Divas That Care Network

Super Hero Seeds

• Divas That Care Network • Season 15 • Episode 11

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Gia-Raquel Rose, owner of Airs Above Yoga, LLC and a real estate sales associate in Tewksbury, New Jersey has had a love for horses stemming from early childhood. Growing up in “horse country” afforded her the privilege of beginning to ride from the tender age of four. It was a childhood illness, which brought her riding aspirations to an abrupt halt. It took twenty years before she was able to reunite with her long lost passion for horses and their ability to heal. In that time, she received a Bachelor of Arts in Corporate Communication from Arcadia University and became a twice two hundred hour certified yoga instructor in both Hatha and Vinyasa. It was the loss of her mother, Rose, to breast cancer, which ultimately shifted her trajectory from the corporate world to the internal work for which yoga, as a practice, is renowned.

Dive into the nutritional powerhouse world of seeds with this enlightening episode that uncovers which varieties truly deserve a place in your daily diet. Beyond the commonly touted benefits of seeds, I explore why flax, chia, and hemp seeds stand head and shoulders above the rest as the true "Caped Crusaders" of nutrition.

Most Americans struggle with an imbalanced ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, often consuming far too much omega-6 through cooking oils and processed foods. This imbalance promotes inflammation—a root cause of numerous chronic conditions. The featured superhero seeds, particularly flaxseeds, offer a simple solution by providing abundant omega-3s to help restore balance. Hemp seeds emerge as the protein champions with approximately 10 grams per ounce, while chia seeds provide a well-rounded profile of nutrients with exceptional fiber content.

What makes this approach to nutrition unique is its focus on addition rather than subtraction. Instead of facing the resistance that comes with eliminating favorite foods, I suggest simply incorporating these beneficial seeds into your existing diet. Whether sprinkled into smoothies, baked into muffins, or added to salads, these tiny nutritional giants can make a significant impact on your health without requiring dramatic dietary overhauls.

The episode provides practical tips for incorporating each seed type, addressing potential texture concerns, and suggesting creative ways to make them palatably invisible in everyday foods. For those taking their first steps toward better nutrition, this gentle approach offers a perfect starting point—plant the seeds of health today by adding these nutritional powerhouses to your meals and watch as the benefits grow.

Ready to transform your health one tiny seed at a time? Follow me on social media @AboveTheGroundPodcast or visit airsaboveyoga.com for more wellness insights that keep you thriving above the ground.

For more Divas That Care Network Episodes visit www.divasthatcare.com

Speaker 1:

It's Divas that Care Radio Stories, strategies and ideas to inspire positive change. Welcome to Divas that Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone. This is a global movement for women, by women engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations. To find out more about the movement, visit divasthatcarecom. After the show. Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.

Speaker 2:

Namaste and welcome to the Divas that Care Network. I am your host, gia Raquel Rose, owner of Heirs Above Yoga, and you are listening to Above the Ground podcast If you're new and just tuning in. Our network is headed into its 15th year and is listened to in over 30 countries. I would like to personally thank you for giving me the gift of your time, because it is always my honor to share space with you and we are continuing on the theme of planting seeds and initiating the new, bringing new beautiful things into your life, and how we are trying to invite in things on our trajectory for our highest and best good. And so we've used the thread of the seed metaphor as we've moved through these past couple episodes. And why it's me? If you don't know me, I can be very literal and tug and cheek. So we are going to talk about seeds in our nutrition episode today. And why are we doing that? Because it's tug and cheek and because you know I just couldn't not do it because it's just a little bit cheeky and a little bit funny and right on the on the stinking nose. So because of that I will.

Speaker 2:

I will confess I wanted to make sure that I knew, you know specifics of what I was going to be sharing with you guys today, and so I little did a little bit of a seed deep dive in the Google and I am going to give my own spin, as I should, to the you know, the AI interpretation of what healthy seeds and what defines a healthy seed. And so, to preface, you know seeds are, for a plant based diet, a necessity, right. They are nutrient powerhouses. Most of them are beneficial in some way or another. They all have predominantly minerals, antioxidants, vitamins, nutrients, um, and some of them are are even, you know, a complete and whole food on their own, um.

Speaker 2:

But that being said, ai and I tend to have a little bit of a disagreement in what constitutes the health of these seeds. So if you go ahead and Google and I always encourage you to, um, you'll get, you'll get about six heavy hitter seeds right, and they are going to be your flax seeds, your hemp seeds, your pumpkin seeds, your chia seeds, sesame and sunflower. Those are going to be the typical ones that come up and ones that we're all pretty familiar with. And so you know I don't like to be discriminatory against our good friend the seed. However, I'm going to disagree again with AI and say, out of all of those, only three I'm going to say are truly contributing to your overall health and well being, unless, of course, you are on a vegan or plant based diet and you need the, you know, you need the extra source of minerals or whatever. It is the whole food source that you can rely on in seeds.

Speaker 2:

Now, that being said, I'm going to put an asterisk and say I'm still going to lean on on my, my named top tier three. And those are, and, in my mind, should be considered the true healthiest seeds, or at least of the main mainstream seeds, and they are flax, chia and hemp. And why is this the case? Well, because when you're looking at the other three, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame and again, no disrespect to any of those seeds, but they are while they have their own nutrients, while they can support, you know, heart health and just their basic profile isn't necessarily unhealthy, whether it's a high fat content, a high fiber content I'm sorry, not high fiber, high carb content or low carb ratio, depending, you know, I should say low net carb ratio. And if you're not familiar with what that is, that is important for low carb diets, keto diet specifically, but it's when you take the total carbohydrate content of a food and then you reduce it by the total fiber content of the food, because obviously we're going to take on that fiber and that's going to kind of neutralize some of the overall carb content down to whatever's left over, being your kind of carbs that stick with you. So that's what the net carb ratio is. But aside from that, they're either high in calorie, they're either super high in fat and not necessarily the quote unquote I can every episode. I do the quote unquote every episode. I do air quotes for those of you who are not watching this on YouTube but potentially listening to it through Diva Psych Care Network.

Speaker 2:

So essentially, as I said, it comes down to the fact that if we're talking about health, it should be optimal and if we're going to talk about seeds, that optimize your health for one reason or another, because each of them have their own kind of like super superhero strength behind them, right. So for for the lesser of the three, sorry guys, the pumpkin, the sunflower and the sesame, while again, you know sesame oil, sesame seeds in Ayurveda are well established and you know sesame seeds are everywhere in our regular diet, from you know, commercials on our Burger King or McDonald's hamburger bun, right Like sesame seeds, are pretty standard. Anyone who watches baseball sees the poor carcasses of sunflower seeds all over the dugout right. Those have been a staple of American history for many, many years. And pumpkin seeds, you know, if you haven't made it, if you haven't made a jack-o'-lantern in and around the festive Halloween season, then I don't know where you're going up. Certainly wasn't in my neighborhood. Our health. So again, we all know these seeds. In fact they're probably more familiarized in our culture than the other three, which I think, personally, are more optimal for your health for a few reasons. Again, it's because of their little tiny superhero seed capes. And those superhero seed capes come in in essentially what their, what their nutrient density lies in, and so each of them kind of has their own.

Speaker 2:

And for a protein, if you want a, the highest protein source in a seed, essentially, or one of the highest, is the hemp seed. So if you are, you know again, we've mentioned multiple times that I'm on a paleo diet and it's very strict, and nuts and seeds can be eliminated if you are per se autoimmune paleo. Um, because they can still create some inflammation in the body potentially. Certain seeds definitely do, and nuts, um. But also, you know, autoimmune paleo is is a very, very strict elimination diet and I encourage you to look into it If you do have any autoimmune conditions or diseases that it may be able to support you. It's an anti-inflammatory diet like on steroids, essentially. So if you are generally paleo and or low carb, you know these are great ways to get a high dose of protein and one of the highest doses you can get is in the hemp seed. Now, just to put a little bit of an asterisk, it is a hemp plant is not, it is not a THC related. It comes from. It comes from the CBD type aspect of the plant, not the THC, not to be construed. So it is very safe, very healthy and very good for you to ingest. And again, like I said, protein powerhouse.

Speaker 2:

Now, when we're talking about health, we have to have a brief pit stop and conversation about the omega three and omega six ratio and essentially our bodies require both for optimal health, for brain health, for cardiovascular health, for overall body function, and these are not generally made within the body. Our body just can't do everything. It can do lots of things. It's a beautiful, wonderful natural being that regenerates itself and it's. You know. We're grateful for it every day. However, we want to make sure that we are conscientious of its limitations because, unfortunately, we may be limitless in our energetic bodies, but our physical bodies unfortunately. You know, we got an expiration date, so trying to make sure that that expiration date is pushed back as far as we can agreeably make it by taking the best care of our vessels as we can, and so adding the omega three and sixes to our diet are imperative.

Speaker 2:

Now, that being said, in our culture, in the American culture, the oh, we are heavy in omega six, and why is that? Because they are found in most of our cooking oils, and in other places they are in nuts and seeds and you know they are again, technically a benefit. But because they are found in most cooking oils and because we are such an heavy oil based diet in this country, we generally tend to be overly. The ratios off essentially can be off, and the other thing to note about that is too much omega six can actually lead to inflammation. So, especially if you are on an autoimmune protocol or essentially any sort of diet that is meant to reduce inflammation in the body, which is my reason for being on a paleo diet. So paleo is essentially an anti inflammatory diet, or hopes to be.

Speaker 2:

All. 30 is another kind of. It's a little bit more extreme. It's somewhere between paleo and autoimmune. Paleo is the whole 30 diet, which a lot of people are probably familiar with, and so to that end, trying to balance out that ratio, and a lot of nuts and seeds are going to be high in the omega six. Well, we don't really need help with that Because apparently that's part of our diet anyway.

Speaker 2:

If you go out and you order food or you're cooking your food in oil and I have to, you know plug, jason, when we had our conversation about the whole food plant based diet and how there was, you know medical backups for the fact that oils can, while we, you know this is where you know he he walks, he walks that line and we're on a little bit of a different side of the line, but that there's. There's arguments for for oil in the body and for fats in the body. Right, we need some amount of it, like if you're on a keto diet, that's, you definitely need it. But for him he was stating that and I encourage you to go back and listen to that episode. It was called that dietary deep dive, um, but he is whole food, plant-based, which is, you know, again vegan on on steroids and and it's super healthy. And he looks and says he feels amazing, um, and he's an athlete and so you know he's doing great on that diet and I fully support everyone in their dietary choices. And he used to be Mediterranean, always health focused. But essentially there was a conversation had on that episode about oils being detrimental, and he's not the only one.

Speaker 2:

A very dear friend of mine, who we go back as far as kindergarten and we reconnected in a year that I lived in LA and she is a vegan chef and she at that point in time I was putting spoiler alert. One of the other seats is flax. I was putting flax oil in my smoothies and she said to me listen, not for nothing, but you might as well get flax seeds, um, or you can even buy flax powder and grind them up, or buy flax powder and put flax powder in your smoothie, because the whole food is more nutrient dense and there is lesser benefit or potentially even I don't want to say more harm. Air quotes again, but less beneficial is what I'll say in the oil versus the whole food itself. And so I listened to her, I took that advice and I switched and I started using flax.

Speaker 2:

And you know a lot of things, especially in my, in my paleo muffins. It's one of my favorite ingredients to throw in there to mix in with the flour almond flour, of course. So to that end, you know we are getting a lot of omega six in our regular diet and if you're trying to come to keep the ratio, the ratio is either a one to one or a two to one of omega three over omega six, and so if we assume that we're we're not going to alter our omega six necessarily, but we are going to add to our omega three to balance that out, then a really great way to do that is to bump up our omega threes and just kind of not pay so much attention to the omega six, right, because we're probably getting it somewhere anyway. A great way to do that again. So I don't want to beat up the oils, because I use cooking oil and I know a lot of people do, but it's not.

Speaker 2:

I'm fairly certain that flax oil is not a high heat oil, but I very much encourage you to potentially make the swap of a flax oil is not a high heat oil, but I very much encourage you to potentially make the swap of a flax oil for, you know, some of your lighter culinary needs, as a way to get kind of moved to that trend of adding omega threes into your diet and trying to kind of be cognizant of the amount of omega sixes that you're putting in, because they're in a lot of the foods that we naturally consume, right, our beef, our chicken, our seeds, our nuts, those kinds of things. So to that end, and moving along in that similar vein, there is one, the flaxseed we are going to circle back to because it's one of my favorites, and again it's the it's, it's cape. Is that omega three? Right? But when we're talking about kind of a good overall like, like multifaceted seed, we have our chia seed. Why? Because while it is very high in carbohydrates and it is high in, it's also very, very high in fiber. So it's got a low net carb ratio, but it's one of those seeds that kind of has a little bit of everything. So it's like your mainstream seed.

Speaker 2:

It's not going to be overly inundated in one area that your body may not respond entirely well to, except for the carbohydrate area. And the one thing that I do want to say about about carbs and about fiber is you know, you do have to be careful on any diet, especially if you have gut health issues, because while it's it's obviously beneficial for gut health, it can lead to bloating. Right? Fiber, excessive, excessive fiber intake and or carbohydrate intake can promote bloating. And again, the point of the point of all this is to feel our best, and I'm going to be the first one to say that if you're feeling bloated, you're probably not feeling your best. So, just bearing in mind that, while we need fiber and fiber is huge and so beneficial for our bodies a lot of fiber can lead to a little bit of bloating and sometimes some, you know, abdominal discomfort.

Speaker 2:

So, just the little, the little asterisk that I always have to throw in there to try to make everyone happy, right? But so, essentially, these three your flax, your chia and your hemp these are three seeds that, if you are not consuming them in your diet that I'm going to, I'm going to suggest that you look for ways to incorporate them and, ironically, at least two of the three, I know you can get hemp oil and I know you can get flax oil. So if you are looking for oils and I do believe that hemp is actually a higher heating oil and flax is going to be one that you may have to put on a salad dressing kind of a thing, so different ways to bring them in and obviously I encourage you to use the whole food in your, in your daily, if you can repertoire, so you know, if you, if you do happen to bake, adding brown flax, brown hemp great things to do and even putting chia in your if you, if you're not vegan, or if you do eat dairy, in your smoothies, in your yogurts, even, I mean even in your ice cream. Just again, adding the positive. If you're not ready to detract from the negative right, because a lot of times people will hit that wall when we're talking about diet, nutrition, where they just they don't want to, they enjoy whatever it is that they're partaking in and they don't want to do anything necessarily to remove the things that they love from their diet. And so my, my suggestion for that is just very simply okay. So then just add some good stuff in. Then don't eliminate, just add some good stuff in and and start to create a little bit more balance, and especially when we do talk about that omega three and omega six ratio, right? So the thing about the the I feel so discriminatory.

Speaker 2:

The thing about the I feel so discriminatory, but the lesser three seeds your pumpkin, your sunflower and your sesame is that they are pretty high, relatively high, in omega six and so, like I said, we're getting those from other places and while they are nutrient dense and they have they are, they have, you know there's a little bit of extra protein to be had, or at least you know it's one of the contenders for protein. Pumpkin seeds are a contender for protein. They're, you know, they're an all around. You know they're not bad for your health per se, right? Not, none of those seeds are necessarily bad for your health, Although I will say that sunflower seeds are relatively high in fat and not necessarily the best fat, and they're also relatively high in fat and not necessarily the best fat, and they're also relatively high in calorie.

Speaker 2:

So you know you want to look at the, the comprehensive picture right of of what your, what your diet may be, you know lacking, and what you, your specific goals are. For example, if you are not on a low carb diet, then you know you may want your plant based diet, your you know you may want a little bit of extra fiber, maybe you need some extra nutrients. It's definitely one of those things that you want to personalize, because we're not all the same, our bodies are not all the same, and we need to make sure that we are being cognizant of what we need. So, with that in mind, you know, when you're, when you're talking about nutrition and I am, I know I'm not alone in this I'm a firm believer of food as medicine, as food being curative, as harmful as it is helpful.

Speaker 2:

Like we are what we eat, we are what we consume. We are the content we consume, we are the food that we put in our bodies, we are what we drink, we are what we bring into our worlds, and that's what this entire, you know, segment has been about is what are we bringing in? What seeds are we planting? What are we bringing in? And so that's why I thought this was such a wonderful metaphor, because we don't necessarily have to eliminate, we can just add. We can add the good. So if there's nothing else that you take from that, maybe you just go buy some flax powder and you start sprinkling it into your muffins. They don't even have to be almond flour muffins, they can be regular flour muffins. Almond flour muffins, they can be regular flour muffins.

Speaker 2:

But adding healthy things, planting seeds of health for yourself, no matter what mental, physical, emotional health, spiritual health, whatever, whatever health it is for you that is working towards your highest and best good. Those are the seeds that you plant and I hope that some of these seeds help to inspire you to do that right. So, again, we're talking about the benefits and how they, how they can support your overall well being, and I think one of the main takeaways that I found as I started to do more research is, very simply, that you know the omega threes are one of the main things, the protein and the protein aspect of seeds as a protein source. So if you are in a vegan diet, hemp seeds are your friend, right? That amount, I believe it's it's roughly 10 grams of protein per ounce and that's huge. So that is way above the the natural ratio.

Speaker 2:

For the majority of the other seeds which you know, I think the I want to say they generally are in like a four to five range of grams of protein per ounce, which is still great, right, and they're a wonderful plant-based source of protein, but the hemp ones are kind of like the shining star of the protein seed. And, again, like I said, chia is just really great for overall health. So just keeping that in mind and just knowing that, you know it's not going to necessarily offend. And the same goes for flax. They are just pretty much only going to help you, right, and there's ways to just get them as they are, consume the whole food and and add you know I'm going to use the overly trite, overly stated word superfood. They are superfoods.

Speaker 2:

And so just starting to try to think about okay, well, if I'm not ready to change my diet, maybe I can help my diet right, maybe I can support it by adding a few things that will support my overall brain health, my overall cognitive function. With the omega threes they can reduce the inflammation. So if you have inflammation in the body, they can help to bring that down and keeping that ratio in balance is going to be very to bring that down and keeping that ratio in balance is going to be very, very important for for us as we age, as as we move forward with our day to day lives, trying to keep energy going. You know, like I said, our day to day changes right, it's the only constant. So making sure that we are always adapting to our body's needs and I think that's hard thing to do when it comes to nutrition, because I think people get very set in their ways. I know I do.

Speaker 2:

I'm very set in my ways and when I start to change like changing your diet is one of the hardest things but once you do, once you start to gain some traction, and that's why I think one of the easiest ways for people that face that wall of I don't want to let go, I don't want to stop this, I don't want to not do this. When people are facing that wall, it's really hard to break down. So, okay then, don't add this, add this. You don't have to take away, just add this. And these seeds are one of the things that you can add into your diet that are pretty much only going to help you. At least the big three the Cape, the Caped Crusaders are definitely going to be wonderful for you and, unless you have some sort of seed allergy, they're only. They're only for the good. Like I said, they are going to work towards balancing that ratio and they are going to be able to support your overall well being in so many different ways. They can even, you know, in theory help with and I don't really like to throw this out there, but they can even potentially, it's been said and documented to help reduce the risk of cancer, the ratio of its balance properly. So you know again, we're doing things to set ourselves up for success and, to you know, mitigate the negative day to day right.

Speaker 2:

So when you go to the grocery store, the health food store, when you're shopping and putting things in your cart on Amazon, consider adding a bag of any of these three top contending seeds, because I think that you will find that they are less offensive. I will say you know, bear it, bear this in mind that when you do, one of the one of the reasons that I'm a big fan of flax and flax powder is because you don't know it's there right, like if you put it in a muffin, or you put it in and uh, or you bake with it, right, or with any of these. When you bake with them, flax is, all of them can be ground right, but flax is ready to rock, as opposed to some of the others where, if you have any familiarity with chia seeds and hemp seeds aren't super different, you know they're a little crunchy, right. So, and if you put them in your smoothie, I'm not gonna lie, they're gonna clump. They're not. They may not blend as well as that flax oil blended for me.

Speaker 2:

So you have to sometimes take one for the team and and just get past. You know, get past. They don't ever, I've never, experienced like a really aggressive flavor from any of them. That's like a turnoff or, you know, will deter me from enjoying them. But it's one of those things where, okay, I may add this to a salad, so it adds a little bit of a crunch, but you know, doesn't isn't aggressive, right, and that's you know. People do that with sesame seeds all the time, you know. But when it comes to these particular ones, I will say chia is probably probably one of the ones that is a little bit harder to, you know, work with as a whole, and so I think flax kind of have a little more of that general sesame seed shape that everybody loves. So maybe you swap them out, maybe you throw flax seeds instead of sesame seeds into some of your salads, and the same can be said for for the hemp seed, and I don't want anyone to feel like a way that it's related to the cannabis plant.

Speaker 2:

It is again a powerhouse when it comes to protein. So I encourage you, if you look into protein powders, you know, check for hemp, check for these seeds and check for, check for omega three. Start to start to incorporate that mindset of balancing the ratio for you, for your health, for your well being, as you move throughout your day. Because, like I said, we're always, we're always planting seeds, but what are they? And, like I said, if you can't, if you can't eliminate, you can't reduce, then you can add something good, and I think that that is a life lesson.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes it's hard for us to release, it's hard for us to let go. It's easier to be a stage five clinger. Right, we do find ourselves in that. You know, one of the best things that we can do is okay, well, maybe I can add this positive thing if I'm not ready to let go of this negative thing. So, you know, always meet yourself where you are with diet, with life, with nutrition, and I hope that these seeds that we have discussed today help to inspire you to continue to plant seeds of positivity in your life, in your day, in your, in your existence. I hope that they are.

Speaker 2:

I hope that the tongue-in-cheek metaphor and the nutrition episode on the powerhouse cape crusader seeds um brings you a smile and and the same as it brought me and bring some health and well-being into your life and, like I said, there's lots of ways to get them into your body.

Speaker 2:

But if you have some resistance, I definitely suggest grinding up and baking with them as a really good start, or swap out your oils, because you're going to use oil anyway, so you may as well use one that's a little bit healthier for you. So I just want to say that I appreciate each and every one of you for sharing your space with me and ask that you please share the same with your loved ones For more goodness. Follow me on all the socials at Above the Ground Podcast, or visit my website, airsaboveyogacom and, as always, definitely check out all my other episodes and my amazing sisters on the Divas that Care Network. You can find us on Spotify, odyssey, apple and anywhere else that you may feel guided. Again, my name is Gia Raquel Rose, owner of Heirs Above Yoga, and you are listening to Above the Ground podcast, where every day is a good one.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening. This show was brought to you by Divas that Care. Connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram and, of course, on divasthatcarecom, where you can subscribe to our newsletter, so you don't miss a thing.