Flax Useless?!

Charles Poliquin just stated in the latest Question of Strength article that:

“Plus, I just found that flax oil never really worked.”

Does it have to do with most people’s inability to elongate ALA into DHA and EPA? (note: Flax, and vegetable sources of omega 3, contain mostly alpha-linolenic acid)

But what about the effects of ALA itself?

Did you read the whole article?

Yes I did buddy.

But this is about the fatty acid benefits of flax, not the fiber.

There’s a partial answer to your question.

Charles kind of “Tarantino’ed” his answer there, giving the reasons for his opinion before the opinion itself.

John Berardi also wrote about limiting flax oil intake in a Cool Tip on 11/29/06"

[quote]CP wrote:
I’ve never been a fan of flax seed oil because if you’re obese anyway, you don’t have the enzymes to elongate the molecule to turn it into the omega-3s. So what’s the point of using it?[/quote]

I would be interested in seeing the science behind this. I’ve never heard anyone else make this claim. While it is true that many people convert ALA to DHA/EPA poorly I’ve always thought that it was a weight-independent genetic reason - they simply don’t possess the genes that code for the necessary enzyme(s).