Chia seeds

Golf buggies and squash rackets must be gathering dust across Britain. For forty-somethings are finding a new way to spend their spare time. They’re swapping the Ping slacks for garments of a much less generous fit. For many, a quick round followed by a few pints in the clubhouse is out. Extreme, butch-sounding endurance events (Ironman, Tough Mudder, Warrior Run) are in. This is the age of the Mamil: the middle aged man in Lycra.

And as we report in this week’s Focus On: Sports Nutrition, the supermarkets are clambering over each other like triathletes in a pond to cater for this new breed of weekend warrior. Sales of protein-enriched sports supplements and food & drink formulated to boost sporting performance and recovery are booming. And with only 20% of the population currently buying into the sector, there’s still plenty of headroom for growth.

There’s one ingredient that’s tipped for greatness as the fitness trend gathers pace: chia, the crop of a Mexican species of mint that’s consumed across South America. Packed with nutrients but low in calories, chia is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein and is renowned for a host of health benefits, from controlling blood sugar levels and lowering blood pressure to curing hangovers and jazzing things up in the bedroom (one study has found chia heightens sensation during sex). 

But people have been using chia for millennia, so why is the west only now waking up to it? For one, chia is about to get Hollywood backing. Next year, Matthew McConaughey will star in the film adaptation of the New York Times bestseller Born to Run, the story of an American dropout who moved to Mexico to live with the Tarahumara, a tribe fabled for running huge distances wearing little more than capes and sandals and fuelled on chia.

There are other reasons to be chia-full. With low-carb diets all the rage right now, the seed is being raved about online because most of the carbohydrate present in chia is fibre, which isn’t digested by the body and therefore doesn’t raise blood sugar. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by savvy brands. As we reported today, British brand Wow Chia has become the first to win European approval to use chia, which is classed as a novel food and therefore tightly controlled, as an ingredient in a drink.

So many Mamils will be turning to chia in the coming year. Some might even adopt the Tarahumara dress code too. Indeed, capes and sandals might be a better look than Lycra…

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