Key Findings
Functional foods supplemented with milled flaxseed have shown significant health-related benefits in both animal and human trials. In the FlaxPAD clinical trial, 12 different functional food choices that contained 30 g milled flaxseed were created to test the effects of dietary supplementation with flaxseed in tightly controlled clinical conditions in a patient population with cardiovascular disease. This paper tabulates the types of food choices made by the patients over a year of daily supplementation and show that milled flaxseed can be successfully incorporated into a variety of food products. Generally, buns and pasta were not well received whereas flavoured muffins and bagels were favoured. The availability of snack bars was essential to allow patients who were travelling the ability to maintain daily compliance. The data address any pre-conceived notion that the taste of flaxseed in foods may be poor and less acceptable to the palate than wheat.
Abstract
Dietary supplementation with milled flaxseed has provided significant health-related benefits to patients with cardiovascular disease (the FlaxPAD Trial). The purpose of this study was to examine which foods that contained flaxseed were best accepted over the one year duration of daily supplementation. Milled flaxseed (30 g) or a placebo (30 g of milled wheat) was incorporated into muffins, bagels, snack bars (all in different flavours), buns, tea biscuits and pasta or distributed in bags to sprinkle into their food of choice. Patients were free to choose each day the type of food product that they would consume. Over the course of one year, bagels were consumed > muffins > bars > sprinkles > biscuits > pasta > buns. The trends and quantities chosen were the same for flax and placebo foods. More flavourful varieties were generally better accepted. In conclusion, functional foods containing milled flaxseed will be ingested by a patient population over extended periods similar to placebo foods.
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