Top Tips for Using Flax Seeds to Improve PCOS Symptoms
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- by Lesley O'Connor
Struggling with your PCOS symptoms? Irregular menstrual cycle, weight gain, low energy, and unwanted hair growth? Well, here are my top tips for using flax seeds to improve your PCOS symptoms.
Why flax seeds you ask? Well, they’re one of the leading functional foods for hormone health! They’ve been shown to help people with PCOS, and are helpful for those with PMS and PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder) due to low progesterone, and those experiencing infertility.
Flax seeds can help your PCOS symptoms by:
- •Help weight management
- •Reducing fasting insulin
- •Reducing androgens such as testosterone
- •Reducing C-reactive protein, marker of inflammation
- •Increasing progesterone which helps to support moods and pregnancy
This is because flax seeds are a combination of:
- •Short chain omega 3’s – Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)
- •High quality protein
- •Phytoestrogens
- •Dietary fibre
Here’s what you need to do:
- 1. Buy whole flax or linseeds from the supermarket
- 2. Using a Vitamix or nutribullet to slowly grind one to two cups of whole flax seeds into a meal
- 3. Take it slow as don’t you want to heat up the oils in the flax seeds as they can go rancid quickly. You may need to shake the contain every 30 seconds to redistribute the meal to grind evenly
- 4. Once you’ve made a flax meal transfer to a glass container and store in the freezer
- 5. Consume 30g (2-3 heaping tablespoons) each day to improve your hormone health
How to incorporate flax seeds into your diet:
- •Top yogurt and fruit with 2-3 tablespoons of ground flax seeds
- •Make these Healthy Flax Seed Peanut Butter Energy Bars or these Super Seedy Granola Bars
- •Incorporate ground flax seeds into salad dressings
- •Mix one tablespoon ground flax and one tablespoon nutritional yeast and add as a topper to salads, pasta, and omelettes.
- •Mix one to two tablespoon of ground flax through soups just before eating
Common questions:
• Do I need to toast the flax seeds prior to grinding? No, I don’t recommend heating flax seeds due to the omega 3 content.
• Why store them in the freezer? Because the omega 3 content once ground, can go rancid very quickly. This means that when exposed to air the delicate omega 3 content can spoil quickly and isn’t helpful to your hormone health.
• What does flax meal taste like? Flax meal had a nutty taste and therefore it’s a great attention to both sweet and savoury foods!
If you’re experiencing PCOS, PMS, PMDD, or infertility then add flax seeds on your shopping list and see how many ways you can add them to your diet this coming week!
If you need help with your PCOS symptoms, my new The Well Woman Package is perfect for you! We meet 3 times to help you get your cycle last, have more energy, and lose weight. You can read more about it here.
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