Once all the half price sprouted hummus are gone…

…They’re gone!! Does that sort of advertising work? Â It sort of amazes me that it even might. Â I mean we have to be more intelligent than that. Don’t we…..?

How and ever in the case of the powerhouse that is the chickpea sprout we need no such tricks or tomfoolery. Â For as those in the know are fully aware that to sprout a bean or seed imbues it with the strength of ten bears…or to be more accurate up to 400% of the nutrients in the unsprouted version. Â This makes sense when you think about it because that little seed or bean has big ambitions of becoming a fully grown plant one day, and at the start of life he (somewhat magically) synthesises nutrients like vitamin C, calcium and magnesium amongst many others in densities far greater than those found in fully grown plants.

And in the process the little chickpeas produce some other interesting compounds. Â An enzyme is something that catalyses the conversion of a nutrient or other plant compound, and in our bodies there are a number of them that are totally essential for processing our food and squeezing out the nutrients. Â And where will you find most of these little wonder molecules hanging out? Â You guessed it. Â In those teeny weeny sprouts.

Clever men who wear white coats and study why it is that we age so poorly, unlike the wines we indulge in, postulate that a large part of this is because of the limited reserve of enzymes our body produces to break down our foods.  So as we age, our digestive system is impaired and we simply can’t get the goodness from our food like it or not.  Well I bet you don’t like it – we don’t like it and neither do the bunch of neurotic seeming people called “raw foodists”.  These guys are totally obsessed with enzymes and making sure the ones that occur naturally in their foods don’t get zapped into oblivion by cooking or processing.  And if we even go half way towards their militaristic approach to the no-cook lifestyle we will all do ourselves a huge favour.

The really lovely thing about Natasha’s Living Food is that she takes pretty much all the work out of going raw.  From rich, sweet and spicy raw chocolate spread to her tangy, zesty hummus we find at least one of her treats tends to pass our lips in The Hopsack on an average day.  For more stressful days you can multiply that by two or three.  And what have we done for you this week?  Well just one more equation for you – we’ve divided the price; by a whole HALF!! So from a not unreasonable  4.49, this week you can have one for 2.25.  I haven’t heard a reasonable excuse for refusing that offer yet!