Why We Soak and Sprout
The health of your intestinal tract is among one of the most important and overlooked factors when fighting any disease, and at Years Restored, it’s something we pay special attention to.
Many people have a condition known as "leaky gut" which causes undigested food, toxins, or bacteria to "leak" through the intestinal wall. This can cause a variety of symptoms, like arthritis, fatigue, and brain fog. It can also contribute to the development of chronic conditions like autoimmune disorders.
To improve gut health, we emphasize soaking and sprouting seeds, grains, nuts, and legumes. This practice vastly 1) decreases lectins that may damage the intestinal lining and 2) improves the bio-availability of the food. Both are important when trying to heal a damaged or "leaky” gut.
Here Are Benefits of Soaking and Sprouting
- Decrease antinutrients (lectins)
- Higher nutritional and antioxidant value
- Increases the content of amino acids like tryptophan
- Increases the enzyme content
- Increase vitamins and mineral content, including Vitamin C, folate, iron, vitamin B
- Increases fiber content
In the first stage of regaining your health, we use pseudograins (like quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, and canahua) rather than grains, because they are much easier to digest than grains for many people. Pseudograins should always be soaked 8-12 hours prior to use. Even better is the practice of sprouting them for 2 days. Sprouting for longer than 2 days can cause the sprouted grains to taste sour or bitter and should be avoided.
We have noticed, that our clients have greatly improved their symptoms by avoiding grains and by soaking their seeds (pumpkin and sunflower), pseudograins, and legumes. Clients who struggle with significant weight loss due to malabsorption have regained their weight by adopting these principles. We believe that the speed of the improvement of symptoms is due to decreasing the level of antinutrients in the food by soaking and sprouting.
Soaking and sprouting—who would have thought that such a simple process could so greatly improve one’s health?
Recover Your Health
Do you or someone you love have an autoimmune disease? Are you looking for help to recover your health? The Autoimmune Recovery Plan is based on the protocol administered at Years Restored, a lifestyle center in Forbestown, CA where hundreds of people have found help and health since 2013. The plan targets the root cause of the disease--gut health and inflammation—and teaches a plant-based method of detox and recovery.