Flaxseed is a plant-based food containing beneficial fats, antioxidants, and fibre. Some people refer to it as a "functional food," which means that it can be eaten to improve one's health.
Flax was indeed a major crop in ancient Egypt and China. It has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years in Asia.
Flaxseed is also now accessible in a various forms, which include seeds, oils, powder, supplements, capsules, and flour. It's used as a dietary supplement to potentially avoid constipation, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, and a range of other symptoms.
Lignans, antioxidants, fibre, protein, and polyunsaturated fatty acids like alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), or omega-3, are among the nutrients found in flaxseed. These nutrients may help reduce your chance of developing a variety of diseases.
However, there isn't enough evidence to back up all of these reports for now. Learn more about flaxseed and its potential health benefits in this post.
Flaxseed provides a number of nutrients that may be salutary to one's health.
Flaxseed, like other factory- grounded diets, is high in antioxidants. By barring chemicals known as free revolutionaries from the body, they can prop in the forestallment of complaint. Natural processes and environmental influences both produce free revolutionaries. Oxidative stress can do when there are too numerous free revolutionaries in the body, performing in cell damage and complaint. Antioxidants aid in the elimination of free revolutionaries from the body. Lignans, which appear to have antioxidant rates, are abundant in flaxseed.
Some experts believe that Flaxseed is nearly 800 times richer in lignans than utmost other foods, according to Trusted Source. The sections that follow go through the implicit health advantages of flaxseed in lesser depth.
REDUCED RISK OF CANCER
Flaxseed contains omega-3 fatty acids. Research Trusted Source suggests that these may help prevent different types of cancer cells from growing.
Flaxseed also contains lignans, which are antioxidants that may slow tumor Trusted Source growth by preventing them from forming new blood vessels.
One 2013 survey found a lower incidence of breast cancer among females who consumed flaxseed regularly.
Also, in 2018, the authors of a review Trusted Source concluded that flaxseed may help reduce the risk of breast cancer after menopause.
Lignans are a type of phytoestrogen, which is a plant-based nutrient that acts in a similar way to estrogen. There has been some concern that phytoestrogens may increase the risk of breast cancer, but recent research Trusted Source suggests that they may play a protective role.
Improving cholesterol and heart health
The American Heart Association Trusted Source (AHA) recommend eating more fiber and omega-3s to boost heart health. Lignans, too, may help prevent Trusted Source cardiovascular disease. Flaxseed contains all of these nutrients.
Flaxseed also contains phytosterols. Phytosterols have a similar structure to cholesterol, but they help prevent the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines.
Consuming phytosterols may therefore help reduce levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or “bad,” cholesterol in the body.
In 2010, researchers Trusted Source looked at the effect of flaxseed on the cholesterol levels of males with moderately high cholesterol. Participants took either a 20 milligram (mg) capsule containing lignans, a 100 mg capsule, or a placebo for 12 weeks.
Cholesterol levels fell after taking lignans, especially in those who took the 100 mg capsules.
The researchers behind a 2012 study Trusted Source involving 17 people found that consuming flaxseed lowered LDL cholesterol levels and helped the body remove fat, although they note that the overall diet may also play a role. The team suggested that dietary flaxseed may be useful for lowering cholesterol levels.
Some scientists have also linked omega-3 oils, which are usually present in oily fish, to reductions in cardiovascular risk. Researchers Trusted Source have suggested that flaxseed could offer an alternative to marine sources of omega 3. This could make it a useful resource for people who follow a plant-based diet
Relieving the signs and symptoms of arthritis
Flaxseed, as per the Arthritis Foundation, can aid with joint pain and stiffness. It is also used to treat the symptoms, lupus, and Raynaud's phenomenon in some people.
They add there is just not enough data to counter its usefulness for this objective, but that flaxseed's ALA might help reduce inflammation.
It can be taken by anyone:
powdered (one tablespoon per day) in capsules (1,300–3,000 mg per day) as an oil (one to three tablespoons per day.
Perfecting blood sugar
Lignans and other phytoestrogens may help reduce the threat of habitual conditions similar as diabetes. In 2013, scientists Trusted Source gave 25 people 0 g, 13 g, or 26 g of flaxseed every day for 12 weeks. The actors had prediabetes and were either males with rotundity or fat or ladies who had experienced menopause.
The 13 g lozenge appeared to lower glucose and insulin situations and ameliorate insulin perceptivity, but the other tablets didn't have this effect. Also, a 2016 rodent study suggested that the composites in flaxseed may help reduce the prevalence of type 1 diabetes and delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. These results may not be applicable to humans, still.
The same time, 99 people with prediabetes took 40 g or 20 g of flaxseed or no flaxseed and no placebo each day for 12 weeks. Consuming flaxseed appeared to reduce Trusted Source blood pressure, but it didn't ameliorate blood sugar situations or insulin resistance.
Constipation prevention
Flaxseed contains insoluble fibre, which does not dissolve in water and remains in the digestive tract after consumption. It absorbs water and adds mass there which may aid regularity.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health Trusted Source (NCCIH), on the other hand, claims that there is little evidence that flaxseed can help with constipation.
According to the NCCIH, eating flaxseed with too little water can cause constipation and intestinal obstruction
Additionally, consuming too much flaxseed or flaxseed oil can result in diarrhoea.
Nutrition
A tablespoon of ground flaxseed weigh approximately 7 g, according to the United States Department of AgricultureThe following items can be found in the Trusted Source:
energy. 37.4
calories protein 1.28 g
fat 2.95 g
carbohydrate 2.02 g
fiber 1.91 g
calcium 17.8 mg
magnesium 27.4 mg
phosphorus 44.9 mg
potassium 56.9 mg
folate 6.09 (mcg)
lutein and zeaxanthin 45.6 mcg
A teaspoon of flaxseed includes trace amounts of several vitamins and minerals, but not in substantial amounts. It also contains lignans, tryptophan, lysine, tyrosine, and valine, as well as mainly unsaturated fats that are good for you.