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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.

Alexander,

At this time, I have no concerns about eating typical amounts of foods that are high in LA. Your question inspired me to clarify what I’m saying about LA to ALA ratios in this article. Because LA to ALA ratios were considered to be important for a long time, I was paying more lip service to the subject than I probably should have been. While I don’t think there’s conclusive evidence that the ratios don’t matter, I definitely lean toward the view that they don’t matter based on a lack of evidence.

Alison,

I’m not aware of research on the timing of taking algal EPA/DHA. I looked at one randomized controlled trial of vegans supplementing (Sarter, 2015) and they didn’t instruct the participants on when to take the supplement.

> I’m aware that increased amounts of LA interfere with ALA absorption

LA can interfere with the conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA but I’m not aware of it interfering with absorption. Also, LA interfering with conversion has only been shown in blood; it hasn’t been studied in human tissues and so the physiological significance is questionable.

It took me a while, but I tracked down Langdon’s references and I don’t believe his view is justified. I’ll soon be updating the page to reflect what I’ve found and sending out a blog post (subscribe in the footer of this page). I’ve taken out the line about Langdon since I no longer consider it justified.

Darryl,
According to the abstract, the relative risk for cancer was only 1.06 and barely reached statistical significance, so I’d be surprised if it wasn’t due to confounding. Personally, it doesn’t give me any pause with regard to eating a few grams per day of ALA.