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When it comes to better health for you, your family, and your cherished animal companions, nothing meets your requirements faster and more directly than providing the proper nourishment to promote and maintain cellular and systemic health. And flaxseed (the most excellent plant source of Omega-3!) is one of the best whole foods that can be consumed. While focusing on a well balanced diet is not as “sexy” as a new pair of name-brand running shoes, the latest piece of exercise equipment, or a health club membership, ground, stabilized flaxseed provides the essential omega fatty acids, along with protein, dietary fiber (more than typically found in any whole grain), lignans, and antioxidants (5 times that of blueberries!) that really can promote health and wellness for ourselves and our animals.

So, enjoy our information portal intended for both consumers and manufacturers interested in human health or animal health, who want the latest information about the many benefits of flaxseed and Omega-3, and who want to buy the best products – retail or bulk – that will deliver those benefits—welcome to FLAX.com.

Is flaxseed the new wonder food? Preliminary studies show that flaxseed may help fight everything from heart disease and diabetes to even breast cancer.

Flaxseed may be on everyone's lips -- and in everyone's cereal -- but this new darling of the plant world has been around for more than 4,000 years, known even in the days of Hippocrates for its healthful benefits.

Flaxseed has been a part of human and animal diets for thousands of years in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and more recently in North America and Australia, says Kaye Effertz, executive director of AmeriFlax, a trade promotion group representing U.S. flaxseed producers. As flax gained popularity for its industrial uses, however, its popularity as a food product waned, but it never lost its nutritional value. "Today flax is experiencing a renaissance among nutritionists, the health conscious public, food processors, and chefs alike," says Effertz.

The reason for the increasing interest in flaxseed is its apparent benefits for a host of medical conditions, says Roberta Lee, MD, medical director of the Center for Health and Healing at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in New York.

Flaxseed is very high in omega-3 essential fatty acids, Lee explains. It's the omega 3s -- "good" fats -- that researchers are looking at in terms of their possible effects on lowering cholesterol, stabilizing blood sugar, lowering the risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancers, and reducing the inflammation of arthritis, as well as the inflammation that accompanies certain illnesses such as Parkinson's disease and asthma.

Flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum), also known as linseed, is a highly nutritional whole grain…and ancient grain.

The definition of “whole grain” is often confusing. It was the subject of a FDA “draft guidance” submitted in 2006 for comment. It has yet to be resolved.

The value of marketing “whole grain” comes from a recognition of the superior nutritional value provided when all of a seed’s components are consumed together – i.e., the bran, germ and endosperm. This is agreed. Where confusion arises is in the term “grain”.

By some historic definitions, the term “grains” refers only to seeds of cereal plants, which are related to the grass family Graminaea. A looser definition of “grain” is simply that of any plant seed that can be ground into a flour. The proposed FDA draft guidance includes seeds from so-called pseudocereals, a general classification that refers to broadleaf plants morphologically similar but unrelated to grasses. Flaxseed, like quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth, is a pseudocereal that can be ground into flour and developed into a gluten-free dough.

There is also confusion with regard to whole grain flaxseed’s status as an oilseed. The term “oilseed” is not taxonomic but industrial: “oilseed” refers to any seed grown for its oil content. This includes rice and corn (which are cereals), flaxseed (a pseudocereal), and soy (a legume). Whole grain flaxseed (not meal) contains about 40% oil, half of which is in the form of omega-3 fatty acids.

The important definition for “whole grain” is nutritional: “whole grain” references aside, there is enormous nutritional variation between different whole grains. For example, the average total dietary fiber (TDF) contents of cereals such as whole-grain rice (4.6%), oats (10.6%) and wheat (12.7%) are very different from one another,and from whole-grain flaxseed (27%).

Flaxseed is a whole grain and especially nutritious, too.

Flaxseed is one of the richest sources of lignans, a type of phytoestrogen. Phytoestrogens are a diverse group of plant-derived compounds that can interfere with estrogen metabolism in animals and humans. In fact, phytoestrogens may have contrary biological effects, exhibiting both estrogen and antiestrogen activity.

Lignans have numerous biological properties, including antimitotic, antifungal and antioxidant activities. Lignans from pine cones and the creosote bush have been shown to inhibit replication of the human immunodeficiency virus in vitro. A newlyidentified lignan, cinnamophilin, inhibits thromboxane synthase, which decreases thromboxane A2 production and thereby reduces platelet aggregation and vasoconstriction. Flaxseed and other lignans are currently being investigated for their anticancer properties.

What Are the Major Food Sources of Lignans?

Lignans are widely distributed in the plant kingdom, being found in most unrefined grains such as barley, buckwheat, millet, and oats; legumes such as soybeans; and some vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and spinach. The richest source of lignans is flaxseed. Flaxseed contains high levels of the plant lignan precursor, secoisolariciresinol diglycoside(SDG), and provides 75-800 times more plant lignans than most other foods found in vegetarian diets. Most flaxseed lignans are removed during processing and thus are not found in appreciable quantities in flaxseed oil.