Superfood: Flax Seed

Flax Seed: Up close and personal.

You may find flax seed in your local grocery store, check in the cereal or supplement aisle. It's considered a superfood, a fad term given to food products that are high in a nutrient content that is believed to be a health benefit.

What ingredient is so SUPER in this oily seed? Omega-3 fatty acids.

Jim Drouillard, a professor at K-State, has been researching flax seed for the last decade. Not in human nutrition, but ruminant. Ruminants are mammals that digest plant-based food because they have bacteria and protozoa in their digestive tract that can help them out! There are about 150 species of ruminants, but Dr. Drouillard is interested in cattle.

He has found that feeding flax seed to cattle in the five months before they are ready to be slaughtered can help make these animals more healthy. He set out to improve the health of the animals, but also found that it increases the amount of omega-3 fatty acids found in the meat from the animals fed flax seed.

NBO3 Technologies is a Kansas-based company that launched a ground beef product that is high in omega-3 fatty acids. Flax seed is pretty expensive, but for consumers who are willing to pay for the higher priced beef product, it's a good option.   

It also goes to show that the research done at Universities like Kansas State, is groundbreaking and necessary for advancement in today's society.


Always a Wildcat,

Tera