Rebutting The Anti-Flaxseed Article on Mercola

People have been writing me, about an article recently published by the Mercola company, claiming that flaxseed is an unhealthy food.

I’m a fan of organic flaxseed after 27 years of research. Especially sprouted organic flaxseed—which you can add to a green smoothie, or any number of other healthy meals.

(Steel-cut oats, homemade granola, a bowl of berries, on top of a sauce, you name it!)

Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

The article people are sending me isn’t written by Joe Mercola, and it manipulates the reader with a few falsehoods and half-truths. It makes very incorrect arguments, and I’ll explain why.

The author of this article is a young lady in her 20’s who appears to be trading free writing for the chance to run an ad at the bottom of the article on the Mercola page:

where she sells a course with her sister telling you how to eat and live, that she says is worth $3,500 but she’ll offer it to you for $29/month.

So the people writing me about the Mercola article are very confused, and they come to me saying, “Dr. Mercola says flax is bad!”

While I think the fact that this author learned that flax has been used to make an industrial oil which is then used as an ingredient in paint, is an interesting fact--

--it doesn’t have anything to do with whether the whole, organic flaxseed is good for you.

Saying that because processed flax has long been used to make industrial paint products, you shouldn’t eat organic whole flaxseed—

--is like saying that because some companies make high-fructose corn syrup, therefore you shouldn’t eat the sweet corn you grow in your backyard or grown by a local farmer.

I don’t really take issue with the author’s contention that flax, when made into oil, oxidizes quickly, and that oxidized oils can be carcinogenic. Fair enough.

However, this doesn’t mean FLAXSEED isn’t:

1. High in fiber

2. High in beneficial lignans, higher than any other food, in fact

3. High in omega-3 fatty acids in whole-food form, which are scarce in the American diet (we get very little omega-3 and way too much omega-6 with all the fried foods and seed oils)

The products this young lady is talking about being bad for you are highly processed and preserved industrial oils made from flax.

While I would agree that paint is toxic, and flax has been used in paint, and you shouldn’t eat paint or any industrial produce made with flax oil--

--it’s a major logical fallacy to say that flaxseed is bad for you, because they make paint from it.

Let me give a few examples to highlight the fundamental logical fallacy in the argument:

1. Organic corn is good for you, even though they also make toxic products from genetically modified, glyphosate-sprayed corn;

2. Organic legumes are good for you, even though toxic products like Jif peanut butter, and candy bars, are made from the peanut legume;

3. Organic grapes are good for you even though they make wine from them, and alcohol is bad for you;

4. Similarly, organic potatoes are good for you, even though they can make vodka from them;

Obviously I could go on endlessly with examples of similar arguments. But let me give you one more:

5. Her argument is like saying that because toxic, rancid “vegetable oil” is bad for you, that you should avoid vegetables.

But yes, flax oil oxidizes rapidly—which is why I wouldn’t use flax oil in cooking. Only--if at all--refrigerated, high-quality, no-solvents-involved oil, in a dark bottle, used cold, for a specific reason.

(Such as being on an uber low-fat diet for a length of time, and wanting to make sure you get essential fatty acids in your diet, in a salad dressing, or drizzled on your food. And using sprouted organic flaxseed would still be a better way to get those EFA’s, versus the oil!)

Flax oil going rancid quickly is not a reason, however, to avoid one of the most nutrient-spectacular foods available to us, though: whole flaxseed.

The author whose article was published on Mercola talks about PUFAs, or polyunsaturated fatty acids.

But the problem in our diet is in processed oils everywhere—oils made from corn, soy, seeds. The problem is not in the flaxseed itself.

I would never whatsoever suggest that you use these industrial oil products in your diet. The flax with all the studies behind it is the whole flax seed.

And to make it even more amazing, sprout it. And if you want to keep it around for a while before using it, dehydrate it below 100 degrees—and it’s just a phenomenally nutritious food.

Another issue in this article the Mercola company published that I take issue with is:

She speaks of lignans, which are a compound in many whole foods, but higher in flaxseed than any other, somehow linking lignans to breast cancer, which is bizarre, since there are so many research studies saying the exact opposite of that:

Consumption of whole flaxseed even a few times a week, in large part due to lignans, is linked to very LOW breast cancer risk. Read a major meta study here, reviewing the evidence that lignans in plant foods are preventative of:

• cardiovascular disease

• diabetes

• lupus

• bone disorders

• kidney disorders

• menopause

• reproductive problems

• mental problems

• immunity problems

• atherosclerosis

• liver necrosis and

• urinary disorders

Due to the properties of lignans in flax that are

• anti-inflammatory

• antioxidant

• antimutagenic

• antimicrobial

• antiobesity

• antihypolipidemic and

• neuroprotective

Perhaps the author that Mercola Co. published just doesn’t understand that some synthetic, concentrated estrogens in the body being associated with breast cancer—are very different from the mild plant estrogens of flaxseed, as well as many other whole foods.

Where the fiber is actually mopping up excess estrogens. Think of lignans like a sponge in your GI tract. You need insoluble fiber, which is like a broom, and you need soluble fiber, which is like a sponge.

I’m not sure how she got that one so wrong. Perhaps she doesn’t understand how the difference between high doses of synthetic estrogens and the ones found in tiny amounts in hundreds of whole foods.

Obviously the toxic, cheap oil you can buy at Walmart, called “vegetable oil,” while somewhere way back, before processing it at over 400 degrees, STARTED as soybeans and corn. (Almost always, soy and corn, genetically modified and sprayed with glyphosate.)

So that’s like saying that because the plastic bottle of refined “vegetable oil” is clearly bad for you—then organic soybeans and corn are, too.

(Even if they’re organic, they aren’t genetically modified, they aren’t sprayed with glyphosate, and they are prepared and eaten as whole, unprocessed foods? Think edamame. Think corn on the cob. They’re excellent foods, if they fit the description in this paragraph.)

Anyway, the author of this article that Mercola (that recently underwent a major corporate restructuring) published--

--says that lignans are related to breast cancer and that just isn’t supported by the evidence.

Please don’t take my word for it that whole-food lignans are shown to be preventative of cancer, osteoporosis, and more—do some research of your own. Anyone can go in the PubMed database and search on studies on these topics.

Even better, anytime you’re confused about a topic where you’re reading conflicting information: search for “meta analysis.” Or “meta study.”

Because these “overview” studies review the findings of many smaller studies on the same topic, and give an analysis of the findings.

Otherwise you can almost always get confused by finding contradictory single studies--showing any food or product to be good for you, or bad for you.

(Which may be related to how much science is “bought and paid for.”)

Meta analyses, too, can be bought and paid for—to some extent, scientists hired by industries can curate the studies that support an agenda. They sometimes exclude studies in their reviews, that don’t support their thesis.

However, that’s the best way to evaluate the evidence: look for the meta studies.

(Also look at the top of the study, for whether the authors of the study have any conflicts of interest. They are supposed to reveal whether they were paid by a company or a consortium of studies, in an industry.)

The evidence that lignans are powerful against the most common American diseases is so significant that (like the supplement industry tries to do with everything):

They’ve isolated lignans and put them in a supplement pill bottle!

I don’t know why we’d want to try to extract an isolated compound in the flaxseed--when organic, sprouted flaxseed is inexpensive, and it’s the “whole food” that is proven by so many studies to cancer preventative.

Science doesn’t know how all the cofactor nutrients in the whole flaxseed work together, to achieve the positive results documented in so many studies.

But after 18 years at GreenSmoothieGirl, there are very few things that I think are so special, that I’m willing to make them, myself, for you:

But organic, sprouted flaxseed is one of only a few that is that spectacular.

Organic, sprouted flax, dehydrated below 100 degrees, is a great food.

Because a scoop of it in your green smoothie is filling, it’s incredibly nutritious and high in fiber, the omega-3 fatty acids are something your cardiovascular system and nervous system need every day, and they have to come from food (they can’t be manufactured by the body, like many nutrients can be)--

--and working with flaxseed yourself at home can be frustrating because when you soak it, to sprout it, it gets thick and goopy.

So, not many people want to soak and sprout it, let alone dehydrate it at low temperature.

You DIY kitchen-wizard health nuts can do it yourself every day, throwing the goop you sprouted yesterday in the blender with your other ingredients in your smoothie—

—nothing wrong with that!

But we dehydrate it at a low temperature to avoid killing enzymes, and then we seal it in an EVOH bag, so that it lasts for years in your food storage without oxidizing.

No processing, no chemistry involved, no extra ingredients added.

Anyway, the one thing I agree with this author (published by Mercola), is that you shouldn’t eat the industrial oil product made from flaxseed.

IF you use any flaxseed oil at all--let’s say if you have an Omega-3 deficiency you’re trying to address--and if you like to make your own salad dressing or drizzle flax oil on a baked potato instead of butter—

--you want to use only a refrigerated cold-pressed flax oil by a good company like Barlean’s, and in limited amounts. It’s important you do NOT cook with flaxseed oil.

It’s for cold use only, like a salad dressing. And after a year, I wouldn’t use flax oil, even if it was stored in the fridge.

Or, better yet--ALWAYS better yet!--just use the whole food, use the organic flaxseed itself.

If you’d like to see this article in video form, here it is:

Thank you for your support of this blog. Sometimes we use links that benefit this small company. Or, we appreciate our subscribers who support our mission for $10/mo. Meta study on health benefits of lignans here.

References:

This meta study reviews the research on the many beneficial effects of lignans in flaxseed:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4517353/