Healthy Realizations | Dr. Soram's Integrative Medicine

Sprouts: Why They are Among the Healthiest Foods You Can Eat … and 15 Interesting Varieties

Sprouts are tiny, baby plants that are just beginning their journey into the familiar veggies we know. Yet, at this stage the sprout is packed with high concentrations of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and more, which it will need to grow into a mature plant.

Eating sprouts, therefore, is said to be among the healthiest ways to consume your vegetables, because you get higher concentrations of nutrients, and, because the sprout is still alive and growing when it’s consumed, it is a raw food, full of live nutrition (which cooked vegetables do not provide).

“Sprouts are the elixir of life,” says Angela Elliott, a practitioner in holistic modalities and author of Alive in 5: Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes.

Of note, while a head of broccoli from the supermarket will degrade in nutritional quality the longer it sits in your fridge, broccoli sprouts will continue to grow and gain nutrients, within reason, until you eat them. Further, gram for gram, broccoli sprouts have more nutrients than mature broccoli, so eating a small amount of sprouts may actually be better for you than eating a large amount of mature broccoli.

Click here to read more.

5 Behaviors That Promote Healthy Living Past Age 90

What does it take to live to be 100, or even 91? Ask a handful of centenarians, and you’re likely to get a handful of different answers.
“Keep a smile on your face,” “No tobacco,” “Treat others how you want to be treated,” and “Drink a warm beer before bed,” are all words of longevity from people who have passed the 100-year point.

In fact, this exclusive group of people who are over 100 are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, their numbers at 40,000 and growing strong.

If you would like to someday join those who are 100+, it turns out that there may be more to it than just luck. A new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine has uncovered five keys that can, in fact, help you to live longer.

The study involved more than 2,300 men whose average age at the beginning of the study (in 1981) was 72. The men answered yearly questionnaires about their health and lifestyle, and were tested for mental and physical functioning. In 2008, 970 of the men made it into their 90s.

It turns out that there were five factors that helped them to not only live longer, but also to be healthy and well-functioning in their older years.

Click here to find out those five factors.