Orwell and flaxseed

I'm reading Why I Write by George Orwell. I like this bit:

(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.

Yesterday morning, I stared at the drinks menu at the Protein Shake Smoothie Bar in the Kings Cross Centre after the gym. I ended up choosing the one that mentioned "woman" and "slimming". How predictable. I noted however, that it had flaxseed oil in it.

What on earth is flaxseed oil and why add it to my smoothie? Click on that hyperlink if you want the WHOLE list but in short, it's going to help everything. The list is really, really long. I'm very impressed. I think I'm going to go out and buy myself some flaxseed or flaxseed oil.