I read the McGill link more thoroughly (but will re-re-read it), and they push all things organic hard enough to make my antennae go up. But there are lots of citations, so I am not dismissing it.

α-amylase is at the heart of FN that I discussed; FN works by measuring it. I have yet to read that "nutrients" journal link, but I will do so. My underlying question remains the same: How material is all of this? We know that a low FN has very real and quite negative implications for the quality of flour and the products made from it. The lower the number, the more sprouting. This is why I suspect (but cannot know) that the sprouted bread guys are using lightly sprouted grain. I really doubt that intent ("intentionally sprouted") is relevant, but rather that the degree of sprouting as measured by FN is what matters. Without that number, I'm not sure that labelling is useful in that case. That said, next time at the store, I will at least read the label on the sprouted grain bread.

There is a whole lot of hype in the Great American Marketing Machine. It's so ubiquitous that we are trained to just accept it. I am reminded of my weight-loss efforts (which were successful.) Whether it's Atkins or a diet based on Harris & Benedict's work, one thing that happens is that you read labels like crazy. I recall looking at the labels on "multigrain" crackers. It's a good hype example, "multigrain" being perceived as healthy. Quite the eye-opener; in fact, the flour in "multi-grain" crackers is derived almost entirely from enriched white wheat flour, not whole wheat. I quickly migrated to Wasa crackers, which taste like cardboard but are definitely the real thing and work great in a weight-loss program. If you're looking for honest to God real whole grain, I say look for Wasa crackers and get used to their taste.