What seeds do you eat? This is a multiple c... - Healthy Eating
What seeds do you eat? This is a multiple choice poll so please say what other is. 🌞
81 VotersPlease select all that apply:
I pretty much eat everything!😀 Wonderful poll, Hidden !😀
Thanks Leah and good for you. 😊
None
I don’t use chia very often as they are a faff!
sorry but whats "faffy " about chia seeds.. dont really understand ?
Well I understand, having used them a couple of times, that they should be put into something relatively moist and left to thicken up. I just want to sprinkle seeds into dishes unless like quinoa it forms the basis of the dish.
Happy to be told I am wrong!😃
yes I just sprinkle them on my cereal or stirred into yoghourt. they do swell up in liquid but you dont have to do that unless you want a thickener .
Only eat the ones I'm used to as they have always done the job. xx
Which ones?
Sunflower seeds pumpkin and lovely pine seeds. xxx
Sounds great to me!😀
I can only quote what Surgeon Captain T.L. Cleave FRCP says in his book "The Saccharine Disease". We are not finches (birds) and so are not adapted to eat seeds. Personally I don't see any harm in them but we don't eat any as we see no need.
well true we're not adapted to harvest them directly from the plant like birds but we are equipped with a set of teeth and a digestive system that can break them down to release the protein and essential fats from them
You say that we have a digestive system equipped to break them down; I have to say that I'm not totally sure about that. The oil that's available from sunflower seeds, for example, is polyunsaturated oil and has questionable value foodwise. In their raw state with all the fibre included I don't suppose they will do you much harm.
I mentioned T.L. Cleave. He was a highly respected doctor and scientist during his life; he is totally against any of the seed oils. Certainly there is a lot to read about them and not a lot to recommend them. The polyunsaturated seed oils are not good for human health and we were seriously lead astray over the last 50 years or so by the food industry that successfully made a lot of money by telling us falsely, that it was good for our heart when the converse was more likely to be true. We never believed them.
You can read about Cleave at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoma... We have his book which is used as a reference by many of the more enlightened members of the medical profession today.
yes Im aware of the alleged problems with polyunsaturated oils but there are also very strong arguments in the other camp .pumpkin seeds for example are a superb source of omega 3 which most people are deficient in -omega 6 being more common. the protein in seeds is also readily available and excellent source for vegetatians and vegans.
from my experience as a medical herbalist I think the numbers of the enlightened medical profession in regards to nutrition is pretty small 
I am very pleased to know your profession, my wife and I are strong supporters and have plenty of evidence to show that natural treatments are equally effective and far less damaging to the digestive system. One example is that her hairdresser expressed alarm at the fact that she seemed to be losing some of her hair and recommended a visit to a dermatologist. Instead we went to see the local herbalist who recommended a course of brewer's yeast and an extract of Prêle (that is the French name, it's Horse Tail - equistum avense). Three to four months or so later her hairdresser remarked upon how thick my wife's hair had become and asked what the demotologist had recommended; he was astonished to hear what the remedy had been.
This same herbaliste is also what the French call a "magnetiseur".
Lastly on the topic of omegas 3 and 6, the balance between the two is critical and is correct in dairy foods and saturated fats. We see so often that Nature has designed these things for us and we tamper with them at our peril. We only ever drink raw milk for example, which we can collect from the farm or our Saturday market.
My wife has just read my reply and points out that sprouted seeds are even more beneficial. As a child I remember being sent to buy mustard and cress from the greengrocer; that was sprouted seeds.
I enjoy my seeds sprouted too. I love mung bean shoots.
I don't pay a whole lot of attention to what's considered "healthy" this week by the diet gurus - I just think eating seeds AS seeds is a bit of waste when you can produce something more tasty and interesting by sprouting them!
I think there's another argument for not eating seeds in large amounts: they're economically and ecologically costly to produce. This is also true of things we forget are seeds: wheat and beans. The yield (per hectare) of seeds in general is pitifully small. The reason is that a seed is the culmination of the plant's entire reason for existence: it puts everything it has into ensuring the survival of the next generation, and the entire bulk of the plant - which might be 500x larger than the seed mass - is essentially expendable. So yes, the seed is nutrient-dense ... from the point of view of a growing plant. For human food? Not so certain. A lot of seeds have hard seed coats or contain toxins and anti-nutrients to ensure that they are not digested but excreted intact, so that the plant can grow elsewhere.
No doubt humans have always eaten seeds as a modest part of their diet, but the modern obsession with making them a BIG part seems both a misguided waste of land and nutritionally dubious.
I like your point of view but just think about the number of seeds each plant produces. Flowers are a typical example where each flower produces perhaps thousands however you can almost count the number of wheat grains (seeds) each wheat plant produces.
We too don't look for healthy food but just what Nature has provided us with and what has not been tampered with.
Best wishes.
Yes, but a seed is pretty small 
To put some numbers on this, the typical yield (historically) for an organically-raised wheat monoculture is 1-3 tonnes per hectare; about the same for millet or beans. For rice, it's 2-5 tonnes. A grain crop will traditionally be followed by a legume rotation or a green-manure crop. Bear in mind that those plants have been genetically honed over centuries to produce a huge seed mass relative to the plant mass - unimproved seed yield is typically a few hundred kilos per hectare. You can increase those yields by 50% of more by using fertilizers and biocides and continuous cropping ... until your soil is burned out, and then you get zero.
Compare that with the total biomass output of a farm using modern (natural) techniques. There's so much yield that it's complicated to describe, but you're generally talking upwards of 20 tonnes per hectare, of which about 60% gets used for animal feed (and therefore translates into 1-2 tonnes of meat plus several tonnes of prime manure) and the other 40% breaks down as approximately 1 tonne of grains/beans, 1 tonne of storage tubers, and 6-8 tonnes of vegetables: that is, about 8x more fruit/greens than grains. Since this is what nature naturally provides (a ratio of 1:1:8 meat/seeds/veg) I suggest it should be reflected on our plates.
Thanks for those interesting thoughts.
oh so glad to hear it - horsetail is superb for hair and connective tissue - it is so rich in Silica and other minerals.
I completely agree that the balance of Omegas is critical and that the demonising of saturated fats has not resulted in the supposed benefits - ie reduction in heart disease -that were touted 40 -50 years ago.
Sprouting is superb isnt it as it makes available so many of the nutrients and I too remember going for tubs of mustard and cress to go with our egg and salad cream sandwiches ( or sandwich cream as it it now being marketed !!)
Sunflower, pumpkin, linseeds, sesame
I love seeds. We regularly have sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, & hemp seeds. I toast them and put them in a jar ready to sprinkle on salads, lasagne etc when I am cooking. Also we have chia seeds for chia pudding. I love it!
nice but best not to do too many at once as the oils that are released on roasting/toasting go rancid quite quickly.
I toast the sunflower and pumpkin seeds in a heavy skillet, or in the oven, because that really brings out the flavour!
Too true it does Beek as roasted seeds taste amazing...😊
If I read its good for you. I will try anything ?
My 'other' is poppy seeds. Don't know how good they are for you, but they're sure tasty.
Hi HealthSeeker7, we only have 7 choices + other.
Poppy seeds are a great source of omega-3 and iron as well as being tasty. 😊
I used to eat sunflower seeds but alas all I have are false teeth, not much good for eating! Keep your teeth. Implants would be great but can`t afford!
I snack on sunflower and pumpkin seeds, bake my gluten free bread with chia seeds, sesame seeds and flaxseed, use quinoa for meals and eat most of the seeds mentioned as part of a seed rich granola that I eat with natural yogurt and fresh fruit for breakfast 😄
This all sounds really great to me MeTeeCee, so good for you. 😊
Hi Jerry
I enjoy eating them and hopefully they’re doing me good for my health.
Good health to you always
Regards Josephinef 😊
Being mostly vegetarian I eat all of the above,they are a good source of healthy oils and protein. Other for me is buckwheat and amaranth (yes they are seeds) both used as pseudo cereals .
You're absolutely right lawli56, that amaranth are also seeds and you can easily make puffed ones which make a lovely crunchy and healthy snack...😊
Does cashew nutts count? They are apparently seeds as they are from the cashew apple😀
Hi Aretak, this is very true and Almonds, Brazil and Cashew nuts are in fact seeds and
Peanuts are legumes...😊
Aren`t peanuts seeds? Roasted peanuts in the winter, great!
Hi GERALDDAVID, peanuts are part of the pea family.
Jerry another great post, I eat mostly all of them eccept have not ttied chia seeds. I love quiono but is not on a KEto diet, we know longer consume this seed. Love sunflower and pumkin Hallween is my favorite time to make my own. Baking and salring to my heart content. True in stores but what is better than fresh from the fields. Sure others do the same with other seeds but I personlly have not tried or do not have recipes, could go hunting on PIN!
Thanks cherv, its great when you can get fresh seeds to bake with so good for you and pumpkin seeds are a favourite of mine. 😊
im interested in if you prepare your pumpkin seeds before roasting as every time Ive tried this they are virtually inedible -so tough and chewy 
Hi, Yes wash the seeds completly after removing from the pumpkin, true yucky job with all the stingy fibers and all. Put in strainer and move around to get them as clean as possible rinsing as you go. When that job is done lay your seed out to air dry for a while. Turning, a paper towel works great. This is a walk away job. Several hours can pass! Turn your oven on to bake which temp is your choice, I use 350. Now I keep and eye but first toss with your oil of choice, salt of choice and any seasonings= they can be many. Turn to crisp the other side I use a baking sheet usually covered in parchment paper- easrier to remove baked seeds to cool on from oven. Make sure you toss the seeds to coat before you put them in the oven, you can taste at end if more salt is needed salt them or season of choice. I hope this helps has been fail proff for me. Hate to give you an idea of how long that would be! Know fair guessing. LOL
thank you - i think perhaps i omitted adding oil so that s perhaps why they ended up tough !
You might even try PAM cooking oil spray I think that might work as well if you do not like the ides of oil, an avocado oil would be nice high heating tolerence/ and healthy.
Is that Barry Groves who wrote "Fluoride - Drinking ourselves to death".
The brain is 80% saturated fat and what were we told not to eat? Some members of the medical profession are suggesting that coud be the reason for the increase in Alzheimers Disease.
indeed lower cholesterol levels are associated with increased risks of dementia.
why are the medical profession obsessed with lowering everyones cholesterol -oh I forgot Big Pharma and the statins they have to tout.
I was offered statins by my doctor even though my cholesterol was normal ... I soon told her what to do with them -in the politest terms I could muster. She was obviously not aware either of studies that show no benefit to women who have not had a heart attack -ie me....
This is wonderful, we are now hearing from people who actually know what's going on and the reason is all down to money. Our son lives in the USA and told us the same story about statins, he wasn't quite so polite to his doctor. He tells us that the doctors over there receive "brown envelopes" for prescribing statins.
I was also told that I should start taking statins by my doctor; she got the same reply from me and the next day I delivered a paper to her surgery setting out the case against them with facts drawn from well established medical sources. She obviously had only listened to the blurb sent out by Big Pharma.
There's a revealing article which I have read andwill interest you. It's based upon a book written by Dr. Ben Goldacre. Go to: healthscams.org.uk/big-phar...
It's amazing where this poll has lead!
I have a bit of an issue with Ben Goldacre as despite being against the mega influence of Big Pharma he is also very anti natural medicine -mainly because to his mind there is no scientific proof of its efficacy. As with many scientists it is not sufficient that there are millions of people out there as living proof that natural medicine works , unless you can double blind trial it ,its all in your imagination..,
If it works, it works. In 2009 I was inflicted with polyartritis which was very debelitating; I had great difficulty in dressing myself, I couldn't cut up my food on the plate and I was feeling so tired. My G.P. just prescribed analgesics which I didn't take; a friend recommended a G.P. who only prescribed homeopathic treatment. It was revealation; I went to see him for the first time in the July and by Christmas I was totally cured and have had no recurrance. He gave me acupuncture and a complicated course of various medicines which I managed by creating a spreadsheet. My first consultation lasted 1½ hours where my wife was included. This was whole medicine. This doctor understood that not everyone reacts in the same manner to treatments.
Ben Goldacre is not alone with his disbelief in natural medicine, our current G.P. is the same but we are registered with her simply for any emergency which is manadatory in France. We saw her two years ago when we registered and haven't been near her since; long may it last!
Best wishes.
im delighted you have found natural treatment for what can be a terribly debilitating condition. I find it rather amusing that the medical profession are starting to go on about individualised treatment and a holistic approach - there is no way a GP can deal with the whole entity of a persons health issues in a 10 minute consultation. especially since they just look at their computers mainly and have very little in the way of "old style" clinical skills . Holistic medicine involves really looking and listening ( to what is said and especially what is not said!!)
I have a thyroid problem so I have to have a yearly check up but every time I go I know that I do a better consultation with my patients than I can ever get from a GP. Obviously I have the luxury of time with my patients ( and of course if I m not very good then I dont see them again and so dont get paid but even a physical exam is worryingly cursory .
continued good natural health !
That's an interesting article. I'm a bit of a Goldacre fan because he writes very well about science and how it's misused (a particular bugbear of mine). I've read Bad Pharma, but I was under the impression that he was more-or-less supportive of statin therapy despite the solid evidence against it - or more specifically that the risks far outweigh the miniscule benefits, especially in view of the much larger benefits attainable with dietary changes and more exercise.
Has anyone read his book on the subject? I rather lost interest in his writing when he published that - I was like, "et tu, Brute?"
EDIT: oh, I just checked, the statin book isn't out yet. Wonder if he'll revise it in light of emerging science?
>> She was obviously not aware either of studies that show no benefit to women who have not had a heart attack
Those studies were actually done by the pharmaceutical companies. Not with the express intent of restricting their market, of course, but it's very hard to fudge that sort of result. They might stretch the truth to breaking point, but they generally don't tell outright lies or stint on warnings because it would expose them to massive legal risks.
There is actually an explicit warning on the package insert (at least for simvastatin) for women who 'may become pregnant'. Since pregnancies are not always planned, and statins are still being handed out like Smarties, it makes you wonder how many pregnancies are being disrupted in unknown ways. I wonder if we're going to see a situation similar to the Thalidomide scandal?
The last I heard, doctors are penalized by the NHS if they don't prescribe enough statins - or more specifically, the practice itself is penalized. Collective punishment for the failure of one doctor to toe the line; obviously, nobody wants to let their colleagues down, so let's keep those prescriptions coming, lads! The more the better! Not sure if this policy is still in force.
Anyway, good for you for using your own brains and refusing them.
When studies are done by pharmaceutical companies they are in the position to cherry pick on the results obtained thus discarding those which are unfavourable just as Ancell Keys did with his saturated fats study.
The odd thing about drug-company exaggeration is that they exaggerate both the benefits and the side effects. They do the latter to cover their backs - basically the package insert will list every side effect ever observed, so that if someone comes back with a complaint, they can say, oh, well, we told you about that.
They don't need to hide the side effects and play up the benefits because they can rely on the medical establishment to do that for them.
There are plenty of subtle methods for making drugs look better than they really are. In the case of statins, all they have to do is show that statins cause a reduction in cholesterol ... because the medical establishment takes that as a valid indication of reduced heart disease risk. In other words, they've never been challenged to produce evidence of positive real-world outcomes (ie., reduction in death rates or improvement of QALY's).
Bizarrely, the very existence of statins shows that there is no association between cholesterol and heart disease: you can reduce cholesterol as much as you like with statin therapy, and death rates stay basically the same. In those cases where statins have been shown to have narrow benefit (ie., reducing the risk of heart attacks) the patient tends to die of something else instead - typically cancer.
Very good.
Your letter ought to be published on the Cholesterol page so that we can get people to start thinking for themselves in that respect.
I have often said that the drug companies provide all G.Ps. with prescription pads with a notice on the top that reads, "Before prescribing give the patient a very large dose of fear".
What a lot of interesting discussion has come out of this poll. I've certainly learned something.
Hi Tibblington, I was thinking the same so thanks for your contribution.😊
My ‘other’ is poppy seeds 😊
I eat most of them! I only eat hemp seeds if they're in something (like a cereal bar), and sesame seeds are an infrequent one too (because the flavour is stronger), so I've not selected those 2.
