Eating chia seeds could be the key to protecting the brain and body against the harmful effects of eating ultra-processed foods, new research has suggested.
Ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which are often high in saturated fats and sugars, have been linked with adverse effects across nearly every single organ system in the body.
A damning report led by The Lancet last year found the average person in the UK consumes over half of their daily calories through UPFs.
And this isn’t only bad news for your gut – driving up levels of obesity and type 2 diabetes; a diet high in fat and sugar (HFSS) can trigger inflammation in the brain, increasing the risk of cognitive decline.
These foods have also been shown to disrupt the gut-brain axis, effectively disrupting satiety signals and encouraging overeating.
But now Brazilian scientists say chia seeds could offer a solution.
The small black and white seeds are high in omega-3 fats and are a complete source of protein, meaning they contain all nine essential amino acids that they body needs to function.
Previous studies have shown that ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid that chia seeds are full of, can help lower inflammation in patients with metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions including obesity and high blood pressure which increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Chia seeds may help the brain regulate appetite and inflammation, scientists say
To test whether the seeds could reverse the damage caused by Western diets, experts from the Federal University of Vicosa studied how flour and oil made from the seeds influenced rats’ brains.
For the first eight weeks of the study, published in the journal Nutrition, a majority of the rats were fed a diet designed to mimic unhealthy human diets high in lard and fructose – a type of sugar.
This preliminary phase was intended to trigger metabolic changes in the animals so they more closely resembled the general human population.
A control group was fed a standard, healthy diet so the researchers could compare the effects of chia seeds on different health profiles.
For the next 10 weeks, one group continued the high-fat, high-sugar diet without any changes, whilst another group were fed this unhealthy diet with the addition of chia oil.
A third group had their high-fat feed supplemented with chia flour.
The researchers then collected brain tissue samples for analysis.
The results revealed distinct differences between the effects of chia flour and chia oil on satiety and inflammatory markers.
The rats which were fed chia oil showed increased activity in specific genes that suppress hunger, suggesting that chia may promote feelings of fullness by activating this pathway in the central nervous system.
These genes produce proteins called POMC and CART which signal to the body that is has consumed enough energy, resulting in feelings of fullness.
Interestingly, the researchers observed no such activation in the group fed chia flour.
However, both interventions appeared to improve how the brain responds to leptin – a hormone produced by fat calls associated with feelings of hunger.
In a healthy brain, leptin binds to specific receptors to block hunger pangs. But, diets high in fat suppress these signals leading to leptin resistance and over-eating.
The researchers found feeding rats chia products restored normal brain functioning, successfully reducing the urge to overeat.
The way that they increase feelings of satiety, chia seeds can be compared to how GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, also known as fat jabs, dull appetite and lead to weight loss.
Beyond appetite control, they found unhealthy diets increased the expression of a protein that turns on inflammation in cells – but chia helped blunt this effect, protecting brain cells from inflammatory damage.
Chia four specifically was found to have more protective effects, with compounds in the flour shown to directly bind to appetite receptors in the brain.
The team concluded: ‘The consumption of chia flour and oil associated with a high fat, high-fructose diet modulated the expression of genes involved in satiety and inflammatory response mechanisms… making it a potential strategy for controlling metabolic disease associated with unbalanced diets.’
However, despite these promising changes in brain activity, the team highlighted an important caveat: none of the animals consuming chia lost weight.
A potential reason for this is because they were consuming an extremely high calorie diet, which could have masked the weight benefits of chia, the researchers suggested.
They added that behavioural changes in eating and subsequent weight loss might require a longer period to manifest.
Eating foods high in fat, salt and sugar and low in vitamins and fibre has long been linked to an increased risk of serious health problems including cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
