Grains, nuts, beans and seeds are packed with powerful nutrients that boost your health and immune system. Traditionally, people soaked these foods before cooking them to promote easier digestion. However, all grains, legumes, nuts and seeds contain anti-nutrients that require neutralization. Nuts and seeds contain enzyme inhibitors that block digestion. Grains and legumes contain phytic acid that can rob the body of important minerals like magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper and iron. Once enzyme inhibitors in nuts and seeds and phytic acid in grains and legumes get deactivated, your body gets to absorb all the powerful nutrients such as vitamin E, B6, niacin, folate, other powerful antioxidants and minerals such as magnesium, zinc, plant iron, calcium, copper, selenium, phosphate and potassium. Soaking will deactivate enzyme inhibitors in nuts and seeds and lower the phytic acid in grains and legumes. Use warm water to cover them up and one table spoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon for grains and legumes. Most grains require anywhere from 12 to 24 hrs of soaking time before cooking. Most legumes need 18 to 24 hrs with few water changes in-between. For seeds and nuts, use 1 tablespoon of salt with warm water and soak them anywhere from 6 to 8 hrs before consuming. I want to emphasize that getting into habit of soaking grains, nuts, legumes and seeds is more important than following the time guidelines at the beginning. Think of soaking as getting more nutrition out of your food. Yum
The ultimate strategy to maximize nutrition of seeds, nuts, legumes and grains is to sprout them. Once any seed or nut sprouts, all the inhibitor enzymes are broken and all the enzymes, minerals and vitamins are ready to be used by the seed to transform into a plant. A sprout is packed of bioavailable powerful punch of nutrients. I personally regard sprouting as the most powerful and economical way of incorporating greens into your diet.
Incorporate soaking your grains, legumes, seeds,nuts and let their nutritional power keep you well.
