How to Sprout Nuts and Seeds to Make Your Keto Diet Super-successful?

March 20, 2022March 22, 2022 Neeta

You know that nuts and seeds are beneficial for health, and therefore you’ve included them in your diet. But every day new findings are being put forth by researchers and now you’ve come to know about the health benefits of ketogenic diet and that ‘sprouted’ nuts and seeds are a great help to achieve those benefits. So, you might be wondering how to sprout nuts and seeds. Here we’ll discuss that.

How to Sprout Nuts and Seeds

So far, you might have sprouted grains and legumes. But as now you’ve minimized or eliminated the use of grains and legumes as a part of ketogenic nutritional therapy, you want to benefit from the process of germination through nuts and seeds which is a good idea.

Please note that, it’s essential to find nuts and seeds labelled “raw” that have not been treated to discard bacteria, mold and toxins. If they have been treated, they’ve a least chance to germinate.

For sprouting nuts and seeds at home, you’ll need to follow a step of soaking and then sprouting. Remember that most nuts don’t fully sprout and stop after the step of soaking. Also, the time for soaking will differ with the type of nut or seed.

Here are steps to sprout nuts like almonds, cashews and hazelnuts, and seeds such as sunflower seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds.

Wash the nuts/seeds thoroughly with water.

Place the raw nuts or seeds in a bowl and add water at a level of a few inches. Cover the bowl with a paper or cloth towel and let the nuts/seeds soak. The soaking time and sprouting time for different nuts/seeds is:

Almond: 8 – 12 hours; germination time: 3 days
Cashews: 2 – 4 hours; germination time: no sprouting
Hazelnuts: 8 -12 hours; germination time: no sprouting
Brazil nuts: 8 hours; germination time: no sprouting
Sunflower seeds: 2 hours; germination time: 12 – 18 hours
Sesame seeds: 8 hours; germination time: 2 to 3 days
Flaxseeds: No need to soak (flaxseeds don’t need soaking. To best assimilate the nutrients in them, you should grind them; or else, they will pass through your digestive tract undigested. You can grind them in a spice or coffee grinder and refrigerate the ground seeds in an airtight container for up to 60 days).
Pumpkin seeds: 8 hours; germination time: 3 days

After soaking, drain and rinse the nuts/seeds and replace the water once every 3 hours.

Drain the water from the soaked nuts/seeds using a colander and transfer them to a shallow bowl.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of water to keep them moist.

Cover with a breathable lid to allow airflow. A piece of paper or cheesecloth secured with a rubber band also works well.

Let the nuts/seeds sprout.

Once the nuts/seeds sprout, you can transfer them to a breathable container and store them in the refrigerator, where they’ll last for 7 days. But after 7 days, they’ll start losing their nutritional value or grow mold.

Another alternative is to dehydrate them in a warm oven or dehydrator at about 120 degrees. You can even place them in the freezer.

Why Should You Sprout Nuts and Seeds?

The process of sprouting nuts and seeds starts creating a new baby plant. This does the following things:

Increases the potency of some micro and macronutrients, which in turn unlocks the nutritional value that wasn’t accessible in the nuts’/seeds’ inert state
Eliminates the naturally occurring antinutrients like phytic acid that blocks body’s ability to absorb some minerals like zinc, copper, iron, calcium and magnesium
All nuts and seeds contain enzyme inhibitors that keep them in a resting state until they get the appropriate conditions to grow. Unfortunately, these enzyme inhibitors interfere with human body’s digestive enzymes. Sprouting deactivates them.
Sprouting also produces certain enzymes that are immensely helpful for our digestive system.

So, you can see that sprouted nuts and seeds are so helpful in ketogenic nutritional therapy. They minimize your carbohydrate intake, provide you a healthy dose of fatty acids, protein and additional vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other nutrients, and help you to make your keto diet super-successful by reducing weight and protecting you from cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. So, start sprouting nuts and seeds today and enjoy a tasty health!