Issues in Contemporary Agriculture: Pharmaceuticals

In the News

Flaxseed Food Deliveries Underway in Winnipeg

Agri-Food Research & Development Initiative News Release, October 28, 2008

Food deliveries have begun in a $1.5 million clinical trial studying the influence of a flaxseed-enriched diet on patients with cardiovascular disease.

The Agri-Food Research and Development Initiative (ARDI) and the Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine (CCARM) this week unveiled the brightly-coloured van that for the next two years will deliver frozen food products to the homes of study participants.

ARDI is investing more than $92,000 dollars in the massive study, involving 250 patients living in Winnipeg and the surrounding area.

Led by Drs. Grant Pierce and Randy Guzman at the Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine, this trial will generate the first test of flaxseed as a potent protective nutritional agent for the heart.

Study participants will be eating food products containing flax every day for the entire length of the two-year study. Participants can choose from different flavours of flax bagels, flax muffins, flax buns, flax bars, and flaxseed-containing pasta. ARDI funds supported the development of this new pasta and will cover the costs of bringing all of these food products directly to the participants' doorsteps.

"It would be impossible to deliver fresh-baked products that contain flaxseed to each of the 250 patients every day," says Dr. Pierce. "The ARDI grant will allow the products to be delivered in frozen form once a month. We expect the van to be on the road three to four days a week for the next two years."

The study is a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study, meaning that one group will be consuming foods containing flaxseed, while the other group will be eating the same foods without flaxseed. Testing will take place at St. Boniface General Hospital every six months.

The research team hypothesizes that the volunteers consuming flaxseed will suffer from fewer heart health problems, such as stroke, heart attacks, angina (chest pain) and arrhythmias (irregular heart beat). They also hypothesize that people consuming flaxseed will have better stamina in exercise than the control group.

"Agriculture can be a solution provider for health," said ARDI Chair David Gislason. "If easily obtainable flaxseed is shown to bring significant health benefits to people with coronary artery disease, the outcome of this study will be felt around the world."

Gislason said the results of the clinical trial could provide a boost to flax growers and processors. "We could even see some of the functional food products created for this study being commercialized," he said. "This would stimulate the business activities of the commercial partners involved in this study, as well as the flax industry as a whole."

Other businesses or organizations providing financial or product support to this project include Canada Bread, the Canadian International Grains Institute, Flax Canada 2015, the Flax Council of Canada, the Food Development Centre, Pizzey's Nutritionals, and the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre.

ARDI is a research and development granting program of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives.