How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?
CONSTITUTIONAL MEDICINE INSIGHTS
Recipes with Sesame Seeds: Roasted Coconut Sesame Oatmeal
Those who fear winter and the bone-chilling drop in temperatures will find great comfort in this healing food and luxurious oil. If you can't shake your wintertime chill, if you feel tired and dry from autumn until spring, these Vata signs could mean your body is exhausted and depleted. Sesame may be the food medicine for you. The seeds' high oil content lubricates and protects tissues, stabilizing with richness. Sesame helps to contain body heat, reinforces blood, and strengthen your bones, muscles, and even willpower. A diet rich in sesame will moisturize your hair and skin, invigorate the eyes and liver, promote milk production in women, and energize the reproductive organs of all. Sesame also promotes beauty in the teeth: chewing one tablespoon of the seeds in the morning keeps your pearly whites clean.
Frazzled nerves, insomnia, cold extremities? Self-massaging with warmed sesame oil is another healthful application that will alleviate these conditions. Suffer from constipation, or dry, pellet-like stool? The warming nature of sesame will promote better digestion and help lubricate the intestines. However, as a heavy food, sesame must be chewed carefully to aid the body in assimilating its healthful qualities. If you tend toward inflammation, rashes, diarrhea, and nut allergies, sesame should be taken moderately, if at all. Its warming nature is not the perfect fix for all, but a great supplement for many.
Sesame is a survivor native to sub-Saharan Africa and India. The golden or black sesame seed can miraculously grow in drought conditions. Ayurvedic knowledge says that the sesame's survivor nature imparts a special strength to those who use it for medicine. Ayurveda knows sesame as a strengthener. Its luscious, unctuous nature fortifies immunity, protects those with debility, and deeply feeds bodily tissue.
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About Sesame Seeds
"Open sesame" was the secret password in the medieval Arabic adventure tale Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. These magic words revealed a cave rich with treasures secreted by thieves. Sesame seeds and oil are a food treasure rich with myriad health benefits and the secret ingredient of many delicious recipes, making it easy to see how sesame became the essential password. This nutty seed has its place in recipes both sweet and savory within a wide variety of cultures, whether in the mole of Mexico, in the dim sum of China, on the breads of Italy, or ubiquitously in the food of the Middle East.
History is rife with exultations of the sesame seed. Assyrian legend says that sesame wine inspired gods to create the Earth. Romans ate the seeds mixed with honey for valor in battle; the women of ancient Babylon ate the same mixture to preserve youth and beauty. After ghee, the oil of sesame seeds is the most prized in Ayurveda, used both in food and in many body treatments like massage.
Cooking Sesame Seeds
Rich in vitamin E and A, high in calcium, iron, phosphorous, magnesium, and protein, there's so much to like about sesame. Linoleic acid (unsaturated Omega-6 fatty acid) actually helps lower cholesterol. As you get to know this valuable food, you may find many more things to like: the multitude of delicious foods with the seed as an essential ingredient. Hummus, halvah, Greek cakes, sushi, adobo sauce, bagels, and many more foods wouldn't be so delectable without the nutritious oomph of the sesame seed. "Open sesame" may become your own personal password on the path to your most healthful self.
Buying & Preparation
Sesame comes in several forms:
Black sesame seeds are considered more potent than beige.