Lignans

Polyphenols

Polyphenols of seeds and bran, precursors of molecules that loosely resemble estrogens.

Flaxseed provides a hundred times more than any other common food. Grind it: whole, it passes through.

Effects and benefits

Your bacteria turn the lignans of flax into enterolactone, a molecule that faintly resembles estrogens. In a six-month trial, 30 g of ground seeds a day lowered blood pressure by about ten points in people whose pressure was high.

Sesame, whole grains and some vegetables contain them too, but flax crushes them all. These molecules do not act as they are: only their transformations by the microbiota reach the blood.

The FlaxPAD trial followed for six months people with narrowed leg arteries, often with high blood pressure: 30 g of ground flax a day lowered systolic pressure by about 10 points and diastolic by 7 (Rodriguez-Leyva et al., 2013). Lignans, fiber and omega-3 acted together.

Blood enterolactone varies enormously from one person to another, depending on the microbiota and the fiber eaten; a course of antibiotics makes it drop for months (Kilkkinen et al., 2002).

Bacteroides, Eggerthella and Clostridium convert them into enterodiol then enterolactone. It is that form, made by the microbiota, that is found in the blood — never the original molecule.

Sources: Rodriguez-Leyva et al., Hypertension, 2013 · Kilkkinen et al., 2002

Where to find it (5)

• Ground flaxseeds
• Rye
• Sesame seeds
• Virgin flaxseed oil
• Virgin sesame oil

Also, in smaller amounts (10)

• Apricot
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Oats
• Peanut
• Pumpkin seeds
• Strawberry
• Sunflower seeds
• Virgin canola oil
• Whole wheat