Flaxseed oil can be a valuable addition to your daily diet, providing essential omega-3 fatty acids and promoting overall health. While the general recommended dosage is one to two tablespoons per day, individual factors such as diet, health conditions, and medications must be considered. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional to determine the appropriate dosage and ensure that flaxseed oil is safe and beneficial for your specific needs. With proper care and attention, flaxseed oil can be a wonderful complement to your journey towards a healthier lifestyle.
How Much Flax Seed Oil Should I Use Per Day?
There’s a lot of conflicting nutrition advice out there, but one thing most experts can agree on is that flaxseed oil has some pretty remarkable health benefits. But even though you may be well aware of that, you might still be looking for the right flaxseed oil dosage to reap those benefits.
The short answer is that there are no hard rules about how much flaxseed oil you should use each day. However, there are recommendations on the proper daily dose of alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA — the type of omega-3 fatty acid that’s found in flaxseed oil. To get the most out of your diet, it’s a good idea to consume about 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil or one to three flaxseed oil capsules along with several other omega-3-rich foods each day.
Tip
Many studies on ALA, the main beneficial compound in flaxseed oil, use 600 milligrams per day. However, the current recommendation for daily ALA intake is 1,100 milligrams for women and 1,600 milligrams for men. Since 1 tablespoon of flaxseed oil provides 730 to 1,095 usable grams of ALA, that’s about all you need each day, as long as you’re eating other omega-3-rich foods too.
ALA Benefits of Flaxseed Oil
The main bioactive compounds in flaxseed oil are ALA and lignans. In fact, flaxseed is one of the richest plant sources of both of these beneficial compounds. Whole flaxseeds consist of about 22 percent ALA, but when those seeds are turned into flaxseed oil, that percentage jumps to 50 to 62 percent. And it’s the ALA in flaxseed oil that’s responsible for many of the health benefits associated with it.
Chronic inflammation is connected to many serious health problems, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. One of ALA’s major claims to fame is its anti-inflammatory properties. In one meta-analysis that was published in Nutrition & Metabolism in June 2018, researchers looked at several studies on how supplementation with ALA affected inflammation in people with metabolic syndrome.
They found that ALA could help reduce interleukin-6 (or IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (or TNF-α), two inflammatory cytokines — signaling molecules that are sent out by your immune system to promote inflammation. In the same review, researchers noted that ALA also reduced C-reactive protein (or CRP), a protein that’s produced and released by your liver in response to high levels of inflammation.
Researchers from another review that was published in the journal Nutrients in March 2016 looked at flaxseed and flaxseed oil specifically and found that this inflammation-lowering effect appeared to be even more significant in people who have obesity.
These studies varied from two weeks to 12 months and the dosage of ALA supplements ranged from 300 to 600 milligrams per day, although 600 milligrams was the most commonly used.
