Open Sesame! – The Seed with the Many Health Benefits

Sesame is one of these plants that have been around forever; it certainly is one of the oldest cultivated. According to an Assyrian myth, the gods drank sesame wine before they proceeded with creating the world. Sesame also was a much-used raw material for ancient Egyptian medicinal preparations, and even back then was added to bread. The Roman legions munched halwa, a preparation made of mostly sesame and honey, to provide them with energy on their marches. Of course, halwa is as popular a snack today as it was two thousand and more years ago. But more importantly, countless generation of Asians and Mediterraneans from Morocco, via the Near East to China have lived on a diet cooked in sesame oil and have received therapeutic massage treatments with sesame oil, scented and unscented.

Now as much as ever sesame continues to be an important crop, not only as a food or oil, but also as a added component in a diverse range of products: from skin oils, over hair lotions to perfumes, soaps and sunscreens; not to forget that it also finds its way into industrially made cookies, crackers, dips and spreads, as well as ready made soya burgers, tempeh and so-called ‘energy bars’. I use unrefined sesame oil when I cook Asian dishes at home. Integrative physician and bestselling author Dr. Frank Lipman likewise suggests the use of unrefined, natural sesame oil in his healthy recipes, whereas he scorns the use of all hydrogenated oils. Sesame is as modern as it is ancient.

But what are sesame’s benefits? Even though the “Recommended Daily Value” system for measuring the intake of nutrients into our bodies is flawed, it still gives an overview of the relative richness and complexity of a food. According to this system, sesame provides us with a lot of important nutrients, while being comparatively low in calories. Here is an, albeit incomplete overview, as a chart with all total over 80 items would go beyond the scope of this simple posting.

Nutrients in 36 Grams of Sesame Seeds	Their Daily Value in Percent
Copper	73.5%
Manganese	44.5%
Tryptophan	37.5%
Calcium	35.1%
Magnesium	31.5%
Iron	29.1%
Phosphorus	22.6%
Vitamin B1	18.6%
Zinc	18.6%
Selenium	17.6%
Fiber	17.0%
Calories	11.0%

An ordinary physician, unaware of the fact that food is indeed medicine, may interject and state that these show only the nutritional value, but not the health benefits. According to integrative medicine, however, the minerals, vitamins and trace elements contained in a food or condiment have themselves healing properties as the body needs them for functioning properly. Countless studies support the view.

For example, as you can deduct from the table above, sesame seeds are a very good source for copper, magnesium and calcium. Copper has been found to help reduce rheumatoid arthritis because as a trace mineral it plays a key role in several anti-inflammatory and antioxidant enzyme systems. Magnesium, on the other hand, helps maintain vascular and respiratory health. Finally, calcium contributes to avoiding osteoporosis, colon caner, migraine headaches and PMS, to name just a few. The list of benefits is of course much longer.

Another reason why sesame oil, as well as sesame seeds, are such a healthy food is that they are rich in mono-unsaturated fatty oleic acid. This contributes to lowering ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol while simultaneously increasing ‘good’ HDL cholesterol in the blood. – Question, why do southern Europeans suffer less from coronary heart disease and stroke when compared to northern Europeans? They do, because their diet is rich in mono unsaturated fats. Southern Europeans use lots of good extra virgin olive oil. In India, as well as the rest of Asia, we have til, or sesame oil.

In addition, sesame seeds contain many more health-benefiting compounds such as sesamol (3, 4-methylene-dioxyphenol), sesaminol, furyl-methanthiol, guajacol (2-methoxyphenol), phenylethanthiol and furaneol, vinylguacol and decadienal. Sesamol and sesaminol are phenolic anti-oxidants. The lay reader may not understand what these compounds do. Suffice it to say that, together, they help stave off harmful free radicals from the body. Which, in a way, makes sesame a detoxifying agent.

Conclusion? – Enjoy sesame in many forms in your food: as paste, butter and spread, as condiment [like when you sprinkle delicious gomashio over your salads… And remember: food is medicine.

If you want to find our more about the health benefits of sesame, try this site:

http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/open-sesame-10-amazing-health-benefits-super-seed; or: www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=84#healthbenefits