Chia: The Seed that Sustained a Civilization

Wayne Coates, PhD

At the time of the Spanish conquest, Mesoamericans were using at least 29 domesticated botanical species. Of these, four stood out from a nutritional point of view, and these were the basis of their daily diet. The four crops were: beans, maize or corn, chia and amaranth.

It is interesting to note that the Aztec diets, when derived solely from these four crops, meet today’s dietary requirements as set out by the Food and Agriculture Organization - World Health Organization (FAO-WHO).

The importance of these four crops in Aztec diets is supported by Codices written about the time of the conquest of America. Among these is the Florentine Codex, written between 1548 and 1585 by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, entitled, “The General History of the Things of New Spain.” (The entire 12-volume work, written in Nahuatl (the native language) and Spanish, is now housed in the Medicca Laurentziana library in Florence, Italy.) Various aspects of Aztec chia production and use are described in this monumental work.

There is evidence that chia seeds were first used as a food as early as 3500 B.C., and served as a cash crop in central Mexico between 1500 and 900 B.C. Chia seeds were eaten alone or mixed with other seeds, drunk as a beverage when placed in water, ground into flour, included in medicines, pressed for oil, and even used as a base for face and body paints. Aztec rulers received chia seeds as an annual tribute from conquered nations, and the seeds were offered to the gods during religious ceremonies.

The Aztecs made great advances in agriculture. As an example consider their unique system of growing crops. Using what they learned from their predecessors, the Toltecs, they were able to turn the marshy grounds they lived near into firm soil. They wove bark from trees into large mats, them anchored these to stakes in the lake. They covered the mats with soil and grew beans, maize, chia and amaranth on these man-made islands call chinampas, or hanging gardens.

As documented in the Codex Mendoza, written in 1541, the city of Tenochtitlan received annually as tributes from conquered nations a minimum of 6,800 tons of maize, 5,100 tons of beans, 4,300 tons of chia, and 3,200 tons of amaranth. The city also harvested an average of 3,300 tons of maize, chia, beans, and amaranth from the 9,000 hectares of chinampas surrounding it.

Chia was one of the main dietary components of not only the Aztecs, but also of another great Pre-Columbian civilization in Mesoamerica, the Mayans. The Mexican state of Chiapas, located within the limits of what was ancient Mayan territory, derives its name from the Nahuatl word Chiapan, which means “river of chia”. Hence this name indicates the existence of chia as a crop in this region from very early times.

The Spanish conquest of America repressed the natives, suppressed their traditions, and destroyed much of their intensive agricultural production system. Many crops that had held a major role in Pre-Columbian American diets were banned by the Spanish because of their close association with religion, and were replaced by foreign species (wheat, barley, carrots, etc.) that were in demand in Europe.

As a result chia (Salvia hispanica L.) production decreased and was cultivated only on a few hectares in isolated locations with minimal possibilities of increasing the planted area in these regions. This was not only due to social and political factors which subdivided the land into small farms, but also the corn culture which brought about the use of the now popular Mexican tortillas.

Thus until the late 1990's, chia seeds were only consumed by small, isolated groups of people in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua as well as the southern USA (California and Arizona) Primarily the seeds were mixed in water, along with lime juice and sugar, and consumed as a refreshing beverage.

The lack of a reliable source of chia led a group of growers and others to unite and work together as part of the Northwestern Argentina Regional Project to initiate a chia research and development program. This effort included selection of new production areas and development of production practices aimed at bringing chia to the market as a new commercial crop. Today chia is grown in different countries on a commercial basis. Producing the crop in different, distinct areas decreases climatic and political risks, and avoids concentrating the harvest season. Formerly forced into obscurity, chia seeds are now emerging as a new food and offer a great opportunity to improve human nutrition by providing a natural source of omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and dietary fiber.

Numerous recent research studies have demonstrated why ancient Mesoamerican civilizations considered chia a basic component of their diets. Chia’s composition and nutritional value gives it a significant advantage compared to other foods when used for both humans and animals. Thus modern technology has provided an excellent opportunity for creating an agricultural industry that can offer a “new, old crop” to the world.