Chock-full of Goodness Chocolate Shake

I love gloopy foods. When my food-pipe gets cranky and sensitive give me something silkily gloopy like a slippery elm drink or flax-porridge..

Such an impulse gave rise to this rather delightfully healing beverage( Well, healing for me anyways; Let me know your thoughts  in the comments below!)
You see it started out as flax porridge-i.e. heat half  a cup of salted water, blend with a tablespoon each of flax and peanut butter and get that gloopy grain-free porridge into you!
I found this mini-meal incredibly satisfying when too hungry to wait for my main meal to cook.

But most people will probably not be too enamoured with the texture, so... here is my newly improved recipe:

Chock-full of Goodness Chocolate Shake

Ingredients:

• A Cup and a half of Water with about 3 grinds of Himalayan salt in it
• A flat tablespoon of flax ( double if you want the gloopy version :) )
• A dessertspoon of carob
• 1-2 teaspoon of cocoa ( use less for a sweeter mix)
• A scoop/teaspoon of myo-inositol*
• A Tablespoon of nutbutter (I used two teaspoons of RAW living Superseed butter** and one of Essential Organic Peanut butter)

Method:

Place all the dry ingredients in a blender.

Warm the salted water in a pot.

Add the warm water and nut butter to the dry ingredients.

Blend thoroughly and serve immediately.

Wait  a few minutes and see how you feel

Variation:

If you have no inositol or if you simply want to make the shake sweeter add 2-4 inches of banana or add 2-4  unsulphured apricots soaked until soft and plump- 8 hours should work for sure but less may be needed. If you can get hunza apricots they will add some amazing caramel toffee flavours.

Note: Banana might make the mix thicker and thus harder to swallow if that's an issue for you.

BUT do try the recipe above if you can. The flax will give you that anti-inflammatory Omega 3 essential Fat Acid: ALA. The carob and chocolate are rich in minerals like calcium and iron and the carob is a natural sweetener anyway...

Foot Notes:

*Inositol 

Benefits and Contra-indications: 

Myo-inositol has been studied for its benefits in boosting egg health and fertility particularly in PCOS sufferers. it has also been studied for its ability to reverse the pre-cancerous cell condition known as bronchial dysplasia, inhibit the spread of prostate cancer and improve quality of life for chemotherapy patients.. 

There are other benefits too but caution is recommended for people with Bipolar disorder because one man went into a state of mania after consuming large quantities of Red bull and they don't know if this was due to the inositol in that fine beverage or due to the taurine or the caffeine or something else...

Also Webmd recommends that pregnant and lactating women avoid the supplement becasue "not enough is known" However a few studies have been carried out, showing that taking small doses of myo-inositol during pregnancy can prevent gestational diabetes and prevent miscarriages.. Still if you are pregnant and particularly if you have never had issues with diabetes or PCOS you might not want to take any risks.... So go for the banana option instead!!

Sourcing: 

I used Inositol from Pure Encapsulations because I trust the brand and I got an ok deal here from iHerb. But as you can see, it is currently out of stock and costs twice as much on ebay!

 So I think I will go for the Jarrow or maybe  the much cheaper-NOW Foods version next time. I have purchased several Now Foods supplements before and never had major issues with them, but they failed to live up to expectations by Consumerlab for several supplements, whereas all the Jarrow supplements tested (and randomly checked by me) were approved..

**Superseed Butter

http://www.rawhealth.uk.com/product-545-7.html

Benefits and Contra-indications: 

This has a good balance of the omega fatty acids -particularly the anti-inflammatory Omega 3 fatty acid: alpha linolenic acid. However, one study showed that flax oil may increase the chance of preterm labour. Interestingly the same study showed no increased risk with Flaxseeds. The risks and benefits are well explained here: Is-it-safe-to-take-flaxseed-oil-during-pregnancy/ and here http://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/flaxseed-and-flaxseed-oil/safety/hrb-20059416

Also it is extremely important to use GROUND flax seed with hot water in the ratio given ( Or with more liquid) to ensure that the drink can be consumed without any swallowing difficulties. Whole Flaxseeds are contraindicated for cancers of the gut.