Chia Seed Pudding Benefits To Detox The Gut
Are you looking for a natural and easy way to help detox and support your gut health? Well then look no further than chia seeds.
Hi, my name is Jessie Gutsue and I'm a functional medicine dietitian with Oswald Digestive Clinic.
Today we're going to be talking about chia seed pudding and its gut health benefits.
But before that, if you're interested in more gut healthy cooking tips, then check out the link here for our Five Tips For Quicker Gut Healthy Cooking. Okay, without further ado, let's get started on our Chia seed pudding and the benefits for our gut health.
[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]
So you've probably heard of Chia seed pudding
We're going to start right in on this recipe because I want you to see the chia seed pudding thicken throughout our talk because it happens so quickly and it's really cool.
So first you start with about three tablespoons of chia seeds. And this is perfect because two to three tablespoons is about a serving. So we'll pour this into a bowl and then follow it with your choice of milk, about a half a cup. Now, depending on what you add into this recipe, we're going to do a very basic mix, but depending on what you add, you may want to reduce or increase the liquid, and you'll see as time goes. So there you go. We'll start with that basic recipe and watch that thicken.
Now let's talk about chia seeds
So chia seeds are by weight or by calorie. They are highest in fat, followed by fiber or carbohydrates, and then protein. And as you can imagine, some of the great benefits of chia seeds are their fiber content. They have about 10 grams of fiber in a serving, which I mentioned is about two rounded tablespoons, really not that much. And there are loads of ways to input chia seeds into your day.
So we'll talk about those toward the end, how to integrate them into our day. But the fiber is one of the main components or main helpful reasons that chia seeds can help to naturally improve gut health and detox at the same time. So the primary fiber in chia seeds is insoluble.
So remember, there's two main fibers.
There's soluble and there's insoluble. And so insoluble is that primary type found in chia seeds, and that fiber helps to sort of move things through a little faster if your bowels are sluggish.
Chia Seed Pudding Benefits
But at the same time, it can help by reducing toxins because if we have various toxins that we've inhaled or ingested, then we can pull 'em out before they hit the bloodstream and before they get into our body via stool. So that's one of its main benefits. And as you can see, look at it's already starting to pull some water.
Another big benefit to chia seeds is the fact that it can pull in 12 times its weight in water, which yes, they're small, but that is a tremendous expansion and there's a lot of benefit that comes with that too. So the fact that they pull in so much water, you can imagine that would help with hydration status, perhaps electrolytes. But then also the way that they pull in water is because they're hydrophilic. So they like water and they'll pull that water in and they actually act as a mu.
So when we think about our gut health, which really should be mouth the anus, you think about your esophagus and your intestinal lining, that should all be really mucus rich, really hydrated, and that helps to strengthen your overall gut health and help things, pathogens and things from coming in or other things to excrete into the bloodstream. So it really helps as a natural barrier. And so this hydration of chia seeds and the fact that it's more of like a mucilaginous seed helps to heal and seal are gut lining.
Another benefit of chia seeds is, of course, I mentioned before it's primarily fat, and it has about shy of about one and a half grams of alpha linoleic acid. So that's usually abbreviated as a LA. And that type of fat is the primary fat that's found in plants as our omega source. So that type of fat can be converted into the omega threes that we often hear about in fatty fish, so they can be converted throughout that same pathway and be of same benefit.
So that comes with a whole host of other ways that it helps to improve our overall health. So those alpha linoleic acids help to support our overall health by strengthening the gut brain access. So when we have a nice rich microbiome and lots of antioxidants and phytonutrients working together, they can help to strengthen that gut brain access. And so those linoleic acids help to improve that as well as being an anti-inflammatory in and of themselves too.
In addition to that, of course, because they are fiber rich, they can contain a lot of prebiotic properties. And we've mentioned before, prebiotics are the food for our probiotics. So they're the food that helps feed our gut microbiome. And one of the final ways that chia seeds can help improve our health is because they are so gentle on our digestion. So a lot of fiber rich foods think of roughage like greens can really be sometimes painful to some people.
They can really create a lot of gas or bloat and chia seeds don't typically have that same effect because that just two tablespoons still provides you with a lot of fiber and not so much of the gas and bloat and difficult digestion.
So this is how we make chia seed pudding super easy. Now you can see two or so tablespoons and a half a cup of liquid. I used rock house milk here, but you're welcome to use whatever type of milk you want or even alternative liquids. So let's get into some variations with chia seed pudding. So this one, I'm just going to add a little bit of cinnamon, but of course this is a really basic, I'll call it recipe, but hardly a recipe. It takes just seconds to whip together and then maybe 10 or so minutes to actually come together. So we'll put some cinnamon in there and then sweeten it with a little bit of maple syrup.
Now remember that there are a lot of different options here for versatility for chia seed pudding.
One of our favorites is actually pumpkin chia seed pudding. So I use a lot of canned pumpkin and add it into it with lots of pumpkin spices and that's great. But you can add in frozen berries. You can make a chocolate chia seed pudding. You can make bananas and blend those in, or your favorite, whatever it may be. It's perfect in chia seed pudding because really chia seeds are a pretty blank slate when you work with them.
So I like these because there's lots of variations and you can make it very seasonable. Our favorite way to work in chia seed pudding is typically as a lunch, actually as a standard lunch on our weekly rotation for myself and my family. And because it incorporates so much fat and a little bit of protein in the fiber, I combine it with appropriate sources of protein, but it's a great snack or side for a lunch.
As you can see, it's starting to pull in a lot of liquid and becoming a little bit more cohesive. So another way you can use chia seeds and you can see this benefit rate with your own eyes is that you can actually use it as a vegan egg replacer.
To make that, you would use about two tablespoons of chia seeds to a tablespoon or two of water or your preferred liquid and just mix it together like this and use it like an egg sub there. So that's another great way to use it.
We also really enjoy adding chia seeds to things like homemade granola or smoothies, putting it into various cereals, oatmeal, you name it. It pretty well lends itself to being incorporated in a lot of those easy mix in kind of meals. So as you keep stirring, you'll see it continues to get thicker and thicker with time and continual stirring.
Make sure to stir it throughout the 10, 15 minutes that you allow it to congeal. Otherwise, you will get some clumps that you'll have to work out toward the end anyway. So stirring it periodically is a good suggestion.
Now, I store my chia seeds in the fridge because they're so rich in the polyunsaturated fatty acid. I like the storm in the fridge in a glass jar so that they're a little bit more protected from light and air. All the three things that can really reduce the quality of our foods, especially those that have more polyunsaturated fatty acids because they're more vulnerable to spoilage and they'll last in a glass jar for a couple of months. I use a bag or two at a time, and you can eat the whole seed. And the whole seed is perfectly digestible, which is different from say your flax seed, which you have to grind.
So that's the great thing about chia seeds. In fact, the seed itself is made in a way where the high fiber content actually helps to keep that fat more stable and within its structure, within its fibrous structure. So it's pretty cool how it works like that. So here we are mixing along. Now I have added my cinnamon and my maple syrup. Now you're welcome to add in frozen berries or fresh berries, or you could top it with some honey or some cocoa, nbs. You can keep it simple, whatever suits your fancy. That's the beauty of this. And of course, this is about one serving.
Again, this is two tablespoons with a half a cup of your choice of liquid. But if you're interested in making for a larger group, then just you can increase the amount, but I wouldn't increase the amount according to the recipe. I would start with more seeds and then reduce the liquid by about two thirds or so of the expanded recipe. And then you can always add in more liquid at the end. You can never pull it out. You'll have to just continually add seeds. So I recommend less liquid to begin with is safer. And then just see how you like the thickness. There you go. Look at how thick that is. It's getting nice and thick.
Super yummy.
Alright, I want to know, have you tried chia seed pudding before?
If you have, I would love to know in the comments below, what's your favorite way to enjoy chia seed pudding? Tell me when and how. I'm so interested in seeing your comments.
Thanks again for watching. I hope you come back next week. And again, this is Jessie and I am with Oswald Digestive Clinic, and we would love for you to
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