Explanation of Sunflower Seeds Benefits for Human Body
By Yanti
Sunflower Seeds Benefits
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is a plant from asteraceae family of the helianthus genus. The sunflower seeds are often eaten by people is where there are lots of sunflower seeds benefits for the human body caused by different kinds of nutrients contained in sunflowers seeds.
Sunflower is a plant that grows towards the sun and come from Central America and then spread commercially in many countries around the world, and today the State of Ukraine, Argentina, China, India, and the U.S. are major producer of sunflower seeds.
In general, a sunflower plant consists of several branches where each branch has a single large head with yellow color. Flower heads of this plant consists of two types of flowers. The first consists of a sterile flower large petals with yellow color or ray flowers and disk flowers that are located in the center that consists of sums flowers with small size and regular in concentric whorls, which then converts into a sunflower achenes or seeds that are the fruit of the sunflower. And sunflower kernels or the rest of the fruit has been dehulled, this part of the sunflower that can be eaten.
Sunflower seeds have a few names like kuaci, ayçekirdegi, and garinim. Kuaci or sunflower seeds have a size of about 6mm-10 mm and with a smooth surface and conical. The color of sunflower seeds is the outer coat is black, while the inside is edible gray. And from each sunflower head consists of approximately hundreds sunflower seeds.
Sunflower seed is one of the preferred snack a lot of people or animals such as birds because the seeds of this sunflower are tasty, delicious, and sweet when eaten, and are often used for other human needs such as making vegetable oil, or as a source that can be petrified body to stay healthy and strong.
Sunflower seeds are generally classed by the formula on their husks, if the solid black leather then the seeds is called black sunflower seed oil, and this plant can be mentioned to as oilseed sunflower crops. Types of sunflower seeds as these are generally compressed to extract oil contained therein. For this type of striped sunflower seed is usually the seeds that can be eaten and this type of sunflower seed is also named confectionery sunflower seeds.
Sunflower seeds nutrition
Sunflower seeds contain a variety of nutrients that are good for human health, and nutrition in sunflower seed include Carbohydrates, Sugars, Dietary fiber, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, protein, Vitamin B complex, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Calcium , Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium, and Zinc
Sunflower Seeds Benefits
There are several ways to consume sunflower seeds, some are making it as healthy snack to be eaten directly after being processed with a variety of flavors and the shell removed, and there is also a consuming sunflower seeds with other foods like cakes, salad dressings, breads, etc.
Sunflower oil is one of the popular oil throughout the world where sunflower oil has high polyunsaturated fatty acids and low saturated fat, and used for a variety of human purposes and one for hydrogen, while the rest of sunflower seeds that have been processed into oil can be used to feed animal.
Content of polyunsaturated fats and oleic acid in sunflower seed is a type of fat that helps to protect the heart, and lowers bad cholesterol or LDL, and raise good cholesterol or HDL.
The high content of vitamin E in sunflower seeds is useful as a natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant for the body to be able to minimize the various diseases caused by inflammation or free radicals present in the body such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, plaque in blood vessels, diabetes, and colon cancer.
Calcium and phosphorus content of sunflower seeds is a benefit to assist in the formation of bone and teeth, making it useful for preventing osteoporosis, while the content of potassium is useful for lowering blood pressure.
The content of phytosterols when consumed in adequate amounts beneficial to nourish heart, lowers blood cholesterol levels, improve immune response, and reduce suffering from different type of cancer.
Although there are many sunflower seeds benefits as one of healthy food, but sunflower seeds are not recommended for consumption for those who easily allergy to various foods because their bodies can cause itchy skin, vomiting, sneezing, etc.
