The Tiniest Seeds With The Most Value

If You’re Not Taking Chia, You’re Missing Out

Last Tuesday, we wrote about nutritional psychiatry, and the benefits of eating for one’s mental health.

You can check out Dr. Uma Naidoo’s to-dos, here:

The 6 Pillars Of Nutritional Psychiatry

In response, one of our subscribers wrote to mention:

❝Really interesting….just put chia seeds in my diet love them……taking the Drs advice.❞

~ Cindy, 10almonds subscriber

And then! On Friday, our tip at the top of the newsletter was:

Not sure how to incorporate chia seeds into your diet? It’s easier to want the benefits of their many brain-healthy (and otherwise-healthy, too) nutrients, than it is to know what to do with them necessarily, and not everyone enjoys seeds as a snack. So…

When you cook rice, throw in a tablespoon of chia seeds too. The cooking process will soften them and they won’t be texturally any different than the rice, but the nutrients will be all there.

They can also be thrown in with lentils, in the same fashion! Or oatmeal, when cooking it or making overnight oats.

We’ll be honest, it was Cindy’s comment that prompted us to suggest it. But wait! There was more to come in response:

❝You had a teaser ..on Chia seed.would of liked a article on the benefits . I’ve just discovered Chia seeds…❞

~ Cindy, 10almonds subscriber

So, Cindy, this one’s for you:

Nutritional powerhouse

First things first, these tiny seeds have a lot of nutrients. There are not many more nutrient-dense foods than this (there’s a kind of seaweed that might be a contender; we’ll have to do some research and get back to you).

Check them out:

USDA Nutritional Factsheet: Chia Seeds

So much protein and healthy fat, so many vitamins and minerals, and so many miscellaneous other micronutrients that we’d be here all day to list them (which is why we linked the above factsheet instead).

Antioxidants in abundance

These deserve a special mention, because they include quercetin which we’ve written about previously:

Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

…as well as quite a collection of others (including chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid, which may sound alarming but are great for lowering your blood pressure and against inflammation, respectively):

• The effect of chlorogenic acid on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials
• Synthesis, preliminary bioevaluation and computational analysis of caffeic acid analogues

There are others too, with cardioprotective effects, liver-healthy effects, and anticancer properties:

Nutritional and therapeutic perspectives of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.): a review

Good for the heart and blood

Check it out:

• Chia flour supplementation reduces blood pressure in hypertensive subjects
• Chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) supplementation to the diet of adults with type 2 diabetes improved systolic blood pressure: A randomized controlled trial

Oh, and about diabetes? There’s more, this time pertaining to reducing after-dinner blood sugars (or “postpranidial glycemia”, in sciencese):

• Reduction in postprandial glucose excursion and prolongation of satiety: possible explanation of the long-term effects of whole grain Salba (Salvia Hispanica L.)
• Effect of whole and ground Salba seeds (Salvia Hispanica L.) on postprandial glycemia in healthy volunteers: a randomized controlled, dose-response trial

Good for the brain

Regular 10almonds readers will know that “what’s good for the blood, is good for the brain” is a very good rule of thumb already, but their highomega-3 content makes them especially so:

What Omega-3 Fatty Acids Really Do For Us

Want some?

We don’t sell them, but you can probably find them in your local supermarket and/or health food store, and if you prefer getting things online, here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!