Flexiflax
Flexiflax is produced by Camdeboo Health Products by using a unique process. Flax seeds are sprouted and after 5 to 6 days the sprouts are harvested, dried, ground and encapsuled. Sprouts contain an extremely high percentage of minerals, vitamins, lignans, digestive enzymes, sterols and sterolins. As Flexiflax capsules are completely natural, containing only grounded Flax sprouts, the body immediately uses all of its highly nutritional and healing contents as soon as it is taken.
Flax has the highest concentration of Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids of any known plant. It also has a higher content of lignans, that is between 75 and 800 times that found in any other grain or vegetable. These two components have been shown to exert a beneficial effect as dietary supplements.
Essentially Fatty Acids
Although the levels of fat (both saturated and unsaturated) that we eat on a daily basis is usually well in excess of the body’s requirements (40% as against 15%), we do need a certain amount of fat in our diet. Certain key fatty acids (EFA’s) are absolutely necessary whilst the make up of the others is of little importance.
Within this vitally important group of fatty acids there are two subgroups known as Omega 6 and Omega 3.
Omega 6 comprises
Omega 3 comprises
These two groups comprise the Essential Fatty Acids, those acids that we must have present in the diet as we cannot make them in the body for ourselves. The two subgroups are both separately essential meaning that we must have enough of each subgroup in our diet and having more of either one will not compensate for insufficient of the other.
The Omega 6 subgroup occurs widely in many foods and is generally well available. It is especially abundant in most vegetable oils of the kind used for salad oil or for cooking such as corn, sunflower, safflower, canola and soybean oils.
The Omega 3 subgroup is not so well distributed in foods and only occurs in high concentration in fish oil and in Flax or Flax oils. Moderate amounts are present in rapeseed oil, walnut oil and in walnuts themselves and in pumpkin seeds. Therefore a deficiency in Omega 3 is a common nutritional problem in our society.
It is very important to understand the importance of the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 in the diet. Omega 6’s are best used by the body in a ratio of 4:1 to 1:1 to Omega 3’s. The current ratio of 6’s to 3’s is around 20:1 which has led scientists to believe that this imbalance is linked to the high incidence of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, some forms of cancer and inflammation – all of which are becoming more prevalent in our society. As our diets rely largely on vegetable oils rich in Omega 6’s the reason for the imbalance in ratios becomes apparent. High levels of Omega 6 have been implicated in blood clotting, inflammation and tumour growth. As a completely natural product Flexiflax contains 6’s and 3’s in the ideal ratio.
Omega 3’s have the opposite effect in that they assist in modulating the immune system, promote arterial flexibility, prevent blood clotting, regulate inflammation and assist in the promotion of neural networks involved in brain activity in learning, memory and mood regulation.
Research found that a deficiency in Omega 3 causes a number of chronic health problems such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis, inflammatory diseases, depression, heart disease, hypertension, loss of memory, weight gain, psoriasis, eczema and ADD (Attention Deficiency Disorder).
Lignans
Lignans (as opposed to lignin) are phytochemicals that are contained in the cell matrix of Flax. This concentration of lignans is between 75 and 800 times greater than that found in other grain or vegetable sources and in this regard Flax is sought of as a super food. The lignans in 1/8 cup of Flax seed would be the same as 60 cups of fresh broccoli or 100 slices of whole wheat bread.
Lignans, when in a healthy digestive tract, are converted by bacterial interaction into hormone-like substances known as phytoestrogenic compounds. Research suggests that these compounds mimic the body’s own oestrogen type cells and can block the hormone-based tumours such as hormone related cancer of the breast, ovary and prostate. These healthy benefits are of particular importance to menopausal women and middle aged elderly men.
As with all the products of Camdeboo Health Products the unique method by which the flaxseed powder is produced, it retains all the enzymes, vitamins and minerals.
Flexiflax capsules consists of 600mg powder from Flax sprouts high in concentrations of Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) as well as lignans, sterols/sterolins, digestive enzymes, vitamins and minerals.