High Lignan Flax Seed Oil

High lignan flax seed oil contains ample amounts of lignans, a type of chemical compounds found in plants. You may have heard about so called phytoestrogens, a form of very powerful antioxidants? Phytoestrogens can be divided into two major classes and lignans constitutes one of them (the other class contains the isoflavones). When you ingest high lignan flax seed oil, you ingest phytoestrogen antioxidants. Flax seeds are not the only source of lignans; you can also find generous amounts in sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, rye, beans, broccoli and certain types of berries.

If flax seeds contain so much lignans, why are not all flax seed oils high lignan flax seed oils? The thing about lignans is that they are present in the shell hull of flax seeds, pumpkin seeds etc. The producer of flax seed oil must therefore use a method that preserves the lignans and make them enter the oil; otherwise the flax seed oil will be very low in lignans since the lignans will be left in the discarded shell hulls.

After consuming high lignan flax seed oil, or any other food item high in plant lignans, bacteria living in your intestines will convert the plant lignans into mammalian lignans. These mammalian lignans are called enterodiol and enterolactone. Mammal lignans seem to have potent anti-cancer properties, but more research is needed before anyone can know anything for sure or explain exactly how mammal lignans affect the human body. Several studies have already produced very promising results linking mammal lignans to a decreased risk of developing colon cancer and breast cancer, two cancer types know to be associated with disturbed hormone metabolism.

___________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright 2006 flaxseedoil.ws
High Lignan Flax Seed Oil