Lower Your Cholesterol Levels By Consuming This Seed

Cholesterol is a waxy substance produced by the liver and plays a crucial role in making vitamin D, the formation of cell membranes, and other hormones. While it does have an important role to play in your system, having too much of it could cause life-threatening conditions like heart attacks or strokes.

Consuming too many fatty foods can increase your level of LDL or bad cholesterol in the blood. To prevent this from happening, you have to make a few changes in your lifestyle, particularly in the composition of your regular diet.

Seed and Oil

Did you know that flaxseed and its oil extracts are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids? This type of polyunsaturated fatty acid can provide your health with dozens of benefits. This includes increasing your HDL or good cholesterol levels.

Flaxseed and Flaxseed Oil

Flaxseed is harvested from Flax, a blue flower that grows in temperate climates. Consumed as food and used as a traditional remedy in different Mediterranean cultures since ancient times, flaxseed is rich in alpha-linolenic acid or ALA. It is among the essential omega-3 fatty acids which can convert more omega-3 fatty acids in your body.

Although there are no studies yet that prove flaxseed lowers your risk of developing heart disease, there is strong evidence that flaxseed and its oil extracts reduce cholesterol levels. To obtain maximum benefit from flaxseed, consume its grounded form or its oil extracts. This is because your body may not be able to break down the shiny and hard shell of the seed.

In-Depth Examination

Like fish oil, flaxseed has the subject of research on how to lower triglyceride levels. Such studies, however, flaxseeds provide little to no effect on triglyceride levels, and on the contrary, it may even raise the levels.

One thing is clear, though, and that is the fact that consuming flaxseed or its oil extracts can improve your levels of cholesterol. Flaxseed and its extracts are also being examined if it has a positive impact on various conditions like diabetes, cancer, and osteoporosis. To date, however, there is not enough evidence yet to support the theory that flaxseed may provide benefits to conditions like these.

Consumption

There is no fixed dose on how much flaxseed you should consume to get the best benefits. Many studies show that daily consumption of flaxseed anywhere between 15 to 50 grams has been proven beneficial for some people with high cholesterol levels. If you are worried or confused about the amount to consume, try asking your doctor for advice.

One thing that you should note, however, is that flaxseed must be grounded into powder before consumption; otherwise it might not work. Use a coffee grinder to ground flaxseed. You can make it as an ingredient with different types of food or mix it with bread.