Do you know about linseed? If no then you should know that linseed is a product of Flax plant. You may be well aware of the fact that Flax is grown both for its seeds and for its fibers. Various parts of the plant have been used to make fabric, dye, paper, medicines, fishing nets and soap. It is also grown as an ornamental plant in gardens. But, how many of you know that the raw seeds have a lot of nutritional seeds?
Linseeds have up to 800 times the lignans (plant hormones) of other foods. Lignans are beneficial because they do not stimulate the growth of cancerous cells.

Moreover, linseed contains numerous beneficial components including Palmitic, Stearic, Arachidic and Oleic fatty acids. Perhaps the most important of these components are Linoleic and alpha-Linolenic acid.

Linoleic acid is considered an omega-6 fatty acid, which is very essential for proper cell functioning. It is found in the cell membranes and is necessary for proper production of prostaglandins whereas alpha-Linolenic acid belongs to the omega-3 fatty acid group. This fatty acid group is known for the prevention of heart disease, arrhythmia and the reduction of inflammation leading to such circulatory problems as atherosclerosis. Many studies support the fact that this group of acids reduces stroke and cancer risks as well.

In addition to this, linseed is considered as essential in bowel cleansing and maintaining regularity. If you want to reduce your tendency of eating a lot of food, you should take a spoonful of linseeds with or before a meal and you will feel full because this reduces hunger. Make sure that you drink at least 8 ounces of water when taking linseed.

Linseeds can also be used to sprinkle on salads or mixed into fruit smoothies because they taste good!

A mere table spoon of linseed is the health equivalent in lignans, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants of almost 30 cups of broccoli! What’s more? The fiber contained in 50 slices of whole wheat bread is equivalent to just a tablespoon of linseed! No wonder why it is called as a super-food!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.