I will never forget those days when I used to see sesame bars, for sale, at the farmers market, when I went to the mountains with my grandparents. What a feeling! Beautiful times, beautiful years, true joy! Those bars were incredible tasty and I felt like I was in Wonderland… just like Alice. 😀 I was jumping all around because I was very happy that I could find and eat sesame bars in my vacation at the mountains.

I didn’t had any clue, that those same sesame seeds , that I used to love as a child, would become, after years and years, a topic of study for me. 😀 Well this is life…unpredictable.

Because I love sesame seeds so much and especially because I had a period of time when I didn’t consume it, I decided to make a small research about this wonderful food and to get it right back into my diet, not only for the amazing taste, but also for his nutritional properties. Let me tell you a story about sesame seeds and who knows, maybe you will get inspired to consume it also. 😀

My friends, these seeds are nature’s marvel. They contain a variety of nutrients and they can be used in all possible and impossible recipes that you can think of. You can use sesame in main dishes, but also in tasty and healthy desserts. But what struck me the hardest was the calcium content that sesame has. We all look for calcium intake, from corner to corner…and here it is. Just around our eyes… like all cool things are.

Sesame contains about 351 mg of calcium per 36 grams ( ¼ of a cup ) … I would say…pretty much , considering the fact that World Health Organization recommends about 500 mg / day intake . It would be interesting for you to see the difference between the quantities of calcium in cow’s milk versus the quantities of calcium in the humble sesame seeds; I think you will be pretty astonished. 😀

I want to mention the fact that the above data refers to whole sesame seeds, paddy, in their whole state. If we buy hulled sesame seeds, the quantity of calcium will decrease significantly.

I am not expecting anyone to eat every single day ¼ cup of sesame, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t introduce these seeds into our diet in smaller quantities. Our human organism is very smart and it will extract the calcium from many other sources too, including sesame seeds and it will know what to do with it, how to utilize it, how much it needs and so on and so forth. The human body is a spectacular creation that can calculate nutrients versus needs in a really smart way, even better than a computer. Nutrient utilization is not our concern, but it’s our body’s concern.

I will give you a really tasty recipe that you can use whenever you like it or whenever you crave something sweet. You need 1 tablespoon of grinded whole sesame seeds + some sweetener that you like (maple syrup, stevia or honey for those who eat it) + 1 teaspoon of fresh squeezed lemon juice. You mix these 3 simple ingredients and you will get a gummy texture thing. You shape it into a little ball and this is your candy now. You can eat it as a dessert or in the morning on empty stomach. I like to eat it in the morning. : D

I learned this simple recipe from a dear Romanian lady that has a pretty awesome blog; I wish that someday, her blog will be translated in English also. Her name is Cristela Georgescu. She cured herself of hypocalcemia with this particular recipe and a healthy plant based diet. 😀

Another way in which I incorporate sesame in my diet is by eating Tahini. Tahini is a simple sesame paste. It can be prepared in your own home or can be bought in stores like Whole Foods. Tahini is used in particular to prepare hummus, another culinary wonder. I leave you my recipe + video here:

https://www.dearfruitsmile.com/plant-based-living/homemade-hummus/

I also use Tahini as a dressing for any kind of salad. I mix about 1tablespoon of Tahini, or even 2 tablespoons of Tahini with the fresh squeezed lemon juice from a small lemon + a tablespoon of water, if it’s needed. The texture should be creamy and flowing and the colour should be a whitish one; I bet there are hundreds of other ways to use sesame seeds in your diet, I just mentioned the ones that I love in particular. 😀

Let’s not forget the fact that for optimum calcium absorption, we need to eat grinded sesame seeds, in order for our body to absorb as much as it wants and needs too. If we eat the sesame as it is, most of the seeds will be pooped out, as I am sure you can imagine. 😀

Now don’t make out of this a big deal. Eat sesame seeds as you wish and love, you can even make milk from the seeds.

Here is a recipe from Young and Raw: http://www.youngandraw.com/boost-your-calcium-with-homemade-sesame-seed-milk/
Besides calcium , sesame seeds contain encouraging quantities of copper, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc , molybdenum , selenium, vitamin B1 and fiber … not to talk , sesame is a real wonder, especially if you love the taste of it. 😀

I am waiting for your comments and maybe you can share new recipes with all of us that contain sesame seeds. In this way we can learn one from another and create a nice community. 😀

Now… let’s eat some! : D