How common is it to eat sunflower seeds in the UK? And do you eat them with the shell on?

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Dazzling-Wanderer@reddit

They are eaten but not in the way americans do. They're often added to porridge or overnight oats and also on salads etc. When bought in the shops they are already shelled and in 200g bags.

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elementarydrw@reddit

Shelled is a funny word.

In this sense, it means the shell has been removed.

But turtles are shelled animals.

In fact, a crab is shelled by nature, but you order it shelled if you don't want to bother removing it yourself in the restaurant.

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zeprfrew@reddit

It's a contronym. A word that is its own opposite. Another one is dust.

If you dust the furniture, you remove dust from it.

If you dust a cake with powdered sugar, you add dust to it.

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exit_to_the_left@reddit

This is how I eat mine. Bag of mixed seeds from Lidle. Add to overnight oats or sprinkle on salads.

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PoshTurtl3@reddit

Great cereal sprinkle. Have it with Wheatabix m

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CleverClogs150@reddit

My parrot eats them, but even she takes the shells off!

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qualityvote2@reddit

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Admirable-Sundae8494@reddit

man that sucks lowkey they need mo votes idk bro

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Nym_Nightingale@reddit

Who eats them with the shell on?? You split them open with your teeth.

Not sure how common that is but I like eating sunflowerseeds, the roasted and salted kind. I actually prefer it over crisps some days. One bowl for the seeds and one to dispose of the shells.

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Short-Shopping3197@reddit

Americans. They were sold in packets with ‘chew, swallow, blow’ on them when I was over there.

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repair-it@reddit

I don't like eating Americans, they get between my teeth 😉

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Short-Shopping3197@reddit

Full of corn syrup too, they’ll give you diabetes.

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MidasToad@reddit

Sunflower seeds are less common than trail mix, but I think most people would recognise them and their snack compatriots, the pumpkin seed.

You get them in the bakery aisle of supermarkets and health food shops.

They are always sold without the shell for the British market: shell-on seeds can be bought in the international sections of shops.

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Fantastic-Speech-438@reddit

Not very common tbh, but I was once taught by a guy from Murcia how to eat them with the shells on.

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Fantastic-Speech-438@reddit

Hard to explain. You kind of stick them in your mouth, bite down the seam, then use your tongue to suck them out.

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slinkimalinki@reddit

Thank you. Honestly, it seems less work just to buy them shelled.

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Fantastic-Speech-438@reddit

But then you don't feel like you earned them. 😂

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slinkimalinki@reddit

Oh, my mistake I didn’t realise there’s a whole Puritan work thing attached to sunflower seeds 😹😹

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I’ve only really bought them from Lidl in big bags, salted in the shells as a snack. Normally for cooking they’re sold no shell. I like to mix them in with brown rice and olive oil to make it nuttier.

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yourefunny@reddit

Very uncommon. I remember being at a bar in Ukraine many years ago I think it was and sunflower seeds were the free snack with your beer. Bloody lovely. We then camped for days on the edge of sunflower fields. Gorgeous in the sunset.

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Tired-of-this-world@reddit

No it isn't, they are sold in every major supermarket and lodes of people eat them.

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yourefunny@reddit

Eat them on salads and stuff, sure. I have some in my kitchen. I missed that off my comment. But I have never seen anyone in the UK eating them like a snack with the shell on.

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Tired-of-this-world@reddit

Used to eat them all the time, they were always de shelled though.

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AdministrativeShip2@reddit

When the war ends I really want to visit Ukraine.

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yourefunny@reddit

It's a great country! Drove through it when I was 18. Had some absolutely fantastic experiences. The main method of finding somewhere to stay through the Lonely Planet book was to stay in people's houses. Can't remember what it was called. Did the same in Cuba. Both times the people were ridiculously generous when they had very little. Highly recommend both.

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msj247@reddit

I've never tried the ones with the shells on I just buy the seeds already out of the shells, same with pumpkin seeds, I'll eat them with oats and dried fruit or chuck em in a pan to toast with salt and nutritional yeast.

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Historical_Project86@reddit

It's more popular among immigrant communities, particularly unshelled seeds. Some streets in Newport are covered in shells.

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shelleypiper@reddit

They're not sold in shells. But they're a common enough food you might use in bread or a salad or something

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Fragrant-Challenge98@reddit

I get the American ones in flavours and eat them often when I am stress writing reports at work.

I know they’re full of sodium but must be better for me than skittles or haribo

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Goatsandducks@reddit

I eat the salted shell ones but I suck the salt off, then get the seed out to eat. I only really have them in summer as I like to pretend I'm on a sunny beach somewhere as I associate it with that.

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DustTechnical4561@reddit

I associate them with Spain mostly. Hardly ever seen them here. I think people see them as bird food.

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Hertfordgal@reddit

I roast them mixed with sunflower and other seeds and eat them as snacks. I don’t like them on porridge. Yes I eat them with the shell.

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CraftyWeeBuggar@reddit

I eat them a lot, but its usually in a mixed bag of seeds and nuts. I also buy/bake a lot of seeded bread . Think theres some in my muesli too.

Im in the uk, you can get them in every supermarket here.

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Ok_Requirement_7489@reddit

I buy big bags of them and my family have them every day sprinkled on my breakfast.

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Fibro-Mite@reddit

We often use them in place of pine nuts in a home made pesto. We always have them in the house (pre-shelled) because our lovebirds are hand fed them as a treat sometimes. It’s how you train certain birds to take food from your fingers… make sure it’s “birdy crack” and it invariably overcomes their initial fear.

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Warm_Stress_1654@reddit

It very much depends on whether one is or is not a hamster.

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Suspicious_Banana255@reddit

I sometimes put them on a salad, the bags are already shelled.

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MzHmmz@reddit

Most people eat them pre-shelled in the UK, you can buy the kind with the shells on but they're not so widely available. We definitely don't have a culture of eating them as a common snack like you do in some countries. You're more likely to find sunflower seeds as an ingredient in bread, granola, museli, flapjacks etc than eaten by themselves. Personally I like to add them to my crumble topping for textual interest and a bit of added nutrition!

I sometimes buy the salted ones with shells at an international shop, I'm not actually sure I've ever seen them sold in ordinary supermarkets here (possibly in the international section of some of them?).

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Scottie99@reddit

What are we, parrots?

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Organic_Reporter@reddit

My mum used to get them from the local healthfood shop back in the 80 and 90s. Those and carob drops (disappointing and more expensive than chocolate!).

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Incident-Putrid@reddit

Carob “chocolate” is a hate crime.

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Toc13s@reddit

Not unusual. Not common but doesn't provoke comment.

You can get them (shelled) in the supermarkets & any of the eastern European marts - very easy to get

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Pickle__nic@reddit

Turkish people here do

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tunaman808@reddit

And do you eat them with the shell on?

For clarity's sake, do you mean you mean:

a) "Do English people eat the whole sunflower seed, shell and all?"

or

b) "Do they only sell shelled sunflower seeds in the UK, or do they sell them unshelled, and people have to spit the shells out like baseball players?"

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WildWanderingRedHead@reddit

You're not meant to eat the shell. I eat them a lot but I've started buying shelled ones. I used to eat the ones you had to shell yourself when I was a kid but its too much of a faff.

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Safe-Professional556@reddit

Like them in things (primarily bread), don't much care for them on their own, didn't know anyone ate them shell on.

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NotAnotherThing@reddit

I would say probably uncommon as it seems like just me. Lol

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mcwibs@reddit

I think fairly uncommon. I had them more often living in China, but seldom see them here.

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Dashcamkitty@reddit

I like the sunflower seeds i got from South East Asia that were salted and hulled.

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Space_Cowby@reddit

Where I used to live in the Midlands a lot was eaten, never really saw them being eat though but judging by the vast amount my park benches they where very popular with some people who would sit there for hours

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Dic_Penderyn@reddit

I never eat them since I know what happened to the guy from Leeds

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AwarenessWilling5435@reddit

Eastern Europeans and Middle Easterners love them.

They're ok, very salty and moreish. But messy and a pain in the arse for little reward. They always remind me of X-Files. Mulder eats them as he's giving up smoking.

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toxicsoup_@reddit

He's always eaten them throughout the show, and he doesn't smoke. He came close during Brand X when he bought a packet of cigarettes after being infected with the Morley experimental nicotine, but he never actually smoked any

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toxicsoup_@reddit

He's always eaten them throughout the show, and he doesn't smoke. He came close during Brand X when he bought a packet of cigarettes after being infected with the Morley experimental nicotine, but he never actually smoked any

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KatVanWall@reddit

Who the hell eats the shell?! Even my gerbils split them

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Busy_Fudge4897@reddit

I eat them, but usually when the shell has already been removed as I cannot be bothered to do that myself.

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RgCrunchyCo@reddit

Indeed. It’s 2026 after all.

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mralistair@reddit

not nearly as common as in spain.

and nobody eats the shells, that's insane

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StockholmGirl29@reddit

I don't think many people eat unshelled sunflower seeds. I eat them shelled, on top of cereal or porridge.

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Senor_Pus@reddit

They're on sale in every big Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Asda and Tesco unless you live in a really inbred town.

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alex21dragons@reddit

Mainly for hamsters and gerbils here I think. Is the OP a gopnik we wonder...

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SoggyWotsits@reddit

Usually the ones in their shells are bought for bird food.

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JoeLustre@reddit

If you go to any football game in Spain you will be shocked to see that EVERYONE is eating in the stands and chucking the shells to the floor

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Chewy168@reddit

Was just about to comment same. Went to watch Seville I came out covered in shells

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Clive_Trotter75@reddit

My mate’s Spanish & they’re like crack to him.

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Senor_Pus@reddit

King's Lynn (Norfolk) has a massive Russian population, sunflower seed shells are everywhere. 🇷🇺

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Sad_Cardiologist5388@reddit

I get em from Chinese supermarket i eat em with the shell on then as theyre flavoured.

Its 100% not a UK thing though

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BrowsingOnMaBreak@reddit

My parents brought candied sunflower seeds back from a recent holiday, they were _delish_

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mortstheonlyboyineed@reddit

I know i shouldn't but I do eat the shell if they are loaded with salt. I always have done dispite being repeatedly told not to.

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Efficient_Hyena_7476@reddit

I dry fry them with pumpkin seeds until they crackle and swell, then tip in a bowl and splash on soy sauce. An incredible moorish snack.

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ignatiusjreillyXM@reddit

I do - either on yogurt or in salads. Probably a habit I picked up living in Ukraine though (where old ladies would be selling paper bags of them on street corners , unshelled, as an instant snack).

I don't think it's that common to eat them in Britain

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BG3restart@reddit

I buy them in a bag of mixed seeds (no shells) to sprinkle on salads or on porridge as a kind of health boost.

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LittleHouse82@reddit

I put some in my overnight oats along with other nuts, seeds, fruit and anything else I fancy. So shell off for me.

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AtensEye@reddit

I eat them, but mostly I will mix them in with bread, shells off ofc. I've never heard of eating them with the shell on before?

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olivinebean@reddit

I buy sunflower hearts to feed pigeons on the go, they're high in fat and those birds deserve it.

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i_hate_budget_tyres@reddit

Are you Chinese. Always see piles of the shells people spat out in parks in China.

In the UK it‘s not usual to eat them, but they are more salad toppings or baked goods toppings than anything else.

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S3lad0n@reddit

I have them loads, but I live with dogs so it’s a good precaution (internal parasites hate sharp seeds)

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Difficult_Bad1064@reddit

It's handy that the parasites filled out a survey on their preferences.

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Stressedhumbucker@reddit

I've always had sunflower seeds growing up. At the moment I often have them in my breakfast.

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Evacuation_euphoria@reddit

Eat them with the shell on? No. No one does that. Even the birds in my back garden splits them!

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Fine-State8014@reddit

I'd never seen it before I met my wife. She's Spanish and they love them there. She can shell and eat about 10 before I manage 1.

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Sandy_Bananas@reddit

Rather uncommon. You’ll see it a lot more round areas with lots of Mediterraneans.

Shame really. They’re a great little bar snack.

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