Heart Disease
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Health Benefits of Sprouts
9.5 Sprouts are essentially young living plants germinated from say, nuts, seeds, wholegrains, beans, legumes as well as various grasses such as barley or wheat. Sprouts are considered “wonder foods” and “nutritional superstars”. They rank as the freshest and most nutritious of all vegetables available to the human diet. By a process of natural transmutation, sprouted food acquires vastly improved digestibility and nutritional qualities when compared to non-sprouted embryo from which it derives. There is an amazing increase in nutrients in sprouts when compared to their dried embryo. In the process of sprouting, the vitamins, minerals and protein increase substantially with some decrease in calories and carbohydrate content. For example in moong sprouts; calories decrease by 15%, carbohydrates decrease by 9%, protein increases by 30%, calcium by 34%, potassium by 80%, sodium by 69%, iron by 40%, phosphorus by 56%, vitamin A by 285%, thiamine or vitamin B1 by 208%, Niacin or vitamin B3 by 256%, riboflavin or vitamin B2 by 515% and an infinite increase in ascorbic acid or vitamin C.
9.6 Sprouts, therefore, contain a high concentrate of antioxidant nutrients that fight against the damage caused by free radicals. Sprouts are also packed with vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fibre as well as two anti-ageing constituents – RNA and DNA (nucleic acids) – that are only found in living cells. Sprouts supply food in predigested form, i.e. the food which has already been acted upon by the enzymes and made to digest easily. During sprouting, much of the starch is broken down into simple sugars such as glucose and sucrose by the action of the enzyme “amylase”. Proteins are converted into amino acids and amides. Fats and oils are converted into more simple fatty acids by the action of the enzyme “lipase”. Funnily, during sprouting, the grains/seeds lose their embarrassing gas producing quality!
9.7 Thus sprouts are extremely inexpensive, especially for poor people, method of obtaining a concentration of vitamins, minerals and enzymes. They have in them all the constituent nutrients of fruits and vegetables and are “live foods”. Eating sprouts is the safest and best way of getting the advantages of both fruits and vegetables without contamination and harmful insecticides/ pesticides, which are virtually eliminated in the sprouting process.
Health Benefits of Fruits and Vegetables
9.8 According to the World Health Organisation, “Health is more than the absence of disease – it is a state of optimal well-being”. Liberal intake of fruits and vegetables, enhances one’s sense of well-being while “junk food” makes one moody and downcast.
9.9 Fruits and vegetables are perhaps one of the few good things whose benefits are endorsed by conventional doctors and Naturo-Food Therapists alike. They are a powerhouse of nutrition, have few calories and almost no fat. Fruits and vegetables offer the body a relative cornucopia of substances known as “phytochemicals” or “phytonutrients”, enzymes, antioxidants, minerals, vitamins and fibre which have
