Beans/sprouts

[Guest guest]

Once the beans are sprouted, they are no longer legumes, they are

baby plants. Sprouts are problematic, but they don't usually make

people sick on the spot, as can simply soaked legumes, which are

old, dried, hard beans and peas. There may be some beans and peas

which can be eaten just soaked, not cooked and not sprouted, that

will not make one ill, as I mentioned, but I don't know which ones.

 

The raw movement's mantras exhorting people to eat sprouts for

health reasons are misinformed. Sprouts are baby plants. Plants put

out toxins to protect themselves, so they won't get eaten. Adult

plants put out less, since if someone eats part of the plant,

chances are it will still survive. But a baby plant is too small for

that, so it puts out more potent poisons to keep from being eaten.

 

Also, why would anyone eat sprouts? There are so many much more

appetizing things to eat. They don't taste awful, but then again

they don't seem particularly appetizing IMO. What is their appeal?

Only that we've been urged to eat them, that they are supposedly

good for us. I don't think that claim stands up under scrutiny.

 

And especially the sprouts people grow in their kitchens, what good

could those possibly do? They are not grown in soil, so there is no

benefit of minerals or nutrients from the ground. They are not grown

outside, so there is not the benefit of fresh air to them. And they

are not grown in the sunshine, perhaps they get some indirect

sunshine if grown on the windowsill, but that's not much. And they

are just soaked and stagnated in standing water, not very

appetizing, IMO. If one wants to eat a plant, then eat a real plant,

grown naturally in soil. That will contain lots more nutrients than

any sprout.

 

When the seed, in this case a legume, is soaked, and further

sprouted, and the " inhibited " enzymes are released, all kinds of

chemical changes take place. It is no longer a seed, but a baby

plant, full of toxins to protect itself, and definitely not a food

for us. If one wants to eat a plant, there are much better plants

available, leafy greens, and grasses. If one wants to eat a seed,

then eat the seed as a seed, unsoaked, unsprouted. Eat seeds in the

form of nuts/edible seeds, that are appealing and edible in their

natural, unsoaked, unmanipulated state. The seed itself contains all

the concentrated nutrition that one would get from a sprout, but the

seed is in a natural, healthy form.

 

Our natural foods are those which we can eat as they come in Nature,

with only having to either peel them or crack shells. Young beans

and peas, fresh and raw, when in season, are botanically fruits and

are fine to eat and delicious in their natural state. I love to eat

them too. They are in season for such a short while, and it's

delightful when they are. But beans and peas chemically turn into

legumes when older, they dry, and they are inedible in their natural

state. Those cannot be eaten without major changes, either cooking

them or sprouting them, in any case they are a food combining

disaster as well, as they are high in protein, fat, and starch. Of

course, sprouting them makes major changes, chemically.

 

Sprouts have undergone major chemical change, turning them from seed

into plant. Some people eat sprouts thinking there is superior

nutritive value in them, but more is not always better, and in the

process of turning the seeds, in this case the beans or other

legumes, into baby plants, also released are the natural protection

from predators (eaters) via toxins. All plants, that is tress,

shrubs, etc. have natural toxins to protect them from being eaten,

or else they'd never survive. Baby plants have more toxins since

they are more vulnerable. Mature plants, grown outdoors, in soil,

have more nutrition than baby plants, they've had much time

absorbing the minerals from the soil, and making chlorophyll from

the sun, and drinking in lots of water and carbon dioxide, all of

which results in a very nutritive plant.

 

Also, would you eat a mature bean plant? I don't know of anyone that

eats them. If we can't eat those plants in their mature states, they

would be that much worse for us in their infant stages. Not enough

info is available on the downside of sprouts, but it deserves our

consideration. I prefer to err on the side of caution, and I stick

to eating plants that grow in the ground and are a bit more mature

than sprouts. I can't really debate this issue as well, since there

is not so much documentation on the downside of sprouts available,

mostly you just hear the glowing recommendations, based upon beliefs

and misinformation. Amid the little bit of info that is available is

that the Gerson Center treats people with advanced cancer, and in

studying the cases that had subsequent relapses of cancer, the one

factor they all had in common was that they ate sprouts.

 

When we eat plants, we should eat them at stages a bit more mature

than the seedlings that are sprouts, and we should eat ones that are

grown in the soil and the sun and air, outside. We can eat all the

great colorful lettuces, and if they taste good to you, also all the

kales, and chards, and choys, and just different greens, as well as

seaweed. The assortments of organic lettuces these days is amazing,

so many dark and light ones, and so many varieties, yum. We can also

find wild greens to eat, explore them. You may want to look at

websites which give information on how to find wild plants which are

edible, and identify them and avoid the ones which may be poisonous.

 

I don't avoid sprouted foods totally, but neither would I seek them

out. Sprouted foods are a clever way to design raw food analogues to

traditional cooked recipes. Sprouted grains and legumes can serve as

valuable transitional foods and occasional raw treats. They are

certainly less harmful than cooked foods, or other substances that

raw fooders are instructed to eat. But it is a mistake to believe

that sprouts enhance health or that they are necessary. Our natural

foods are fruits, leafy greens/veggies, nuts, edible seeds, in the

form they come in in Nature, without having to do anything to them

to render them edible.

 

Zsuzsa

 

rawfood , tlgjjr1@a... wrote:

> I don't know where you get the information about beans being toxic

and make

> you ill. I am aware some people can eat beans and some people

cannot. I sprouts

> beans and eat them raw with no problem. As matter of fact, I love

them!