Wild Flax is an ancient oleaginous (oil-bearing) plant from the Cruciferae family, which has been domesticated and extensively used in Europe for several thousand years. The seed oil of Camelina contains an exceptional amount (up to 45 per cent) of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as a unique antioxidant complex making the oil very stable and resistant to heat and rancidity. Unlike any other omega-3 oil, Camelina oil is perfectly suitable for use not only as a well-balanced omega-3 supplement, but also as a health-promoting everyday cooking oil. Combined with a delicious nutty flavor, this extraordinary blend of beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids and high oxidative stability makes Camelina oil an excellent, versatile overall source of both heart-healthy omega-3 fats and powerful antioxidants, including tocopherols, carotenoids, and phosphatides. Known as "wild flax" because it is often found growing together with common flax (and also sometimes referred to as "false flax" due to its visual similarity to regular flax), Camelina, while supplying almost as many omega-3 fatty acids as common flax, is much more stable than the latter, and also tastes much better. This is why we call it "the Better Flax". Omega-3 fatty acids are in the spotlight of today's natural and holistic approaches to human health. These healthy essential fats have been almost entirely forced out of the everyday American diet by the commercialization of our food supply by the food processing industry. In recent years, extensive research and numerous clinical studies have confirmed that omega-3 fats are involved in numerous vital physiological processes in our bodies, and that their deficit may cause or aggravate many serious medical problems and conditions, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, and other cardiovascular problems, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, dermatitis, asthma, ADHD, and even cancer. Therefore, adding a good source of omega-3 fatty acids to one's diet is believed to be a good way of improving or preventing these conditions. The question of what constitutes the best source of omega-3 supplementation is, however, still being widely debated by scientists, doctors and consumers alike. Fish and fish oils as sources of omega-3 fatty acids: benefits and disadvantages There are two major known sources of omega-3 fatty acids: certain types of fish (and their tissue or organ fat, also called fish oil or fish liver oil), and a number of plant seeds and their oils (flax oil being the best known one). Fish and fish oils (including cod liver oil) are a fairly decent source of omega-3s. In fact, studies have shown that eating as little as one fish meal a week can reduce the risk of dying from cardiac arrest by fifty percent1. Another advantage of fish and fish oil is that they contain the most nutritionally available variety of omega-3s, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is converted directly into PGE3 - the compound responsible for most of the health benefits of omega-3 supplementation (more information about how omega-3s work in the human body may be found here). At the same time, you must be very careful when choosing fish or fish by-products as a source of omega-3s. First of all, not all fish contain omega-3s. Only the fatty, cold water fish varieties, such as salmon, sardines, and anchovies, are rich in omega-3s, whereas most other fish species supply little or no omega-3s. Even with salmon, you have to make sure that it is wild and not farm-raised2. Only the salmon caught in the wild has any appreciable amounts of omega-3s, because it gets them from its natural diet. The diet of farm-raised salmon does not allow it to accumulate any omega-3s in its tissues. Besides, eating any farm-raised fish is not particularly healthy, because virtually all fish farms make indiscriminate use of artificial feed, antibiotics, and other toxic substances. Unfortunately, this is an accepted part of the industrial fish farming technology. They even use artificial colorants to make farm-raised salmon look pink rather than its "natural" gray color (yes, farm-raised salmon is "naturally" gray). In fact, when ordering farm-raised salmon, a merchant even gets to pick the exact shade of pink (using the Pantone color-matching guide), which may be fun for the merchant but not too much fun for someone using the fish or its tissue oil to feed her family. Oils extracted from the body tissues (fish oil) or organs (cod liver oil) of certain fish species are by far the most concentrated sources of long-chain omega-3s (namely, EPA and DHA). Cod liver oil has an additional advantage of supplying large quantities of vitally important vitamins A and D. It is, indeed, an excellent everyday supplement, but, just like with fish, you must be a very careful shopper. There are two major problems with fish oils: contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury, and rancidity. The issue of contamination is not the one to be overlooked. Modern industrial agriculture produces a huge toxic runoff which goes into our rivers and streams and eventually ends up in the ocean. At the same time, coal-burning power plants are increasingly polluting our atmosphere with mercury (this poisonous metal is eventually carried into the ocean as well). These harmful chemicals tend to accumulate in fish tissues (for instance, mercury accumulates in fish in its most toxic form: methylmercury). The larger the fish - the more PCBs, mercury, and other toxins (like lead and cadmium) will be found in its tissues. This problem is real, and every year it gets worse. For example, the contamination of fish harvested near the Northern shores of Russia got so bad that the Russian government had to ban any and all use of fish and cod liver oils as dietary supplements. More recently, the US government has issued a number of warnings3 cautioning pregnant women and young children against consuming certain species of fish because of mercury contamination. |