Subject: RE: [RC] Flax question for Dr.
Garlinghouse
>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>
G.Affleck