I like your style Grace. I could definitely drink the stuff. Yummy!

Are all olive oils created the same? Is there a certain one that I should purchase. I'm going to try the Tbs a day thing.

Thanks

Can someone elucidate (or speculate) again re: ER+, flax oil vs flax seed, etc.

THX

RE flax seed this may help. There are more previous discussions on this topic which may help.


http://her2support.org/vbulletin/sho...ight=flax+seed

Re: Are all olive oils created the same?

When we were living in Italy and praised the olive oil from one region to an Italian living in another region, it was taken as a great insult. Quality of olive oil gets the same respect in Italy as quality of wine does in France. If you develop a taste for good olive oil, you'll never again buy the commercial brands you find sitting on grocery shelves for months and years. Whether they all have the same health benefits is a question I can't answer but they definitely don't have the same taste benefits.

Since returning from Italy, we've found that the oils that we used in Italy are too expensive but we've found some excellent ones from Turkey and Greece, and Spain. Color and age are a good marker. Always purchase extra virgin with a deep green color and never buy oils that have been sitting on the shelf for months. Specialty stores usually carry some good brands.

A good friend from Italy is a writer and tour guide in Assisi. Anne is originally from Wisconsin but married an Italian shortly after college and has been living in rural Umbria for close to thirty years. She gives cooking lessons in the U.S. every February and March. She has an article on the ritual of picking olives on her website: annesitaly, under section on Memories of Rural Life. You might enjoy reading it. She also has some excellent recipes posted on her site.

Going with the "probably can't hurt, might help" approach, using these oils makes some sense. But there's not any evidence that eating them can have the same effect on cancer cells as is seen in a lab, when they bathe a cancer cell in whatever substance is being studied. I agree with RB's cautions on this. Swallowing something is a LONG way from knowing that it's getting to a cancer cell in any significant (or diffferent) amount. Especially when we're talking of things that are already maintained by our body with multiple methods of control, and that can be formulated by our body from other substances.

But as long as it's relatively inexpensive and has little chance of causing harm, plus it gives us that illusion of control that we do love - why not?

Do you think that we'll ever have really good answers to all of the dietary questions? I wish that could happen, but I'm not very confident that it will. There are just so many complexities, and it's nearly impossible to do any kind of long-term dietary study because we do eat so many things that could be confounders to what's being looked at. Plus each body handles food ingredients differently - it's not just what is ingested but a very complex interplay of enzymes and organs regulating levels, again different in each body.

I think the only thing that we can say for sure is that it's prudent to avoid food that has been produced with pesticides, hormone supplements, and antibiotics. It's best to eat everything in moderation, and to limit simple carbs (diabetes issue, which affects many other issues). And exercise can make a big difference.

This is a little OT, but has anyone read "The Omnivore's Dilemma", by Michael Pollan? Fascinating, about many different aspects of what we eat. Not a "diet" book at all - no mandates nor agenda - just a very interesting and thought-provoking exploration. The sequel is out this month: "In Defense of Food" - I haven't read that one but am eager to do so. Hmm - Amazon says release date is January 2008, but I'm sure I've previously seen November 2007 as its release date.

Debbie Laxague

cooking temperature and oil
 

Jeez, I forgot to include the question that prompted my previous post. I thought that there had been a thread here in the past about the various oils and cooking temperature but I can't find it by searching "temperature cooking oil" (it bounces me back to this thread). Does anyone have a good source for information on that? Preferably not with actual temperatures, but with more practical information. I don't know how to measure the temperature of the oil I'm sauteing my onions and garlic in, for example. I do know that stir-frying with full heat is too hot for olive oil. But sauteing's okay, right? And are the benefits equal when it's used in cooking vs. uncooked, as on bread or salad?

We have pretty decanters of olive oil and Bragg's apple cider vinegar on our table and that's all we use for salads, which we have almost nightly. It surprises us that sometimes we have guests who have never heard of this kind of salad dressing.

Debbie Laxague

ER+ and Flax Seed Oil
 

I was told to go on Tamoxifen but decided to go on Flax Seed Oil instead. From all the research I did on Flax Seed, it naturally binds the Estrogen, which is what Tamoxifen is meant to do. Apparently, it is the Lignans in the Flax Seed that does it. Every time I found found something on Flax Seed Oil related to BC, I read good things. I now drink a TBS every evening of Barlean's Flax Seed Oil (Highest Lignan).

I take my TBS straight, since there really isn't an aftertaste. It's worth it.

Has anyone heard anything differently on this? I want to be kept up-to-date.

I have not looked into this in detail as I am a bit busy at the moment. Here are a few general thoughts.

Lawyers in grey suits and a quest for identity rather than cancer is my burden in a case to be heard before the Lord Chief Justice in the UK next week - so please wish me luck.

The trial looks like it used pure GLA, but I would have to check.

GLA is only about 10% of primrose oil. Much of the rest of primrose oil is Omega Six.

GLA is the first step up the conversion ladder from the mother Omega 6. (Sorry rushing I put Omega 3 last night which is plain wrong. I have not idea where that came from - my mind was on other things. RB)

GLA is either used to make more Omega six long chain fat (BAD) which makes the Omega 6 inflammatory chemicals

OR to fuel an alternate GLA based chemical cascade which is less aggressive than the primary Omega Six called the series 1 pathway.

So as usual it is not straight forward and not directly comparable to primrose oil. Borage and blackcurrant have higher GLA. Work out the amount of Omega six included and factor it into your intake balance.

IF the body is converting fats well, what is the improvement available from GLA is a question that needs asking.

IF a choice between Fish oil or GLA - fish oil every time

RB