What are flax seeds?

Flax seeds also known as linseed, come from a plant known as Linium usitatissimum. It’s a blue flowering plant, native to the regions from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Flax seeds are the richest vegetable source of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) and plant-based omega-3 fatty acids. Also contains dietary fiber, protein, and mucilage. The term flax refers to the unspun fibers of the flax plant. Flax seeds come in two varieties, brown or yellow/golden. Though close in nutritional value, the yellow contain a low amount of omegas. Flax seeds produce a type of vegetable oil also known as flax seed oil or linseed oil.

Flax seed plant

Health Benefits:

The factors in flax seeds nutritional benefit helps reduce risks of diabetes by stabilizing blood-sugar levels, cancer and tumors, heart disease, stroke, high-blood pressure and many other inflammatory conditions. The fatty acids help in brain development. Our bodies can produce these fatties acids on it’s own and has to be obtained from the food we eat.

100 grams of ground flax seed contains about 450 kilocalories, 41 grams of fat, 28 grams of fiber, and 20 grams of protein.

Immune System Help

Flax seeds in your daily diet can help boost the body’s immune system with the help of corn oil or cornstarch by helping your white blood cells become healthier and stronger against tougher pathogenic microorganisms. Flax seeds also help your body with the healing response, helping with such conditions as:

• Stoke
• Fatigue
• High cholesterol levels
• Acne
• Arthritis
• Lupus
• Leukemia
• Obesity
• Menopause
• Learning disabilities
• Kidney Diseases
• Inflammatory disease
• immune deficiencies
• Dry skin
• Depression
• Behavioral disorders
• Allergies
• Plus more!

Flax Seed Oil

Flax seeds produce a vegetable oil known as flaxseed or linseed oil. Flax seed oil is one of the best fats to consume in your nutritional diet since it contains ALA and omega fatty acids. Your body has enzymes that can break down linolenic and linoleic acids and are considered essential. Essential fatty acids are considered food fats because they help optimize metabolic rate, engery production, oxygen utilazation, and metabolism.

Ways to eat flax seeds:

Flax seeds have a nuty flavor. You can add it to any food of your choice where the flavor would work for you. i.e.:

• Place a tablespoon or so in yogurt,
• salads,
• cereal, oatmeal,
• glass of water
• place in baked goods

Consuming too much flax seeds can cause diahrrea.

Resources

For father reading into flax and how it helps your body, look into

The Healing Power of Flax: The definitive guide. By Herb Joiner-Bey, N.D.

It is an excellent source of information on what flax seeds are how they help/ work and more information into what omegas are and how they are good. It shows how to use to help with weight loss, male/women health,  how it protects your body against different diseases, and even tons of recipes in which to incorporate flax seeds into your daily diet.

Posted under Book Reviews, Fats/Oils, Fatty Acids/ Omega-3's, Health/Fitness

Regulations on Trans fats

The food industry has been trying to get trans fats out of our foods for a while. In 2006 the new regulations that target trans fats when into affect. Food manufacturers are stripping dangerous trans fats from their products to comply with new labeling regulations. In 2003, the National Academies’ Institute of medicine concluded that the only safe recommendations for trans fat intake is zero. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), these trans fats (Partially hydrogenated oils), have been responsible for thousands of death causing heart-attacks each year, and should be removed from the American food supply since safer alternatives have now become widely available. The major campaign by CSPI was used to encourage food manufactures to remove trans fats from their products.

Label showing trans fats and saturated fat

Why are trans fats so bad?

Trans fats raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, lower high-density lioprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which may increase triglycerides and inflammations, and have been linked to increased risk of diabetes. It is an unhealthy fat that was started into the world to be an alternative to saturated fat in the mid-1980’s. It is made in a chemical process that converts polyunsaturates into a mixture of trans fatty acids to make a product that is not found in nature. Only 15% or less of all trans fats in products are actually found in nature or animal products. But products started saying that they were free of saturated fats and not listing the trans fats made people believe they were eating healthier. New regulations keep these trans fats on the labels so the consumer knows all that they are still putting into their bodies. With trans fats now being taken back out of products, experts worry that it will just be replaced back with saturated fats.. But Annette Maggi, MS, RD, author and expert on food labeling, believes that the food industry is well tuned into consumer interests in products that are as low as possible in both trans and saturated fats. “Most of the colleagues I have talked to in the food industry have been clear that increasing saturated fat is not an acceptable means to lower trans fats.” One alternative people have been looking into is palm oil, soybean oil and canola oil. The APOC (American palm oil council) has been trying to get the word out about this oil as it has zero trans fats and is rich in antioxidants, tocopherols, and tocotrienols, which are isomers of vitamin E.

Ways of replacing trans fats are also being looked into by mixing hydrogenated and fully hydrogenated oils so there is no room for trans fats. According to Robert Reeves, president of the Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils, Inc., “These are fully hydrogenated fats with no trans fats remaining. By interesterifying this fat mixture, you can alter the arrangements of fatty acids on the glycerin molecule.” Danisco USA developed a product (free of trans fats) that combines emulsifiers with oil to mimic the performance of shortening in most applications. Some company’s and manufacturers are only reducing down the trans fats rather than completely getting rid of them.

Most fast foods and chain company restaurants fry their foods in trans fat oils. Ruby Tuesdays is among one restaurant that is using trans free fat oils. One of the problems with removing these fats is these company’s having loved and favored french fries, etc. for the taste that you can’t just replace with a trans fat free oil and still have that famous taste.

Trans Fat-Free Resource Guide:

• Trans Free America
• Food Labels
• American Heart Association
• FDA Information on Trans Fats

References:
TransFree American Campaign Launched. CPIS. May, 18, 2004. Available at: cspinet

Posted under Fats/Oils, Food Talk, Health/Fitness