Chia Seeds – Fitness Superfood #12
Chia Seeds 101: The nutrient packed seed full of Omega-3s
In today’s episode, lets talk about all the fitness and nutrition benefits of chia seeds.
This is the final day in our 12 day series showcasing the top 12 superfoods to help you with your fitness and nutrition goals.
Over the past few years, chia seeds have become a very popular food in the health industry.
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These nutrient dense seeds are packed full of essential omega-3 fats, fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.
They are also easily digested and can be consumed in many different ways.
Chia seeds are loaded with Omega-3s:
One of the biggest nutrition benefits of chia seeds comes from the amount of alpha linolenic acid (ALA), which is an omega-3 fatty acid.
Today’s ratio of inflammation causing omega-6s to omega-3s is typically way out of proportion.
Based on the standard American diet, the ratio is close to a 20 to 1 ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s.
A healthy ratio is closer to a 2:1 omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
Optimally it would be a 1:1 ratio.
That’s one of the big nutrition benefits of chia seeds.
Chia seeds contain an excellent 3:1 ratio of healthy omega-3 fats to omega-6 fats.
This makes it an excellent food to help balance out the ratio of fats in your diet.
Omega-3s are great for brain and heart health
They may help reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease by:
- lowering blood pressure
- lowering bad cholesterol
- reducing inflammation
Chia seeds are packed full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants:
This includes vitamin A, B, D, and E.
They also contain a wide variety of minerals and antioxidants.
These minerals include: manganese, phosphorus, calcium, zinc, copper, and potassium.
This potent combination of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants helps improve skin health and reduce agingThey are loaded with fiber
High fiber foods are great for gut health and keeping your regular.
The combination of fiber and healthy fat, also helps slow the breakdown of carbohydrates in your system.
This helps balance blood sugar and insulin levels, which is important for burning fat for energy.
Another benefit of the high fiber is it helps keep you feeling full, thus reducing hunger, and helping with weight loss.
Seeds like flax seeds and chia seeds also may help reduce belly fat because they promote the metabolism of estrogen from the body.
How To Eat Chia Seeds
Chia seeds are a very versatile food which makes it easy to add more of these essential fatty acids to your
diet.
The best way to absorb all the nutrients is by either soaking them for 30 minutes in water or grinding them up.
I love adding them to smoothies as well as fighting off late night cravings by making chia seed pudding.
Not only do chia seeds add a ton of nutrients to salads, they’re also great to add to smoothies since they are excellent at thickening your shake.
You can find chia seeds in most grocery stores in the bulk or baking section section.
If you can’t find them you can replace them with another comparable super healthy seed, flax seeds.
That’s it for the top 12 fitness superfood series.
If you missed any, check out the full superfood list here.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
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