Do flax seeds need to be ground up to be Digestable?

Question

Do flax seeds need to be ground up to be Digestable?

Answer 1

yepp. they have to be ground or u will Not get the nutrients. ure body cant digest it otherwise.

Answer 2

No they don't.  You can eat them just as they are.  In fact, it's better for you whole.  Great source of fiber & roughage.

Answer 3

Flax seeds actually DO BECOME  more digestible if they're ground up, and their omega 3 fatty acid becomes much easier for your body to utilize.

In fact, if you eat whole flax seeds, oftentimes they're just so high in fiber, and so slow to break down, that they'll come out of you hardly digested at all because they didn't get to sit around long enough to break them down. Kind of like corn kernels do.

Also, cooking flax seeds at a high temperature or storing them at the wrong temperature can degenerate their omega 3 fatty acid content. If you want to eat them because of that very reason, it's best to grind them and stir them into your oatmeal or sprinkle them onto a salad, or just take them supplementally - have a spoonful of ground flaxseed.

Remember, ground flax seed goes rancid a LOT faster though, so a lot of people invest in their own grinder and grind them a bit at a time since storage and timing becomes even trickier if you buy them pre-ground up.

Answer 4

Ground flax seed is not digestible, in order to get the benefits of flax seed in your diet they must be ground prior to eating. However it is highly suggested to purchase the flax seed whole and grind it yourself as it loses nutritional value the longer it remains ground. A coffee grinder or grinding stone will work

*cheers*

Answer 5

For the best benefit YES.

Soaking them is a great way to have them too.

Answer 6

to get the most value from them, yes but you can eat them as is

Answer 7

It will 'go thru' your system, if that is what your asking.  But to get the full benefit of them - it is better to grind them up.  As another already pointed out, a simple coffee grinder will work, for a less fine grind you can use a blender even.

Flax seed can provide protein, fat, fiber, Omega 3, and Omega 6.

So most def. something that you would want to see about adding to your diet.