By Debbie Koteras, Mother Nature’s Food
As we look to the New Year, many of us think about making a change. It can be a small change like adding our favorite essential oil to our laundry to a much harder change like cutting out all white sugar from our diet. Whatever the change might be for you this year, I would like to introduce you to what may be a food that you have never tried and certainly may not have thought about growing in your own home–sprouts!
Most of you have probably seen alfalfa sprouts on a salad bar along the way. Hopefully you gave them a try, but if not once you have read the following about sprouts you might make this one of those things you will try and change in the New Year.
Live foods—of which sprouting seeds, beans, and grains are but one category—are beneficial natural sources of concentrated healthful nutrition. Sprouts can help a body that is constantly exposed to toxic chemicals and is undergoing immune system decline. If we include sprouts in our diets, we give our body the nutrients and energy it needs to cleanse, detoxify, rebuild, and heal itself. Then those trillions of tiny cells that make up our body can continue to do what they do best—keep us alive, alert, and feeling healthy. 1Sprouting at home doesn’t take a “green thumb.”
It just takes paying attention to the six rules of sprouting:
▪ Rinse often. ▪ Keep them moist, not wet. ▪ Keep them at room temperature. ▪ Give them plenty of room to breathe. ▪ Don’t put too many in any one container. ▪ Keep them covered—no light.
The last thing I would consider when sprouting is to choose seeds that are packaged as high-germination spouting seeds. If you don’t, only part of them may not sprout, and if you don’t pick them out, it may leave hard spots and a bitter taste to what should be tender, tasty sprouts!
Sprouting for Health in the New Millenium, by Living Whole Foods.