I heard from two different listeners who had heard scary stories about people ending up in the hospital after eating certain foods that we generally think of as good for us.
Are the warnings about chia seeds and other healthy foods for real or just urban legends?
Nutrition Diva is hosted by Monica Reinagel. A transcript is available at Simplecast.
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Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I’m your host Monica Reinagel and this week, I heard from two different listeners who had heard scary stories about people ending up in the hospital after eating certain foods that we generally think of as good for us.
But first, on a somewhat related note, I got a note from Shari in response to my recent episode on insect protein. She pointed out that if someone has an allergy to shellfish, they should be very careful about consuming insects such as crickets or mealworms.
If you missed that episode, you may be very surprised to learn that crickets and mealworms are growing in popularity as a source of high-quality protein that doesn’t have the environmental or ethical baggage of larger livestock. But it’s true: you can now find cricket-powered protein bars at your local health food store.
However, as Shari points out, there are some people who are going to want to steer clear of this trend. Both crickets and mealworms contain chitin, an allergenic protein that is also found in crustaceans. If you have a severe allergy to shellfish, you could have a potentially life-threatening reaction to crickets or mealworms.
The same is true of cicadas, by the way. I live in a part of North America that experiences the massive emergence of the “Brood X” cicadas every 17 years. (We just had one in the summer of 2021) It’s really something to witness. For several weeks the ground and air are literally thick with these big beetles, who are harmless: they don’t bite or sting. (Although they are terrible flyers; they’ll just crash right into you, or the tree next to you, or pretty much anything even remotely in their path).
The sheer number of them does make life a little inconvenient for a few weeks. They cover every surface and make an awful lot of noise. In any case, I’ve now lived through two emergences. And both times, a few folks end up in the local hospital with allergic reactions after indulging in some cicada cuisine.
So hat tip to Shari for catching my omission in not mentioning the potential for allergic reactions when eating insects.
With that, let’s turn to some other killer foods.
A listener was concerned after a co-worker told her about a man who had ended up in the hospital after eating chia seeds. And this story is actually true.
Chia seeds, of course, are generally considered healthy food. They’re high in omega-3 fatty acids and fiber. You can sprinkle them on your oatmeal, bake them into muffins, or blend them into smoothies. And if you’ve ever made chia pudding, then you know that chia seeds have a nifty little trick. When you stir them into liquid, they expand and form a sort of gel. The texture is sort of like tapioca pudding, only the chewy bits are much, much tinier.
But this little parlor trick has a potential dark side. A GI doctor in NC reported a case where a 39-year-old man swallowed a tablespoon of chia seeds and chased it with a glass of water. The chia seeds absorbed the water and formed a gel-like plug at the base of his esophagus. And nothing could get past it. They had to remove it surgically.
Despite the rise in popularity of chia seeds, this is the only such case to be reported in the literature. But, let’s learn what we can from it, what do you say?
Given chia’s propensity to absorb liquid and form a semi-solid mass, gulping down a shot of dry chia seeds is probably not a good idea. If you’re eating dry chia seeds all by themselves, make sure you’re chewing them thoroughly, and not consuming them too quickly. Alternate with small amounts of liquids. Or, to be on the safe side, stir your seeds into liquid and let them expand before you eat them.
The other question about a healthy food that can put you in the hospital is even stranger. And I learned about it from Carrie, who wrote:
“I live in a region where persimmons grow in abundance every fall. They are one of my favorite fruits—I can easily eat five or six in a sitting. But people often warn me that this is dangerous because persimmons can form indigestible lumps in the stomach that can only be removed with surgery. I've seen this claim repeated in a lot of unreliable clickbait-type media without any sources or data to back it up, so I am a little skeptical. Is this just a myth? And if it is true, how high is the risk?”
The short answer is that this is not a myth, but the risk to healthy humans is pretty low:
Eating persimmons can lead to the formation of something called a phytobezoar—a hard mass of fiber that forms in the stomach and resists digestion. In extreme cases, it can be large enough to cause a bowel obstruction. They sometimes have to be removed surgically.
Persimmons aren’t the only food that forms phytobezoars, but bezoars formed by persimmons tend to be particularly hard and difficult to deal with. Stomach acid interacts with a specific tannin in persimmons to form something darn close to concrete.
Your local veterinarian is probably more familiar with bezoars than your family doctor, because they are much more common in animals– cows and horses, who eat a lot of fibrous plant matter. But plant fibers aren’t the only thing that can cause a bezoar. If your cat has ever hacked up a hairball, then you have first-hand experience with a trichobezoar, a bezoar caused by ingesting hair.
Among humans, phytobezoars mostly occur in people who have undergone some sort of gastric surgery. Those folks probably are better off avoiding persimmons altogether. Persimmon bezoars are much more rare in healthy individuals. But if you wanted to play it safe, you might want to keep it to no more than 2-3 a day, and just in case, be on guard for any symptoms, such as cramping, nausea, or diarrhea, that might signal a problem.
And as long as we’ve gone this far into slightly gross digestive mysteries, here’s one more quick Q&A that seems to fit today’s theme.
Mary writes:
“When I eat corn and carrots, I often see those foods in my poop. Does this mean my body isn't digesting them properly? Am I still getting the nutrition from these foods?”
Digestion doesn’t begin in the stomach, it begins in the mouth. Chewing our food does more than break it down into smaller pieces. It also mixes it with saliva, which contains enzymes that start to work on the carbohydrates.
If we skip or skimp on chewing, digestion and nutrient absorption can definitely be impacted. If food is leaving your body in more or less the same form that it entered, that’s a pretty good sign that you need to slow down and chew more thoroughly. This will allow for more complete digestion and enhance the amount of nutrition that you get from your foods. (It may also help reduce indigestion and intestinal gas.)
And while I’m on the topic of chewing, I also got a question from Ramsey this week about whether you should grind your flaxseed. Flax seeds have very hard outer shells. And if you swallow them whole, they will pass through the digestive tract largely unchanged. Any fiber, omega-3, or other nutrients in that flaxseed will still be in that flaxseed and not redounding to your nutritional benefit. Grinding effectively solves this problem. But guess what? So does chewing. If you’re willing to chew thoroughly, you will effectively be grinding those flaxseeds.
If you have a nutrition question for me, you can email me at nutrition@quickanddirtytips.com. You can also leave me a message at 443-961-6206
I’d also like to invite you to check out my other podcast. It’s called the Change Academy, where Brock Armstrong and I explore the art and science of behavior change. You can find it on all the major podcast platforms, so whatever app you’re using right now to listen to me, just head to the search bar and type in “Change Academy.”
Nutrition Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. It's audio-engineered by Nathan Semmes with script editing by Adam Cecil. Thanks also to Morgan Christianson, Holly Hutchings, Davina Tomlin, and Kamryn Lacy.
That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week.