How important are sprouts?

[Queen Bean]

I wanted to spend a day eating a very cleansing diet a couple of days ago. This is what I ate...

7am - Orange juice
1pm - Apple, orange juice
4pm - Green smoothie
7pm - Salad - green leaves, mushroom, carrot, cucumber, mung bean sprouts, chopped chives & lemon juice

For the next two days I had the most terribly uncomfortably and bloated stomach. (The sprouts were fresh.)

Do you think it was from the sprouts? Or the lemon juice (ie mixing fruit with vegetables/greens)?

I wanted to have no-fat day and a very cleansing diet to give my digestive system a break from heavier raw food and cooked food when I have it.

What do you think about sprouts? I hear they're very high in nutrition, but how easy are they to digest? I'm not talking about the vegetable sprouts that are all green, but the pulses and legumes with the very short tail. Are they like their cooked counterparts and very hard to digest? I thought they were something I need to incorporate every day for the nutrition, but maybe they're not an optimal food.

Also, I want to spend one day a week - not fasting - but on a very pure raw diet, as a kind of cleanse - to improve digestion and absorption. Seeing that the above diet didn't have the effect I wanted, I am wondering if I should remove the sprouts. Then I'm wondering if I should remove the vegetables (how hard are vegetables to digest)? I'm even wondering if I should remove the greens, and have an all sweet fruit day once a week. I look like I'm 6 months pregnant, but the rest of my body is quite slim. I don't want to do colonics. Please don't mention 'listening to my body' as that doesn't seem to work for me - maybe because I still eat cooked and can't tune in properly. I need a very pure day of eating once a week as a cleanse. Do you think eating just raw sweet fruit is too unbalanced (without greens) - or will the cleansing factor improve the absorption of nutrients I obtain during the rest of the week. Oh, and please don't mention green smoothies, as I'm looking for a cleanse that will work even when I'm travelling and have no equipment except for a plate and a knife.

Thanks for any insights you may have...

[DebB]

I don't know a lot about the sprouted legumes - I've sprouted them just a few times.

But I'm on a sprouted seed journey. I'm currently gearing up and going to experiment with getting in 1 quart of sprouts a day (the sprout seeds I'm using, 2 tablespoons dry seed = 1 qt. sprouts).

I'll try juicing 1/2 and then eating the other half in a salad.

I'll see how the seeds go and then I plan on trying it with lentils and mung beans too. *Ü*

[Queen Bean]

Well, I did a bit of research. In David Wolfe's 'The Sunfood Diet Success System' he talks about green sprouts versus seed/legume sprouts. He says the seed/legume sprouts can be quite hard to digest.

So today I ate this...

7am - Orange juice

1pm - Mango, peach, cherry, grape, banana, orange smoothie (how divine...you must try this combination one day [if you haven't already])

4pm - Cherries & grapes

7pm - Salad...romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot, onion sprouts, basil & lime juice

And my digestion is great!!!

So I'd say it was those heavy sprouts causing the problems. I will use the green sprouts (or what I call vegetable sprouts...as they're not always green) on my salads. I will reserve the heavier sprouts for the odd occasion... I do feel that sprouts are an important food, but won't eat the heavier ones on a daily basis...

[DeniseM]

Sprouts contain a lot of substances and enzyme inhibitors that make them hard to digest. When they're growing outside in nature, they obviously don't want to get eaten -- their life as a plant has just begun! So sprouts come equipped with a chemical defense system to deter predators and avoid becoming dinner for some hungry animal. Part of that defense system is what gives some people digestive distress from consuming them. (Nuts and seeds have a similar design -- they're hard to digest because their role is to pass through an animal's intestines undigested, then come out the other end and get planted in the soil.)

They are high in nutrients, but so are all raw, whole plant foods. There's nothing in sprouts you can't get elsewhere, so they aren't a necessary component of a raw food diet at all... no need to eat them if they give you trouble.

[Queen Bean]

DeniseM do you eat them?

I do feel kind of guilty when I eat them - they are babies unfurling and expectant of new life. I wonder about these toxins that have been released. Or is the fact that I'm eating a literally living food that x-factor that raw vegans need to thrive long term... Who knows...

[Aleesha Sattva]

i find that some sprouts do really upset my tummy...

[DeniseM]

DeniseM do you eat them?

I do feel kind of guilty when I eat them - they are babies unfurling and expectant of new life. I wonder about these toxins that have been released. Or is the fact that I'm eating a literally living food that x-factor that raw vegans need to thrive long term... Who knows...

At this point, I only eat sprouts a couple of times per year... they don't appeal to me much.

There are definitely long-term raw vegans out there who don't regularly eat sprouts. I'd trust your body on this one -- don't force yourself to eat anything that doesn't agree with your digestion. :)