Flax seed versus flax oil. Which one is better? What do you need to know? Well I'm
going to explain it
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hey so today we're gonna talk about flax seed versus flax oil I'm just gonna give
you a little bit of trivia because I think this is a fascinating little seed
back in the day it's it's from Latin it's called linum or "lean-um" and it is
the same plant that they make linen from so this was one of the first crops that
humans ever cultivated and for the most part we didn't eat a whole lot of it we
used the fiber to make clothing and fabric and we used the oil to make paint
binder and varnish and things like that because the oil had great great
properties and it could even sort of coagulate it could harden so it could
make things like linoleum floors so if you notice all these words start with Lin
and that's because they're all in some way derived from the linen and which of
course is the same thing as flax so the word line lining linoleum lingerie and
the guy in in Swedish linne is called "linna" and the guy who organized our
system of biology the system of taxonomy his name happened to be called Carolus Linnaeus
So a little bit of trivia I couldn't help myself there but so how do
we compare the seed versus the oil well obviously the oil is made from the seed
so the seed is the the source material and the seed is quite the little piece
of action here it has 42% fat has 18% protein and 27% fiber so while it does
have some carbohydrate here in the fiber almost all of it is in the form of
fiber it has like one gram of net carbs per half a cup give or take so if you're
looking for foods that are low glycemic index well know that the flaxseed even
though it has carbs they're all fiber the flaxseed has a glycemic load of zero
all right so when they talk about high medium low glycemic foods well this one
doesn't even register on that chart what I like about the flaxseed is that it's
very inexpensive I checked it out today where I go shopping you can buy organic
there's a farmers market you buy organic flaxseed for less than $2 a pound and
I've found online there's a brand with Amazon you can get organic shipped with
Prime for under $3 a pound for organic flaxseed so it's like they're giving it
away it's very inexpensive so what this means is it's less than a dollar for a
thousand calories worth so in a day when they're talking about how expensive
healthy food is we'll hear something that you don't have to sweat what we
want to keep in mind about the flaxseed though is it is extremely reactive to
oxygen this the fat in flax is mostly the majority of this and this is unique
in the plant kingdom the majority of this fat is omega-3 fatty acids that
means they're highly nutritious to us but they're also highly reactive to
oxygen it's kind of two sides of the sword the very reason that their
nutrition nutritious makes them also very very sensitive to oxygen they're
very easily destroyed they go rancid and now they're actually bad for us they are
what I would call violently reactive because back in the day when they use
this for paint they use rags to apply the oil to various wood them and
whatever they were working on and then sometimes to take these rags and just
throw them in a pile and this oil is so react
David starts reacting with oxygen and that reaction creates heat so much that
these rags could spontaneously combust they would catch on fire by themselves
so what that means for us is that this oil may be nutritious but it's extremely
reactive and therefore it gets destroyed by heat and light and oxygen very very
quickly because of that while it's in the seed the seed protects it from
oxygen so they it's a very very hard shell that is a hundred percent airtight
to keep protecting this fat from from the oxygen so if you eat the whole seed
it's so well protected that you can't get inside it either so there's no
nutritional value to eating whole flax seed they have to be opened up you can't
digest them so you have to grind or crush them and now you can get access to
it but of course as soon as you grind it now it starts reacting with oxygen so
what I do and there's a video right here you can check out is I buy the whole
seed I grind it and then I immediately put it in ziplock bags and put them in
the freezer okay I don't think the fridge is good enough I want to keep it
I want to do the best I can to protect the fatty acids in there and then you
want to keep it dark and cold so if we compare with the oil it's not a whole
food it's a refined food it's a hundred percent fat it's still reasonably priced
it's $15 a pint some people think that's expensive
but again you don't use a whole lot of it so it's like three dollars ninety
cents per thousand calories but here's the difference I would eat the seed
because it's a whole food I put it on yogurt I put it in smoothies and it just
thickens and enriches things nice flavor virtually for free and it's differ
with oil because most people who take the oil they think of it as an omega-3
supplement they take it because they've heard that we need essential fatty acids
and they think that this is a great source and in a manner of speaking it is
it has a very high ratio of omega-3s but here's the problem this is even though
this is classified as an essential fatty acid it is not the end product that the
body is looking for the body is trying to convert this into epa and DHA which
we know come from fish oils but this poorly converted means that you only
convert a couple of percent one to two to a few percent of this into that and
the people who convert the worst are the sickest who need it the most so you're
kind of in a catch-22 here and so if you're looking for omega-3s from a
supplement this does not replace the fish oil this is still a nutritious oil
but I wouldn't rely on it and if you're not going to rely on it then personally
I would just go ahead and eat the seeds rather because it's a whole food and
it's super cheap and it gives you a lot of fiber and other benefits as well by a
reputable brand keep it sealed in the packaging and get it into the freezer as
soon as you get home this oil is so polyunsaturated that it actually stays
liquid in the freezer it gets thicker but it's still liquid and the other
thing I would say about the seeds is I would not buy them ground even though
there are some companies that say that well because of our special mailing and
grinding process its shelf stable for so and so many months I wouldn't trust that
I would just because even if it's mostly true I just wouldn't want to take that
chance I would keep my food as fresh as
possible so you buy it with the seed intact and you grind it
and you freeze it yourself now you know where that seed has been and you know
how it was processed on the way and now you know that it was only out in the
open for a few minutes before you could put it in the freezer so it's a
fascinating little plant and it's been around for thousands of years like I
said and in the old Egypt they actually wrapped the mummies in linen fiber and
they've found this linen fiber intact after thousands of years so it's quite a
little piece of work here some people have a little bit of a fear of the flax
because they say it contains phytoestrogens that deed can't these can
act as estrogens they can mimic hormones and I haven't seen any conclusive
evidence on that there's research that says it increases cancer risk and
there's research that says it counteracts cancer risks so personally I
wouldn't look too much into the research I would eat the seed in moderation as a
food when I say it cost so much per thousand calories it doesn't mean you
should eat a thousand calories a day it doesn't mean it should be your major
food group it should be a variety of foods just like everything else you the
more variety the better off you are and this I think is a good food that can be
a component of a healthy overall diet if you enjoy this content make sure you
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what you've done with flax if you have other ideas for recipes and such and to
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saving lives about getting the world back on track toward whole food and real
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