Are Chia Seeds A Superfood?

Chia seeds: Superfood, or super-fad? What’s in them, and are they really worth trying?

In the recent years, Chia seeds, or salvia hispanica, have been touted as a new “superfood”.

While this term gets thrown around a lot, perhaps the term is of some merit when speaking about Chia seeds.

Let’s get down into the nitty-gritty details here, and see what Chia seeds are really made of.

Nutritional Content of Chia Seeds

Now, what nutritional merits do Chia seeds have to warrant this label? Well, let’s break down the nutritional content.
In one ounce, Chia seeds have:

137 calories

12 grams of carbs

4 grams of protein

9 grams of fat

Vitamin A, B, D, E

20% of your daily value in calcium

Among many other essential vitamins and minerals. Perhaps there is something to this reputation after all.

Let’s take a look at some of the possible benefits and results associated with consumption of Chia seeds.

Benefits of Chia Seeds

First of all, one of the most obvious benefits is to digestive health.

With ten grams of fiber, it’s very easy to see why these seeds might be beneficial to the regulation of your digestive tract.

Chia seeds are also well known to promote heart health, by lowering cholesterol, and ensuring regulation of blood pressure.

As well, they contain Omega-3 fatty acids, which helps to reduce cardiovascular inflammation.

This reduction of inflammation serves to reduce the strain put on your blood vessels, and lower your risk of heart disease.

Chia seeds have long been purported as a good source of energy, since the days of the Aztecs.

Compact and full of nutrients, it’s no wonder that these seeds were so highly revered.

Studies show that Chia seeds are prone to raising your metabolism, letting you burn fat faster, and giving you energy throughout the day.

A good suggestion is using a handful of Chia seeds, or a chia tea, to replace a sugary energy drink that you might otherwise consume.

It’s natural, longer lasting, and better for you too!

Long Term Health Benefits of Chia Seeds

Chia seeds don’t just have an immediate effect, they do have some preventive effects as well.

They’re high in what’s known as “alpha lipoic acid”, or ALA for short.

Researchers have discovered that ALA can help limit the growth of cancerous cells, helping to prevent the onset of cancer altogether, or halt the growth of existing cancerous sites.

While more research needs to be done on the subject, scientists have correlated it with the limiting of growth in both cervical, as well as breast cancer.

Another long-term benefit of chia seeds is an improvement in dental health.

The zinc in chia seeds help to suppress bad breath, which is caused by bacteria in your mouth.

As well, this resistance against bacteria can be extended to a prevention of tooth decay.

It’ll make it difficult for bacteria to grow and take root in your mouth, being an overall boon for your oral health.

One little known fact regarding Chia seeds, is that they’ve been shown to help the treatment of diabetes.

Chia seeds can assist in the treatment of insulin resistance. As well, they can help prevent the onset of insulin resistance.

In a study at the University of Litoral in Argentina, rats were shown to be much more resilient to the onset of insulin resistance, if chia seeds featured prominently in their diet.

More research needs to be done regarding this with humans, but this is nonetheless a strong indicator that chia seeds will help fortify your insulin recovery.

Side effects of Chia Seeds

As with any fiber rich food, there is the risk for your stomach being upset, should you consume a large quantity of chia seeds.

As such, in order to reduce this, be sure to drink plenty of water.

This will provide a more smooth digestion process to them, and overall settle your stomach.

Best ways to eat Chia Seeds

At first, chia seeds might seem a bit abrasive, not having much in the way of solid substance to them.

Sure, you can eat them raw, but that’s no fun. Eating them raw makes them a bit harder to digest, but it is admittedly easier.

If you’re on the go, or don’t have time to otherwise process them, feel free to eat them raw. There won’t be any ill effects.

However, should you wish to soak them, here’s the process. It’s very simple.

Just mix the chia seeds in an about one to ten ratio of chia seeds to water, it doesn’t have to be too precise.

So for an ounce of chia seeds, about ten ounces of water, and so on.

Chia seeds are actually incredibly absorbent, and are reported to be able to hold ten times their weight in water.

Chia Seed Flour

Another interesting way to process chia seeds, is to grind them into a flour.

You don’t need a special flour grinder, in fact even a coffee grinder will work when trying to make this.

Plenty of interesting recipes can be made using this. Chia seeds bread, chia seed pancakes, the possibilities are limitless.

You can even mix them in your protein shake to get a quick boost of energy before your workout, as the ground chia seeds mix incredibly easy with water.

The final verdict on Chia Seeds

So, chia seeds, a superfood or just another fad food? I’m inclined to think that they are in fact a superfood.

Besides the fact they’re just nutritionally dense overall, they provide an astonishing amount of health benefits.

Sure you can just look at how many carbs, fats, and grams of protein are in it, but I think that the benefits of this food start to really shine when you examine the vitamin and mineral content that’s found within.

For such a small food, the health benefits are incredibly potent. Ranging from not only preventative, but active curative benefits as well.

With such a wide variety of ways to consume this food, I think you would be missing out on a great experience, especially for the typical cost of chia seeds.

At the very least, pick up a bag of it and try it out. You never know, you might just like it.

If you like chia seeds and other powerful natural superfoods as part of your everyday’s diet, you can get the nutrients from these superfoods from Energize Max.

Go to the next page and & learn more about 6 group of superfoods that your body requires. –

 

btnNext

 

About the Author:

Emma Deangela is the best selling author of The Alkaline Diet Program and 80/20 Fat Loss. She has helped over tens of thousands of men and women to lose weight and transform their health with sound nutrition advice. Learn how you can lose weight fast – How to lose weight by adding these alkaline foods.

Have you tried Chia Seeds? What is your experience with chia seeds? Share with us below!

Please share with your friends this article on Chia seeds – Use any of the social media and email buttons on the left of our website.


Posted

in

by

Comments

14 responses to “Are Chia Seeds A Superfood?”

  1. Eileen Witham Avatar
    Eileen Witham

    I love to put them in my oatmeal when making it for breakfast.

  2. Barb Avatar
    Barb

    My sister, DENISE, served chia seeds in ice cold milk( whatever kind you like) and vanilla. She had this ready in aMason jar in refrigerator. I usually have for mid morning snack. Gives me energy. I feel great in so many ways.

  3. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    Chia seeds must be ground for the body to best absorb the nutrients, and some recommend two tbsp a day for weight loss. Some even purport the benefit of helping with pain reduction in the higher quantities of two tbsp or more a day. Lots of water is good. Some even say not all brands are made equal, and I am likely to agree. Soil of different regions where they are grown are different and I prefer organic only. With two tbsp of ground chia seeds a day, I did have more energy and a little less pain after a couple of weeks, but this could also be subjective. Either way, like Emma says, and I agree, the health benefits outweigh anything else.

  4. Leah Balise Avatar
    Leah Balise

    I have been following an alkaline diet to help heal eczema and have been avoiding all seeds as part of the diet. Are chia seeds strongly acidifying and high in salicylates like other seeds?

  5. Judith demarc Avatar
    Judith demarc

    Is chia tea just as good as chia seeds? Are benefits the same?

  6. Carmen Montufar Avatar
    Carmen Montufar

    I love chia seeds, I put them in my shakes.

    1. Veronica Avatar
      Veronica

      Love the idea, sounds amazing!

  7. Anneliese Avatar
    Anneliese

    I put chia seeds regularly into my morning smoothies. Sometimes I add them also to my oatmeal if I have them for breakfast.

    1. Veronica Avatar
      Veronica

      Good for you! It’s a great way to start the day.

  8. LUCY JAIMES Avatar
    LUCY JAIMES

    YES, EMMA HOW WOULD COMPARE CHIA FLAVOR TO OTHER FLAVORS SIMILAR TO ITS TASTE? ALSO I AM CURIOUS ABOUT IT, BUT UNCERTAIN HOW TO USE IT IN MY FOODS, IS IT MORE FAVORABLE FOR CERTAIN MEALS? I THANK YOU!?????

  9. Evelyn burley Avatar
    Evelyn burley

    Evelyn burley had big problems with chia seeds and high blood pressure:::

    1. Evelyn burley Avatar
      Evelyn burley

      I read eating chia seeds can interfere with BP med’s ..is this true? I ate them in soup and my BP went sky high..

  10. Katie Guiltner Avatar
    Katie Guiltner

    I love chia seeds but unfortunately my husband can’t eat them! Both times that he tried he had an extremely painful erection that lasted half the day! He looked it up and found that this can also be one negative side affect of eating Chia seeds!

  11. Donna Wilkinson Avatar
    Donna Wilkinson

    I mix 1/3 cup Chia Seeds with 1 1/2 cups any kind of milk (I use Almond Milk or Lactose Free Milk) and stir together a few times while chilling in the refrigerator. Very good pudding with only 2 ingredients! I have also added Chocolate Syrup (with only 5 natural ingredients). Love anything Chocolate. I have
    tried spices but they do not mix in well.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *