Get Your Grains Back with Sprouting

Education, Lifestyle · March 20, 2017

Sprouting Grains is something that has been happening for thousands of years as a way to help cultures consume grains and digest them better. That is, right up to the past few decades. It seems like now sprouted grains are a mystery to most, even though it was common practice a century ago.

And with the rising amount of people who find grains and even some legumes hard to digest, it wouldn’t be surprising that the drop in the ability to digest these foods went up as the amount as the amount of sprouting we did to them went down.

How Long Have We Been Consuming Grains?

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the debate on how long people have been eating grains, and if you are following the Paleo trend, you most likely side with the idea that eating grains are a more recent development in human history. However, some research suggests that humans have been eating grains for the past 105,000 years. A study published in 2009, in the journal Science, showed that evidence had been found in an ancient African cave of people baking bread. Different communities debate whether or not ancient people would have had the tools to process and consume grains, but the evidence seems pretty convincing. In this Mozambique cave, researchers found ancient stone tools dating back to 105,000 years along with seeds from sorghum grass [1].

What is “Sprouting” a Grain?

Sprouting a grain is the act of letting it soak in water to get it to germinate. This causes the grain to go through some biological changes before you eat it.

What are the Health Benefits of Sprouting?

The first change that happens when grain is sprouted is the increase of healthy nutrients that it has. The second change is the decrease in the number of anti-nutrients inside of the grain. Both of these changes contribute to why sprouting the grain helps make it healthier.

The two changes in the grains after sprouting boost the health benefits of the plant. You can sprout things like rice, lentils, beans, oats, flour and many other grains. So let’s break it down into two parts.

The Nutritional Boost

Protein Increase:

The first change the grain goes through is the increase in nutrients when it germinates. In studies sprouting a grain or lentil lead to a slight change in the quality of the protein in the seed when legumes and grains are combined. Because some diets that are low in meat consumption, or do not even consume meat, the slight increase can be helpful [2].

Amino Acid Increases:

The sprouting also slightly increases the amino acid lysine but can also significantly increase a load of other nutrients. Lysine can help the body use the protein available in the plant more efficiently. These other nutrients include folate, fiber, Vitamin E and C, and Beta-Carotene [3, 4].

Increased Fiber:

In certain seeds, the fiber content of the plant can increase after it’s sprouted. It’s also made more available to the body so that it can be utilized. Fiber is good for the body in several ways [5].

Fiber is beneficial for your body because it feeds the good bacteria found in your gut [6]. This high fiber content has a variety of health benefits on its own, such as blood sugar control, managing a healthy weight, improving the immune system and having a positive effect on brain function [7, 8, 9, 10, 11].

Fiber is also used by the body to reduce blood sugar spikes and lower cholesterol [12, 13].

Overall Increased Digestion:

Sprouted cereal grains have shown an improved digestibility of storage proteins and starches, and with an increase of gluten sensitivities on the rise, it is helpful to know that sprouting wheat degrades the gluten protein [14, 15].

The Decrease in Anti-Nutrients

The second change a grain goes through is the decrease in the anti-nutrients but to the change in phytates. The phytates in grains are naturally decreased when they are sprouted. Now I want to be clear that it helps to decrease the amount and does not eradicate them [16].

In fact, foods like brown rice should be sprouted. White rice has less phytates because they are found in the bran of the rice while is removed in the process of processing white rice [17]. White rice has fewer anti-nutrients and therefore allows the body to absorb more of its nutrients during digestion.

I would suggest if you do not have an insulin resistance problem, then eating white rice would be ideal, followed by sprouted brown rice.

The enzyme inhibitors in the seeds prevent the seeds from spontaneously germinating but can make the nutrients harder to access. Grains and legumes that get sprouted do show a significant drop in enzyme inhibitors after sprouting which allows your body to digest it better [18]. The next thing that helps with digestion is cooking the sprouted seed further and helping break it down more [19].

Decrease in Allergens:

A study published in Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry showed that using sprouted brown rice showed a reduction in the allergen proteins in comparison to a pre-germination stage. This act of sprouting the rice degraded the allergen proteins contained within [20].

What Shouldn’t You Sprout?

There are a few types of plants that you should never try to sprout. Kidney beans are toxic when sprouted and if sprouted, they that should never be eaten. Other beans that you should not sprout as they can be toxic and cause stomach issues are: lima beans, black beans, horse beans, runner beans, garden beans, and chickpeas.

What’s the Difference in Soaking vs Sprouting

One thing about beans and grains is that they can be soaked overnight to help break down the phytic acid and enzymes inhibitors. Soaking is effective for beans and rice in helping break these two digestive disruptors down and can be done in a shorter amount of time than sprouting for the benefits. They can be soaked for part of the day, or overnight (12 hours max). This process also makes beans quicker to cook. However, for the rest of the benefits of sprouting, you must move on to the next step.

How to Grow Your Own Sprouts

Sprouting your own grains is simple and a great way to increase the nutritious value and bioavailability. All are you need are is a mason jar, a piece of cheesecloth and a rubber band, sprouting seeds, and a small bowl to prop your jar at an angle.

Once you have these things, the directions are simple. Pour your seeds, about 1 teaspoon (¼ cup if you are sprouting beans or lentils). When you purchase your seeds be sure they say that they are organic sprouting seeds.

Add 1 cup of filtered water to the jar and cover the top of the jar with cheesecloth. Pull the cloth tight and secure it on with a rubber band. Let your seeds soak overnight and then drain the water from the seeds by using a fine strainer, as not to lose any of the seeds. Rinse the seeds and put them back into the jar and secure the cheesecloth back on.

Using the small bowl, tilt your jar upside down at an angle. This tilt will allow the excess water in the sprouts to continue to drain through the cheesecloth.

Your seed should sprout in 3-5 days and sprouts can be up to 2 inches long. During this time you should continue to rinse the seed periodically, a couple of times a day or at least every 12 hours. Once complete your seeds are ready to be eaten and should last about a week inside the refrigerator. While you are storing the sprouts in the refrigerator, you should continue to wash them daily and place them into a new bowl to avoid mold from forming.

While the benefits of sprouting are insane and a great way to boost your health when eating these foods, the art of sprouting them yourself might be more than more people want to, or have time to, take on. However, for those of you who want to have some fun, learn something new, and might want to make a hobby out of it. Go ahead and give it a try!

What Sprouts are Easiest to Work With:

Some seeds can be difficult to sprout, as they can become mushy in texture, such as chia seeds, flax, and hemp. There are, however, many more popular choices to choose from, such as barley, broccoli, buckwheat, chickpeas, lentils, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, radish seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, quinoa, wheat berries, and wild rice.

What are Some Sprouting Concerns:

One of the issues that you can run into when sprouting your seeds, especially if you are going to be consuming them raw is the harmful production of certain bacteria. This is why it is extremely important to continuously rinse your seeds throughout the entire sprouting process. This will reduce the chances of bacterial growth. Once you have sprouted your seeds, you should eat them as quickly as possible to avoid letting them grow mold and bacteria.

If you follow the guidelines provided for you above, you should be just fine.

Where Can I Buy Sprouted Grains?

Due to difficulty and time, I opt to buy my grains sprouted already. Many stores are now carrying sprouted grains and legumes right in the regular grocery section. Tru Roots is a brand I swear by! Whole Foods has sprouted oatmeal and grains right in the bulk section as well as in the grains and beans sections of the store.

Plus even pre-made foods are “sprouting” (hehe get it!) up everywhere like Ezekiel bread and this fun granola I found at Sprouts. I have also found packs of live sprouts like bean and clover sprouts in the refrigerator section.

What Sprouted Foods do I Eat?

On a regular basis, you’ll find several sprouted things in my pantry. The first is sprouted rice. I eat a lot of rice each week along with keeping sprouted lentils and quinoa.

And for breakfast, I now stock a large jar of sprouted oatmeal. I find this in bulk at Whole Foods. In the freezer, I keep sprouted bread and sprouted English muffins because it says fresher for longer. They also make sprouted English muffins in a cinnamon raisin flavor that I just love. My favorite brands for these are Ezekiel Bread and the Trader Joe’s brand of sprouted bread. I usually look for these in the freezer section of my grocery store because the packs are too large for me to go through when I order from Amazon. And for those of you who like pancakes or have kids, this sprouted mix is perfect to keep in the pantry for breakfast.

I also eat sprouted tortilla wraps. These come into play daily in my life whenever I’m in the mood for tacos (which you know is quite often!) of want something quick and easy to eat.

And my newest find… this sprouted granola. Great snack idea for anyone.

I use Amazon for finding sprouted products that my store may not have. But between the grocery store and Amazon, I usually can find anything I need. Another place that I have been finding a big selection of sprouted grains is Thrive Market. This online store has a whole line of really good sprouted products.

If you’re looking to start incorporating sprouted grains to replace your regular ones, then call your local grocer and ask for them to carry some sprouted products if they don’t already. And of course, if that’s not possible using online stores like Amazon and Thrive Market can help you get these food delivered to your door.

Introducing sprouted grains into my diet, as a replacement for the bread and grains I was already eating, made a huge positive impact on my digestion. I didn’t have to give up grains for health and still enjoy them in my diet. If you also have a great story to share about sprouting grains or are just trying them, share in the comments.

The SNAP Food Challenge: Part 1

Education, Lifestyle · March 20, 2017

The SNAP Challenge: Part 1

Let’s start this off by saying that this is NOT a challenge for those who are already shopping like a boss on a budget and providing nutritious foods for them and their families, proving already that it can be done.

Because I post my grocery hauls a lot on my blog and social media, I often get a lot of people saying that there is no way they could shop like that at their store for a variety of reasons. Some of them being they don’t have a big enough budget, don’t have a 99cent store that provides insane amounts of good foods, or that they only go to one grocery store and don’t have time to shop several places to save money. These are all ways that I manage to shop so cheaply – shopping around, having access to a 99cent store, and the time go store to store. However, I know not everyone can or will do that, I want to show my budget shopping (super healthy still) at just one store each week.

Recently I have been pushing myself to save money, but also eat healthy foods on a budget more and more. Now I don’t limit myself if there is something I need, but that’s the point of this challenge. Not everyone can just get another bottle of olive oil, or another pack of meat if they run out mid week if they have already spent all their food budget money. I am challenging myself to set a budget, relatively lower than what most people spend on food each week (whether they eat healthy or not) and get enough healthy food to last 7 days.

I chose to call this the SNAP challenge for two reasons:

1. Two years ago Gwyneth Paltrow tried to shop on a budget for herself ($29) while eating healthy and based it on the average amount of money someone receiving assistance would have had in 2015 for SNAP food benefits. While it’s “supplemental” sometimes people may find that is all they really have to spend. She only made it 4 days and recounted her journey in a blog. I would like to retry that on the 2017 SNAP average to help people who might still think they can’t eat healthy on that tight of a budget that they can. Below is what she got and made it four days with:

2. While not everyone’s budget is that tight or everyone is on SNAP benefits, things in life happen that can cut into our budgets and we all have fallen on hard times. I would like to help people who are trying to save money or maybe going through a hard time see that even if you’re usually healthy budget gets slashed, there are still ways to eat healthy for less even if you only have to temporarily.

So I based it off the average for 2015 (since it says currently the benefits havn’t changed much since then) and did the numbers per week for a household of two people. The numbers come to about $35.50 per person per week, or $71.00 per week for food. That’s approximately $3.38 per meal for us if we don’t have snacks.

Now while I know I could do this by using my 99cent store and then shopping around other places for rock bottom prices, I’m doing this at one store and this week I’m choosing sprouts. I have a WholeFoods, Sprouts and Fry’s all by my house. I don’t usually shop at whole foods so I won’t be going there, because I wouldn’t go there regularly. However where I would usually start at the 99cent Store and then hop between Sprouts and Fry’s for their cheapest sales, this week I will be going to just one.

I’m starting at Sprouts because I believe that might be more of a challenge for me seeing that overall they are more of a health food store than a regular chain grocery store so they don’t have as much for store brand low prices. However I’m hoping it balances out with the fact that they have a bulk section and if I shop carefully I can balance that out in the end.

Here are some of the rules:

1. I have to make enough food for two people to have 7 days worth of food.
2. I am only shopping at one store each week.
3. I am sticking to $71.00 for 2 people each week. ($35.50 per person)
4. I am shopping for both a vegetarian and an omnivore (showing two different lifestyle choices).
5. I will stick as close as possible to the foods we already eat to see if what we currently like to have (smoothies, tacos, fresh foods) is possible if I’m carefully budgeting.

What do I think will be the biggest challenge for me?

I think there will be three big challenges for me this week. I want to stick closely to what we already eat which includes my several smoothies a week with protein in them (vegetarian protein supplementation). I also feel like the drinks we like to have every day like tea or coffee may or may not fit into the budget. If they don’t that’s ok, it would be nice if they did. And the last challenge will be getting enough protein for my very active, very tall and built fiance who will need a lot more food than I will to keep him fueled.

The only thing that will come from my own pantry will be salt and pepper to take this as serious as having an empty pantry to fill. I will mostly likely have to choose between olive oil and butter, and having 10 spices or seasonings to choose from and just having a few.

And most importantly this challenge is also a reminder for me: 

I came from a family that worked it’s bum off my whole childhood to make ends meet. While growing up and now off on my own we all have more than enough, it is a reminder that what I take for granted each week as something that just is, isn’t reality for everyone. And for most of my life it wasn’t a reality for my family.

In the midst of appreciating what I have, I can also do what I can to encourage others who might go through a hard time with money not to give up. That the dollar menu isn’t the answer (because at one point I thought it was) and that healthy pantries can be filled on every budget. And it will also remind me that I can make a difference further than education. I can still donate to food pantries and give them health foods to provide to families as well.

I mean to do this challenge in the most heartfelt way. Because I spent a lot of my life living below the poverty line, and understanding that healthy was in how much my family had to spend. It was on how my mother chose to spend what we had and made it work. And while now I preach budgeting and priorities, that’s not always everyones limitations and so instead I’ll work within someone else’s constraints and see if I can provide a good example of what you can do inside of it. 

And if I can complete this challenge on what I have set aside (without having to go back and use the extra money to get more food)…I’ll be donating the difference that I saved out of my normal budget to give food to a food bank. I will be giving to the places that gave to me as a child.

If anyone else is doing this challenge I’m super excited to see how you did and see your meals and ideas!

Top 3 Surprising Facts About Having a Thyroid Condition

Education, Lifestyle · March 3, 2017

I am one day into the Thyroid Documentary and already I’m just blow away with the amount of information about thyroid disorders that I did not know, and most people are not informed about. In fact there were three things that really stood out to me about the confusing world of thyroid disorders.

1. There are Multiple Types of Thyroid Disorders

While I thought that there was just hyper or hypothyroidism to deal with, there actually is a list of different disorders. Hashimoto’s, Graves, Thyroid Cancer, Thyroid Nodules, Goiter…and the list goes on. 

Part of the issue of diagnosing thyroid disorders is not only the plethora of symptoms that can occur, but also the lack of information inside the medical community when properly diagnosing what type of thyroid problem people are dealing with.

2. The Medical Treatments and Medications can Have Horrible Side Effects

After hearing women’s stories on what their doctors recommended for treatment, it seems that cost and insurance often plays a bigger role in what treatment is recommended instead of what is really the best for the patient. Aside from testing being invasive, one treatment includes basically going inside of the thyroid and blowing it up. This is a procedure that uses radioactive iodine.

To add to the stress of having to go through treatment, many women during the interviews expressed how often they were given too much medication up front which lead to more issues popping up on top of what they were already suffering from.

3. The Toll Thyroid Disease Takes is Wider Spread Than Just Health

One of the saddest parts of the documentary so far has been the personal stories of women and men who’s spouses and families suffered from thyroid diseases. Some symptoms that were common were uncontrollable anxiety, mood swings and no energy. For those dealing with anxiety and mood swings, often their families were affected by emotions they had no control over.

One woman even said he husband didn’t believe it was a disease at all and though she was just lazy because of her crippling fatigue.

Although some people were worried about losing their health, others also had to worry about losing their relationships as they struggled with this disease. The one woman is now divorced and attributes the toll the disease took as a major factor in her divorce.

Overall I was able to learn a lot more about thyroid disease, including the toll it takes on the person suffering and the people around them. Emotionally, this documentary proves that disease is more than just something that affects the body. Listening to these stories and understanding the affect on lives, families, and communities proves that it’s worth taking a deeper look into thyroid disease further than it has been studied.

If you are interested in watching the series, you can still sign up to get this documentary emailed to you. It will be up for the next 8 days and you can watch it for free and share this information with your friends and family that you think could use this knowledge to improve their health. The series will go into natural solutions for thyroid disease that you can start using right away to improve your life one day at a time.

Why Am I Always Tired – When Sleeping is Not Enough

Education, Lifestyle · March 1, 2017

I used to joke around sometimes saying things like “I could sleep for days and still be tired.” But that in reality was no joke. Sometimes no matter how much sleep I got – oversleeping at 10 hours, under sleeping at 5 or the perfect recommended 7-8 I was still dragging myself out of bed and though the day.

Napping didn’t help. At least not for long. Once in a while I woke up feeling refreshed. But more often then not I would still be tired.

When sleeping doesn’t cure you’re tired body and mind, there is something else at work.

Is it just me, or is this me…

Many people may have already head about thyroid issues. But did you know there are a multitude of symptoms that it causes outside of being tired.

Some Include: weight gain with out eating more, weight loss with no loss of appetite, problems sleeping, tired feeling after getting enough sleep, skin issues, mood issues, temperature irregularity in the body…and the list goes on.

Women are exposed to thyroid disrupting elements every single day but might not even know that they are being affected. In reality, most women probably just feel like this is life.

I wanted to share a free documentary series for women who might be wondering if it’s more than sleep and stress, “is this a thyroid problem?” With more and more research being conducted each year, there is a lot of information out there, you just have to know where to find it.

This documentary is free to watch for the next nine days and if you think, that you might have a condition that requires more than just a sleep fix, this is for you. Not knowing is sometimes scarier than knowing what to do. And this series will not only help you understand the symptoms and help you determine if this is for you, it also gives answers for those looking for them. Natural, healthy answers for you to apply each day to your life.

Sign up to start getting these private documentary sessions emailed to you everyday for the next 9 days and start understanding the symptoms and solutions for thyroid issues. And if you know someone who could use this, share it with them and invite them to see for themselves that they can find energy and balance naturally!

I will be going through the series with you, as for weeks at a time I struggle with low energy. Comment below as you watch the videos and let me know what you think. I’m excited to share this free documentary with you for the time they are offering it and hope you get everything you need out of it!

<3 Rachael