Unpacking the Health Benefits of Sprouts – With Doug Evans

Dr. Mindy
This might be the wrong word to use. But I want to dive into the meat of why we need to start to look at the micronutrients that sprouts can really provide us because you know, what we talked about coming into this conversation, Doug is just how important getting sprouts into the into every home from a nutrient level. So, so my first question to you is, you know, what is it about sprouts and the nutrient power that it punch the punch that it gives, that we can’t get in any other food? Why have you Why have you taken this on as your cause? And what is it about sprouts? That is really changing people’s health?

Doug Evans
Yeah, the most important thing was the accessibility to sprouts, like I lived in New York, LA San Francisco, for most of my adult life. And then, you know, when I ventured out into nature into the desert, right, I live in the Mojave desert near Joshua Tree, I realized I was also in a food desert, and grow your own food. It takes weeks or months or years. And sprouts were something that I always knew were nutritious. And but I always relegated them as a side dish or as a garnish. And then here, I was having an X an existential crisis, what was I going to eat. And so you know, while staring up the galaxy and the Milky Way, we have very dark skies here, I saw all the stars twinkling, and I got the download for my book, the scrapbook that three real principles. Number one, sprouts were vegetables. And I always thought of them as a garnish, but they are full on vegetables. And number two routes were vitamins and minerals. So we think about people taking billions of dollars of vitamin supplements, synthetic processed, additives, fillers, multivitamins, protein powders, the fact is that you could, if you were to do a blood panel, urine fecal analysis microbiome, you could identify where you were deficient or depleted, and repeat yourself through the nutrients of sprouts. And if you want to get higher concentrations of protein, the legumes, the soy, the garbanzo, the lentils are incredible sources of proteins, and that every single sprout contains every amino acid to become a complete protein, some more than others, the combination of them make them complete. And so that was really powerful. insightfully that sprouts were vitamins, and minerals. And the third one, which really blew my mind was that sprouts from Madison, that they had mechanisms and compounds in them, that could detoxify benzene from the lungs, that could kill cancer cells that could open up the NRF, two pathways that could create an address inflammation that could attack early Alzheimer’s, that could regulate insulin levels in diabetics. And there was all of this science, nutrition backed science behind this sprouts, but no one had pulled it all together, no one went over the top fanatical about sprouts. Because we live in an affluent convenience culture. So we can go most people were affluent, can go buy, go to a health food store, go to a restaurant, buy online, high quality nutrients. And the poor people aren’t worried about nutrition. The poor people are basically unfortunately, eating fast food, processed food, refined food, you know, and basically developing all of these chronic illnesses. So it’s really both corner cases that could need it the most. Yeah, the road where people are eating moderate, don’t need fasting as much they don’t need sprouts as much. They’re just, you know, living their mediocre comfortable life along the way.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, well, you know, my audience knows that that health happens in the discomfort you know, there’s that principle of hormetic stressor that we’ve got to put our put ourselves in little micro stressors to be able to grow stronger. So I love that you’ve you say that. One of the questions I have for you as a as an avid salad maker like that is my one of my superpowers. I make salads every night when my kids lived at home. That was I mean, that was I always used to say it was my love language to my family. So but when I looked at what I would put together in a salad. I knew from a microbiome standpoint that a variety of lettuces would be good. So if I could put, you know, kale and I can put the spring mix and arugula, and I put it all together that it would would give my microbiome of a more vast, prebiotic piece to it and feed the good microbes. But I never thought of using sprouts. And I do use sprouts in in my salads. But I never looked at Gosh, when I when I put together put sprouts in my salad, not only am I getting more nutrients, but what I just heard you say is I’m also getting protein. So if we just bring this down to a level of someone wanting to make a salad, Are we better off like just taking a bunch of sprouts and putting it next to our meal? Or is, you know is is is it have more nutrient power then, like arugula, for example?

Doug Evans
Yeah, I mean, so I stopped buying salad mixes and lettuces years ago, five years ago. So I grow all of my own greens. For my salads in the form of sprouts. The if you look on my Tiktok, at Sprout whiz, or on my Instagram, I’m just using salads used to be a garnish. Now salads are the center of my plate. So when you talk about diversity, I’m growing six to 12 jars, alfalfa, azuki, radish, Clover, broccoli, chia, lentils, fenugreek, also variety of peas, dung growing them. And it’s an incredible metamorphosis that occurs when you take a seed, which looks like a little pebble, right? It’s a complete living organism. When you soak it and germinate it, it transforms into a vegetable. And something as simple as a lentil, you’re doubling the antioxidant levels, you’re tripling the vitamin C. And when the chute comes out, and the route comes out, you’re getting bio available, soluble and insoluble fiber. So that tender, insoluble fiber, you’re actually able to feed the microbiome, and you’re able to extract the water base nutrition from the cytoplasm. So it’s extremely rich. So that’s my form of the salad. When you take some of the legumes, and you’re sprouting the legumes, the lentils, the peas, the garbanzo beans, the mung beans, you’re actually removing the phytic acids, you’re lowering the lectin levels, you’re removing the enzyme inhibitors, and through the rinsing process, right, so the extra date is rinsed away. And you’re getting like this tender, nutrient dense vegetable. So even like a handful of garbanzo beans is like 20 grand sprouted garbanzo beans is 20 grams of protein. So you’re getting this for it.

Dr. Mindy
I never heard I think he told me that the last time we talked, but I have never heard that before. And it’s really cool because what we talk a lot about in the fasting movement is that you need to add protein back in to stimulate mTOR mTOR is muscle growth. So when you go into a fasted state, you’re really stimulating a toffee G, but on the other side of that is mTOR. An mTOR is growth. And in order to do that, you’ve got to get 30 grams of protein, specifically at that first meal that you break your fast with. So what I just heard is that you could take like, let’s say you’re not a vegetarian, let’s say you eat meat, you can take just a little bit of meat and put some sprouts next to it. And you’ve now amplified the protein content or if you are vegan, you could take so much of it sprout sprouted sprout from a garbanzo bean and you’ve now got your protein, your 30 grams of protein if you measured it out.

Doug Evans
Oh my god, we could break Mindy, this is I’m so excited. We can create a protein break fast browsing next. Well, let’s Zuki with lentil. green pea is with garbanzo beans, soy like the best way to eat soy is sprouted soybeans. There’s no question organic sprouted soybeans is the way to each graph. And you know there’s this other thing that we don’t most people don’t talk about in nutrition because it’s just too difficult. And that’s called living foods. Right? So while you’re eating something that’s living in a normal salad, it’s bought, right? It’s raw, it’s it’s a leaf of a plant. It’s the it’s the floret of The plant, but it’s been cut away from its root system. So it’s actually in the dying and decaying stage. When you’re eating a sprout, it’s in the life force stage, the root, the chute, the root hairs, the embryo, the endosperm is all alive. And you’re getting this enzymatically rich system, which is part of the active means of when you you know what, in order to activate this sulfur Fein from broccoli sprouts, you’re taking the broccoli sprouts, which have the isothiocyanates glucosinolates. And you mix that with the enzyme Murase naes, which is very volatile. So the compound glucoraphanin is shelf stable, but the enzyme myrosinase is volatile, which is why when you cook it, you deplete it. And so if you take that the little vacuoles when you chew them, crush them, freeze them, they mix them together, and you get the active compound. So first thing, so there’s there’s this whole science of sprouting, which is incredible, which is why I when I moved to the desert, I lived exclusively on sprouts for 30 days. And I felt just so healthy. And now I eat sprouts and fruit because I love my fruits. Right. And, and so that’s where I am. So I want to make sure I answered your question why I’m enthusiastic about sprout.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, I love it and love what you’re saying. And so let me just make sure that we don’t that I want the listener to really grab what you just said. So when I have our garbanzo bean, well, let’s use a chia, chia chia seed as an example, you can sprout from a GSE

Doug Evans
Yeah, so that’s chia and flax.

Dr. Mindy
Okay, so let’s use flax as an as both of those are prebiotics. So

Doug Evans
they and high in ALA.

Dr. Mindy
Okay, so when I sprout them, is there more nutrient in the sprout than the original seed itself?

Doug Evans
Yeah, that there’s something magical, right. And it’s in nature, that if you were to do an assay on a flax seed, and you were to look at the water component, and you go one plus one, this is what we hear. But if you were to look at those over days of time, you are manifesting and creating new compounds like you’re literally increasing the volume. And it’s not just water, it’s somehow sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. And the stem cells within there are actually growing into their fullest potential, which is why you’re doubling and tripling the various compounds inside the vitamin C, the antioxidants, the fibers, it’s growing. And this is occurring without soil without fertilizer, like the energy within the sprouts in that first week. That’s the magic of sprouts.

Dr. Mindy
Oh my gosh, okay. i It’s funny because you know, you and I sat on a panel for Jesse’s build your life resume grip. And when you when I heard you speak a couple of years ago, I was like, Yeah, that’s really solid. Like I hadn’t really thought of sprouts like that. But now you’re giving me even an even deeper understanding of it. Because I feel like we definitely need to be adding more protein into our diets, especially for like menopausal women and Peri menopausal women. But then we also need more nutrients. So what I’m hearing is there’s this, this, this ability to sprout from, from these seeds. And these legumes is really a powerful nutrient punch that we don’t, we can’t find another resource to get that same kind of powerful nutrient punch. And then what I also just heard that I want to chat about is you take the lectins and oxalates out when you sprout is that is that all stay? I also hear that right?

Doug Evans
Yeah, well, you, you reduce the lectins, the lectins and you reduce the phytic acid, and at the stage, there’s very low oxalates that are in in the seeds in the sprouts. So and, you know, there’s so much misinformation going on. Like, you know, I get trolled all the time by people saying plants have defense mechanisms. And of course, everything has a defense mechanism. A carnivore has a defense mechanism, you know, tooth and claw, right. We all have defense mechanism. The defense mechanisms of a carnivore are designed to kill Have other predators and risk factors, the defense mechanisms in the plans, the predators of the plants are insects. And so when the when an insect bites into the plant, you know that glucoraphanin and the morass anaise form this suffer Fein, which actually averts the insect, and is the defense mechanism. When we consume it, it kills cancer cells, it creates the heat shock proteins. So when you talk about in your work, the hormesis routes, create hormesis. So the defense mechanisms in the plans are one of the number one tools you can use for hormetic response in the body through the heat shock proteins, similar to soaking in a warm bath for 104 degrees, similar to fasting and similar to cold punch.

Dr. Mindy
Okay, that that was profound. So again, I want to break that down here for a moment. So yeah, is because there’s a little bit of lectin going in, this is what and I’m just picking that one out, when you’re eating a sprout. It’s like a little tiny stress, which is what horror Mesa says, that is causing the microbiome to activate and grow stronger. Is that Is that what I just heard in that,

Doug Evans
like, the biological response in the body to broccoli sprouts, is actually heat shock proteins. And, and that is what makes them you know, that, you know, there’s a peer reviewed published paper by Dr. Jed Fahey, who’s on my scientific advisory board. And his paper on autism shows that the broccoli sprouts trigger the heat shock proteins, which lessen the symptoms of autism, right. So that’s an a very specific neurological case. But you could easily transfer that into the case of what we’re looking for, you know, for that, the hacking of the body for that, and it translates. So what I’m doing is I’m connecting the dots on these disparate points, to pull them all together as part of my sprout thesis. And really, when you when you buy those organic greens in the store for your salads, you may be spending $1 to two per ounce, right? Yeah, when you’re growing your own sprouts, you could be spending $1 or two per pound. So you’re getting 10x, the volume of nutrition through doing a little of the work on your own.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah. So when I go, that leads me to one thought I had, which is if I put in my grocery store, and I just pull out the little, you know, I can buy sprouts all the time now at my grocery store. But it’s my guess like all other vegetables, the longer it sits there, the less nutrient value it’s going to have. So are we better off just growing it at home? I know growing it like in the jar, like you talk about in your book talks about is really, you know, more Eken makes more economical sense. But in my busy rushing woman lifestyle, if I just grab some from the store, is that going to have the same nutritional punch? As if I grew up in a jar?

Doug Evans
You know, that? The the it all depends where you live, right? And who the supplier is today, right? On January 11 2023. There are no national out growers, right. So everything is local or regional. So if you have if you live in a city and you’re in San Jose, there’s a health food store there and they’re being grown locally. They’re doing small batches, and you go, they’re super nutritious, and super good. And actually, they’re still growing. Even in the refrigerator, they’re still growing. So you want to check the expiration date, the Grow date, and when you the sprouts should not smell and they shouldn’t be slimy. So if they are crispy crunch, the bright whites, like your eyes are all clear, then they’re they’re good. And it’s valuable. I eat package spouts when I travel frequently, it’s the first thing I do like I will I got this from my buddy Mike Posner, when I go to a hotel now, I’ll call the hotel in advance and say, empty the minibar. No, I want nothing in there but an empty fridge, take out the candy, take out the alcohol, take out the soda, I want an empty refrigerator. And then I go on to Instacart to Whole Foods and I have them deliver, you know my sprouts, the greens, you know wholesome lemon tahini, so I’m set up for success. is when I traveled. So shout out to Posner, you know, for for coming up with that idea. But that’s what I do. So I love package sprouts. And it’s all a matter of like, if you can afford, like a little pack of sprouts is $3 to $5. In the health food store, if you grow them on your own, it’s 30 sets, but you have to grow them. So it takes a little time. So it’s like, if you want to, if you want instant gratification, you go to a furniture store, they deliver the furniture, you want to have some sweat in the game, Swedish design and engineering, you go to Ikea, and you put it together yourself.

Dr. Mindy
Right? So in your book, do you talk about how we grow it and you give us instructions on how Oh, yeah, yeah,

Doug Evans
my book was better. Like I wrote the sprout book, because I had no clue of what I was doing. So I kept my captain’s logs of all of my activity. And turns out, you grow chia and flax differently than you grow lentils and mung beans, which is different than alfalfa and broccoli and clover. So there was a variety so I kept all my logs, then I did as much research as I could going deep on why to sprout, how to sprout what are the nutritional benefits and difference characteristics of sprouts like chia and flax contain the highest amount of plant based a l a medium chain omega three fatty acids. And when you combine that the body can convert ala into EPA and DHA. Not like 100%, it may be between one and 10%. But if you’re getting, if you’re eating it on a regular basis, you will get more than enough ala to get that if you just want to cheat a little and boost it just adding seaweed or plant based algae, which has the EPA and DHA in it, which is my most frequent recipe that I post is a nori wrap, because the nori has the EPA DHA omega threes, so that’s an important part to share.

Dr. Mindy
So okay, what do you say? If you know where my brain goes with with everything you just said is okay, that works great if you have a good healthy gut? What if I’ve been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, decades of birth control? My microbiome is a hot mess. Am I going to be able to use sprouts we know they’re prebiotic, we know that there’s they’ve got all these nutrients. But if my if my gut is so decimated, and so depleted, am I going to still pull those nutrients out? Or is this one of those things that if we do it over time, we’re going to start to rebuild the microbiome and eventually you’re getting bet more and more nutrient absorption as the microbiome changes?

Doug Evans
Well, I think, you know, you you know the answer to that you do your fat, you do your fasting, all different kinds of fasting, intermittent fasting, 13 hour fast, 24 hour fast, seven day fast, and you start to clean up your microbiome. And then from the source of nutrition, you want to have soluble and insoluble fiber, that super nutrient that has the phytonutrients. So if you have a crappy microbiome, right, and you eat sprouts, the consequence will be some bloating, some flagellation because this is potent medicine, and you’re eating it if you chew it well, right, and you stare at literally the same way that if a mother is staring at the baby, it starts to lactate, right? It starts to generate the breast milk. For us. We live in a fast, fast food culture where we were operating too fast. So if we stop and we stare at the the food that we’re going to eat, we’re staring at the sprouts, we will begin to salivate like Pavlov’s dog. And so the digestion begins with the eyes translates into the saliva, and then the body is starting to form the digestive energy flora, enzymes acids to help break it down. But if you just take someone you force feed them some sprouts, that it’s not going to work as much. So you could do one of two things. You could start having a sprout salad, you can add some lemon as an acidic lint to help break it down and make it available. You can add healthy fats like olives I’m into it. I’m more of a proponent of whole fats, like I’ll buy coconut, old coconut, and I’ll eat the coconut for fat. I’ll eat avocados for fat. I will eat olives for fats. So I won’t do oils, because I think you’re stripping away the phytonutrients and the fiber, but I want the fat. So I love high quality fats in their whole grain. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy
yeah, it’s a and then now you know, if you just take the all of the all of his so rich and poly phenols. And so you’re taking that poly phenol, and you’re combining it with the prebiotic power of the of the brown. And you I mean, from a microbiome standpoint, that’s, that’s absolutely brilliant. And the other thing I want to point out that I don’t think you and I have talked about is the idea. I actually sat and interviewed multiple times, Stephen Gundry, on the oxalate and lectin issue, and I wanted to hear from the horse’s mouth. One, I had one question for him. And this was the question, if I have a healthy microbiome, are oxalates and lectins? Are they my enemy? Like, if I have a good microbiome, do I need to avoid plants? And he’s like, of course not. He went all into this whole thing about everybody took the plant paradox to an extreme, and that we have to look at integrating plant plants for a variety of reasons. But what I what I love about what you said is that we have this reduced lectin piece that is going to create this hormetic stressor in the gut. And part of why I asked you the question was, I want people to understand that if you start to branch into sprouts, like you’re recommending, if you get bloated, if you get constipated, that’s a good thing. Because that’s telling you that the body needs to repair itself. So stick with it, combine it with fasting to your point, thank you for noticing. And pointing out that fasting is so powerful in the microbiome because that’s one of my my passions to get to the world that I’m thinking, if we take fasting, and we break it with the with the sprouts, that is an a longer fast, like a 24 hour fast breaking it with the combination of sprouts. You just mentioned, we have a complete but microbiome repair system at that point.

Doug Evans
I absolutely. I mean, this is something that, you know, one of my biggest proponents is Dr. B, who wrote fiber fueled, right. And so he’s a gastroenterologist, who’s, you know, he’s had sprouts in both of his books, and, you know, like, that was a big concern. And he’s on that specific level. So I’m glad you, you know, asked Dr. Gundry. About that. Because, you know, a lot of people ask that, and people just don’t know. And, you know, like, I’m glad also I love that hear that you are hearing salads because the carnivores. I think that the I love meat, right, I ate meat every day, you know, from you know, the time I was weaned till I was 33 years old. I ate meat chicken fish every day. I ate raw meat. I take tar tar, I ate raw eggs. And then, you know, this was well before I even heard about the APO B gene, right, or LDL cholesterol. I watched, right physically, my aunt had diabetes, and they they had to chop off both of her feet below her ankles. And the misnomer is we think diabetics, you know, diabetes is caused by sugar. No diabetes is caused by insulin resistance. So if you’re overweight, and you can get overweight by eating a variety of different things, but in particular, I remember my aunt would eat, you know, a lot of meat. Right and then a lot of processed carbs, and consequentially she had both of her feet amputated below her ankles and then died the same year, which is a younger age than I am right now. And so I watched that I watched my uncle get heart disease and die. My mother got stomach cancer and died in my father got heart disease and died and my brother has developed type two diabetes, atrial fibrillation became overweight, obese and has had three strokes and a heart attack. And just two weeks ago over Christmas, he had to go spend seven days in the hospital getting a cardioversion which failed, and then they had to do an ablation on his heart. So I was surrounded I buy these lifestyle induced diseases. And that’s when I had this consciousness of everything I’m going to feed myself is going to be high quality nutrition. I went down this path totally objectively, and it was hard for me to give up the things that I love my mouth still waters at the smell of rosemary chicken. Right, I still get excited when I see a medium red steak, right like a T bone is but but under no circumstances will I go there. Because I’m aware of the consequences.

Dr. Mindy
I would have to say just on that lifestyle piece that I am a big fan of meat, I think and I love the idea of taking the best that that the plant world has to offer and the best that the animal world has to offer. And how do we bring it together, I am not a fan of of absolutes. And but when we look at meat, and we look at what’s killing people, it’s the tox. It’s the it’s the hormones that are putting in the meat and the and the toxic part of growing an animal killing an animal and then eating it we’ve got we’ve got all those toxins that are involved in that. And that’s part of the the major issue when it comes to the amino acid profile of sprouts, versus meat scones, so I don’t want to leave the meat conversation. Because I feel like it’s easy for us. Again, we look for absolutes in health care, and I’m trying to get everybody out of the absolute lane. Because once we start saying plants are bad, meats bad, we’ve taken bio individuality out of the picture. And everybody’s microbiome and genetics are going to tell you, you need different foods. So when we look at 20 grams of protein in what however, let’s say a cup of sprouts, and we compare that 20 gram protein to meat, is it the same amino acid profile? Because that matters for neurotransmitter production, and hormone production?

Doug Evans
Well, it’s interesting when you’re getting it from meat, right? It’s theoretically all their meat as a complete protein. If they want to, if you’re eating enough calories, and you’re eating enough variety of routes or other vegetables, you are getting a complete protein unequivocally like I’m 56 years old, right? I have absolutely no protein deficiency, my blood work is pristine. And so I’m seeing the effect of doing it. But what happens is, you know, people basically attempt to a mask relate people reading plants, and there’s this association, not with you. Um, but there’s an association with eating meat, it’s like, masculine, you know, whether it’s

Dr. Mindy
right or wrong. It’s very much like that right now.

Doug Evans
And the reality is, you know, it’s the consequences of, you know, sustainable living, right. So I look at what can we do sustainably, right. What can we do to feed the world? And when we have a situation today, which is like it’s starting to bring me to tears, I’m going into my feminine right now. But we have 10,000 people a day dying of starvation, dying of starvation, right. And for every calorie that’s grown of plants, 10 calories are fed to animals, right, who are living like this this hellacious life. And then we have the depreciation, depletion of natural resources and the like. So in a way, if we thinking about, you know, all right, all people all creatures on the planet, that’s where, you know, I’m not going to tell other people what to do, but I will say that it takes 1500 gallons of water to prepare one pound of beef. And you can prepare one pound of sprouts with one gallon of water. Yeah, like think about that, that 1500 gallons of water versus one gallon of water. And look, I encourage you to have you researched the APO B biomarker and APO G. Bo Jiang teens.

Dr. Mindy
I will tell you that I have not an alert and let me tell you why. Because I believe in Epi genetics, and I’ve recently been aligning with the founder of the DNA company who was looking at genetics from a functional level. Because to me, there are genetic should tell us what we like, Give us an idea about our lifestyle. So to your point with that gene, you know, it can give us an idea about what lifestyle we should live. But I don’t believe that if my father has, you know, cardiovascular disease, I and that’s in my genetics, that I’m predisposed to having cardiovascular disease, I believe I can change my lifestyle, and that’s going to affect my genetic outcome. So that’s why I don’t put a lot of attention on jeans.

Doug Evans
Yeah, I 100% agree with you. Like, I feel like I thought that I was genetically cursed. Right through my lifestyle, right, I cold plunge every day at 3738 degrees, I sit for up to an hour in a natural mineral hotspring at 108, nine degrees, where I’m trying to increase body posture by one degree centigrade. And I’m eating stressors and plant based. So I have distanced myself from any concern of the genes. But I’m looking at a level of health sustainability, that what can we do? And also, look, I lived in a tent for three years until I got married. And then when my wife came, she lived in the tent with me for eight months. And then we finally got it, like, gotta gotta house you know, and now we have a child. So we’re, we’re living a more, you know, pedestrian life, but small and austere. When I was living in the tent, and in nature, no TV, no cable. Intuitively, when I had an abundance of sprouts, right, just an abundance of sprouts, I felt so complete in my life, that I didn’t have this lacking, I didn’t have this neurosis or the cravings, they were all averted. So I think there’s a psychological benefit to doing that.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah. I, you know, I think here’s what what I was thinking, as you were just talking over the last, like, 20 minutes is that, you know, again, if we go back to the plant based animal based argument, I’m just going to call it an argument not that we’re having but that the world is having is what I just learned about sprouts is it sort of threads at different needle, because one of the arguments of the carnivore people is that, well, you can’t get enough protein in vegetables. And what I just heard from you as well, sprouts are immune from that they’ve they’ve got more protein than other typical vegetables. And then I also feel like then one of the arguments is, well, it’s not a complete protein. And what I just heard is, actually sprouts are a complete protein. So I think that’s it’s it’s a different it’s almost like it shouldn’t go in the vegetable category, or even in the plant category, even though I know it needs to go there needs to go in like a superfood category.

Doug Evans
Yeah, but I mean, I think the thing is, the, the, the idea of the carnivore diet is sexy, and, you know, and fatty and definitely masculine to be in the carnivore diet. The idea that, you know, major global health organizations around the world have come to the conclusion. without, without, like, a gun to their head, right? Vegans aren’t pointing guns and daggers at them, that you can be at any stage of life from, you know, infant first food through geriatric care, all stages of life, that you could eat 100% plant based, do it so so there’s no question on the nutrition level. Now, there’s a major difference between someone who’s eating whole food plant based, mostly raw, lots of sprouts, lots of you know, cultured food and nutrients versus someone that’s eating, you know, vegan macaroni and cheese, vegan Oreos, processed food, you know, the things like plant based burgers, that who knows where they came from. I mean, there’s such a difference. And that’s where, you know, to me, I’m not telling people what to do, right? I’m inviting them to the possibility of adding sprouts to their diet from a complete level, adding a little few sprouts. The fact that I right now, you know, just just, I don’t even know how it happened, but people are up, taking this like taking the sprouts and running with them, right and that’s what happened on social media. You know, I have five videos on on Tik Tok, that have over a million views on Tik Tok, where people are trying and they’re the messages that I’m getting is that they’re eating spouts all the time. They’re losing weight, they’re gaining it, they’re sharing it, they’re growing. You know, like, so much content is coming up. And then, you know, people like, oh, it’s got to taste good, right. And I gotta tell you, raw meat doesn’t taste good. raw kale doesn’t taste good. Unless people season it, they cook it, they process it, they flavor it. And as a matter of fact, sprouts taste as good if not better than any other vegetable. And you can even make spices. Like if someone likes spicy food, like the mustard sprouts, the radish sprouts, even the broccoli sprouts, and have a big kick to them. And you almost have to neutralize them with a healthy fat like a tahini or an avocado.

Dr. Mindy
Yeah, yeah. What you know, one thought I had is that one of the arguments for carnivore is that it when you go solely carnivore, you, you stimulate T regulatory cells in the gut, and T regulatory cells will balance the immune system out. So carnivore has been insanely great for people with autoimmune conditions. Now, what I’m wondering is with this lower lectin level of a sprout if you if, you know, again, we’re putting the sprouts into a different category, because but I don’t think a purely sprout diet is going to have that same T regulatory effect. But what I am learning in this conversation is it’s not going to have the inflammatory effect or the the the immune response that like like something that’s dense, like kale, you know, everybody seems to hate kale is going to have in the gut to do do we know what the difference is around the T regulatory cells and the immune response? Well,

Doug Evans
but it’s interesting. Even you know, Mr. carnivore, MD, you know, as of February 2022, is saying carnivores need to eat fruit. Right? And so, ya know, all sorts. Yeah, right. Oh, hot, like, you know, so. So what happens is, you know, what I can tell you is in isolation, right? The benefit of the carnivore diet is, if you can get someone just to eat meat, they’re eliminating all of this crap, right, and they’re giving their gut a chance to heal. But there haven’t been long term studies, long term research over, you know, the impact on the gut beyond the regulating of the of the T cells. Over time, what will happen, especially with the deficiency of phyto, nutrients, micronutrients, poly phenols, bioflavonoids, on the prebiotics, it’s, you know, these things, you can have an effect, like any major shift, you know, away from processed food is going to have a positive effect on the body. Right? I think that we don’t know about carnivore, I could just tell you that my gut, which is very clean, operating at a high level, my intuition is very, very powerful. I can tell you my gut as that when when I see a cow, I want to go pet it. But I don’t want to chew on his eyeballs, eat all four of its stomach, chew on his bone marrow, you know, eat the blood. It just, it feels like there was a time that meat was sensationalized as the food of the wealthy. And I can tell you as soon as I made my first like, paycheck where I made $1,000 in New York City, I went to a steakhouse Peter lugares. And I ordered the biggest steak because that was the recognition the status of arriving financially, etc. And as I became more self aware, more in tune, I felt like I can get my protein and all nutrient requirements from eating a and my diet is 100% plant based, mostly raw, mostly sprouts, fruits, seaweeds, et cetera, et cetera. If I eat seeds and nuts, I soak them, germinate them, and low temperature dehydrate them. So I’m removing the enzyme inhibitors and making them more bioavailable.

Dr. Mindy
And again, I don’t want people to lose that nuance that your your the way you’re going about making the sprouts, the soaking of the seeds. All of that is so important for getting rid of the components to these things that could possibly create any kind of gut dysbiosis. The other real important question that I want to have with your dialogue I want to have with you is, do we have any examples of somebody able to build muscle on a sprout filled diet. And because I want to go back to this idea that protein serves many purposes, and the amino acid breakdown is really important. But you know, my, my, a lot of my following is women over 40. And as we go into menopause, and our ovaries are not producing sex hormones anymore, all of a sudden, the job of making sex hormones gets handed over to the adrenals. And what I found is that a lot of women, when they are adrenal fatigue, their body will break down muscle in order to get those nutrients to be able to make the sex hormones allow the sex hormones to be produced from the adrenals. So I say all that to say muscle wasting is a major, major problem. For women as they move through menopause, do we have any idea of what sprouts could do to build muscle?

Doug Evans
Mindy 2023 is going to be the year of sprouts unleashed, okay, so we just let’s make a note to have a follow up the end of this year. And we’re going to have like I’m personally working with I’m coaching I’m supporting people, you’re going to see the fittest most ripped strong bodies that are drought based and unleashed. So you’re gonna see, motivated, like, I haven’t been a gym rat since I was 17 years old, right. But now like, I’m going to start unleashing myself and everyone around me and you’re going to see incredible amounts of protein and superior strain from a sprout forward diet

Dr. Mindy
route for with I love it. So we’re getting here’s what I like commitment to you, DAG is that I’m going to go back to our membership academy that has 1000s of menopausal women in it. And I’m going to bring what I just learned. And we’ll try practicing and experimenting with breaking our fast with sprouts. And then we’ll start integrating it and see what we’re noticing as far as muscle muscle strength as well. And I agree we let’s let me do that with them for the next six months. And then let’s report back and see what we notice.

Doug Evans
Yeah, and I’m happy if you want. And I’m happy to just volunteer my services if you want me to zoom in or participate or share information. And I will go back and I’ll formulate and help come up with a break fast sprout protein mix to help people when they come off of a water fast or they come off of intermittent fasting spouse would become the first food that they eat.

Dr. Mindy
Love it. Let’s do it, I will take you up on that that would be amazing, that formula, and then we’ll definitely bring you into the community. So I love where this conversation went. So let me let me come up with this question. So this is totally in another category. But I love talking to you, Doug. And I want to respect your time. And this has just been amazing. This year, every year, I pick a theme for the resetter podcast. And this year, I’ve picked up the idea of self love. And I find that a lot of times we don’t we don’t love on ourselves enough. So do you have a practice around self love where you say kind things to you, but to yourself that you take amazing care of yourself? And then and then the other question to that I doubt that’s a good one is what are some of your superpowers like, you know, what, what do you think you is a really incredible attribute that you bring to the world.

Doug Evans
I mean, I love these questions. I feel like I’m writing these questions for you to ask me and that’s about my intuitive manifestation molding, okay, like Jessica was giving me the Heisman, like nine months or a year till we got on here. And I persisted until I succeed, what are my superpowers? I am persistent, right? No question, right? If I think about love in one of the the Montra type information that I share with my five month old baby every day, I recite her a whole chapter in verse on love, and one of them and I’ll just go right into the middle of it because I don’t want to take six minutes and do the whole soliloquy, but I’ll greet this day with love in my heart. Art, and most of all, I will love myself. For when I do, I will zealously inspect all things that enter my body, my mind, my soul in my heart, never will I over indulge the requests of my flesh. Rather all cherish my body with cleanliness in moderation, never will I allow my mind to be attracted to evil and despair, rather will uplift it with the knowledge and wisdom of the ages. And so this is part of the thing that I’m saying to myself, every day, I’m sharing it with my daughter, and self love, I do the ice bath, I live and soak in the hot springs, I do my running, I look at everything that I put in my mouth as a life or death decision, life or death decision. So I am eating the highest quality nutrients on a per calorie basis. And only now that I am coming into 2023 unleashed, like I am going to share this message with the world, I’m going to live it and I’m experiencing it. And this is the perfect time. Like if we would have done this podcast six months ago, I would not be as tuned in to where we are right now.

Dr. Mindy
I love it. I love it, you know, and the other thing I was thinking is sprouts, eating sprouts is self love, you know, like your, your your pack. And how you eat sprouts is a form of self love. And I want I want people to understand what you just said is so powerful. When we take amazing care of ourselves. We are not depriving ourselves, we’re actually telling our bodies how much we love, we love it. And so therefore I care about your body so much that I’m going to feed you the right food I’m going to hang around the right people. So my thoughts are right, I’m going to make sure that I put myself in environments where my I can grow physically, spiritually and and emotionally in a real positive way. To me that self love.

Doug Evans
Absolutely. And think about that you get to grow your own food. And then there’s you are co creating with nature. This food is high quality nutrition. Yeah,

Dr. Mindy
I love it. Well, this was amazing. I think that’s

Doug Evans
a great place to wind down and I grade

Dr. Mindy
a grade. Tell me tell me where people so my audience knows where to find you. And I you know, I hope everybody goes out and gets the book but you’re on a bigger mission than just what you wrote in the book. So how do people find you?

Doug Evans
Oh, I’m on Instagram at my name Doug Evans do Aug. EBA and s on Tik Tok at Sprout with SPR o ut wy Z. And you could sign up for my newsletter at the sprout book.com You know, and I’m just sharing information and resources. And that’s it very simple. And I answer most DMS, anything that’s not any like, like I’ve had trolls that I don’t have the time to answer in depth all trolls. But I’ve can tell you that dozens of people that were antagonistic about you have to eat meat, you know, you don’t look healthy, etc, that I took the time to give them more love. Bite as opposed to hate and snarkiness are now sprouting. Like I could show you the thread where someone came with a snarky comment. And now they are sprouting, and they’re thanking me that changed your life. You know, they apologize for being a knucklehead, you know. And so, like that’s, it’s amazing transformation,

Dr. Mindy
though. Cool. Well keep up the amazing work DAG, we’re gonna do an experiment in my reset Academy. I’ll come back to you and let you know how that goes. We’d love to have you come and chat with them. So we’ll set that time up. But I just you know, you you and I have chatted about this before. Like I love people on a mission to bring something real, a really good message to the world and that’s what you’re doing. So thank you so much, Doug for being here. Really appreciate you