ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Importance of Eating Chia Seeds to Health

Updated on November 29, 2016
Chuck Bluestein profile image

At age 16 I was a volunteer at a hospital bacteriology lab. I became a chemist for U.S. government. Then I studied health & related fields.

Chia Seeds Are Extremely Healthy

Chia seeds showing how small they are.
Chia seeds showing how small they are. | Source

Health Benefits of Chia Seeds

There is evidence that vegan, vegetarians and conventional eaters die due to a lack of omega-3 essential fatty acids. You can read more about that at Essential and Dangerous Supplements. People can get omega-3 from eating seaweed and fish. Vegans and vegetarians do not eat fish.

So they would usually take flaxseeds to get enough omega-3 essential fatty acids since that was the highest vegetable source. But flaxseed shells cannot be digested and they are tiny seeds. If you grind the shells and get the powder or oil, they can go bad (rancid) quickly. Chia seeds do not have to have their shell broken so they are much better to use. They have as much omega-3 is flaxseeds do.

Chia seeds are tiny black and white seeds from the plant Salvia Hispanica, which is related to the mint. Have you heard of the Chia pet? They out chia seeds on an animal figurine and grow hair/sprouts on it. Someone decided to grow them on Obama figurine heads and sell them. Here is one so you can see what I am taking about.

Importance of Chia Seeds to Health

So you can but them. Of course organic ones are better but usually cost more. Many people like to soak them in hot water or hot tea for about 15 minutes and drink them. That is a convenient way to take them. Ninety percent of the carbs in chia seeds are fiber that isn't digested, yet has many benefits, PubMed is part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It has an article called Health Benefits of Dietary Fiber that says:

Individuals with high intakes of dietary fiber appear to be at significantly lower risk for developing coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and certain gastrointestinal diseases. Increasing fiber intake lowers blood pressure and serum cholesterol levels. Increased intake of soluble fiber improves glycemia and insulin sensitivity in non-diabetic and diabetic individuals. Fiber supplementation in obese individuals significantly enhances weight loss. Increased fiber intake benefits a number of gastrointestinal disorders including the following: gastroesophageal reflux disease, duodenal ulcer, diverticulitis, constipation, and hemorrhoids.

Note that that fiber is in plant foods but not animal foods. Chia seeds are a very nutrient dense food and it is infinitely better to get minerals from foods instead of mineral supplements, urine, manure and salt (all of which are not foods). One ounce of chia seeds contain 11 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein, 9 grams of fat (5 of which are omega-3 fatty acids), 18% of the RDA of calcium, 30% of the RDA of both magnesium and manganese, 27% of the RDA of phosphorus and lots of other nutrients.

Note recently I learned that people usually get enough minerals, but magnesium may be one of them that most Americans do not get enough of and it has many important functions. Chia seeds are loaded with many antioxidants like many very healthy foods.

The body needs the active forms of omega-3 called EPA and DHA but can convert them into those forms as needed unlike with fish. By mixing chia seeds with water making it into a gel there are many recipes that you can make with them. See links to this article for more on them.

Now since chia seeds contain a lot of calcium I should point out that many websites say that people should get more calcium to avoid osteoporosis. But people get much more than they need of calcium. A PubMed study showed that increasing the amount of calcium in the food had no effect on osteoporosis. People get more than they need of protein also. So why have these nutrients been singled out?

This is part of the marketing campaign of milk, dairy and meat. Actually the amount of calcium has no effect on osteoporosis as that study shows but the amount of calcium in the urine does affect osteoporosis. See why there is calcium in the urine and more by reading The Real Cause of Osteoporosis. Of course a big part of why fiber helps you to lose weight is that it fills up your stomach but its calories are not digestible. Note that calories are actually units of heat and they measure the calories of food by burning them. Fiber cannot be digested by humans but there is no trouble in burning them.

There are also studies showing that if you add nuts or seeds to your diet, you do not gain any weight but you do get many health benefits including living longer. Joel Fuhrman M.D. says to eat G-BOMBS to prevent diseases. It stands for greens, berries, onions, mushrooms beans, and nuts/seeds. See The Wonders of Nuts and Seeds, By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, CD (Masters in Public Health, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Certified Dietitian)
Today's Dietitian Vol. 18 No. 3 P. 22. It says:

Recent findings from the PREDIMED trial suggest that a Mediterranean diet that includes one serving of nuts per day protects against heart attack, stroke, or death from other cardiovascular causes in people at high risk due to type 2 diabetes or metabolic syndrome.3 PREDIMED data also suggest that eating more than three servings of nuts per week reduces risk of death from all causes, especially if also following a Mediterranean diet. Subjects who frequently consumed both total nuts and walnuts had a lower rate of death from cancer.

Benefits of Chia Seeds by Dr. Josh Axe D.C, DNM, CNS (Doctor of Chiropractic, Doctor of Natural Medicine & Certified Nutrition Specialist)

10 Health Benefits of Chia Seeds

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)