The Power of Flax

It’s been a little while since I last posted a research piece. Honestly, these pieces often are very time consuming. On top of this, I realized that more recipes were needed. It’s one thing to tell you why you should eat healthy, but it seems impractical to not also show you how to do so.  

Flax seed has been around for quite some time. Treasured for it’s medicinal uses throughout the Roman Empire, it was also one of the first “health foods” used by Hypocrites. In fact, whenever I’m asked for a recommendation for a single healthy food to include into a diet, flax seed always makes the short list of possible contenders. But why is flax so well regarded?

Flax are available almost everywhere in the US and are relatively cheap – typically just $2 a pound. They’re two main verities, gold and brown. They are essentially the same nutritionally so either is just fine.

Now because the seeds have a strong fibrous outer shell, our bodies are often unable to digest them and access their full benefits. It is possible to chew them, but it is much simpler to just buy pre-ground flax seeds, or toss the whole flax seeds into a blender or coffee grinder and give them a few pluses. If you grind them yourself, you’ll want to keep them refrigerator or frozen to prevent them from going rancid. They will last several months in the fridge. 

The seeds are powerhouses of nutrition. While Hypocrites didn't have the details, he was clearly onto something. They are one of the richest sources of lignans. Lignans are a type of antioxidant that have been demonstrated to have a multitude of positive health effects. Some of them include the ability to help regulate hormone levels, they help support the immune system, can inhibit certain enzymes from becoming free radicals and may help reduce the stress hormone cortisol among others.

They also contain iron, zinc, copper, calcium, protein, magnesium, folate, and even a trace mineral known as boron that helps bone health. They also help decrease the amount of estrogen, which may help lower breast cancer risk.

On top of this, just 7 grams of ground flax seeds (roughly 1 tablespoon) contains 1.6 grams of Omega 3 fatty acid. That represents the recommended daily dose of Omega 3. To make flax seeds even more appealing, they have just .4 grams of Omega 6 (another essential fatty acid, that most people simple get way too much of.) This means the important Omega 3 to 6 ratio is a great .25. Chia seeds by comparison have .3 grams of omega 6 per 1.6 grams of omega 3, meaning that flax seeds actually has the more favorable omega ratio. Flax seeds are also far cheaper, so per dollar, you are getting more for your buck!

Flax also helps control our cholesterol and blood pressure levels and has also been shown to help with hot flashes in menopausal women.

Honestly, one tablespoon of ground flax seeds daily is one of the best foods you can include in your diet. Because they have such a neutral taste, you can use them in almost any way you desire, but heating them will destroy some of the nutrients so try and include some in their raw, ground state. I sprinkle them on my morning oats and in smoothies as well as on top of salads and pastas. You can also see this post about how to use flax as a replacement for oil in many recipes. 

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G.K. Paschos et. all. “Dietary supplementation with flaxseed oil lowers blood pressure in dyslipidaemic patients.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 61 2007.

Jeff Novick, “Nuts?” on McDougall Form Jan. 8, 2008.

Zhang, Wang, et. all. “Effects of dietary flaxseed lignan extract on symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Journal of Medical Food, 11 2008.

Zhang, Wang et. all. “Dietary flaxseed lignana extract lowers plasma cholesterol and glucose concentrations in hypercholesterolaemic subjects. British Journal of Nutrition. 99 2008.

As always the information presented in this blog is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered as specific medical, nutritional, lifestyle, or other health-related advice.

Oil-free Baked Falafel

In my last post, I shared a hummus recipe that got some really kind feedback, well today I’ve got another chickpea-based Middle Eastern inspired recipe: oil-free baked falafel.

As I mentioned in my post about mung beans, legumes are one of the healthiest foods available worldwide, and some recent research suggests that bean intake is the most important factor associated with longer lifespans! Not only this, but beans are some of the cheapest foods making their nutrition value a huge bang for the buck!

This falafel recipe is super easy, essentially fool-proof, and tastes phenomenal.

I’m also including a very basic tahini dressing recipe. This is one of those once-in-a-while foods. Tahini is a thick paste made from pulverized sesame seeds, which sounds healthy on its face. However, it is very high in calories with most of those calories coming from fat. Unfortunately, most of that fat comes from Omega-6, an essential fatty acid, but one that most westerners get too much of in relation to their Omega-3 consumption. It is also possible for tahini to oxidize as it ages, which can cause the release of free radicals in your body.

That said few things are so cut and dry. Tahini is rich in phosphorus, lecithin, magnesium, potassium and iron. It’s also a good source of methionine and very high in calcium. It also boasts vitamin E and many of the B vitamins (B1, B2, B3, B5 and B15). Most tahini’s are around 20% protein as well. So feel free to weight the costs for yourself. If you’re healthy and fit, including tahini in your diet won’t have a negative impact on your health when consumed sparingly.

Oil-free Falafel:

1 ½ cups dried chickpeas

2-3 cloves fresh garlic

1 small sweet onion

1 cup fresh parsley (it’s important to use fresh for this recipe)

Juice from ½ of a lemon

1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax in 1 tablespoon of water)

Pinch of baking soda

1 tablespoon cumin

Black pepper and salt to taste

Soak the chickpeas overnight or for several hours. Try adding some citrus (like apple cider vinegar) to speed up the process and help with digestibility. Once the beans can be crushed by pinching them between your fingers they are ready. (Note: if you don’t have time to soak them, boil the chickpeas until they are about half cooked. Roughly 30 minutes).

Now, put all of the above ingredients into a food processor or hand held blender. Process until well combined and relatively processed, but not completely smooth. Stop the food processor and push the ingredients down towards the blends when needed. The entire mixture should turn into a light green from the parsley and have a pleasant cumin smell.

Now pre-heat the oven to 350 and line a large baking pan with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon, scoop out the mixture into small 2 inch balls and put onto the pan. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes and check. The falafel balls should begin to brown. Flip them over and return to the oven for another 8 – 10 minutes. Take out and let cool.

While the falafels are cooking making the tahini sauce.

Tahini sauce:

2 tablespoons tahini

Juice of 1 lemon

Onion powder

¾ cup water

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until well combined and smooth.

As always the information presented in this blog is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered as specific medical, nutritional, lifestyle, or other health-related advice.

Mung Beans and Sprouting Guide

Sprouting is an ancient technique that has been used on all sorts of beans, legumes, and various seeds as a way to increase their nutrition profile, digestibility, and flavor. Over the winter I’ve become addicted to sprouted mung beans (sometimes called ming beans) but this process can be repeated with any other legumes including lentils and chickpeas (which are other favorites).

While you can buy sprouts from most grocers today, they are far cheaper when you sprout them yourself. Besides being relatively cheap, especially when compared to the huge amount of nutrients sprouted legumes offer, they can also be a nice way to add fresh, raw produce to your diet year around.  Adding sprouts is an easy way to make any meal look a little more exotic and fancy.  

One study published a few years ago examined food consumption in five different regions of the world and found that legumes intake was the most important factor associated with longer lifespan. The study found an 8% reduction in risk of overall mortality for every 20 grams of legumes consumed. 

As legumes, mung bean sprouts are an incredible source of nutrients. Besides being anti-inflammatory, they offer an excellent amino acid profile and are 20% calories from protein which is remarkably high (sigh, and yes, they are a complete protein, just like all whole foods!) They also are high in vitamin C and vitamin K, which is essential for the process of blood clotting. Vitamin K also helps regulates bone mineralization and helps maintain bone density. Mung beans are an excellent source of riboflavin, folate, iron, and manganese. They are also packed with Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids as well as other micronutrients.

Besides being an all-around nutritional all-star, mung beans are incredibly easy to sprout taking an average of only 3 days before becoming edible. Once sprouted, mung beans have a tasty, fresh nutty flavor and offer a delicate crunch when added to a dish.

Once sprouted, you can keep mung beans in a sealed jar in the refrigerator for up to 5 weeks, although once you taste them, I'd be surprised if they last more than a few days!    

How to sprout legumes:

1. Take the desired amount (yield is approximately 2:1 so 1 cup of dry mung beans will be roughly 2 cups sprouted) and rinse them until the water runs clean.

     2. Then place the beans in either a bowl or jar and fill with cold filtered water. Add about 2-3 times the amount of water as there are beans. IE: 1 cup beans needs 2-3 cups water

     3.   Let soak overnight (8 – 12 hours)

     4. After soaking the beans, drain them and rinse them again with cold water.

    5. Place the beans in either an empty bowl or jar and set to the side. Store them in room temperature that isn’t directly hit by sunlight, but that does get some light.

   6. The next morning (day 2) the beans should be starting to open. Rinse once more in cold water and then return to the jar or bowl.

   

   7. By day three you should see little tails coming out of the body of the bean. You can either enjoy them this way, or let those little tails grow for another day for a softer sprout. Both are delicious. Rinse one final time, and then enjoy by adding to both raw and cooked meals.

   They’re great on salads, pastas, tossed in soups or pretty much any other dish! I just tossed some on top of my Green Mac N' Cheese. 

Darmadi-Blackberry, M. Wahlqvist et al. "Legumes: The Most Important Dietary Predictor of Survival in older people of Different Ethnicities," Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2004, 217-20.

As always the information presented in this blog is for educational purposes only. It should not be considered as specific medical, nutritional, lifestyle, or other health-related advice.

Pros and Cons of Coconut Oil

At a dinner party I recently hosted, a good friend of mine and I started talking about coconut oil. Like me, he eschews all oils and other high-fat, highly processed foods, believing that a diet consisting of 75-80% carbohydrate, 10-15% protein, and only 10% fat to be the ideal diet combination of macro nutrients.

Basically, my friend was arguing that coconut oil, which is 100% fat, has a large amount of saturated fat and doesn’t even have the trace minerals and nutrients found in olive oil and other plant-based oils. As such, he was wondering where people got the idea that coconut oil was a “good” oil.

The Pros:

My friend was right; coconut oil is devoid of even trace amounts of vitamins and minerals (for those keeping score, I guess you can count that as a point for olive oil, but honestly we are talking about such small amounts that its really negligible). Rather, the reason so many people think coconut oil is a beneficial oil is because of the fatty acids it contains- in particular, medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), a type of saturated fat. The MCTs make coconut oil unique because nearly all other oils (animal or plant-based) are comprised of long-chain triglycerides (LCT). MCTs are broken down almost immediately by enzymes in the saliva and gastric juices so that pancreatic fat-digesting enzymes are not even required to complete the digestive process. In the digestive system MCTs are broken down into individual fatty acids. Unlike other fatty acids, these individual acids are absorbed directly from the intestines and sent straight to the liver where they are, (for the most part) burned as fuel, much like a carbohydrate. In this respect they act more like carbohydrates than like fats.

Other fats require pancreatic enzymes to break them into smaller units. They are then absorbed into the intestinal wall and packaged into bundles of fat (lipid) and protein called lipoproteins. These lipoproteins are carried by the lymphatic system, bypassing the liver, and then dumped into the bloodstream, where they are circulated throughout the body. As they circulate in the blood, their fatty components are distributed to all the tissues of the body. The lipoproteins get smaller and smaller, until there is little left of them. At this time they are picked up by the liver, broken apart, and used to produce energy or, if needed, repackaged into other lipoproteins and sent back into the bloodstream to be distributed throughout the body. Because of the difference between the two processes, coconut oil companies are able to market their product as an energy food and even claim it doesn’t contribute to body fat the way other oils do.

The fact that MCTs digest immediately to produce energy and stimulate metabolism has led athletes to use them as a means to enhance exercise performance. Some studies indicate this may be true. In one study, for example, investigators tested the physical endurance of mice that were given MCTs in their daily diet against those that weren't. The study extended over a six-week period. The mice were subjected to a swimming endurance test every other day. They were placed in a pool of water with a constant current. The total swimming time until exhaustion was measured. While at first there was little difference between the groups of mice, those fed MCTs quickly began to out-perform the others and continued to improve throughout the testing period. Tests such as this demonstrated that MCTs had the ability to enhance endurance and exercise performance, at least in mice.

In another study, this one using humans, cyclists pedaled for three hours. During the last hour they were each given a beverage to drink. Those who received beverages containing MCTs reportedly outperformed the others.

The claim is that MCTs provide an energy boost while also boosting the rate of the metabolism. When the metabolism is increased, cells function at a higher rate of efficiency, helping to heal injuries quicker, and replaced old cells faster. Amazingly, because of this, coconut oil companies (a product that is 100% fat) claims their product can actually help people lose weight. Even recognized health experts repeat this claim, as Dr. Oz told his followers, "The first of the health benefits of coconuts—the one you're going to care about a lot—is weight loss."

The Cons:

Others argue that instead of focusing in on the “trees” or the MCTs that are found in coconut oil, we need to step back and view the “forest” or the fact that coconut oil is one of the highest sources of saturated fat. Nearly 92 percent of its fat is saturated. For comparison, olive and soybean oils are about 15 percent saturated, while beef fat is about 50 percent saturated and butter is 63 percent saturated. According to the senior nutrionist at The Center for Science in the Public Interest, David Schardt, only Palm Kernel oil has more saturated fat. The consumption of saturated fats can raise cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease as well as stroke.

David Schardt also tackles the claim that coconut oil will help slim peoples waists. Apparently there has only been one real research study testing if coconut oil could help people lose weight. It didn’t. At the end of the study, both the control and the test groups lost the same amount of weight during the course of four days while cutting their calories and adding exercise to their daily regimen. This is pretty skimpy evidence.

Instead, the claims about losing weight come from a group of small studies where specifically formulated 100% MCT oil was consumed (coconut oil is less than 60%). Even these findings were insignificant. 

The research on coconut oil and cholesterol is similarly scarce, but what has been done shows that coconut oil raises HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol) but raises LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) as well, which can increase the chances of cardiovascular disease. As Dr. Esselstyne, of the Cleveland Clinic notes, HDL cholesterol only rises in the presence of LDL cholesterol and a lower overall cholesterol is always preferred.

To further dismiss the marketing advertisements of coconut oil, nutritionist Jeff Novick suggests examining the nutrient density of coconut oil. The nutrient density of any food is defined as a ratio of nutrient content (in grams) to the total energy content (in calories). After running the numbers, Novick notes that 100 calories of coconut oil contains almost no protein, vitamins, minerals, or fiber- adding almost no nutritional value while only 4 teaspoons surpasses the American Heart Association’s recommended daily intake of saturated fat. Coconut oil is high in calories and fat while giving no nutrients in return. As such, Novick concludes that coconut oil is the opposite of a nutrient dense food. Finally, when compared to the nutrient density of sugar, coconut oil actually fared worse.

In addition, Jeff Novick adds that another recent study looked at the effects of even just one high fat meal on HDL, inflammation, and blood flow. Subjects were fed a meal high in calories from coconut oil and the effects were evaluated at 3 and 6 hours after the meal. The meal containing coconut oil impaired the anti-inflammatory action of HDL at both 3 and 6 hours. In addition, blood flow was significantly reduced 3 hours after the meal containing coconut oil and remained slightly reduced at 6 hours. If these studies are correct, (and there is no reason not to trust them,) consuming coconut oil would actually hinder athletic performance.

He also adds that while MCTs do have some benefits, only a small portion of the fats in coconuts are in the form of MCTs but adds that many times, the MCTs are actually removed from the coconut to be used in the medical or cosmetic industry before being turned into coconut oil.

While ultimately the decision to consume coconut oil remains a completely personal choice, it seems like optimal health can only be achieved with minimal to no coconut oil. The small benefits that could possibly be gained from consuming MCTs do not seem worth the long-term health risks.

So perhaps a good New Year resolution is to forget the hyperbole of the coconut oil marketing, and kick coconut oil to the curb.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Further Reading:

Kiyasu G.Y., et al. 1952. “The Portal Transport of Absorbed Fatty Acids.” Journal of Biological Chemistry 199:415.

 Fushiki, T. and Matsumoto, K. 1995, “Swimming Endurance Capacity of Mice is Increased by Chronic Consumption of Medium-Chain Triglycerides” Journal of Nutrition 125:531.

 Applegate, L. 1996. Nutrition. Runner's World 31:26.

 Brazier, Brendan, Thrive: The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life. Da Capo Life Books, New York: 2008.

 J Am Coll Cardiol, “Consumption of Saturated Fat Impairs the Anti-Inflammatory Properties of High-Density Lipoproteins and Endothelial Function,” 2006; 48:715-720.

 Schardt, D., “Coconut Oil”: Lose Weight? Cure Alzheimer’s? Clog your Arteries?” Center for Science in the Public Interest, Nutrition Action June 2012.

 Novick, J. “Marketing Junk Food: Don’t go Cuckoo Over Coconut Oil.” Newsletter, 4/10/2008.