If you’re like me and haven’t grown up with lots of seeds in your diet, you can be at a bit of a loss as to how to get more into the foods you like to eat.
Eating more whole seed bread isn’t always appealing. You have to be a bird anyway or spend half your time chewing just to make sure you crunch all the seeds to get the benefits from them.
Some seeds, like sesame and flax seeds (parent omega 3!), are so good for you but how hard are they to eat?! They’re so small, chewing them is almost impossible.
Buying seeds already crushed means the delicate oils are exposed to air so they go bad quickly and you end up throwing half the packet out. Plus I know of only LSA (linseed/flax seed, sunflower seed and almonds) mix which is not a lot of variety. Also if you want a specific type of seed there are not many options.
I have found a solution. Its not actually my idea, I got it from YouTube.
I wanted to increase the amount of parent omega 3 in my diet to complement the Omega 6 I get from our pumpkin seed oil as per Professor Brian Peskin’s recommendations*. Fish oil is not an option as its not in the parent form that our bodies need*.
The best source of parent omega 3 is flax seed oil. I’m not at all impressed with any flax seed oil produced in Australia (it all tastes rancid). In my book eating flax seeds is a must. But how?
The guy off YouTube was making a smoothie and added freshly ground Flax Seeds. He recommended grinding them fresh so the oils in the seed was at its best. Fantastic!
So I went off to hunt for a seed grinder. I wanted one that can do small amounts, 1 tablespoon, at a time - just enough for 1 (me!) to add to my porridge. Every machine seemed like I would need to grind enough for a week. Not very appealing for the freshness factor.
Finally after pounding seeds in a mortar and pestle for a few weeks and not getting very good results I bit the bullet and bought a grinder.
Although the grinder packaging doesn’t say, which I think they really should, is that they do really small quantities. When I say small I mean small - less than 1 tablespoon of flax seeds! They get wizzed around by the speed so even though they don’t fill up to the blades they still get chopped into a fine powder. Just what I want for my porridge.
My grinder is by Sunbeam and is called a Muligrinder. Its a coffee grinder. It can also be used for herbs and spices. I love it. Do you know how freshly ground seeds, herbs and spices smell? Delicious.
So, to some it all up. If you want an easy way to add more seeds like flax seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds etc to your diet, disguise them in with your other foods.... get a grinder. They are really tasty and you feel good for eating them.
In winter add ground seeds to porridge, soups and sauces. In summer add them to smoothies, cereal and salads. Anytime add them to biscuits, muffins or breads.
Its easy - only takes a few seconds to grind them up. It will leave you with a good feeling that for the less than 30 seconds effort to add them to your food. You can feel proud you did something good for your health and wellbeing.
Best of all adding more seeds to your foods will give you the nutrients and protein you need and help stop sugary snack cravings, great for weight loss.
Till next time, have a great day.
Sharan
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