Archive for July 15th, 2009

15
Jul

Soaking and sprouting seeds, nuts, and grains

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Soaking:

Raw seeds, nuts, and grains should ideally be soaked before you eat them, because there are enzyme inhibitors on the surface. These inhibitors, while protecting the seeds, nuts, and grains while they grow, also impede your ability to digest them. Soaking not only releases these inhibitors, but also significantly boosts the nutrition content of nuts, grains, and seeds. Your insides will feel better after eating them soaked compared with eating them straight from nature. A diet high in grains that have not been sprouted or soaked can lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. Breads and other products made from flour that has not been risen or soaked for at least seven hours have a similar effect. Most commercial breads, pastries, biscuits etc. are made from un-soaked flour.

To speed up the de-inhibitor process, you can add a little sea salt (avoid table salt, which is highly processed) to the soak water. Try to rinse seeds and nuts 2-3 times during their soak time. As they soak, the enzymes, lactobacilli, and other helpful organisms break down and neutralize the phytic acid (an organic acid in which phosphorous is bound that is hard to digest. Phytic acid also reacts with many essential minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc, and stops their absorption in your intestines.). Also, soaking, and also fermenting and sprouting, break down gluten and other difficult-to-digest proteins into simpler components that are more easily absorbed. After soaking, rinse your seeds and nuts thoroughly with fresh water until the water runs clear to remove the enzyme inhibitors that have been released into the water.

If you want your nuts or seeds to reclaim their former crunch, you can dehydrate them until they are completely dry. Store them in the refrigerator or freezer to keep them fresh, and ideally use within 3 days.

Sprouting:

sprouter

Sprouts are a living, enzyme-rich food, natural and low in calories. Their vitamin A content will usually double, various B group vitamins will be 5 – 10 times higher, and vitamin C will increase by a similar order. Their protein content becomes easily digestible, and rich new nutrients such as enzymes and phytochemicals are created. They contain significant amounts of bio-available calcium, iron, and zinc.

When dormant seeds sprout, their 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.

Although some nuts, seeds, grains, and beans are easier than others, sprouting is fairly easy to do. You can use everything from a simple glass jar with mesh netting to sprout trays to fully-automated sprouting machines. After the initial soaking, you can put your seeds or nuts in a large sieve, and rinse them under the tap a couple of times a day. You can also put them in a jar, with a piece of material over the top, tied on with a string or rubber band. The seeds need to be kept damp and aired, but not wet, otherwise mold may appear. Sprouts are generally ready when the root (not the shoot, which is longer) is the length of the seed.

The chart below gives a general guideline for soaking and sprouting times of the most common seeds, nuts, grains, and beans.

Soaking and sprouting chart

Seed, nut, or grain	Soak time	Sprout time
Adzuki	12 hours	3-5 days
Alfalfa	8 hours	2-5 days
Almonds*	8-12 hours	12 hours
Barley	6-8 hours	2 days
Brazil nuts	no need to soak	N/A
Buckwheat	6 hours	2 days
Cabbage	4-6 hours	4-5 days
Cashews	2-2 ½ hours	N/A
Chickpeas	12 hours	12 hours
Clover	4-6 hours	4-5 days
Corn	12 hours	2-3 days
Cow peas	12 hours	3-6 days
Fenugreek	8 hours	3-5 days
Flax	8 hours	N/A
Green peas	12 hours	2-3 days
Hemp seeds	no need to soak	N/A
Kamut	7 hours	2-3 days
Lentils	8 hours	12 hours
Macadamia nuts	no need to soak	N/A
Millet	8 hours	2-3 days
Mung beans	1 day	2-5 days
Mustard	8 hours	2-7 days
Nuts (all others)	6 hours	N/A
Oat groats	6 hours	2 days
Pecans	4-6 hours	N/A
Pine nuts	no need to soak	N/A
Pistachio nuts	no need to soak	N/A
Pumpkin seeds (hulled)	8 hours	1 day
Quinoa	2 hours	1 day
Radish	8 hours	2-4 days
Red clover	8 hours	2-5 days
Rye	8 hours	3 days
Sesame seeds	8 hours	1-2 days
Spelt	7 hours	2 days
Sunflower seeds (hulled)	2 hours	2-3 days
Triticale	12 hours	2-3 days
Walnuts	4 hours	N/A
Watercress	4-6 hours	4-5 days
Wheatberries	7 hours	2-2½ days
Wild rice	9 hours	3-5 days

*Almonds are the only nuts that can easily sprout and like many seeds, nuts, and grains, are most nutritious when sprouted. Interestingly, almonds are the only alkaline nut.