Flaxseeds

Flaxseed serving size, side effects and more!

Flaxseed - Tiny but Might!

Flaxseeds come from this beautiful purple flower plant called Linum usitatissimum. This beautiful plant comes with seeds that are extremely powerful. Just how powerful you ask? That was put to the test in a hypertension study. In the trial one group was given placebo ground flaxseeds and the other one actual ground flaxseeds. After six months the group eating actual flaxseeds showed a blood pressure drop from 158/82 to 143/75. That is a systolic drop of 15 and a diastolic drop of 8. Remember blood pressure is the amount of pressure exerted on the artery walls when the heart is pumping blood out into the body (systolic) and relaxation (diastolic). Dr. Michael Greger notes that antihypertensive drugs have a systolic drop of 8 and diastolic drop of 3. ACE inhibitor drugs have a systolic drop of 5 and a diastolic drop of 2. Buying a stash of pills may just not be needed after all. Thank you Mighty Flaxseed! Studies with flaxseeds with a longer trial duration have been shown to have better results as well as when using the entire flaxseed - not just flaxseed oil or the like. 

Flaxseeds are dense with nutrients including lignans which fight cancer along with omega 3- fatty acids, iron, zinc, copper, calcium, protein, potassium, magnesium, folate, and fiber.  

Cyanide and Flaxseed 

There has been talk about cyanide in flaxseeds, so researchers put this to the test. Raw flaxseeds naturally containing the highest amounts of cyanide were used, ultra grounded,  given on a fasted, empty stomach and no foods were given after. Researchers found that when 9 tablespoons or over a half cup of grounded flaxseeds were consumed cyanide toxicity levels were brushed, one entire cup definitely put you over the limit. Even then the participant did not show any visible signs of cyanide intoxication and there are no published reports of cyanide poisoning after consumption of flaxseeds. So, that’s great but what about small amounts eaten at a long duration of time? The WHO has created what is known as the provisional maximum tolerable daily intake (PMTDI). It is how much you can eat of something everyday at safe limits using the best available data. For flaxseeds there was only a rat study that showed adverse effects after the exposure to cyanide equaling 150 tablespoons of flaxseeds a day. But WHO introduces a 100 fold uncertainty factor when making the PMTDI. So, with this logic one could choose to limit flaxseed consumption to 1.5 tablespoons a day. No problem considering one tablespoon of flaxseed is jam packed with nutrients!  

It is also important to note that our body has the absolutely amazing capability to detoxify some amount of cyanide. Cyanide is a carbon atom attached to a nitrogen atom. When the bond is broken it loses toxicity and we have an enzyme that does this so long as we have adequate amounts of protein. Cooking flaxseeds, specifically when moist, seems to eliminate the cyanide from flaxseeds without cooking out the nutrients.