Ways to add CHIA to your diet

5 easy ways to add CHIA to your daily diet

• Mix in with your morning juice or milk 

• Add to your smoothie 

• Sprinkle on your salad 

• Add to your yogurt 

• Sprinkle on peanut butter and banana sandwich 

Have you had your CHIA today?®

Why you need to consume Omega3

5 reasons for Omega-3 in your daily diet:

* improve cardiovascular health
* lower cholesterol
* reduce inflammation
* boost your immune system
* improve your mood

Chia is the highest known plant source of Omega-3.

Have you had your CHIA today? ®

New Articles on Chia

The international community is taking note of CHIA. Check out these 3 recent articles:

BBC Newsmagazine

Independent from the UK

Toronto Globe and Mail

Have you had your chia today? ®

Chia - seed or grain?

Is chia (Salvia hispanica L.) a grain or a seed?

People have been calling chia a grain, but that simply is not correct. It is a seed. Here is an explanation of the difference between a grain and a seed from a botanical standpoint.

A grain has its fruit wall and seed coat fused, so you cannot separate them. So each grain is technically an individual fruit (called a caryopsis) containing a single seed. When processed, the fused ovary wall (fruit coat) and seed coat are the "bran," the embryo is the "germ," and the endosperm is the part full of carbohydrates that we eat. Of course, if you eat whole grains you get the bran, germ and endosperm together. So on an ear of corn or the head of a grain, each grain is an individual ovary with a seed inside.

Seeds are fertilized/ripened/mature ovules (that are found within ovaries), and the seed coat is made of the maternal tissue called integuments. The ovary is part of the flower that contains the ovules. So in fruits, like watermelon, the rind and what we eat is all ovary, and the "seeds" are the black things inside (to confuse matters, the little white things are ovules that did not get fertilized). Most plants have true seeds, but in some plants, like wheat, rice, and corn what we see and use is really the fruit and seed combined. Interestingly what have often been called ancient grains (amaranth, quinoa and buckwheat) are actually seeds!

Chia grows multiple seed heads on a single plant, within each head the seeds are singular within a capsule or husk, which is formed at each flower. If you hand strip the head from the plant, the capsules come off, rubbing them in your hand the seed comes out. The husk is what is left of the ovary (fruit) coat. You have just a single seed per ovary in chia, which is not uncommon in plants. The capsule or husk is the ovary, with the individual seeds coming from ovules in the ovary.

So in summary: Seeds just have a seed coat, embryo and endosperm/cotyledons, whereas grains also include the ovary.

Hence chia (Salvia hispanica L.) is technically a seed, and because if the high oil content, is an oilseed.

To all of our chia friends........ Coming May 1st will be my latest chia book which will be much more reader friendly than the first one. Still very factual but not as intensely so, plus it contains many recipes, suggested workout/exercise schemes, etc. to help all of us get in shape and stay healthy. To see a cover of the book look here

Chia - a little of its history

Chia Friends

If you go to YouTube and type in AZChia it will take you to a 3 minute video which gives a little introduction to chia and its history and relationship to the Aztecs and the Mayans.

Hope you enjoy.

Wayne

AZChia on Facebook

Chia friends

I have not posted here for some time, just pretty busy trying to help people understand the many benefits of chia.

Please go to AZChia for information on chia, or to purchase our chia and/or chia products. I do not want to use this blog as a commercial selling tool, but do want people to be aware of the products we offer.

Another way to keep up with our activities is to go to our Facebook page which can be found at Facebook/AZChia.

Regards,

Wayne

DHA and prostate cancer

Chia friends

A study just published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reported that the long chain form of omega3 called DHA, (which comes from fish oil) was found to be positively correlated with high grade prostate cancer. These findings are contrary from what would be expected from the normally anti-inflammatory effect of this omega3 fatty acid.

Given these findings men should take a look at reducing the amount of fish oil and fish products consumed and switch to chia since the omega3 form found in chia (ALA) has been shown to have anti-inflammatory effects like all omega3 fatty acids, and like other omega3 fatty acids has been shown to have heart healthy benefits, but not the negative prostate cancer effects.

Wayne

Omega3 Summit in Belgium - eat more ALA

Chia Friends

On March 3-4 a Global Summit on Nutrition was held in Bruges, Belgium. The main thrust of the meeting was to discuss omega3 fatty acids in human nutrition.

At the end of the summit a series of Consensus Statements was signed by the participants.

One of the statements read "Reduce LA and increase ALA in human and animal diets". This statement was made in reference to increasing the amount of omega3 in human tissues, since increased omega3 is key to improved human health.

So what does this mean for us?

We need to reduce the amount of LA we eat (which is omega6 and is found in corn, soybeans and similar foods) and increase the amount of ALA we eat which is found in chia as well as few other foods, although in lesser quantities.

Regards,

Wayne

Chia - History, Research, Composition, Uses - the story

The University of Arizona recently published a presentation I made as part of the invited Faculty Fellows Speaker Series in the Fall of 2005.

The presentation covers the history, composition, benefits of chia and cites some of my chia research work, etc. In essence it is a summary of the book entitled CHIA: Rediscovering a Forgotten Crop of the Aztecs published by the University of Arizona Press of which I am a co-author.

The presentation consists of a video and the slides I used at that time to tell the chia story.

In the past five years many more papers have been published on chia which document its benefits, properties, uses, etc. As a result of increased press, blogs, etc. people are becoming more and more aware of this amazing food, and how it can help improve the health of the world. For updated chia information go to www.azchia.com and click on the My Chia Research link in the left hand column.

I hope you enjoy this presentation and will learn a bit more about this great, healthy food. To view the presentation click here.