Sprouted legumes are healthier, but most of that depends on the stages of sprouting and different strains!

We all heard that sprouts are a healthy food. Or is it?

It's well known that sprouting seeds increases their nutritional value. But researchers  have uncovered some surprising facts about how the sprouting process varies over time and the strain of seed.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

This study looked at what happens inside chickpeas as they sprout or germinate. It focused on how special proteins called enzymes break down other proteins in the seed over time. This process helps the seed grow into a healthy plant.

The researchers thought the enzyme activity would be a simple switch that gets turned on right after the seeds are soaked and swell up. However, that's not what they found at all.

They were  able to detect different enzymes from the pattern of digestion they left behind. What surprised them was that, over time, different enzymes take turns breaking down proteins to release the nutrients. Not only that, they found that the pattern was very different between two common strains of chickpea, the yellow kabuli and the smaller brown desi, which is commonly eaten in India.

What this study highlights is that researchers need to explore the various health benefits of the different stages of germination, and of different strains. This could help in reducing food allergens, which are protein segments that can be broken down by the kind of enzymes that researchers are studying. So their next steps now are to explore how the enzymes of different seeds might act in releasing nutrients from each other's proteins.

Plant proteins are becoming increasingly important as a means of meeting nutritional requirements while minimizing the impacts on climate change and improving health. Key to having more plant-based protein in the diet is developing foods that are more easily digested and are well tolerated.

Legumes contribute strongly to plant-derived protein intake in human diets, particularly among vegetarians and vegans. The chickpea is the most important of the legumes in the diets of people in African and Asian countries.

Until now, the process of protein  breakdown and peptide release from the different sets of major legume proteins was not well understood. This is the first study of its type.

 Indrani Bera et al, Motif mapping during chickpea germination reveals a complex sequential activation of different proteolytic activities, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0307481