ch- ch- ch- chia!

Chia!  Does that make you think of those pets you could grow as a child, well not today, not after this!  Chia is a seed that has amazing health benefits and can go into many every day foods helping you to be healthier!   Chia is from a plant that is native to Guatemala and Mexico, but this little seed has more than culture.  Chia hasn’t gained much popularity other than from the nutrition community and natural health people, which can often make people skeptical, but chia does have benefits you can’t ignore. 

According to thedailygreen.com,

Four tablespoons of chia seeds supply as much calcium as three cups of milk, as much magnesium as 10 stalks of broccoli, as much iron as one-half cup of red kidney beans, 30% more antioxidants than blueberries, 25% more dietary fiber than flaxseed and approximately the same amount of omega-3 as a 32-ounce fillet of salmon. Instead of a typical hot breakfast cereal, try a chia breakfast pudding for a more nutritious start to your day! Read More Here!

That is an incredible amount of nutrition in such tiny seeds.  It isn’t surprising that chia is so good for you, when chia is mixed with water it has a super neat quality that allows it to form into a gel.  For those who don’t know dietary fibre is important for maintaining our digestive tract, it helps to go through and clean out toxins and adds bulk to our stoll which is critical for healthy guts!  The gel we see when we add chia to water is what makes it so good at going through our digestive system.  After dropping off all of the great nutritients such as omega-3 for our heart and cholesterol levels, iron for our oxygen carrying enzymes like our blood cells hemoglobin, antioxidants to help fight free radicals, calcium for our bones, and magnesium for our nervous system and blood pressure, the fibre in these mighty seeds grabs onto the bad stuff in our digestive tract and moves it out of the body which can help our cardio vascular system as well as keep us full and regular!

Chia can be incorporated into many dishes, add some to your oatmeal, if your smoothie to give it an extra health kick, make breads with chia as well as dishes based around chia such as the recipes found at Chia Co!

Good luck adding chia to your diet! It’s a tiny seed that packs a huge punch!