Some of the foods required in the Hippocrates diet can be prepared in your own kitchen. This chapter will discuss germinating and sprouting, the use of grasses and leafy green vegetables, the value of juicing, and the exciting use of some dehydrated and fermented foods.
Many ancient cultures knew the value of germinating and sprouting grains, seeds, legumes, and nuts. Today, more and more information is being compiled on the amazing nutritional value of sprouting:
Living foods that are germinated and sprouted give us the most concentrated natural sources of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and amino acids (proteins in a digestible form). They also provide abundant enzymes and bioelectrical energy, boosting their daily desirability. Pound for pound, lentils and other bean sprouts contain as much protein as red meat, yet are totally digestible and have none of the fat, cholesterol, hormones, or antibiotics found in most present-day meats.
Germination results when seeds, grains, legumes, and nuts are soaked in water for a period of time. Water removes certain metabolic inhibitors that protect the seed from bacterial invasion and preserve it during its dormant state. During germination, the seed springs into life, increasing its nutritional value and digestibility. Inherent enzyme inhibitors, phytates (natural insecticides), and oxalates (protective shields that prevent oxygen from penetrating) present in every seed, nut, bean, and grain, are removed and predigestion occurs. In this predigestion stage, starches are converted into simple sugars, proteins are broken down into amino acids, fats are converted into soluble fatty acids, and vitamins are created. Germination is used to make many of the seed and nut sauces suggested in recipes in chapter 11. It is also the first step in sprouting. But even if you plan to cook your grains or beans, you should germinate them first. (Due to their high oil content, do not ever cook seeds or nuts.)
Germinating a seed, nut, grain, or legume is beautifully simple (see Figure 9-1). Basically, all that is needed is a jar, seeds, water, light and oxygen. Soak the seeds or nuts the required time in room-temperature, with pure water. Then pour off the cloudy water (save it to water houseplants, which thrive on it), then rinse well to remove all inhibitors before food preparation. The seeds or nuts are now ready to be used.
The soaking time varies according to the size of the seed or nut. All small seeds such as alfalfa, radish, red clover, sesame, cabbage, and mustard can be soaked from four to six hours. Slightly larger seeds such as wheat, barley, fenugreek, buckwheat, and sunflower should be soaked for six to eight hours. Larger nuts and beans such as almonds, filberts, Brazil nuts, pintos, and chickpeas should be soaked for ten to twelve hours. However, climate, season, and temperature play a significant role; in warmer environments, soaking time is reduced.
Figure 9-1 Seeds, nuts, grains, and legumes sprouting method.
Sprouting carries the germinating process one step further, resulting in a variety of living foods, such as small alfalfa, clover, and radish sprouts, as well as sprouts from sunflower seeds and buckwheat seeds. (Later in this chapter you’ll learn how to grow the latter two on trays.)
Sprouts can be bought in many supermarkets, but to increase your supply, improve the quality, add variety, and reduce the cost, you can grow them yourself in just a few simple steps:
To begin, you will need wide-mouth jars, plastic screen mesh, and a rubber band to secure the mesh to the top of the jar, and, of course, the seeds, nuts, grains, or beans. (Business people and others who are often away from home will find automatic sprouters useful; when traveling, sprouting can be done in sprouting bags.)
First pour one cup of seeds, nuts, grains, or beans into a jar. Cover with plenty of water. Put the mesh over the top of the jar and secure with the rubber band. Place the jar out of direct sunlight and let the products soak in room-temperature water for the appropriate time (see the Hippocrates Sprouting Chart on this page). Pour off the water and rinse well. Turn the jar upside-down and let it drain. (Use a dish drainer to hold the jar at an angle.) From this point until they are stored, the seeds should stay well drained yet moist, get adequate air, and be kept warm in a dark or semidark location during the sprouting stages. Rinse the sprouts morning and evening to keep them from drying out. Rinse them more frequently in dry warmer climates when the sprouts grow more quickly and so are more prone to spoil.
Between rinsings, keep the jars upside down in a dish drainer at a forty-five-degree angle to allow for drainage and circulation. When they are ready, you will want to remove the hulls of seeds such as alfalfa, fenugreek, cabbage, mung, adzuki, and radish. (Others such as the grains, hulled sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, lentils, and chickpeas can be eaten as they are.) To remove hulls, place the sprouts in the sink or a large pan and fill with rushing water. Carefully shake the sprouts to loosen the hulls and when they rise to the top, brush the hulls aside. Next, carefully lift the soaking sprouts out of the water so as not to disturb any hulls that are floating along the side or have sunk to the bottom. Place the hulled sprouts in a colander to drain.
Allow the cleaned sprouts to dry before putting them in the refrigerator. To store sprouts in the refrigerator, place them in glass or plastic containers lined with paper towels to absorb excess moisture. Once refrigerated, rinse and drain the sprouts every three to four days to increase the “expiration date” from several days to several weeks. (But remember: the sooner you eat them, the richer they are in nutrients.)
Follow this process for growing sweet, juicy mung bean and adzuki sprouts:
Soaking. Very warm (130 to 140 degrees F) soak water is the key to developing a sweet sprout. If possible, change the soak water several times during the soaking process, or keep the soaking seeds in a very warm location.
Sprouting. The secret to long, straight, and juicy sprouts is to grow them under pressure in a warm, dark place. One way to do this is to grow them in a stainless steel colander with a heavy plate on top of them. You might think this will squash them, but it doesn’t; they grow larger and stronger.
Figure 9-2 Mung and adzuki sprouting method.
Wheatgrass, spelt grass, kamut grass, and barley grass are vital parts of the Hippocrates diet that can be prepared in your kitchen. These grasses are used primarily for making therapeutic juice, but they have other uses as well. The blades of the grass can be chewed, the juice extracted in the mouth, and the pulp discarded (not swallowed). This will freshen stale breath or relieve sore throats. The grasses can also be chewed to relieve sore teeth and gums. The juice can be applied to burns, cuts, rashes, poison ivy, and insect bites; or it can be soaked up in a lump of semi-dried grass and placed in a bandage to help heal boils, open sores, external ulcers, tumors, and other skin problems.
Wheatgrass is one of nature’s richest sources of vitamins A and C. It contains all the known minerals your body needs such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, sulfur, cobalt, and zinc, as well as all essential amino acids, which makes it a complete protein. It’s also rich in the B vitamins, especially B-17 (more commonly known as laetrile), which is said to selectively destroy cancer cells without affecting normal cells. Wheatgrass juice also aids digestion and can be used to help relieve many internal pains. It has been used to treat peptic ulcer and ulcerative colitis.
Decades of research and application at the institute have found that this plant gets its miraculous powers from the massive amounts of vitamin-rich chlorophyll it contains. When scientists examined wheatgrass, they found that chlorophyll makes up a large percentage of the grass’ composition after the water is extracted. Wheatgrass is very similar to the chemical molecular structure of human red blood cells, enhancing the blood’s capacity to carry oxygen to every cell of the body. This amazing natural substance also produces an environment that suppresses bacterial growth in the body and counteracts toxins that have been ingested. Nature uses the chlorophyll in wheatgrass as a body cleanser, rebuilder, and neutralizer of the toxins that accumulate in our bodies and poison our systems. The accumulations of these toxins contribute to degenerative diseases such as arthritis, diabetes, and heart disease. Dr. G. H. Erp-Thomas, scientist and soil expert, isolated more than one hundred elements from fresh wheatgrass and concluded that it is a complete food. Fifteen pounds of fresh wheatgrass is equivalent in nutritional value to 350 pounds of the choicest vegetables.
To prepare wheatgrass or other graingrass in your kitchen, purchase organic, whole winter-wheat or other hard-grain kernels at your local health food store. Obtain several trays a half inch deep and measuring 14 by 18 inches. (We use cafeteria trays, which can be purchased from restaurant supply stores.) The trays hold the soil and seeds; you can use another as a cover to hold in the moisture, or you can use black plastic. If you want to have one tray of wheatgrass available to use every day, you’ll need a total of eight trays in all (sixteen if you want to use trays as covers). You’ll also need organic soil from a nursery (or dig it up from a forest if allowed) combined with 50 percent peat moss. (As you progress, you can produce the highest quality compost from discarded root mats and vegetable table scraps.)
To plant wheatgrass, soak one cup of whole winter-wheat seeds from six to twelve hours in a lot of water, and then sprout for another twelve hours with the jar upside down in a dish drainer. In warm weather, rinse at least two times to prevent drying out.
Spread a one-inch layer of soil in a tray and make drainage troughs or a gutter along the four sides. Spread the germinated seeds evenly over the tray, being careful not to let them spill in the trough. Also, try not to let the seeds pile on top of one another. Then water thoroughly, but do not overwater. (You can tell if you have over-watered if you see water standing in the gutter.) Next, place another tray or black plastic over the seeds and leave for three days, or until the sprouts start pushing up the cover. Uncover, water thoroughly, and place in a bright spot but not in direct sunlight. Water once a day along the trough, and sprinkle the soil and growing sprouts. Your plants will be mature enough to use in about seven days, depending on weather and climate. Harvest by cutting the grass at the soil line with a sharp knife or scissors.
After harvesting, refrigerate the grass to prevent complete deterioration. But keep a continual supply of wheatgrass growing, because these sprouts lose most of their potency after one week. You may also purchase an automatic sprouter and avoid the soil growing and effort.
Besides wheatgrass and graingrass, the green sprouts of sunflower and buckwheat seeds are also integral to the Hippocrates diet. These are sprouted then planted in soil on trays similar to wheatgrass. Sunflower greens contain a full spectrum of amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and supply vitamin D without the problems inherent in dairy sources. These baby greens contain an abundance of sun energy and chlorophyll, and are considered a complete food. Buckwheat lettuce is very high in bioactive lecithin and helps eliminate deposits on arterial walls. It is also an excellent source of chlorophyll and contains good amounts of B-vitamins such as riboflavin (the red you see in the stems) and rutin (food for the brain). These tray sprouts are eaten in salads shortly after harvesting and are juiced for green drinks (see below).
Figure 9-4 Three types of tray greens.
The procedure for growing tray-grown sprouts of sunflower and buckwheat is similar to the wheatgrass procedure. Be sure to buy organically grown or biologically grown seeds with their hulls left on.
For each tray, begin by soaking the seeds in large jars. Use 1½ cups sunflower seeds and fill the jar with 4 cups water or use 1½ cups dry buckwheat seeds in 2 cups water. Soak for eight hours, then drain the seeds and allow them to sprout for twelve hours. Plant and harvest these germinated seeds following the tray procedure outlined on this page for wheatgrass.
If your sprouts and tray greens do not grow into healthy greens, check this trouble-shooting list for possible reasons:
The seeds that do not sprout will naturally mold. Problem areas may be:
Fresh juices are another key to the Hippocrates Program. The extracted juices from fresh vegetables, some fruits, sprouts, and tray-grown green sprouts allow us to get all the benefits of their out standing nutritional qualities in an easily assimilated form. Juices are digested immediately and begin cleansing and healing long before the same whole foods can begin to work. In addition, whole foods use up valuable energy because of the prolonged digestion process.
Juicing is not the same thing as blending or even liquefying. A blender makes a fruit or vegetable appear liquefied, but a juicer extracts only the liquid, leaving the cellulose or fiber behind. At the institute, we use several juicers for preparing fresh juices. The noncentrifugal Champion-type juicers are excellent machines, ideal for making a variety of juices. Also preferred are pressure-press or auger-press juicers; these are low speed machines that press the juice out of the more fibrous sprouts, greens, and grass—a job that the high speed machines can not do efficiently.
All fresh juices should be consumed as soon as possible, before they lose their natural potency. Grass juices, in particular, are not stable and tend to go bad quickly; it’s best to drink your grass juice immediately or within fifteen minutes after preparation.
Be advised that wheatgrass is a powerful cleanser, and it may cause nausea in some people soon after ingestion. This is merely a reaction to the release of toxins within the system. Start with small quantities, one ounce or so, and then each day gradually increase the intake to three or four ounces. (Wheatgrass juice is also used as part of a sound colon-cleansing program by implanting the juice directly into the colon as explained in chapter 7.)
Green drinks are vital to health and well-being. These are made from juiced sunflower and buckwheat sprouts and vegetables such as cucumbers, celery, parsley, watercress, sweet red peppers, and kale. All are juiced in the slow-turning press juicers. What gives these drinks their healing qualities is that they are made almost entirely from the indoor tray-grown sprouts. These are the most alive of the living foods and the other vegetables are added merely for flavor. I suggest drinking at least two twelve-ounce glasses of green drink per day. These drinks are an exceptional source of chlorophyll. They supply from one-third to one-half of the protein needed by the average adult each day. And they have a cleansing and alkalinizing effect upon the body.
Drink green drinks within fifteen minutes of preparation to gain the oxygen, enzymes, and nutrients that rapidly diminish with time. You can refrigerate these drinks, but their impact will be dramatically reduced.
Dehydration is a good bridge between cooked and raw foods. Drying fruits, vegetables, nut-and-seed mixtures with readily available home dehydrators opens another door to a whole world of healthy, nutritious, and delicious eating. While some vitamin and enzyme breakdown occurs during dehydration, it is still much preferred to cooking.
When preparing a menu of dehydrated foods, use fruits sparingly. While small amounts of fruit in the daily diet are usually beneficial, a high amount of fruit in your diet makes it too rich in sugar and aggravating to certain illnesses, such as high or low blood sugar, vaginal yeast infections, Candida albicans, cancer, and viral problems. Therefore, when dehydrating, use more vegetables and less fruit. If you are ill, avoid dried fruits completely.
Fermented foods may be part of your Hippocrates diet, but use sparingly. For many years, we advocated a wide variety of fermented foods and drinks for all people. Certain important and friendly bacteria grow during the fermentation process. These bacilli encourage healthy intestinal fauna and regulate bowel movements. But over the years, we noticed that they sometimes caused adverse reactions. Fermented drinks and fermented seed cheeses and nut loaves were found occasionally to harbor unfriendly bacteria. Fermented foods were legitimate and desirable for many people’s diets, but some found many of these foods irritating. Now we feel that the health benefits of fermentation are best derived from only the occasional use of raw sauerkraut. We also suggest that people with fungal, mold, yeast, or bacterial infections should avoid sauerkraut until they are well.
Before you browse through chapter 11 and select your favorite recipes, take a moment to think about the kitchen supplies you’ll need to stay on the Hippocrates diet. A well-stocked kitchen should have the following items:
You can find these items at your local health food store and in some appliance stores.
