Sprouts have toxins says Dr. Vetrano

[maydaye]

Hi everyone,

I love to eat and grow my sunflower, buckwheat and pea greens. I grow them in an inch of soil indoors and I can get a lot of produce that way. However, I just came across a disturbing interview with Dr. Vivian Vetrano in Paul Nison's book Raw Knowledge and here is the excerpt. I need everyone's opinion about this one because I certainly do not want to stop eating my green sprouts.

Excerpt:
I wonder if you can shed some light on this part of Paul Nison's book: Raw knowledge. In it he interviews various raw food experts. Dr. Vetrano had this to say, here is the excerpt:

nals. Most sprouts do not taste good,and I could not sit down
and make an entire meal of them if I tried,even if I added a
dressing or dates to mask the flavor. In contrast,I can easily
make an entire meal of one type of fruit and feel like I had ban-
queted on the most delicious epicurean meal in the world.
The toxic matter in sprouts varies and differs at different
stages of growth. When plants feel endangered,the toxins are
increased to prevent insects and animals from eating them be-
fore they have had a chance to reproduce. For instance,if you
pick off only one or two leaves of lettuce,rather than taking
the entire plant,the next time you return for more leaves,they
will all be too bitter to eat. Plucking the leaves alerts the plant
- it feels threatened and endangered. It secretes poison into
each leaf to protect itself. There is a tree in Africa which gi-
raffes frequently feed upon,and it only tolerates the giraffe
eating it for about thirty minutes. If the giraffe does not quit
eating on that tree before thirty minutes,one more bite is
toxic enough to make it very sick or even kill it.
I have always contended that sprouts are toxic,and if you
want them,no more than a small amount or garnish should be
eaten. Many people have been sickened by eating or drinking
juices made from sprouts. If you continue drinking juices
containing an abundance of sprouts for long,you are in dan-
ger of developing arthritis or any other serious condition to
which you have an inborn tendency.
The toxins in sprouts,as I said before,create an emer-
gency in the body. It senses the unfitness of the poisonous
substances all over the system. The entire system has to go to
work to get rid of them. It’s like having to put out a fire.
These toxins cause urgent physiological activity that waste
our nerve energy and damage cells. The individual who eats
the sprouts becomes hyper and has a false sense of being en-
ergetic and really healthy,but this is the same as getting a caf-
feine kick or the kick of salt or getting “high”from any other

stimulant. The differences between one stimulant and an-
other vary according to how much you eat or drink and how
toxic the substance is. Therefore,sprouting is not the answer
when it comes to grains and legumes.
Dr. Vivian Virginia Vetrano

[RawSar]

Interesting...
I know that this has been mentioned before here.
We use to juice a lot of different sprouts but don't anymore because of this.
Now only sprinkle of little bit onto our salads for dinner.

Thanks for sharing

[Moretta]

Very interesting.

Thanks for sharing this information.

[spicyfull]

So he just expressed his opinion and everyone has one. If you listened to what everyone said, I'm sure you would not be RAW because plenty of Drs. say that's toxic. I would Always listen to My Body and FLY. The life you had before RAW was Deadly toxic. So you be the Judge and keep RAWkin.

[HolyGuacamole]

Well, yeah, here's what I read:
"I don't like sprouts and so I have invented this justification for not eating them - with zero basis in fact."

Meanwhile, I would not choose to eat a bunch of bananas but I eat a HUGE sprout salad every day of my life and I feel GREAT.
I'm not going to write a bunch of hooey explaining why bananas are bad, they must contain a toxin because I don't like them, and sprouts are what everyone else should like and eat, though.

By the way, I pick one or two leaves from my (live, growing) greens all the time and this idea that it somehow makes them bitter is absurd.

You know, if it resonates for you, then great.
Let's just say it doesn't resonate for me.

[JCB44]

Bravo HolyGuac well said

[Bookish Lass]

Don't all greens have some toxins in them? That's why people say you should switch your greens around. Wouldn't sprouts just need to be switched too?

Here's one article about the toxins in sprouts:
http://www.sproutpeople.com/Political/vegejournal.html

[somelikeitraw]

Well, yeah, here's what I read:
"I don't like sprouts and so I have invented this justification for not eating them - with zero basis in fact."

Meanwhile, I would not choose to eat a bunch of bananas but I eat a HUGE sprout salad every day of my life and I feel GREAT.
I'm not going to write a bunch of hooey explaining why bananas are bad, they must contain a toxin because I don't like them, and sprouts are what everyone else should like and eat, though.

By the way, I pick one or two leaves from my (live, growing) greens all the time and this idea that it somehow makes them bitter is absurd.

You know, if it resonates for you, then great.
Let's just say it doesn't resonate for me.

Well stated HolyGuacamole! (BTW Love your signature line :D)
It doesn't resonate with me either.

[The French One]

I DO NOT SEE ANY SCIENTIFIC FACTS in this Dr. Vetrano's opinion. Give me a worthy study result and maybe I'll start to worry about sprouts. Since then, I'll consider this as scientific as people saying that you need to drink milk to get calcium...

[tanishamarshall]

I have heard about them being toxic as well. I would just eat small amounts and switch up my veggies as we should anyway.

[T-Bird]

By the way, I pick one or two leaves from my (live, growing) greens all the time and this idea that it somehow makes them bitter is absurd.

Thank goodness! I'm about to start growing greens and I was crushed to think I hard to harvest the whole thing all the time.

I agree - I found the post without substance, however I would like to make one point to the group here......

There is so much of this type of pseudo-scientific reasoning in alt medicine etc. It doesn't mean that what is said is false, just that their is no evidence to suggest that it is actually true.

For example:


These toxins cause urgent physiological activity that waste our nerve energy and damage cells.

what exactly is "urgent physiological activity", and how are cells damaged? To actually explore this idea, someone would need to actually run some experiments, on multiple persons. What if one person experienced "damaged cells" because of some underlying unknown syndrome?

When the rigorous scientific community gets and open mind, and the alternative crowd develops some scientific integrity, we can finally get some real knowledge.

[T-Bird]

Hey ya'll!

I just googled up this doctor, and found litigation that she was never a licenced doctor - had a retreat, in which some participant actually starved to death!. Judgement against them for 1M in a wrongful death case.

For those interested:

http://www.casewatch.org/civil/vetrano/amended_complaint.pdf

Unbelievable!

[T-Bird]

In reading the case further, the poor person who died became unconscious, had renal failure and heart attack.

And the above doctor supposedly claimed to be a chiropractor - but something in the case seems like she didn't even have chiropractic credentials....


In short - I'm not paying attention to anything that this charlatan has to say, lol!

[Colorawdo girl]

Eat sprouts almost every day. Not dead yet. Quite the opposite. wooohooooooo eee n hoooray

ooops forgot....go to Sproutman Steve site and look at his stuff there and his skin,,nuff said.

[Veronica01]

Sprouts have SMALL amounts of toxins in them to prevent animals from wanting to eat only sprouts instead of all the other greenery. It's a defense mechanism. There are some toxins in greens too naturally for the same reason. Small amounts of sprouts and eating a wide variety of greens is ideal and natural. I've never seen an animal chow down on a whole plant and devour the whole thing and everything around it. They eat as they go and eat a wide variety of green leaves and grasses and probably sprouts.

Of course if you were going to live just on sprouts i think that's where a problem would arise, but a small handful of sprouts every day or every few days should be fine. I only eat small amounts cuz i don't particularly like them more than other greens.

[maydaye]

I appreciate everyone's time and comments about that Dr. Vetrano article that I found. I guess I will rotate my greens more instead of concentrating on sprouts mainly.

I bought Michael Bergonzi's DVD on How to Grow Wheatgrass a few months ago. He explains how to grow sunflower and buckwheat greens as well. It was so good and inspiring, and so easy to grow. From 1 flat 17x17 I harvest 6pounds of sunflower sprouts and 2 1/2 pounds of pea sprouts. So you can see that it's very cost effective for such organic and high quality food. But after reading everyone's posts, I guess I should rotate more. I do use kale, lettuce, celery, carrots, spinach, beets a lot in my juicing. But I was eating predominantly big sprout salads with some tomato. So now I will add other greens in also.

[jndejure]

What is this stuff about Vivian Vetrano and her unfortunate lawsuit after helping literally thousands of people regain their health naturally? She like any one else can be a chiroprator, plumber, mechanic or whatever without a license from the all knowing state. What if one of those who ridiculed Miss Vetrano was sued because they gave someone health information, which the recipient may or may not have followed? Her argument against eating large quantities of sprouts seemed well reasoned and articulately spoken. Remember, that this woman has a long lifetime of knowledge about living raw that few if any here can match, so listen and learn from those who have been there and done that long before most were even a glimmer in their parents eye.

[MyRedPanda]

The thing I would be concerned with is the bacteria on the outside of the sprouts - a quick rinse in water diluted with 1 tbsp vinegar spritzed on the sprouts and then rinsed clean is my routine to ensure that no nasties are on my sprouts prior to consuming. But as far as "toxins" I am not buying it.

[Sam (UK)]

MyRedPanda - are you serious!?!? lol that has to be the most ridiculous things i have heard for ages! Do you know what vinegar is? Do you know that the bacteria on edible plants is usually beneficial? And why don't you think there are toxins in sprouts? LOL sorry if you meant it all as a joke but it seemed like you where genuine in your statements :S Scary stuff.
jndejure - I whole heartedly agree with your comments.

There is a reason why nearly all sprouts are spicy and bitter when eaten in large quantities. Try growing lettuce and spinach guys!

[Living Food]

Complete BS. Learn the science of sprouting and you'll know that sprouting nuts and seeds dramatically reduces toxins and nutrient inhibitors.

If sprouts had dangerous quantities of toxins, I'd be dead already. Fear-mongering only works because people are too lazy to actually learn things for themselves instead of taking someone's word for it.