Bean Sprouts: A Good Summer Vegetable for Older Adults
Bean sprouts include mung-bean and soybean sprouts. The original article favors mung-bean sprouts in summer because it states that they are richer in nutrients and contain 16 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams—more than four times the amount in soybean sprouts. It gives the following historical analysis for each 100 grams of mung beans: about 22.1 grams protein, 0.8 grams fat, 59 grams carbohydrate, 49 milligrams calcium, 268 milligrams phosphorus, 3.2 milligrams iron and 1.6 milligrams niacin, as well as peptides and other substances. Some characters and the energy unit are damaged in the archived source.
Bean sprouts are presented as a popular summer vegetable and especially valuable for older adults. The article reports earlier nutrition research claiming that regular consumption may help prevent cancers of the digestive tract because sprouts contain vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid. It describes vitamin C as essential between the body’s cells, as helping injured blood-vessel walls heal and as a material for synthesizing chondroitin. It further repeats historical claims that chondroitin removes cholesterol and fat attached to vessel walls and that sprouts therefore protect blood vessels, resist coronary disease and cancer, improve health and extend life.
The page cites unnamed American medical and nutrition research claiming that sprouts contain comprehensive minerals, amino acids, many vitamins and anti-cancer substances. It says mung beans and soybeans contain little vitamin C as beans but become rich in it after sprouting, and claims natural vitamin C has stronger effects and fewer side effects than synthetic vitamin C.
It attributes to a University of Chicago Hospitals nutrition professor the view that cooking sprouts with other foods can improve the nutritional value of those foods. It also attributes to a Houston, Texas cancer-research institute experimental claims that chlorophyll in sprouts can resist rectal and other cancers. These claims are reproduced as historical wording and should not be treated as current medical evidence.
When purchasing sprouts, the article recommends thick, tender and fresh sprouts, which it says have the most vitamin C. It advises stir-frying over high heat for a short time—about three minutes—so excessive cooking does not destroy vitamin C or reduce nutritional value.