Sprouting: It makes Grain Useable!
In one of my Transformational Kitchen classes, we were discussing why we should sprout grain. One of my students said that she had known sprouting was good if you were eating it raw, but she figured that if she was going to cook or bake the grain, she needn’t bother with sprouting it, because the cooking/baking will kill all the enzymes. I have news! If you are going to cook your grain, sprouting goes from important to vital, if you want to get value and avoid the health pitfalls that come with consuming grain.
To better understand this phenomenon, let’s review what benefits are gained from the sprouting process:
1. It brings the grain into an edible state. (i.e: dry grain=hard to chew, soft grain=easy to chew) Nature’s clue that it is meant to be consumed that way.
2. The elimination of Phytic Acid (the acid that preserves the grain, but also binds up nutrients such as calcium and phosphorus so they can’t be used and makes people sick if they get too much)
3. Brings grain to a neutral pH, so it is not acidifying to the body.
4. Increases nutrients or manufactures ones that are not found in dormant grain, such as vitamins, phytoestrogens and micronutrients.
5. Begins the growth process so that live cells can fill with water, making grain a high-water-content food that can be eliminated easily. (even when dried or baked, those cells will rehydrate after eating from water you drink, making them once again high water content. Dry grain has no cells to fill!)
6. Gluten is utilized for growth, thereby eliminating most of it.
7. Enzymes are activated that "predigest" the grain.
So if we were to sprout our grain and then cook it, the only benefit that would be neutralized would be the live enzyme content. All other benefits remain intact, making the grain vastly more usable. Also, even though we have neutralized the enzymes by heat, their work to predigest the grain was already done, making it so we can use the grain and our bodies are not taxed into producing the enzymes to break it down. This is all the more reason why we should sprout our grain, especially if we intend to cook it.
In addition to this, we have many grain recipes that do not kill the grain and leave its wonderful, dense and healing nutrition and medicine in tact totally. Many people find that they feel much more stable, and much more able to deal with the challenges of life or working hard, when they have a little healthy grain in their diets.
Kal says that grain provides what no other food does, which is a strong metabolic stability. We advocate the prudent use of grain as a part of more live food diet for long-term health.
To your health!
Traci