Anyone using whole ground flax seed?

[foley]

I'm curious as to how much to sprinkle into yogurt, cereal etc.

A tsp.? 1/2 tsp? Less? More? *lol*

(This is in addition to DS's gelcap supplements. More to use as a booster.)

TIA
Foley

[catatonic]

Hi Foley,
Dr. Andrew Weil, one of my favorite internet health gurus, recommends adding 1 or 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds daily to foods like rice, cereal, salad, etc.

However, this is if the ground flax seed is your primary source of Omega-3 supplementation. Other sources (such as Dr. Fuhrman) recommend taking 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds each day along with one fish oil capsule that contains 200mg DHA.

Unlike the fish oil capsules, which provide Omega-3 fatty acids in the longchain forms of DHA and EPA, flax seeds provide Omega-3 in the form of ALA, which is a short-chain fatty acid that your body must use to "build" the more complex EFA's. There are many people who believe we ought to get most of our Omega-3 supplementation from sources like flax and borage due to the potential toxicity of the fish oil -- mercury and PCB's being the two largest concerns.

[foley]

Aaahh thanks so much Cat. I bought some ground flaxsead meal at the grocery store and figured it would be a good way to add more omega to our diets--I guess I'll just add a little here and there and see if my family notices.

Sneaky, sneaky, I know!

Foley

[lisle]

Hi,
I remember reading somewhere that the husk can be toxic if you use more than (I think)2 tablespoons, or teaspoons? Don't remember, but our dr. said that we should use half that for our 10 year old son at the time. Yikes, there's a big difference between teaspoons and tablespoons, so does anyone know? From Catatonic's post it sounds like tbs.
lisle

[catatonic]

I can't remember seeing anything about flax seed husks being toxic and I couldn't find anything on it when I looked.

However, I did stumble across a couple of other tidbits of interest that I thought I'd post:

In research feeding flax to pregnant rats, done to examine any potential effects of flax seed on reproductive health, flax seed decreased gestation length, delayed puberty in males, created irregular estrous cycles in females. These rats were fed HIGH levels, and the effects were dose related. Moderation in everything seems to be the key! (This study is summarized at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12738187&dopt=Abstract )

Flax seed, like soy, can have estrogenic effects (i.e. effects similar to those caused by the female hormone estrogen) and so there is a growing body of literature on its potential effects on reproduction...rat reproduction, that is! A different study that looked at similar measures to the one above, found no effect on baby rats when they nursed from a mother rat that was fed flax. However, the authors point out the need for LONG TERM research on this issue.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11760154&dopt=Abstract

Other studies have found that flax disrupts the rat estrous cycle:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9566698&dopt=Abstract

This study found that flax REDUCES the number of BREAST TUMORS found in rats:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11078912&dopt=Abstract

While it does not reduce serum cholesterol, flax WILL protect your arteries against the hardening and clogging effects of atherosclerosis, thus helping prevent strokes and heart attacks. (Atherosclerosis, July 1997)

This is probably more information that anyone really wanted to know, but after reading all those studies, I just couldn't bear to let the information go to waste!