At the Fancy Food Show in January, I told Stephanie Stober, the owner of Flax USA, about my omega-3 research (which used flaxseed oil). In return she gave me some of her products, including a package of roasted lightly-salted flax seeds. It stayed in my refrigerator until yesterday when I tried some it for the first time. My god, so good! (And so healthy.) I could barely keep from finishing the (2 oz.) package. I finished it today.
But I was under the impression that the seeds had to be ground for full benefit – and were best cold, not heated? Help
I second sjar’s concerns. Doesn’t heating the flax seeds cause the lipids to form unhealthy oxides and peroxides? I was also under the impression that mastication was not able to break open a significant number of flax seeds for fat absorption.
I think you’re focusing on the negative too much. Sure, ground flax seeds are probably more easily digested. But how much more easily? If whole seeds provide 70% of the benefit provided by ground seeds, I don’t think that’s worth worrying about. On the other hand I agree it’s a good question to ask. I could compare the effects of whole seed with ground seeds and flaxseed oil on the various brain tests I do; that would be a way to answer these questions.