one patient case study, one man experienced intense dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, after ingesting a tablespoon of dry chia seeds and chasing it with water. One of the reasons chia seeds are touted for weight loss is because they expand multiple times their size in water and help you feel full for longer. However, taking down a dry tablespoon and chasing it back with H2O is not going to lead to a comfortable experience, since they don't have time to reach your stomach to expand.
Soaking chia seeds in water before you eat them is safe; after they're soaked, chia seeds develop a gelatinous coating which some raw foodists believe helps them to move swiftly through the digestive track. Other evidence suggests that consuming ground chia seeds, rather than whole seeds, allows significantly more ALA (the plant form of omega-3 fatty acids) to reach the bloodstream. With all that said, there is limited scientific research to which method is truly the best when it comes to nutrient absorption.