How to Eat Sunflower Seeds

Getting the Technique Down

Get a bag of sunflower seeds. You can get a bag of seeds that have already been removed from their shells, but it's more fun to eat the seeds you have to do a little work to extract. Choose from a variety of flavors, like chipotle, pickle or barbecue.

Place a sunflower seed in your mouth. Start with just one, so you can get the hang of the technique.

Move the seed to the side of your mouth. It's easier to crack the seed in the side of your mouth than the front.

Place the seed between your teeth. Use your tongue to get it in place. Position it either vertically or horizontally, depending on your preference. Either way, the outside edge of the shell should be making contact with your teeth. Use your molars (chewing teeth) to crack the shell. They have an indention in the middle to hold the seed. It's more difficult to use your two front teeth; you risk the seed slipping and scraping your gums.

Apply firm and steady pressure on the seed until it cracks. The hull should give easily after a moment of intense pressure. Don't bite so hard you crush it, though.

Release the seed from your teeth. Let it fall onto your tongue.

Separate the inner seed from the shell. Use your tongue and your teeth to pull them apart.The texture is the key to this step. The inner, edible seed, will be smooth, while the shell will be rough.

Spit out the shell pieces. After practice, the shell will usually break open like a clam, therefore making this step less messy.

Eat the seed.

Eating a Greater Amount of Seeds

Place a handful of seeds in your mouth. Some baseball players pour half a bag in their mouth at once, and chew them over the course of an hour. The more seeds you can store in your cheek, the better.

Move the seeds to one cheek. You want them all to be in the same place, so you have control over them.

Move one seed to the other side of your mouth. Use your tongue to move it over so it's inside the other cheek.

Crack the shell. Use your tongue to position it between the molars, then bite down to crack the shell.

Spit out the shell and eat the seed.

Repeat with another seed. Move it over from the storage cheek to the other cheek, bite it between your molars, spit out the shell, and eat the seed.

Slowly raise the amount of seeds you can hold in your spare cheek. This reduces the number of reloads per serving, and it's what the pros do.