12 Steps to Whole Foods

Sprouting and Dehydrating
When most people think of sprouts, they think of the 4-inch, scraggly alfalfa sprouts sold in most grocery
stores and found on some salad bars. Because of an E. coli scare several years ago, this food has disappeared
from many of the places that used to carry it.
But it’s no big loss, because when you grow a sprout that long, and it sits for a week or more, like those
containers of sprouts sold in your local supermarket, you lose some of the benefit anyway as the sprouts age
and lose nutrition. Many commercial sprouters also spray the sprouts with enzyme inhibitors so they don’t go
brown. Thus, sprouts should be made at home, because with only a minute or two of your time, you can sprout
a much more nutritionally powerful food. Barely sprouted, you can eat less of the germinated seeds and nuts
for much higher gain in vitamins and minerals.
The nutrition in sprouts is maximized when they are 1 to 1½ times as long as the grain, so you should begin to
think of a sprout as a natural seed, legume, or grain that is barely bigger than the unsprouted version. You can
slow its growth dramatically at that point by putting it in the fridge. You can also, if you want, continue
growing the sprout to provide more “greens” to your diet, such as long sunflower sprouts that are wonderful in
salads. To do that, you must “put it to air,” letting it obtain air and sun (on the windowsill) to grow greens.
Adding sprouts to various foods—sauces, dressings, salads, cereals, and more—is a great way to increase plant
protein in your diet as well, because sprouts are high in protein.
Why Is Sprouting Important?
Enzymes are the vitality sustaining all of our body’s processes. Without enzymes, we die. Thus, enzyme
depletion causes aging, slowing cellular processes and cellular reproduction and causing cells to be susceptible
to free-radical damage. We age as the body becomes unable to replace old cells with healthy new ones. This
applies to immune cells, too. Enzyme depletion is why immunity decreases with age: immune cells aren’t
regenerating quickly enough to protect the body from disease.
Staying young and healthy (regardless of how many years you’ve been alive) is simply a matter of keeping
enzyme activity maximized in your body. Sprouts do precisely that, and they are the closest thing we have to a
“fountain of youth!” 1 Enzyme expert Dr. Edward Howell says that ancient cultures ate most of their grains
partially germinated (or sprouted) and that, unfortunately, modern farming prevents the grains from sprouting
before being stored. 2
Sprouting seeds, grains, nuts, and legumes causes the starches to convert to easily digested sugars.
Germinating activates the enzymes so the plant begins to produce vitamins that it needs for its own growth.
According to research performed at the University of Minnesota, sprouting increases the nutrient density of
foods. Sprouted wheat had 28% more thiamine (B1), 315% more riboflavin (B2), 66% more niacin (B3), 65%
more pantothenic acid (B5), 111% more biotin, 278% more folic acid (B9), and 300% more vitamin C than
nonsprouted wheat. In some legumes, vitamins multiply by up to 500% after the bean is sprouted. Enzyme
content is sometimes more than 40 times higher in the sprouted grain, and even fiber multiplies 300-400% over
the ground, dry whole grain! Another change brought about in the sprouting process is that carbohydrates
decrease and protein increases substantially, as atmospheric nitrogen is absorbed in the breakdown of
carbohydrate molecules, reformed as amino acid building blocks of protein.
200 12 Steps to Whole Foods
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw