Flaxseeds for hot flashes? - That's the latest "food-for-health" question posed by The New York Times in reaction to a recent study from the Mayo Clinic showing the effectiveness of flaxseeds on hot flashes during menopause. The small pilot study found that postmenopausal women not on estrogen who used flaxseed daily reported a 50 percent reduction in hot flashes over the course of six weeks. Whether or not flaxseeds prove to be a cure-all for hot flashes, it's worth incorporating flax seeds into your diet simply because they're good for you! They contain heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids and compounds called lignans that may help prevent cancer. Here are some flaxseed recipes to help you get started!
1. Six-Seed Soda Bread Recipe: "The dough is littered with seeds - sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, flax seeds, and fennel seeds. It bakes into a perfect, rustic, crusty loaf of bread with relatively little effort."
2. Chickpea and Broccoli Salad with Flax-Tahini Dressing: "Flax oil, rich in omega-3 fatty acids, lends nuttiness to the creamy dressing in this salad, perfect for summer and fall lunches and suppers."
3. Olive Oil Flax Seed Challah Bread: "The fresh-baked aroma was enticing, and we gobbled this loaf up in mere minutes, as soon as I took the bread out of the oven!"
4. Fig 'n' Flax Thumbprint Cookies: "We love how the ground flax adds a nutty flavor and the brown sugar caramelizes on the outside of these thumbprint cookies."
5. Super-Easy Super-Tortillas: "This tortilla is incredibly easy to make. Only trick, as with all raw cracker type goods is it takes some prep and drying time. But once you make up a batch, you have them for a while and they are so multi-functional. Incidentally, they are also kosher for passover and a perfect antidote to all that constipating Matzoh."
For other foods that help with hot flashes check out this article from eHow.
