Sprouting seeds, grains and legumes boosts their nutrition and rids them of enzyme inhibitors that may make nutrients harder to absorb. Some of the most popular seeds to sprout include broccoli, alfalfa, flax, lentil, sunflower, sesame, radish, garbanzo, almond, pumpkin and mung bean--however, all seeds can be sprouted.
Proteolytic Enzymes
When you sprout a food, you increase its content of proteolytic enzymes, say William S. Peavy and Warren Peary in their book, "Super Nutrition Gardening." This enzyme digests carbohydrates as well as proteins. Your body produces this enzyme, which is found in high concentrations in raw and sprouted foods. When no digestive enzymes are contained in the foods you eat, your body is forced to make more of them itself. This diverts it from making other enzymes needed in your cells, say Peavy and Peary, and this forced overproduction of digestive enzymes can be responsible for the body's diminished capacity to make the other enzymes over time. When such enzyme activity is reduced in your cells, the aging process accelerates due to free radical damage and you become more susceptible to disease, the authors say.
Amylolytic Enzymes
Sprouting raises amylolytic enzymes, advise Peavy and Peary, which are produced by your body, and assist in the digestion of proteins and carbs. As you age, your body's ability to produce its own digestive enzymes lessens, which in turn makes it harder to use the minerals, vitamins and other nutrients contained in food. Enzymes from sprouted foods can take the place of those your body produces.
Glucoraphanin
Crucifers including cauliflower, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts are rich in phase 2 enzyme inducers that may have a role in protecting your body against chemical carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents, say Johns Hopkins University researchers Jed W. Fahey, Yuesheng Zhang and Paul Talalay. While mature plants can provide this benefit, three-day-old sprouts have 10 to 100 times higher levels of the principal enzyme inducer, glucoraphanin, than the older plants, note the researchers in a study published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America." Sprouting boosts content of the antioxidant vitamin C as well, note Joseph Mercola and Nancy Lee Bentley in "Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program." When you sprout a seed you also boost its chlorophyll content. In fact, sprouted seeds contain the highest concentration of chlorophyll the plant will ever have, says Amy Rost in the book, "Natural Healing Wisdom and Know How." Chlorophyll helps create an inhospitable environment for harmful bacteria in your body, helps boost oxygen levels in the body, strengthens your immune system and helps detoxify your body, notes Rost.
References
- "Super Nutrition Gardening"; William S. Peavy and Warren Peary; 1992
- "Natural Healing Wisdom and Know How"; Amy Rost; 2009
- "Dr. Mercola's Total Health Program"; Joseph Mercola and Nancy Lee Bentley; 2003
- "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America"; Broccoli sprouts: An exceptionally rich source of inducers of enzymes that protect against chemical carcinogens; Jed W. Fahey, Yuesheng Zhang and Paul Talalay; 1997
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