"Flax Seeds for Hypertension"
A recent article in the journal Meat Science
acknowledged that a sector of the population perceives meat
as a food that is detrimental to their health
because of studies associating meat consumption with heart disease and cancer.
For these reasons, these meat consumers look
for healthier food alternatives as a means to maintain good health.
So, this represents a good opportunity for the industry to develop some new products.
Natural foods could be added to meat to reach those health-oriented consumers
by boosting antioxidants levels, for example.
Foods like flax seeds and tomatoes are healthy,
associated with reduced risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease.
So by making flaxy tomato burgers,
they figure they can reduce saturated fat intake and less sugar somehow?
It’s like their flaxseed fed pork idea to produce “enriched lard.”
Wouldn’t it be easier to just to cut out the middle-pig and eat flax seeds ourselves?
Flax seeds have been described as a “miraculous defense against some critical maladies.”
Now, I’m a fan of flax, but this title seemed a bit over exuberant.
I figured something just got lost in the translation,
but then I saw this study and realized maybe that title is not too far off.
Rarely do we see a dietary study of this caliber.
A prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial—
you know how hard that is in a nutrition study?
I mean, for drugs it’s easy:
you take two identical looking pills – one’s active, one’s placebo –
and until the end of the study neither the researcher nor the patient
has any idea which is which, hence double blind.
But people tend to notice what they’re eating.
So how do you sneak a quarter cup of ground flaxseeds
into half of peoples’ diets without them knowing it?
They created these various flax or placebo containing foods,
and even added like bran and molasses to match the color and texture
so it was all a big secret until 6 months later
when they broke the code to see who ate which.
Why test it on hypertension?
Because having a systolic blood pressure over 115 – that’s the top number –
may be the single most important determinant for death in the world today.
If you take a bunch of older folks,
most of them on an array of blood pressure pills, and don’t improve their diet at all,
despite the drugs they may start out, on average, hypertensive and stay hypertensive 6 months later.
But those who were unknowingly eating ground flaxseeds every day
dropped their systolic blood pressure about 10 points,
and their diastolic, the lower number, by about 7 points.
That might not sound like a lot,
but a drop like that could cut stroke risk 46%, heart disease 29%,
and that 10-point drop in the top number could have a similar effect on strokes and heart attacks.
And for those that started out over 140, they got a 15-point drop.
In summary, flax seed induced one of the most potent
antihypertensive effects ever achieved by a dietary intervention.
In other words, the magnitude of this decrease in blood pressure,
demonstrated by dietary flax seed,
is as good or better than any other nutritional interventions,
and comparable to many drugs, which can have serious side effects.
And they’re not exaggerating about the comparable to drugs bit.
The flax dropped systolic and diastolic up to 15 and 7.
Compare that to powerful ACE inhibitors like Vasotec,
which may only drop pressures 5 and 2.
Calcium channel blockers like Norvasc or Cardizem, 8 and 3 –
half of what the flax could do.
And side effects include…
Compare this list to that of the side effect of flaxseeds:
its pleasant nutty flavor.
During the 6-month trial there were strokes and heart attacks in both groups.
Even if the flax seeds can cut risk in half, though,
any avoidable risk is unacceptable.
Well, isn’t high blood pressure just inevitable as we get older?
No, the prevalence of hypertension does increase dramatically with age, but not for everyone.
People who eat more plant-based diets or keep their salt intake low enough
tend not to exhibit any change in blood pressure with advancing age.
So, you know, flax is great, but always better to prevent the disease in the first place.