QuestionHi Evelyn,
I have read anthroposophy for a few years now but only latley really gotten into the Nutrition lectures, I'm finally understanding the role the 'forces' of the food play and trying to encourage it more in our family meals.
A good friend of mine is turning to a very strict raw food diet and it was then that I started pondering on Steiners view on raw food. I came to understand it, but it made me wonder about sprouts.
I have not seen any info on them - whether they are classed as a raw food; if it were better for the life forces to grow versus eating them so young? Would they then belong to the legume family?
My friend pointed out that they do still grow towards the sun...but I'm not sure how valid a point that is?
Any idea where they would fall in the picture of the plant vs inverted man? Would they have weaker root forces?
Hope this makes sense, I find it hard to articulate my thoughts on anthroposophy most times...I just Know it feels right :)
Many thanks,
Naomi
AnswerDear Naomi,
Wonderful to hear such interest in this complex material and so great that you have made such progress in coming to some kind of feeling for the nutritional, earth and cosmic, streams. You are already very articulate, to be sure!
We both know (from those lectures) what Steiner thought about raw food diets, which were also a small fad back then. Such a trend towards rawness tends to reveal how our soul desires to be more robust and in control. It is one way to "toughen up" your soul and engage your Higher Self in life, but it can make, ironically, for a rather physical-mental approach to life - so not so very spiritual.
The focus with raw food will be to stimulate the lower (subconscious) aspect of the life of soul by means of metabolic activity. Whether this transmutes the baser energy into a more enlightened form remains debatable, and in any case depends on the soul potential, karma and destiny of the individual. Including raw vegetables (salads and sprouts)into one's (vegetarian) diet is valuable; but raw meat is not something I would advocate. If you live in a temperate climate, the lack of stewed of slowly cooked foods can be truly detrimental to the system ?especially when you have a cold.
A strict raw diet has proven to be more problematic to health than beneficial in several cases. But this need not apply to everyone, of course. One classic issue is that it naturally over-irritates the digestive system with far too much fibre and in a sense far too many "toxins". All non-human substance is actually poisonous to the blood; that is why anything you inject into your veins causes a reaction (a catabolic process which can be healing, if not exactly 搃ntoxicating? but nonetheless, the aim is to get that alien stuff out of your refined, red, sap!). There can also be an overload of such poison in the gut noticed when there is no compensating warmth. One must balance a raw food diet with the utmost care, mixing naturally warm and cold foods in right proportions. Chinese five element food lists or Aryuvedic ones can come in handy here. Also one must have a robust system to start with. Living in a semi-tropical climate helps too.
So, while, in short, I am no fan of the raw food diet, I love raw products/ingredients and slow cooking. I merely aim to caution those who become strict about anything. Remain tentative, I would say to your friend, and observe your body and soul responses meticulously as you experiment. Forget politics and health gurus. First and foremost, ensure your motivations for a radical change in diet are spiritual and genuine (prompted by your Higher Self). We tend to flirt with these terms....A gradual progression must also, be re-evaluated from time to time (habits creep in and staple us down). By the same token, a great enthusiasm and an original sense of well-being are as good a monitor as any complex health-theory.
Now, where do sprouts come into this?
Sprouts have a story of their own to tell. If we were to follow the cosmic planting calender,we would look for an ascending lunar phase, rather than a descending one: we care less about the seed's rooting disposition and wish to call more upon the drawing up of the sap. As micro-greens they are leaf-like; but as germinated pulses/legumes, they are more seed-like, but then in transition (earth bound - more on this below). I suppose Steiner never referred to them, because they seem modern (microbiotic) inventions, at least on the scale we now think of them (mung bean sprouts, or taug? are ancient, but not consumed in Steiner's Switzerland at the time...).
Let's take a closer look at sprouts. As germs they are little explosions of life. They spout their seed-fire through with the force of water: one can almost hear them zoofing out of darkness (hull) into the air and light of the outer world. What happens as seen with a super-sensible eye? Well, then we must talk in terms of gnomes and undines (earth and water elementals). These entities work with etheric force and enable forms to come into existence, develop (growth). The gardener does not grow the plant; he enables the plant to grow; but even the plant does not just unfold like a desert rose (dried up tumble weed) in a bowl of water. It is stimulated by 搃ts?nature, actually by Nature, actually by nature spirits. We experience this work in the transformations and permutations of elements. Basically put: dry and cold become wet and warm and inversely again in a weft of elements: earth, water. air, fire.
I refer to Steiner's detailed lectures on nature spirits, e.g. GA230, which explains the nature of these elementals (gnomes, undines, sylphs, salamanders). They are crucial to an Anthroposophic understanding of how plants grow and why they differ per family. Another comprehensive source is by Ernst Michael Kranich, 揚lanetary Influences Upon Plants, A Cosmological Botany?
If we look at the root spirits (gnomic energy) as midwives of the plant, we find a powerful force waking up the plant within the seed; stirring its potential into action. This normally happens in the realm of darkness: the earth. With sprouts this natural condition is altered.
Normally, the cosmic 搃nformation?or 搃dea?of the plant (life-ether) is absorbed in the earth by this earth elemental (gnomes) as it streams down in summer transmitted by the cosmos, received by the flowering (astral process) and in the autumn with the actual seed-pod falling to earth, to lie dormant during summer (kind of i-pod full of cosmic harmonies!). Inspired, literally, by all this light, compacted colour, the gnomes (I speak imaginatively here, albeit some do see little men with beards and pointy hats as best expressing this energy) push the plant/germ up out of the darkness into the air.
The 揹epth?of this inspiration is important to the further development of the plant. Not only literally (a deep plot of land) and the soil quality but also other influences (there will be better spots for growth than on the tv ?not that you would even consider this hazzardous place, but you get my drift, I hope). All these factors influence how the elements of water, air and warmth can penetrate to make the work of the gnome possible. We can get a feel for this by seeing where there is only a shallow bit of ground, or a wad of cottonwool, we cannot expect a mighty radish to grow in its entirety: we restrict its 搒elf-realisation?to that of the life of a daikon sprout.
In the life of sprouts all the elements are very compacted at a basic "ground level" of growth. There is no great future for them (of flowering and seeding). There is an exposure and nakedness to their tender age, which is raw in a typically modernist sense. Not much of a secret life for the edible sprout.
The impulse from the dark (propelling force) is not very dense. This keeps the seed in a cosmic state of suspension: it never grounds itself. The gnomes can easily get very cocky about themselves as it is, with grand aspirations of enlightenment, and then become too big for their boots, so I wonder what they are doing with this big hand-up we are giving them on our window sills, working in the plain light of day. In a subtle sense, there is something rather 揵rainy?about the 搒uper food?notion on sprouts, which would suit the gnomes. Is this why sprouts are so 搗italising? contain so much 搇ife force?? But equally carry the risk of bacteria (also the field of the gnomes): it makes sprouts a tricky food for the vulnerable, with the risk of e-coli or salmonella, even in clean households This aside, it is clearly not something palatable for small children (garden cress, fun and easy to grow and harvest for kids in kindergarten is typically served with sugar ?or honey-lemon water).
Although, with many sprouts, the root is all that grows, it has not been put to use or activated in a natural way - as anchor. It is more like an exposed self-serving nerve-vein (transporting moisture) than the beginning of an integral network, connecting and consolidating the cosmic forces in the mineral nether realm of the world. It lends the germ the image of a happy, padded baby, packed with life-potential, unindividualised, and just cute (or good for you). It's individual characteristic is transmitted into a simple crisp, peppery, sulfuric message of primal flavour, barely alluding to the gestures of the adult plant (according to the nautre of its family).
The signature of the plant has not much been taken hold of by the undines (water elementals). Their energy comes in a man-made rhythm of flushes (rinses of water) alternated with drying. A bit of a mechanical pattern is created. The dreamy world of the baby plant gets some sharp edges, prematurely forced to have completed its life cycle by 6-9 days. The undines are chemists or musicians, but in sprouts a lot of analogue gets lost and something more digital could easily come about if we are not careful to heed bio-dynamic principles closely. I would not like to see the sprout-industry become too big and far removed from the kitchen sill.
One sprout is not another sprout. Some sprouts are arguably less advisable to eat (a lot of) or come with a warning. This relates somewhat to the signatures of the families, and the part of the plant we eat. Legumes or pulses, which are consumed before the cotyledons have emerged (and before the root has grown too long and bitter) belong to the labiate family, which is all about growing upwards in order to communicate with the cosmos. They have a certain astrality about them in this aspiration, which must lead to the separation of sulphur and sal; the volatility of their aromatic flowers (think of sweet pea) with the essential oils and the almost 揻leshy? earthy nature of their beans, thinking of kidney beans, the organ shaped broad or butter beans, but also of soy which is so indigestible till cooked for hours, and peanuts with their dive back underground into the darkness. From esoteric science we learn about the two side to the firey coin: oil and 揳sh? as in the form of the pea, which is more salt-like, hard and mineral-like, and makes heavy (to digest) as pulses are.
While micro-greens or baby-leaf is a natural product for man to eat, we have invented the food of sprouts. Which is fine, as we artificially make many foods: wine, or Roquefort, or leavened bread, or what about much of the honey or dairy industry! All quite 搖nnatural? But there is something additionally artificial about sprouts while they seem so completely natural and self-impelled. It is quite the loss of orientation and the elemental impulses of direction (up-down, sideways). They may still WANT to grow towards the sun, but they are not left or enabled to do so. The cross of heaven meeting earth is largely lost in the cultivation of sprouts. The emphasis on pure growth, a literal outburst, remains. Their effort to reach upwards is accentuated. This is different for those grown in soil (but they become different to 搒prouts?as micro greens).
No nomad or tribal witchdoctor would have accidentally come across a bunch of sprawling sprouts: they would have long died, without interventional tending, since the elementals cannot get a proper grip on uprooted or higgledy-piggledy plants. The more primitive man would have had no URGE to find such food, besides. To put it provocatively for a second, in a way, sprouts are not so natural, and in a way not so raw! They are not left to grow as they are, and picked as they come, but are being prepared on 100% solar impulse in an incubator by our doing. Sprouts is a super-creative food! A kind of raw-cooking on our creative gas.
While we are sensitive to appreciate the close encounter to (raw) etheric energy through the ingestion of sprouts, we must keep this sense of awe and wonder alive, by presenting this food as a fun and spicey addition. Going crazy about the health benefits is a bit bananas. If we start to add up all the elements that go into making a sprout healthy we embark on a chemical and fragmented way compiling a diet.
It is fascinating to ask what makes substance edible and conform to our (apparent) nutritional needs? Spiritually considered we may ask, have we any such absolute needs? And we can look to the great variations in diet, world wide, including one consisting only of light! - inedia/breatharianism ?for more food for thought on this.
Even in alternative nutrition we too easily overlook altogether, the subtle weft of interpenetrating forces that go into making life-forms. The industry of sprouting may well soon violate this holistic understanding, the fashion of sprouting originally (10-20 years ago) meant to promote. You are very astute to raise such questions as you have done in an effort to really look at the place the sprout deserves in our diet.
For more on the differences between one sprout and another, you could check out http://sproutpeople.org for an extensive list of taxonomy. The alfalfa or lentil sprout is already a legume, the cress or radish already a sulfur rich crucifera (cabbage type). The family determines the sprout's properties up to a basic point. The more you learn about botany from an anthroposophical view the more you learn that sprouts are less about the adult plant's essence. (If you like to learn more, see Wilhelm Pelikan's botanical works). All sprouts will activate the sulfuric pole, predominantly.
It is important to remember, however, that these sprouts are on their way to becoming plants and need to be tended (artificially) with the same amount of care (more actually) including plenty of sunlight. Bear in mind that the same toxic properties of seeds/beans are at play (alfalfa is a contentious one). I love the fun book "Sprout Garden: Grower's Guide to Gourmet Sprouts", by Mark Mathew Braunstein which goes into these aspects in the most delightful light-hearted manner. He takes sprouts really seriously, you can tell by the splashes of humour he pours over them.
I love including sprouts in spring, daikon, alfalfa, cress, ruccola, lentils, leek, when the weather is not too warm (in my temperate region) and growing them remains a fresh affair. It is so amazing to see life develop before your very eyes, and then put that outer (alien) world into your inner world, served up as fabulous decorations to salads, side dishes, or sandwiches. It is fun to experiment with different conditions, and observe planetary influences.
I hope to have provided you with some new ideas on how to consider sprouts (and raw food) and I wish you ongoing success with your (anthroposophical) studies of nutrition.
Love Evelyn.
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