Written By Jordan Freytag

In our modern world, the lunch hour is one of the easiest meals to consume starchy foods like fries and pasta, which are full of carbs and refined sugars. “We are going out to lunch!” at the office soon turns into “Who’s ready for a nap?” Consuming these foods may be delicious and fun, but they actually lead to a sluggish afternoon and lost productivity. But there’s a simple, powerful way to stay energized throughout the day: sprouts.

These tiny plants are bursting with nutrition, incredibly easy to grow at home, and take just minutes a day to maintain. Whether you're working in an office or from home, adding fresh sprouts to your lunch can make a big difference in your energy, clarity, and mood.

Understanding Energy - Why Lunch Leaves You Tired

As we know, our bodies use up vital energy to digest food, converting it into usable caloric energy in hopes of not only replenishing the energy lost but also exceeding it. Foods that are high in refined sugars, carbohydrates, and fats require more energy from your body to convert them into caloric energy, but the pay-off isn’t worth it. After eating such foods, our bodies become fatigued, both physically and mentally, because of the lack of clean energy derived from the foods we consume.

Instead, we need foods that are easy to digest and nutrient-dense, delivering more usable energy than they take to process. That’s where sprouts come in. There is of course an expected energy loss during the digestive process, but the energy loss varies depending on the integrity of the foods consumed. It is no wonder that those who consume large lunches, high in carbs and fats, are sluggish in the afternoon, prone to napping, and generally less productive.

What Are Sprouts, and Why Are They So Energizing?

Sprouts are seeds that have just begun to grow—think alfalfa, broccoli, mung bean, or radish. During this early stage of life, the seed converts its stored nutrients into simple, bioavailable forms designed to fuel rapid growth. When you eat sprouts, you’re getting those easily digestible carbohydrates, amino acids, enzymes, and vitamins in their most potent form.

High Net Gain Nutrition and Sprouts

Unlike heavy starchy foods that weigh you down, sprouts are light on digestion and heavy on nutrients, giving you clean energy without the crash. Former triathlete and nutrition expert Brendan Brazier calls this plant-based nutritional lifestyle concept “High Net Gain Nutrition”—foods that require little energy to digest but return a large amount of usable energy. He discusses this at length in his book, Thrive. High Net Gain Nutrition consists of a plant-based diet, eating natural, unrefined foods that require less energy to digest but yield a high amount of usable nutrients. Sprouts are a textbook example of such foods.

Brazier sees this kind of eating as an investment, so-to-speak—to invest as little digestive energy as possible with the greatest possible yield of caloric energy. Brazier suggests replacing starchy foods such as pasta and white rice with carbohydrates that are more easily assimilated, such as Amaranth, Quinoa, and Buckwheat. You’ll notice the difference in energy—without the post-lunch crash.

Why Grow Your Own Sprouts?

In addition to simple carbs, sprouts are a perfect addition to a High Net Gain Nutrition diet because they are packed with a high concentration of nutrients that aid the body but take minimal effort to digest. In the germination stage, the bioavailability of the nutrients in the infant sprout is the highest because the seed itself is breaking down, converting carbohydrates and amino acids to their simplest forms, making it easy to digest. The dense nutrients in the sprout are aimed to help the plant grow to maturity, but when consumed by humans, those dense nutrients are easily digested, providing a high yield of energy.

The best part is that sprouts are easy to grow and take minimal time. It is manageable, even for the busiest of people, to have a constant supply of sprouts on hand. And when eating sprouts consistently, you’ll feel the youthful energy they can bring to your body. In just 3–5 days, you’ll have a fresh supply of crisp, living greens that rival anything you can buy at the store. Sprouting is low-cost, sustainable, and ideal for anyone looking to add more nutrition to their meals—especially if you're short on time.

Avoid the afternoon slug and consume foods that will provide your body with fuel rather than the ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz . . . .

Jordan Freytag, True Leaf Market Writer