….or Flax as it tends to be called by the pharmaceutical companies, has been cultivated for thousands of years as an oil used to promote healthy hearts, but when you consider that it’s also extremely good for the skin, hair and nails, it’s understandable why so many seasoned vegetarians use it as a substitute for fish oil. In fact, Linseed is one of the richest non-fish sources of Omega 3 fatty acids available to the consumer. Amazingly, it has 50%Omega 3 by weight of alpha linoleic acid, which is converted by the body into EPA and DHA as required (I wish I knew what any of that actually meant)! Mind you, I do know that Flaxseed oil comes in a dark brown capsule from the health-food shop because it spoils very quickly and keeping it in the dark prevents the oxidation of the oil….So you see, I’m not completely thick!

As I’ve pointed out many, many….many times on my websites, I’ve been vegetarian since I was eleven years old (forty-nine years) and back in those days, not only was I considered to be a complete and utter freak by almost everyone and anyone, who caught wind of it (especially the school authorities concerning the demands of school dinners), but there was virtually nothing available anywhere by way of dietary information to help you to stay fit and healthy. Even my own parents were convinced that I was about to starve to death right before their eyes and their misguided assurances to me that I should at least eat fish because fish meat wasn’t the same as “proper” meat fell on deaf ears.

More than a little worried, they turned to my herbalist Gran for help and advice and it was she who convinced me to partake of a dessert-spoon of Linseed/Flax oil every other day, insisting that I would otherwise soon begin to fade away, becoming pale and pasty-looking with increasingly dry skin and that even my hair could begin to fall out. She also maintained (quite forcibly) that my heart would suffer in the long-term and that the spoonfuls of oil would prevent that from happening.

Now, my Gran was an old-fashioned, traditional-type countrywoman very much steeped in the old ways. She had no time for modern things or towny ways and it’s an absolute certainty that she would never have heard of Omega 3, linoleic oil or EPAs, so it always amazes me how rural community-based herbalists like her knew these things. Today’s modern herbalists acquire all sorts of academic qualifications and usually Google most of what they need to know, but my Gran never had an academic qualification to her name. Nevertheless, she managed to accumulate in one lifetime, enough knowledge concerning all things herbally to keep a latter-day “expert” busy for at least two lifetimes just writing it all down!