What would be the most nutritious way of eating flax and chia seeds?

Grinding and eating them, or soaking and eating, or soaking and grinding and eating, or grinding and soaking and eating?


I soak nuts before eating, and the same with pumpkin and sunflower seeds. But flax is said to have the tough shell hence people recommend grinding it to enable the digestion to get the most out of it. But if I soak flax would it still need to be grinded? And if so, would it be better to soak and grind or to grind and soak?

As for the chia I don't seem to find many info on it at all. Does it have the same hard coat as flax, and so does it also require grinding and/or soaking?

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

I prefer chia over flax, as flax seems to give me a sore throat. For chia, I like soaking them, either in fruit juice, or using them to make a pudding. But is this the most nutritious way to eat them? -- I don't know.

Yep it's because they are slimy, I read they don't sprout in the same way as other seeds do. That in order to sprout them you have to do it on some kind of surface, and basically give up the seeds and harvest only the greens. Which I wouldn't want to do i think, because of the fatty acids content of the seeds.

Why do you think soaking and dehydrating and eating is more nutritious, by contrast to soaking and eating? Isn't dehydration going to oxidise the seeds to some extent?

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

What if you blend them after soaking? In other words, choosing the "soaking and grinding and eating" way. Is it likely to be better than dehydration, nutritionally speaking? (Blending exposes the food to the oxygen too I suppose, but it's only for a minute or two providing you eat it straight away, so not much harm could be done there..)

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

chat Wrote:
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> What would be the most nutritious way of eating
> flax and chia seeds?

The only way to consume flax properly is to sprout it. Soaking and eating is still not much good because most will pass through you, and SLOW grinding can be good but you will still have the problem of absorption..apparently only 6% of omega 3 is absorbed through the oil, so absorbing from the whole seed or grinded seed will still be a major challenge. l find the flax is best sprouted for 4 days and then make a nut buterr paste from it, BUT...you can also sprout it for 14 days and make a green drink out of it (the best way), but it is a tough ole drink on the system; l can drink liters of weed juice all day long and be fine, but drinking flax sprout juice does stir me up.

Chia can be soaked and eaten, but why would someone waste such a great food??? Anyway...chia has oxalic acid, and in my opinion that oxalic acid would still be caught up in the water/gell that it swells up in. Besides...why not get the proper benefit from the seeds and get all the omega 3's with low fat and no risk of nasties like oxalic acid hanging around in the gell? lt is by far the best to sprout your chia seeds at all times; this will break down the protein into amino acids and break down the concentrated fats into fatty acids (saves the body heaps of energy) and you will get something like a 600% increase in vitamin E, between a 50 - 2,000% increase in various B vitamins, 1000's % increase in beta carotene, vitamin K (l think), but most importantly is the massive availablity of omega 3's...a whopping 3,600% increase in availablity to the body (36 times the amount available for digestion). WOW! And given that most vegans propably wouldn't be getting enought omega 3's and in the most ideal combination to omega 6's, the chia greens are one of the very best vegan foods of them all. Sprouted chia is one of the very best things to have...drink a large tray a day (250 ml of cold pressed juice and your best dreams will come true because the dullest day becomes the brightest day ever...l haven't seen the sun hardly in months and it has been rain and cold, but l feel like l am living in a tropical paradise...that is what chia grass does, it takes away the blues and puts bliss and joy in it's place).



> Grinding and eating them, or soaking and eating,
> or soaking and grinding and eating, or grinding
> and soaking and eating?

Sprout them both for 14 days and juice the greens. By far the best way to consume them.

Also sprout sunflower seeds and all nuts to keep the fat and protein levels low with the benefit of high fatty acids and amino acids....unties digestion by predigesting the concentrated nutrients for you.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2012 04:20AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Thanks Sproutarian, I'm going to have a look into sprouting nuts and sunflower seeds, it sounds it might be doable within the confines of a small kitchen.

But sprouting chia and flax scares me - they can't be sprouted using ordinary means because if their slime, and I don't really have the tools and space (and most, the time!) to grow them as greens and juice them.. I just have a small kitchen with the countertop corner where I can fit two plates with sprouting trays and a jar. Hence I thought I'd eat them as is, grinding or soaking beforehand..

>Banana ice-cream rocks!<

THeSt0rm Wrote:
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> bleh, sprouting flax and chia seeds never work for
> me even on a cloth...

the seeds are probably irradiated. lf you can't sprout seeds, avoid buying them and try to find another source.

The Sproutarian Man, could you please give some reference for the nutritional properties of sprouted chia seeds that you are mentioning?



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