"Wherever flax seeds become a regular food item among the people, there will be better health."

— Mahatma Gandhi

Flax. It's a tiny, shiny seed that few people have heard of, but, because it's got high fiber and more omega-3 oils than any plant on earth, it's elbowing its way into the forefront among natural cancer fighters.

"It's good. Studies are showing it inhibits growth of breast, uterine, colon and prostate cancers. I'm recommending it to cancer patients and healthy ones too," says Dr. Robin Miller, head of the Triune Integrative Health Center of AsanteHealth Systems.

Waxing on flax, Miller surfs to a study showing one flax seed muffin a day for 30 days kills 31 percent of breast cancer cells in newly diagnosed women. (Grouppe Kurosawa: www.world-wire.com/news/0729050001.html)

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"Now that's exciting," says Miller.

"It's such a boost to the immune system and it has a good taste, like walnuts," says Medford nutritionist Christy Morrell.

Joining the chorus of praise, food educator Pauline Sullivan of the OSU Extension Service says, "It's scrumptious stuff. I eat it every day — and the fiber is great for digestion."

You buy flax as seeds or flax oil, but the maximum benefit comes from grinding the seeds, as needed, in your coffee mill and sprinkling the powder on cereals, rice, veggies or salads — or adding it to your smoothie, says Morrell.

The oil is good in salads. However, it can't be used as a cooking oil. The cooking oil with highest omega-3 is canola oil.

Grinding flax is the best way to use it, because you get the lignans from the flax seed shell — and these, along with omega-3 oils, are potent cancer fighters. Lignans are mostly missing from the flax oil. Flax seeds are tricky critters and you have to learn their ways. Once the seed is "opened," it oxidizes quickly, so you should refrigerate oil; and, when you grind flax, use it soon, says Craig Craddock of Ashland Food Co-op, which sells flax seed in bulk.

"A heaping tablespoon of seeds makes three tablespoons of meal — a good amount for the day," he notes. Miller advises two to five tablespoons a day.

As for eating seed directly, don't go there. They turn to a gelatinous mess and "most of them, if eaten whole, come out the way they went in — and don't do much good," says Morrell.

Other plants with omega-3, though at much lower levels than flax, include walnuts, soybeans and leafy greens, she says.

A drawback about flax is that your body has to convert it to the cancer-bashing omega-3 fatty acids known as DHA and EPA, says Medford naturopath Alan Kadish.

"It's a drag," he said, but some people have the enzymes to do it and some don't.

So, notes Ashland nutrition author and educator Ross Pelton, "even though flax is one of nature's richest sources of omega-3 fatty acids, I strongly recommend augmenting it with fish oils."

Flax often becomes the antioxidant of choice for vegetarians or people with issues about contaminants in marine life, says Morrell.

Pelton calls flax "one of nature's richest sources of omega-3, which is one of the most critical nutritional deficiencies in our culture. It determines how estrogen gets metabolized, so it protects women against hormonally related cancers — breast and uterine — and men from prostate cancer."

The oils in flax are unstable, not only on your shelf but in your body, Pelton adds, so he advises prolonging their effects by taking vitamin E and Coenzyme Q10, a little-known antioxidant and vitamin, whose discovery resulted in a Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Omega-3 (called alpha-linolenic acid) is critical, Morell adds, in balancing omega-6 (called linoleic acid), which we get in abundance from our diet, mainly in polyunsaturates like corn, safflower and other oils.

When omega-6 gets too high in our bodies, it support tumor growth and we produce more hormones that cause inflammation, says Morrell. Omega-3's compete with them and bring things into balance.

Flax oil, she adds, is also good for heart disease, as it reduces blood's clotting ability, so there's less constriction of arteries. Its anti-inflammatory properties make it the beat plant source, she adds, against heart disease, arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Flax seed, which has pretty blue flowers in nature, is more well-known to us as, in a slightly changed form, as linseed oil, a furniture polisher and oil paint ingredient.

John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.