Sprouts are defined as “the transitional stage between seed and plant”.  They are the germinated seeds of grains or legumes having acquired the preserving property  and growing life of a particular plant. Sprouts should be made from organically   grown seeds because they not only minimize the chance of infection but also  rule out the possibility of consumption of chemical additives.

Sprouts are natural , fresh and completely living food made of some of the edible seeds. As the amount and availability of various nutrients of the seed   increase after sprouting , they become an excellent source of vitamins and minerals. The nutrients contained in the sprout can be said to be equivalent to that of mother’s milk. Apart from their great dietary value they are easily palatable, light and easily digestible. During the process of sprouting the stored inactive nutrients are converted into nutritional super fuel bursting with vitamins, minerals and plant enzymes (proteins into amino acid, fats into fatty acid and starch into simple sugar}.

Every seed can be sprouted, but for dietary purposes seeds like  green gram(moong) brown gram(moth) soybean, sunflower, fenugreek (methi),lobia and wheat ,black gram are used. Sprouts of green and brown gram have very good protein value .Sprouts of all the grams in general enhance vigor and vitality.

Sprouts and diseases:

Fenugreek sprouts are slightly bitter in taste but make a good adjunct for persons suffering from chronic back ache, excessive urination, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes.

Soyabean, black bean and peanuts contains red clover which has genistein – an anticancer compound.

Since sprouts are a good source of fiber, they cleanse our body and remove constipation.They are also a good source of chlorophyll which in turn has anti bacterial and anti inflammatory properties.

Many of the serious health disorders like heart disease , hypertension, lipid anomalies and diabetes are directly related with our faulty food habits. Modern life especially of big cities has become so synonymous with wrong food habits and all types of acidic , spicy and junk foods have been included in our daily diet .Sprouts   can be a good and healthy substitute for a oily and heavy breakfast or fried evening snacks. Sprouts also helps in restoring the color to graying hair and keep you looking young.

How to make sprouts:

The  whole grains should be washed thoroughly in clean water after removing the broken pieces .Then they should be put in a container with double amount of water. After soaking for over night the seeds should be again washed and kept in a wet clean cotton cloth In summer the moisture of the cloth should be maintained by sprinkling cold water several times. Next day small sprouts may come out. Generally sprouts appear early in summer than winter. They should be washed thoroughly before eating. Keeping the sprouts for a long time is not advisable. Stale, stinking and dull sprouts should not be consumed.

Though we can consume any amount of  fresh sprouts , it is imperative to start with a small quantity. They should be chewed properly.

We can enhance the taste of the sprouts by adding some onion, tomato, lemon juice, coriander and mint leaves . The taste and digestibility of the sprouts will increase by doing so.

Tags: nutrient, sprouts

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Healthy tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.