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Not REALLY "Sprouts"...

What are Microgreens?

Microgreens are densely planted seedlings of vegetables and herbs.  Unlike "sprouts" which are grown in water and air, and eaten root and all, microgreens are planted in a medium (soil, coco coir, and mats) and harvested above the soil line before eating once they've reached the stage of development- called "true leaf".  The true leaf of each plant looks like a "micro" version of the plant.  The plants first leaves are called cotyledons, which contain all the nutrients and energy that would become an entire plant (like- broccoli).  This incredible source of concentrated nutrition contains up to 40 times the nutrients of mature veggies by volume! 

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Consider this: 1/2 c. broccoli microgreens contains the equivalent nutritions of 40 half-cups of broccoli florets!

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Similar to microgreens are "shoots".  Shoots, like microgreens, are grown in a medium

(we like soil), but they are harvested before the true leaf begins to emerge (because

the true leaf of things like sunflowers and radishes have unpleasant (furry) texture and

tend to be bitter.

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Sprouts are another thing, entirely- and while they are incredibly

affordable, simple and quick to grow, they are less nutritious than

microgreens due to their lower chlorophyll content, and more at risk of

being contaminated with pathogens because of their moist growing

conditions in jars/ containers with no growing medium.

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See this link from Medical Medium outlining ways microgreens benefit so many conditions of disEase in the body.

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