Golden Linseed

GOLDEN LINSEED  – Nutritional Profile

Golden linseed has a very high fat level, a single 15g serving will release 900 calories and so should be used carefully in an diet requiring weight loss but is excellent where weight gain is a requirement.  It also contains a similar nutritional profile to other types of linseed apart from having a very low level of omega 3 fatty acids.

A single 14g serving  of linseeds will provide 18% of the recommended daily allowance  (RDA) of manganese, 15% of vitamin B1, 15% of fibre, 14% of magnesium and 13% of tryptophan.

GOLDEN LINSEED  – Health Benefits

Golden linseeds are very nutritious and make an excellent regular part of a good balanced diet.

Flax seeds are rich in lignans which are a fibre like substance that provides good antioxidant protection by minimising initial inflammation.  They also have mucilage, or gum content, that forms into a colloidal gel in the colon and plays a significant role in the absorbing of LDL cholesterol before it passes into the blood stream.

There are significant ant-oxidant and ant-inflammatory benefits associated with linseeds that are important to the cardio-vascular system as well as other areas of health.  Incidence of breast, prostate and colon cancer are all shown to decrease in diets that are rich in the lignans found in linseed.  It is thought that lignans are converted by intestinal bacteria to have a direct impact on levels of some hormones associated with breast and prostate cancer.

The high levels of fibre in linseed are beneficial in controlling the way cholesterol is taken into the body.  Fibre will absorb undesirable LDL cholesterol whilst allowing HDL, the desirable cholesterol, to pass into the bloodstream.   In addition, ­­­­­­alpha-linolenic acid present in linseed is very effective at stopping white blood cells from binding to the walls of arteries and so stops the build up of plaque caused by undesirable LDL cholesterol.

Hypertension is one of the most prevalent health issues in western society and linseed has been shown to be particularly effective in managing the condition.  A recent study of 2,238 people who took no dietary supplements or medications for blood pressure showed  a 1.01 reduction in systolic and a 0.98 reduction in diastolic blood pressure when eating linseeds on a regular basis.  Another study demonstrated that a 20g daily portion of linseed resulted in the same reduction in cholesterol levels as a group taking regular doses of statins.

Linseed has also been shown to have a beneficial impact on prostate cancers.  A study of 40 men showed that taking 30g linseed daily saw significant reductions in though rate of cancer growth.

Linseed has also been shown to be more successful than oily fish such as tuna at managing Dry Eye Syndrome.

 GOLDEN LINSEED  – Product History

Linseed is believed to have originated in the eastern Mediterranean and is now produced in a region that extends from there, across the Middle East and into India.

Linseeds have been part of human diet for thousands of years.  Evidence has been found in Georgia that Golden or yellow linseed is a particular form of linseed that is more frequently used in human diets than its brown counterpart.  Canada and China are the two main linseed producing countries.