Salba Diet

Adding salba to your diet may help you improve blood-glucose control, reduce inflammation and lower your blood pressure. It also may help you avoid overeating by helping you feel full longer. Some dietitians tout this grain, originally used by the Aztecs as nourishment on long journeys, as a new addition to the “superfood” list.

Identification

Salba is a plant species called chia in the mint family. Chia plants produce two different colors of seed — black and white. Salba comes from white seeds. Canadian nutritionist and columnist Leslie Beck says salba is a good way to boost your daily fiber intake. Consuming 2 tablespoons gives you 4 grams of fiber. Men should consume 38 grams fiber daily and women need 25 grams, according to MayoClinic.com. Salba also is a good source of the omega-3 fatty acid called alpha linolenic acid, which University of Maryland Medical Center notes can help reduce inflammation and prevent chronic conditions like arthritis and heart disease. In fact, salba has a better fatty acid profile than flaxseed, according to “Nutrition For Canadians for Dummies.” Salba also is a good source of protein, calcium, potassium, magnesium, copper, folate, niacin and antioxidants.

Significance and Use

When you add salba to your food, it is digested more slowly, helping you stay full longer. Avoiding hunger can help you control your appetite and reduce your overall food intake. Salba seeds form a bulking agent by absorbing many times their weight in water, becoming a thick, slow-digesting gel. Beck suggests using salba as an egg substitute by replacing one egg with 2 tablespoons ground salba mixed in ½ cup of water. Beck recommends also adding it to your morning cereal or yogurt, sprinkling on salads, adding to hamburger meat, stirring into soup or incorporating in baked goods. It’s good added to applesauce, smoothies and oatmeal as well.

Health Benefits

A November 2007 “Diabetes Care” study found that consuming salba daily can help reduce your risk for cardiovascular disease by lowering blood pressure and markers of inflammation and by maintaining good lipid and glycemic control. In fact, supplementing with salba works better than supplementing with wheat bran among diabetics, according to lead study author Vladimir Vuksan. You can find salba whole or ground at some groceries, at health food stores and on the Internet.

Dose-Dependent Action

The more salba you eat, the better it works to promote satiety, according to an April 2010 “European Journal of Clinical Nutrition” study. Adding salba to foods like bread also decreases your post-meal blood-glucose in a dose-dependent manner, with 24 grams salba having more of an effect than 7 grams of salba, notes Vuksan, also lead author for the 2010 study. This decrease in post-meal blood sugar increases provides a possible explanation for improvements in inflammation, blood pressure and coagulation among diabetics that occur after supplementing with salba for 12 weeks, Vuksan notes.

Considerations

Salba is easy to add to foods because it has a mild, almost nonexistent flavor, according to Beck. Despite this, you may not like the way it changes the texture of your food, note the experts at DietSpotlight.com. Also, consuming too much fiber can upset your digestive system. Adding too much too quickly to your diet may cause bloating, abdominal cramping and intestinal gas, according to MayoClinic.com. Also, be sure to add calories from salba into your daily intake. Two tablespoons has 46 calories, 36 of which come from fat.