Embellished as a so-called miraculous defense against some critical maladies,

flaxseeds are one of the original health foods, going back thousands of years to the time of

Apocrates. You can buy them in bulk for about three bucks a pound, which would last

you nearly two months

at the one tablespoon-day dose I recommend in my Dr. Gregor's daily dozen app.

Flaxseeds come with nature's own finest packaging, a hard natural hole that keeps them fresh inside.

Unfortunately, nature's packaging is a little too good.

If we eat flaxseeds whole, they're likely to just pass straight through us, come out

the other end and not do us much good.

So, chew them really well, or grind them in a coffee or spice grind, or a mini-food

process, or a good blender, or just buy them already ground.

Ground flax seeds can be stored for months in room temperature in an airtight container.

Ground flax seeds have a nice binding quality that makes for thick, rich, milkshaky-type smoothies.

In fact, you can use ground flax seeds to replace eggs in baking.

For each egg in a recipe, blend one tablespoon of ground flax with three tablespoons of water until it gets all gooey.

With that swap, you'd be actively lowering cholesterol based on more than five dozen

randomized controlled trials rather than raising it as the eggs would have.

There are brown flax seeds and golden flax seeds.

These brown ones may have about 20% more omega-3s than golden,

but like 30% more antioxidant power.

They both lower blood pressure similarly,

but golden flax appears better at low in cholesterol levels.

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