Have Sprouts for Early Morning Breakfast

Submitted by Loring A. Windblad on December 16, 2009

Sprouts are touted as being one of the most nutritious foods on the planet and that too from a completely natural perspective. Sprouts can be purchased from your local grocery store or it can be even grown at home if you have the seeds. Which type of seeds you use is not really important though some research seems to indicate that it makes sense to avoid some types of sprouts altogether, the more accurate portrayal is that it should not be eaten in too huge quantities. There is good reason to take this advice for all sprouts. This is because of the possibility of food poisoning from some varieties of bacteria like E.Coli.

Sprouts are the germinating seeds of plants.

Sprouts can be made out of the seeds of many plants but the Mung bean is probably the most prevalent. The reason why this type of sprouts is touted to be so nutritious lies in the germination chemistry of plants. When a seed comes into contact with water, certain enzymes are stimulated to unlock the stores of protein in the seed to initiate growth.

The proteins, once unlocked are deemed to be one of the purest forms of these proteins; lysine being one of these proteins that is used by the body to create other essential proteins like collagen and elastin. Even the enzymes are supposed to be very useful to humans. Sprouts need to be digested at a certain stage and eating large quantities of beans that are not properly sprouted is a problem.

This is because of the presence of trypsin inhibitors in seeds. Trypsin is an enzyme produced by the pancreas to digest proteins. When these trypsin inhibitors are ingested, the action of the enzyme is deactivated – causing malabsorption.

By soaking beans and ensuring that you only eat sprouts, these trypsin inhibitors are then deactivated.

The other nutritional facts that are important are the presence of simple sugars, broken down proteins, and high fiber. Fiber is very important for the digestion because it carries water down to the colon and ensures that feces are not over-dehydrated. When feces are completely devoid of water content, it becomes hard as a rock and this is nearly impossible for the body to expel.

This results in the familiar problem of constipation and can only be resolved by eating foods that are high in fiber. There are some conflicting views about the nutritional quotient of sprouts but so far research shows immense positive health benefits.