Oil BenefitsSo many Oils, So Little Time

Historical Olive Oil Benefits

Olive oil has been around for a long time, and its many benefits have been used by man for centuries.  Ancient texts often mention olive oil for medicinal and personal use, even the Bible.  In the book of Ester in the Bible, it was mentioned that potential suitors for the king were sent to a six month beauty program to undergo beauty treatments with oils, lotions, and more.  Olive oil was thought to be one of the main oils used in these types of ancient beauty programs.  Olive oil benefits are far reaching, extending from culinary uses, to skin care, to hair care and relaxation.  People have been using olive oil for thousands of years for every purpose they could think of.

When used as a topical oil, olive oil is a natural humectant, meaning that it’s a moisturizer that draws water to the area it’s applied to.  So before there were lotions or creams, people were using olive oil on their skin to endure the dry, dusty climate around the Mediterranean Basin.  Olive oil is great for the skin and and has been used as a topical oil for centuries.  In the past, topical olive oil was only available to the wealthy, but in modern days, olive oil more and more is being added to cosmetics and skin creams because of its many benefits.

Olive oil is also a great topical oil for the hair and has been used that way for centuries as well.  Because of the fact that the scalp often suffers dryness and lacks good blood flow, olive oil can be a great topical oil to rub into the scalp.  On top of the moisture benefits it provides to the scalp, it also provides a great boost in nutrients, both to the skin and the hair.  Olive oil used in conjunction with conditioners can help bring shine and softness back to the hair.  Olive oil is rich in healthy fats and oils that penetrate into the scalp and deliver nutrients to both the scalp and the hair.  This is something that mere conditioners don’t deliver.  Now you can see why for many thousands of years, olive oil has been one of the most prized compounds to human life.

The Best Flaxseed Oil, High in Lignans and Omega 3s, Unfiltered and on Sale Here

Flaxseed Oil Benefits — Omega 3

Omega 3 essential fatty acids are all the rage these days.  Most people get their Omega 3s from fish oil, not realizing that flaxseed oil benefits them in even greater ways than fish oil does.  This is due to a variety of factors.  For those who know about Omega 3s, you know that the two important ones are EPA and DHA.  Flaxseed oil, on the other hand, is very rich in ALA, which is another Omega 3.  ALA doesn’t really do anything by itself but is a precursor to both EPA and DHA.  That means that once you ingest it, it converts to the other two more important Omega 3s.  This has both positives and negatives.  The positive aspect of this is that if your body happens to need more DHA, like during pregnancy, more ALA will be converted to DHA over EPA.  Since your body can choose how to convert the ALA, it will do so according to its needs.  The negative is that ALA requires additional compounds in order to be rendered useful to the body.

Cost Benefits of Flaxseed Oil

Dollar for dollar, it’s much cheaper to buy a high quality flaxseed oil than it is to buy a high quality fish oil.  High quality flaxseed oil is generally under a dollar per ounce, giving you a huge boost of Omega 3s and healthy lignans daily for not much cost.  A high quality fish oil is generally a few dollars an ounce and doesn’t have the added lignan benefit that flaxseed oil has.  If you’re unfamiliar with lignans and their benefits, check out the previous post.  In today’s modern world, there are a lot of natural supplements that are really beneficial for the body.  Finding the highest quality at the cheapest price is really the only way to make sure you can get all these healthy compounds into your body.  Otherwise, you’ll end up spending $15 a day just in natural health supplements.  Flaxseed oil benefits your wallet just as much as it benefits your body.

Highest Lignan Flaxseed Oil from the Best Brand in Flaxseed Oil

Flaxseed Oil Benefits — Lignans

Flaxseed oil benefits the body in many ways, with its high content of Omega 3 essential fatty acids, and other key nutrients.  But one important benefit of flaxseed oil that most people haven’t heard of is its high content of lignans.  Flaxseed has 100 times more lignans than any other edible plant.  That should sound startling, because it is.  That’s an amazing benefit.  Lignans are plant compounds that have estrogen-like effects on the body.  They’re often called phytoestrogens.  Lignans have a few main benefits.  One, is the positive effect they seem to have on cholesterol levels, and two, is the positive effect they seem to have in reducing the chance of breast cancer in women.

1. Cholesterol Benefits — There have been numerous studies done on flaxseed oil and lignans.  In an 8-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, fifty-five hypercholesterolaemic subjects were either given a placebo, or 300 or 600 mg/d of dietary secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) from flaxseed extract.  This was to determine the effect of flaxseed lignans on plasma lipids and fasting glucose levels.  The group who received the flaxseed lignans showed improvements in both cholesterol levels and glucose levels.  This doesn’t even consider the fact that the Omega 3 content of flaxseed oil also benefits cholesterol levels.  This study just measured the lignan benefits.
2. Breast Cancer — Lignans have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women.  This is due to a variety of factors.  Because of the fact that lignans have estrogen-like effects and are phytoestrogens, they reduce the body’s need to produce as much estrogen.  There is a strong correlation between how much estrogen is produced by the body and risk of breast cancer.  Women who produce less estrogen seem to be less at risk of breast cancer.  In addition to this, lignans have the capability of binding to estrogen receptors and interfering with the cancer promoting effects of estrogen on breast tissue.  Both of these factors give lignans a great benefits for women.

If you’re looking for a flaxseed oil that has the maximum benefits, both in lignans and Omega 3 essential fatty acids, check out the brand pictured above.  Flaxseed oil is very inexpensive and the highest quality brand, which in our opinion is Barleans, only costs $15 for a 16 oz bottle, and it’s the highest in lignans out of any brand of flaxseed oil.  It’s important, when buying a flaxseed oil for its lignan benefits that you buy a high quality brand.  Many companies have refining processes that strip a lot of the nutrients out of their oils.  So don’t just go for the cheapest.

Nutritional Flaxseed Oil Benefits

Flaxseed oil is one of the most nutritious oils in the world, loaded with Omega 3 essential fatty acids.  Flaxseed oil benefits people differently, depending on what their normal intake of Omega 3 essential fatty acids looks like.  If a person already has an adequate level of Omega 3s in their diet, flaxseed oil will just give them a nice boost.  If they don’t flaxseed oil can actually help them overcome years of cellular malnutrition and possibly a number of chronic diseases.

Here’s what happens.  A normal cell membrane is made largely of Omega 3 essential fatty acids.  It’s selectively permeable, letting nutrients in and allowing waste to leave.  But what happens is that, through years of eating too many unhealthy fats and not enough healthy Omega 3s, the chemical structure of your actual cell membranes can begin to change.  The body uses fats that aren’t very suitable for the job and the cell membranes become more rigid and less functional.  This can cause a wide range of problems and has even been linked heavily to Type 2 Diabetes.

The ratio between Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids should be around 1:4, one part Omega 3 to four parts Omega 6.  But in the modern diet, the ratio is somewhere around 1:10.  This means that the body has a lot more Omega 6s than it needs, and usually not enough Omega 3s for everything it needs them for.  That’s where flaxseed oil benefits the body greatly.  Flaxseed oil is very high in the Omega 3 essential fatty acid ALA, which converts in the body to both EPA and DHA, which are the other two important Omega 3s.  Taking a spoonful of flaxseed oil everyday can actually help your body change at the cellular level and overcome years of cellular malnutrition.  It can be pretty powerful in the right circumstances.

Flaxseed Oil Benefits

Flaxseed oil is one of the best oils on the market today.  Flaxseed oil benefits the body in a wide variety of ways, and because of how inexpensive it is to produce, flaxseed oil gives you a large bang for your buck.  Even the highest quality flaxseed oil is still a lot cheaper than a lot of other oils, and delivers a great supply of Omega 3 essential fatty acids and other great nutrients to the body.  Flaxseed oil is high in the Omega 3, ALA.  Among Omega 3s, the most popular are EPA and DHA, which are the two Omega 3 essential fatty acids that are primarily found in fish oil.  ALA, which is found primarily in flaxseed oil, converts to both EPA and DHA inside the body.  And since flaxseed oil is generally much cheaper than fish oil, many people prefer flaxseed over fish oil.

How to Choose the Right Flaxseed Oil

Because of the fact that flaxseed oil is so inexpensive, there’s really no reason not to go with a high quality brand like the one pictured to the left.  Barleans flaxseed is considered by many experts to be the highest quality flaxseed oil on the market.  Barleans uses a pressing method that keeps the nutritional value of the flaxseed oil intact, and bottles the oil in a black opaque bottle to keep it safe from light damage.  Not only that, but they don’t filter the oil, which ensures that all of the nutrients are completely intact.  Many oil makers use an extensive filtering or refining process that gives the oil a longer shelf life, but strips away many of the oil’s nutrients in the process.  Every time I’ve found Barleans flax oil in my local health food store, it’s always been kept in a refrigerated section in order to keep it fresh and nutrient dense at the time of purchase.

For most oils, it’s very difficult to find an unrefined, unfiltered oil.  Most oils are heavily processed and refined, and if you do happen to find one that’s unrefined and unprocessed, it’s almost always very expensive.  That’s why one of the greatest flaxseed oil benefits is the inexpensive cost.  You get a big dose of Omega 3 essential fatty acids from a fresh and natural source, all at an inexpensive cost.  For the nutrition it provides, flaxseed oil is tough to beat.  But like we said earlier, you need to make sure you choose a good brand.  That’s your only worry.  And since we told you about arguably the best brand out there, you should be able to buy with confidence.