As Wayne's wife, I have decided to respond to part of a post that was sent to the Webmaster (see the post below which has been put in bold type).
Regarding Wayne's investment in chia, he began researching various crops in 1991. This research project included various entities, governmental and private. During that research, chia seeds were planted in small plots. After observing the growth and harvesting of the plots, further investigation revealed the viability of this crop for potential commercialization. To that end, he has worked with various people/entities over these past 18+ years to see chia now in full commercial production, as well as the use of it continuing to grow. In 2005, Wayne and I began an internet business selling chia. We continued this until 2008, when the company was sold. Since then, Wayne continues to work with growers and others to get chia into the marketplace.
We are coming back into the retail market again. Competition is good. During our time working with chia, we have purchased chia, both online and in retail markets, from those legitimate chia sellers you speak of. We look at the quality of chia seed. Most important is the cleanliness. Is what you bought mostly chia seeds or did the cleaning process leave behind debris, weed seeds, other seeds, etc? Secondly, we are looking at coloration of the chia seed. Brown seeds indicate the chia was harvested prematurely. Immature seeds will probably be lacking in the nutritional content noted on the packaging. This is what Wayne means by putting good, quality chia on the market. Just as in any product, there are good, fair, and poor products, usually due to quality control issues.
While I realize I am married to him and that brings to it its own prejudices, I hope you will take the time to realize his investment in chia. If his re-entry into the chia retail market creates opportunity for all to sell as well as possibly provide chia at a lower price, then that opens the market to many - buyers and sellers.
Finally, to ask him to return to his animals, etc. is condescending. Those projects with animals are what provided the beginnings of the benefits of chia and bringing it to commercial production.
Patricia
But my interest in this blog has to do with the audacity of AKA Mr. Chia that he could just step in and try to reap the benefits of all the hard work and money that has been invested in bringing awareness to chia by the 100's of legitimate chia sellers around the country. Why does he think that it is necessary to bring a high quality, affordable chia to the market, when there are numerous sites that sell just that. I buy from www.nutsonline.com, as they have an impeccable reputation and they sell a pound of chia for $6.99 and Organic for $9.99. Since Dr. Wayne, AKA Mr. Chia� apparently does not own or operate any chia farms (based on his lack of response from a previous post that you deleted), then how is he going to bring a higher quality and more affordable chia than them, or anyone else for that matter?
It simply appears that Dr. Wayne's gravy train ended and I am sure that the chia sellers will not stand for his desperate return to selling chia. If he wants to continue in the Chia World, then he should continue his Agricultural Engineering work and his studies on how chia affects farm animals, instead of trying to steal money from the hard work of legitimate chia sellers.
Monday, May 31, 2010
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The above comment in bold is so sad and unnecessary. Somebody is scared, bitter and blaming, weak and threatened, and has an absolute need to be RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteWayne Coates has the elegance to be open, generous with his intelligence, and separate from the nastiness of all of this adolescent competition. We are, after all, in this world together, doing the best we can with what we know. It is a logical matter of course that Dr. Coates would make his livelihood from his expertise and genuine interest, just like we all want to do. Unless of course, one wants to conquer the world.
Apparently, slewing insults is the only way for people who actually write this kind of stuff to feel power or success. I use the word 'apparently' only because they make it so apparent.
There is a choice here. Perhaps a better way might serve everyone in that thing called good will and healthy competition. Being so destructive wastes time; it describes the word destroy. Why do all of you people seek to be the ones to conquer? Why do you seek to destroy the spirit of a god-given product?
Chia is there for everyone. There is no gravy train, as long as people in the business are in it with the truest of intentions. Greed is not one of them.
Dear Dr. Coates,
ReplyDeleteThis is totally unrelated to your current blog post, but I really appreciate your commentary on the quality of chia seed on your Azchia website. It was very educational. I didn't realize chia can have different values according to how they are grown or the time they are harvested.
I sincerely hope you can answer this one question. I do not subscribe to Dr. Loren Cordain's Paleo Diet newsletter, but I have read that in his latest issue he does not feel chia seed is fit for human consumption. Yet he recommends flax meal, which, to the best of my limited knowledge has never been used as food until very recently, whereas chia was used as food every day by ancient cultures. As a reader of the Bible, I do know that flax was used to spin fabric - no mention of it being used as food.
Can you please tell us why Mr. Cordain is so against chia as a food? Is it harmful to eat a lot of chia every day? I do just that and hope I am not doing my body a disservice.
Thank you in advance for your answer.
Dr. Dear Coates,
ReplyDeleteI have cut and pasted the following as a followup to the comment I just left. The following was cut and pasted from a blog by Nell Stephenson, Nutrition & Fitness. Please tell us the following is NOT true...I just bought a 10 lb. bag of chia! Here it is:
Are Chia Seeds OK to Eat On The Paleo Diet?
A friend recently asked me whether Chia Seeds would be a healthy part of her diet. Not 100% sure of the answer, I contacted my # 1 resource, Dr. Cordain himself, to get to the most accurate information possible!
For those of you who receive the weekly Paleo Diet, LLC, Newsletter, this summary will be nothing more than a refresher for you, as Dr. Cordain, just in last Friday's issue, discussed in detail why Chia Seeds, actually, are NOT a good food to have as part of our food options!
Here's a recap of what he said:
-"Chia Seeds contain antinutrients, so that once in your body, the available calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium and manganese from chia seeds are poorly absorbed, hence making chia seeds a poor dietary source for these minerals."
-"Chia seed consumption may contain one or more antinutrients which may promote chronic low level inflammation."
-"In addition, it is possible that other antinutrients found in chia seeds may adversely affect gut tissue including saponins which cause a “leaky gut”. When this occurs, the gut contents may then have access to the immune system which in turn becomes activated thereby causing a chronic low level systemic inflammation."
Dr. Cordain sums up by stating, "Until further human studies are conducted, I would be cautious in recommending chia seeds for human consumption, particularly in people with food allergies or known autoimmune diseases."
So- keep the chia seeds for your Chia Pet (do they still sell those? : ) and OUT of your body!