It’s no secret to anyone who knows me, I drink only three things: water, tea and coffee. I’m not, nor have I ever really been a juice person. Not that I don’t dig my veggie juice, but somehow that doesn’t count. I’m talking about fruit juices or even fancy super-foodie type juices and kombucha drinks.

Then comes along my friend Sara Erb, who has been busy making successful businesses around natural foods for many years (if I told you, you’d think she was old, but she isn’t — not sure how, but maybe her latest super cool product is her secret to amazing ageless health?).

I know she’s been making a chia seed drink (Chia Star) for a while now, and I keep thinking I’ll try that one of these days, but I’m just not into sweet juicy type drinks, so I have managed to put it off — till now.

Mea Culpa to Sara! She showed up at my house with an armful of various Chia Star drinks ready to do an interview in GD Studio. Ok, now I had to try it… WOW! I am completely addicted to this stuff. NOT sweet. Just right. Taste is brilliant and the texture is just damned fun!

Listen to this great interview with Sara Erb and learn why Chia Star is so unique and why her chia seeds are “mighty soaked,” then keep reading to learn more about why chia seeds rock and why pre-soaking them is so important…

To learn more about the history of chia seeds, check out this post…

chia seeds are a rock star superfood

There are so many health benefits to these little seeds. They pack a huge nutritional punch in a very tiny package—maximum fiber, minimum carbohydrate. These little suckers (literally) have the ability to soak up 12 times their weight in water! Here are some nutritional facts about chia seeds:

1 ounce of chia seeds = 137 calories + …

• 1 gram of fiber
• 4 grams of protein
• 9 grams of fat (5 of which are Omega-3s).
• Calcium: 18% of the RDA
• Manganese: 30% of the RDA
• Magnesium: 30% of the RDA
• Phosphorus: 27% of the RDA
• They also contain significant Zinc, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Potassium, Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) and Vitamin B2

soak your chia seeds

While you don’t NEED to soak your chia seeds overnight, as Sara Erb explains, there are some very real benefits to doing so. Soaking chia seeds will activate the seed making it more bio-available, helping to prevent blood sugar spikes, decreasing cholesterol and keeping you hydrated longer.

Here’s a silly video of me making my coconut chia seed pudding…

and here’s the simple recipe…

what you need

Please check out our YouTube channel to see short, funny and useful 1 GD Minute videos with recipes and DIY tutorials. Here’s a recent one…

And if you want to learn more about the content of this video, please read the corresponding post!