For a while now, chia seeds have been one of the key foods celebrated by health and fitness enthusiasts and with good reason: they’re loaded with antioxidants, can lower your risk of heart disease, contain important bone nutrients such as calcium and magnesium, and can even reduce blood sugar levels.
All in those tiny seeds! They’re so easy to add to smoothies, porridge, and yoghurts making them an ideal healthy choice. Especially since they don’t really taste of anything.
However, if you’re fond of sprinkling some of these popular seeds on your foods, you really need to make sure you’re drinking a lot of water because according to a gastroenterologist, chia seeds can absorb up to 27 times their own weight.
Chia Seeds Can Form A Concrete-Like Mass In Your Digestive Tract
Yep, that’s right.
Chia seeds may be small but they truly are mighty. According to Socalgastrodoc, an MD and gastroenterologist on TikTok, when there isn’t enough liquid in your digestive system, these seeds will form a concrete-like mass in your digestive tract which can lead to them getting stuck.
She even provided a shocking photo of one of these masses stuck in somebody’s oesophagus after they dry-scooped chia seeds. Lovely.
One commenter said “based on all the messaging I thought that they were a good form of fibre for my diverticulitis. I ended up with a blockage in my colon and almost died”...!
However, the good news is that this is very avoidable. Drinking plenty of fluids or using them in something like overnight oats means you’ll avoid such grim complications and still get the wealth of health benefits that chia seeds have to offer.
A commenter said “Moral of the story: make overnight chia seed pudding and never eat them dry” to which Socalgastrodoc replied with a trophy emoji which we can only assume is approval.
As another commenter said though, “Doritos don’t do this to me.”