Nature’s Multivitamin: The Ultimate Guide to Sprouting

by | Jan 28, 2019 | Headline News | 10 comments

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    This article was originally published at Tess Pennington’s ReadyNutrition.com

    Tess is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint: How To Survive ANY Disaster

    While many of us are awakening to the dangers (ahem chemicals) that are in our food sources, not enough awareness is being made about some of the dangers that lie in over-the-counter vitamins.

    That’s right, some of your vitamins could be doing more harm than good.

    Finding the right supplements can be a tricky endeavor. But, what if I told you it’s really not? In fact, you could easily grow your own vitamins naturally from the convenience of your kitchen window. What am I talking about? I’m talking about sprouts.

    Sprouts are Power Packed

    Sprouts are nature’s multivitamin and provide the highest amount of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and enzymes of any of food per unit of calorie. They are commonly referred to as a complete food because they are packed with high levels of complete proteins, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and extraordinary amounts of protein.

    How Do Spouts Benefit the Body?

    • Assists in healing the body
    • Cleanse the body
    • Prevents diseases
    • Enhances the general functioning of bodily organs
    • Aids in digestion
    • Removes gas from the stomach

    Some of our favorites are:

    How To Get Started

    You’re going to love this – almost anything can be made into a sprout (except for nightshade varieties like tomatoes and eggplants). The most common types of seeds to sprout include alfalfa, grains, peas, lentils, radish, broccoli, cabbage, mustard seed, garbanzos, quinoa, nuts, and red clover. Sprouts can be grown every week for continuous staggered batches. In fact, there are sprout kits available to help you expand your sprouting palate.

    1. First, you need something to let your seeds sprout in. If you have a large mason jar, that would work. We like adding a sprouting lid like this one to the top of our Mason Jar Sprouts to help with easy rinsing. If you plan on sprouting different varieties of sprouts, you may want to invest in a low-cost 4 tray sprouting kit like this one. For large seeds, like beans and legumes, consider adding them to a large wide-mouth jar. When beans begin to sprout, they will quickly take up a lot of room. For smaller seeds, using a quart-sized jar or the sprouting tray would work well.
    2. Next, you need to right kind of seeds. For optimum nutrition, I prefer to purchase sprouting seeds that are non-GMO and organic varieties.
    3. Now that you have your vessel and seeds picked out, it’s time to start sprouting. Simply add a tablespoon or two of seeds in a jar and fill it about ¾ full with cool water. Swish the seeds around and allow the water to drain from the jar or sprouting tray. Once the water has drained, cover with a mesh lid or cloth, secured with a rubber band, to allow air flow. Sprouting Tip: For larger beans like garbanzo or mung beans, allow them to soak overnight and then drain the water in the morning. Repeat the rinsing step twice a day for 3-4 days.
    4. Set sprouts in an area in the kitchen where it receives indirect sunlight. Ideally, sprouts prefer a temperature of about 65-80ºF. If the temperature is warmer with increased humidity, rinse sprouts more frequently.
    5. When sprouts are ready and have grown to the desired size, do a final rinse and drain them completely. They can be eaten immediately or transferred to a glass or plastic container and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. As a precaution, make sure the sprouts have drained completely before storing.

    Sprout Safety

    One of the biggest drawbacks to sprouting is their very short shelf life. Unlike other fresh produce, seeds and beans need warm and humid conditions to sprout and grow. These conditions are also ideal for the growth of bacteria, including Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli. Not to cause concern, but since 1996, there have been at least 30 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with different types of raw and lightly cooked sprouts. Most of these outbreaks were caused by Salmonella and E. coli and occurred at growing facilities. The bacteria are usually present in or on the seed, and the bacteria can grow to high levels during sprouting, even under sanitary conditions at home.

    To prevent this health issue, you can follow these safety steps:

    • Wash all sprouts thoroughly with filtered water before eating them.
    • If you’ve purchased sprouts at the grocery store, look for the International Sprout Growers Association seal on the package or if you are buying bulk, ask your grocer if the sprouts are ISGA-approved.
    • If the sprouts are pre-packaged, only purchase if the sell-by date is current or even a few days ahead.
    • Examine the sprouts to make sure the roots are clean. If the stem color is not white or creamy, do not purchase them. Do not purchase sprouts if the buds are no longer attached if they are dark in color or have a musty smell.
    • Smell the sprouts to be sure that they have a clean, fresh odor.
    • Keep the sprouts refrigerated.
    • After 2 days, compost them rather than consuming them yourself.
    • If you’re buying in bulk, ask your grocer about the sell-by date.
    • If you are sprouting seeds at home, follow the same guidelines described above. Learn about the source of your seeds, their ISGA-certification, and either have your grocer confirm high-quality standards for seed production or obtain contact information for the seed source and contact that company yourself.
    • Follow the above guidelines regardless of the type of seeds you are sprouting, i.e., apply the guidelines to mung, alfalfa, radish, broccoli, lentil, sunflower and all other types of sprouts.

    Since the shelf life is around 2 days before the sprouts begin to break down, take advantage of having them and add them to salads, sandwiches, soups, and even bread for added nutrition.

    It’s that easy, folks! Sprouts are what Mother Nature intended for us in terms of additional nutrition. They are low cost, easy to grow and can give you ample dietary nutrition on a daily basis.


    The Prepper's Blueprint

    Tess Pennington is the author of The Prepper’s Blueprint, a comprehensive guide that uses real-life scenarios to help you prepare for any disaster. Because a crisis rarely stops with a triggering event the aftermath can spiral, having the capacity to cripple our normal ways of life. The well-rounded, multi-layered approach outlined in the Blueprint helps you make sense of a wide array of preparedness concepts through easily digestible action items and supply lists.

    Tess is also the author of the highly rated Prepper’s Cookbook, which helps you to create a plan for stocking, organizing and maintaining a proper emergency food supply and includes over 300 recipes for nutritious, delicious, life-saving meals. 

    Visit her website at ReadyNutrition.com for an extensive compilation of free information on preparedness, homesteading, and healthy living.

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      10 Comments

      1. Test

        • If you knew basic nutrition, planted a decent garden, and knew about 25 wild edibles and what vitamins and minerals were in them, then your family could avoid most nutritional issues.

          The American government saw that the citizens often were ignorant of nutrition and so historically many had nutritional diseases. To cope, especially with pregnant moms as their babies suffered the most with these deficits, they began advising physicians to prescribe pre-natal vitamins. Additionally they ask food companies to add vitamins and minerals to their products ie “enriched food”.

      2. The worst perior is from late autumn through midspring due to low availability of cultivated produce and very low levels of wild edibles. That’s when sprouting legumes is the most helpful as that period was historically called “starving time”.

        It s vital to have multivitamins as you would know too late to help your pregnant wife and you don’t want these issues in your children.

        Scurvey, cretinism, beriberi, pelagra, bleeding disorders, anemia, neural tube defects, rickets, etc could occur.

      3. Stress ladies during disaster routinely have amenorrhea…and they dismiss it. But scared people under stress have more intimacy for comfort. So there is real possibility of pregnancy.

        During “starvation time, there is a genuine risk that a pregnant mom will intentionally give away her food rations to save her children. Then she finds out she is pregnant and could seriously harm her baby.

        Routinely taking a multivitamin under stressed survival time then is a preventative just in case.

        Imagine the horror when you see your family starving and suffering and the deleterious effects of malnutrition. You need realistic coping skills so that doesn’t happen.

        Historically it was COMMON.

        • Sterilizing yourself will avoid those issues and help save the planet. I used to sprout then lost interest, I just take vitamins now. I still have my sprouter and seeds maybe I will dig them out or not. If yer making corn whiskey you need to sprout the corn first then rub the tails off. Sprout some cash out of your wallet and get some silver.

          • Good advice.

      4. One way to look at this is, if you were in trouble, without ample food, the seed is taking up water and becomming bigger.

        When eaten whole, it is like a nut, containing protein and fat. When it is ground, it is like a flour to make bread. When sprouted, it is like a vegetable for salad.

      5. ht tps://www.puremaplefromcanada.com/benefits-of-maple-syrup/maple-syrup-nutrition/

        ht tps://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/nut-and-seed-products/3083/2

        Many Native Americans ate maple syrup and roasted acorns to get through “starving time” and were left very debiltated if their other supplies had run out due to extended winter or delayed spring planting.

        Think how critical germinating legumes would be in such cases. Having a multivitamin would sure help as a basic survival item.

        Mostly their enemies were similarly weakened and knew the food stores had been used up. That means attacks mostly happen at harvest time and when the furs could be harvested.

        • An attack in winter was either an assured victory based upon surprise by a well fed enemy…

          OR

          …a desperate stupid risky ploy by starving people…that was doomed to fail.

          Either way, the cost was so high that it could cripple either or both combatants. It would ruin them when their immune system was depressed.

      6. Way before there were “limeys” ie British privateers who had learned about the Spanish custom of drying limes and eating them to prevent scurvy on long voyages, the Chinese during the medieval period sprouted soybeans. By doing so, they were among the first to arrive on the West Coast of America, with the Vikings being the first traveling to Newfoundland and to the East Coast and possibly as far as Minnesota.

        Allegedly the Japanese used the same trick too.

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