Lose weight without starving? How chia seeds can help you lose weight

Any dieter knows that hunger is a main enemy of trying to lose weight. When you’re hungry, you’re probably thinking about food. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to have cravings for certain foods, and also more likely to give in to them. When you’re hungry, you’re more likely to over eat at meal time or look for unhealthy snacks. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to stop hunger at will, whenever it happened? What if you could do it easily, safely AND cheaply? How do you think that would impact your weight loss efforts? If you think this could make a huge difference in not only your success, but the EASE of success, you can’t miss this! There are 5 main ways that tiny chia seeds can help you lose weight without starving.

What is it?  The Chia Seed  What can it do for you?  1. End hunger when you eat it, at any time of the day  2. Increase energy levels without jitters and help balance blood sugar  3. It can taste like whatever you want  4. Give you Omega-3 healthy oil, calcium, boron, complete protein, fiber, and magnesium You can have all this without one single chemical, pharmaceutical, or side effect. Chia Seeds are 100% natural, safe, FDA approved, and require no preservatives.    But what do you have to do to get all this to work?  Well first, you need some seeds, and you’ve got to eat them every day. Eating them is the easy and fun part, because of their unique flavorlessness and gelling property. These two factors combine to let chia seeds take on the taste of whatever you add them to. They distribute, never dilute, the flavors you love in drinks, foods, dips and toppings. That means it’s the one ingredient you can add that actually improves the flavor! Chia can make almost any food more healthful without messing up the taste. How do Chia Seeds keep you feeling full? When the Chia Seed is exposed to water or other liquids it begins to hydrate. This means that the fibers on the outside of the seed (almost too small to see with the naked eye)

begin to trap moisture and form it into a gel. Each seed forms its own big bead of gel, that is not easily removed. When you eat this seed/gel combination, your body treats it like a big piece of food…not the 0 calorie water that it really is! The seeds themselves are tiny and healthy, but it’s their ability to absorb 9 TIMES their own weight in water that keeps you feeling full. This means you can use even 1 tsp of seeds to get rid of hunger whenever you want. By drinking half a cup of water with a spoon-full or two of chia gel in it, about 15 minutes before meal time, you can sabotage hunger. The fiber in the gel helps the stomach to signal “something’s here, I’m not as hungry”. But, it has to be at least 15 minutes before a meal, because the stomach uses slow chemical signals to communicate with the brain. The two kinds of fiber in chia, soluble & insoluble can’t be broken down by the body for energy or calories. The whole point of fiber is that it’s unable to be digested. It acts as a sweeper, helping food move through the digestive process...but it takes up space while doing so. This also helps you feel satisfied longer. Food with chia mixed in, like soups, oatmeal, smoothies, salad dressings, overnight- oats & more will keep you feeling full much longer than if the food had no chia added.

 You can see the dramatic difference with these hydrated seeds in the spoon to the right. That's a gel that's made of water, but more solid like a gelatin snack. It is made of the clear soluble fiber & forces the seeds to sit apart from eachother.

A “Side Benefit” of the gelling process is value. This also makes it a great value for you when 1 dry tablespoon of chia makes 9 tablespoons of hunger-fighting chia gel. It's as easy as scoop, pour and wait 10 minutes for the gel to form on its own. Water isn't the only answer, either. You can use your favorite juice drinks too, and chia will never cover up or dilute the flavor you love. Chia Gel Ratio: 1 part chia seeds to 9 parts filtered water or non- acidic liquid Just pour the liquid & chia into a re-seal-able container & shake or stir to prevent clumping. Leave it alone for about 10 minutes...and when you return, you’ve got chia gel! The gel will keep for about a week in a closed container in the refrigerator. Want more specific ways to eat chia JUST for weight loss? Read the Chia Seed Weight Loss Ways article. How do Chia Seeds help balance blood sugar and provide you with more energy?  Would you work out more/walk more/do more yoga or stretching if you FELT like it? What if you weren’t too tired to do all sorts of fun activities that also burn calories? The Chia Seed can help with that. Chia is one of the few plant sources of complete protein. Usually, complete protein is only found in animal products. It provides you with healthy, steady energy. Plant protein, when combined with other healthy choices like fresh fruits, vegetables & nuts provides healthy energy. Blood sugar is also important in keeping you energized. It may spike after meals, and leave you feeling run down later. Ever feel like you need an afternoon nap for no real reason? Probably blood sugar is the culprit. Once again, it is the seed’s fiber and gelling action to the rescue. The two kinds of fiber present in every seed (soluble and insoluble) slow down the body’s conversion of carbohydrates into sugars. This results with blood sugar that’s more even throughout the day, and gives you the steady, never jittery or ‘crash prone’ energy you crave. Caffeine highs and sugary drinks will never provide the kind of long- lasting energy you can get from healthy foods that are well digested. Good digestion is a part of weight loss  When your body is metabolizing food smoothly, easily, and with enough hydration the byproducts that might keep you run down are flushed away. Insoluble fiber does not add calories because it cannot be digested by the body. Instead, it acts as roughage, keeping digested food moving along smoothly. The gel formed by the soluble fibers of the seeds keeps the colon hydrated. Soluble fiber also feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut. It’s important to keep probiotic bacteria happy & healthy, because they can stamp out bad craving-causing bacteria who would sabotage your efforts. Many modern foods have been refined so most of the fiber is missing. When you add it back in easily with chia seeds every day, you can keep the ‘good-guy’ bacteria on your side and reap the benefits of better digestion & craving-fighting. Did you know that being deficient in minerals or vitamins can create a craving for food? For instance, if you’re low on calcium, you may want to eat more cheese and ice cream. Or you might want extra servings of cheesy or creamy- sauce pasta, driving up the calorie count with milk-fats and too many starchy carbs. By balancing your vitamins and minerals with chia & improving the health of your beneficial bacteria you can curb cravings that might tempt you. By weight, chia has more calcium than whole milk. It also has magnesium and boron, essential trace minerals used in the absorption of calcium and other vitamins. Eat a fat…to lose fat? That’s what “USA Weekend” reported on a study of dieters. In the study, people on the diet who were also supplementing with omega-3 oil lost more weight than people who didn’t use this healthy oil. Omega-3 oil, commonly found in fish like salmon, and cod-liver oil is a healthy oil your body needs for cellular health. It may even help raise good cholesterol, improve digestion, and relieve some types of arthritis pain. But what if you don’t want fish that often? What if you’re a vegetarian? Chia seeds are rich in omega-3s, and have 0 fishy flavor. Suppliments of omega 3s are another good idea if you know your omega 3 vs 6 balance is out of order. But where did all the omega-3 go? Is its loss part of the obesity cause? Animal fats (like real butter, cream, etc) were seen to have saturated fats (long seen as ‘the bad guy’) and were phased out in favor of plant based oils like corn, sunflower and rapeseed. These plant oils may be unsaturated, and they may boast a long shelf life, but they also are loaded with Omega-6, the less healthy of the oils. When you consume too much omega-6 it can cause inflammation that may lead up to a build-up of cholesterol in the arteries. Some omega-6 is needed for cellular heath, but too much and it can be a problem. In all, chia helps you lose weight in 6 ways: Stop hunger, quiet cravings for food, improve digestion, give you the energy to be active, balance blood sugar, and help restore the omega-3 balance. If “big pharma” ever found a pill that could do all that, you can bet they’d charge an arm and a leg. But…enough chia for 1 month is less than a dollar a day, all natural, and has 0 risk. If you’re determined to lose weight, choose fresh and healthy foods, and use chia each day to add nutrition and cut hunger, you can reach your goals.  When you want to lose weight, keep it off, and stay healthy and energized the whole time, nothing can beat the chia seed. You have nothing to lose but the excess weight so see for yourself how great these seeds really are! Try Chia Seeds Now * Chia Seed FAQ * This article & author also on Ezine Articles Expert Articles!