Sprouts are one of the most complete foods. Sprouts are a living food, they contain vitamins, minerals, proteins and enzymes in abundance. Their nutritional value was discovered by the Chinese thousands of years ago. Recently, numerous scientific studies in the US have confirmed the importance of sprouts in a healthy diet.
As an example, sprouted mung bean contains melon carbohydrates, lemon vitamin A, avocado thiamine, dried apple riboflavin, banana niacin, and gooseberry ascorbic acid.
Sprouts are valuable in that they have a higher biological activity compared to unsprouted seeds, raw or cooked. They can be eaten quite a bit, but a large amount of nutrients will enter the blood and cells.
In the process of germination under the action of light, chlorophyll is formed. Chlorophyll has been shown in research to be very effective in overcoming protein deficiency and anemia.
Sprouts also have a regenerating effect on the human body due to their high content of proteins and other essential nutrients that can only be found in living cells.
The chemical changes that take place in germinating seeds are comparable to the work of a powerful enzyme-producing plant. A high concentration of enzymes activates enzymes and promotes hematopoiesis. Sprouted grains are rich in vitamin E, which helps prevent exhaustion and impotence. The concentration of some vitamins increases during germination by 500%! In sprouted grains of wheat, the content of vitamin B-12 increases 4 times, the content of other vitamins increases 3-12 times, the content of vitamin E triples. A handful of sprouts is three to four times healthier than a loaf of wheat bread.
Sprouts are the most reliable year-round source of vitamin C, carotenoids, folic acid, and many other vitamins, all of which are typically deficient in our diets. Sprouting seeds, grains and legumes significantly increases their content of these vitamins. For example, the vitamin A content of sprouted mung beans is two and a half times higher than dried beans, and some beans contain more than eight times the amount of vitamin A after sprouting.
Dry seeds, grains and legumes, are rich in protein and complex carbohydrates, but contain almost no vitamin C. But after the appearance of sprouts, the amount of this vitamin increases many times over. The big advantage of sprouts is the ability to get a set of vitamins in the dead of winter, when nothing grows in the garden. Sprouts are a reliable source of living nutrients that keep your immune system and your health in top condition. Why do you think so many people get more colds and flu during the winter than at any other time? Because they don’t get enough of the variety of vegetables and fruits they need for their immune systems.
Have you ever heard of a product that keeps adding vitamins after you buy it? Sprouts! Sprouts are living products. Even if your sprouts are refrigerated, they will continue to grow slowly and their vitamin content will actually increase. Compare this to store-bought fruits and vegetables, which start to lose their vitamins as soon as they’re picked from the garden and make a long journey to your table, especially in winter.
Eat sprouts year-round
Fresh fruits and vegetables contain enzymes, but sprouts have a lot more of them, so it makes sense to add them to your meals in the summer, even if you have a garden and your own organic vegetables and fruits. In winter and spring, when your own vegetables and fruits have run out or have lost their freshness, eating sprouts is doubly important. Sprouts should be an integral part of your diet all year round.
It is best to germinate grains and beans yourself, because they must be fresh. Freshly picked sprouts are rich in enzymes and vitamins. If they are stored in the refrigerator, the “life force” will remain in them, they will be fresh and continue to grow slowly.
If the sprouts do not get into the refrigerator immediately after harvesting, they will stop growing and enzymes and vitamins will begin to decompose. The content of vitamins and enzymes will decrease very quickly. When you buy sprouts at the supermarket, no one can tell you how long they have been sitting on the shelves at room temperature.
Even a few hours at room temperature is fraught with a rapid loss of enzymes and vitamins. Worse yet, some sprouts are treated with inhibitors to keep them free of mold and keep them looking fresh while they’re at room temperature. The long white mung bean sprouts you’ve probably seen in a store or restaurant have most likely been treated with inhibitors so they can be grown to that length and kept at room temperature. In order to fully experience the rejuvenating effect of the shoots, you need to grow them yourself and eat them fresh.
Fountain of youth
The anti-aging and healing properties of sprouts can be one of the greatest sources of health. Enzymes are the most important factor supporting the life processes of our body. Without enzymes, we would be dead. Enzyme deficiency is the main cause of aging. The loss of enzymes makes cells more susceptible to damage from free radicals and other toxic substances, which further impede the process of cell reproduction.
The body’s inability to replace old cells with healthy ones at a fast enough rate is responsible for aging and increased susceptibility to disease as we get older. This is why immunity tends to decline with age – immune cells are replaced slowly and cannot protect the body from disease. Staying biologically young and healthy is a matter of keeping the enzyme activity in our bodies at its maximum. That is, this is exactly what sprouts give us, and that is why they can be called a source of youth.
Sprouts preserve our body’s enzymes
Sprouts preserve the enzymes of our body, which is extremely important. How do they do it? First of all, sprouted beans, grains, nuts and seeds are very easy to digest. Sprouting is like pre-digesting food for us, converting concentrated starch into simple carbohydrates and protein into amino acids so our own enzymes don’t have to use it. If you’ve ever had trouble digesting legumes or wheat, just let them sprout and you won’t have any problems at all.
Enzyme Magic
Perhaps the most valuable thing in sprouts is enzymes. Enzymes in sprouts are a special protein that helps our body digest nutrients and increases the activity of our body’s enzymes. Dietary enzymes are found only in raw foods. Cooking destroys them. All raw foods contain enzymes, but germinated seeds, grains, and legumes are the most fermented. Sprouting at times increases the content of enzymes in these products, up to forty-three times or more.
Sprouting increases the content of all enzymes, including proteolytic and amylolytic enzymes. These enzymes help digest proteins and carbohydrates. They are usually produced inside the body, but are also found in high amounts in raw sprouted foods. These food enzymes can replenish our body’s enzyme supply, and this is very important.
To digest food, our body produces an abundant stream of enzymes, if they do not come with food. We all lose our ability to produce digestive enzymes as we get older.
Dr. David J. Williams explains some of the consequences of insufficient enzyme production:
“As we age, our digestive system becomes less efficient. This becomes apparent when you consider that 60 to 75 percent of all hospitalizations are related to problems in the digestive system. As we age, our stomach produces less and less hydrochloric acid, and by age 65, almost 35 percent of us produce no hydrochloric acid at all.”
Researchers such as Dr. Edward Howell have shown that the decline in the body’s ability to produce enough enzymes is due to overproduction over many years of life. This should push us to eat a lot more raw food than we do now.
When we get digestive enzymes from food, it saves our body from having to make them. This sparing regime increases the activity of all other enzymes in our body. And the higher the level of enzyme activity, the healthier and biologically younger we feel.
Since aging is largely due to enzyme depletion, sprouts to the rescue! Sprouted seeds, grains and legumes, which are the most powerful source of enzymes, will help slow down the aging process.