A major part of developing great health is to eat clean, exercise, don’t smoke, and other factors. There are many superfoods available for us, but chia seeds have become an important functional food. Suitable nutrition is a critical factor in the prevention of many diseases related to health. As well as helping us age well.

The leading killer of all diseases, are due to unhealthy food today, are cancer, depression, diabetes, and coronary heart disease (CHD) (Wang et al. 2016). However, the main challenge today, and even in the future, will be providing people with enough, safe, and healthy food.

You probably know chia seeds are sold as a fast growing plant popular at Christmas time. That variety is a different form of chia seed.

Information regarding the eatable chia seed can be plentiful. In the AcademicJournals.org researchers have reported chia seeds to have high nutritional content in the form of protein (15-25%), dietary fiber (18-35%), fat (15-35%) and ash content (4-6%). Apart from their rich nutritional content, chia seeds can improve the nutritional content of various food products when they are blended or mixed with other foods.

The chia seed is an oil seed that is native to Central and South America (Nieman et al., 2009). It is considered to be a pseudo-cereal, which is cultivated for different usage and commonly grown in several countries. The main chia producing countries are Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru (Ixtaina et al, 2008). It has been a significant food crop in the Aztec, Mayan, and Incan civilizations of the past. It was used as food and medicine, as well as in making paint.

While the term “pseudo” might be thought of any system or methods or theories that pretends to have a basis in science (or life) but does not have a basis for reality. However in this concept, a pseudocereal is a group of plants that produce starch-rich seeds that can be used in food applications similarly to cereal grains. That most widely known representatives include buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa and canihua, which is less well known. All of these pseudocereals have good nutritional compositions, with high concentrations of essential amino acids, essential fatty acids, minerals and some vitamins.

Pseudocereals are typically high in protein and gluten-free and are considered whole grains. Many so called “ancient grains” are pseudocereals.

Starch granules in pseudocereals are among the smallest measured, and the starch is characterized by low amylose content (except for buckwheat). The resulting differences in the starch properties of pseudocereals (processing properties similar to waxy-type cereal starches), as well as differences in seed morphology, determine their functional properties. Pseudocereals exhibit high viscosity, water-binding capacity, and swelling capability and good freeze-thaw stability. Additionally, they are gluten-free.

Traditionally pseudocereal food processes including cooking, popping, roasting and fermentation, which are used in the production of porridges, soups, stews, and sweet desserts. Product made with pseudocereals do not require large adaptions to processing steps used with cereals. Bakery products and pasta are produced either with flour blends or pseudocereals and other forms of cereals, with the main objective to increase the nutritional properties of the final product, or they are made with 100% pseudocereal flour for the gluten-free foods market, which has been one of the main drivers of increased pseudocereal use.

The color of the coat of the seed varies from grey, black, and white-spotted, which are slightly different from each other. However, black seeds are more common, and white seeds are slightly larger than black seeds (Ixtaina et al., 2008, Seguard-Campos et al., 2014, Ayerza, 2013). Increased consumption of chia seeds and a greater variety of plant foods provides most of the lost minerals and vitamins, in addition to phytochemicals.

Chia seeds with omega – 3 fatty acids play a key role in preventing the formation of clots and plaques in the arteries and also helps to prevent plaques in the arteries, and also helps to prevent cardiovascular diseases. This seed plays an important role in lowering cholesterol also.

As a rich source of dietary fiber, it is useful for proper functioning of the intestine and contains highly nutritious proteins, more than traditional cereals (Reyes-Caudillo et al., 2008).

Chia seed is a good source of dietary fiber with 5% soluble fiber which appears as clear mucilage when it is placed in water.  Mohid et al. (2013) reported that chia seed contained 34 to 40% of dietary fiber and is equivalent to 100% of the daily recommendation for adults. The defatted chia seed flour contained 40% dietary fiber of which 5-10% was soluble fiber and forms part of the mucilage helping to slow the digestion, prevent cardiovascular diseases and manage diabetes.

This seed also accelerated intestinal movement due to high quantity of insoluble fiber that increased volume of fecal mass and provided a feeling of being satisfied during eating. Which prevents obesity and colon cancer in humans.  (Jeong et al. (2010) reported that insoluble dietary fiber content in chia seeds increased gastro intestinal time and was directly related to gradual increased post-meal glucose levels and decreased insulin resistance over a period of time.

Chicco et al. (2009) reported the function of chia is to maintain the lipid and glucose homeostasis in the body. There was a significant reduction in waist circumference in healthy individuals after a month of chia supplementation with no change in body weight maybe due to specific loss of fat mass. In a chronic treatment, dietary chia seed reduced the visceral adiposity and insulin resistance among sucrose-induced diabetic rats.

Vertomen et al (2005) investigated the impact of feeding chia seeds to a group of rats with dyslipidemia. Results revealed that feeling chia seeds greatly decreased the visceral adiposity, decreased triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels. In the healthy individuals, ingestion of chia (50 g/day) for 30 days experiment diastolic blood pressure decreased from 66.1 to 61.5 mmHg with significant decline in serum triglycerides and no side effects.

Current trends in healthier nutrient-dense foods show chia seeds are becoming more popular to researchers because of their nutritional composition, and benefits to the human-health. Chia seeds reported to contain protein (15-25%), fat (15-35%), ash (4-5%) dietary fiber (18-35%) and carbohydrates (18-31%) Coelho and Salas-Mellando, 2014; Ixtanina et al, 2008).

Consumption of chia has increased due to its beneficial effects related to obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. These benefits result primarily of the high concentration of essential fatty acids, dietary fiber, antioxidants, flavonoids, anthocyanins, vitamins, carotenoids and minerals present in this seed.

Chia seeds can help in the prevention of nutritional related disorders because it contains higher concentration of fatty acids, essential amino acids, good quality protein and adequate amount of dietary fiber.