Mountain Rose Herbs. A herbs, health and harmony c

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Homemade Flax Milk






I love coconut milk. I prefer it over any other vegan milk. Through the years I have made every nut milk under the stars. Favorite ones were: walnut milk, pistachio milk, cashew milk and tahini milk. Some over the top good ones were the milks I would make from just "rinsing" the blender after making raw bars from pistachios, coconut oil, vanilla, mesquite, mulberries, lucuma, maple syrup etc. So a lot of the mixture would be left in the blender and I would whip up some milk before washing the blender jar. These milks were DECADENT!
I enjoy flax milk but I tend to favor the other ones more. However in order to stay healthy and to lower inflammation in the body we need to keep our ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids at around 1:1 as opposed to 15:1 which is the case in most Western societies. In a study  A ratio of 4:1 was associated with a 70% decrease in total mortality from cardiovascular disease. (Rindfleisch, A., “Inflammation: nutritional, botanical, and mind-body influences,” Southern Medical Journal, 3/1/2005.)
"A ratio of 2-3/1 suppressed inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a ratio of 5/1 had a beneficial effect on patients with asthma" 
"Western diets, promote the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, whereas increased levels of omega-3 PUFA (a low omega-6/omega-3 ratio) exert suppressive effects" omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, in PubMed

Another shocking fact I recently learned is that vegans had the worst omega 6 to omega 3 ratios due to the overconsumption of plant oils.

One way to improve the ratio is by dropping all the high in Omega 6 oils from your diet such as safflower oil, sunflower oil, corn oil and soy oil. In addition to that you can add flax, hemp, perilla seed, chia seed and green leafy vegetables to your diet. Neutral oils are coconut, macadamia and olive oil. General rule of thumb, chose the whole food over the extracted oils whenever possible. 

So one way to sneak in more flax seed into our diet is by using 

FLAX MILK

INGREDIENTS:
1/4- 1/3 CUP OF GOLDEN FLAX SEEDS ( if you use flour make sure it's freshly ground because the oils go rancid within a couple of days)
2-4 DATES
1-2 CUPS OF WATER
1-3 CARDAMOM PODS
 OR YOU CAN SKIP THE CARDAMOM AND REPLACE IT WITH VANILLA BEAN
PLACE ALL THE INGREDIENTS IN THE BLENDER AND BLEND AWAY! 
STRAIN THROUGH A STRAINER OR IF YOU PREFER IT COMPLETELY FIBER FREE THROUGH A CHEESECLOTH. 



YOU CAN ENJOY IT IN RECIPES THAT CALL FOR ALMOND MILK. I STILL PREFER COCONUT MILK IN MY TEA AND COFFEE BUT THIS IS GOOD IN FOOD RECIPES. IF YOU HAVE ANY TIPS ON HOW TO MAKE FLAX MILK GOOD ENOUGH TO GO IN COFFEE PLEASE LET ME KNOW. 



TO YOUR HEALTH

NATUREKNOWS
NATURE KNOWS

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for sharing this information along with the flax milk recipe. I suffer from bouts of inflammation and can't wait to start incorporating this milk into my diet. Cheers!

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  2. Yum! Thanks, Ali! I will have to try this. The cardamom seems like a delicious addition. My go to recently has been hazelnut milk. Have you tried? It is my favorite so far :). Xo Ann

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