{"id":4949,"date":"2012-05-04T22:11:53","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T03:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amadeusacademy.com\/family\/?p=4949"},"modified":"2012-05-04T22:11:53","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T03:11:53","slug":"other-stuff-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/?p=4949","title":{"rendered":"“Other Stuff” Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Other Stuff” Day 1:\u00a0 Chia Seeds and Flax seeds<\/span>.<\/p>\n

I had heard of flax seed before and I might have even had it years ago, but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.\u00a0 So I thought it was time to give it another shot.\u00a0 After some research I discovered that it’s best to buy it in it’s whole form and then grind it when you need it.\u00a0 It helps preserve more of the nutrients (apparently).<\/p>\n

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Flax Seed<\/p><\/div>\n

I use a coffee grinder to make a week or two’s worth at a time and then store it in the fridge.\u00a0 Flax seed has a bunch of really good things for you like Omega-3 and fiber.\u00a0 It also has benefits beyond that like lowering your risk of heart disease and cancer and diabetes.\u00a0\u00a0 Now I’m not an expert (at all!) and I’ve only started reading up on it–but I figured from all the good stuff I was finding it was worth trying to add it to my diet.\u00a0 Plus a small bag will last a LONG time since I’m grinding it up.\u00a0 I now add it to my morning oatmeal or to my crustless pumpkin pie (I’ll come back to that one tomorrow… yum). It really doesn’t have much flavor (maybe slightly nutty) so I can add it to a lot of things if I wanted to.<\/p>\n

And then onto Chia seeds.<\/p>\n

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Chia Seeds<\/p><\/div>\n

I hadn’t ever heard of these before but I ran across them in a new recipe for “overnight no cook oatmeal” (I’ll come back to this one as well, don’t worry)\u00a0 so my interest was sparked.\u00a0 Here’s a blurp from the original website that I found the recipe and what she says about Chia seeds:<\/p>\n

ch-ch-ch-CHIA seeds.<\/strong> I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about the nutritional powerhouse in these teensie little seeds, and this is a great way to sneak them into your diet. Chia seeds:<\/p>\n

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  • have more Omega 3 fatty acids than flax seed (important for heart health)<\/li>\n
  • are the richest non-marine whole food source of Omega-3 (better than salmon)<\/li>\n
  • absorb 10 times their weight in water and transform into a gel-like substance–great for athletes for maintaining hydration and helps with weight loss by making you feel full longer<\/li>\n
  • are as high in protein as quinoa<\/li>\n
  • are loaded with calcium, potassium, Vitamin B, and anti-oxidants<\/li>\n
  • help balance blood sugar via the gelling action of the seed and it\u2019s unique combination of soluble and insoluble fiber that slow down your body\u2019s conversion of starches into sugars<\/li>\n
  • have a neutral taste so they will take on the other flavors in a recipe<\/li>\n
  • can be eaten whole (unlike flax seed); they don’t have to be ground before adding them to food in order to digest them and benefit from their nutrients.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Interesting, huh?\u00a0 I thought so!\u00a0 In fact I was most intrigued by the idea of the “gel-like substance” part.\u00a0 Do they really form a gel when added to a liquid?\u00a0 And I liked the idea that I could just eat them whole instead of having to remember to grind them.\u00a0 So again, after reading up on them some more I thought it was worth a try to add them to my diet as well. \u00a0 And the gel-thing.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It does form a gel.\u00a0 It’s weird.\u00a0 Crazy weird.\u00a0 I’ll show you more when I post my overnight-no-cook-oatmeal recipe.\u00a0 So the only downfall is if you don’t want the substance you added them to to get thick you need to eat it quickly.\u00a0 Usually it’s not a problem–lots of people like to add them to soup to help fill them feel more full.\u00a0 I read the illustration of drinking a glass of chocolate milk vs. drinking a chocolate milk shake.\u00a0 The thicker one makes you feel more full.\u00a0 Makes sense to me.<\/p>\n

    However I did discover what I will NOT add them to.\u00a0 V8.\u00a0 I’m not a big fan of V8 but I’ve grown to tolerate it as a part of my morning routine and I really want to up my veggie intake.\u00a0 Plus, I can get the low sodium kind which significantly lowers the sodium in normal V8.\u00a0 Well, I normally just guzzle it down.\u00a0 The other day I thought I would try adding Chia seeds to that and then I forgot about it for about 15 min.\u00a0 That’s the amount of time it takes for it to form a gel.\u00a0 Yup, you can see this coming, can’t you?\u00a0 I had to drink my V8 as a super thick gel with little chunks of seeds which felt like bugs going down my throat.\u00a0 NOT something I’ll be doing again.\u00a0 Bleck!<\/p>\n

    But other than that, I’ve had a general success with both seeds.\u00a0 I haven’t noticed any type of dramatic difference but it’s nice to know I’m putting good stuff in my body.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Other Stuff” Day 1:\u00a0 Chia Seeds and Flax seeds. I had heard of flax seed before and I might have even had it years ago, but it didn’t leave much of an impression on me.\u00a0 So I thought it was time to give it another shot.\u00a0 After some research I discovered that it’s best to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4949"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4958,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions\/4958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/friesens.inkingmythinking.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}