10 benefits of chia seeds for your body and mind

Have you heard of these seeds? Their nutritional properties are extraordinary.

Have you heard about chia seeds? At Psychology and Mind we like to promote healthy lifestyle habits, and this area is not only reduced to the strictly psychological. Proper nutrition is also a great source of health and well-being.

Chia seeds: a very healthy food

Today we discover one of those foods with extraordinary properties: chia seeds. chia seeds. It is a product with a flavor that many people associate with nuts, and it has a huge amount of vitamins and minerals. has a huge amount of vitamins and minerals that can help us to fight that can help us fight those extra kilos, to control the habit of snacking between meals, and in short to feel better with our body and mind.

But it doesn't end there. The benefits of eating chia seeds are many and in the following lines you will see them compiled in these ten healthy reasons in these ten healthy reasons to encourage you to try this seed native to America.

It is fashionable... and rightly so

There is a real fever for chia seeds. We can say that they are very fashionable, and this fame is not entirely unjustified, although it is clear that marketing has had a strong influence. Many nutrition experts have reported on their qualities, but there is still a great lack of knowledge about the benefits of this food.

More and more people have chia seeds in their pantry, but what are the qualities and properties that make chia seeds such a popular food lately? We are going to explain some of its most relevant properties and we will update you on the benefits of chia seeds. we will update you on the psychic and physical benefits that chia seeds can bring you..

In fact, before delving into its benefits, we must clarify that it is a very tasty food that allows great versatility in the kitchen. Many chefs use chia seeds to complement many dishes: from the most exotic to the most traditional.

The health properties of chia seeds

There must be something about this food for all nutritionists to highly recommend it. "Chia" is a term of Mayan origin, the meaning of which is strength. For millennia, chia has been the favorite food of the Mayan and Aztec societies, not in vain has a multitude of vitamins, minerals and fatty acids that facilitate our body to fight bad fats, in addition to providing various benefits.

It is a very popular food among athletes, but even if you do not practice much physical activity, you can benefit from its daily consumption to feel better. In addition. as we have already said, is a nutritious food and can have its place in almost any dish you can imagine.. Some people include chia in yogurt, in soups, in breakfast cereals, in purees, in stews, in salads... It goes with almost anything! The more daring have even experimented with chia, including it in muffins or cakes.

Gluten-free and with Omega 3

The English nutritionist Maddie Shaw points out that chia seeds are do not contain gluten (and is therefore a food suitable for coeliacs), and they contain contain Omega 3, as well as fiber and antioxidants..

Some more facts about its nutritional contribution:

• Contains twice as much protein as most vegetables.
• Contains twice as much potassium as bananas.
• It provides twice as much fiber as oatmeal.
• Three times more iron than lentils
• Five times more calcium than cow's milk
• Three times more antioxidants than beans

10 health benefits of chia seeds

So, What are the benefits of consuming this seed?What nutritional contributions does it satisfy and how does it help to improve our physical health? In the following lines you will find a summary of the health benefits of chia seeds, and the advantages of incorporating this ingredient into your regular diet.

1. Manage your desire to snack between meals

Chia is high in fiber, so it is a great idea to curb our cravings for snacking between meals.. The seeds are easily digestible but create a feeling of satiety that keeps us from snacking, and therefore makes it easier for us to control our body weight.

Experts advise eating chia at breakfast to take advantage of its long-range energy boost, which will keep us active for several hours. will keep us active for several hours..

2. They are tasty

Some people say that they do not find much flavor, while others indicate that it reminds them of the flavor of the nut. They are still seeds, so we cannot expect an explosion of flavor and freshness on our palate, but the truth is that most people love them. the truth is that the majority of people love it..

3. They regulate the hydration of your body

They are permeable seeds that can reach up to 10 times their weight in water. Consuming them also helps us to hydrate our body. This is one of the keys to understand why athletes and people who do very physical or stressful jobs are signing up to eat chia seeds.

Also is also highly recommended to ingest them before going to the gym to train or to practice a little running..

4. They protect you from the harmful effects of the environment.

Let's delve into an important point: chia improves our immune system. Therefore, it protects us when facing environmental inclemencies and diseases. It makes us more resistant to catching colds and flus, for example. However, this is an indirect effect produced by the reinforcement of the immune system, which means that it does not make existing diseases disappear or the risk of suffering from them vanish.

5. They provide you with a good dose of Omega 3

Omega 3 is a fatty acid whose properties help us in several processes: it strengthens the central nervous system and the immune system.strengthens the central nervous system and the cells, keeps our skin well hydrated and shiny, boosts our cognitive abilities, and helps us to maintain a healthy and balanced diet.It boosts our cognitive capacities, our immune system...

Chia seeds provide us with more Omega 3 than fish such as salmon, so if you are not very fond of eating fish, it can be a very healthy alternative.

6. Energy for (almost) the whole day

If you feel tired during most of the day, one of the problems may be your diet. Not all foods provide us with an amount of sugars that give us energy to face the day to day. In this case, chia seeds are optimal to help us endure at work or at the gym..

They contain a lot of potassium and more protein than almost any vegetable. And their sugars are slowly absorbed.

7. A little help to control overweight

Chia is a very suitable food for those people who have problems to lose weight. They have a lot of fiber that help your digestive system and regulate the sensation of hunger.. It is a very satiating food, especially when taken hydrated.

There are also some recipes to ingest chia along with juices. A perfect combination to eat healthy and control excess weight.

8. A good food for your muscles

Chia seeds, as we have already mentioned, provide us with great energy, as well as fiber. But our muscles are built up thanks to the proteinprotein, and chia is also a food rich in it. Thus, it will help us to increase muscle mass and it will help us to increase muscle mass and regenerate those muscle tissues that need it..

A much healthier and cheaper option than the classic protein shakes that many athletes take after training. And even if you do not practice sports, it can also help you to have a healthier body.

9. Healthy joints

Many people suffer from joint pain. For this condition, chia seeds can be a healthy and effective solution. We have already seen the contribution of Omega 3 acids in chia, but what we have not what we have not said is that it has Anti-Inflammatory properties..

Consuming chia can significantly alleviate the pain caused by your joints over the years, although it will not make the wear and tear of these disappear, as this would require repairing these parts of the body in a more structural way.

10. It purifies your body and prevents oxidation.

Chia seeds help our body eliminate excess fluids and toxins, as well as regulate the intestinal flora and slow down the process of cell oxidation.. In short, chia is responsible for regulating many processes and bodily functions that will make us feel healthy both inside and out.

Some conclusions about this food

Nature provides us with several foods that really have magnificent properties for our body. One of these foods is chia. It is recommended that you try them for a few days and see for yourself the beneficial effects of this seed.

Obviously, it is not enough to eat only chia seeds, but our physical and psychological health is based on many variables, and we also need a much higher amount of macronutrients than what this product is going to offer us.

If we talk about eating habits, chia is a great complement, but the basis of our health has to be a balanced and varied diet, as well as physical exercise and good healthy habits (no smoking, drinking alcohol, etc.). On the other hand, it is necessary to eat foods with macronutrients that are not available in chia seeds; being seeds, they do not contain much energy, carbohydrates or the healthy fats we need to function well.

From now on, you have another nutritious and exotic ally to improve your health.

Bibliographic references:

• Ayerza (h), Ricardo; Wayne Coates (2009). Some quality components of four chia (Salvia hispanica L.) genotypes grown under tropical coastal desert ecosystem conditions. Asian Journal of Plant Sciences. 4 (8): 301–307.
• Cahill, Joseph P. (2003). Ethnobotany of Chia, Salvia hispanica L. (Lamiaceae). Economic Botany. 57 (4): 604–618.
• de Souza Ferreira C, et al. (2015). Effect of chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) consumption on cardiovascular risk factors in humans: a systematic review. Nutr Hosp. 32 (5): 1909 - 1918.