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  1. #1
    Member xhawk's Avatar
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    Flax Oil and upset stomach

    Hello, from what I have been reading alot of you are taking flax seed oil and getting good results. I also have jumped on the bandwagon......taking three tablespoons per day .....having problems with it upsetting my stomach.......any ideas on what I can and can not dilute it with and how much it can be diluted. Thanx
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    Member Belle's Avatar
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    Perhaps take it with your protein shakes. I blend it in with those as it tastes like crap when you sip it from a spoon. makes me wanna barf just thinking about it actually and I am not straight flax here, but safflower/flax 1:1 ratio. Even then it still tastes bad raw. Take it with your food alteratively no on an empty stomach.

    When you say tummy upset, is it gripes or what?

    Feeling rough today and havn't eaten anything cos I got what the kid's got but not vomiting just the other end. Not nice that's for sure. I've been laid up in bed for the best part of the day and feel better now--craving icecream actually. (Think I'd rather barf than feel weak as all ---- all day, get it over with!). It's really set me back especially in the arms as I did my workout last night and I couldn't eat at all this morning, so they are weak as at the moment. May just go with what my body wants for today. Guess that's my workout missed for tonight anyhow.
    Last edited by Belle; 03-17-2003 at 05:38 PM.
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  3. #3
    Member xhawk's Avatar
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    cramps

    Belle it just gives me slight stomach cramps kind of flu like feeling.....lol.......not sure how else to describe it........can i add it to a glass of iced tea without it losing its effect?
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    Member Belle's Avatar
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    Anything that takes ya fancy I suppose, though that idea makes me wanna barf more than taking it raw..LOL! May do a little float on top there. You could mix it with orange too I guess--fresh orange and juices. Not sure how that would go on an upset tummy. I'd go for milk or something as it lines your stomach, but you go for it and tell us how it goes...

    off to the loo now
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    Registered User GLAlexander's Avatar
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    I have only been taking flax for about a week, but I mix into my protein shake. I also mix in some glutamine, soy milk, and a banana.
    "Give a man a fish you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."
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    Pump junky Charger's Avatar
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    Quick question GL, you are refriderating it, right?
    starting over!!!!!!!!!!
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    Member xhawk's Avatar
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    refrigerating

    Yes.....keeping it cool !
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    Hey Hawk,

    I mix mine in with my morning Oatmeal, some cinnamon, and a scoop of Protein powder (Chocolate) tastes like Chocolate pebbles to me
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    Sounds yummy. Chocolate flavor too...sinful. Oooooh shoclate *as said by my 2 yo*
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    Bunch o' wusses . I just open the bottle and pour down what I think is a tablespoon twice or 3 times a day . Nothing wrong with thee taste , it's raw food something all of us should eat a lot more of .
    It has never given me a stomach ache but if it does to you try taking it with a meal that contains other fats , it should mix with them and become more diluted in your stomach .
    Safflower and sunflower oils can be mixed with it and will supply some omega 6 fats as a bonus .
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    Member Belle's Avatar
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    Originally posted by back2it
    Bunch o' wusses . I just open the bottle and pour down what I think is a tablespoon twice or 3 times a day . Nothing wrong with thee taste , it's raw food something all of us should eat a lot more of .
    It has never given me a stomach ache but if it does to you try taking it with a meal that contains other fats , it should mix with them and become more diluted in your stomach .
    Safflower and sunflower oils can be mixed with it and will supply some omega 6 fats as a bonus .
    LMAO! Whatever turns you on...swigging fat is not something that does it for me. LOL!
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    xhawk

    I am surprised that flax oil should be giving you stomach problems, the only reason could be that it has gone rancid. btw, do you take all 3 tbls in one go?

    Some people stress so much its bad taste, that others may not realise if and when the oil has gone off.

    Basically, flaxseed oil has a slight nutty taste, and although not that great straight from the bottle, should not taste so bad. If it is does it may be off.

    Omega-3 polyunsaturated fats are unstable and will go rancid very quickly.

    Make sure you only buy the oil bottles that don't allow light in, and refigerate once opened. It should then be consumed within a month.

    back2it......I wouldn't mix it with other oils high in omega-6 FFA's, you already get too much omega-6 which is one of the reasons you suppliment with flaxseed oil, becuase its very high omega-3%. But I'm with you on just drinking it straight. I just take a swig from the bottle, quick and simple.
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    Registered User back2it's Avatar
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    IPR I suggested that because If you look at Udo's Choice oil it is mostly flax mixed with sun and safflower oils among others . He suggests that omega 3 and 6 be consumed together in a specific ratio . It is correct we do get more omega 6 and that we need more 3 because of the lack of it in our regular diet .
    Anyway I was just passing info based on what I read on florra's website .
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    Registered User IPR's Avatar
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    back2it....I know Udo's state that their oil provides the idea ratio of 6:3, which is fine as long as you don't take in any other omega-6 from other sources which most of us do. Hence I don't tend to agree with taking a blended oil, but would recommend straight falxseed oil to improve ones overall 6:3 intake
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    Re: xhawk

    Originally posted by IPR
    btw, do you take all 3 tbls in one go?
    Mine is refridgerated and bought from a fridge in the shop IPR. I take it spread out through the day not all together. I don't find any problem taking it that way. No gripes as such.
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    Registered User back2it's Avatar
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    Originally posted by IPR
    back2it....I know Udo's state that their oil provides the idea ratio of 6:3, which is fine as long as you don't take in any other omega-6 from other sources which most of us do. Hence I don't tend to agree with taking a blended oil, but would recommend straight falxseed oil to improve ones overall 6:3 intake
    I can't disagree , I think omega 3 is the one we need to supplement the most as well . I have used blended oils and straight flax at different times but from what I read here flax is king .
    My suggestion was to just answer a question as to what it could be blended with not what was the best oil to take .
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  17. #17
    Registered User Macattack's Avatar
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    I took a swig of flax, yeah that's how i do it and a swig of some olive oil and it tasted damn near the same, cool huh

    Whatever Mac.....
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    Well I don't eat any other fats, hence the mix of the two. If your taking in your fat intake in supplement form the majority of the time, it helps to take both types 3 and 6. I rarely eat fish except for surimi 9crab meat) and it has no fat whatsover in it. All my meat has the fat taken off it except for maybe 1% which is saturated if that. I drink ultra skimmed milk and don't eat any other type of fat or keep it to a minimum. It all depends what your doing really I suppose. If you eat other fats also in addition to 3 tablespoons of flax per day--whatever is it is make sure you watch the other fat that you eat and don't exceed it your fat intake. One of the reasons I cut out fat on other stuff is it saves confusion with the type I am taking in and the amounts in grams. This way I know exactly how many grams I have had in fat and I know it was unsatruated for the majority of it and a good mix of 3 and 6. Each to his own.
    Last edited by Belle; 03-19-2003 at 12:33 AM.
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    Originally posted by Belle
    Each to his own.
    True

    One word of caution though. From my reading and research, a diet where almost all your fat is from polyunsaturated fats maybe quite harmful.

    A good balance of fats IMO is 1:2:1 for sat : mono : poly
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    xhawk

    I have just been browsing an old thread related to keto in which Fitnessman our resident keto Master mentioned that some people, but very few, have trouble metabolising fats. An indication of this might be cramping and severe runs.

    Obviously this relates to someone going full throttle on a keto diet, but this could be whats causing you the milder symtoms when you take your FFA supp.

    Sorry, didn't give a treatment/solution though.
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    Member Belle's Avatar
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    Originally posted by IPR
    True

    One word of caution though. From my reading and research, a diet where almost all your fat is from polyunsaturated fats maybe quite harmful.

    A good balance of fats IMO is 1:2:1 for sat : mono : poly
    Really? Where did you read that? I'd like to read a little more on it. I do get saturated fats but it's very low. Obviously I get it in meat as I don't think it is possible to strip meat completely of it or milk as such. Most of my meat is from the deli and 98% or 99% fat free (or so it is claimed) so I guess there is some saturated. of course on cheat days, I eat butterfat and fast food and it's anyones guess what that comprises of. The other thing is, doesn't your body make saturated fat when it makes the stuff, because there is no shortage of that in me at the moment IPR. I have 26% of the stuff eaten for 6 yrs back or so---truck loads LOL! Does that count as my saturated portion? Ha! Ha! Ha! Hope so...
    Last edited by Belle; 03-19-2003 at 05:26 AM.
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    eating 7 walnuts a day gives you all the poly and mono fats your body needs. Tastes good too
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    Belle

    I don't have the references, but the rise in skin cancer in Oz has coincided with the government promoting people to avoid saturated fat and eat more polyunsaturated fats.

    A study was carried out on the cells of patients that had malignant melanoma, and it was found that the cells in teh surrounding skin were form mainly from polyunsaturated fats instead of saturated fat as they should have been.

    Polyunsaturated fat oxidizes easily, so when skin is exposed to sunlight and oxygen oxidation occurred.

    Obviously this can also occur through your body.

    Monounsaturated fat can be synthesized into saturated fat to meet the boies needs and saturated into monounsaturated also, but not with polyunsaturated fats......hence they are refered to as Essential Fatty Acids as we cannot produce them ourselves.

    I am in my office at present and my books are at home..... but for me this makes sense, in evolutionary terms we haven't changed much from our caveman ancester, and they did not eat a high polyunsaturated diet, so why would our bodies be better off with it now?
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    Fats in general have received much undeserved bad press . Low fat and fat free "whatever" will have very little flavour unless enhanced with something that tastes good aka "sugars" and that can cause its own set of problems
    I believe it is how we prepare our fat containing foods that cause the majority of fat related problems . Fried foods , hydrgenated fats , triglycerides etc are all a big source dietary problems . High temperatures , reused fats and rancidity are IMHO more of a problem than saturated fats , unsaturated fats , molyfats , poly fats etc etc .
    Eggs have great nutritional value , but fry them in bacon fat , gimme a break how can that be good . First it kills any enzymes the egg contains and renders anything healthy into garbage via the high heat then you add a whole bunch of over heated pork lard into the mix YUMMMM .
    Of course we need to keep it all in balance and supply the fats our body needs {omega 3} that our diet does not supply , that is a given .
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    Paleolithic (caveman) diet

    Just an extract I found:

    Their food consisted of wild game and gather their foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds as available on a seasonal basis.

    Recent archeological findings suggest that these ancient ancestors of ours were a healthy bunch—tall, strong bones, and body structures like modern-Day athletes—they appear to be most similar to ours in regard to stature, and as long as they survived accidents, infections, and childbirth, their longevity was similar to ours, but with much less chronic degenerative disease. Further anthropological studies suggest some of the food and life habits of these early human beings. They had regular vigorous exercise applied to hunting and gathering their food for survival. Flesh foods provided their proteins; seeds and nuts their oils; fruits and berries were available for quick energy; and some starchy vegetable tubers provided more complex carbohydrate fuel.

    The theory behind the health benefits of this hunter-gatherer diet, called the “Paleolithic Prescription” in the book of the same name by Dr. S. Boyd Eaton, Dr. Melvin Konner, and Marjorie Shostak, is that our modern diet should be adapted more to that of our ancestors than to the current one commonly consumed. The grains, eggs, and dairy foods, though wholesome in many ways, are the most common allergenic ones, and create both evident and hidden problems in many people. A big reason for much of the chronic disease in our culture involves the large amounts of fats, especially saturated fats, which were nearly nonexistent in ancient times (free-running animals had a much lower fat level, and most of the fats were of the polyunsaturated variety). The high intake of refined foods and grains in general also may be problematic in modern humans. The Paleolithic Prescription suggests an avoidance of refined foods and recommends that the main animal foods be closer to the wild game of ancient times. It includes fish and free-range poultry, obviously with low chemical application to the raising, cultivating, and preparation of these foods.

    The average tribe’s food consisted of about one-third hunted food to two-thirds gathered, so it was a primarily vegetarian diet that varied seasonally and had added high-protein, low-fat meats based on hunting success. The Paleolithic diet was estimated to be roughly 60 percent carbohydrate, 20 percent protein, and 20 percent fats with a calcium intake often over 1000 mg. daily, and that is without milk products. As compared to the modern diet, the hunter-gatherer diet, as outlined in The Well Adult by Nancy Samuels and Mike Samuels, M.D., Half the fat, Twice the calcium,
    Two to three times the protein, One-sixth the salt,
    Low grain consumption, Two to three times the potassium,
    No refined sugar, Four times the vitamin C, No refined flour ,Twice the fiber, No or low alcohol, Higher B vitamins, No tobacco (Ya don't say!) and Higher minerals.

    Besides the various wild game available at that time, the majority of the food consumed consisted of the following uncultivated vegetable foods:

    fruits nuts leaves
    berries seeds stalks
    melons beans bulbs
    flowers tubers fungi
    roots gums

    For most tribes, 10–20 common foods made up the diet staples with possibly up to 50 other foods eaten less frequently. Herbs were also used, more as medicinals, often with different parts of the same plant gathered or used at different times of the year.

    Interestingly, the evolution of our current diet began with the Neolithic revolution some 10,000 years ago. In the following 2,000 years, the population became more settled and began to increase rapidly. Organized agriculture began then, along with the increase in whole grain foods, especially wheat. Animals were domesticated and sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle provided various meats and milks that have been used throughout the centuries. Chickens and their eggs were also eaten. These new and richer, fattier foods are thought to be at the source of many of our chronic degenera-tive diseases. The whole grain foods are also the more common allergenic foods, as are cow’s milk and chicken eggs. This suggests that evolutionarywise, many of us have not even yet adapted to these foods genetically. The Industrial Revolution is only 200 years old and added another dimension to our new modern diet—that of refined foods and the use of chemicals in our foods. This is a big problem which we will discuss in greater detail next in the Industrialized Diet as well as later in Chapter 11.

    In Paleolithic Prescription, the authors suggest that “modern disease is a result of a mismatch of our genetic makeup and our lifestyle.” Dr. Eaton calls our twentieth century diseases “afflictions of affluence” or “diseases of civilization.” These include atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, adult-onset diabetes and cancer.

    Following a hunter-gatherer diet is not an easy task in this Day and age. Grains, both whole and refined, and milk products are readily available, and the two very common foods, wheat and cow’s milk get into a great variety of foods found in our commercial stores. The wild game and uncultivated vegetable foods are not found in our supermarkets. Meats are domesticated and high in fats and potential chemicals. Most all grains and vegetables are cultivated and sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals. More organic foods and meats with lower concentrations of chemicals are available but these are not always easy to find, and they are still not as clean as foods were in regard to chemicals and heavy metals of the preindustrial cuisine. So, it is a chore to adapt our diet and eat in a way that’s close to our Paleolithic, Stone-Age, Cro-Magnon ancestors.

    Some suggestions for eating this more natural diet will blend together Paleolithic nutrition with some more modern foods. This will clearly reduce fat intake and reduce the incidences of many of our “diseases of civilization.” We should bake, roast, and steam our foods instead of frying or sautéing them. Eating more raw, organic foods is helpful. We need to reduce the fatty meats and all processed meats as well as most of the whole milk products. We can eat a good breakfast of whole grain, fruit and juice, or skim milk. Lunch is a good meal that we prepare and eat at home or carry to work or school. It may include a protein like fish or poultry with vegetables or a sandwich and soup. Dinner is a lighter meal of raw salad and soup. Late eating is minimal and our main beverage is water. Many of these suggestions will be incorporated into my Ideal Diet of Part Three.

    Exercise is as key an issue for good health as is diet. Our Paleolithic brethren had a good level of physical activity incorporated into their daily lives. If we are tilling, planting, growing, and harvesting our own foods full time, we all experience that similar benefit, especially if we did a little distance running as the ancient hunters did. Construction workers probably have that level of physical labor though they are possibly not as aerobically active and are exposed to more pollution in regard to noise, dust, and chemicals.

    Most of us need to develop and maintain a lifelong exercise plan that will blend with our more sedentary work lifestyles. This should include a natural seasonal variance that ideally coincides with the cycles of light and darkness in our area. Our activity should be outdoors and energy expending during the warmer, lighter months; energy-gathering exercise, such as yoga, done indoors is best in the colder, darker times. Our exercise program should provide a balance that leads us to our optimum weight, good strength, and adequate endurance—and should be an integral part of our life—as it was with most of our ancestors.


    *I think they may have derived polyunsaturated fats from some of those things. Possibly from seeds? I thought they ate more than 20% fat and that it was a higher percentage in saturated fat but obviously it was not. Possibly they foraged a lot as meat may not have been as available as wild seeds and berries etc or seasonal foods. Learn something every day--they even did mor cardio--but then I'd say that they needed to and I don't think a BB would get by on 20% protein somehow either.
    Last edited by Belle; 03-19-2003 at 06:27 PM.
    ~*Belle*~

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