This Halloween, when you're carving the pumpkins, I want you to skip the tradition of eating the pumpkin seeds. Now while this may seem like an innocent, delicious snack pumpkin seeds, are actually doing you more harm than good. Now there are a lot of claims about the benefits of eating pumpkin seeds. They're great for prostate health. They're great for regulating hormones. They're full of antioxidants. They strengthen your hair and nails. They're great for heart health and they're rich in zinc. Well, some of this actually may be true, but there's a bigger problem with pumpkin seeds. And I bet you know what it is. Yep, they have lectins. Now what the heck are lectins? As most of you watching this channel know, are part of the plant defense system against being eaten. And plants are eaten by animals. Were their predators. And plants do not want to be eaten. And they certainly don't want their babies, their seeds eaten. So plants use biologic warfare to convince animals that eating them or their babies is going to make them feel bad, is going to make them not live as long, is going to make them not as fertile. And so these are incorporated into the vast majority of seeds that you have the potential to eat. And a similar favorite snack, very much in the same way, are sunflower seeds. So when you see all those baseball players munching on their sunflower seeds and spitting out the shell, just realize that they're eating a lectin-loaded food. Sunflower oil is bad for you because it's an omega-6 fat and it's loaded with lectins as well. It also goes for peanuts, which are not and not at all. It's a legume, cashews, and chia seeds. Now wait a minute, chia seeds, chia seeds are great for you because they have omega-3 fats, which they do. But years ago, I was exposed to studies from Lauren Cordane, the father of the paleo diet who's a professor at Colorado State University, of humans who were given chia seeds to show that they had anti-inflammatory properties because they omega-3 fats and low and behold, they did have omega-3 fats in their blood. But their inflammatory markers, like C-reactive protein, CRP, actually went up when they were eating chia seeds. So what can you do? Well, since we're on the subject of chia seeds, you may have seen my interview right here on my YouTube channel with basil seeds and the founder of Zen basil. Basil seeds have all the benefits without the lectins and they act exactly like chia seeds. So use basil seeds instead. Now there are seeds that don't have any lectins. Plants have a strategy. Plants would like you to distribute some of their seeds for them by eating them. And these plants make the coating of the seed indigestible so that you cannot digest it with your digestive enzymes or even your microbiome. And so you will poop their babies intact somewhere with a generous dollar preferitalyzer. So flax seeds can fall into that category. Now, as you know, flax seeds are loaded with a really cool protein, but they're also loaded with the short chain omega-3 fat, linoleonic acid. Flax seeds have been shown, particularly linoleonic acid, to dramatically reduce inflammation. It actually prevent lipopolysaccharides, those LPSs that I talk about from getting into your bloodstream. Now here's the deal with flax seeds. They resisted just in. So you could eat all the flax seed crackers in the world and they're useless. You could sprinkle flax seeds on your salad. They're useless. You have to grind them. And please, if you're going to buy them ground, buy them refrigerated, keep them in the refrigerator. I personally like to buy them whole, get a coffee grinder, grind your flax seeds when you use them, and then mix them in with whatever you're going to eat. It's a great source of omega-3 fats, fiber, and protein. Second, hemp seeds. Hemp seeds have no lectins. They're also a good source of omega-3 fats. They're a great source of protein. And they have been shown to improve heart health, brain health, and eye health. Particularly hemp hearts are really easy to use, and there's no more processing needed. Sprinkle them on your salads. Put them in your goat yogurt, put it in your goat or sheep kefir, and they add a really great texture. Sesame seeds. Sesame oil and sesame seeds have been shown to block the effect of LPS's, those inflammatory bacterial cell walls. So get yourself some sesame seeds. In fact, studies in humans show that having people consume two tablespoons of sesame oil, not the toasted, but the regular. A day dramatically lowers blood pressure in people who are hypertensive. And when they stopped using the sesame oil, their blood pressure went back up. Are there safe nuts? Well yes, there are. First of all, you want to get zinc, have some Brazil nuts. They're also rich in selenium. Not three Brazil nuts will give you your daily dose of selenium that you need for thyroid health, for prostate health, but don't overdo it, because too much selenium can backfire. Walnuts. Walnuts are a rich source of tannins, a type of phytosterol, polyphenol that has been correlated with improved brain health. Macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts are mostly monoinsaturated fats like olive oil, but they contain an additional fat that's been shown to directly affect the health of blood vessels and the brain. And there's several studies that suggest that this particular fat in macadamia nuts can suppress appetite. Pistachios. They're one of my go-to nuts. They are rich in melatonin. In fact, they're the highest melatonin containing food. There is. No, they're not going to make you sleepy. It turns out that melatonin, as you know, is only one of two antioxidants that are used in our mitochondria. The other one is glutathione. So melatonin is not the sleep hormone. It is the antioxidant of your mitochondria. Finally, pine nuts. Pine nuts, of course, are an essential ingredient in pesto, along with basil and parmesan cheese. And olive oil. But pine nuts are absolutely delicious, particularly if you toast them lightly and then sprinkle them on your salad, throw them on your vegetables, and you'll have a great way to get another beneficial nut in a fun way to change around your vegetables and your salads. Okay, that's it. Throw away the pumpkin seeds. Don't roast them for Halloween. That way you will not get a spooky surprise. If you found this video helpful, I think you're going to love this one. McAdamion that oil gives you the concentrated amount of omega-7 that you need without the bulk.