The stage between being a seed and being a new plant produces what is known as a sprouted grain. It does not usually wear the daunting appearance and texture of long fibered alfalfa sprouts, but mostly appears as a seed with a small shoot growing from it. Sprouted grains may come from the seed of grains as wheat, spelt, einkorn, farro, millet, quinoa, rice, rye berries, kamut, barley lentils, amaranth, buckwheat, corn, and sorghum. Sprouted grains have served as food a goodly long time. It is now among the fast growing trends, such as in sprouted flour bread production.
'Bread Revolution' author Peter Reinhart provides the perfect picture: "Baking with sprouted flour is turning into the hottest sector in the grain business... Sprouted flour yields bread that is smoother, sweeter, and softer than typical whole-wheat bread. Plus, when wheat is sprouted and then dried, it retains a lot of the gluten-forming abilities needed to make a tall loaf of bread, so additional gluten doesn't have to be added like it does when baking with sprouted pulp."
Here are a few of the surprising benefits of sprouted grains:
#1 Digestive advantage: Sprouted grains are far easier to digest than whole grains.
#2 Taste: These young grains tend to have more flavour, and are sometimes on the sweeter side, when compared to the grown grains.
#3 Increased vitamins and minerals: Sprouted grains bring increased levels of nutrients and increased availability of these nutrients for the human body as the sprouting process makes available higher amounts of vitamins, minerals and proteins. This is especially true for iron, folate, essential amino acids, vitamin E, vitamin C and B vitamins .
#4 Carbs and gluten levels: As the sprouting process allows the increase of protein, it also reduces the carbohydrate content. Sprouted grains have very low gluten content and three times more soluble fibre than regular grains.
#5 Low phytic acid: The increased iron and zinc availability from sprouted grains stem from reduced phytic acid compound content, which would normally bind these minerals in grains.
#6 Antioxidants: Sprouted grains have more polyphenol antioxidants, which are quite rich in health benefits.
#7 Cholesterol levels: These grains espouse healthy levels of cholesterol.
#8 Blood sugar assistance: Likely because of the increase content of fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients sprouted grains are quite gentle to the body's blood sugar.
#9 Cooking benefits: Sprouted grains allow quicker moisture absorption, so that cooking becomes a much quicker process.
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