-and-nutrition presentations, teaching patients and their families about how changing their diet could help them in their recovery, as an adjunct to chemotherapy or other medical treatments. In the course of this work I often found myself doing on-line research for my patients, which is how I met Diana Dyer, a three-time cancer survivor. Diana, herself a Registered Dietitian, had posted information on-line telling about how, after her last breast cancer diagnosis, she had become intrigued by the anti-cancer properties that flaxseed is known to have, and had started using it in her own diet. She passed along to me much of the information she had gathered about this remarkable food, and I quickly became fascinated. (You will find one of Diana’s recipes in Chapter 7.) The more I learned about flaxseed, the more impressed I became. Soon I was sure that I wanted to share what I’d learned with people in the Quad Cities area (Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa) where I live. As a regular guest on The Paula Sands Live Show on KWQC-TV 6, a NBC affiliate, I did a segment introducing flaxseed to the viewers. But I didn’t stop there. I offered flaxseed classes at Greatest Grains, a health food store in Davenport, Iowa. The response was overwhelming! I could barely keep up with the requests for flax-based, low-fat recipes and meal plans. I spent the next few months collecting information and ideas from a variety of sources, with the idea of printing up a brief handout to give to my clients. Soon, however, it became clear that I had enough material to justify an entire book! I might never have taken the project any further, however, if it weren’t for my good friend Beth, whom I met in my sophomore year in college. Beth was first diagnosed with cancer as a child, and her mom had gotten heavily into health-food store products, believing it would help keep Beth well. When Beth went off to college, her mom always insisted that she keep lots of this kind of food on hand in her dorm room. At that time I thought it was strange—back then there were very few studies showing the correlation between nutrition and cancer. I lost Beth to her cancer eight years ago, but I have come to believe that her mom’s health-food “care packages” were part of the reason that Beth was with us for as long as she was. Today’s nutritionists have come to know what Beth’s mom instinctively believed about health foods: There are some powerful health benefits available in the foods we eat. Flax, in particular, has enjoyed a recent surge in popularity for very good reasons—as you’ll soon see when you read about the latest scientific research on the subject. And it’s clear that the benefits of flax go far beyond helping cancer patients; flax appears to be helpful in combating a wide range of diseases and disorders, from arthritis to some of the less pleasant symptoms of menopause. The more I researched the dietary benefits of flax, the more I felt the need to make the results of my studies known to a broader audience. Even more, I am inspired by Beth herself, who was a gentle person who always considered the needs of other people over her own. Writing this book is, in part, my way of working through my sense of loss now that Beth is gone. It is only fitting, therefore, that I dedicate this book in the memory of my good friend Beth.

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• To obtain a beneficial amount of ground flax or flax oil through pills, you have to take several each day. For example, one brand of ground flax pills recommends a daily dosage of 8 pills! And for all those pills, you’re only getting the equivalent of just one-half a teaspoon of ground flaxseed. To get the benefits of a single tablespoon of flaxseed, you’d have to take 53 pills a day! Similarly, to get the benefit of a single tablespoon of flax oil, you’d have to eat 14 flax-oil pills daily! And these pills aren’t cheap!
• The pill form does not reduce the calories of your flax! Many people are under the impression that pill-style supplements are a calorie-free way to get the nutrients they need. This is just not true. If you are using the pill form as a way to cut calories, you’re only fooling yourself: flax oil pills contain all fat!
• Pill supplements present only a select set of the many substances found in the actual flaxseed. Since flax research is still in its infancy, however, scientists have not yet identified all the potentially health-promoting substances contained in flax. You may therefore be missing some important, but as yet unrecognized, nutritional benefit if you restrict your flax intake to pills.

Putting It to Good Use

So, okay . . . you’re ready to take the plunge and start adding flax to your diet. The question now is to decide how to manage this change. After all, to make this a regular component of your meals, you’ll want to do more than just scarf down a handful of seeds, right? The good news is that both whole and ground flaxseed are very stable, capable of standing up to use in baking and stove-top cooking. The nutrients remain intact, even after you’ve incorporated the flaxseed in your recipes! Still, it helps to have a little guidance on how to use this product. In the final chapters of this book I’ll be giving you some full-scale recipes to follow, and in no time at all you’ll be cooking with flax like a pro. For now, however, here are some fast, simple ways to use whole or ground flaxseed that you can put into practice right away!

As a sprinkled topping or garnish for:
• oatmeal • salads • cottage cheese

When baking, you can add flaxseed into the batter or dough for lots of foods, including:
• meatloaf • muffins • pizza crust

Flaxseed mixes in with foods cooked on the stove top, too. Try adding a little the next time you make:
• spaghetti sauce • pancakes • burgers (beef, turkey, or soy)

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Let’s Get Creative

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can take a cue from Emeril Lagasse and “bump it up a notch” by experimenting with adding flax to some of your family’s favorite recipes.

Recipe substitution isn’t too hard to do, as long as you keep in mind what flaxseed is made of: protein, fiber, and fat (oil). This knowledge gives you clues as to the best way to alter your recipes. For example, the high oil content of flaxseed makes it a reasonable substitute for shortening or conventional cooking oils. In my experience, a 3:1 substitution ratio works well: three tablespoons of ground flaxseed replaces one tablespoon of oil or shortening. Similarly, the protein content of flaxseed makes it a great egg substitute if you mix it with water. One tablespoon of ground flaxseed mixed with 3 tablespoons of water, then left to sit for a minute or two, handily replaces a single egg.