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RE: [RC] Flax question for Dr. Garlinghouse - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.Yep, another question for Dr. G.... :) Dr. Garlinghouse, have you heard of the product Nutra-Flax by HorseTech? They claim that their flax product is stablized, even though it is already processed. I was told that the seeds are not actually ground, but more like "sliced" so the OFA's stay intact and no benefits are lost. Do you have any opinion in this? They also add calcium to it, and say that flax seed alone has an unbalanced Calcium/Phosphorous ratio. ?? I looked at the site and while the flax seems to be of high quality, I don't see a description of a specific stabilization process. "Micronizing" just refers to being finely ground, and the "enhancement" seems to refer to a bit of calcium carbonate being added---which is all well and good, but very few people feed enough flax for the calcium-phosphorus ratios to be an issue. So I think the only real benefit is that they've already ground it for you. I have some doubts about a shelf life of 180-280 days, unless it were being kept in a freezer or refrigerator. Yes, they say to 'expect' that kind of shelf life, but how would you know unless you ran serial lab analyses? Anybody here going to do that? As far as I know, there's no difference to the OFAs based on whether the seed is sliced or ground. Seems to me that when the particle size is that small, the term 'slice' or 'grind' is pretty moot. For that matter, I suppose a coffee grinder "slices" the seed more than grinds it, since no pressure is involved. It would make a difference in quality if the processing were managed so that heat was kept to a minimum, but I didn't see much/any discussion of that aspect of it. I guess it might be worthwhile to buy pre-ground flax seed if you really just couldn't manage to process flax seeds yourself. For myself, I'm taking the claims with a grain of salt and I'll keep providing flax freshly processed. Gives me something to do in front of the TV, anyway. If my TV time gets that precious that I can't do that, then I'll blackmail my stepdaughter into doing it for me. Too bad my squirrel has gone into the Great Macadamia Nut Can in the sky---she'd have LOVED the prospect of helping out with a great big bag of flax seeds needing to be dealt with. <g> Anyway, JMO. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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