Christopher McDougall introduced most of us to chia seeds in his 2009 "Born to Run," a book about the superhuman Tarahumara Indians of Copper Canyon, Mexico. While eating chia is becoming more mainstream, the majority probably think eating chia seeds will sprout Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia Pets in their stomachs. Well ... maybe these people are just my doughnut-loving and healthy food-fearing coworkers. (I'm looking at you, Chuck.)
Chia crash course: They are like the MacGyver + Chuck Norris of super-foods. These tiny seeds -- about the size of quinoa -- are packed full of minerals, fiber, antioxidants, protein and omega fatty acids. They have a slight nutty flavor, but other than that don't taste like much. Eat your chia by dropping a tablespoon in a bottle of water, reducing the water/chia ratio to 2:1 and making chia goo (has the consistency of tapioca pudding, but still not much taste), or sprinkling the seeds like a garnish on yogurt or a smoothie. All fine methods, but none super-tasty.
I found the delicious jackpot when I was introduced to Health Warrior's chia bars. Each vegan bar is a 100-calorie portion of health food disguised as a candy bar. The peanut butter chocolate chia bar has 1,000 mg of Omega-3 fatty acid and 700 mg of Omega-6. These are the fatty acids that make fish oil supplements so beneficial, but the bars give you the pros without unpleasant fish-burp cons. Each bar also has 3 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, calcium and iron. Good stuff, but the bar doesn't taste too raw like it was made from ground up hippies and sunshine like other uber-healthy options.
Health Warrior says each 16-ounce bag of plain seeds contains the same amount of Omega-3s as 10 pounds of salmon, the same amount of fiber as 4 pounds of oatmeal and the same amount of protein as 3 pounds of tofu. That's a lot of nutritional bang for you low-calorie (and bulk) buck.
Our only complaint? The chia seeds plump when soaked in water, so they tend to lodge themselves in your teeth and refuse to let go. All of us enjoyed our snack and then went to find floss.
The bars comes in peanut butter chocolate and soon-to-be-released acai berry flavor. Buy Health Warrior bars and seeds here.
Update: The guys at Health Warrior just told us that they've sold out of the bars online much earlier than expected, and hope to have more available by next week (Feb. 20th)
Sara Davidson is an ultrarunner and our resident women's gear destroyer.
