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Foods for Body & Mind ----Focusing on Health Benefits----
For centuries, traditional healers have known that foods can have a powerful healing effects on body and mind. It encourages us to further understand beneficial effects that certain foods can have on health. We believe that food can help improve our health and we can help in choosing our confectionery to attain this benefit.
[The Story of GOMA / Sesame]
Japanese word, GOMA, is translated as sesame in English. Today, we can witness lots of GOMA based recipes such as GOMA dressing, GOMA Doufu(Dofu is how the word Tofu came to be pronounced), and sesame seed oil. Now we are going to focus in detail the health benefit of GOMA.
GOMA 1
If you like steak, grilled meat, butter, cheese, or fresh cream, you must be accumulating cholesterol in your body. Cholesterol clings like dirt, makes blood vessels weak, and may lead to strokes or cardiac infarction.
There are 2 types of fat contained in food. One is saturated fatty acid, which meat and dairy products contain a lot. You can say that saturated fatty acid is the source of cholesterol. The other one is unsaturated fatty acid. DHA and linoleic acid, these substances became well-known through "tuna eyeball," are also unsaturated fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acid is so-called beneficial fatty acid. It melts harmful cholesterol and function to eliminate such cholesterol out of one's body. Sesame and sesame oil are rich in unsaturated fatty acid.Since cholesterol is in direct proportion to a person's weight, it is thought a cholesterol-reducing diet by using sesame as the main ingredient.
Unsaturated fatty acid group: sesame, tuna eyeballs, sardines, olive oil, corn oil
Saturated fatty acid group: milk, beef tallow, butter, lard, fresh cream, palm oil, egg
GOMA 2
Sesame is an "E"ffective source of vitamin "E", the secret of youth.
Even with modern medicine, the elixir of perennial youth and long life has not been developed. However, we are getting to know that there is a substance that can help prevent aging, and that is vitamin E. Vitamin E keeps cells young and inhibits the growth of harmful substances that accelerate aging.Foodstuffs rich in vitamin E include unpolished grains, vegetable oil, eel, tuna, and lean fish.
Introducing sesame into one's diet is one of the simplest ways to supplement vitamin E to your daily requirement. Once sesame is consumed by the body, a part of it becomes sebum to be secreted through the skin, moisturizing dry skin and preventing hair from falling out. So, why not consume sesame and help take care of our skin and hair by allowing it to perform its beneficial effects from within our body.
GOMA 3
Rich calcium in a small body.
If you are a type of person that gets angry at trifles and tends to be irritable and restless, this personality trait that you might have considered innate could instead be due to lack of calcium in your system. Calcium is an essential nutrient for bones and teeth to grow. Also, nerves and muscle require a certain amount of calcium to function properly. If the amount of calcium in the body is not enough, a person becomes impatient. Before Japan grew into an economic giant, people ate a lot of small fish and seaweed. Nowadays, children's dietary sources have changed, and although they are relatively taller than their predecessors their bones tend to be weaker. Sesame is an excellent source of calcium. 100g of sesame contains 1200mg of calcium, which is 12 times more than the amount of calcium contained in 100g of milk. In other words, in terms of the calcium you get, taking a tablespoonful of sesame is equal to consuming a bottle of milk. That's how necessary sesame is for our lives.
GOMA 4
Sesame plays an important role in supplementing iron.
100g of sesame contains 9.9mg of iron. Like shijimi clams and liver, sesame is also a great source of iron.Iron is a nutrient that Japanese people tend to lack. If the amount of iron in the body is not enough, the first problem one would face is anemia. This is because hemoglobin, the substance that makes our blood red, can not be produced without iron. Anemia affects one's beauty too. Even if you had no visceral problems, anemia could make you look pale without makeup. Plus, it could also make your nails whitish or make you look older for your age. Because the required amount of iron a day is 10mg, one can secure 1/4 of the amount by taking three spoonfuls of sesame.
GOMA 5
Only sesame has sesamol.
Recently it is said that things like aging, whose mechanism has not yet been determined, and the horrible disease cancer are greatly related to harmful oxidization process that occurs in the body.
Sesame contains its inherent chemical sesamol, which has an antioxidant effect (the effect that slows down oxidation). This provides us with a scientific reason to explain why sesame has been regarded as mystical food of perennial youth and long life since ancient times. Sesamol works together with vitamin E in our body to keep the cells healthy by controlling oxidation and restoring harmful substances that result from oxidation. Thus, sesame can be recommended to control oxidation process.
GOMA 6
Since ancient times, sesame has been considered the wonder drug of perennial youth and longevity.
Perennial youth and longevity are the all-time wish list of human beings. Since ancient times, sesame has been highly valued as the mystical food that makes this wish comes true.Also, sesame seeds are regarded highly in The Herbal Classic of the Divine Plowman, China's oldest medicinal/medical book, as the golden remedy of perennial youth and longevity - it claims that sesame can be a source of energy, an agent that can help the brain function properly, and prevents aging. In addition, from generation to generation, people believed that sesame was the elixir to be a hermit with eternal youth in ancient China. Moreover, in both Egypt and India, where ancient civilization took place, sesame seeds were highly appreciated and used for medical and cosmetic purposes. It is said that Cleopatra used sesame oil regularly as a cosmetic to keep her skin in tone.
In Japan too, sesame seeds were an important source of nutrition for Buddhist monks who were forbidden to have meat or fat. Considering today's popularity of vegetarian meals with sesame seeds and soybeans as health food, it's easy to understand how widely sesame has come to be accepted in many cultures. As a matter of fact, sesame contains a well-balanced range of nutrients such as essential amino acids, unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin E, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and dietary fiber. The other reason why sesame is recently in the spotlight is sesamin, a minor component of sesame. Sesamin, working together with other nutrients, slows down aging and prevents hardening of the arteries, which causes lifestyle-related diseases, by eliminating bad cholesterol from our arteries.
GOMA 7
Sesamin and Vitamin E when combined can account for a strong antioxidant effect and may prevent lifestyle-related diseases.
Oxygen is indispensable for humans to live. However, about 2% of the oxygen inhaled turns into a toxic substance called active oxygen. Active oxygen, in a normal situation, plays an important role of protecting the body by attacking viruses and bacteria in the body. But, if active oxygen is overproduced because of unbalanced meals or stress, it changes its targets and oxidizes (ages) cells. Although human bodies have the ability to break down active oxygen, this ability decreases with age. As a result, the risk of developing lifestyle-related diseases such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, cardiac infarction, and apoplexy grows high.Sesamin is a component of sesame with antioxidant effect, and may be effective in preventing harmful situation to arise from active oxygen. Vitamin E, which is abundant in sesame, is also well known for its antioxidant effect. However, while vitamin E tends to be destroyed by active oxygen in the liver before its antioxidant effect starts to work, sesamin protects vitamin E against active oxygen and works with vitamin E to eliminate active oxygen in the body.
GOMA 8
With the protection of sesamin, unsaturated fatty acids eliminate bad cholesterol.
Sesame seeds are rich not only in sesamin and vitamin E but also in other preventive substances related to aging: sesame seeds are made up of more than 50% fat, and over 80% of the fat is unsaturated fatty acids like linoleic acid or oleic acid. There are 2 types of fat. One is saturated fatty acid, which meat and dairy products contain a lot. The other is unsaturated fatty acid, in which fish with blue backs like sardines, vegetable oil, and sesame seeds, are known for its richness. Saturated fatty acids can become the source of bad cholesterol that causes arteriosclerosis. On the other hand, unsaturated fatty acids curb the growth of bad cholesterol. In other words, unsaturated fatty acids help prevent lifestyle-related diseases by reducing bad cholesterol and keeping blood vessels young.However, unsaturated fatty acids tend to oxidize and lose its effect. It is sesamin's antioxidant effect that redeems this shortcoming. Sesamin is also the reason why sesame oil tends not to oxidize as easily as other vegetable oil does.
We found the great health benefit for GOMA today.
As the above GOMA 3 tells, one can secure 1/4 of the amount by taking three spoonfuls of sesame.Therefore we would recommend that one should consume three spoonfuls of sesame on daily basis - our sesame products such as Black Sesame soybeans or White Sesame soybeans make an ideal source of sesame. Enjoy GOMA with lots of fun!
[Related products]
Click here for information on 'Black Sesame Soybean'.
Click here for information on 'White Sesame Soybean'.
Click here for information on 'Black Sesame Crunch'.
[Related recipes]
Click here for information on 'Spinach with Sesame Dressing'.
Click here for information on ''.
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