Do Chia Seeds Help with Belly Fat?

March 9, 2020

Chia has been eaten for thousands of years, so that would suggest it’s at least safe to eat. But, does it have any special benefits? It’s certainly nutritious: it’s got lots of fiber, antioxidants—black chia seeds perhaps more than white. They also have protein, B vitamins, and minerals. So, nutritious, sure; just like nearly any whole plant food. But, again, are there any special benefits? There are all sorts of claims out there by people trying to sell you chia seeds, but to definitively establish their actual beneficial effects, we need a little something called scientific evidence instead of personal beliefs, or inaccurate advertising, (which is a redundant term if I’ve ever heard one).

For example, there are about 50,000 videos on YouTube on chia seeds and belly fat. But what does the science say? Dietary chia seed does reduce belly fat…in rats. And apparently it reduces the weight…of chickens. Evidently, people don’t like smelling or tasting fishmeal-fed chicken; so, by feeding chickens chia seeds, you can boost their omega-3 levels without it turning into funky chicken. But what happens if you just cut out the middle-hen, and eat chia yourself?

What happens if you add a teaspoon or two of chia seeds to yogurt as a snack? According to a recent article published in the journal Nutrition and Research Practice, after the yogurt with the chia, participants reported significantly less hunger, and that then translated to eating fewer calories two hours later at lunch. Now, my initial thought was, uh, give people more food—add chia to whatever they were eating—and they’re less hungry, duh. But, no, they gave people less yogurt to compensate for each snack to have the same number of calories. So, we can say at least that chia seeds are more satiating than yogurt. But, at lunch two hours later, they didn’t just eat a little less food, but like 25% fewer calories after the chia. A teaspoon of chia seeds only has about 50 calories; yet, they ended up eating nearly 300 calories less at lunch, way more than compensating. So, if you ate some chia seeds as a snack every day—and one teaspoon seemed to work as well as two—you’d expect to lose weight over time. You don’t know, though, until you put it to the test. In a study published in the journal Nutrition Research, subjects were randomized to a whole tablespoon of chia seeds twice a day for months “before the first and last meal for 12 weeks.” And, they found: “Chia seed does not promote weight loss” after all. Huh?

Well, we know from the flax seed literature, if you give people muffins made out of whole flax seeds, they don’t seem to really absorb all the benefit, compared to ground flax seed muffins. And, the same appears to be true with chia seeds. Eat whole chia seeds for 10 weeks, and there’s no increase in short-chain omega-3 levels or long-chain omega 3s. But, eat the same amount of chia seeds ground up, and levels shoot up.

So, maybe the problem with this study is that they gave people whole chia seeds. But there’s never been a study on ground chia and weight loss…until this one: a randomized controlled trial published in the journal Nutrition, Metabolism, and Cardiovascular Diseases, tested about two tablespoons of ground chia a day versus a fiber-matched control made of mostly oat bran. That’s how you know it wasn’t funded by a chia seed company, because they put it head-to-head against a real control, not just a sugar pill or something, to control for the fiber content. Then, if there was weight loss we’d know it wasn’t just the fiber, but something particular to the chia. Those eating the ground chia lost significantly more weight, significantly more waist in terms of waist circumference (a measure of belly fat), and, as a bonus, blood C-reactive protein levels (suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect) decreased as well. Maybe some of those 50,000 YouTube videos weren’t completely off.

There is one form of chia powder I’d stay away from, though. On NutritionFacts.org, I’ve talked about using chia gel to replace eggs or oil in baking; you mix a teaspoon of seeds with a quarter-cup of water, and let it sit for half an hour. Certainly, a way to lower cholesterol, but in 2013, there was an international outbreak of salmonella “linked to sprouted chia seed powder.” Sprouting can create “an ideal environment for bacterial growth.” Ninety-four people were infected across 16 states. Granted, not as bad as salmonella-tainted eggs, which may sicken 79,000 Americans every year, but still, I would recommend staying away from sprouted chia seed powder.

In health,
Michael Greger, M.D.

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Do Chia Seeds Help with Belly Fat?

Michael Greger

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