If you’re interested in all the soaking grains research, start here.
In our quest for the healthiest possible grains and legumes, so far we’ve wrassled yeast into a jar and learned to feed it, coaxed things to sprout in our kitchens, and fiddled around with soaking oatmeal or flours. I hope you are convinced that sourdough preparation is proven to increase nutrients, improve digestibility and neutralize phytic acid in grains. Now for sprouting.
Why Sprout Your Food?
Of the potential issues with consumption of grains, the most widely recognized is the carb problem. Carbohydrates can be stored as fat too easily, and many would say that carbs don’t give very well-metabolized energy, even whole grain kinds.
Sprouting cuts the carbs. Sprouting also increases Vitamins C and A immensely.
When a seed begins to sprout, many systems kick into place:
- Enzyme inhibitors, there to prevent the seed from germinating (beginning to grow) while in storage, are neutralized and done away with by the soaking action.
- Once the inhibitors are gone, the new plant is able to begin consuming the stored food (in the endosperm – the starch!) and using that energy to grow a sprout.
- Some energy is used in this process, which is why it makes sense that sprouts have fewer calories than the legume or grain in its whole form.
- The growing plant also activates phytase, an enzyme that will help break the phytate bond and dissolve phytic acid. This releases phosphorus, calcium, iron, and other good minerals from their bondage inside the seed.
Sprouted and Soaked vs. “The Norm”
I would love to find some science that compares the nutrition, enzyme inhibitors and phytates in an amount of beans, and then that exact handful examined after soaking and after sprouting. It’s hard to compare one cup of dry vs. sprouted beans or even one ounce, because I know that sprouting makes beans feel lighter and increases their size simply because they’ve begun growing.
To make the following comparison list, I compared Hard Red Winter Wheat with Sprouted Wheat (both uncooked, I assume) and cooked kidney beans with sprouted cooked kidney beans at Nutrition Data. Here is what I found:
Sprouting kidney beans increases:
- Vitamin A and C (C is incredible – from 2%DV to 59%DV)
- Sodium (4x)
- Protein (by ½)
- Fats (5x)
Sprouting decreases:
- Carbs (by 2/3)
- Fiber (almost to nothing)
- Folic acid (by half)
- Niacin
- Vitamin K (to zero)
- Vitamin E (to zero)
- Vitamin B6 in half
- Choline (to zero)
- Total calories (by 2/3)
- glycemic load (by 2/3)
- inflammation factor (considerably in wheat)
The decrease in carbs makes perfect sense, since initiating the sprout effectively changes a seed full of starch into a baby plant, which begins to consume that starch. This may make sprouted beans a better option for diabetics:
When a dormant seed sprouts, its starch is converted into simple sugars, and long chain proteins are split into smaller, easily digestible molecules. Sprouted beans and seeds are like a pre-digested food, one of the most enzyme-rich and nutritious foods known . (source)
In wheat, unlike kidney beans, the protein and fats both decreased by 2/3.
Perhaps although the total amounts of minerals and vitamins seem to be decreased, they are more bioavailable to us post-sprouting?
Here’s what the real researchers found:
One study out of the University of Minnesota found that the nutrient density of sprouted wheat was in some instances hundreds of times higher than in whole wheat, specifically in vitamin C, folic acid, niacin and riboflavin (vitamin B2). (source) These studies have also demonstrated a significant increase in various enzymes, including amylase, protease and lipase. (source)
Handy! Sailors who knew better wouldn’t worry about eating their citrus and saving the rest for later. They could just sprout grains to get their Vitamin C.
UPDATE: I just read this: “Soy and kidney bean sprouts are toxic and should be avoided. Sprouted lentils, black eyed beans, partridge peas, peanuts and vetch retain phytates which cause poor digestion and gas,” here, and although the author doesn’t source his post, he’s right about many of his facts. Besides that, these sprouted lentils DID give me awful gas! (Bet you wanted to know that, right?)
UPDATE: Readers chime in with helpful info! Check the comments, but here’s a highlight: “Kidney bean sprouts may not be eaten raw, due to a high level of phytohemagglutinin. Boiling for 10 minutes destroys this protein structure and makes them safe. (Meaning, probably not the best bean to cook on low in your crockpot.)”
Here is an excellent sprouting guide, with what temp water to use, how long to soak and how long to sprout. It’s what I needed when I was just fumbling around making things up as I went!
What is Germinated Brown Rice (GBR)?
In my eyes, GBR is the link between the proven benefits of sprouting and the practice of soaking grains that I’m exploring.
To germinate rice, you simply soak in warm water overnight, drain and continue to kep moist for a time. Sounds just like sprouting for me!
ABC Science says that “Germinated rice contains much more fiber than conventional brown rice, say the researchers, three times the amount of the essential amino acid lysine, and ten times the amount of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), another amino acid known to improve kidney function.” It also may fight Alzheimer’s and pumps up the zinc in the wheat.
Because of the relatively low phytase content in brown rice and the necessity of phytase to neutralize the phytic acid, you need to make sure you’re finding some phytase somewhere. With my morning oats, I just add a scoop of whole wheat flour. Here is a new way to soak rice. It calls for saving just a bit of the soak water for the next batch of rice, whenever that may be!
Are There any Drawbacks to Sprouting?
You can see that you’ll get less fiber when you sprout. Anything else, astute readers?
Come on back next week for the Great Debate between Sally Fallon Morell and a Dr. Teri O’Brien.
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I don’t think fiber is bad in normal quantities, but it’s also something we shouldn’t go out of our way eat more of:
http://fibermenace.com/
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/fiber/a-cautionary-tale-of-mucus-fore-and-aft/
If you’re keeping grains and/or legumes in your diet, minimizing their harmful qualities is absolutely the way to go.
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Katie Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
DJ,
I have been poking through fiber menace for the research for this series. I never know what to accept and ignore, but this site is a bit on the extreme side…but seriously fascinating nonetheless! Thanks for the info – Katie
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I sprout all my rice and beans. It’s so easy to do and does really help with the digestibility.
.-= Laryssa @ Heaven In The Home´s last blog ..Planning The Garden =-.
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Kidney bean sprouts may not be eaten raw, due to a high level of phytohemagglutinin. Boiling for 10 minutes destroys this protein structure and makes them safe. (Meaning, probably not the best bean to cook on low in your crockpot.)
This substance is classified as a lectin glycoprotein, and in sufficiently high amounts it has been shown to disrupt cellular metabolism. The amount of this toxin in beans is usually measured in terms of hemagglutinating units, or hau. In their raw form, red kidney beans can contain 20,000 to 70,000 hau. This number drops down to 200 to 400 hau with fully cooked red beans. White kidney beans start off with about 1/3rd less hemagglutinin than red ones.
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=87
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Katie Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Thank you, Erin! Excellent resource! I’ll edit the post the make sure I don’t scare people.
Katie
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great information in this post! Knowing that sprouting reduces carbs is great motivation to take the time to do it!
.-= chanelle´s last blog ..Handcrafted jewelry giveaway! =-.
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Thanks for doing all this research, Katie. I have a feeling I am going to be linking to these posts a lot when we start tackling the subject of digestion over at the Cellulite Investigation. Since anything that is not digested properly can end up in the lymph, things like gluten intolerance and other digestive disorders could play a role in the development of cellulite. Just a theory –further investigation required….
.-= Melissa @Cellulite Investigation´s last blog .."Dear Cellulite, …" =-.
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Soy & kidney bean sprouts are toxic because soy & kidney beans are toxic when eaten uncooked or undercooked. Sprouting doesn’t change that. Just cook your sprouted beans. Both toxins are destroyed by heat.
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Sarah W Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 5:56 pm
I was just coming to say the same thing! They are not toxic if COOKED. But definitely don’t eat them raw!
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I plan to sprout all my grains once we’re done with this diet. The primary stuff my daughter reacts to is all grains, nuts, seeds, legumes. Dairy — sort of (we’re about try raw, cultured dairy again, though, after being dairy-free for 7 months. She reacted worst to pasteurized, processed dairy anyway). My son will never have any grain that isn’t sprouted. I think we eat way too many carbs and sprouting will help that.
Plus, the nutrients that are reduced are ones we typically shouldn’t be getting from grain anyway. Choline should be from eggs, for example. And I also believe we don’t need nearly as much fiber as people think we do. I think it’s hard on the system. I look at what the make up of breastmilk is and try to go from there. Clearly we can’t all subsist on breastmilk, but what is it? Lots of water, some lactose, low casein, little fiber or “roughage” of any kind, very high fat. Hmm…so why don’t we ALL follow that sort of diet? And why would anyone take a baby from breastmilk to rice cereal, something that’s really hard to digest? We need the amylase, and sprouting increases that.
I am wary of wheat, though. I think it’s been through too much hybridization and such. I plan to buy organic spelt berries from my farmer (he’s FABULOUS, he does my grass-fed beef, my CSA, maple syrup, fruit, and grains too!) and sprout them, when it’s time. I think spelt is less likely to be “fooled around with” these days.
.-= Kate´s last blog ..Thoughts on Children =-.
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My husband and I just started spouting alfafa, we decided to go with something easy since this is our first time doing it.
.-= Condo Blues´s last blog ..Decorative Terra Cotta Rain Barrels =-.
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I was just coming here to read about the sprouted lentil soup…now your gas comment has me a little scared (mainly since I am considering feeding this to my hubby! Ha!) Should I scratch that one off my list?
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Just sprouted my first batch of beans last week, thanks to you! I was so excited to see those little sprouts. I used black beans and made them into “mexican beans” and put half in the freezer for later. Do you know if they could be frozen before being cooked just as well?
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Katie Reply:
March 21st, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Kim,
Katie
I’m not sure about that one. If I was going to choose for myself, I wouldn’t do it. Not many veggies freeze well uncooked.
Good job on the sprouting!
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laura grace Reply:
July 28th, 2011 at 11:09 am
Just jumping in here to add: if you’re going to cook them, freezing is fine. I sprout and freeze big batches of beans at a time to use in soups and other recipes later. Sprouting cuts way down on cooking time, which reduces my reliance on canned beans!
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Fascinating! I linked on my weekly roundup – post is under my name. So much to learn and so little time! :>)
.-= Lenetta @ Nettacow´s last blog ..Enormous Toddler Bib/Napkin =-.
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Great information. I’ve been craving sprouts this week and eating tons of sprouted chick peas and mung beans (Mm! My favorite!) So this is certainly very timely.
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Poems About The Joys of Breastfeeding =-.
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Buckwheat, Hummus Dressing & Creamy Mush - The Raw Project // Mar 7, 2011 at 11:29 pm
[...] concentrated amounts of phytochemicals that may help protect us from disease, sprouting can increase the nutrients up to double, it can also decrease carbs and increases protein, and sprouts are alkalising. Wow, after that [...]
Thanks for your article. The content is great, but the presentation leaves my mind a bit boggled. The screen is so very full of links to click on.
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My Favorite Things « live green eat clean // Nov 12, 2012 at 1:47 pm
[...] Want to know more about why if you are going to eat grains they should be soaked? Click here [...]
Hi Katie- first off, LOVE your site… so glad I found it! Second, Sprouted Grains… HELP!! (background- I’ve been using the eat-for-your-blood-type-diet off&on for years with success, but am super confused about- sprouted wheat bread is listed on my “avoid” list while ezekiel bread is listed on my “beneficial” list) So my question is- WHAT is the difference between sprouted wheat bread and Ezekiel Bread?????
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Katie Kimball @ Kitchen Stewardship Reply:
March 28th, 2013 at 11:59 am
C,
Katie
Hmmm, I’m not familiar with that diet, so I’m not sure how to answer – I though Ezekiel bread was sprouted grains. ?? Maybe it’s the “wheat” element? Or does Ez. use whole grains, not flour, and that’s the difference? A few questions to ask. Good luck!
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