It’s Monday, my friend.
This means only one thing: NEW BLOG POST on a food you’ll want to add to your grocery list, especially if you’re focusing on this month’s topic: DIGESTING LIKE A CHAMP.
Go on, add this to your list:
SPROUTS.
For those who wish to know the ‘why’ behind this idea, I’ll give you three things to think about.
TO HELP ENHANCE YOUR DIGESTIVE FIRE
Sprouts help here in two ways: when digesting seeds or beans (like the peas they use for pea sprouts, the chickpeas they use for chickpea sprouts, the broccoli seeds they use for broccoli sprouts), unless properly ‘activated’, they contribute to shutting down your digestion and stealing from your mineral stores. Sprout the same beans + seeds, and what do you get? Your body sees them as vegetables now, not grains. They no longer steal your digestive fire, and you get to keep your mineral stores intact. GOOD WORK.
Sprouts also come loaded with naturally occurring enzymes: these enzymes help give a leg up to your digestive system, in aiding you in breaking foods down into nutrients. That’s the key thing to improving digestion: we are looking to support that work in your body so that you can better get the nutrients your body needs to run like a dream. Sprouts help enhance this very important work!
Especially if you are struggling with histamines: pea sprouts in particular offer naturally occurring DAO enzyme, an enzyme that helps break down histamines coming in through foods. When histamine troubles are lurking, it can often be an indicator that the ability to produce your own DAO has waned. Pea sprouts to the rescue!
FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR MICROBIOME
Sprouts are typically consumed raw, and are one of the foods that I often recommend to clients who are currently refraining from consuming much raw food. See, raw food can exacerbate things at the gut level if the microbiome is off kilter. Sprouts help enhance digestion, and provide good fibre to help support a balance at the microbiome, without contributing to the inflammatory situation typically taking place when someone’s microbiome is off kilter. If you feed the bugs of your gut the good foods, you now enhance the good guys to populate, which now helps return a balance to your microbiome. Win!
FOR THE LOVE OF METABOLIC BALANCE
Anything you can do to help improve metabolic balance will go miles in reducing the stress in the body. When stress is around, your digestion gets shut down.
Studies show that sprouts have been shown to help improve blood sugar balancing + the utilization of insulin (check it here!); sprouts are also showing promise in helping balance cholesterol numbers. When metabolism balance is off, cholesterol numbers tend to also go off. (See that study here) Working at a balance in metabolism is one of the big pieces to look at when digestion isn’t up to snuff; sprouts can certainly help in this regard.
Pea sprouts are especially helpful for those who struggle with histamines
Sprouts. Who knew?
Find sprouts in your produce section at your local grocery store or health food store. You can also learn to sprout your own - it’s quite easy! Loads of tutorials online.
How to eat them - think of them as a condiment. Eat on the side of your meal, sprinkle on top, toss in to a salad, slip into a wrap or sandwich, add as one of your toppers to a Build-A-Bowl kind of scenario. Use your imagination!
Aiming for a return to digestive prowess? Looking to fire this important function up? Need some help in achieving it?
Get in touch by clicking here. Let’s meet up to start drawing up your road map to support you in both quantity and quality of life.