Flax for Linen v Flax for Health

The Most Useful – for health, food and fabric

No wonder Flax is called the Latin species name for flax, Linum usitatissimum, meaning “most useful.”  Archaeological evidence shows the stems of this amazing plant has been clothing people for ten’s of thousands of years and probably eaten for as long.  Now it has many more uses, it’s benefits in improving the modern diet which help controlling, even curing, many common modern day health issues.

Since agriculture first started, many millennia ago, one of the first plants to be cultivated  was what we know as Linum usitatissimum “Flax”/”Linseed”.  In the intervening years Flax has been developed in two directions to provide improved quality of linen fabric, “Flax” in this case refers to the stems and “Flax” for its seeds which are used for many purposes including oil for health, milled flaxseed for the digestion, blood sugar control and hormone balance – particularly for alleviating the menopause symptom.

List of some of the many uses of flax aka linseed

• Fabric
• Fibre for clothing, rope, early fishing line, fishing nets,  parachutes and sails
• Heating and lighting oil
• Old style bank notes
• Paint
• Putty
• Seasoning cricket bats
• Food, rich source of plant protein, omega-3, dietary soluble and insoluble fibre, powerful antioxidant and phyto-oestrogen lignans
• Remedies, inc circulation, cardiovascular health, blood sugar control, hormone balance, optimising digestion, stomach problems
• Poultices

Flax grown for making Linen

Flax harvest for linen in the Netherlands

People often ask what’s the difference between Flax for Linen, Flax for Health and Linseed. Flax harvested for linen is pulled as whole plants in order to harvest the maximum length of stem.  In the old days this was done by hand.  The stems then go through several processes over several weeks before the long fibres are from the stems is extracted  The is a post shows Flax for its stems to make Linen being harvested. Note how green it is. The seeds from Flax grown for Linen are not properly ripe and don’t make nice flax for oil or other health purposes .  See Facebook post.

Flax grown for Flaxseed as a healthfood

Flax grown for seeds to make Flaxseed Oil, milled Flaxseed and other foods for health are different varieties and are harvested when the crop is completely ripe.  When grown in the UK this crop is still often grown as Linseed. It is are harvested by traditional combine harvester, the stems cut a few inches above the soil and the ripe seeds separated from the dry stems. Currently the stems from this harvest are very much a waste product even though the quality of its fibre is showing it could have many industrial and building  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtL5b6oQ26o

Flax and Linseed for food and health are the same

Btw, in the UK, “Flax” and “Linseed” are the same thing when grown for food or health, read more.

#flax #flaxseed #flaxseedoil #cholesterolcontrol #weightcontrol #BloodPressureControl #diabetes #OMS