Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia

Best known as the seed you’d use with a clay shaped pet to grow a green fuzzy creature, the Chia seed (naturally gluten and grain free btw) is actually much MUCH more than that.

I was spooning in some chia seeds in my oatmeal per usual this morning when I thought, what a great idea for a blog post given that they are AMAZING. The first and foremost benefit from these teeny tiny seeds is the amount of dietary fibre. Ladies should be seeking around 25-30 g of fibre daily…ONE ounce of chia seeds boast 11 g of fibre. Insane! If your between 20-59 years old, hitting that quota of daily fibre will significantly reduce your risk of developing some cancers and heart disease.

If your eating them straight up in oatmeal or cereal, the trick is to let them soak in for a few minutes. What happens is that they form a gelatinous coating which helps slow down the digestion of your food, thus maintaining steady energy levels by decreasing blood sugar spikes. Overall…what would slower digestion do? That’s right…makes you feel fuller for longer and slashes overeating.

The next best thing about chia seeds is their Omega 3 fat content. Remember that 1 ounce serving mentioned above? They contain almost 5g of Omega-3′s.

When purchasing Chia seeds bear in mind that you want them fresh so don’t buy a huge bulk amount. Also, there doesn’t seem to be any difference (aside from colour) between black and white seeds. I would probably suggest white if your sneaking them into kids meals, but I usually get black. They do not need to be grinded for nutrient absorption like a flax seed (yay, low maintenance).

How to use them:
You can incorporate them into just about ANYTHING! To list a few ideas, here’s where I most commonly use them:

- Yogurt
- Protein Smoothies
- Oatmeal or any breakfast cereal
- Granola and Homemade Granola Bars
- Fruit salad
- In my cottage cheese
- In the bread crumb batter when I make Schnitzel or Chicken Parm
- As a breadcrumb substitute in meatballs

As with most things, get creative and toss them into anything you can think of. They have a very subtle flavour that won’t tamper with the taste of whatever you’re having.

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Chat soon!

xxxo
M