Chia Seeds – Holy Grail Of Bowel Movements? “The Perfect Stool”

Is chia seeds (Salvia hispanica), the so-called “superfood,” only hippies hit food or something more? What is this chia seed phenomenon? Let’s take a look…

What are Chia seeds?

In the Mayan language “chia” means strength, as well as strengthening. Myths and rumors tell us that Chia seeds were the secret food of the Aztec. Mayas and Inca soldiers, secret in as that chia seeds allowed them to improve their stamina and become stronger in war situations. Bullshit marketing myths or facts?

The ancient Aztec identified chia seed as a “Superfood” and valued it so high that chia seeds were used often as a currency.

I also read some rumors that the Aztec soldiers and runners lived only with a tablespoon of chia seeds per day – apparently, it had enough nutrition in those harsh conditions. Again, is that supposed to convince me and make me go get this “superfood”?

Today chia seeds are apparently a favorite food of trainers, muscle builders and athletes. Why is this ancient mystical seed so amazing thing, so amazing that it would be worth investing in? I started looking for facts about chia seeds…

Many people will tell that chia seeds are the perfect food for dieters and “weight-watchers” because it reduces appetite and eliminates food cravings.

I was skeptical and so I began to investigate whether chia seeds are as good as what the expectations based on marketers & people’s opinions, let alone mystical ancient litanies…

chia seeds close look
Chia seeds look like this

Chia seeds nutrition

Chia seeds contain 40% healthy fats and up to 25% protein by their weight. One serving (28g) chia seeds has about 180mg of calcium (calcium intake recommendation for adults is 800 mg/day). Chia is also a good source of magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, molybdenum and niacin.

Chia is great and perhaps the best source for fiber intake (1 serving or about 2,5 tablespoons contain up to 10 grams of fiber), antioxidants, and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3. As well a lot of manganese and phosphorus, which are vital for healthy teeth and bones.

Like Brazil nuts, also chia seeds seems to lower bad LDL cholesterol and raise good HDL cholesterol, according to studies.1Mohd Ali N, Yeap SK, Ho WY, Beh BK, Tan SW, Tan SG. The promising future of chia, Salvia hispanica L. J Biomed Biotechnol. 2012;2012:171956. doi: 10.1155/2012/171956. Epub 2012 Nov 21. PMID: 23251075; PMCID: PMC3518271. Your heart will thank you, diseases are less likely to occur with a diet which has a lot of good cholesterol (and small amounts of bad).

Fiber content: Chia is a superstar on the fiber content if compared to other fiber rich foods such as oatmeal. 100 grams of oatmeal includes 10 grams of fiber, while 28g or less than 3 tablespoons of chia seeds contains the same amount of fiber. With chia seed, you don’t need to eat too many carbohydrates to get enough fiber in your diet.

Chia seeds are the richest vegetable source of omega-3 fatty acids, and also contains omega-6 fatty acids. Both of them are very important for brain health and optimal brain function, but also extremely important to overall health. But remember that chia seeds do not replace the importance of eating fish.

Chia seeds nutrition facts

Chia seeds astounds with its nutritional profile. It defeats the most healthful foods such as salmon (omega-3), and blueberries with its antioxidant content.

chia seed nutrition
Chia seed nutrition facts

Impressive, isn’t it?

Chia seeds win flax-seed almost in everything and tastes much better.

Chia is a complete protein, which has all most important amino acids. Best pioneers in the horserace industry offer chia seeds for racehorses, and it is certainly the ideal nutrition to build a super-horse.

Chia seed would be a good add-on to your diet only with its nutritional content, but what other benefits chia offers?

Chia seeds unexpected benefits

Chia seeds have some surprising benefits outside of its nutrition content, which makes it an impressive superfood.

Perfect food for hydration

When chia seeds are placed in water, it becomes a gel-like “chia pudding”, which helps in hydration. Chia seed will absorb water up to 12 times its own weight. Consider drinking chia gel beforehand if you need to stay hydrated, for example, long flights or train journeys.

Fiber content of chia seeds helps your restroom visits

For most people, this could be the best benefit of chia seeds. The incredible fiber content of chia seeds helps your digestive function and cleanse the bowel, which makes it one of the best foods for healthy bowel function. You will find that after eating chia seeds, your excrement is “perfect”, just the way shit should be.

What you see on a toilet says a lot about your health.
If your “shit shape” is not good, there might (dietary) problems that severely affect your health. Eating chia seeds will change this and make the so-called “perfect stool“, so funny or disgusting as it sounds.

See the photo of how stool shape will affect your health, this is the easiest way to see whether you have any problems with your health.

chia seeds bristol stool chart
Bristol stool chart. Picture source2Wikipedia commons CC BY-SA 3.0

Type 4 is the Holy Grail of bowel movement – is exactly what chia seed eaters will experience. This an is an astounding benefit, right?

For this same reason, chia seed is ultimate food for dieters and people who are looking to burn fat or lose weight.

Why? Because when you eat chia seeds, your hunger gets almost eliminated. Whenever I eat a good amount of chia seeds, I usually do not want to eat anything for up to 6 hours. For this reason, I’ve found that chia seeds aren’t good food for people who want to “bulk up” and eat more to build muscle – but on the other hand its great for weight watchers.

Are chia seeds safe?

There are no known allergies to chia seeds, (if used properly) it is suitable for consumption for almost everyone. Chia seeds are also gluten-free. Chia seeds are also completely non-GMO. And if you buy organic, then chia has never been sprayed with pesticide chemicals.

If you experience stomach pain, diarrhea or swelling after eating chia seeds, the reason is that you ate them without soaking. Keep in mind that the chia seeds absorb 12 times the amount of water, and it’s not a good process to make in your stomach.

It’s is absolutely vital to soak chia seeds before eating.

The fact that the chia absorbs fluid from your body can be causing problems such as abdominal pain, which some will report as a negative experience of the use of chia seeds.

Historically, chia seeds were eaten only with water-soaked gel. Put at least 8 times the amount of water to the amount of chia seeds you are going to eat. Otherwise, the seeds will expand in your gastrointestinal tract and draw fluid from your body, causing dehydration. So eat only chia seed gel.

However, I can not say that chia seeds would be suitable for absolutely everyone because everyone is different. Millions of people have fallen in love with chia seeds forever. But it’s not necessarily for everyone, you will find it out by trying it.

Many nutrition expert recommends chia seeds for pregnant women, for example: Dr. Axe (draxe.com). When pregnant, every woman needs a lot of omega-3 fatty acids for the developing child, especially for child’s brain development.

Many women are concerned about fish eating because of mercury and other heavy metals, for this reason, it is good to have alternatives such as chia seeds. But in my opinion, chia seeds is not a good way to replace eating fish, and people definitely should also eat high-quality fish or heavy metal free clean fish oil (iHerb). High-quality fish oil will not break your budget.

Dosage? I recommend to eat chia seeds up to 2-3 tablespoons a day (soaked) and to keep breaks some days. In my opinion, you should take breaks at regular intervals from certain foods and supplements, as it might not be a good idea to continue to eat them on a daily basis. The continuous daily intake of certain same foods can even develop food allergies – for example, if you’re eating eggs every day, there is a chance you’ll develop the allergy to eggs.

Chia seeds might decrease blood pressure according to some studies.3Khalid W, Arshad MS, Aziz A, Rahim MA, Qaisrani TB, Afzal F, Ali A, Ranjha MMAN, Khalid MZ, Anjum FM. Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica L.): A therapeutic weapon in metabolic disorders. Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Dec 15;11(1):3-16. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3035. PMID: 36655089; PMCID: PMC9834868. If you’ve already got a low blood pressure, it may cause some negative reactions and may lead to hypotension. Again this is one reason why you should take breaks from eating chia seeds. Also, it not good to get too much fiber, as it can cause stomach problems.

Chia seed storage and shelf life?

The shelf life of chia seeds is almost everlasting, these seeds won’t go rancid or lose their potency. Chia seeds have high levels of antioxidants and other rare nutrient compounds to prevent certain fatty acids from turning rancid.

Of course, as with almost every food, you want to store chia seeds in an airtight bag/box away from light and moisture, at room temperature.

That means chia seeds are a perfect “preparedness food” that can be stored for so-called “rainy day”, food crisis or natural disaster. It is always good to have some standby food tucked away. You’ll never be able to know when you and your family do not have access to food for weeks or even months due to some natural disaster such as hurricane, earthquake or flood.

Other good foods that will stay in standby and are valuable nutritionally and viable as barter items in a crisis are unrefined sea salt or Himalayan salt, honey, coconut sugar, and coffee.

How to use chia seeds

It’s a good idea to soak chia seeds for 5-15 minutes before eating, to prevent them using your body fluids to grow and expand. I repeat, the chia seed absorbs up to twelve times their weight in water. So I do not recommend to spoon up a lot dry chia seeds in your mouth. Dry chia seed can get stuck to your throat and swell up there causing esophageal blockage.

Unlike with flax seeds, you can get benefits of chia seeds without grinding / crushing them. Chia seeds can be placed in a drinking cup, for example, and top them with water, and stir for about 5 minutes and they are ready to use.

You can put chia seeds or chia seed gel to almost everything, for example, yoghurt, muesli or a smoothie. I will also share the recipes that I use almost every day with chia seeds.

Chia seeds recipes

Chia coconut milk blueberry pudding

chia seed pudding
chia seed pudding

Next, I’ll share this one delicious chia seed recipe, not the easiest, but very interesting and delicious recipe for chia seeds.

Ingredients:
– Coconut milk
– Raw Honey
Organic Chia Seeds
– Berries of your own choice. I used blueberries in this recipe.

Let chia seed to gelatinize with coconut milk, add honey as much as you like and complete the serving with blueberries.

Here is great video about chia puddings:

Where to get chia seeds?

organic chia seeds
Organic chia seeds (iHerb)

I ordered my chia seeds from iHerb.com which ships to over 150 different countries (including China, Korea, Russia, Brazil, Singapore, and Europe), and carries a great selection of chia seeds and virtually every natural supplement there is.

I’m using California Gold Nutrition organic chia seeds, which I have found to be outstanding quality.

California Gold Nutrition® organic chia seeds are manufactured in the USA and tested by Independent 3rd Party Labs to be free of heavy metals and salmonella (you can see the Certificate of Analysis in their site).

There is also larger 2-pack available, but make no mistake thinking that you can easily consume 12 oz (340g) chia seeds. Remember they soak up water up to 12 times of their weight. Personally, 1 pack of chia seeds lasts a long time.

If you’re first-time customers on iHerb.com you’ll get 10% off from your first order (5% off for everyone). You get the discount code automatically from my links or using the code: KLJ962

While you will benefit from this, I also benefit by getting “iHerb credits” which I can use towards my next orders. Thank you!

I highly recommend adding chia seeds to daily diet (of course with some breaks). I have used chia seeds for about 4 years and I consider them as one of the best sources of fiber in the diet.

Chia seeds are particularly great as a supper or night snack. The chia seed has high amounts of tryptophan, a precursor to melatonin – so it may help you to sleep better. Chia also contains a large amount of magnesium, which is also important for good night sleep.

Try this night snack: greek yogurt, banana, coconut oil, and raw honey. Mix them together with a fork and add gelatinized chia gel to make real “tryptophan-bomb” which will help you sleep better. Enjoy with couple brazil nuts.

And as for warning, I have to mention, once you try chia seeds and see the benefits… You might get addicted.

31 thoughts on “Chia Seeds – Holy Grail Of Bowel Movements? “The Perfect Stool”

  1. Thanks! Lots of cool information about chia seeds.

    Chia night snack recipe is really good. It really helps me sleep better.

  2. Chia seeds are great for stomach! Constipation which lasted over 1 week was gone after 2 hours of eating chia seeds.

  3. wow, this person must not eat much if 1 spoon of chia is a meal. I find at least 3 to make a ‘small’ meal

  4. love Chia seeds only thing that helped keep me regular don’t know why my doctor didn’t suggest them before the pills I was put on

  5. Good article! I however eat a couple of spoonfuls without soaking. Put them in my mouth. Add water to mouth swish for a second and swallow. Then follow up with lots of water. No so pleasant, but it’s easy. When I’m on the go. I swear I get a buzz from this stuff. Energy. Love it! I’ll try the gel.

  6. Without a doubt chia seeds would have to be the best natural food for the perfect stool, hands down. Again as others have said please drink your water when eating chia. I cannot stress this enough. I had ultrasound for unexplained upper abdominal pain. The morning of ultrasound I had to fast, so no chia on my breakfast. and no pain that morning. Gosh such a simple diagnosis! I reintroduced the chia but drank more water second time round ( having not consumed any extra fluid before with the chia) and have since had no problems. I love the feeling of having my internal organs working more efficiently.

  7. What is the serving size for the nutritional facts? Like does one spoon of chia have 6x more calcium than one spoon of milk? Or is it a cup of milk? That chart is useless without that info.

    1. Nutrients in chia seed are absorbed better if you mill or ground them before eating.

      But if you want “Chia seeds unexpected benefits” for better bowel movements and hydration you should consume them whole and soaked.

  8. Gassy Sharp intense abdominal pain on the toilet all day and night with frequent urges to have to go no more chia seeds for me and I soaked them and ground them in smoothies prior to eating. The benefits of chia seeds are over-rated my bowels suffered greatly not worth it. Never again.

    1. thanks for the warning. I have just had one teaspoonful, ground, soaked, with lemon juice and agave syrup…..now I wait….

  9. Abdominal pain and toilet all day… I soaked them overnight, and took them with lemon juice….now im scared to consume it..hv not been taking water or any solid food…fear of another appointnent at the toilet…

  10. When I just add seeds that are have been not soaked into my morning smoothie I do not experience any adverse effects. I also only use the recommended daily dose which is rough;y 3 level teaspoons.
    Perhaps there is a need for people to consume the recommended daily dose to avoid gut complications
    Certainly controls blood sugar levels.

  11. I have always have just sprinkled I Large teaspoon chia seeds on my porridge for breakfast never soaked them before
    Do you soak them in water or milk ?my stools are mostly runny in the morning
    They say fibre is needed in our diet as I have ibs so I thought I try it maybe soaking them I’ll see if my stools harden 🤨

    1. In water most of the time, sometimes in coconut milk. I think it’s fine to soak chia seeds also with overnight oats. For example oats in kefir and sprinkle some chia seeds and let it sit in the fridge, it’s very good if you season it with cinnamon and then add some banana on it.

      When you soak chia seeds it’s not that fast process, as it takes some time to make them turn into that chia seed gel.

      You’ll get more out of them if you soak them first. And they’ll last quite well (up to a week) in the fridge. I have a glass jar with a lid where I make my chia seed gel in water.

      Everyone is different, but if morning stool is runny then you might not get enough fiber. Oats, chia seeds, berries, and fruit like avocado are great options to add for more fiber.

      For a recipe, I like to mash avocado + banana together and add some spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves in a powder form (maca powder also is amazing in this). A bit of olive oil or coconut oil. Splash of lemon juice. Add some protein powder + kefir if you want to make it a balanced meal. Then add some chia seeds gel and oats and berries of your choice and mix it all up with a fork/spoon and right there is a fine meal full of nutrients and fiber. 🙂

  12. I started drinking lemon water with 2 Tbsp chia seeds in the morning ONLY for weight loss .
    Pleasantly surprised my #2 movements are Bristol #(4 and the time in the bathroom is pleasant and productive .
    The bm’s are good solid , come out easy and I feel so good .

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