Wholesome foods pt 3: Chia seeds

I've traded chai for chia. While the two aren't really interchangeable, Chai lattes once made a common appearance in my diet and now Chia seeds are common little lunch time buddies. 

Chia is a species of flowing plant in the mint family. It was originally grown in South America and used as food from as early as 3500BC. Chia seeds are high in fibre, protein, Omega 3 and Antioxidants. They come as tiny little black or white seeds. I first picked mine up at the health food store, but have noticed them starting to make an appearance at regular supermarkets.

Chia seeds can assist in weight loss due to their tendency to expand with water, thus making you feel fuller for longer. They can balance blood sugar thus providing more constant energy.  AND because Chia seeds are a great antioxidant (which fight free radicals in your body) they work as a brilliant "age-defier" (do a I hear a whoop whoop in da house?).

Graibeard

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I sprinkle a tablespoon or so of white chia seeds on my salad each day. (I'm told at my local health food store, nutritionally there isn't really much difference between the black and white seeds, so it's personal preference. The little buggers do have a tendency to get stuck in your teeth like sesame seeds, so I find white a little more inconspicuous). There are stacks of recipes available for muffins, slices, dips, soups etc etc etc. They don't have a lot of flavour, so you can put them in just about anything. In fact, I'm going to sneak a tablespoon of two into the coating of our fish tonight.

Look out world: high omega 3 fish and high omega 3 chia seeds - people might start mistaking me for my daughter!

 

A whole new world

Day 7 - Over the last two days the cravings have started to hurt a bit. But I'm not pining for a bag of starbursts, I'd just jump over the moon if I could have a handful of sultanas to be honest!

Funny how by cutting out the sugar your taste sensations change. I had myself a bowl of Jalna whole fat natural yoghurt earlier. Normally I've found this to be rather sour and hard to take (compared to sweetness of flavored yoghurts) but this evening it was - WOW! It truly hit the spot. (I topped it with some hazelnut meal, cinnamon and chia seeds just for fun. Yeh, that's how I roll, now). 

Likewise I'm coming to notice that tomatoes taste rather sweet in my salad. Have they always been sweet? Or have my tastebuds been so clogged with sugar I've never really noticed.

It's killing me that for the last two weeks my Aussie Farmers Direct organic box of fruit and veg has contained a mango. Every time I see it sitting in the fridge, I salivate a little. Last week I sent it in the kids day care lunch, so I didn't have to put myself through cutting it up for them. (I'm not normally a big fruit eater, but it seems by stripping back my sugar overload I'm craving the more nutritious varieties).  


Bring on Tuesday so I can get rid of that mango temptation once again!