Today’s date makes me giggle a little. It’s very pleasing to my OCD brain that wants to add things up, divide them, square root them…etc. Oh and no I am not good at math. Such is life.
Right now I am at work, procrastinating spreading out my work so that I will have some work to do all day, and enjoying some Pizza flavored Flax Snax. I love these things.
The company has quite a variety of flavors and also other goodies. I haven’t tried them all, but I intend to. I also intend to make my own as sadly my income cannot support my habit, and these were purchased by my absolutely amazing boyfriend who showers gifts of foodstuffs on me. He wasn’t a fan of one of the spices in the pizza flavor, so they became all mine.
I am fairly certain that the flax in these puppies isn’t really doing me a whole hell of a lot opf good since they are not kept refrigerated in the stores. Flax goes rancid when exposed to air, and loses a lot of it’s health benefits. There is also evidence that points to an increased risk of prostate cancer with men who take flax oil. Oddly enough there are also studies that point to flax seed oil decreasing prostate tumor size…so really, I don’t know what to think. Ultimately I do prefer Chia seed over flax, as there is NO risk associated there, plus they don’t go rancid and can sit on a shelf and be just dandy. Chia seeds also have more omega 3 oils than flax, and ultimately I just like how they are less fragile, and don’t even need to be ground first. That said, I have Flax Snax right now, ready made, and they are delicious.
This is going to be quite a tangent, bear with me. Let me state that I am not now, nor have I ever been a vegetarian. I come from a Catholic family and from Texas, so “fish” is pretty much seen as a “vegetable” (no meat on Fridays right? Oh! But fish is ok!). I admit, in the past (in Texas), I would call myself a vegetarian (just to be on the safe side, NOT because I thought fish was made from plants). I now only do this when I am in a restaurant and I am NOT going to eat any seafood. Unfortunately sometimes people will say
“Oh she is a vegetarian but she eats fish”.
No, No… that would be impossible.
Anyway, so my boyfriend is an actual vegetarian, and since I have started dating him I have really cut down on my fish intake. I didn’t feel comfortable eating fish in front of him, nor did I feel it was appropriate for him to purchase fish for me to consume when it goes against his ethics. Lately I have felt a bit “off”, and I am not entirely certain why. I do have some underlying health issues that I am sure I will get into later. I have known for some time now that I probably need to be taking certain supplements. Definitely DHA, possibly some others. I am not a big proponent of a multivitamin as I feel that if you are getting enough of certain nutrients basically they cause you to produce expensive urine or accumulate toxic levels of certain vitamins and minerals that your body cannot flush out. All that said, I do not fully believe that we are all capable of getting enough nutrition from our foods, even if we do eat properly. We just do not know if the soil is depleted, how long the produce has been off the plant, etc. Nutrients can be lost, and also sometimes we just don’t get enough. So, as soon as I can do it I am going to get some blood work done to see which I need to supplement. Since I don’t consume much fish any more, I do know that I need to take DHA (DHA and EPA are Omega-3 Fatty Acids), and my boyfriend does as well. This led me over to Pharmaca last night. Originally I was on a mission to find vegan DHA and Omega-3. I spoke with the Naturopath on staff and within moments of telling her some of the health concerns I have she told me that I should definitely be taking fish oil and not the vegan source. I have done a little looking into this, and I couldn’t find an unbiased source that said that vegan forms of DHA and EPA came close to being as good as fish sources. You *can* get vegan forms of these, but from what I have read, the fish oil source is superior, and more nutritionally available to more people. The One I bought is mercury and dioxin free and comes from wild, sustainable fish sources. If I can find something that can give me exactly what this gives me, or better, that is vegan…and I can actually afford it. I will take it. So far though this seems to be the best source for me and my particular health issues. For my boyfriend, that is another thing entirely. I found him a DHA supplement that comes from algae, but unfortunately it does not contain EPA. According to the naturopath at Pharmaca, this is better than nothing, but it doesn’t come close to fish oil. I did find a vegan source that has both DHA and EPA, but from my research, there is also an argument that says that it is more efficient to consume fish oil as the DHA and EPA is much more accessible that way. Dr. Fuhrman also makes a vegan DHA supplement, but it is lacking in EPA and we need both. At the end of the day you will have to make your own decision. I am going to continue my research. I will speak with my naturopath soon and see what he or she has to say on the subject, and I will decide what works best for my body and my particular health concerns. For me the jury is still out. I will let you know if this does in fact make me feel better though, and I will definitely let you know what my naturopath says about the whole business when I see him or her. At the end of the day I think that you just have to go with what makes the most sense to you, as there are tons of different and conflicting studies and ideas (on EVERYTHING).
Shoot, and I was trying to cut down on my stress too.
While writing this I also consumed 1 red bell pepper, 2 carrots, 1 cucumber, and about 9 cherry tomatoes…plus a tub of Trader Joe’s eggplant hummus :-D
see?
Lunch
And Lucky for me I got to enjoy it in peace for most of it :-)
I am headed out to a doctor’s appointment in 40 minutes. Tonight I am making a soup extravaganza for Matt. Basically I got a hint of fall and my mind went to soup ;-)
Luckily most of the ingredients are coming from my fabulous CSA box from yesterday. This one had to be the best yet. It was the most varied of all the boxes I have received thus far, I even got a huge bag of fresh basil. I ended up tossing it into the food processor with some extra virgin olive oil. I then spooned it into an ice cube tray, and I now have single serving basil cubes to last me a while.
Mmmmm soup.
(and a curious question, why does spell check not know what a naturopath is?) Stink!
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I will never buy flax again after discovering my beloved chia seeds. LOVE THEM!
The great fish oil debate. I’ve read so much conflicting info. I used to supplement with fish oil, but I stopped once I upped my fish intake.
Basil cubes – I must remember that. I always get the best ideas from you Marissa. Keep ‘em coming. :)
I used to work in the holistic health department of Whole Foods and I can’t believe how much fish oil I had to sell. It was the #1 thing people asked for. We sold thousands of dollars of it every month. It’s a tremendous fad right now.
That’s not to say that omega-3 isn’t important. But there’s a major preference for fish oil when really, there just haven’t been enough studies conducted to compare other sources – perhaps because of an inherent bias. There is a lot of money to be made (and being made) in producing and distributing fish oil. I can attest to that after my time as a pusher for Whole Foods.
I’m extremely concerned about the impact on the environment due to fish oil. So many fish go into a single bottle of fish oil. This product is increasing in popularity at an exponential rate, adding to the already-terminal condition of the world’s fisheries.
Some people cannot effectively translate vegetarian sources of omega-3 to EPA and DHA, and the only way to know if you’re one of these people is to have your levels tested. The vitamin D issue is similar.
I use Spectrum’s flax oil + DHA and I also give that to my children. I understand why one would be concerned about omega-3, but I’ve had very good success with flax + DHA. I started using it in therapeutic doses for fibromyalgia and I saw a huge difference. I’ve also applied it in combination with borage for my daughter’s keratosis pilaris (a skin condition) with similar results. I can’t believe that it’s not effective. But individual results vary, of course.
Just my perspective. :)