What are the benefits of flax seeds/flax seed oil?

Both the fat and the fibre in flax has distinct health effects. Flax is the second-highest non-animal source of omega-3 fatty acids (alpha linoleic acid) available. The highest source is chia.

These fats must be provided in the diet for health, optimum body composition and a variety of other reasons. In fact, without them, we cannot survive.

Flaxseed and flaxseed oil is used by vast numbers of people as a source of essential fatty acids but as we've pointed out on FitnessInventor.com before, it is not as effective a source as fish oils (for more details, read my response to this previous question: What is Udo's oil? ).

The reason people add these essential fats to their diets is that compared to the diet of humans for hundreds of thousands of years before we embarked on farming and keeping animals, we obtained these fats from fish and meat but now we eat less fish (and some farmed fish is lower in these fats) and the meat we eat is much lower in these essential fats because of the food farmers feed to chickens, cows and other animals we eat.

Flax actually tastes quite nice (fish oil tastes fine but smells awful - but if you hold your nose, it will moderate the smell).

If you are going to use whole ground flaxseed, the fibre (called lignan) may have additional health benefits. The best known effect is the probable anti-estrogenic effects than may reduce the risk of breast cancer. In males, this could have a positive or negative effect.