Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are another highly nutritious seed food that we Americans supply generously to our parrots and our chickens, yet neglect to utilize in raising the standards of our under-par human diets. Our health authorities have been passing up a highly palatable, first-rate source of high-grade protein, B-vitamins and urgently needed trace minerals by failing to acquaint the public with sunflower seeds. This is a serious oversight in a country where our health becomes worse as our civilization grows older-and where our past-forty populace is growing old prematurely because of poor diet.

Back in the days of the czars, every Russian soldier out in the campaign field was given what was called his daily 'iron ration'-a two-pound bag of sunflower seeds. Because the army away from its supply bases was sometimes forced to live exclusively on these seeds, the officers furnished their men with this tasty, lightweight food knowing that it gave them all the nourishment needed to keep them in good condition. (Besides the protein, vitamins and other minerals, two pounds of sunflower seeds contain about 21 milligrams of iron. The average grown man requires at least 12 milligrams of iron each day for optimum health, while the average woman needs a minimum of 15 milligrams. From these figures it's easy to understand that the Russian soldier in those days must have been a red-blooded fellow.)