Chia seeds are known for its health benefits. Over recent years, many people have incorporated this food item into their regular diet to reap the most out of it. However, a recent medical incident has brought attention to what looked like a harmless health trend that can potentially turn dangerous. A man recently experienced a horrifying episode when his food pipe choked after drinking water over dry chia seeds.

Content creator Dr Sermed Mezher took to his official handle and spoke about this case in a reel. He shared that a 39-year-old man heard chia seeds were good for his health and so he ate a tablespoon of the same. A little after, he had difficulty in swallowing. It got so bad that he was not even able to keep his saliva down.

"When he went to see his doctor, the blockage in his food pipe was so bad that they had to push each of these (chia seeds) down one-by-one with a baby scope, which took hours," he explained.

But what went wrong here? Let's understand.

Dr Sermed explained that on consuming water, the chia seeds expanded. This is how the food pipe was choked. "“It’s crucial to soak chia seeds in water or another liquid before consumption, allowing them to fully hydrate and expand outside the body. Typically, letting them soak for about 20-30 minutes is sufficient. This ensures that they are in their safest and most beneficial form for ingestion."

This is not the first time that a doctor has to warn about the correct way of consuming chia seeds. Earlier, Dr Wendi Lebrett, gastroenterologist at California's UCLA Health said, "Chia seeds can absorb up to 27 times their own weight in water, so please don’t eat it dry, or you’ll be seeing a GI doctor soon." With this, she shared an image of a ball of chia seeds impacted in a person’s oesophagus.

To avoid such an incident, she advised drinking plenty of water while eating chia seeds, and to always soak them first, “otherwise it can form a thick, gloopy concrete-like mass”.

A detailed 2014 study, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, detailed the case of a 39-year-old man with impacted chia seeds in his oesophagus. The patient was taken at a hospital in North Carolina after he complained about having trouble swallowing.

About 12 hours before seeking medical attention, he told doctors he’d swallowed a tablespoon of dry chia seeds. Tests further confirmed that a “gel of hydrated chia seeds” had obstructed his oesophagus.