Barefoot Fitness

For years, I've been adding healthy fat and fiber to protein shakes in the form of flax meal. Nutritionally, flax is a great thing to have in your diet. It's a dense source of plant-based omega 3 fatty acids in the form of alpha-linoleic acid and it's got about three grams of soluble and insoluble fiber per tablespoon.

Here's the thing though: I hate flax. Perhaps this stems from a few incidents around a decade ago before I knew that flax oil wasn't supposed to taste like rancid poison. In fact, it should taste fairly bland and nutty but it goes rancid extremely easily, and many bottles are already contaminated while they're still on the shelf at the store. Not knowing this, I drank-barely-quite a few shakes containing spoiled flax over the years.

I've since learned to buy freshly ground flax at a health food store and place it immediately in my freezer, only taking out enough for a single shake at a time.

This has brought flax up to a reasonable level of tolerance for me, but I was still delighted when my girlfriend introduced me to an even better alternative: Chia seeds.

Yes, these are the same chia seeds from the Chia Pet commercials. Stay with me, there's a reason.

Chia seeds contain more fiber than flax meal, more omega 3's than any other plant source, more antioxidant capacity than blueberries, more iron than spinach and more calcium than milk. Plus, they don't taste like dead monkey if you leave them on your counter for day.

The fiber content of chia is particularly notable. If you place a spoonful of them in water, you'll see that they start to become surrounded with a gel-like coating. This gel is the product of the complex matrix of soluble fibers, known as mucilages, within the seed, which are capable of absorbing up to ten times their weight in water. In the digestive system, this gel serves as a barrier between carbohydrates and digestive enzymes, which slows the process by which carbohydrates are converted into sugar and transported to the bloodstream.

This can be useful for those concerned with stabilizing blood sugar levels, as well as those trying to control cravings between meals. This was a major thing I noticed when I first started adding chia to my shakes. Hours later, I should have been foraging through my fridge for another meal. Instead, I just didn't feel hungry. The fiber in the chia slowed my digestion and stabilized my blood sugar levels well enough that I didn't really feel like eating. For me, this meant that I cut the amount that I was using because I have no reason to want to restrict calories, but for dieters, this can be a handy feature.

If you feel like paying about three times more than you have to, you can buy chia seeds at health food stores like Whole Foods. Beware though, and make sure that the seeds you buy are whole seeds (unlike flax, your body can absorb them without grinding) and not ground. On an impulse, I saw what I thought were cheaply priced Chia seeds at a health food store and tossed them into my cart. It wasn't until I got home and opened them that I realized that they had been ground in order to "remove 70% of the fat." Considering that the omega 3 fats in the chia are one of the biggest benefits to eating them, I cannot imagine why a manufacturer would do this.

A quick Google search should find the seeds at a variety of stores online, for as little as four dollars per pound.

Nutritionally, there is no real difference between white and black seeds, although the white ones aren't going to be nearly as visible if they get stuck in your teeth.

Try adding a tablespoon to your shakes or meals around three times per day.