Benefits of Sunflower Seeds: What You Need to Know

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Sunflower seeds are small but mighty seeds from the beautiful yellow sunflower. There are many different types of sunflower kernels, including organic sunflower seeds, striped sunflower seeds, and giant sunflower seeds. They are all bursting with goodness and well worth adding to your diet.

We’re sharing the benefits of sunflower seeds, the best sunflower seeds and the best ways to eat them. Let’s dive in.

What are sunflower seeds good for?

Considering sunflower seeds are so tiny, how could they benefit you? Well, you’d be surprised. Read on for the incredible properties of sunflower kernels.

Powerful anti-inflammatory

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Inflammation is an immune response that occurs when your body’s cells become irritated and swollen. An example of inflammation is when you have a splinter, and the skin gets red and puffy. The tissue around the splinter then expands and pushes the splinter out. But, there are many lifestyle factors that irritate your cells internally.

What causes inflammation in the body?

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Smoking - The fumes from smoking aggravate your body and inflame artery walls, making them narrower and slowing blood flow.
Alcohol - Ever wondered why you wake up with a banging headache after a night out? Part of it is because you’re dehydrated, but it’s also because your tissue expands, shrinking blood vessels and causing pain.
Sugar and fast food - When you eat too much sugar, your body can’t absorb it properly, causing glucose to harden. The excess glucose then clings to artery walls and makes them inflexible.
Stress - A huge culprit of inflammation is stress because it unbalances your nervous system by releasing high amounts of cortisol. The stress hormone supercharges your body, which is excellent in the short term (e.g., when you’re running away from danger) but negatively impacts your short-term health.

Signs you have inflammation

Tension headaches
Low energy
Difficulty sleeping
Acne
Red skin
Depression and anxiety
Gut issues
Brain fog

How do sunflower seeds help with inflammation?

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Sunflower seeds are anti-inflammatory because they contain omega-3, peptides, and vitamin E. They also lower C-reactive protein, a protein the liver makes that escalates when the body is inflamed. Too much C-reactive protein has been connected to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

There’s even been research into harnessing sunflower seed peptides to treat pain and inflammation in replacement of opioids. The peptides don’t cross the blood-brain barrier, lowering the risk of addiction that patients can experience from synthetic opioids.

A powerful antioxidant

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Before we get into antioxidants, you need to know about free radicals. Free radicals are unstable atoms that zip throughout your body, crashing into stable cells. The radicals damage cells and can cause premature ageing. It also creates inflammation throughout the body and may even trigger some types of cancer.

Where do free radicals come from?

Free radicals are naturally occurring, but things like smoking, excess alcohol consumption, UV exposure and an unhealthy lifestyle contribute.

How do sunflower seeds help with free radicals?

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Sunflower seeds are abundant in antioxidants and work hard to shield your cells from damage. Antioxidants give free radicals a ‘spare’ electron to neutralise them and prevent them from causing further chaos. Including organic sunflower seeds in your diet is an easy way to protect your body from the inside out.

A plant-based source of protein

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Proteins are molecules your body builds using amino acids. You need approximately 60-80 grams of protein daily, depending on your weight and activity level.

What does protein do?

Protein isn’t just for getting buff at the gym, it has a whole host of roles within your body. You need protein to create collagen, the most abundant protein in your body. Collagen provides your cells with flexibility and strength.

When a muscle stretches and returns to its original shape, that’s collagen. Bouncy skin, smooth hair, firm nails and strong artery walls are all thanks to collagen. And collagen is just one protein, your body has many more.

Check out our collagen supplements here.

How do sunflower seeds help with your protein intake?

You may assume that protein is only available in eggs and meat, and therefore it’s hard to get enough if you follow a plant-based diet. However, sunflower seeds are an excellent source of protein. Our organic sunflower seeds have a whopping 20 grams of sunflower seeds per 100 grams. So, just a sprinkle of them can quickly up your protein intake.

The best sunflower seeds

We love our organic sunflower seeds, which contain 38 grams of vitamin E and 20 grams of protein per 100 grams. We’ve kept these raw sunflower seeds plain so you can decide how you want to eat them.

Bulk organic sunflower seeds

Our bulk sunflower seeds, 1kg, are excellent for stocking up on. These unsalted sunflower seeds are light and nutty and ideal for storing in your pantry.

Best ways to eat sunflower seeds

You don’t need to do anything to prepare sunflower seeds, you can eat them raw. However, there are also lots of fun and versatile ways to get organic sunflower seeds into your diet.

Roasted sunflower seeds - Pop a handful of sunflower seeds in a pan with olive oil. Next, sprinkle on rock salt and cracked black pepper and roast the seeds until they’re golden.
Add to a salad - Take your salads up a notch by sprinkling on a tablespoon of raw sunflower seeds.
Chocolate covered sunflower seeds - Drizzle melted dark chocolate over sunflower seeds and put them in the fridge to harden. Enjoy a fibrous, protein-fuelled, amino-acid-packed snack
Mix into a trail mix - We adore our Omega-3 mix, which has a gut-enhancing blend of sunflower seeds, golden linseed, brown linseed, and pumpkin seeds
Stir into porridge - After making your creamy morning porridge, decorate the top with mellow-tasting sunflower seeds to keep you full for longer.

It couldn’t be easier to get a healthy helping of sunflower seeds

Out of all the health-enhancing foods, sunflower seeds are one of the easiest to include in everyday meals. Shop our organic sunflower seeds and sunflower seed bulk today and nourish yourself from the inside with Grape Tree.