Stephanie here with an update on cinnamon and other healthy ideas for you to sprinkle in every week that makes a big difference. I'm a big believer that it takes both large and small life changes to have a generally healthy lifestyle.
Large changes = kicking out processed foods and sugars for the most part, cooking meals at home, gym several times a week - all of these take a lot of time and effort.
Small changes = sneaking in flaxseed and cinnamon to every day meals to make them a bit healthier, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, poppin a daily vitamin - these just take a minute to do during the day but can add up to a big difference.
This post is spurred from my Healthy Smoothie Add Ins post where we chatted about the health benefits of adding in flaxseed [antioxidant rich, prevention of cardiovascular disease, etc] and the benefits of using raw cacao powder [cardiovascular benefits, cancer protection, lower cholesterol, etc] instead of chocolate syrup or other sugary alternatives.
In the March 2013 Prevention magazine had an article about Stabilizing Blood Sugar with Cinnamon. They noted that: Cinnamon has been used since ancient times to aid digestion, and a teaspoon has more antioxidants than half a cup of blueberries. Plus, studies show that cinnamon helps blunt the rise in blood sugar that can occur when you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal—good news, since a spike in blood sugar raises levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factors, which may increase the risks of diabetes, heart disease, and even some cancers.
So why not add it in daily? Even if you can't squeeze in 2 - 4 teaspoons, just adding in 1 or 2 to your morning oatmeal and nightly smoothly is sure to add some taste and health benefits throughout your week.
I also started doing some research on vitamins... so more to come on that!
Good morning, Stephanie here with healthy smoothie ad ins. I started my smoothie project over a month ago and found so many amazeball smoothie recipes I couldn't wait to try. I prepared my smoothie grocery list - but didn't find everything I wanted in the grocery store.
I wanted to get ground flax seed (a decent sized bag to stock up on) and also Raw Cacoa Powder. I'm so busy during the work week, so I turned to Amazon to get my healthy smoothie on.
Flax seed has such amazing health benefits and putting ground flax seed into smoothies is a great way to sneak in more nutrient. One of my favorite websites to check out food health benefits is World's Healthiest Foods - dude I even got their huge book for Christmas a couple years ago! On their flax seed page they list so many benefits:
- Flaxseeds turn out to be significantly higher in polyphenol antioxidants than fruits like blueberries or vegetables like olives. The antioxidant benefits of flaxseeds have long been associated with prevention of cardiovascular diseases and have recently also been tied to decreased insulin resistance.
- Given the strong track record of flaxseeds as foods providing cardiovascular benefits, it's not surprising to see recent research studies showing benefits of flaxseeds for improvement of metabolic syndrome (MetS). One recent study showed a 20% decrease in the prevalence of MetS after 12 weeks on a diet plan that included 30 grams (1 ounce) of ground flaxseed per day in the form of flaxseed-enriched baked bread.
- Interestingly, in addition to improving blood pressure and lowering fasting glucose level, flaxseed intake also helped decrease central obesity (as measured by waist circumference). The addition of flaxseed provided all of these health benefits without causing weight gain. That's quite an accomplishment for a food that is over 70% fat in terms of total calories and contains about 10 times as many calories per cup as a fruit like blueberries.
- The scientific name Theobroma means “food of the gods”. It should come as no surprise, knowing that ancient Mayans and Aztecs once used cacao as currency! Sunfood Raw Chocolate Powder is the world’s premier raw, organic, antioxidant-rich cocoa powder. It is created by cold-pressing Sunfood Raw Cacao Nibs into a cake, separating the oil from the protein and fiber.
- Cacao offers cardiovascular benefits and cancer protection, and also helps lower cholesterol. Raw cacao has a higher antioxidant rating than blueberries, acai, and even goji berries. It really is a superfood! It is also the #1 source of magnesium of any food.
- Other noteworthy mentions include iron, zinc, manganese, copper, tryptophan, and serotonin. It also contains high levels of Phenylethylamine (PEA) – this is often referred to as the love chemical, because it is produced in our bodies when we fall in love!
On Amazon.com, I picked up Essential Flaxseed (Organic) - 14 oz - Ground and you can find that here. I also got the Sunfood cacao powder here. Do you order things online? Or shop around until you find what you want? What are you favorite smoothie add ins? Are you adding things in for smoothies for taste or for health? I cannot wait to try these as soon as they come in!
