Benefits of Black Sesame Seeds

Black Sesame, Sesamum indicum, is a delicious nutrient packed seed used in dessert and foods like ice cream, mochi, bagels, soups, breads, desserts, salad and more. It contains many important nutrients and it’s a fun ingredient to experiment with. In this article I’ll highlight the benefits of Black Sesame Seed, and some fun and creative ways to use them!

Black Sesame is an incredible source of nutrition, according to healtline.com, the benefits include:

-High in magnesium + calcium

-Contains important trace minerals such as iron, copper and manganese - these are important for boosting the immune system, circulating oxygen and assisting cell function.

-Rich in antioxidants, so they reduce oxidative stress

-Promote healthy hair + skin

-Improves blood pressure

-Helps with migraines

I’m all for food based nutrition - so getting a majority of your nutrients from your diet rather than a supplement if it’s possible. Black Sesame is high in magnesium - the real reason you enjoy them, because you might not be getting a lot of it.

You can get Magnesium from a variety of foods like dark chocolate, legumes, avocado, salmon and fatty fish, tofu, leafy greens, some types of fruit,

Magnesium Benefits

Magnesium is an essential nutrient involved in over 600 reactions in your body. It’s thought that around 75% of the population is deficient in Magnesium, so it’s important to get this nutrient anywhere you can. Symptoms of Magnesium deficiency include: muscle cramps, fatigue, numbness, depression and osteoporosis.

A diet high in Magnesium is beneficial for energy, protein formation, muscles, nervous system, heart health, blood sugar synthesis and it helps fight depression. You can supplement magnesium in a variety of ways from pills to powders, drink mixes, body oils (yep! For leg cramps!) and bath additives - still I say make sure you get it from your food, too!

Can you take too much magnesium? Too much of anything isn’t good, of course, but magnesium is a hard one to overdose. If you take too much, likely from too much of a supplement, you’ll experience upset stomach and nausea - overall, not too bad.

So how do you use Black Sesame Seeds? Any way that you would use normal sesame seeds - they even make a Black Sesame tahini to make it super simple! You’ll find a variety of foods with Black Sesame in any asian grocery store as well - my favorite are the ice cream, mochi and desserts. You’ll see drink mixes, breakfast cereal packets and raw Black Sesame seeds, too.

I like aesthetically pleasing foods - so things like this epic smoothie are my favorite. I love this dark dreary smoothie for rainy days.

It reminds me of a while back when charcoal had a moment - and I’m just saying, black sesame needs to replace it. Side note: activated charcoal should never be consumed in the way it was promoted - it’s a medical grade ingredient that prevents absorption of toxins (or anything that you ate with it or previous to it), so needless to say… that was a dangerous trend.

We can get our fix for jet black smoothies another way - BLACK SESAME! Black sesame seeds are high in magnesium, protein, and calcium - this smoothie contains almost 10 grams of protein!

So, not only are they healthy, but they are bomb tasting, too. You could make this thicker and turn it into a smoothie bowl, too!

BLACK SESAME + COCONUT SMOOTHIE

1 Frozen Banana

1/2 cup black sesame tahini - or black sesame cereal - or black sesame seeds

1-2 cups Coconut Milk

3 tbs Local Maple Syrup *you can sub this for honey, sugar, etc

*blend + add sesame and coconut on top + serve*

my favorite way to make this is with Black Tahini because you can use the tahini as you would in any other recipe, it’s shelf stable, easy to use and it’s pretty :)

I love this dark dreary smoothie for rainy days. And a while back, charcoal has a moment - and I’m just saying’, black sesame needs to replace it. Activated charcoal should never be consumed in the way it was promoted - it’s a medical grade ingredients that prevent absorption of toxins (or anything that you ate with it or previous to it), so needless to say… that was a dangerous trend.

We can get our fix for jet black smoothies another way - BLACK SESAME! Black sesame seeds are high in magnesium, protein, and calcium - this smoothie contains almost 10 grams of protein!

So, not only are they healthy, but they are bomb tasting, too.