Ohhhhh yeah, who could forget? I don’t think my parents ever allowed us to buy anything from television ads, so no Chia Pets for me. When the internet put the final nail in the coffin of cable TV commercials, for me, chia seeds may as well have been buried with them.

That was until a friend recommended a book to me, Christopher McDouggall’s “Born to Run”. In that book (which I thoroughly enjoyed), McDougall reveals the dietary secrets of a Mexican tribe whose culture is deeply intertwined with running as a way of life. Running is a social aspect of their culture as well as a means of travel.

These people are the Tarahumara and they are regarded as some of the best runners to glide across the rugged face of Mother Earth, in nothing more than sandals.

It was said that these people could run all day and not tire, which begged the question,

How could they do it?

Any kind of attempt at answering that question would have to consider energy consumption.

Most modern endurance athletes know that the trick to going far is properly fueling. There are tons of expensive gels and energy chews at the checkout aisle of any sporting goods store trying to make a dollar repackaging good ol' candy and selling it to unwitting consumers who think it will give them the edge a banana or some skittles wouldn’t (I use gels too, I just think its funny).

So if the Tarahumara aren’t reaching into their camelbaks and grabbing an energy gel every 30 minutes, what are they doing? They’re drinking chia seeds. Yep, something called Iskiate - a beverage mostly made from chia seeds (here's just one recipe if you’re interested; it’s easy to make).

Is there something ✨magical✨ about chia seeds? Maybe...but also, maybe they are just native to that region of the world and so it’s what they ate. Anecdotally, while I think that story is really interesting, going into further detail about it shares no more than vague adjacency to the overall point of this post, so we'll leave it here for now...

The point is, I try to eat whole foods that make me feel good. Chia seeds fit the bill. So, I added chia seeds to my diet a while back. They’re virtually tasteless and packed with protein. After my morning run or lift, I eat a big bowl of oatmeal with a bunch of chia seeds. I sub a protein shake for milk, and I put some fruit in there. I look forward to it every morning: carbs to replenish the glycogen used during exercise, protein for muscle repair and recovery.

Clean fuel to power on.

I work out every morning, work during the day M-F, and work out again every evening. One strength session, one hard day’s work, one endurance/speed session (I flip the morning and evening sessions' focuses regularly, usually to bolster recovery of a particular muscle group). Eating crappy fuel and feeling bogged down isn’t an option.

I like to think that I am part of a long line of savages who evolved to live off the food that was available to them. If I can remove a few degrees of separation dietarily, eliminating some processed food or synthetic ingredients, it makes me feel more connected to the natural world around me and its fuel sources.