There is a new film titled Code Blue that explores how the root cause of chronic disease is poor nutrition, which is particularly timely because evidence shows that those with chronic disease are more likely to get very ill or die from COVID-19. The article Covid-19 and Code Blue describes the film in more detail and explains the link between chronic disease, Covid-19, and the fact that most doctors learn little or nothing about impact of nutrition on health during their training.
Chef AJ recently interviewed Dr. David Katz about his recent book titled How to Eat: Your Food and Diet Questions Answered. David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP, FACLM is a preventive medicine specialist and globally recognized authority on lifestyle medicine. He is the founder and former director of Yale University's Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (1998-2019); Past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; President and Founder of the non-profit True Health Initiative; and Founder and CEO of Diet ID, Inc.
The following is an excerpt from an article on the healthline website:
For instance, several studies show that sprouting helps increase protein content. Sprouts also tend to contain higher levels of essential amino acids, with certain individual amino acids increasing by as much as 30%. In addition, the proteins in sprouts may also be easier to digest. This is likely due to the sprouting process, which appears to reduce the amount of antinutrients — compounds that decrease your body’s ability to absorb nutrients from the plant — by up to 87%.
This NutritionFacts Video explains some benefits of broccoli sprouts and compares the nutritional value of the sprouts with a broccoli supplement.
Like any fresh produce that is consumed raw or lightly cooked, sprouts can carry a risk of foodborne illness if they are contaminated. For this reason I have started to grow my own sprouts from organic seeds. So far I have grown broccoli sprouts from seeds and supplies purchased on Amazon and mung bean sprouts from organic mung beans purchased at Giant. Bean sprouts are easy to grow in two or three days and would be a good place to start if you want to try sprouting. It is a bit more complicated to grow broccoli sprouts and the recommended growing time is five days but, as suggested in the NutritionFacts Video, I will try eating some two day old sprouts from my next crop.
The Sprout People website has a large amount of information on how to graw various types of sprouts in both written and video form. They also sell sprouting seeds, kits and supplies. Their prices seem to be competitive with Amazon but they charge for shipping on smaller orders which, depending on what you get, can increase the price dramatically.
Every year the Hippocrates Health Institute sponsors a free The Real Truth About Health Conference at which the world's top nutrition and lifestyle doctors explain the latest research on how to dramatically reduce your chance of getting a disease while maintaining your optimal weight and health. This year the conference included four sessions at which a panel of doctors answered questions posed by the moderator. These sessions are long but there are no slides to see so you can get all of the information just by listening. I have listed some, but not all, of the topics with time stamps in case you want to pick and choose: