He found that supplementing conventional diabetes therapy with Salba significantly reduced cardiovascular risk factors in people with well-controlled diabetes.
"The results were lower blood pressure, reduced low-grade inflammation, and also it made blood thinner," Vuksan says. "There are not many studies in the literature showing this kind of results from a natural grain. It was rather spectacular."
Vuksan says he can't vouch for all chia, but Salba, a variety developed through selective breeding so its nutrients are standardized for scientific studies, is very high in fiber and has "a lot of nutrients that we have learned over the years have healthy properties, including calcium, iron, Vitamin C and magnesium."
Common chia seeds collected randomly from fields in Mexico have all the same nutrients but not in the same proportions, and have not been studied, he said.
Chia seeds were a basic food of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans, and legend has it that a handful could sustain a warrior for a full day.
The grain is harvested from Salvia hispanica, a member of the mint family that grows in southern Mexico and South America.
Mehmet Oz offered Oprah Winfrey some of his pumpkin-chia seed muffins on her show recently and told her, "Chia is as chock-full of fiber as other whole grains, but it packs in even more vitamins and minerals. . . . more magnesium than about 10 of those heads of broccoli."
Nutrition guru Andrew Weil says these tiny seeds are a better source of omega-3 fatty acids than flaxseed, a longtime favorite of his.
"Research has shown that adding it to chicken feed makes for eggs rich in omega-3s. Feeding chia to chickens enriches their meat with omega-3s; fed to cattle, chia enriches milk with omega-3s," Weil writes in his online library.
