Sprouting: Tips to Prepare Nutritious and Healthy Sprouts

Sprouting is the process of soaking, draining and then rinsing seeds at regular intervals until they germinate, or sprout. Sprouting is the best way to obtain some of the best nutrition God gives. Sprouts are as great for pre-menopausal symptoms as raw foods in general, as they are loaded with plenty of vitamins and antioxidants, According to nutritionists world wide, if there ever was a list of perfect foods available, then sprouts would top the list. Here are some more reasons you should be munching more sprouted beans and seeds:

High Nutrition:

Seeds are rich in nutrients, sprouted are even better. Do you know that the nutrition value of sprouts is many times higher than the nutrition value of the original beans and seeds from which they sprout? More surprisingly, whole dried peas have absolutely no Vitamin C, but once they are sprouted they provide more Vitamin C per ounce than a fresh orange. Different forms of sprouts are extremely beneficial to cure and prevent various ailments, and are very effective than most forms of cooked food.

Anti-Carcinogenic Elements:

Sprouts have extremely more anti-carcinogenic properties than most other foods and are known to have one of the most potent cancer-fighting properties known to the world of medicine.

Fresh and Easy:

Sprouts grown at home and harvested at the dinner table are the freshest food you can ever get to eat. They will not have lost vitamins like vegetables bought in the shop or have traveled round the world. They are organically grown, full of life and energy.

Sprouts preparation is very easy. You just need water and oxygen. They don't require any special preparation like cutting, chopping, peeling or cleaning. More over, if you like, they can be lightly cooked for few minutes before serving them to make a delicious and healthy dish within no time.

Cost Efficient

Though food from health food stores are logically more costlier than food from regular food stores considering that health foods are in a more natural form, this is an exception to this rule. A sprouts salad, which can form a side dish at any meal or can even the main course if mixed with a good dressing and served with good accompaniments, can cost you just the half the price of a lettuce salad and provides more than five times the amount of Vitamin C, B-complex vitamins and protein than lettuce salad. So when you are on a tight budget, eating sprouts is a great way to boost immunity and your health in to your body, and to help you fight most ailments. So it is time to include sprouts in your diet, a small change for huge gains.

What to sprout?

Sprouts can be divided into those grown as small green plants, mainly eaten raw although some have to be juiced like wheat grass and those grown briefly just to improve the nutritional qualities of the seed, mainly grains and beans like alfalfa seeds, green mung bean seeds, sunflower seeds, wheat, oats, peas, barley. If you wish to have some more variety of seeds then you can check out your local health food store. In fact you can choose those which sprout rapidly.

Though they may not be as tempting to look eat as many other foods, but they are definitely very tasty and mixing different types of sprouts or some fruits can even taste better and create a pleasant flavor.

How to sprout?

Sprouting can be done in jars, trays, muslin or a cotton cloth bag can be used according to your convenience.

1. Good quality of seeds with out stones, sticks, etc have to be selected and weed seed, broken seeds, etc have to be removed and should be free of any chemicals as it slows down the germination rate.
2. The seeds should be thoroughly washed and then soaked in water over night or for 10 -12 hours depending up on the size and type of the seed you choose.
3. The seeds should be rinsed and the water for many times by running water and then water should be drained off
4. The soaked grains should be tied or covered in a wet muslin cloth or a cotton cloth and must be kept in a warm place, the cloth should be maintained moist till the shoots appear. They will expand about eight times their original size piercing out from the cloth. You can see the sprouts coming out of the cloth after 1-2 days. It may take more time
5. If you are using a jar, use a wide mouth jar and fill the seeds to one fourth of the jar and not more than that. It should be taken care that the mouth of the jar is not completely covered so that air can peep in.
6. Sprouts at their best level of nutrition have tiny green leaves at the tips.
7. They should be placed in a refrigerator to retain their freshness and nutritional value. This is especially when they are not consumed immediately.

Sprouts are not only a rich source of all the essential vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates but also a holy grail to a healthy life.