Benefits of Sesame Seeds

Anti-inflammatory Benefits

A 2021 meta-analysis of seven studies on the anti-inflammatory effects of sesame consumption showed that eating sesame seeds reduced some inflammatory biomarkers. It’s not clear whether these effects will be more pronounced and widespread through the consumption of seeds, oil, or supplements; like almost every nutrition study ever written, the paper ends with a call for further research.

Sesame seeds also seem to be protective of the heart. The lignan sesamin apparently does a lot of the heavy lifting here. As one study put it, there’s evidence that the compound is “anti-hypertensive, anti-atherogenic, anti-thrombotic, anti-diabetic, and anti-obesity,” which I’d pay good money to hear Big Bird and Elmo sing as a duet, with Zoe translating for the rest of us: “against high blood pressure, against injuries to blood vessel walls, against dangerous blood clots, against diabetes, and against gaining too much weight.”

Lowering LDL Cholesterol

A small 2014 study of men suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee found that 40 grams per day of sesame seeds lowered their total cholesterol, and more significantly, their LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Sesame oil also passed that test, decreasing LDL levels while maintaining the “good” HDL cholesterol levels in humans and laboratory rats, mice, and rabbits. (Our view on the use of animals in medical.

( Excerpt from The Food Revolution Network)