Click It! Sunflower Seeds

Source

So my first question that I wanted to know the answer to: Is it okay to eat sunflower seed shells?

I had bought a pack of sunflower seeds last week, which I still have that little .59 cent pack contains a lot of seeds. It was fun absorbing the salt, cracking the seed, and eating the kernel. After a while though I kind of got tired of spitting out the shell pieces and wanted to just eat the entire seed. I tried it like twice, still cracked it and tried a piece trying to really chew it. It was a fail. That was taking too long to really disintegrate it enough for for swallowing. It contains sharp pieces.

I finally got around to Google-ing, even though I had already tried it.
My conclusion from what I read is: No, that it's better not to eat the sunflower seed shells.

Some answers were saying yes, it is okay as long as you chew them up thoroughly with no jagged pieces. Others said, that they cannot be digested properly. They can get stuck into the insides resulting in hospital visits. Risks of constipation and impaction on the rectum could increase if a lot of seeds were consumed but may be less if only about a handful.

So, I just decided not to take any chances lol. Better to be safe than sorry. I think they sell the kernels on their owned (already unshelled) for those interested. I'll just stick to cracking them open, I rarely eat them anyway.



Sources: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070523130519AAxtIY8
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080418195922AAmUtcF
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/foods/sunflower-seed-shells-1