My Bloating Was Painful and Embarrassing — I Tried Chia Seeds For 2 Weeks to See If It Helped

I didn't want to upset my gut by overdoing it on the chia seeds, so I ate just one teaspoon of chia seeds a day. This offers about 20 calories, 1.3 grams of fat, carbs, and fibre, and 0.7 grams of protein. Adding chia seeds to oatmeal was the main way I got in my daily chia seeds, because I liked how I'd hardly even notice I was eating them. I tried both soaking my oats and chia seeds in overnight oats, and I also cooked my oats and chia seeds in water on the stove, just to see if there was a difference in how my stomach felt.

Over the two weeks, occasionally I'd add chia seeds to smoothie bowls (letting them soak in the smoothie), or to baked oatmeal, pancakes, or added to the batter in baked goods like muffins.

I used my homemade habit tracker to track my chia seed consumption (see the last column), and that helped me remember not to skip a day. I happen to see habit trackers when I was researching bullet journaling, and since I'm big into making lists and love art, I thought this would be a colourful, inspiring way to track this daily habit. I didn't decide to try chia seeds until the middle of the month when my bloating was getting particularly bad from eating sweets (hello, birthday month!), which is why only the bottom half of the column is coloured in.

When I started eating chia seeds in my morning oatmeal, one of the biggest things I noticed is how satiating my breakfast was. I was full well until lunchtime, at least two and a half to three hours without needed a midmorning snack. This helped with digestion because I find when I eat too often or too much, I always get bloated.

As far as my overall digestion, I didn't feel like eating chia seeds had a huge impact. I already eat a high-fibre diet rich in veggies, legumes, whole grains, and fruit, and the extra 1.3 grams of fibre a day wasn't adding a ton more. I will say that my mother started adding chia seeds to her oatmeal after she heard I was doing it, and she said it greatly improved her regularity — everyone is different!

Whether the chia seeds were soaked, cooked, or baked didn't matter — they had the same effect, which like I mentioned before, wasn't huge. I didn't feel instantly cured from bloating just because I was eating them, but I did like how adding healthy fats (omega-3s) to my diet helped with satiety.

I think I'll continue to add chia seeds to my diet a few times a week, but for now I won't be aiming to eat them every day.