I had some cereal for breakfast and decided to add two tablespoons of the raw flax seeds that I bought in it, and while I'm eating it I decide to look up the nutritional benefits for flax seeds (thinking I'm doing something good for myself). Well, I find all these websites saying that they're poisonous, because they contain something called thio-cyanate which is a cyanide-like compound. So that really has me freaked out. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Found this info
do not eat more than three or four tablespoons of raw flax seeds a day (we think one or two is plenty.) They contain cyanogen which is harmless in small amounts, but in large amounts could act to keep your thyroid from taking up enough iodine. Cyanogen is rendered inactive by cooking (2). Add some flax seeds to your healthy diet that is full of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains and other seeds. Don't go overboard and eat them by the cupful! That applies to all foods -- don't eat huge amounts of any single food, no matter how beneficial it's supposed to be. A healthful diet is a varied diet.

Thanks. I think I more ate one and a half or less, because I tossed the rest that were in my cereal bowl after reading about it. They were raw and whole. Hopefully I'll be alright. I'm such a hypochondriac.

If they were whole flax seeds, you probably have nothing at all to be worried about, because whole flax seeds aren't really digested at all (they pass right through your digestive tract, intact and whole).

You need to grind or crush flax seeds for them to be of any benefit (or likewise, to be of any harm, I would think).

Thanks. I'm still here, so I guess that's a good sign. lol.

I ate flax seeds (ground up) for about a year. I didn't die!

I was eating anywhere between 1 tablespoon to 2 tablespoons of it.

I don't think I could eat a whole cup of it.