Around a year ago, when I first delved into the raw food way, I noticed that I could hear my body. Actually hearing our bodies is something that we take for granted as children. Young children don't eat things that don't appeal to them. They know when they are hungry. For most adults that intuitive feeling around eating has long been forgotten. We follow our minds and not our stomachs in our food choices. Bombarded by ads, sugar, empty calories, and all the misconceptions surrounding nutrition, we're led to destroy our digestive tracks and along with it our natural cravings and ability to truly hear our bodies. After feeding my body the super rich living foods that it needed and detoxing my digestive track, I began having certain strong cravings. I was surprised that the strongest of these was for sweets.
I listened to my body and ate a ton of fruit and raw food desserts. I was confused because the sweet cravings never ceased. Then I read a story written by Victoria Boutenko in which she told of her similar experience. Her research led to find that many sweet fruits such as strawberries are so because they absorb a lot of magnesium from soil. Therefore, she hypothesized that a craving for sweet foods must indicate the bodies deficient in magnesium. Boutenko's further studies found that sesame seeds are one of the greatest sources of magnesium. Just one ounce of the little jems contain almost 100mg and 277mg of calcium. That's triple the amount found in cows milk. Following her advice I made and drank a huge amount of sesame seed milk everyday. After about a week, I was eating a banana and could not believe how sweet it tasted to me, almost too sweet. I realized that my craving for sweets had completely diminished.
I haven't had the sesame seed milk for quite some time. Last night, standing in front of my pantry I noticed the jar of black sesame seeds. They looked so appealing, I just had to have some. I sprinkled a couple of teaspoons onto a salad and they tasted amazing. After the salad I kept thinking about those precious seeds and was lead to create this new recipe for Gomashio Cookies. Gomashio is a staple condiment in the macrobiotic kitchen. It is simply ground up sesame seeds mixed with sea salt.
GOMASHIO COOKIE CRAVERS
1 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup raw black sesame seeds
2 tbl. raw cacao (also high in magnesium)
4 tbl. raw honey
1 tsp. pure vanilla
1/2 tsp. Himalayan pink salt
Grind the nuts and seeds into a flour in a high-speed blender. Transfer the flour to a bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Stir to combine and form a slightly sticky dough. Roll into cookie balls. Enjoy!
I use walnuts in the recipe because they are the only truly healthful nut, in that they contain greater omega 6's than 3's. If you prefer almonds could be substituted, but you may need to add a tablespoon of water to help the dough stick. You may also use white sesame in the recipe in place of the black. I choose black ones since they credited in Asia for glowing, lustrous skin. Vegans may substitute the honey for agave or brown rice syrup, I love the taste and feel of honey, so I choose to be a BEEGAN!
More great benefits of the amazing sesame seed from www.vegpeace.org:
Sesame Antioxidants
Sesame seeds are loaded with powerful antioxidants: IP-6 (AKA: Phytate; one of the most powerful antioxidants yet found, and one of the most potent natural anti-cancer substances. Especially abundant in grain and sesame.), lignans, sesamin, sesaminol, sesamolinol, sesamolin, pinoresinol, vitamin E, lecithin, myristic acid, and linoleate.
Lignans are fat-soluble antioxidants such as sesaminol, sesamolinol and sesamolin. They prevent free radical formation, and scavenge free radicals that have already formed. Black sesame seeds contain higher levels of antioxidants than brown.
Sesame Antioxidant Research
◦Sesamolin inhibits lipid peroxidation (free radical formation).
◦Sesame has a variety of effective antioxidants.
◦Antioxidant activity of sesaminol in defatted sesame flour protects against oxidative stress from dietary cholesterol (so don't eat just the oil).
◦Sesamin decreases formation of inflammatory prostaglandins.
◦Sesame enhances antioxidant activity of Vitamin E. Sesame lignans have a sparing effect on Vitamin E, preventing damage to Vitamin E.
◦DHA (from fish oils) decreases Vitamin E level, sesame raises it.
◦DHA (from fish oils) creates lipid peroxidation (free radicals), damages red blood cells. Sesame decreases the damage to fats and red blood cells, raises Vitamin E levels.
◦Sesamin decreases breakdown of Vitamin E.
◦Sesame provides gamma-tocopherol (an especially helpful form of Vitamin E). Sesame lignans lower cholesterol levels, flax lignans don't.
◦Sesame muffins significantly raised gamma tocopherol levels in people. Muffins containing the same amount of gamma tocopherol from soy or walnut didn't do anything. Gamma tocophorol is a very effective form of Vitamin E.
◦Sesaminol more effective antioxidant than alpha-Tocopherol (most common form of Vitamin E).
Even More Good Things Sesame Does
◦Sesame lignans improve fat metabolism in the liver.
◦Sesamin could help control hypertension, and prevent blood clots that cause strokes.
◦Lignans such as pinoresinol “may play a major role in the health promoting effects of the Mediterranean diet”. (They're talking here about olive oil, but sesame is a better source.)
Sesame Prevents Sunburn, Skin Cancer
Dietary Tocotrienol Reduces UVB-Induced Skin Damage and Sesamin Enhances Tocotrienol Effects in Hairless Mice - Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology
Sesame Oil Heals Burns
Sesame oil burn ointment decreases pain, helps heal wounds. Moist exposed burn ointment (MEBO) contains sesame oil and herbal extracts. MEBO decreases pain better than conventional medical treatment, so that burn patients need fewer opiates. The sesame oil ointment controls infection as well as the conventional treatment does.
Sesame oil ointment helps heal chronic wounds, skin ulcers.
Sesame oil, used all by itself, has a reputation in Ayurveda as a burn treatment.
No comments:
Post a Comment