We’ve mentioned it a few times on the site, and now we’d like to talk a little more about this burgeoning Canadian food/product called Salba.
First off, its origins: Salba comes from the salvia family of plants, which also gives us the herbs sage and mint. Its seeds are removed from the sprouts. Technically, Salba comes from the same family that produced the famous chia pet, but it’s made up of two distinct varieties of the plant (called Sahi Alba 911 and 912), and according to the makers, these varieties are the ones that have been found to have far higher natural levels of omega-3.
WHAT SALBA DOES FOR US
The great thing about Salba? It’s a whole food. It’s not a breakfast cereal with omega-3 injected into it, or a supplement with some kind of complicated green-tea infusion — Salba is an actual seed, grown, cultivated, and consumed as-is. And it’s loaded with great stuff, much like the Quinoa we’ve talked about elsewhere.
The one difference between Salba and Quinoa is that ‘Salba’ is a trademark — an actual product put out by a Canadian company, consisting of those two registered varieties of the Salvia Hispanica L seed. It’s technically possible to buy chia seeds on the market, of course, but according to the company, not all varieties have the same nutritional value.
THE ONLY FOOD WITH A MEDICAL PATENT
It also happens that Salba is the only food that holds an actual medical patent. Here’s some technical-speak from the site itself:
Salba® is the only food that holds a medical patent (60-274.256). The patent pertains to Salba’s ability to manage the effects of blood sugar regulation and the dietary approaches to such management. It is focused on methods of improving associated metabolic abnormalities, specifically with Salba®, and methods of use in these seeds in lowering blood pressure, blood glucose and post-prandial glycemia
AN EASY WAY TO GET SOME FIBER
One of the best benefits of Salba is fiber — you can get a great amount of it with even a little portion. It’s also loaded with protein, antioxidants, fatty acids, and iron. In short: it’s a good food.
INCORPORATING IT INTO YOUR DIET
There are a few easy ways to get the benefits of Salba without any serious hassle. One thing I wouldn’t recommend is relying too much (if at all) on any Salba bars, since many of them contain Glucose-Fructose, added salt, and sunflower seed oil. Sure, you’re getting Salba, but eating stuff like that allows you to fall into the breakfast-cereal trap: where food containing loads of stuff that is not healthy gets marketed as ‘heart-smart’ or whatever the latest cereal-shelf trend might be. Don’t bother.
Instead, just go with standard Salba, which you can get in its normal seed form or pre-ground. Since it’s completely flavorless, you can add it to a ton of things and not worry about it affecting the overall taste.
SOME REAL RECIPE IDEAS
1) Try it in your salads — throw a couple teaspoons of the seed into literally any salad you’re making, and you’ve just added a ton of great nutrients. It’s extremely easy, and you can do it practically without thinking.
2) Bake with it — with a similar philosophy to the salad, just throw a bit of ground Salba into your next batch of bread, muffins, or even a cake. As long as you don’t go out of control with the quantity, you’ll be getting an incredibly healthful addition and won’t even taste it — meaning you just turned normal muffins into extremely beneficial ones.
3) Drink it — Seems strange, but works perfectly, too: add some ground Salba to any shake, smoothie, or other drink concoction you can whip up. If you’re a coffee drinker, you can likely get away with adding a bit of ground Salba to your coffee, especially if you’re a fan of cappuccinos or other milk-centered drinks, since they can easily handle some basic additions.
WHERE DOES ALL THIS FIT INTO EATING CLEAN, WHOLE FOODS?
We’ve covered the basics of Salba here, but there’s one thing we want to talk about a little more. The Salba people promote their product as a ‘whole food’, but we’ve just described how it’s used very much like a supplement.
We obviously talk about clean & whole foods a lot on the site, and when a ground-up powder makes that same claim, it automatically invites comparison with nature’s other whole foods — especially fruits and vegetables.
Do tomatoes or zucchini have a big marketing board behind them? Not exactly. We pay market prices for those foods, partially because any farmer is free to grow a tomato, a pumpkin, or a pear when and how they want. A whole food is a whole food, not a product.
So how, exactly is Salba a product, then, but also a whole food?
THE KEY: SALBA IS A WHOLE FOOD THAT ACTS LIKE A SUPPLEMENT
Think of Salba like chewing on basil or sage throughout the day, only avoiding the strong taste associated with those herbs (basil is wonderful, but just eating leaves of it all day — not so much). Plus, it comes in seed form, and can be ground up and added to all sorts of things without averse effects.
It’s one of the best ways to get a certified amount of natural ‘supplements’ (iron, fiber, omega-3, magnesium) into your diet without using chemical ones, buying pre-infused products, or having a mental breakdown every time you go shopping. Basically, you’re doing the supplementing yourself — in the morning in your oatmeal, or in a salad.
IT’S HARD TO ALWAYS GET EVERYTHING OUR BODIES NEED
No matter how many whole foods we might be eating at a time, we’re never going to get everything our body fully needs. Eating a balanced diet, not eating to excess, and eating clean are great ways to get most of it, but the up-and-down nature of our daily meals means that some weeks we might not consume all the vegetables that have those great antioxidants that work so well, or get the appropriate fiber or magnesium that’s fully necessary.
To combat that, some people turn to supplements. Nothing wrong with a multivitamin, say, but using artificial, chemical supplements to, well — supplement what you should be getting naturally isn’t the best idea. If you’re going to eat clean, whole foods, skip the jars of protein powder, fiber infusions, and omega-3-added granola bars, and try Salba instead.
Hi Frederick and Zuzana!
Have you found any Salba in your new home?
I live just outside Paris and I can’t find any… And I don’t really know where to buy from online. I wouldn’t know if what I get is the real thing :S
Well, if you find anything please let us know!
And if anyone else knows of a reliable website that ships to France please share! :)
Thank you very much!
I love salba seeds! I’m actually having yogurt right now and added salba to it =)
I love chia seeds :-)
If you get the chia seeds whole you can also make chia gel.
“You can add this mix to jams, jellies, hot or cold cereals, yogurts, mustard, catsup, tarter sauce, BBQ sauce, etc.. Add the gel, between 50% to 75% by volume, to any of the non-bake mentioned foods, mix well and taste. You will notice a very smooth texture with the integrity of the flavour intact. In addition to adding up to 50% to 75% more volume to the foods used, you have displaced calories and fat by incorporating an ingredient that is 90% water. Use as a fat replacer, for energy and endurance, or for added great taste, buy substituting the oil in your breads with Chia gel. Top your favorite bread dough before baking with Chia gel (for toping on baked goods, breads, cookies, piecrust, etc., reduce the water ration to 8 parts water to 1 part Chia seed) for added shelf life.”
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/chia.html
http://www.integratedhealth.com/recipes/chia-gel.htm
I’ve been using Salba in my oatmeal,salmon and egg scramble, and even in my chicken noodle soup. I like it, it digests well and the best thing is, I’m not allergic to it. However, it is a bit expensive for me, down here it runs at $23.99 for 95 ounces-yikes!! So, although I like it, this month when I run out of what I have, I’ll not be buying it again. Perhaps,when the economy gets better I’ll go back to the GOOD FOODS HEALTH STORE and get it. Thanks,Zuzana for introducing me to Salba.
I read on this website that Salba is the same thing as white chia seeds. You can buy white chia seeds for very low prices on the internet. Here is a link to an interview with Dr. Wayne Coates on the issue of chia seeds: http://www.naturalnews.com/023068_chia_seeds_chia_seeds.html.
I am not intending to start any arguments here, I only want to open people up to the possibility that white chia seeds could be just as nutritional as those used by the company that sells Salba. Salba, white, or black chia seeds are very good for you, and that’s probably the most important thing to take away from my posting.
The last thing I want to mention is that I believe the patent is still pending.
Dear all,
i would like to be agree with u but unfortunately there’s no SALBA in France (i live in Paris) or in Europe …
[...] Original post by Frederick [...]
I try to find it over here in Holland, but with no succes until now. Do you know if it is exported to the EU?
Hi Zuzana,
I tried Salba after I saw that you use it on your cereal the morning. I found the consistency got a little gluey so I switched to chia seeds after hearing about them on Ophra from Dr. O. I like the texture better and they are a lot cheaper. I buy them in bulk at the bulk food barn. They also boost great nutritional value including omega, fiber and protein. Worth givig them a try.
Sunny Days Jules
Hi,
Is it possible to post Zuzana’s daily diet schdule? Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snack as she what she eats and how often and how much? I would really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch! :)
I purchased a bag of Salba from a local “Whole Foods” store and have mixed it into my yogurt for my mid day snack and have been faithfully eating only 1 teaspoon daily for about a month now. It doesn’t taste like anything! It actually curbs my appetite and I feel like I have more energy throughout the day. I have read that it actually gives you healthier looking hair and skin and many many other benefits. It is def something I will continue to use in my quest to live a healthy lifestyle!
I tried chia (Salba is a type of Chia; supposedly the best one) based on a recommendation from an Ironman friend. A lot of endurance athletes swear by this, and I have no doubt that chia is good for you and has helped many athletes through grueling workouts.
But buyers beware. This is an acquired taste, especially if you choose to add it to any liquid. Once chia seeds sit in any kind of liquid, it undergoes an awful transformation where it turns into this gelatinous, globby mess. Very sci-fi. If you want to find out more, you can click on my name to read my full review.
Again, lots of endurance athletes swear by chia, and it’s getting really popular with the bodybuilding community, too, but it just wasn’t for me. I recommend starting with a small batch if you can manage to find it in the bulk items section vs. buying this whole package because you may end up throwing it away. I did.
Hi Zuzana and Frederick!
I recently found your website and i love it!
Living in Austria, i tried to find salba, but failed. Apparently the use of salba isn’t permitted in the European Union due to legal restrictions (Novel Food – VO). The Commission claims that there isn’t enough data to confirm the salba is harmless. Bureaucracy!
Dear GINA M
i let u know if i find SALBA .. i live in Paris too and work in La Defense/ Neuilly sur seine, where do u workout ?
Lydia
dear Gina M
i let u know if i find salba, i live in paris too where do you workout ?
lydia
Hi Lydia!
Thanks for your help! I would love to try those famous chia seeds!
I workout at home :)
hi guys,
i’m leaving to south africa soon and i wanna know before i leave where i can find Salba in south africa.
if you have any suggestions, let me know.
thanks
Hi, and thanks for a GREAT site!!
I’m also from Europe (Norway), and it seems we’re not able to buy this on this side of the dam, but still want it.
Is there a site that sells this outside US??
Alternative:
Is there anyone with a good heart how would be so kind to send me a bottle or 5…
I will pay for this of course.
Regards
Lars
TO ALL OUTSIDE U.S.!!!
You can all buy it on the internet!!
iHerb.com
Enjoy!
hi zuzana,
i don’t really know where to ask you that question, i wanna know if you could put with you’re daily workout what you are eating before, after and what you’re gonna eat at lunch and dinner. i’m asking you that because i don;t ahve loads of ideas of what to prepare and a never know if what i’m eating goes with the clean eating or not. do you think you could try to do that? it would be so great.
with all my thanks.
take care
XXX, Lisa
Hi Z and F, I found this at our local Whole Foods today and I purchased a bottle. This stuff is loaded w/Omega 3, 6, & 9s! Thanks for the recommendation and background info. I used it this evening w/my yogurt. :)
I love Salba!!! I normally buy mine off of Amazon.com but only in the smaller bags cause it does get pricie. I am actually in the process of trying to get it wholesale to sale at a lower price for all of us…I will keep you guys posted on it…
is there any difference between the ground salba and the organically grown ground salba besides the price?
Keen insights here on this site and I like your take on things. One thing I’ve experienced is what we think about is 100% what we get. We create our own reality.
Hey guys,
Anyone know whether its available in the UK yet? Im dying to try!
I just brought a box of whole wheat & Salba Penne from Superstore (Ft. McMurray, Canada).
Ingredients list. Durum whole wheat, ground Salba (Salvia hispanica L), niacin, folic acid, ferrous sulphate, riboflavin, thiamine mononitrate. May conatin traces of egg.
Nutrition fact as per the box:
85g(300ml) dry pasta = 310 calories, 3g fat, 5mg sodium, 58g carbohydrate, 9h fibre, 3g sugar, 13g protein.
I paid $1.49 for a 340g box which I think is exactly the same price as regular pasta.