Sunflower butter benefits have a lot. Just one tablespoon of sunflower seed butter supplies nearly a quarter of your body’s daily requirement for vitamin E. Sunflower seed butter is also a great source of protein, healthy fats, and magnesium. Spread it on toast, drizzle it on pancakes or waffles, or add a spoonful to oatmeal or a smoothie. Here we are going to discuss the benefits of sunflower butter for your health.
Sunflower Butter Benefits
Fight Inflammation and Decrease Cholesterol
One of the best-known benefits of sunflower butter is its ability to lower cholesterol and fight inflammation. The paste naturally contains no cholesterol and is full of healthy fats, which contribute to lower levels of LDL or bad cholesterol.
Increased Protein
If you’ve ever been asked, “Where do you get your protein?” you can easily answer, “Sunflower butter!” A single tablespoon of sunflower butter has about 3 grams of protein, which makes it an ideal pick-me-up for athletes. And since protein helps you feel fuller for long amounts of time, sunflower butter is effective at preventing mid-day cravings.
Manage Blood Sugar
Sunflower butter is packed with magnesium and fiber, which is an ideal match for people with blood sugar concerns. Magnesium helps increase insulin sensitivity while fiber helps regulate the absorption of blood sugar.
Together, magnesium and fiber can help prevent diabetes, and for people who already have diabetes, this means a decreased chance of developing complications.
Regulate High Blood Pressure
We haven’t even begun to list all the benefits of sunflower butter! Along with the nutrients and vitamins we’ve already listed, sunflower butter also contains calcium and potassium, both of which play a role in managing hypertension.
Calcium is important for blood vessel function, and potassium regulates sodium levels. This combination makes sunflower butter especially beneficial for people who want something tasty but need to keep an eye on their salt intake.
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Support Bone Health
Like we mentioned earlier, sunflower butter contains magnesium, which is important for strong teeth and bones. In fact, a single tablespoon of sunflower butter can contain 12% of your daily magnesium needs.
Sunflower butter also contains copper and phosphorous, which are important for bone mineralization. Even better, sunflower butter is rich in manganese, which helps fight inflammation and osteoporosis.
Shiny Hair and Nails
Another vitamin found in sunflower butter is Vitamin E, which helps keep your hair and nails healthy and shiny. A single serving of sunflower butter can provide nearly 25% of your daily Vitamin E needs. Plus, sunflower butter’s potassium and iron help regulate blood flow to the scalp, thereby stimulating hair growth and creating thicker, luxurious locks.
Clear Skin
The beauty benefits of sunflower butter don’t stop with healthy hair! Along with aiding hair thickness and shine, Vitamin E has long been touted as a miracle cure for skin health. So, rather than take a Vitamin E supplement, you can eat a single serving of sunflower butter to keep your skin youthful and radiant.
More Restful Sleep
You might notice we mention magnesium a lot on this list, and that’s because it’s an incredibly important mineral. Despite that, 75% of people don’t get enough of it, even though sunflower butter can easily help people meet their recommended dietary needs.
Magnesium is especially helpful when it comes to restful sleep. It helps improve serotonin levels while simultaneously decreasing cortisol levels, which results in lower stress and an overall better mood.
Additionally, sunflower seeds are chockful of tryptophan, an amino acid that aids in relaxation.
Safely Manage and Lose Weight
If you’re looking to maintain or lose weight, sunflower butter can be a useful tool. Fiber helps with digestion, and as we mentioned earlier, it decreases your desire to snack. Combined with sunflower butter’s B vitamins, you’ll feel energized while eating less, which will make working out easier, too!
Good Substitute for Those with Nut Allergies
Nut butter is delicious, but millions of people have severe nut allergies that make eating nut butter impossible. Allergies to peanuts, a type of legume, are also common; meaning that many people can’t enjoy PB&Js without finding a substitute spread.
Fortunately, sunflower butter is entirely nut and legume-free, making it suitable for people who can’t eat peanut butter or nut butter.
Better yet, in some ways, it’s healthier than those other butter and less likely to contain additives. And since it tastes similar to peanut butter, it’s easy to incorporate in other meals.
16g Sunflower Butter Nutrition
- Calories: 99
- Fat: 8.8g
- Sodium: 53mg
- Carbohydrates: 3.7g
- Fiber: 0.9g
- Sugars: 1.7g
- Protein: 2.8g
Carbs
If you consume just one tablespoon of sunflower seed butter, you’ll get 99 calories, and 3.7 grams of carbohydrate. It should be noted, though, that some popular brands of sunflower butter list 2 tablespoons as a serving size.2 If you consume two tablespoons, you’ll consume 200 calories and 6 grams of carbohydrate.
The carbs in sunflower seed butter come from fiber and added sugar. The amount of added sugar may depend on the brand you use or the recipe that you use to make it at home.
There are some brands, such as SunButter that make sunflower butter with no added sugar. If you consume those brands you’ll consume 210 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate (2 grams of fiber, and less than one gram of sugar).3
There is no recorded glycemic index for sunflower seed butter. But since this food contains few carbs and only limited amounts of sugar, it is not likely that it would have a substantial impact on blood sugar levels.
Fat
There are 8.8 grams of fat in a tablespoon of sunflower seed butter. The fat is primarily monounsaturated fat, which is considered to be “good” fat. You’ll get 6.24 grams in a serving, along with 1.6 grams of polyunsaturated fat, another healthy fat.
You may boost heart health when you use poly and monounsaturated fats to replace less healthy fats (like saturated fat) in your diet. There is less than one gram (0.75g) of saturated fat in a tablespoon of sunflower seed butter.
Protein
You’ll increase your protein intake by 2.8 grams if you consume a tablespoon of sunflower seed butter and 5.6 grams if you consume two tablespoons. As a basis for comparison, peanut butter provides 3.6 grams per tablespoon4 and almond butter provides 3.4 grams of protein per one-tablespoon serving.
Vitamins and Minerals
Sunflower seeds provide several important micronutrients. You’ll benefit from these vitamins and minerals when you consume a spread made from the seeds.
For example, butter is an excellent source of copper providing 0.3mg or about 33% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) which is based on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet.
A one-tablespoon serving of sunflower seed butter also provides about 49.8mg of magnesium or almost 12% of the RDA and you’ll get 0.3 mg of manganese or about 14% of the RDA. Sunflower seed butter also provides smaller amounts of phosphorus and folate.
Sunflower Butter Side Effects
Though allergies to sunflower butter are relatively uncommon, some cases have been reported. Reactions may include asthma, mouth swelling, itching of the mouth, hay fever, skin rashes, lesions, vomiting, and anaphylaxis.
