My chia consumption and intuition on this food

I have been consuming large quantities of chia for a number of years now. I try to have it 3 - 4 times per week, but occasionally l may have it almost everyday for weeks. l have up to a cup per meal these days. I always sprout the cup of chia seeds and it makes a much larger meal after sprouting. I blend the chia sprouts in with grain based rejuvalic and drink as a large gray milkshake and drink it while including it with occasional small bites of coconut fat. I always have it after a small seaweed salad, having it after dulse is my favourite. On some weeks l have had it everyday

Despite large quantities of chia never been tested on humans, my intuition told me years ago that chia was one of the very best foods when sprouted, so l made myself a guinea pig and decided to make chia sprouts a staple in my diet. I must say that l am doing very well and feeling good.


A brief note on nutrition from a science perspective (a theory that may apply to some people)

Chia is such a well balanced food also, and a perfect food for balancing vegan diets which can often be very nutritionally unbalanced. It is one of the few foods with much higher zinc to copper. It has high calcium levels. It also has very high iron levels to keep the high levels of manganese in check, but when you take into account the zinc - copper ratio one clearly sees the mineral balances are kept well in check with great balance. Chia really is one of the perfect nutrient balancers because it has such potent levels of minerals in great balances that can also be used to balance out other foods, and it has a great potency of omega 3's that can be used to balance out the diet when people want to get the large benefits from the highly nutritious omega 6 seeds while keeping the weekly diet in balance, and when seaweeds are added we also get iodine. Sprouting would also reduce fat levels and greatly increase vitamin and phytochemical levels, and the rejuvalic would improve nutrient absorbability and increase vitamin and other nutrient levels also.


I recommend people consume sprouted chia seeds - it is the king of foods

My sprouted chia milkshakes taste fantastic. I suggest people give it a go. It should only take a few times before the taste buds adjust to the taste. Never let the chia grow too long, grow it until the tail gets about 1 mm long and eat.

Another amazing staple is fermented sprouted sunflower seeds. These two foods are some of the finest meals the plant world can provide, and imo there is perhaps nothing greater for average people when these meals are relied upon as staples in the diet.

Chia seems to provide a unique feeling that is hard to describe. If l go a couple of weeks without it l seem to feel different, not as good.

www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2016 01:18AM by The Sproutarian Man.

Thanks Sproutarian.

From Wikipedia:

Quote
Wikipedia
Salvia hispanica, commonly known as chia, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, native to central and southern Mexico and Guatemala.[2] The sixteenth-century Codex Mendoza provides evidence that it was cultivated by the Aztec in pre-Columbian times; economic historians have suggested it was as important as maize as a food crop.[3] Ground or whole chia seeds still are used in Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, Mexico, and Guatemala for nutritious drinks and as a food source

[en.wikipedia.org]

Here is an extremely rare nutritional analysis of chia seeds. See page 8 - 11 of this scientific study. Eventhough chia hasn't been studied extensively it does appear safe and non toxic to use, but various people with certain health conditions need to be careful.

Opinion on the safety of ‘Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.) and ground whole
Chia seeds’ as a food ingredient

Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies

- The EFSA Journal (2009) 996, 1-26
[www.efsa.europa.eu]

O.k...just a few really basic notes on chia nutrition. We know that sunflower seeds are probably by far the highest seeds in vitamins and that sesame is one of the highest seeds in minerals, so what about chia? It seems like chia is kind of in the middle when it comes to vitamins and minerals.

At the bottom of this post is a very basic nutrition chart l made for comparing the nutrients in chia v's sunflower v's sesame seeds. The chia chart is from the link above and the sunflower and sesame charts come from these links directly below: everything is based on 100 grams of dry seed.
[nutritiondata.self.com]
[nutritiondata.self.com]


Please note that dry seed analysis excludes many important factors, so under ideal conditions the nutrient analysis for all three seed types will be greatly underestimated. Why? Because we know that sprouting increases vitamins, sometimes significantly when seeds are sprouted. For eg, sesame has only about 1% rda for vitamin E, but when it is sprouted for 4 days it has been known to increase 25,000% to become a massive source of vitamin E. Wheat also increases 300% at least. We see here that chia only has 2% rda for vitamin E in the dry seed, but how much will it increase to after sprouting and fermenting?...my guess is that it could be a potential significant increase, hopefully.

We also know that B vitamins can significantly increase with sprouting, and it would be no exception with chia and the other seeds, so those rda percentages in the chart below are going to be much higher for some of those B vitamin values shown in the chart.

We also know that fermentation can increase B vitamins up to 50% according to science research, but with chia this won't be the case because it is best not fermented due to the issues with gel, BUT adding rejuvalic should add a vitamin/enzyme rich mixture to the meal when blended and add to the vitamin nutrition.

AND a major mineral boost can be had when soaking the seeds in mineral rich soak water. Studies have shown minerals increasing up to almost 400% when seeds have been soaked in some cases. I don't make these statements without having seen proof in the studies. Calcium has been shown to increase up to 200% in some cases. The point is...soaking and sprouting seeds can greatly enhance the nutrition in the seed, and we also know that phytochemical values can greatly increase when a seed is sprouted also, and we know that seeds are perhaps the richest source of phytochemicals.




So if l have almost a cup of chia seeds that is going to be roughly 140 grams of dry seed, so we may have almost 50% as much nutrition again. And when we add in other foods thoughout the day and green juices etc we can do very well for surpassing the rda's.

www.thesproutarian.com

And if you add up the values for each seed you will get the following results:

CHIA = 107 (Vit)
SESAME = 102 (Vit)
SUNFLOWER = 328 (Vit)


CHIA = 185 (Mins)
SESAME = 332 (Mins)
SUNFLOWER = 169 (Mins)


As you can basically see, sunflower is the real vitamin powerhouse and sesame is the mineral powerhouse, but does that mean that chia is best avoided for the other two? No! Why? Because chia has special nutrients that can be used to balance the diet out such as using high calcium and omega 3's to balance other foods out that lack these valuable nutrients, + it also has the beautiful and highly unusual high zinc - low copper ratio that very few plants have, so when chia is used as a staple we have a great potential to use it to nutritionally balance out a diet to good effect. For eg, one may want a higher calcium diet and may not want to spend lots of money juicing various greens, and one may want to have a higher calcium diet without overdoses on omega 6's from the usual sesame and poppy seed sources....so how can one do it cheaply and safely? Well...one will use chia and also re-adjust the excessively high copper - zinc most vegan diets also have, AND when fenugreek sprout juice is added one has a potential to change that excessive copper balance around. See, that is why chia is an important food....we can get high useful amounts of ALA which can convert to good levels of EPA/DHA when had with coconut fat (greatly increases conversion according to peer reviewed studies) and we can get a more balanced ratio of phosphorous - calcium (hard to do on a vegan diet) and adjust a better ratio of copper - zinc. Chia brings more harmony to a vegan diet IMO. If one only used sesame, pumpkin and sunflower and neglected chia one could run into all types of potential nutrient problems unless significant adjustments were made in other areas such as using flax and juicing heaps of greens and fenugreek and algaes etc, but using chia makes it more simple and cheaper and tasty imo.


The Sprout conspiracy

But then people are going to say that nutrition decreases as the sprouting period increases. That is actually not the case when the water content is taken out and a true and direct dry analysis is made from dry seed to dry sprout. But but but, people then say sprouts are a bulky way to consume nutrients and the benefit of sprouts are lost. No no no...lets look at this properly and ways to overcome the issue of bulk reducing the effectiveness of getting sprout mega nutrition.

This effect of diminishing returns will apply more to sprouts which bulk up such as mung beans, sprouted greens and other legumes when grown a long time, BUT never too much with compact seeds which are only sprouted for 1 - 2 days or with juicing. Now THAT is the secret to getting the great benefit of sprout nutrition...it is to use seeds, fermented seeds and juices as the heavy hitters in the diet and then to top up with algaes and sprouted legumes/grains. See, if one tried to get mega nutrition via sprouted legumes and green sprout salads, one is going to find it too bulky to get enough nutrients and calories, so one can solve all the problems by compacting the meals. I am a big believer in the average person using more solid foods as the core while balancing it out with more higher water content foods, it works. If you do it the old fashioned low fat way people get full on low calorie foods and can't sustain the diet.

www.thesproutarian.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2016 02:08AM by The Sproutarian Man.