is it alright to use the flax oil caplets it has omega 3 in it i just heard it was a cleaner oil supplement (i could be wrong)
does anyone else use flax oil?

Angelique, have you considered using real flax seeds instead of the oil? In the first place they are incredibly inexpensive, as opposed to the oil, which is quite pricey. (One pound costs about $1.50, depending on which health food store you buy them from). They are widely available in certified organic form. They have the goodness of the whole seed, not just the oil. They won't go rancid like the oil sometimes does. We store them in the freezer or 'frig; every morning we grind up a few tablespoons in a Krups coffee grinder (takes 10 seconds). This is much better than buying the pre-ground flax, which won't be fresh. The carbo count is: 3 tablespoons = 10 gm, BUT the dietary fiber is 6 gm, for a net count of 4 gm. It tastes nutty. We put a bit of cream or sour cream on our ground flax, and it's breakfast. Of course, it's also loaded with the good omega fats. Something that grosses my husband out: I put extremely low carbohydrate blue cheese dressing on my ground flax! Yummy! He can't watch me eat THAT!

~~ Mary H.

can you eat them just plain (like sunflower seeds)?
i will have to try them
thanks

No, you can't eat them like sunflower seeds. The seed coats are VERY hard and they will pass through you without being digested. Also, they are quite tiny, about the size of a grain of rice. They must be ground up to eat.

Let me know how you like them. Sometimes I mix the ground-up seeds with a little wheat germ and some walnuts, then pour a little cream on them. YUM!

Mary H.

i will try them and let you know

They are also good mixed with plain, full fat yogurt. (I am a recent convert to full fat yogurt, and I'm spreading the word.)

Downscale (I love your "name"), do you make your own yogurt? If not, it's so easy. I have a Salton yogurt maker (at least 15 years old), and the process takes about 10 minutes (except for the incubation time) and the yogurt is then only the price of the milk used plus one or two spoonsful of yogurt "starter" which is any commercial yogurt with live cultures or a bit of your previous batch of yogurt. The electricity to run the Salton is not even pennies.

Mary H.

What are the benefits of using flax oil/seed besides the obvious of getting more fiber?

I heard its good for keeping your regular and for losing weight

Teddi, I see from your profile that you are an educator and that you are a reader. There are many, many health benefits of flax. Do a search on Google and you will see many documented studies describing the cholesterol-lowering effects, the cancer-depressing effects (studies have shown that flax stops the process of angiogenesis, which is the process by which cancer tumors form new blood vessels to nourish themselves.) This is not my idea, it has been documented, so you might want to look that up. Very pertinent for me, because I was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago and cannot take Tamoxifen (it made me VERY sick). Started with the flax right away back then. Every mammogram since then has shown no recurrence. Flax seed is loaded with Omega 3's and fiber. It is cheap (don't buy the pre-ground, it is expensive and gets old fast). It is widely available. Keep it in the freezer or 'frig. It is available as "organic." It tastes good. It is quick to prepare (we grind up enough for a few days and refrigerate it). There are lots of other benefits that are documented in studies. Every health food store has a rack on which are stacked free brochures about all kinds of subjects. We have always seen the Flax "papers" in every heath food store from here to California that we have visited. Get some and read them if you want to know more. Since you are a reader, you will enjoy doing the research on the internet.

Good luck!

Mary H.

I use flaxseed oil. My current one is 1000mg, which contains:

500 mg Alpha-Linolenic Acid
200 mg Linoleic Acid
200 mg Oleic Acid
60 mg Palmitic Acid
40 mg Stearic Acid

Thanks Mary H for the reminder to be a good student myself. Your experience with flax is a potent wake up call. I sincerely hope that you will continue cancer free. I think that breast cancer is every womans' fear ... although, caught early is most curable. Thank you for sharing your experience. I will take your advice.

I buy flax seed already ground up in an airtight bag from the Vitamin Shoppe (around 5.00 for a lb) and I eat it with a spoon every afternoon at my desk. Its nutty and tasty.

I take Barleans Flaxseed Oil capsules. I get so tired of taking them!!! 3 of them 3 times a day! and they are HUGE! i would love to know that the seeds are actually tasty and not such a pain to take. I take so many other vitamins daily that those flax Capsules just throw me over the roof!
Are the seeds good? and can they be ground up and put on salad etc????
peace
Rebecca

Rebecca,

Read the post from "Boom" who snacks on the ground flax.

We grind our own. It tastes good. It is quick to prepare (we grind up enough for a few days and refrigerate it). Al puts it on his cereal in the morning. I mix it with heavy cream or salad dressing or sour cream. It can be used to bread chicken for baking (but not frying, it is sensitive to extremely high heat). It can be mixed with wheat germ and used as a cereal, or just used on its own. It's certainly a LOT cheaper than buying the flax oil capsules (see all the previous posts about flax).

Try it!

Mary H.