The Top 10 Healthiest Seeds On Earth

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The magic of seeds is often overlooked because of their small size, but most seeds pack heavy benefits for humans. The seed is an embryonic plant and the origin of nutrition, as a person’s diet used to rely strongly on seeds and other small food items many thousands of years ago. A plant goes to great lengths to produce each seed and fill it with high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, proteins, essential oils and dormant enzymes. If you’re looking for a high-quality, nutritious and filling snack, seeds are tough to beat and easy to eat.

Let’s look at the ten healthiest seeds on Earth and how to consume them because they are often overlooked for lack of knowledge on how to prepare them. A seed gives life and is a living food. It is impossible to eat a raw seed and not derive nutrition from it. Seeds and nuts are present in many contemporary meals and have beneficial caloric and nutritional value for humans around the world. Seeds also provide the foundation for most cooking oils, many beverages and spices, and some important food additives. In a variety of seeds, the seed embryo or the endosperm dominates and provides most of the nutrients. The storage proteins of the embryo and endosperm differ in their amino acid content and physical properties, giving each seed a different purpose.

How to Eat Seeds 

There is only one way to truly derive nutrition from seeds and that is to eat them raw. Once they are exposed to heat, they produce toxic substances and the vitamin, mineral and essential oil profiles are destroyed. By roasting a seed, its classification moves from a living food to a dead food, and there is no seed on earth that can withstand roasting or heating without breaking down its nutritional components. Always remember, eat seeds naturally whenever possible. This also means they can be soaked, ground or mashed, especially if a seed’s shell or coat is too difficult to pierce with the teeth, as long as they are not cooked in any way. Avoid coated or roasted seeds, especially those coated with sugar. 


The 10 Healthiest Seeds on Earth

1) CHIA SEEDS

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Serving Size = 1 Tsp

This might give you an idea of how nutritious chia seeds are; they have:
– 2.5 times more protein than kidney beans
– 3 times the antioxidant strength of blueberries
– 3 times more iron than spinach
– 6 times more calcium than milk
– 7 times more vitamin C than oranges
– 8 times more omega-3 than salmon
– 10 times more fiber than rice
– 15 times more magnesium than broccoli

Chia seeds are loaded with vitamins and minerals, are an excellent source of fiber, protein and antioxidants, and are the richest plant source of omega-3 fatty acids. As for the benefits, consumption of chia seeds helps reduce joint pain and inflammation, aids in weight loss, delivers an energy boost and prevents people from developing serious illnesses, such as diabetes. They are also gluten-free, which makes them more universally favorable to people with sensitivities to gluten.

New research indicates that consumption of chia seeds as a source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) may bring about redistribution associated with heart and liver protection.

2) HEMP SEEDS

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Serving Size = 1 Tbsp
More people are discovering the nutritional benefits of hemp seed, nut and oil.


Hemp contains:

– All 20 amino acids, including the 9 essential amino acids (EAAs) our bodies cannot produce and therefore need to consume.
– A high percentage of the simple proteins that strengthen immunity and fend off toxins.
– Eating hemp seeds in any form could aid, if not heal, people suffering from immune deficiency diseases. Its history reveals that the hemp seed has been used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, which can be lethal.
– This seed is nature’s highest botanical source of essential fatty acids, with more essential fatty acid than flax or any other nut or seed oil.
– A superior vegetarian/vegan source of protein considered easily digestible.
– A rich source of phytonutrients, which is the disease-protective element of plants that contains benefits such as protecting your immunity, bloodstream, tissues, cells, skin, and organs.
– The richest known source of polyunsaturated essential fatty acids.

According to the hemp growers industry, industrial hemp grown for food, fuel and natural fibers contains virtually no THC (less than .3%), which means that those that fear the effects of THC have no basis for their claims.

In fact, when hemp is processed into hemp seed oil and hemp seed milk, for example, it further reduces the already minute amount of THC in hemp.

Despite these facts, hemp is still seen as the same substance as marijuana. Hemp is actually categorized with marijuana as part of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and is therefore illegal to grow in the US, likely because of the fear that the use of hemp will take down other industries. 

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