Sprout Powders And The Benefits Of Using All Natural Products In Your Foods

By: Alicia Rennoll

43% of respondents to YouGov’s 2020 new year’s resolutions survey said they want to eat more healthily this year. Whether it’s for specific health goals, to lose weight or simply to improve their nutrition, many people are looking for ways they can easily make their diets healthier. For those with busy lifestyles and little time to prepare fresh ingredients, this can be a little more challenging, leading some to look towards synthetic supplements and ‘healthy’ energy snacks. However, while these might be a step up from a donut or a cookie, many are less healthy than they seem. The best way to improve your nutrition and meet your health goals is through using natural products. So how can you achieve that if you have a hectic schedule? Enter the sprout powder.

What is sprout powder?

Immediately after a seed sprouts, its nutritional potential rises. Sungarden sprouts are grown until the formation of cotyledon (the first leaves of the seedling if the plant were left to grow), which allows for the full amount of chlorophyll, plant proteins, digestive enzymes and antioxidants to form. These little powerhouses are then powdered to preserve their nutritional content and make it easily accessible to you. The powders can then be added to smoothies, juices, soups or indeed any recipe you choose to boost the nutritional value of your drink or meal without resorting to any artificial ingredients.

Why natural supplements are best

Simply put, an all natural-diet means consuming single-ingredient, natural foods. This is not to say you can’t cook and combine those single ingredients to make complete meals; rather that an all-natural diet doesn’t involve processed foods or artificial ingredients. This extends to supplements: supplements made entirely from natural ingredients are more beneficial than synthetic ones. Indeed, studies have found no clear evidence that synthetic supplements are beneficial for anyone without a specific nutritional deficiency.

Furthermore, the added ingredients in synthesized supplements can have unwanted effects: for example, a 2013 study on 20 dietary supplements found that six labels failed to detail the quantity of caffeine in the supplements, and all contained the equivalent caffeine content of at least two cups of coffee. Caffeine is known to have a stimulant effect, which can disrupt your sleep patterns if taken too late in the day, contributing to sleep anxiety, and in turn, chronic tiredness. If you had taken these supplements believing them to make you healthier, you may have unwittingly decreased your sleep value and ironically made yourself less healthy.

The magic of sprout powders

Natural supplements like sprout powders offer a much richer nutritional profile than synthetic supplements. Rather than targeting one key nutrient, they are naturally balanced, offering a full range of vitamins, minerals and health benefits. As well as boosting your nutrition, they aid digestion and improve blood sugar levels. Indeed, in a study of subjects with type 2 diabetes, consuming powdered broccoli sprouts for eight weeks led to reduced insulin levels in the blood. The exact nutritional profile of a sprout powder depends entirely on the variety of sprout, but generally speaking, you can count on them to be rich in folate, magnesium, protein, phosphorus and Vitamins K and C.

Even if you struggle to make your lunch ahead every day or cook from scratch in the evening, adding a spoonful of sprout powder to your drinks and meals can add rich health benefits to your diet. If you made plans to improve your health this year, steer clear of synthetic supplements and look to the power of sprouts to revamp your diet. Nothing could be easier than nutritional powder, and nothing could be more natural than sprouts.