Everything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Chia Seeds

This is the tiny little seed that can have a totally profound effect on your health! The Chia seed is jam-packed full of goodness and has been revered for its health benefits since the times of the Incas and the Aztecs around 3500BC. Chia seed nutrition can definitely help you future proof your body.

# Fact checked and verified 31 August 2022

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Table of Contents

So what makes the Chia seed so special?

Where do Chia seeds come from?

Do Chia Seeds have health benefits?

So what makes the Chia seed so special?

Let's have an in depth look at this little miracle of nature. The Chia seed has been around since time immemorial, revered by ancient races who knew of its power and ability to help the human body. The Chia stems from the days of the Incas and the Mayans, those great early civilizations and so it's been around and cultivated for longer than almost any other plant.

So, why have so many of us never really heard of this little marvel? Well - probably because of the late 20th century predilection for fat-laden, highly calorific, highly processed foods. Foods that are full of fat, sugar and carbohydrate - foods that satisfy sugar and salt cravings, but give you a quick fix, whilst also being detrimental to our health!

Foods that are actually good for our health have somehow been forgotten. They have been lost by modern society and forgotten from recipes. The Chia, in particular, fared worse than most and started to become a forgotten crop almost 300 years ago.

Science now tells us that 20th century high fat, high salt, highly processed foods that are full of preservatives have been instrumental in driving obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, amongst many other illnesses and diseases that are now commonplace. The lowly Chia is the antithesis to this, 100% natural and 100% good for you! It has become extremely popular in the health food sector and with healthy lifestyle advocates and rightly so.

Where do Chia seeds come from?

Chia seeds come from a plant in the ‘Mint’ family, officially called by its Latin name Salvia Hispanica. It is a flowering plant that can grow to roughly 6 feet tall and is native to Central America, though particularly Guatemala and Mexico. The seeds are farmed commercially across the entirety of South America, but due to their increasing popularity are now grown in many other areas in North and Central America. The plant is very robust once established and easy to propagate and grow. The seeds themselves come from inside the flower heads and are harvested as soon as the petals have fallen from the flower.

The seed is simply grown where it is eaten most and where it is valued most.

Chia is an age-old medicine revered by ancient civilizations. The name “Chia” is an ancient Mayan word for "strength", but its roots can also be traced back to the Aztec civilization too.

Legend has it that Aztec warriors used Chia seeds to boost their energy and resilience, making them undefeatable in battle… Some say that in “Nahuatl”, an ancient Aztec language, the word Chia might mean “oily”. Chia seeds are in fact hygroscopic, absorbing up to 12 times their weight in liquid when soaked and they then develop a creamy coating which, in turn, creates a distinctive oily gel-like texture.

In fact, these tales may not be all hokum, since a study published in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning” found that in workouts lasting for more than 1.5 hours, consumption of chia seeds enhanced exercise performance. Well, one and a half hours is quite a long time, to say the least, but whether those Aztec tales are true or not, let’s have a closer look at the seeds themselves.

Do Chia Seeds have health benefits?

Lets have a look at the science behind the see.

So - what can these tiny little seeds do for you? That’s the big question.

The answer: well they are one of nature’s little miracles, with so much to offer in such a tiny package. They've been used to help people with various conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome and many other conditions of the bowel, but they provide an array of other benefits for the human body.

They are jam-packed full of fiber. In fact, 1 ounce of chia seeds contains as much as 39% of the daily recommended allowance of fiber.

“In terms of nutritional content, a tablespoon of chia is like a smoothie made from salmon, spinach, and human growth hormone. As tiny as those seeds are, they’re superpacked with Omega-3s, protein, calcium, iron, zinc, fiber and antioxidants.”

― Van Zandt, Monica, Chia Seed Superfood: How to Use Chia Seeds for Weight Loss, Raw Dieting, and Overall Health

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What makes them so great?

Well - these little seeds are so powerful that they possess anti-cancer compounds, they can help with the management of diabetes, they can promote heart health and they can effectively support the immune system.

How do they do this? Well, these seeds are rich in polyunsaturated fats, particularly Omega-3 fatty acids, which assist in reducing inflammation in the human body, but they also contain other bioactive compounds. Chia seeds are a source of antioxidants, such as quercetin and kaempferol, chlorogenic and caffeic acids. These antioxidants have various different medicinal properties, but particularly they seem to act against inflammation. They also have a positive effect on diabetes and can help reduce cardiovascular disease and hypertension.

Well, enough of what science now knows is the truth about the benefits of Chia. Let’s have a little look at the history of the plant.

Well, enough of what science now knows is the truth about the benefits of Chia. Let’s have a little look at the history of the plant. Chia is, in fact, an age-old medicine revered by ancient civilizations. The name “Chia” is an ancient Mayan word for "strength" but its roots can also be traced back to the Aztec civilization too. Some say that in “Nahuatl”, an ancient Aztec language, the word Chia might mean “oily”. Flowing from this belief as to the origin of the word, legend has it that Aztec warriors used Chia seeds to boost their energy and resilience, making them undefeatable in battle… In fact, these tales may not be all hokum since a study published in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning” found that in workouts lasting for more than 1.5 hours, consumption of chia seeds enhanced exercise performance. Well, one and a half hours is quite a long time, to say the least, but whether those Aztec tales are true or not, let’s have a closer look at the seeds themselves.

Once the seeds find their way to your homestead - what should you do with them? One of my personal favorites is simply to sprinkle them into Greek yogurt with some fruit and nuts, to make a simple and super quick superfood breakfast, but the little seeds can be used in so many other ways, for example, they can be dropped into almost any smoothie and consumed easily for the many benefits which they provide. They go well in overnight oats and countless other recipes.