Food

Sesame: Nutrients, Effects and Tips For Preparation

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Sesame often hides in baked goods. The small grains have no reason to hide: they are full of healthy ingredients. Here you can find more background on the ingredients of sesame.

Sesame originally comes from South Asia. Today, the oil plant is grown in many tropical and subtropical countries around the world. With us, the white sesame seeds are certainly the best known – but there are also brown and black sesame seeds. The different varieties taste different and the nutrient composition also varies slightly.

Sesame: nutritional values ​​and ingredients

The name oil plant already gives it away: sesame seeds contain a lot of fat. Here are the nutritional values ​​per 100 grams of sesame:
Calories: 567 kcal
Fat: 48g
Proteins: 17 g
Carbohydrates: 26 g
Fiber: 17 g
The fat in sesame seeds consists mostly of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. These in turn are composed primarily of oleic acid and linoleic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid.

Sesame also contains many vitamins and minerals. Sesame seeds are particularly interesting for vegetarians and vegans because they contain a lot of iron and calcium. In addition, sesame provides us with various amino acids, the B vitamins B1, B2 and B6, vitamin E and magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. Black sesame contains a little more of most of the nutrients than white sesame.

Sesame in nutrition: how it affects health

Sesame provides vegetarians and vegans with important iron and calcium, but also has other positive properties:
Sesame contains antioxidants, including vitamin E. These substances protect our cells and are said to prevent numerous diseases.
Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid that your body cannot produce itself and must be obtained from food. Among other things, it is important for the skin and animal experiments have shown that it has an antioxidant and anti-cancer effect. However, it is important for the positive effect that omega-6 fatty acids such as linoleic acid in your body are always in the right ratio to omega-3 fatty acids. So make sure you’re getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. They are found, for example, in linseed oil and linseed oil seeds and in walnut oil.
Because sesame is high in fiber and protein, it is very filling.
Caution: Sesame is a strong allergen. If you are allergic to sesame, you should definitely avoid it.

Cooking with sesame: use in the kitchen

In the kitchen, you can use either sesame seeds or sesame oil. You can get the latter cold-pressed or refined. Cold-pressed sesame oil tastes nutty and contains many healthy nutrients. Refined sesame oil, on the other hand, can be heated up and stored for a long time. Since it tastes neutral, you can combine it with many foods.

You can roast sesame seeds very well, which makes them taste stronger. Sesame oil also tastes particularly spicy when it is made from roasted seeds.

How to use sesame seeds or sesame oil in the kitchen:
Cold-pressed sesame oil tastes delicious in a salad dressing. It goes particularly well with Asian food.
You can use refined sesame oil for frying.
If you’re baking bread or rolls, you can add sesame seeds to the dough or sprinkle them over the dough pieces before baking. A mixture of light and dark sesame is particularly nice.
You can also garnish salads and Asian wok dishes with sesame seeds.
When you blend sesame seeds and oil together, you get a creamy paste called tahini. Tahini is a great ingredient for oriental creams like hummus.
You can make delicious, filling sweets from sesame seeds. In the Arab world, people like to eat halva or bars made from sesame and honey.

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