I'm sure you've seen the commercials for Chia Pets, the ceramic planters made in different shapes that, when you spread seeds on their surface, grow "hair" or "fur". The latest issue of the Harvard Heart Letter reports on research using a variant of the seeds from a Chia Pet as a diabetes treatment. Here's what this newsletter has to say about this interesting possibility:
Chia seeds come from a plant formally known as Salvia hispanica, which is a member of the mint family. It gets its common name from the Aztec word chian, meaning oily, because the herb's small, black seeds are rich in oils. Legend has it that Aztec runners relied on chia seeds for fuel as they carried messages one hundred or more miles in a day. The seeds contain more healthy omega-3 fats and fiber than flax or other grain seeds, and they're a great source of protein and antioxidants.
The Canadian researchers showed that a daily portion of one-third of a cup (about 36 grams) of Salba, a white-seeded variant of chia, helped diabetic volunteers control their blood sugar along with their blood pressure and new markers of cardiac risk, such as C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. The results were published in the November 2007 Diabetes Care.
Before you rush out to buy Salba, which is sold online and in health food stores, keep in mind that 1) it worked only slightly better than wheat bran and 2) the trial lasted just 12 weeks.
The real message of this study is that people with diabetes benefit from cutting back on refined grains (white bread, white rice, etc.) and embracing whole grains, from whole-wheat bread and brown rice to whole-grain breakfast cereals, oatmeal, cracked wheat, and others. Numerous studies show that whole grains are an excellent choice for people with diabetes.
What is your reaction to this surprising idea to eat a kind of chia seed?
Julie K. Silver, M.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Chief Editor of Books for Harvard Health Publications.
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Comments: 7
I really appreciate this information. Your suggestion about the whole grains is great. The only thing that I've noticed is that they seem to be higher in carbohydrates. I don't understand why that is?
Again, thanks for the information!
We also agree with Dr Silver that increasing whole grains in the diet is beneficial but like to point out that in the study the participants were already following a healthy diet and often taking medication, addition of Salba nevertheless seemed to further improve some of the heart disease risk factors. Wheat bran, matched in quantity of total dietary fiber, was used as the control in the study as it known not to have any positive metabolic effects in interventional studies (Jenkins et al, Diabetes Care, 2006) besides being a laxative and this was again confirmed in our study. Other whole grains may have similar effects to Salba but more studies, including ones with Salba, need to be undertaken to confirm this.
Addition of Salba to the diet will increase intake of fibre, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, potassium and antioxidants which are all beneficial nutritional food components. We feel therefore that people may, after all, want to "rush out and buy Salba" as, in addition to the exercise provided by the fast trip to the store, it may also improve cardiovascular risk factors which are an important part of diabetes treatment
Vladimir Vuksan and Alexandra Jenkins