Last week I did a piece on the benefits of flaxseed in the diet and enumerated the limitations of its powers as a "wonder food".  It was easy to justify the piece since I do notice when a food has flax or omega-3 fatty acids in it and may even opt for another brand or variety if I can get the flax or omega 3's without paying a significant amount more.

A key source of flaxseed (and the omega's that go with it) is Uncle Sam cereal.  This is not a cereal for everybody.  At least not straight.  It has a hearty flavor and the flaxseeds are quite chewy.  My wife knows better than to touch the stuff.  If you've ever had bran flakes, the non-sugared kind, you're almost at Uncle Sam level of hearty.  My wife would describe this hearty flavor as "dirt."  She uses this term interchangeably with "dog food" and, truth to tell, the comparison of Uncle Sam to kibble is not entirely unfair.

One doesn't consume Uncle Sam as food so much as one uses it as a dietary tool.  Mixing Uncle Same with Raisin Bran, Wheaties, or frosted mini wheats adds not just the omega' 3's and lignans mentioned in the last article, but lowers the sugar content of these tastier cereals.

This mixing technique can be applied to puffed cereals like puffed wheat and corn.  Mix some puffed corn in with Kix, Golden Grahams, or Corn Pops and you have cereal that your palette can put up with and won't clobber your blood stream in a sugar bath.  Put the wheat puffs in with Honey Smacks or Super Sugar Crisp (now called Super Golden Crisp in the interest of hiding the truth) and you get the same effect.  Lucky Charms can be rendered less hazardous with a good dose of low-sugar cheerios.  Flavored instant oatmeal loses very little appeal when you mix in 50% more plain quick oats. 

All these tricks boost your fiber intake and you can work your way up to using the healthier cereals as your base and sprinkling on the bad stuff as mere flavoring.  As a minor bonus, the healthier cereals tend to be less expensive, so the food budget can be stretched this way slightly.

For those avoiding hydrogenated oils aka trans fats, avoid Kelloggs cereals.  Post and General Mills have pretty much thrown out trans fat from their recipes, but Kelloggs stubbornly holds on.  Quaker is mostly safe too as are the varieties from Malt-O-Meal.    Generics are unpredictable, so check the labels.  The kiddie cereals are the ones most often laced with these chemicals.



* DM

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Fitness Goals:
60 beats per minute resting pulse.
10 miles cycling.
Weights: 3 days - 100 lbs. - 6 cycles of 5,5,5,10 repetitions (2 cycles/day)


Current Fitness Record: (since last entry)
Pulse: 60 beats per minute (unconfirmed)
0 min cycling (odometer broken)
0 days - 65 lbs.

Blood Pressure:  125/69  11-2007

RECENT SYMPTOMS : None.
ONGOING SYMPTOMS:  Infrequent pain in upper molar.  Occasional ache in gonads.  Weakness on side right knee,  Slight pain in right knee when kneeling and shifting knee to the right. Inflexible pinkie and middle finger of right hand. (99% flexibility). Strained thumb. Hyperhidrosis.
DIAGNOSIS: Strain of knee?  Unknown injury to right knee, possible impact from small stumble onto landing of concrete stairs. Recovering from confirmed stress fracture of secondary phalange (finger bone) of right hand and strained right pinkie.  Unknown injury of thumb. 

ONGOING TREATMENT:  None.

DRUG REGIMEN:  Aspartame.  (3 diet sodas daily)  Caffeine (three cups of coffee daily.  One cola.)
PROGNOSIS FOR FOLLOWING WEEK:     Good health.
POTENTIAL TREATMENTS:  Fish Oil supplements.  Leafy greens.  Exercise (See Fitness Goals and Record)  Axillary curettage.

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