Chia Seed

If you’re even slightly interested in food, you probably heard about Chia seeds. Lately there’s been quite a big hype about chia seeds among natural food fans. People like to add them to smoothies, oatmeal, baking products and yogurt. Chia resembles flax seed and is often used in place of flax seed. I decided to do my own research to find out which one is better. I do use them on a daily basis but chia is much more expensive than flax seed. Hence my question, is it worth buying chia seed when you can get much cheaper ground flax seed???

As you can see their nutritional content is quite similar. Flax seed wins in Omega-3 content and n-3:n-6 ratio. Proper diet should contain anywhere from 1:1 to 4:1 of n-3:n-6. Sadly typical American diet provides about 1:20 of n-3:n-6. So we eat 20 times more Omega-6 fatty acids than Omega-3 fatty acids. They both also contain a lot of fiber, some protein and some essential minerals.

Both Chia and Flax seed contain a type of Omega-3 fatty acid called ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) which in our body becomes converted to EPA and DHA. EPA and DHA make up our brain and nerves and they are very important for healthy functioning of  our whole nervous system, mental health and heart health. They lower cholesterol, prevent cardiovascular diseases, dementia, Alzheimer’s and even development of cancer. Consuming flax or chia seeds is an easy way to add those acids to our diet.

Research

Looking at the nutritional content it seems like Flax seed is a winner but nutritional content is not everything. The important factor is how much of ALA becomes converted in our body to EPA and DHA. A food can contain tons of ALA but if it is not converted in our body to an active form, it’s pretty much useless.

One study measured the fat and nutritional content of eggs laid by the hens fed with Chia seeds or Flax seeds. What turned out is that eggs laid by the hens fed with Chia seeds had significantly greater (65% more) content of Omega-3 fatty acids than eggs laid by the hens fed with flax seed.

Researchers suggest that same thing might be happening in our bodies and much more of ALA coming from Chia seeds may be converted to EPA and DHA as compared to flax seed.

The choice obviously is yours, both seeds have tremendous health benefits. Flax is much cheaper but you need to eat much more of it to get the same benefits as from chia seeds so the price should not be an issue.

After doing my research I decided to be using both. I usually add 1 tablespoon of chia to my everyday oatmeal and use ground flaxseed for baking purposes. Just remember if you’ll be using flax seed either grind it by yourself in a blender or buy already ground version. Whole seed of flax is covered with fibers that are indigestible for humans so we cannot get any health benefits from whole flax seed.

Flax seed

References

A. Antruejo, J.O. Azcona, P.T. Garcia, C. Gallinger, M. Rosmini, R. Ayerza, W. Coates & C.D. Perez
(2011): Omega-3 enriched egg production: the effect of α -linolenic ω -3 fatty acid sources on laying hen performance
and yolk lipid content and fatty acid composition, British Poultry Science, 52:6, 750-760