“Sprouting grains and seeds before baking produces living, nutrient-rich food.”  Food For Life

How familiar are you with sprouted foods?

Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself.  (Ezekiel 4:9a; NIV)

Our dear friend, Maureen D’Amelio, originally gave me today’s recipe.  I’ve made a few changes to the recipe along with recommending certain brand names of ingredients.  The recipe calls for tortillas.  All tortillas are not created equal in today’s massive bakeries.  I recommend using sprouted grain tortillas.  Perhaps you’ve heard of sprouted breads before.  Ezekiel bread is now a popular bread that uses sprouted grains.  Sprouting of grains is an “old-time” tradition, beginning centuries ago and is mentioned numerous times in scripture.  Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, also presents a treatise on the benefits of sprouted foods. 

According to Food For Life’s website, germination (or sprouting) changes the composition of grain and seeds in numerous ways. Sprouting increases vitamin content and neutralizes phytic acid - a substance present in grains - that inhibits absorption of nutrients. Sprouting neutralizes or “predigests”  grains through enzymatic activity. The enzymes produced during the natural sprouting process “in effect” break down amino acid protein bonds to promote digestibility of the entire grain.  Many people who are allergic to grains, will tolerate them well when they are soaked or “sprouted.”

Sprouted grain bread has numerous advantages over “enriched” wheat flour breads. As I’ve mentioned several times before, white breads have very little nutritional value.  (Remember, the whiter the bread, the faster you’re dead.)  White breads are made from the endosperm (or the inside portion of the wheat kernel) which contains primarily carbohydrates and few vitamins and minerals. The milling of grain into white flour removes the bran and the germ. This results in the loss of natural fiber, bran, and 22 vitamins and minerals. To compensate, vitamins and minerals (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, iron, and folic acid) are added back, “in a synthetic form,” thus “enriching” the flour.  The combination of the formula from Ezekiel 4:9 of wheat, barley, lentils, spelt, millet and beans when sprouted creates a complete protein that closely parallels the protein found in milk and eggs.

As a comparison, I’ve printed the ingredients label for the sprouted grain tortillas that I use, followed by the ingredients from a common white flour tortilla.  You be the judge.  Which one would you choose to feed to your family…or eat yourself?

Ingredients: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Unhulled Sesame Seeds, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Sea Salt.

Ingredients: Enriched Bleached Flour (Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Vegetable Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oils); Contains 2% or Less of the Following: Salt, Leavening (Baking Soda, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Corn Starch, Monocalcium Phosphate, and/or Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Calcium Sulfate), Propionic Acid, Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Benzoic Acid, and Phosphoric Acid, (to Preserve Freshness), Dough Conditioners (Fumaric Acid, L-Cysteine, Sodium Metabisulfite).

Prayer Power
Lord, thank You for providing wisdom for us through Your Word on how to feed our families and ourselves.  Help us to hear Your voice more clearly about things we can do to improve our eating.

Link of the Day
Mexican Chicken

Blessings on you as you experiment with sprouted foods.