Hello Everyone!

I picked up a bag of flax meal today. I am planning to store in the freezer. I know you can add it to salads etc.. make cereal, etc..

I have read that some of the good stuff is destroyed if its heated too much. I don't mind this as I will be eating some raw too. Does overheating cause anything bad to happen? ie .. does it modify it into something bad for you?

Can you use flax as a coating for fried meats, ie chicken, or would something like almond flour be better suited for this?

Thanks!
Abie

I'm on Induction just now and so have to count verrrry carefully! I make a cereal with ground flax seed which I got from online somewhere (who knows!) and really enjoy it! 3 TBsp ground flax, 6 Tbsp water, add a few grains of salt and a pinch of cinnamon. Then stir into a porridge and add a bit of cream. Only 5 carbs. But when you can only have 20 in a day that adds up. Today I didn't have it as I am planning to have broccoli for supper. On the fitday.com site, if you register you can search for the complete nutitional breakdown of foods and quantities. It's excellent for a fast search.

Remember to subtract fiber from your carb count. Broccoli has alotof fiber, so it really has only a few carbs. 1 cup of broccoli has 4.61g carb total with 2.64g fiber. So you can have 1 cup of broccoli and only count 1.97g carbs to your 20g daily total.

You are my hero! I have been scanning this site and that has been one of my main questions--how to count the ACTUAL carbs. I couldn't believe you get to subtract the fibre!! I must redo my list. And I just read about some cheese "crackers"--they sounded so good I logged off immediately and went to make some. They are in the oven. Now I must go an recalculate some of my veggie counts! (Maddi doing the happy dance.)

Maddi - do you grind your own flax seed or do you purchase it ground?
I am very interested in adding it to salads and cereal!

If you overheat flax, it destroys the EFA's (essential fatty acids), the whole point of eating it. Look at flax seed oil. It's got to be refrigerated, stored in light block bottles, as well as cold pressed. It is very sensitive to heat. Never use anything more than hot water on them in a cereal, never boiling water. And you can buy whole flax seeds and grind them in a coffee grinder, mix with some unprocessed oat bran and water. There are flax cereals on the market, I love em. Low Carb Chef makes em, lowcarbsuccess does, and gram's gourmet. All are good. As for adding to salads, many people put flax seed oil in the dressing.

Yes you destroy the EFA's in flax when you heat it too high, but it does not turn it inot anything bad for you. I eat FlaxOMeal in the AM, and use regular flax meal mixed with crushed pork rinds to create a "breading" for chicken and pork. It works soooo well!

I grind the seeds in the coffee grinder. Once they are ground they need to be refrigerated so I only do a bit at a time. The seeds themselves store somewhere cool and dark. Yes, never boiling water. Hot water. (Did I say boiling water?? Sorry.) Because this diet can get very expensive I am looking for things I can do myself rather than buy prepackaged things that are lo carb. Although one day, for a treat, I want to try the lo carb bread. But really, there is plenty to eat that isn't in those expensive ranges of prepackaged foods. I am in a remote area and if I include dollar conversion, taxes, shipping and other border crossing charges I end up paying nearly double. We aren't economically in position up here in the boonies to take advantage of that.