It is superior to rice or grain in many ways:

• Flax provides a gentle, moist heat which promotes healing.   The pillow can be warmed in microwave (approx. 30 seconds depending on strength of microwave), placed in the freezer or used at room temperature.
• The weight of flax is gentle and comforting.
• Flax seeds are flower seeds, rather than grain. Thus they contain 30-40% oil which remains inside the seed to be warmed again and again.   Other products lose their ability to retain heat as the water cooks out of them over time.   
• Flax never has that “cooked grain” smell other grain based products have when heated over and over again.
• Flax eye pillows can also be chilled in the freezer to sooth fevers or slight inflammations on other parts of your body.