Chia Seeds

BrenWOW

I just started chia seeds a couple weeks ago and I noticed a difference, not in keeping me full, but the energy and lower blood pressure. Anyone else use them and where do you buy them? I found these on Puritan's Pride but I bought a small bag because I didn't know if I would like them, but maybe there are places to buy in bulk. Thanks. And what do you put them in? I CANNOT drink them, ( texture is blehhh)but I put them in food. It's ok to cook them, right?

halleymw

I just bought some off Amazon. Here is a link to some ways to use them:

http://www.chiaseedrecipes.com/40-ways-to-use-chia-seeds.php

They are just seeds, so you can cook them.
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Mike

Firefox7275

Don't overcook, you can destroy the polyunsaturated fatty acids.

AZChatterB

Thanks for the link, Mike! I, too, just bought chia seeds, and this site gave me great, usable ideas. :flowerforyou:

kathyms13

Many people in the UK won't have heard of the chia seed, but if regulators give their backing this US superfood craze could be on the way.

Goji berries, kombucha, wheatgrass, acai berries. It seems rarely a year passes without at least one new health-food frenzy.

Everything from handfuls of strange seeds to bacteria-infested yoghurts to espresso-style shots of odd-tasting green juices are touted as a shortcut to wellbeing.

Chia will soon be joining the list. So what exactly is it?

Chia, or Salvia hispanica L, is a member of the mint family from Mexico and South America. The flowering plant can sprout in a matter of days, but chia's appeal is in the nutritional punch of its tiny seeds.

With more omega-3 fatty acids than salmon, a wealth of antioxidants and minerals, a complete source of protein and more fibre than flax seed, the seeds have been dubbed a "dieter's dream", "the running food", "a miracle", and "the ultimate super food", by advocates and athletes.
Continue reading the main story
What's in 100g of chia?

Protein: 20.7g
Fat: 32.8g
Carbohydrate: 41.8g
(of which fibre is 41.2g)
Calcium: 714mg
Iron: 16.4mg
Niacin (B3): 613mg
Thiamine (B1): 0.18mg
Riboflavin (B2): 0.04mg

Source: Nutritional Science Research Institute

To some the seeds taste utterly bland, but to others there is a slight nutty flavour. It also can seem expensive compared with other seeds and nuts.

In the UK, the seeds are only currently allowed for sale as a bread ingredient, but over the next few weeks, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes is poised to allow chia seeds in a wide variety of products including baked goods, breakfast cereals and nut and seed mixes.

Elsewhere in the world, chia-seed products have been springing up over the past few years. In 2011, 72 new chia products hit the market and 28 new chia foods are already out this year, according to research group Mintel. Compare that with only seven new chia products for all of 2006 and you get a sense of its growing popularity.

The US is particularly infatuated with the seed, introducing 21 new chia items in 2011 and 13 in 2012. It's in sweets, snack foods, seasonings, yogurt and even baby food.

To chia cheerleaders the seeds do no wrong. They claim chia reduces inflammation, improves heart health, and stabilises blood sugar levels. A few tablespoons are touted as remedying just about anything - without any ill effects

kathyms13

So is this new superfood all it's cracked up to be?

"In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach and human growth hormone," writes Christopher McDougall in Born to Run, the bestselling book about an ultra-distance running tribe in Mexico who fuel their epic jaunts with the seeds. The book is credited with shining the spotlight on chia as food for athletes.

"If you had to pick just one desert-island food, you couldn't do much better than chia, at least if you were interested in building muscle, lowering cholesterol, and reducing your risk of heart disease; after a few months on the chia diet, you could probably swim home," McDougall adds.

Wayne Coates, co-author of Chia: Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs, agrees. The University of Arizona professor started experimenting with the seeds in South America more than 20 years ago as part of a project to identify alternative crops for farmers in Argentina. He then started cultivating the seeds commercially.
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"I hate to call it a miracle food because there are too many miracles that turn out not to be, but it almost is. Literally, you could live on this stuff because it's pretty much everything you need," Coates says.

Elisabeth Weichselbaum of the British Nutrition Foundation admits she had not heard of chia, but she says the foundation doesn't buy into the idea of a single superfood.

"It is true that some foods are higher in vitamins and minerals, but no single food provides us with everything we need. So the best way to be healthy is to eat a variety of foods," she says.

As an avid runner, Coates relies on the seeds to power his way through 50 and 100-mile races.

"I actually carry it in a film canister on my runs, I down a half a canister and wash it down with water."

Jeffrey Walters of the chia producer Omega 3 Chia is also a firm believer. He says the company has received inquiries from the United Nations World Food Programme to bump up the nutrient content of their rice dole.
Continue reading the main story
How chia is eaten
Bread contains chia

Mixed in couscous
Added to bread or muffin mix
Sprinkled over salad
Chia gel - seeds are soaked in water to form a gel-like substance added to jelly, jam, yoghurt or salad dressing
Agua fresca de chia - seeds are stirred with water, lime juice and sugar to make a cold drink

Source: AZChia

Walters says he has also been contacted by schools looking to sneak nutritional value into canteen fare and doomsdayers searching for a nutrient-dense food to stockpile in the event of a catastrophe.

David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Labs at Appalachian State University, has analysed the nutritional content of chia and its impact on health in a series of studies. Nieman says the seeds "as a nutritional package are wonderful", but they're no "magic pill".

"If you grind it up and sprinkle it on cereal and put it in yogurt, or put it in juice then you are giving yourself a nutritional boost. You're definitely adding to your mineral, fibre, protein, and omega-3 intake, but will it magically cure disease or take away risk factors? It's almost like a cult following for some of these chia people, they claim everything under the sun.

"But after 10 to 12 weeks we don't see anything happening to disease risk factors in free-living people."

Walters says business has doubled each year for the past four years.

In the UK, chia is permitted in bread products at concentrations up to 5%, according to the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes.
Chia pet of Barack Obama "Chia pets" are used as decorative items

But that's set to change. The ACNFP recently released a largely positive draft opinion on the expanded use of chia seeds in other foodstuffs.

Walters has already seen a drive toward the UK market. One of his clients requested a huge quantity of chia for UK products for 2013.

Health food chain Holland & Barrett already offers whole and milled chia seeds online, ostensibly as a bread ingredient.

"Interest in chia has been building for the last two years, but it is only in the last six months that the product has been readily available in the UK," according to Holland & Barrett's nuts and seeds manager Douglas Thompson.

Although the hype may be new in the UK, the seeds have been around for hundreds of years. The Aztecs relied on chia as a staple food and revered it enough to use for religious ceremonies and medicinal purposes, according to Coates.

"It disappeared for 500 years and the only place you could find it is in a few little villages in Mexico and Guatemala," Coates says.

But even before Coates and his team picked up on the seeds, chia had something of a cult following in the US.
Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens American footballer Ray Rice is one of the athletes advocating chia

Until recently, most Americans would recognise it as the cheesy Christmas gift of choice circa 1990. Chia Pets, terracotta figurines which sprout chia in place of hair, grow from the same seeds.

As with any other "miracle food", it's important not to see chia as a panacea, says Dr Catherine Ulbricht, founder of the Natural Standard Research Collaboration.

"People think with natural therapies that they can take as much as they want because it's natural, but they do have potential side effects just like any therapy," she says.

"Anything that can have an action in your body can also have a reaction. Nothing is 100% spot-on all benefit."

0palfire

I buy ground chia from Holland & Barrett, it's pretty expensive but I sprinkle a teaspoon in my porridge or greek yogurt and I think it'sgreat :-)

fightininggirl

I tried some but I didn't like them.

underwater77

i just put them in my oatmeal and my protein pancakes. but i haven't noticed a difference in taste or benefits.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

I ate my chia pet. Does that count?

chicco57

You can also buy them from Amazon which are slightly cheaper than Holand and Barrett, hope that helps

etoiles_argentees

sigh.....

Chia seed does not promote weight loss or alter disease risk factors in overweight adults.
Nieman DC, Cayea EJ, Austin MD, Henson DA, McAnulty SR, Jin F.

Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of chia seed (Salvia hispanica L) in promoting weight loss and altering disease risk factors in overweight adults. The hypothesis was that the high dietary fiber and alpha-linolenic (ALA) contents of chia seed would induce a small but significant decrease in body weight and fat and improve disease risk factors. Subjects were randomized to chia seed (CS) and placebo (P) groups, and under single-blinded procedures, ingested 25 g CS or P supplements mixed in 0.25 L water twice daily before the first and last meal for 12 weeks. Ninety nondiseased, overweight/obese men and women between the ages of 20 and 70 years were recruited into the study, with 76 subjects (n = 39 CS, n = 37 P) completing all phases of the study. Pre- and poststudy measures included body mass and composition (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry), inflammation markers from fasting blood samples (C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1, and tumor necrosis factor alpha), oxidative stress markers (trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity and plasma nitrite), blood pressure, and a serum lipid profile. Plasma ALA increased 24.4% compared to a 2.8% decrease in CS and P, respectively (interaction effect, P = .012). No group differences were measured for changes in plasma eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (interaction effects, P = .420 and .980, respectively). Pre-to-post measures of body composition, inflammation, oxidative stress, blood pressure, and lipoproteins did not differ between CS and P for both sexes. In conclusion, ingestion of 50 g/d CS vs P for 12 weeks by overweight/obese men and women had no influence on body mass or composition, or various disease risk factor measures.

Chia seed supplementation and disease risk factors in overweight women: a metabolomics investigation.
Nieman DC, Gillitt N, Jin F, Henson DA, Kennerly K, Shanely RA, Ore B, Su M, Schwartz S.
Source
Human Performance Laboratory, Appalachian State University, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, NC, USA. niemandc@appstate.edu
Abstract
OBJECTIVE/SETTING: This study assessed the effectiveness of milled and whole chia seed in altering disease risk factors in overweight, postmenopausal women using a metabolomics approach.
DESIGN/INTERVENTION:
Subjects were randomized to chia seed (whole or milled) and placebo (poppy seed) groups, and under double-blinded procedures ingested 25 g chia seed or placebo supplements each day for 10 weeks.
SUBJECTS:
Subjects included 62 overweight (body-mass index 25 kg/m(2) and higher), nondiseased, nonsmoking, postmenopausal women, ages 49-75 years, with analysis based on the 56 subjects who completed all phases of the study.
OUTCOME MEASURES:
Pre- and poststudy measures included body mass and composition, blood pressure and augmentation index, serum lipid profile, inflammation markers from fasting blood samples, plasma fatty acids, and metabolic profiling using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with multivariate statistical methods including principal component analysis and partial least-square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA).
RESULTS:
Plasma α-linolenic acid (N=ALA) increased 58% (interaction effect, p=0.002) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) 39% (p=0.016) in the milled chia seed group (N=14) compared to nonsignificant changes in the whole chia seed (N=16) and placebo (N=26) groups. Pre-to-post measures of body composition, inflammation, blood pressure, augmentation index, and lipoproteins did not differ between chia seed (whole or milled) and placebo groups (all interaction effects, p>0.05). Global metabolic difference scores for each group calculated through PLS-DA models were nonsignificant (Q(2)Y<0.40), and fold-changes for 28 targeted metabolites associated with inflammation and disease risk factors did not differ between groups.
CONCLUSIONS:
Ingestion of 25 g/day milled chia seed compared to whole chia seed or placebo for 10 weeks by overweight women increased plasma ALA and EPA, but had no influence on inflammation or disease risk factors using both traditional and metabolomics-based measures.

goldfinger88

I love chia seeds. You can make a chia fresca by putting some water in a glass and adding the seeds and some stevia. Squeeze some lime and add ice and mix. It is exceptional! I buy NOW brand, organic, from Dr. Vita. But I'm sure you can get them in bulk. I think Amazon has them in bulk. Just make sure you buy from a good company because some seeds have grass seeds mixed in them and that makes them less effective.

I agree with you that they lower blood pressure. I take BP med and have to be careful not to use too many of them (fish oil too for that matter) or my BP gets a bit low. I'm going to see my doctor next month and hopefully get off the meds.

Oh, there are a couple excellent books on Chia on Amazon. You might want to buy one or two. And, chia seeds expand in your stomach, giving you a full feeling. Thus, you tend to eat less.

BrenWOW

I ate my chia pet. Does that count?

LOL!!!

Sabine_Stroehm

I buy them in bulk at the organic type store. Love em. I put them in yogurt, oatmeal, and on toast with peanut butter. (and on salads....)

I eat them for the fiber and the crunch. :-)

mendyh5

I use chia seeds in these refrigerator oatmeal recipes - oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, etc. - they are yummy.

http://www.theyummylife.com/Refrigerator_Oatmeal