This week, we decided to take a different approach to the healthy foods portion of our blog. Rather than cook a new recipe, we bought some pre-made healthy snacks from the local Whole Foods. We experimented with drinks and bars that were all chia seed based and compared them. But before we discuss our snacks, let's talk about why chia seeds are so good for us and figure out why "chia" is the Mayan word for "strength".
One health benefit of chia seeds is their high content of antioxidants. Antioxidants can not only slow down the aging process, but also help fight diseases like cancer. Additionally, chia seeds are packed with fiber (1 ounce of chia seeds contains 11 grams of fiber). Because of the fiber, chia seeds absorb water in your stomach, expanding, and making you feel more full. Chia seeds also contain a lot of protein (1 ounce of chia seeds contains 4 grams of protein). A high protein intake reduces appetite and cravings, leading to weight loss. Because of their super food ingredients, chia seeds can lower the risk of heart disease, strengthen our bones, and can improve our exercise performance. And to top it all off, chia seeds are extremely easy to incorporate into our daily diets. They have virtually no taste, so you can easily add them into any meal for a nutritional boost. In fact, we found 4 different ways to consume chia seeds when shopping at Wayland Whole Foods!
One health benefit of chia seeds is their high content of antioxidants. Antioxidants can not only slow down the aging process, but also help fight diseases like cancer. Additionally, chia seeds are packed with fiber (1 ounce of chia seeds contains 11 grams of fiber). Because of the fiber, chia seeds absorb water in your stomach, expanding, and making you feel more full. Chia seeds also contain a lot of protein (1 ounce of chia seeds contains 4 grams of protein). A high protein intake reduces appetite and cravings, leading to weight loss. Because of their super food ingredients, chia seeds can lower the risk of heart disease, strengthen our bones, and can improve our exercise performance. And to top it all off, chia seeds are extremely easy to incorporate into our daily diets. They have virtually no taste, so you can easily add them into any meal for a nutritional boost. In fact, we found 4 different ways to consume chia seeds when shopping at Wayland Whole Foods!
First we tried a banana nut bar made by Heath Warrior. Our first impression was the delicious smell! Fortunately, our expectations were met when we bit into the bar. We enjoyed the sweet taste and the strong banana flavor. That said, the texture was a bit odd--the ample amount of seeds left the bar not chewy or crunchy, but a strange combination of the two. On the plus side, the ingredients seemed to be all natural and clean. Comprised of white chia seeds, brown rice syrup, rolled oats, and dried bananas, to name a few ingredients, the bar has a total of 100 calories, 3 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber. Overall, we’d recommend the bar for a quick and healthy snack, but don’t expect it to fill you up. The next bar we tried was a chocolate peanut butter bar that was also made by Health Warrior. Like the other bar, we enjoyed the sweet smell. When tasting it, we decided that we prefer this flavor to the banana nut flavor. The texture was more appealing because the seediness was broken up by the chocolate chips. This bar also contains clean ingredients (white chia seeds, peanuts, dark chocolate chips, organic cocoa liquor, and butter agave syrup). However, this bar is slightly fattier than the other one. Similar to the other bar, it also has 100 calories, 3 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fiber. We enjoyed this bar and would definitely try it again. We then tried our first chia drink: Coconut Mango Mamma Chia. Our first impression was the sliminess. Although Halle didn’t mind the texture, Sophie found the sliminess very distracting and unenjoyable. The drink was oddly thick and the chia seeds made it feel lumpy. Imagine sipping a snail out of its shell, and there you have Mamma Chia. In addition to the strange texture, the drink itself was rather watery and not very flavorful. The only redeeming quality to Mamma Chia are the healthy ingredients. The drink is comprised of hydrated chia seeds, agave, natural flavors, mango puree, and citric acid. It contains 2500 mg of Omega 3s, 120 calories, 6 grams of fiber (24% of your daily fiber intake), and 4 grams of protein. The only red flag is the 14 grams of sugar--this is definitely not desirable, but also not atypical of a juice drink. All in all, this drink definitely isn’t for everyone; personally, we wouldn’t buy this drink for pleasure, but for the health benefits. Lastly, we tried Mamma Chia’s Strawberry Banana Chia Squeeze. Although the packaging and the drink itself resemble baby food, we were pleasantly surprised by this snack. Granted, the texture was bizarre once again. There were definite hints of slime, but for some reason it was more bearable in the Chia Squeeze than in the other drink. Something interesting about the ingredients is that it includes beets, which seem to be trending in the health food world. Similar to the other drink, Chia Squeeze contains 1200 Omega 3s, 4 grams of fiber, 2 grams of protein, and 70 calories. Although we’d probably prefer to reach for a different healthy snack, these were much better than we expected! |
Last note regarding chia snacks is that the seeds wedge into your teeth, which can be annoying. All in all, the bars were tasty, but the drinks were too weird to fully enjoy. In the future, we’d probably rather sprinkle our chia seeds over yogurt or a smoothie bowl. That said, we’re happy to have experimented with the chia fad and we hope that our reviews clue you in on what to expect when purchasing a chia snack!