Seeds not only contain the essence of life; they are incredibly nutritious. They contain everything a plant needs to spring back to life. So, when you eat more seeds, you are treating yourself to all the essential nutrients you need to stay healthy. Let's explore how you can eat more seeds and exactly how this benefits your body.
The top reason to eat more seeds is that they are rich in essential nutrients. They are quite important for vegans because this is where they can get omega-3 fatty acids. However, seeds are also rich in healthy protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
Omega-3 fatty acids help you fight depression and anxiety and improve your eye health. They also protect you against heart disease, and fight inflammation and autoimmune disorders.
Healthy protein builds muscle, maintains healthy hair and skin, and improves nerve signal transmission. It also promotes joint health and prevents osteoporosis.
Dietary fiber lowers the risk of heart disease, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and gastrointestinal problems.
Vitamins can help prevent and treat eye disorders, heart problems, high cholesterol levels, and skin conditions.
Minerals improve your bone health, keep your muscles strong, lower anxiety, and maintain strong blood vessels. They also prevent anemia and fatigue.
So, if you eat more seeds, you will help to stave off nutrient deficiency.
Seeds come in different sizes, colors, and flavors, but, they are usually tasty. However, the main reason you should eat more seeds is that regular consumption can help prevent many health issues.
Let's explore the 7 best seeds you should eat:
This is a fantastic source of antioxidants called polyphenols. Polyphenols can protect against heart disease and cancer. Flaxseed may be beneficial for breast, prostate, and colon cancer. It can also prevent stroke, premature aging, and neurodegenerative diseases. High in anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, flaxseed helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Its high fiber content also improves digestion.
Chia seeds are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and can prevent many health conditions. They are rich in phytochemicals and flavonoids. And these elements are essential in fighting cancer and autoimmune disorders. Chia seeds also boost your metabolism, which helps with weight loss.
Rich in healthy fats, sunflower seed can stabilize your cholesterol and blood sugar levels and support your bone health. Its high vitamin E content helps you maintain healthy skin. In addition, its high selenium levels promote natural detoxification. This improves your heart health, lowers the risk of some types of cancer, and prevents diabetes.
Its high antioxidant content helps reduce inflammation as well as the risk of certain cancers. It can improve prostate and bladder health, and stabilize blood pressure and blood sugar levels. It also prevents heart disease and muscle weakness, and promotes healthy bones.
Sesame seed lowers cholesterol and triglycerides and maintains healthy blood pressure. It's rich in calcium, which supports healthy bones and helps reduce inflammation. Antioxidants also help lower the risk of many chronic conditions.
Hemp seeds contain minimal amounts of psychoactive compounds. It can help reduce the risk of heart disease, improve skin conditions, reduce symptoms of PMS and menopause, and aid digestion.
Apricot seed boosts your immune system and helps destroy pathogens. This is mainly thanks to amygdalin, a naturally occurring chemical that helps protect against tumors and cancer. This seed also improves your skin health, stabilizes your blood pressure, and helps maintain good heart health. Unfortunately, this healthy seed has some side effects. It contains cyanide and if taken in large doses can be harmful. For example, eating over 50 apricot seeds would be lethal.
If you eat raw seeds, remember that you should take them with plenty of water. Please note that sesame, flaxseed, and chia seeds should be ground first. This is because our stomachs are unable to fully digest them as whole seeds. Adding seeds to your food will make everything you eat or drink healthier.
Here are a few suggestions on how to eat more seeds:
Eat more seeds by sprinkling them as decoration, or mixed with fruits and vegetables.
You can add seeds to flour when baking breads, pies, cakes, muffins or biscuits. This will improve the nutritional content of the final products.
Simply add some seeds to your muesli, cornflakes, porridge, yogurt, milk or juice.
Soak ground flaxseed and/or chia seeds in milk or yogurt overnight. The entire mixture will gelatinize and make for a yummy treat!
If you are allergic to nuts, you can make healthy non-dairy milk alternatives. The best seeds for this purpose are sesame, pumpkin, or sunflower seeds.
A handful of seeds is not only a very healthy snack, it's also very filling.
Soak seeds overnight and then blend them into a dairy-free sauce. The amount of water used will determine the consistency of the sauce. If you make it very thick, you can use it as a spread. A thinner version can be poured all over steamed vegetables or fish, or used as a dip.
Eat more seeds by using ground seeds in place of breadcrumbs.
Bioenergetics involves converting food into energy that your body needs. As this is related to your metabolism, it's essential to understand metabolism if you want to understand the biology of bioenergetics.
Living organisms acquire and transform the energy necessary for survival in different ways. Bioenergetics explores this process and applies it to nutrition and food science.
However, how the food is transformed into energy is not strictly a biochemical process. The way it's prepared, served, and eaten also affects its nutrient content.
The way your cells produce energy from food explains why certain foods can improve or ruin your health. Numerous studies suggest that we react to foods according to our specific metabolic type. This is why not all diets suit everyone.
Since food can affect us in different ways, it means that we use different metabolic pathways to produce energy from food. So, to maintain good health it's essential to understand how your metabolism works.
Some people become overweight because they eat too much fat. Others have the same problem because they eat too much sugar and refined wheat products. In both types of metabolism, the thyroid gland is usually underactive.
The thyroid gland produces hormones that affect metabolism. It's believed that low thyroid function is the main culprit for weight gain. However, new research suggests that it could be the reverse. Therefore, being overweight may be slowing down the thyroid gland.
The easiest way to improve your metabolism is to include more fresh fruit and vegetables in your diet. At the same time, you should limit unhealthy fats and sugar intake.
Alternatively, if you eat more seeds, your diet will be rich in healthy fats that help boost metabolism. Seeds are high in healthy protein and dietary fiber, and are quite filling. Eating more seeds will help suppress your appetite, which will indirectly help you with weight management.
The NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response system helps your body deal with stress. It consists of different organs and systems that are grouped into six circuits. The Bioenergetics Circuit is one of them, and coupled with your adrenal glands, help you to fight stress.
Chronic stress can be devastating for your health. Not only does it make it difficult to manage your emotions, it can easily lead to many chronic health issues.
Unfortunately, it can also be a trigger for some life-threatening conditions, such as ulcers, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS).
The Bioenergetics Circuit consists of the liver, pancreas, and thyroid. When these organs are healthy, they will easily reduce the toxic overload, and protect you from stress-related conditions. They will also keep providing your brain with glucose. This is important because sufficient amounts of glucose help you cope with stress.
This circuit also regulates the inflammatory processes and helps keep your body free of toxins. This toxin-elimination process is conducted by the liver. One of the natural remedies for dealing with inflammation is to eat more seeds, particularly sunflower seeds because they are high in selenium. This will also help to improve adrenal fatigue concerns.
An imbalance in any of these organs can cause major dysfunctions in all other organs. As a result, you may experience sugar cravings, mitochondrial disorder, dizziness, and weight gain.
Chronic stress can weaken most of your organs. If the organs in your Bioenergetics Circuit become weak because of increased pressure, your other organs will also be affected. For example, when the liver, pancreas, and thyroid become unbalanced, you automatically receive fewer nutrients. This makes the detoxification process less efficient. Besides, your microbiome will also become unbalanced. So, one consequence of a malfunctioning Bioenergetics Circuit is a slow or inefficient recovery from emotional or physical stress.
The importance of good metabolism and a healthy diet cannot be overestimated. This is good news, because adopting a healthy, balanced diet can help you to easily avoid or correct any imbalances within your body.
Although some people see a slow metabolism as a problem, a metabolism that is too fast is also not good. Some of the symptoms of fast metabolism include feeling hungry all the time, increased weight loss, increased appetite, increased body heat, a rapid heartbeat, frequent bowel movement, and hyperthyroidism. So, you would ideally want a balanced metabolism for optimal health.
Seeds are rich in nutrients, omega-3 fatty acids, as well as antioxidants. So, when you eat more seeds you reap numerous health benefits ranging from improved eye health to reduced anxiety and inflammation. Eating more seeds helps you boost your physical and mental health. So, not eating them deprives you of many essential nutrients that your Bioenergetics Circuit needs to function. We invite you to read more of the resources on our site to learn how you can achieve and maintain your best health.
For those specifically dealing with the challenges of adrenal fatigue, incorporating seeds into your diet can be a strategic part of your recovery plan. Dr. Lam's Adrenal Fatigue Recovery Program provides comprehensive guidance on nutritional strategiesto support your adrenal health and overall well-being.
To eat more seeds, you have to be prepared to experiment with new tastes and unusual recipes. You can use seeds to make non-dairy milk, breadcrumbs, sauces, and puddings. To make the most of their nutrients, simply add them to everything you eat or drink!
