Too Hot to Handle
There is nothing better on a cold winter’s day than sinking into a plush couch with a good book, a hot cup of tea and a pleasantly warm heat pack wreathed around my shoulders. But alas, after a bout of over-ambitious microwaving, my heat pack is no more! It’s contents became too hot, melted the fabric pack and then poured out all over the microwave’s interior. And which synthetic bead or crushed mineral was responsible for this almost-house-fire? None. The culprit was flaxseed.
As it turns out, flaxseed is a common filler for microwavable heating packs. Flaxseed or linseed is one of the world’s most ancient crops. The Latin name for flaxseed, Linum usitatissimum, means “very useful.” Every part of the plant can be used. The stems are made into fibers for clothing (linen) or paper and the seeds can be used as animal feed or crushed for oil.
The seeds of flaxseeds are rich in oils and one of the world’s best plant source of ω-3 fatty acids, which promote heart health. The oil is best eaten raw and rarely used in cooking because of its low smoke point. This means that flaxseed oil heats up quickly and at relatively low temperatures can lose its nutritional content, develop a foul taste and potentially produce carcinogens. While not the best cooking oil, it does make flax seeds perfect for a microwavable heating pack. In the microwave, the oils in the seeds are excited and radiate shoulder-soothing heat.
What a useful plant indeed . . . as long as you watch your microwaving times . . .
Brian Rutter, PhD, is the cofounder of Thing in a Pot Productions and a postdoctoral researcher in plant biology at Indiana University. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our “Things About Things – Odd Facts About Plants” and video production tips in your inbox every month!
Works Cited:
Burke, T. (2019). Flaxseed Oil 101: Everything you need to know about cooking. Saveur, https://www.saveur.com/how-to-cook-with-flaxseed-oil/
Goyal, A., Sharma, V., Upadhyay, N., Gill, S., & Sihag, M. (2014). Flax and flaxseed oil: an ancient medicine & modern functional food. Journal of food science and technology, 51(9), 1633-1653.