Mary,
Thank you for your kind words. According to my AI app, the chia pudding should yield 4 to 4.5 1/2-cup servings. That seems right if you add up the volumes of the ingredients. The servings would have about 150 to 200 calories depending on if you use sweetened milk and sweetener.

Martin,
Thank you for the rundown.

It looks like you forgot citation [1] and that you linked to the wrong abstract for citation [8]. I briefly looked at them and nothing seemed to suggest they measured EPA/DHA levels in tissues. Is that correct?

Citation [7], Canhada et al., seems like weak evidence for a general recommendation for long-chain omega-3 supplementation to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.

I wouldn’t worry about the antinutrient impact of a few walnuts a day. Our nutrient recommendations assume that people aren’t soaking, sprouting, or doing much of anything (except cooking foods that are normally cooked) to combat antinutrients. I would eat roasted almonds which should help decrease the antinutrient activity. A few daily, raw walnuts shouldn’t do much harm.

Martin,
I can’t find any studies looking at whether cooking fish oxidizes the omega-3s. Usually, oxidized oils smell rancid and cooking fish doesn’t seem to increase the rancidity of the smell, so that might be some very slim evidence that cooking doesn’t oxidize the oils. Antinutrients usually impact mineral absorption, not oils.

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WHOLE
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Thank you for taking the time to measure. I can no longer find what I thought I saw in USDA and a package label which suggested half that amount. Today’s Dietitian does show a smaller amount of ALA per tsp, but I now see that I think they used the wrong weight conversion. I just measured 170g per cup which is close to USDA’s 168g / cup. Based on that:

USDA Food Central, Legacy Foods: 100g = 17.8g ALA
USDA Food Central, Survey Foods: 1C chia* = 168g (I measured 170g)
1C = 170g/100g x 17.8g ALA / 100g = 30.26g ALA / cup
1C = 48 tsp (168g ÷ 48 = 3.5g / tsp = 10.5g / Tbsp)
30.26g ALA ÷ 48 tsp = 0.63g = 630mg ALA / tsp

*Whole or ground not specified, which generally means whole, esp. b/c the only descriptor is “dried”.

That 630mg figure is pretty close to your 713mg figure.

Today’s Dietitian: 1.32g ALA ÷ Tbsp (= 440mg / tsp)
They say 1T = 7.4g, but from USDA, 1T = 10.5g.
After adjusting for 10.5g ÷ 7.4g x 440mg, we get 624mg / tsp.

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GROUND
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Many people will use ground chia since the ALA is much better absorbed that way. I calculate that as follows:

1C ground chia = 108g†
108g x 17.8g ALA / 100g = 19.2g ALA
19.2g ALA / 48tsp = 0.4g = 400mg / tsp

† From my measurement. I was surprised that it weighs less than whole seed, not more, but it did get pretty fluffy from grinding.

That’s 108g ÷ 48 tsp = 2.25g chia/tsp, which is pretty close to Spectrum Organics’ label.

Central Market’s label says 12g / 1T = 4g / tsp, which differs significantly.

Michael,

I calculate that chia seeds have 713 mg per teaspoon according to the USDA database. I’ve added a citation to the table that points to this:

Norris, J. Personal calculations. 2024. 1 teaspoon of dried chia seeds = 4 g (weighed on a food scale). USDA Nutrient database lists 28.35 g of dried chia seeds as having 5.05 g (5,050 mg) of ALA. 4 g * 5,050 mg ALA / 28.35 g = 712.52 mg ALA.