(NaturalHealth365) Sprouted Foods are having their ‘moment’ amongst health-conscious consumers! Online bloggers and nutrition experts are constantly touting the benefits of sprouted nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and grasses.

Additionally, there are scores of companies both online and in health food stores who offer sprouted food products. This is great news because it demonstrates the rising consumer trend geared by health-conscious individuals who want to optimize and upgrade their health.

But there is a potentially problematic oversight in the sprouted foods industry that many are not addressing and it’s important because it can have a serious effect on our health. The oversight is that many of the companies who sprout their food products might be using improperly tested tap water.

First off, what is sprouted foods and why are they beneficial?

When you eat a raw almond, it can be very difficult to digest because it is in a state of natural dormancy. There are tannins, phytic acid, and other enzyme inhibitors present, keeping it from sprouting and growing into a tree.

When spring rains begin, the moisture of the ground “activates” the nut and gives it an opportunity to grow during the warmer months when it will have plenty of sunlight.

By ‘sprouting’ or soaking seed based foods, we are replicating the very same process that would occur in nature.  As the enzyme inhibitors dissolve, the phytic acid, tannins, and other nutritional blockers also dissolve with it – allowing the foods nutritional components to become more bioavailable for our bodies to assimilate and benefit from.

This is why a sprouted nut tastes and feels so much better to our palate and is much easier on our digestive tract than an un-sprouted nut.

The sprouted food industry has a dirty little secret: Toxic tap water

Here’s the problem with sprouted foods that you order online or get at your local health food store – many are using ‘filtered’ tap water.  Tap water is filled with a potentially wide and differing array of contaminants almost everywhere in the world due to the chemical treatment at municipal water facilities, environmental pollutants, and lead/heavy metals from the old and often failing infrastructure that carries water from treatment facilities to peoples homes.

Water is the universal solvent. It could be, and in many cases, is most likely absorbing miles and miles of piping infrastructure possibly consisting of heavy metals, and other contaminants as well as lead (think Flint Michigan).

In truth, there’s no telling what municipality water piping structures can be like in any one location due to the age of the pipes, the condition of them, and the material that was used in their construction.  However it’s not just lead, a recent report of nearly 50,000 public water systems in the US revealed that between 2010 and 2015, more than 22,000 utilities were providing water through public systems containing radium, a radioactive cancer-causing element.

Public water utilities in 27 states had water exceeding the EPA’s legal limits for radium, and it was estimated that 38% of Americans are drinking tap water with this radioactive element that far exceeds the safety levels set in 2006 by California’s state scientists. (1)

Then in Jan of 2018, the EWG dropped a bombshell report demonstrating that more than half the country has been drinking carcinogenic radioactive tap water, the result of failing water infrastructure being piped into cities and peoples homes. (2)

Another concern in the southern states is pathogenic bacteria proliferation where the intense heat of summer creates ideal breeding grounds for bacterium from California to Florida.  Meanwhile, EPA data show that at least $384 billion in improvements will be needed through 2030 to maintain, upgrade and replace thousands of miles of pipe and thousands of treatment plants, storage tanks, and water distribution systems that make up our country’s water infrastructure. (3, & 4)

Another important factor to consider is that even if water treatment facilities are testing their water according to state requirements, the end consumer who turns on their faucet rarely ever tests that water. The journey from the treatment facility to a person’s home or a company manufacturing plant could have subjected the water to a plethora of new contaminants that everyone is oblivious to.

This is the water that most people drink, bathe in, cook their food with and that most companies use to soak their sprouted food products.

What can we do?

The most immediate steps someone can take to protect their health is:

A. Test the water that comes out of your tap, but be forewarned that testing can be expensive.

B. Invest in a home water purification system: If you don’t have access to extensively tested natural spring water. Use this water for drinking and sprouting.  Access to pure (clean) water is a valuable assets to own, and countertop models are reasonably affordable and make great travel companions.

C. Ask sprouted food companies to make sure they aren’t sprouting their certified organic foods with contaminant-laden tap water. Unfortunately using ‘filtered’ tap water is not enough in today’s age, especially when tap water issues have been consistently popping up all over the country.

D. If you want to buy sprouted nuts and seeds that are made with pristine Maine well water that has been routinely tested for over 15 years then look no further than Living Nutz.

For almost 17 years Living Nutz has been creating the best tasting, most healthy sprouted nuts, seeds, and snacks in North America. They offer a line of products made with the highest quality certified organic ingredients available anywhere, and they are one of the few companies who use unpasteurized almonds.

Sources for this article include:

Newsweek.com
EWG.org
EPA.gov