- Chances are your mom
forwards you a lot of stuff
from the internet concerning your health.
The question is, does it
hold any truth, whatsoever?
Let's look at this picture, for example.
This is a picture that is
claimed to be of chia seeds
stuck in someone's throat.
The question, of course
is, could this superfood
everyone's been raving
about actually kill you?
What do y'all think?
(audience chattering)
No?
Few yeses.
Believe it or not, there
is truth to this picture.
This is one individual who had eaten
a massive amount of chia seeds.
And what chia seeds can do is,
absorb 27 times their weight in water.
So, this individual had
swallowing difficulties,
ate a ton of chia seeds and
then as the water was absorbed
into the chia seeds, it expanded,
caused an esophageal obstruction,
which you're seeing there.
So, luckily, this is incredibly rare,
chia seeds are incredibly healthy for you.
You should be including
them in your diet but,
ideally you're gonna allow them
to pre-absorb some of that water.
- Yeah, put them in your smoothie first,
put them in your oatmeal first,
let them absorb the water so that
they're full size when you swallow.
- You don't want a Chia Pet
growing in your esophagus.
(audience laughing)
(audience applauding)
- The crazy thing about this
one particular case study is,
it's so rare for someone to
just take a massive mound
of chia seeds because that's just
not how they're meant to be eaten.
So, that's why this is so rare.
Have you ever just taken
a bunch of chia seeds
and thrown 'em back like
you're eating peanuts?
No, its unappealing.
- No.
- Luckily it's unappetizing.
But certainly do not do
it based on this story.
When I first saw this
picture, I was like, really?
(audience laughing)
And then I read about it and sure enough,
sometimes the stuff mom
forwards you, it's real.
