Soaked,Sprouted or Activated - Is there a difference?
There is some confusion around the terminology for soaked and dehydrated nuts and seeds. The terms “activated”, "germinated", "soaked" "sprouted" or “crispy nuts” are often used to describe the process of soaking and dehydrating. While none of these terms are incorrect, we have chosen along with many others, to refer to nuts and seeds which have been soaked and dehydrated as “sprouted”.
At the NUT • HUT we do not soak to grow an actual sprout or root, we soak to reduce naturally occurring anit-nutrient factors, ANF's, – enzyme inhibitors, and increase digestibility and nutrition.
Before they are soaked, nuts or seeds contain enzyme inhibitors which prevent them from growing into a plant or tree until conditions are optimal. Soaking activates these enzymes, essentially allowing the nut or seed to “wake up”. Many nuts and seeds, such as hazelnuts, pumpkins and walnuts rarely produce a root or sprout, but proper soaking does a similar thing as sprouting, it ends the period of dormancy by inactivating enzyme inhibitors. These rootless sprouts could more accurately be termed “soaked”, but we feel that this might create added confusion, so for now we will continue to call our soaked and dehydrated nuts and seeds, “sprouted”.