Seed Powerhouses: Sunflower Seeds

“I read once where if you are going to be shipwrecked on a proverbial desert island and you could choose only one food to take with you, you should choose sunflower seeds. They supposedly have every nutrient needed for human survival except vitamin C, but when sprouted they produce vitamin C.” ~ Ruth Yaron

Looking for a health-promoting snack? A handful of sunflower seeds will take care of your hunger, while also enhancing your health by supplying significant amounts of vitamin E, magnesium and selenium.

Here are more benefits:

- Lowers cholestrol
- Calms your nerve, muscles and blood vessels with the magnesium content
- Improved detoxification and cancer prevention through selenium

How to Select & Store

Purchase only raw fresh seeds (organic is best) from the natural food store. If you think of seeds as the bottled salted sunflower seed snacks, please change your thinking. You really want to avoid the extra sodium in these brands, and they go rancid very quickly. Freshness is preserved in the raw, organic brand. It is easiest to buy them hulled (with shell removed). Look them over to make sure they are not shriveled, shrunken or spoiled. They are very cheap, so go for the best quality.

Since sunflower seeds have a high fat content and are prone to rancidity, it is best to store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator, this is especially true after grinding them. They can also be stored in the freezer since the cold temperature will not greatly affect their texture or flavor.

Serving Ideas

Add sunflower seeds to your favorite tuna, chicken or turkey salad recipe.

Garnish mixed green salads with sunflower seeds.

Use fine ground sunflower seeds to dust your meats with in place of flour.

Sprinkle or grind sunflower seeds onto hot and cold cereals. Yum!

Grind sunflower seeds to add to your morning smoothie! I combine these with flax seeds as well.

Grind sunflower seeds to increase nutrition in baby food, especially good mixed with cereals. You can grind them in a coffee grinder or using the mason jar on your blender.

Try learning how to sprout these seeds as well, to incorporate the vitamin C! More on this to come…