At 15:19 -0800 15/1/03, Velia Green wrote:

>Hi.  This is a probably a dumb question.  Since I started paleo again
>recently I've been taking a spoonful of a good-quality flaxseed oil at
>breakfast and dinner.   But it occurred to me, if grains are nonpaleo,
>and if flax is a grain, then why is flaxseed oil ok?

Flax seed oil is not paleo. But we live in neolithic times, and most
of the other things we eat are similarly not strictly paleo.

The most striking example of this is in the way meat is produced,
particularly in the U.S. and Europe, to a lesser extent here in
Australia. The modern way is to stuff the animals full of grain
in order to get them ready for market as quickly as possible.

The grains the animals are fed contain a *much* lower ratio of
omega-3 to omega-6 fats than their traditional (paleo) diet of
grass. As a result the fat profile of the animal carcass
(including both intra-muscular fats and organ meats) contain
a similar imbalance of w-3:w-6 fats.

Interestingly, this holds true not only for farmed beef, but
also for any other meat fed grain-based supplements. The USDA
database has some interesting figures for wild vs farmed
rabbit and salmon.

The idea behind taking flax seed oil (or preferably a good fish
oil) is to re-balance one's w-3:w-6 fatty acid intake to a ratio
more similar to that found in a paleo diet.

 ...R.