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Bean Sprouts
See also Beans.

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Nutritional Profile
Energy value (calories per serving): Low
Protein: High
Fat: Low
Saturated fat: Low
Cholesterol: None
Carbohydrates: High
Fiber: Moderate
Sodium: Low
Major vitamin contribution: B vitamins, folate, vitamin C
Major mineral contribution: Iron, potassium

About the Nutrients in This Food

Because beans use stored starches and sugars to produce green shoots
called sprouts, sprouted beans have less carbohydrate than the beans from
which they grow. But bean sprouts are a good source of dietary fiber,
including insoluble cellulose and lignin in leaf parts and soluble pectins
and gums in the bean. The sprouts are also high in the B vitamin folate
and vitamin C.
One-half cup raw mung bean sprouts has 1.2 mg dietary fiber, 31.5
mcg folate (8 percent of the RDA), and 7 mg vitamin C (9 percent of the
RDA for a woman, 7 percent of the RDA for a man).
Raw beans contain anti-nutrient chemicals that inhibit the enzymes
we use to digest proteins and starches; hemagglutinins (substances that
make red blood cells clump together); and factors that may inactivate vitamin A. These chemicals are usually destroyed when the beans are heated.
Sprouted beans served with the bean must be cooked before serving.

The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food

Cooked (see Adverse effects associated with this food).

Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food

Low-fiber, low-residue diet

Buying This Food

Look for: Fresh, crisp sprouts. The tips should be moist and tender. (The shorter the sprout,
the more tender it will be.) It is sometimes difficult to judge bean sprouts packed in plastic
bags, but you can see through to tell if the tip of the sprout looks fresh. Sprouts sold from
water-filled bowls should be refrigerated, protected from dirt and debris, and served with a
spoon or tongs, not scooped up by hands.
Avoid: Mushy sprouts (they may be decayed) and soft ones (they have lost moisture and
vitamin C).

Storing This Food

Refrigerate sprouts in a plastic bag to keep them moist and crisp. If you bought them in a
plastic bag, take them out and repack them in bags large enough that they do not crush each
other. To get the most vitamin C, use the sprouts within a few days.

Preparing This Food

Rinse the sprouts thoroughly under cold running water to get rid of dirt and sand. Discard
any soft or browned sprouts, then cut off the roots and cook the sprouts.
Do not tear or cut the sprouts until you are ready to use them. When you slice into the
sprouts, you tear cells, releasing enzymes that begin to destroy vitamin C.

What Happens When You Cook This Food

Cooking destroys some of the heat-sensitive vitamin C in sprouts. To save it, steam the
sprouts quickly, stir-fry them, or add them uncooked just before you serve the dish.

How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food

Canning. Vitamin C is heat-sensitive, and heating the sprouts during the canning process
reduces their vitamin C content.

Medical Uses and/or Benefits

Lower risk of some birth defects. As many as two of every 1,000 babies born in the United
States each year may have cleft palate or a neural tube (spinal cord) defect due to their
mothers not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The RDA for
folate is 400 mcg for healthy adult men and women, 600 mcg for pregnant women, and
500 mcg for women who are nursing. Taking folate supplements before becoming pregnant

Bean Sprouts
and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft palate;
taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects.
Lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records for more
than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses Health Study at Harvard School of
Public Health/Brigham and Womans Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a diet providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B6 daily, from either food or supplements,
more than twice the current RDA for each, may reduce a womans risk of heart attack by
almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the analysis, the results are assumed
to apply to them as well. However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers
at Tulane University examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients
with preexisting cardiovascular disease were given either folic acid supplements or placebos
(look-alike pills with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no
reduction in the risk of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic
acid, concluded that further studies will be required to verify whether taking folic acid
supplements reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Adverse Effects Associated with This Food

Food poisoning: Reacting to an outbreak of Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 food poisoning
associated with eating raw alfalfa sprouts, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in 1998 and again in summer 1999, cautioning those at high risk of food-borne illness
not to eat any raw sprouts. The high-risk group includes children, older adults, and people
with a weakened immune system (for example, those who are HIV-positive or undergoing
cancer chemotherapy). Tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1999 suggest that irradiating raw sprouts and bathing them in an antiseptic solution at the processing
plant may eliminate disease organisms and prolong the vegetables shelf life; this remains
to be proven.

Food Drug Interactions

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