Prevent breast cancer: Sesame Tahini butter

Prevent breast cancer: Sesame Tahini butter is much loved by those besotted with the nutritious and delicious foods enjoyed by folk living around the Mediterranean Sea.

Tahini is a tasty oil seed paste used in hummus and many other dishes in eastern Mediterranean cuisine.

It is not unlike sunflower, flax and rape in that regard. However sesame seeds produce the most delicious paste called tahini. In texture it is rather like peanut butter but the taste is quite different, having a slightly bitter, nutty flavour.

Unlike sunflower and corn the oil in sesame is not usually solvent-extracted; it is either cold pressed or supercritical CO₂ is used. In tahini you get the whole seed; germ lignans and oil.

Always look for cold-pressed, but they are difficult to find. Highly toxic traces of the solvents remain in the oil.

Of course if you want to know more about the queen of the oils, read more from our olive garden nutrition page; it's cold pressed. Avoid cheap pomice which is solvent extracted.

Nothing more need be said of course about sesame seeds sprinkled on a bun. Yum, delicious and healthy.

But, there is a BUT, and it is a big one.  Those sesame seeds will pass straight through the gut, undigested, unless you chew them thoroughly, and potentially get stuck in any diverticuli in the gut.

Just bite and swallow and you get zero value from the rich nutrients and lignans in sesame seeds.

Don't forget those lignans; they are anti just about everything; cancer, oxidation and arthritis, and it has proven by strong research; but there is a solution to the problem of whole sesame: tahini.

It's known that the ancient Egyptians, the Romans and early Chinese all used tahini. Today sesame seeds are grown worldwide, and is especially loved by Middle Eastern families.

I confess that when I moved to Europe I would never even heard of tahini; now we enjoy it every single day without fail, mostly in the homemade hummus.

The plant stands about 5 feet high. Once the seeds are harvested, they are soaked in water, dehusked, crushed, lightly toasted and then ground, producing a paste that is slightly grey in appearance, but not unlike peanut butter in consistency.

Nicer we think, partly as you can buy it without the sugar and hydrogenated oil usually added to peanut butter.

But some do like it sweet. Greek manufacturers make a mixture of tahini and honey; delicious.

Tahini is used in a wide range of Middle Eastern foods like hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush and various Greek sweet meats.

Whilst we are perhaps only used to seeing sesame seeds on buns and rolls, that is really not the best way to enjoy them. Firstly the uncracked seed is not absorbed in the gut, and secondly they may get trapped in fistulas.

Mostly we are not into processed foods, but it does seem that tahini is more readily absorbed than sesame seeds, unless you fletcherise; chew every mouthful 32 times.

Sesame tahini butter

Sesame tahini is in our opinion much nicer than peanut butter but with a similar consistency. When a food is super delicious and very healthy then there is no need to hold back. You can pig out on hummus and Baba Ghanoush without guilt.

Hummus

Our Authentic Hummus Recipe can be made literally in five minutes. I'm not exaggerating but you do need that sesame tahini butter.

Tahini paste is used extensively in making this chickpea garbanzo bean dip but also for salads and desserts; with soups, meat stews and many other dishes like Baba Ghanoush. We enjoy it on bread, using it to mop up the juice left over from a salad.

The plant is particularly drought resistant, hence its popularity in the Middle East where it is a great favourite.

Tahini has excellent nutritional value with a high protein (18%) and zero cholesterol oil composition.

Vegans and hummus

Vegans have to be particularly careful that they obtain all the "essential amino acids;" there are nine of them. Omnivores have no such concern as meat, dairy products and eggs contain them all.

Without all of these essential amino acids vegans and their children would be mentally and physically stunted; in poor health.

Chickpeas and sesame seeds together contain all the essential amino acids. So hummus for them is a very important food.

• Calories in hummus
  

Seed oils

Oils from nuts and seeds, and others from fruits like the olive and avocado are the healthiest fats; but how they are processed is vitally important.

Sesame tahini butter is very rich in healthy mono-unsaturated oleic, an omega 9, though not as high as in olive oil; and the PUFA linoleic acid.

Oleic acid, the omega-9, is not an essential fat; it can be manufactured from others but linoleic is indeed and must be obtained from the diet.

By "essential fatty acids" we mean that the body cannot manufacture them and you cannot live without them.

It is thought that a deficiency of the essential lipids may be the cause, or at least a part of the instigation of the serious conditions of the fatty myelin sheath; horror sicknesses like Motor Neuron Disease, also known as Lou Gehrig's.

Chiropractic is all about joints but also concerns the nervous system. Sickly fibres that don't conduct for whatever reason, be they pinched, irritated or demyelinated lies at the heart of our web site. Getting well adjusted by your DC is not enough if you are not eating properly.

It has special interest for vegans as sesame seeds contain large amounts of the amino acids methionine and tryptophan; they are missing from most other vegetable protein sources.

Too much seed oil

Confusingly though too much seed oil is highly inflammatory. This is a very complex subject. Ideally we need to get around 2% of our energy from omega-6 fatty acids. But today's typical grocery store diet contains over 10 percent; that means anger, swelling and pain in our muscles, joints and blood vessels.

Fat increases the mouthfeel of baked goods. So food manufacturers add large amounts of cheap sunflower and soybean oil to bread, pizza and in fact virtually all baked goods. That shifts the delicate balance  of omega 6 to 3; and is the underlying cause of much of the inflammation that we experience in our bodies.

• Excess omega-6 linoleic acid in sunflower and soybean oils promotes inflammation.
  

Lignans reduce risk of Breast cancer

The phyto-oestrogen properties of sesame tahini butter means that it compete at the breast sites with circulating hormones, reducing the risk of tumours.

• Breast cancer and prevention
  

Cholesterol, mInerals and vitamins

Sesame seeds are rich in calcium, iron and vitamin B; especially good for women.

Have you seen the new research that shows that women who take calcium supplements to prevent osteoporosis have a significantly higher incidence of cardiovascular disease? That calcium is deposited in the coronary arteries as well as their bones. Let your food be your medicine.

Causes of osteoporosis makes for sobering reading.

You may have to frequent the Turkish and Lebanese shops to find tahini. It's not expensive.

• TINGLING IN ARMS AND HANDS
  

Alternatively make your own tahini.

Another good reason to make your own tahini is that some of the commercial varieties are dehusked, removing the vital lignans. Toast and grind your own sesame seeds, it's so easy.

Actually it's not so easy. We now gladly buy our sesami tahini butter from a Greek shop that imports it; hoping that the precious lignans are retained.

What are phytosterols?

What are phytosterols is an interesting and important question; they are fatty compounds with a structure very similar to cholesterol. They are found in virtually all plants but are especially high in sesame tahini.

The typical Western diet today has a serious deficiency of phytosterols; it is no secret why so many folk are having to take statins, despite their nasty side effects like impotence and tingling in feet and legs. 

They are absolutely essential in the fight against tumours, prostate enlargement and high cholesterol.

There's no one I'm sure who will not answer in the affirmative that they have no desire to have any of those problems.  Phytosterols are for you, if you really do not want to get a neoplasm, or take pills for the rest of your life. Are you willing to add a few delicious foods to the menu?

Sometimes taste buds have to be retrained, but surely it is worth it; not only other people get malignant disease.

Once you have tasted sesame tahini you will be hooked for life.

• Your prostate: What are phytosterols?
  

Increased energy

Researchers publishing in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that people reducing the saturated fat (as in dairy and red meat) and increasing the monounsaturated fat like the oleic acid in olive oil and sesame tahini butter have more energy; and it enhances mood.

Baba Ghanoush

Baba Ghanoush is one of my favourite dips. Not just because of its delicious taste, but because the combination of eggplant and sesame tahini makes a winning combination in the fight against high cholesterol. Then you can have your butter and eat it.

Flax seed

Flax seed is sesame tahini's first cousin. We try to enjoy them both every day in one form or another. They are incredibly valuable for their lignans (between them they are the two richest sources by a mile), but also in anti-inflammatory omega 3.

• Grinding flax seeds for their lignans
  

Health nut

Okay, so we have introduced here three fairly radical foods for many people. Sesame tahini, flax seed and chickpeas. Perhaps you are thinking, this is over the top; this chiropractor is a health nut.

I will admit to it; my parents died of cancer and emphysema. I have close family with heart disease and the big C; this week a friend went for bypass surgery. I really have no desire to go through the suffering they all experienced. I would rather be a health nut, even if a few taunts come with it.

• Health nut neurosis
  

Does this echo in your heart? Are you willing to ring in a few simple changes? Start with sesame tahini and hummus on a green salad every day. It's not rocket science. The step up to better health and avoiding prostate and breast cancer are close at hand.

Make the changes now before it is too late. Tomorrow a close family member goes for a mastectomy; are we going to accept these are inevitable, or are we going to do everything in our power to make sure we don't have to go through that sort of suffering?

Sesame tahini and quick hummus makes a fantastic start to your new health nut lifestyle; I'm not ashamed of the appellation. I really do want to reach a healthy eighty with all my marbles intact; do you not agree?

Nutritionally we are talking about what are called "functional foods;" those that promote health and help prevent illness. Seeds, nuts and legumes have a very important role in reducing the mortality from heart disease, stroke and diabetes by nearly 10% when consumed daily.

It is a fine line though; avoid falling into the health nut neurosis trap.

Medical insurance: do we need it?

This Bernard Preston site is unashamedly about better overall well-being; what point is there if you have perfectly healthy joints but drop dead because you are eating ultrarefined foods, or not getting enough exercise? This sesame tahini butter page is just one little avenue that I have pursued; it is one of the reasons we take no medication at all and why my PSA is 0.9 and my cholesterol 164.

If a life without medication means being a health nut, I have no qualms; drugs are the third most common cause of death after heart disease and cancer. As a chiropractor I'm just as passionate about a strong heart and blood vessels as non-arthritic joints.

It is just one more reason why you might contemplate taking out no personal medical insurance.

Prevent breast cancer: Sesame Tahini butter

Prevent breast cancer: Sesame Tahini butter is an excellent source of lignans.

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