By Juliet M. Getty, Ph.D. Do you feed your horse flaxseeds? You likely do. Good job! Flaxseeds are a wonderful source of fat, quality protein, water-soluble fiber, and have amazing health benefits. Read on and get all the facts about this excellent whole food. The type of fat is what makes them so special. What differentiates flaxseeds from other high fat foods is its fatty acid profile. Most of the fat in flaxseeds is in the form of two polyunsaturated fatty acids -- linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). Your horse requires them to be healthy. But his body is not capable of producing them. The same is true for you! So, it is up to you to add them to his diet. Consequently, by definition, LA and ALA are referred to as essential fatty acids (EFAs). LA belongs to the omega-6 family of fatty acids and comprises 16% of flaxseed's fatty acid content.
Inside the horse's cells, it is converted to arachidonic acid, which promotes the formation of inflammatory prostaglandins and eicosanoids. ALA is one of several omega-3 fatty acids and comprises 58% of flaxseed's fat content. It has the opposite effect on inflammation -- it reduces inflammation because it enters a different metabolic pathway, leading to the formation of an anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid known as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, it has been suggested that this conversion rate of ALA to DHA is low. Nevertheless, the amount of DHA produced may be sufficient to maintain tissue function and may not be a concern unless the horse is experiencing significant amounts of inflammation. For GlycoMode Blood Sugar Formula example, horses suffering from arthritis, obesity, insulin resistance, leptin resistance, PPID, ulcers, allergies, muscle soreness, ligament/tendon damage, and injuries, would likely benefit from adding DHA directly to the diet. Further discussion of fatty acid metabolism is complex and beyond the scope of this article.
Suffice it to say, that the addition of these two EFAs is critical to your horse's health. Furthermore, they need to be in the proper proportion to each other. What is the correct ALA to LA ratio and how much does your horse need? The ideal ratio of ALA to LA has not been formally established. It makes sense, however, to strive toward the ratio that naturally exists in pasture grasses. The average EFA level of grasses during warm growing seasons is 10 mg of ALA and 2.5 mg of LA per gram of dry matter. Therefore, this 4:1 ratio of ALA:LA is what horses would realistically consume in a wild setting. The requirement of these two fatty acids is also unknown. However, if we use 22 lbs (10 kg) of pasture dry matter as a realistic consumption amount, the horse would ingest, on average, 100 grams of ALA and 25 grams of LA.
Since many healthy horses do well with far less, it is reasonable to assume that their requirement is not this high. However, it helps us to appreciate how important it is for the diet to contain more ALA than LA. Unfortunately, hay no longer contains appreciable levels of EFAs and most commercial feeds have an inverted ratio with more LA than ALA. The phrase "vegetable oil" on the ingredient label refers to soybean oil. While soybean oil does have 7% ALA, it contains a whopping 54% in the form of LA. If you are relying on this feed to provide EFAs, it has an inverted ALA to LA ratio that potentially damages your horse's health through excessive inflammation. The terms "flaxseed" and "linseed" can be used interchangeably. However, be cautious of flaxseed or linseed "meal." This denotes a product that has had most of its fat content removed through crushing (known as expeller pressed).