Pumpkin seed shells

Question
Hi,
It's such trouble to crack open and discard the shells of pumpkin and sunflower seeds and so on.  Is there any harm in simply eating the whole thing?  Of course there's no nutritional value, but I wonder if eating all that wood is bad for the stomach or intestines.
Art

Answer
Hello Art,

   Thank you for your nutrition question.  I don't see any harm in eating the shells. They will probably help keep your digestive system healthy since they will go right through undigested. In fact, Native American peoples traditionally chewed whole pumpkin seeds as a "vermifuge" - an agent that expels intestinal worms. When eaten as a porridge of 1-2 cups in one sitting, the ground pumpkin seed shells in the meal perform a mechanical cutting action on bowel contents (but not the intact bowel itself) that works to shred and loosen biofilm-mucous-fecal impactions and larger parasitic worms such as tapeworm (taenia species) androundworm (ascaris lumbricoides).  Hope this helps.
-George Rapitis, Nutritionist
http://www.juiceblend.com  

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