Understanding The Nutritional Value Of Sprouts For Your Health

Health & Fitness :: Nutrition & Supplement

Eaten for thousands of years by cultures in other parts of the world, sprouts are regarded as extremely nutritious and even life-prolonging. Unfortunately, most people don't realize the numerous health benefits of sprouts. Often dismissed as the dietary choice of vegetarians, sprouts actually offer benefits that should be considered by everyone. This article discusses the health benefits of sprouts, the advantages of sprouts over other foods and the types of things that can be sprouted.
Health Benefits Of Sprouts
Sprouts provide many things our bodies need for us to live healthy lives. They are an excellent source of protein which helps our bodies repair itself as well as regulates many of our bodily functions (balancing of water, delivering nutrients, etc.). Sprouts also provide a huge dose of vitamin C, helping our immune systems fight off colds and diseases. Further, some types of sprouts such as broccoli sprouts have elements that can help prevent cancer. In fact, some studies have suggested that broccoli sprouts contain several times more anti-cancer chemicals than in mature broccoli.
Another benefit of sprouts is that they are organic. Many fruits and vegetables that you purchase in stores have been compromised by pesticides and other fumigants. This is not true of sprouts. Further, sprouts are easily digestable due to their cell walls being delicate and easily releasing nutrients.
Advantages Of Sprouts Over Other Foods
One of the primary advantages of consuming sprouts is the level of vitamin production that happens within them. When vegetables and fruits are purchased from your local supermarket, those foods have stopped producing vitamins. In fact, they stopped producing them the moment they were picked. Then, those foods are often shipped hundreds, even thousands, of miles to the stores where they are eventually bought by customers.
Sprouts continue producing vitamins up until the moment you consume them. Even in your refrigerator, they will keep growing and producing vitamins. Eating sprouts instead of store-bought fruits and vegetables ensures that your body will enjoy the maximum amount of vitamin content.
Types Of Sprouts
When most people think of sprouts, they think of little green, leafy things. But, sprouting can be performed on dozens of different food items. For example, you can enjoy sprouting grains such as wheat, rye and barley. Or, you can sprout nuts and seeds such as peanuts, almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Sprouting can also involve foods that you are already familiar with such as cabbage, chick peas, mung beans and green peas.
Though most people tend to avoid sprouts, much of the public's perception is based on lack of knowledge. In truth, sprouts offer nutritional value that is nearly impossible to get from other vegetables and fruits that are purchased from grocery stores. In addition, their nature allows for the easy absorption of nutrients and vitamins enabling our bodies to fight off diseases more effectively. If your body's health is important to you, consider adding sprouts to your diet.

The Start of a New Health Year 2008 - Natural NutritionHome

:: Health & Fitness :: Nutrition & Supplement


Two thousand eight is on the horizon. In moments it will be here and a new year starts again. This year will be big on using natural remedies to cure your own illness and conditions. For those of you that have been reading and studying the use of natural remedies, you are 10 steps ahead of everyone else.
There are a tremendous number of people that are not familiar with using natural remedies. My sister who is a head nurse knows very little about them. My whole family lacks this knowledge, except my eleven year old.
Yes the new generation will be brought up using natural remedies more than the past generation. History is repeating itself. The young willingly accept the idea that vitamins, minerals, herbs, and food can prevent or cure illness.
But, this idea of natural remedies does not sit well with the FDA or the AMA. They are hard at work trying to pass legislation that will regulate natural remedies just as drugs are - dispensed only by a doctor. Doctors that suggest you take vitamins or natural remedies to prevent illness, if discovered by the AMA, will lose their licenses. Studies, research, discoveries, or experiments that indicate natural remedies can prevent or cure illness are ridiculed by the medical industry.
If people use more natural remedies - vitamins, minerals, herbs, homeopathic salts, special nutrients, or even food - to prevent or cure illness, then they will use less drugs. Pharmaceuticals will lose money. They are not going to stand by and let this happen. They have already been busy for years providing disinformation on natural remedies. Most every famous naturopath has been pursed by the government and discredited for revealing how natural remedies can cure your illness. This is not going to change in 2008.
What is going to change are those of you who are awake to natural remedies and many new people who are going to awaken are going to start using more natural remedies to prevent illness.
In my past newsletters, I have written you to eat more fruits and their juices for breakfast. This helps your body to detoxify the toxins collected during your sleep. Eating a heavy, solid breakfast interferes with your natural detoxification cycle causing the liver to store night toxins in your cells as fat.
I have suggested that you strive for 2 bowel movements per day to keep unused and undigested food moving through your colon and not stagnating. You do this by eating more fruits and vegetables and by eating less processed food, which has a hard time moving through your colon.
I have told you to take digestive enzymes and probiotics. Even if you are 25 or 30, take digestive enzymes and save your body's ability to create these enzymes for a rainy sick day. Enzymes are used in hundreds of body, chemical, reactions and not just for digesting food. Saving your digestive enzymes for when you need them is a smart move.
Supplement with specific vitamins, minerals, or special nutrients. Studies have shown that those who supplements live longer, healthier lives than those who don't.
Stress is the number one killer, so reduce stress. Stress creates hormonal imbalances and causes your endocrine system to overwork. Endocrine organs - thyroid, pancreas, spleen - that become overworked lose function and this leads to disease. Stress causes your adrenal to release excess cortisol, which causes brain cell damage and imbalances in your sugar and testosterone levels. Always look for ways to reduce stress, since this will increase your life span.

All About Nutrition

All About Nutrition


In order to optimize your health a good diet is essential. But, with all the fad diets around it can be difficult to know what is 'good'. Nutrition science to the rescue! Though some things are still controversial, numerous studies reinforce the following basic information. A healthy diet requires not just items from the four basic food groups, but in the proper proportion. The average person will need about 2000-2500 calories (sometimes more for larger men, less for women and those looking for rapid weight loss). About 50 from fats (yes, fat is good!) and 20% from protein. Carbohydrates are the main source of compounds needed for energy. Simple sugars, such as glucose and fructose, are rapidly broken down in the intestine and absorbed. Some processing starts the minute they hit your tongue. Complex carbohydrates - starches, such as those found in potatoes - take longer, but are also healthy in moderation. Fats are chemically similar to carbohydrates, and contain fatty acids essential to health. Proteins are lysed (split) to make amino acids, that are then recombined to form proteins used in muscles and other structures. Meat is a valid and healthy source of protein for almost everyone. About 3 ounces per meal is about right for the average sized person. A cup of pasta is a good source of carbohydrates. Two cups of leafy green vegetables supply fiber, minerals and vitamins. A balanced meal can be made up of a serving of meat or other protein source, starchy carbohydrates such as pasta, rice, corn or potatoes, and fruit. Easy on the butter or margarine, go light on cheese, sauces and anything high in sugar or fat. Though you could get the basics from a variety of sources, when considering weight control in addition to getting the proper balance, it's important to know which sources are high in what. Fat contains nine calories per gram, which is double than other energy sources. Thus, you need to keep those foods high in fat down to modest levels. That also helps control cholesterol levels. All sources of carbohydrates have four calories per gram. But healthy sources also contain needed minerals, vitamins and fiber. Some examples are fruits (apples, pears, peaches), nuts (walnuts are lower in fat than peanuts or cashews, for example) and grains (for fiber and minerals). Why is candy bad, unless consumed in very modest portions? Because they are designed to be high in fat, high in sugar with much lower amounts of helpful nutrients. Neither fat nor sugar are harmful in moderation. Indeed, they're essential to good health. But when consumed in a form that contains an excessive proportion, they provide enormous calories and fewer other nutrients. A single Snickers candy bar, for example, contains 63g, with 53g of sugar, but only 2g of fiber. This kind of snack, especially at the beginning of a new diet of nutritional regimen, can be hard to resist. A cup of broccoli (something that you probably don't often crave) has, by contrast, only 6g total, of which 2.5g are fiber, 1.5g are sugars. A cup of sweet corn has 31g total, 21g are starch (complex carbohydrates), 3g of fiber. Unfortunately, listing the good and bad traits of the foods you eat doesn't help healthy foods to sound more appealing, or unhealthy foods less tasty. Fortunately, there are ways to help control unhealthy cravings. One of the best ways to curb cravings for sugary, salty, and unhealthy foods is to have a clean and healthy digestive system. A short-term cleansing program, such as Isagenix 9-Day Cleansing and Fat Burning System, is a great way to jumpstart a lifetime of new eating habits, as it re-trains the body to crave healthful foods. In the end, the best way to being a launch a true lifestyle change is to change the way your body sees food.