The $1 Superfood That Could Prevent Chronic Illness | Why Sprouting Matters | Be Well Moments

0:00Welcome to Live Well Be Well, a show to help high performers improve their health and well-being.

0:10One of the biggest helpful mindsets, especially when it gets to food, exercise, anything that you're trying to increase, don't think about what you have to remove because then you're living in a very deprivation mindset, right? Yeah, you're living in scarcity. Exactly. But people might be listening to this and going, okay, this sounds amazing. One, like how do I grow that at home? Because they might be looking at YouTube and seeing this kind of equipment that's sat next to you. Do you need equipment, specific equipment at home? Because you mentioned you don't need soil, you don't need fertilizer, you don't need light.

0:42I think that's what you said. So what does someone need to start adding this into their diet? So I wrote the Sprout book that became the number one best-selling plant-based book, vegan book, vegetarian book on Amazon. And there's a whole chapter in the book called Junkyard Dog, where I talk about how you can sprout with anything, pulling things out of the recycle bin, use pasta jars, mason jars, et cetera. And so I began doing that. That's how you started. Yeah, I began doing that. Ultimately, as I started to get spouting, taking spouting more seriously, and my setup was a mason jar, an iPad stand, a little saucer, and then cheesecloth, that that setup worked.

1:37and it worked for a while, but I realized that the mason jar was designed for canning and it had shapes that prevented all the water from draining. And the cheesecloth, although it was very effective for allowing air to flow in and out, the porous nature of the cotton of the cheesecloth was actually collecting exudate and bacteria, which you don't want. And so by the fifth or seventh day, this beautiful muslin-like fabric was turning brown, and that brown was bacteria. So I didn't want that. And then I wanted anything that touched the sprouts to be glass. If you're looking on YouTube, we're getting it up.

2:24Or stainless steel. And so I want to have a big jar that I could hold with my little hands, and that was glass and stainless steel. and that was pretty that could fit into my kitchen that people would want to have because the iPad stand worked, but then it wasn't designed to get wet. So then things get rusty. And so I decided to make the sprouting kit. But if you're in other parts of the world, you can start off the way I started off, with a mason jar. Going through your recycling bin. Exactly. Just start anywhere. 1 billion people worldwide are deficient in this nutrient that so many of you guys might not be aware of.

3:10And women, if you're listening, you are more at risk of being deficient in this nutrient. So I'm going to first of all explain what the physical symptoms are. If you have cold hands and feet, pale skin, extreme lack of energy or fatigue, then you might be suffering with iron deficiency or anemia. Now, first off, please go to your GP to get your iron levels checked. Secondly, please explore a good iron supplement. Many people that come to me are worried about taking iron supplementation because it can cause constipation or GI distress. That's why I'm so incredibly proud to be partnering for this episode with Spartone, the number one iron-rich water supplement.

3:51Now, I've personally been using these for years. The reason why is because they are naturally sourced, highly absorbable iron. that means it's much more gentle on your stomach there's no harsh tablets it's just one naturally sourced ingredient that works very well you can pick it up in boots or buy online at amazon but please do not ignore this it is really critical to make sure your iron levels are in check i think that's the biggest thing right i think a lot of people don't start things myself included for the reason of it feels a lot of hard work or this feels so distant from what my normal routine is that you have so many friction points in place that stop you from actually starting.

4:36But actually saying, I'm just going to go and get some seeds and put them in a mason jar and swirl them around with water and just start playing. And I have a free five-day masterclass that someone could take at commune. So one O-N-E commune.com slash sprouts or slash Doug. And they can get a free class and learn all about sprouting with resources and guides. Because for me, this is about getting the mission out there. And I think we'll be in the UK, we'll be in Europe. But the most important thing is seeds are universal. And sprouting for me is about food equality, food justice. So it's interesting, like one of the things that keeps me up at night literally is knowing that 25 ,000 people every day are dying of starvation, right?

5:30Somewhere in the world, whether it's India or China or Sudan or Africa, someone's dying of starvation. And then on the other hand, in the Western developed world, we have 100 ,000 people a day dying of preventable chronic illnesses. Obesity, heart disease, cancer, like all preventable diseases. So the fact that we can make a difference and we just have to normalize sprouting. And so there are things that haven't been things that have become things. And I think sprouting is a logical one of those that will just happen as soon as we give voice to it. I think what this podcast is doing for me is making it not an elitist product and making it actually that it's a very accessible product that we can all do.

6:25And I think something that people might be surprised about is the protein quantity of sprouts. Because I think the first thing that people think about, and maybe not from our show because we speak a lot about plant-based diets here, is the protein quality. And I think I read in your book that sprouting increases protein by 20%. Yes. How? I mean, it's nature and it's science. So what happens is when you have the legume or you have the seed and you cook it, you're basically making it edible by removing the starches and the lectins and the like. When you're sprouting it, you're partnering with the natural process of nature.

7:13So by activating all of the biological metabolic processes, it's making the amino acid profile expand and it's making it bioavailable and it's increasing in the journey. There's nothing else like sprouting in the world. like the fact that you could take some seeds you got some broccoli some broccoli seeds you know we can here you can take these seeds yeah right the fact that you could take those seeds yeah and when you soak them you reduce the lectins the enzyme inhibitors the phytic acid but you're triggering this metabolic process that is literally greater than the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.

8:09And if you think about a little caterpillar and it builds a cocoon and it bursts its way out of the cocoon and these wings flow and it can fly, that's a pretty magical natural process. Every one of those seeds contains that level of energy and that level of life force. it's interesting because as i'm looking at this what's coming into my mind is i know the uk are five years behind america um and i used to live in new york for i lived there for five years and i always remember when i lived there which was about 15 years ago when i first moved there chai seeds were coming up flax seeds were coming up there was a lot of these types of seeds and i remember people all of a sudden were making chai seed puddings and soaking them in oats and that was like one of the things that now is abundant and it's on a lot of menus and a lot of healthcare stores, but you don't have to be in the health circle to have heard of a chai seed now.

9:06That's right. Whereas 15 years ago, you had to be kind of in that health circle to know about it. That's right. I'm looking at these and I'm thinking, are these the next chai seeds? Are these things that are going to be coming up? It's really beyond. Like sprouting is a time that has come. Yeah. And so what's happening now is there's never been a greater need for high quality nutrition. And now with the new administration in the US, like going after additives, preservatives, food colorings, and going back towards a more simple plant-centered diet, like there's a need. The average leaf of lettuce in the United States travels 2 ,000 miles till it gets to the grocery store.

9:55So sprouts are traveling two feet. Like they're fresher. They're more nutritious. And strangely and oddly enough, like how did I become the sprout guy? I am nature's greatest miracle. I have the energy. I have the intelligence. I had the experience and I had the unique perspective of being a raw vegan living in a food desert that was uncompromising in my standards of what I would eat. And out of all of the possible solutions, like I could grow oyster mushrooms or I could grow microalgae or I could grow a garden. It's not too difficult to do a complete analysis, like a McKinsey study, and come up with sprouts.

10:50And now anyone could do this analysis quickly with chat GPT or Gemini or AI, and all answers will lead to sprouts. Thanks so much for listening. To hear the full episode, there's a link in the description. my