Concerns about raw sprouts

This Week In The HSI Forum

“Raw sprouts healthy or toxic?”

That’s the title of an HSI Forum thread that might calm some fears about toxins hiding in sprouts. A member named Judyloo starts things off:

“I would appreciate some comment on sprouts as health foods. I have always enjoyed alfalfa sprouts and have not heard anything bad about them, until I read an article which states that young sprouts produce toxins to protect them against predators. The alfalfa has a high content of saponins which are chemicals that can damage the red blood cells. The article recommended if you want to include sprouts in your diet stick to non-legumes, buckwheat, sunflower. Perhaps small amounts are ok? Any comments.”

Judyloo came to the right place to ask her questions, because a member named Owen saw her post and responded with a wealth of sprouting information.

Owen: “Judyloo Most of what you read in that article is flat-out wrong. Raw sprouts are good for you, including the much-maligned alfalfa sprouts. I’ve been eating a variety of raw sprouts every day for the last 15 years, and I’m in perfect health. All the negativity about alfalfa sprouts was based on one very flawed study done years ago. If you sprout your seeds for six or seven days (four for lentils) until they become tiny green plants, you will NEVER have a bad reaction from them. The only exception to this is mixed bean sprouts; a blend of six or seven different beans. I simmer the bean sprouts for 10 minutes in a pan with raw onions. That makes the bean sprouts more digestible, and the onions more edible.”

Owen says he’s currently growing sprouts from the seeds of sunflowers, radishes, buckwheat lettuce, alfalfa, Chinese cabbage, and broccoli. And when members Franny and Jerry ask for more information on what Owen calls his “simple, inexpensive way to grow perfect sprouts,” he accommodates them with a very informative and detailed posting.

In amongst Owen’s instructions, this comment jumped out at me: “If you’re only going to grow ONE sprout, make it broccoli. They have a unique ability to destroy cancer cells. And they taste good. I’ve been eating them for 15 years.”

That’s probably very good advice. In the e-Alert “Like Bush the Elder” (6/24/02), I told you about research from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that showed how a substance called sulforaphane may be more effective than antibiotics in killing the H. pylori bacteria that causes peptic ulcers and other health problems. (For more on H. pylori, see this week’s e-Alert “C Trumps H” below.) The research also showed that sulforaphane may inhibit the development of cancer as well. Sulforaphane is naturally created by the body when a compound in broccoli called glucoraphanin is ingested.

In the early ’90s, when the Hopkins researchers first uncovered the process by which glucoraphanin creates sulforaphane, they also discovered that glucoraphanin is more than 20 times more concentrated in three-day-old broccoli sprouts than it is in broccoli. They estimated that it would take a full pound and a quarter of cooked broccoli to equal the glucoraphanin contained in a single ounce of broccoli sprouts.

I highly recommend this thread to anyone who might like to get started on some home sprouting. And in addition to sprouts, Owen also has helpful information on growing wheatgrass and barleygrass.

Other topics on the HSI Forum this week include:

• Flax seed
• Spider veins
• Shingles pain
• Calcium
• Poison ivy
• Juicing
  

You can easily reach the Forum on our web site at www.hsionline.com. Just click on “Forum,” and join in with any of the dozens of discussions about nutrition and natural health care.