How To Eat Sunflower Seeds

However, keep in mind that the shells are often coated in salt — about 70 mg per 1 oz of sunflower seeds. If you’re watching your salt intake, look for unsalted sunflower seeds and moderate your portions.

Health Benefits of Sunflower Seeds

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

• Vitamin C 0%
• Iron 6%
• Vitamin B6 0%
• Magnesium 0%
• Calcium 2%
• Vitamin D 0%
• Cobalamin 0%
• Vitamin A 0%

Sunflower seeds are harvested from the flower head of the sunflower plant. While the seed itself is encased in a black and white striped shell, sunflower seeds are white and have a tender texture. Known for their distinct nutty flavor and high nutritional value, you can eat the seeds raw, roasted, or incorporated into other dishes.

Health Benefits

Studies link the consumption of sunflower seeds to a number of health benefits, including lowering your risk of developing diseases like high blood pressure or heart disease. They also contain nutrients that can support your immune system and boost your energy levels.

Here are some of the health benefits of sunflower seeds:

Reducing Inflammation

For those with short-term or chronic inflammation, sunflower seeds can offer anti-inflammatory benefits. Sunflower seeds contain vitamin E, flavonoids, and other plant compounds that can reduce inflammation. A study found that consuming sunflower seeds and other seeds five times or more each week resulted in lower levels of inflammation, which also lowered risk factors for several chronic diseases.

Improving Heart Health

Sunflower seeds are rich in ‘healthy’ fats, including polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat. A three-fourths cup serving of sunflower seeds contains 14 grams of fat. Studies found that consumption of seeds — including sunflower seeds — was linked to lower rates of cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

Supporting the Immune System

Sunflower seeds are a source of many vitamins and minerals that can support your immune system and increase your ability to fight off viruses. These include both zinc and selenium. Zinc plays a vital role in the immune system, helping the body maintain and develop immune cells. Selenium also plays a role in reducing inflammation, fighting infection, and boosting immunity.

Boosting Energy Levels

While the high levels of protein in sunflower seeds already help boost your energy levels, other nutrients like vitamin B and selenium can help keep you energized. The vitamin B1 (also known as thiamin) present in sunflower seeds can help you convert food to energy, which can keep you active throughout the day. Selenium can increase blood flow and deliver more oxygen to your body.

Nutrition

Sunflower seeds are high in protein and rich in healthy fats, as well as antioxidants that can lower your risk of developing serious conditions.

It’s also an excellent source of:

Nutrients per Serving

According to the USDA, ¼ cup of dry roasted sunflower seeds without salt contains:

• Calories: 207
• Protein: 5.8 grams
• Fat: 19 grams
• Carbohydrates: 7 grams
• Fiber: 3.9 grams

Portion Sizes

While sunflower seeds are rich in nutrients, they’re also relatively high in calories. It’s important to keep servings to a quarter cup at a time. In order to slow the caloric intake while snacking, many eat the seeds in the shell, as it takes time to crack open and spit out each shell.

However, keep in mind that the shells are often coated in salt — about 70 mg per 1 oz of sunflower seeds. If you’re watching your salt intake, look for unsalted sunflower seeds and moderate your portions.

How to Eat Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are typically sold inside the shell and are eaten roasted or raw. Eating shelled sunflower seeds requires you to crack them open with your teeth and spit out the shell — which shouldn’t be eaten.

Using your tongue, position the shell vertically or horizontally between your molars. Crack the shell with your teeth and separate the seed from the shell. Then spit the shell out and eat the seed.

You can also eat sunflower seeds in a variety of dishes. Here are a few ways you can incorporate them into meals:

• Sprinkle on top of a salad
• Add to trail mix
• Stir into oatmeal
• Sprinkle over stir fry or mixed vegetables
• Add to veggie burgers
• Mix into baked goods
• Use sunflower butter in place of peanut butter
• Cook with sunflower oil instead of other oils

Show Sources

American Journal of Epidemiology: “Nut and Seed Consumption and Inflammatory Markers in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis“

Antioxid Redox Signal: “The Role of Selenium in Inflammation and Immunity: From Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Opportunities”

Circulation: “Consumption of Plant Seeds and Cardiovascular Health: Epidemiologic and Clinical Trial Evidence”

National Institute of Health: “Thiamin“

Nutrients: “A Review of Dietary Selenium Intake and Selenium Status in Europe and the Middle East”

Mol Med: “Zinc in Human Health: Effect of Zinc on Immune Cells“

US Department of Agriculture: “Seeds, sunflower seed kernels, toasted, without salt“

US Department of Agriculture: “Sunflower seeds“

US Department of Agriculture: “Sunflower seeds, plain, salted”

How to Harvest and Roast (in Shell) Sunflower Seeds

Growing sunflowers? How to harvest and roast the sunflower seeds from your sunflowers.

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

Updated December 02, 2022
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Looking out my living room window one afternoon I saw the strangest sight, a squirrel, about 8 feet off the ground, upside down, with his tail sticking straight up in the air.

Quietly walking closer to investigate, I found that the squirrel had climbed up one of my tall sunflower plants, the top of which was bending over due to the weight of the squirrel, who, clutching the plant stalk with his hind legs, now greedily was digging into the sunflower flower to eat the ripening seeds.

Oh, where is the camera when you need it? By the time I had retrieved mine, the squirrel was already heading down the plant.

But that did get me thinking, why leave all the sunflower seeds to the squirrels? The sunflower variety the squirrel was enjoying produces small seeds, too small for me to bother with.

But I had other sunflowers, the mammoth variety, which produces big seeds, the kind that can easily be roasted.

By the time I got around to it, the squirrels and birds had already eaten all the seeds from every flower except one. The seeds were clearly visible, I pulled one out to check to make sure the size was big enough, cracked it open and ate the raw seed inside. Perfect!

I then placed the flower head on a table (outside, it’s rather messy) and rubbed out as many of the big seeds as I could. This would be a fun activity to do with kids if you grow big sunflowers in your garden.

I then boiled the seeds in salted water, drained them, laid them out in a roasting pan, and roasted them.

The question that you may have, and I certainly did, is, is there any way to easily shell the seeds, so you don’t have to go through the painstaking process yourself for each nibble?

There is, but it requires expensive commercial machinery. Oh well. The good news is that in-shell, these seeds are hard to overeat! You have to work for it.

The Best Sunflower Seeds for Roasting

Larger varieties of sunflowers, such as Mammoth, produce lots of large seeds and are the best (and easiest!) to roast and eat.

Why We Boil the Seeds First

Boiling the sunflower seeds in salted water infuses the salty flavor into the seeds.

If you don’t want salted sunflower seeds, you can skip the boiling step and simply roast them for a few minutes less than if you’d boiled them.

From the Editors Of Simply Recipes

How to Harvest and Roast (in Shell) Sunflower Seeds

Prep Time 5 mins
Cook Time 35 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Servings 4 servings
Yield 1 cup

If you grow your own sunflowers, the flowers will tell you when they are ready. They’ll be droopy, and the petals around the center will be dried. The seeds should be clearly visible.

The best seeds for eating come from the larger varieties of sunflowers.

Just cut away the flower head from the stalk, place the flower head on a flat surface, and rub the center to dislodge the seeds from the flower. If squirrels and birds can get to these seeds, so can you!

These directions are for salted, roasted sunflower seeds. If you don’t want them salted, just rinse them off and roast them. Because they aren’t soaked through with water, they’ll roast much more quickly, perhaps only a few minutes at 400°F.

Add more or less salt to taste, up to 1/4 cup Kosher salt for 1 quart of water.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw in-shell sunflower seeds
• 2 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt , or 2 tablespoons table salt
• 1 quart water

Method

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Boil sunflower seeds in salted water:

Place sunflower seeds, salt, and water into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.

Spread seeds on a sheet pan and roast:

Drain the water from the seeds and spread the seeds out in a single layer in a sheet pan. Place in the preheated oven on the top rack and roast for 10 to 20 minutes. Starting at about 10 minutes, I recommend taking a few out of the oven to test. If they are not roasted yet to your satisfaction, return them to the oven for another 2 to 5 minutes. Keep checking every few minutes until they are dry enough and roasted to your satisfaction. The seeds can quickly go from done (dry and easy to bite to open) to charred (browned on outside and black on the inside). So as the time gets closer, keep an eye on it.

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Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.

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