Seeds as medicinal superfood

Organic high quality seeds can be powerful healers - if you keep them away from heat and prepare them in a way that makes their nutrients available to your body.
Be it sprouted, like in the how-to card below, ground, soaked or as cold pressed oils.
Just don't cook or roast them - and while sunflower and sesame pate are wonderful, check that they are not made from roasted seeds.

If you are knew to seeds as medicinal food, I would recommend to start with this article about "the ten healthiest seeds" as inspiration to explore more.

Aside from their medicinal effects, seeds are also super-tasty! This allow us to integrate them creatively and step by step into our diets.
I thought you will probably like new recipes for new powerfoods at hand - so I have listed the seeds below, then their effects, shortened, followed by a link to a search on pinterest.

This list will be updated with other articles and links over time - selected articles are always welcome in the comments !

Chia seeds are strong energizers and very effective for weight loss plans, a powerful inflammatory, high in Omega 3 fatty acids ( "short-chain") and antioxidants; (chia recipes)

Hemp seeds, peeled , split or as hemp seed oil, both contain virtually no THC, but powerful immune system regenerators and anti-cancer nutrients. (hemp seed recipes)

Pomegranate seeds, again full of antioxidants,  preventative & for treatments of arthritis and arteriosklerose, powerful youth keeper. ( pomegranate recipes)

Flax seeds, preferably ground without heat for balancing hormones and also as powerful anti-inflammatory medicinal; ( flax seed recipes)

Pumpkin seeds, as oil or ground seeds, l-tryptophan as mood booster, can prevent kidney stones, fight parasites + especially for men. ( pumpkin seed recipes)

10 apricot kernels a day ( ground) as powerful protection shields where new to me ! Amygdalin atacks cancer cells, it is bitter and also active in bitter almonds -  (Apricot kernel recipes)

Sesame seeds as oil or cold treated seed paste, tahini, especially for skin power and thus consumed to slow down symptoms of aging; (sesame seed recipes, hummus)

Sunflower seeds and oil, high in Vitamin E ( neutralize free radicals, phytosterols and magnesium, reduce asthma, reduces cholseterol levels, help to prevent migraine and heart diseases (sunflower seed recipes),

Cumin seeds for digestive balance, immune-system booster, antiseptic effects, high in iron - liver protection, against asthma and arthritis ( cumin seeds recipes)

Grape seeds are said to prevent heart diseases through lowering blood pressure and kill cancer cells. (grape seed recipes )


It is a wonderful awareness ride to collect more health knowledge - where-ever we are born, nature has prepared a pharmacy directly in front of our doors, supposed there is some healthy nature around.

Some of you might feel overwhelmed when you start to learn about medicinal plants from zero: Again, I would recommend pinterest: It allows you to collect all those links which arrive in your stream once you have liked some facebook pages or other outposts of inspirational free education streams with interesting updates. Pinterest is ideal here because such posts and articles are nearly always image-based. By and by you will learn to know single plants better, until you reach the point where you realize that you know remedies more and more often - but are still at the start :)

I collect my links in a folder (board) "Natural Health" - being still new to the topic, but it is soon time to divide it into subtopics, i guess. That is the moment when you can re-check how much you still know about the plants mentioned and re-read some articles.

And here is your simple How-To card for growing sprouts ! 

Sprouts are really easy and super-healthy, but be sure to rinse well and take your time to read about the specific seed variety you are going to sprout online before you start as there are some differences to be aware of.
Sproutspeople offer you tons of valuable information - and though a strainer and a pot are in principle enough - maybe you enjoy some fancy equipment for sprouting.


To stay on the very, maybe overcritically safe side, read this wikipedia article before you start your sprouting journey - and avoid to eat more than 550 g sprouts a day on a regular basis.
Something that is unlikely to happen to me - though i love sprouts, and yes, start with small amounts of seeds for sprouting, unless you plan to cook with them.

They are also a nice present for friends, in a nice glass, from the fridge through the winter night, for a dinner salad - ideally with healthy oils !


Enjoy sprouting and to explore more healthy seed recipes !

(Update: 3.2.2014: some corrections)