Monday, September 24, 2012

Flaxseeds and Flaxseed Tea

These are beautiful, Golden Flaxseeds. 
Before I was introduced to the health benefits of flaxseeds and before I personally experienced their healing power, I thought, "Flaxseeds? Really? Gross." True, they are not as pleasant to eat on their own as say, Sunflower Seeds, but they do make a delicious tea and the benefits for your body makes it worth the time to brew it.

I have had personal experience with the amazingness (yes, I just said "amazingness" lol) of flaxseed tea. 
I suffer from Gall Bladder attacks almost every month. They usually happen at night, and my sweet, sweet husband always gets up and makes me some FlaxTea when I'm hugging the toilet bowl and groaning from the burning pain. I sip it slowly and it usually always helps my body to calm down. It is some amazing stuff. I don't know how I would get through my attacks without it!


This is how you brew Flaxseed tea. 
You just put a hand full of seeds into a medium sized pot that has a small amount of water (more than enough to fill your tea cup, but not too much. About 1-1.5 inches over the handfull of seeds) Some seeds will float to the top, don't worry about it. You brew it on low heat until it starts to thicken. It's thicker than most other teas that are normally the consistency of water. The water does not need to boil. 

Once it has thickened use something like this^, something that will let the tea through, but not the seeds, and fill up your tea cup. It tastes pretty bland, but add about a tsp of Honey and oh sweet tastebuds it's good ...mmm...

These are some of the incredible reasons to use flaxseeds in your cooking and drink the tea. Or just the eat the seeds if that floats your boat ;-)

Flaxseed may aid in:
Lowering Cholesterol
Stabilizing Blood Sugar
Fighting Bone Loss
Promoting Weight Loss
Increasing Immunity
and Fighting Cancer

Flaxseed is high in:
Most of the B vitamins, Magnesium, and Manganese
Fiber, both soluble and insoluble
Phytochemicals, including power antioxidants such as lignans.
Omega3 fatty acids

I got my information from this website. You may go here to read in more detail about the health properties of Flaxseeds.