If you were going to be stranded on a deserted island and could only have one food, what would it be? If you’re thinking of pizza, hamburgers or fried chicken, let me give you some advice: pick salba instead. This deceptively miniscule grain is one of nature’s truly perfect foods, and its health properties have been recognized for centuries.
Salba is also known as Chia Seed.
The Aztecs gave salba to their runners. Remember, they didn’t have email or the postal service 500 years ago. The empire’s runners had to cover great distances to deliver messages, which meant packing light. Salba was the perfect food — filling due to its fiber content, empowering due to its protein, and with a liberal amount of calcium and magnesium thrown in for good measure. Salba is also renowned for its antioxidant capacity—important to combat the oxidative stress that those runners were creating from all of that physical activity.
In some ways, salba is even more relevant today. The Aztecs didn’t have to deal with an onslaught of environmental stressors like traffic jams, ringing phones and a slew of nasty chemicals. Let’s face it—we need all of the nutritional help we can get, and salba is one of the easiest ways to do it. Sprinkle it on anything, add to shakes or in any recipe—and you’re packing a wallop of health into your day.
