Real Food Friday Feast - Grains Part 2

So, you read the previous post and, even knowing all of that, you simply cannot do without grains in your life. I understand. Grains are kind of like the security blanket of food. When you serve a bowl of curry, what would you serve it WITH if not a roti or naan bread? Stew goes best with rice, soup is just finished off so nicely by dipping bread into it and what would life be without an alfredo pasta?! This is how we've been trained to eat and it's extremely hard to cut out our comfort foods.

I'm not an absolute extremist. I don't believe in adhering so strictly to something that it sucks all of the joy and excitement out of your life. That is why I don't believe in diets. As I've said before, the way you eat should always just be a constant way of life for you. It shouldn't be about counting calories at certain meals and cutting this on a Tuesday and only eating that on a Friday, for 2 months of your life. You would very quickly become bored and disillusioned when it didn't work out.

So I say, if you want to eat grains, eat them, but do it properly. There ARE some people who just can't eat grains and never will be able to and you might need to prepare yourself for that if you suffer from IBS, like me. I personally would recommend cutting gluten out of your life for good. It is just so bad for you, there is very little that can be done to make it more friendly to your body. Most grains contain gluten but some are worse than others. The main offenders are wheat, barley and rye. I'd also recommend cutting out refined, white flour, which is used in everything that you can buy off of a shelf, unless otherwise specified.

Here is what we know about white, refined flour: When researchers really took a good look at it, they realised that it was completely lacking in the nutrients that could be found in whole grains. One of these researchers was Dr. Weston Price who "noted in his studies of isolated, so-called "primitive" peoples that when white flour and other devitalised foods were introduced into these communities, rampant tooth decay and disease of every sort soon followed.... Even orthodox nutritionists now recognize that white flour is an empty food, supplying calories for energy but none of the bodybuilding materials that abound in the germ and the bran of whole grains." - Western Price Foundation.

The thing is, there are whole societies who survive predominantly on grains, and yet they are whole and healthy. So, what is the difference there? The difference is that western civilization is entirely cruel to their grains, where other societies treat them with the respect they deserve! Sounds crazy, right? Not so if you remember what I said yesterday about grains having a built in self-preservation shield, just like animals have camouflage, sharp teeth or speed, to thwart predators. If you walk straight up to a lion and try to stab it, it WILL punish you pretty severely. In fact, you probably won't come out of that one alive. The same applies to grains. You can't just do what you want with them and expect to come out of it whole and healthy. They are only trying to protect themselves. You would do no different if you were under attack.

The antinutrients (like lectin and phytates) in grains are part of the seed's system of preservation - they prevent the seed sprouting until the conditions are just right. Plants need moisture, warmth, time and slight acidity in order to sprout. So, when I say, be kind to your grains, I mean, prepare them properly by PROVIDING them with all of those ideal conditions to encourage them to sprout and make all the nutrients they contain, available for you. By being kind to them, you are being kind to yourself too. Grains consumed day in, and day out, without being properly prepared, will ultimately lead to a deficiency in minerals and nutrients and IBS, or worse.

Just consider this; the animals that live primarily off grains and other plants have at least 4 stomaches, plus extremely long intestinal tracts that provide the right conditions to break down the antinutrients. Humans have one stomach and a short intestinal tract in comparison. We can digest meat quite easily, but plants are not so kind to us, unless we prepare them properly. Orthodox nutritionists, as well meaning as they are, don't realise the harm they are doing when they tell us all to eat our whole grains. Even worse, they tell us to eat them without fat. Grains should never be eaten alone. Vitamins A and D, which are found in animal fats like butter and cream, help us absorb calcium, phosphorus, iron, B vitamins and the many other vitamins that can be found in properly prepared grains. Eat your porridge with full cream milk and it will do you a thousand times more good than cold breakfast cereal consumed with skim milk will ever do. It also tastes so much nicer!

There are a few ways that you can prepare your seeds and grains, to make them be kinder to you. Please remember that none of these methods will work with refined grains. Once they have been refined, it means they have been heat-treated (among other things) and any grain that is heat-treated will keep its antinutrients intact. There is NO life in these refined grains and there is pretty much nothing you can do to save them.

Sprouting:

This is really easy actually. I'll use brown rice as an example.

• Place your rice in a glass jar and poke a few holes in the lid of the jar if you don't have a proper sprouting jar
• Fill the jar with enough water to cover the rice
• Place the lid on the jar and put it in a warm place and leave for 12-24hours
• Drain the water, turn the jar upside down and let it rest at an angle to allow any excess water to drain out
• Use straight away OR rinse and drain every 8 hours until you want to cook it.

You will see little white spots developing at the tips of the rice after soaking it. That means it is sprouting and, if you leave it for a couple of days, little sprouts will come out the rice. Soaking rice means it will also cook faster than just cooking it straight out of the packet. Sprouting rice actually looks pretty cool;)

Soaking and sprouting alone are not going to break down all the antinutrients, however. They will be sufficient with some grains, but grains like wheat, barley and rye may need more preparation because of all the gluten. Gluten is exceptionally hard to break down, but fermentation goes a long way to helping with that.

Fermentation: 

This is when the seeds, or even the whole grain flour, are soaked in an acidic medium like buttermilk, whey, yogurt, lemon juice, or vinegar before being cooked.

With seeds, it's a very simple process. You follow all the same steps as above with the rice but this time, you add a tablespoon or two of buttermilk, whey, yogurt, lemon juice or vinegar, to the water and leave it to soak for 12-24hours before rinsing and turning upside down to drain.

With flour it's not that much more complicated. The difference between baking with properly prepared flour instead of unprepared flour, is that you can't spontaneously decide to make something. You need to allow 24hours for the flour to soak. As long as you plan ahead, that shouldn't be a huge problem. This can be applied to whatever you are baking:

• Put the amount of flour required for your recipe, in a bowl
• Add about 1/2 to 3/4 cup water depending on how much flour there is. More flour = more water
• Add 2-3 Tbs of your acidic medium (buttermilk, whey, yogurt, lemon juice or vinegar) Again, if the recipe requires a lot of flour then add more of your acidic medium.
• Mix all ingredients
• Cover bowl with a cloth and leave on your counter top overnight (12-24hours)
• Follow recipe as normal

I HAVE spoken about fermentation and the benefits of it in this post and it applies to pretty much anything that you ferment. In this post, it only refers to grains but you can make so many things healthier simply by fermenting them. The advantage of using sourdough, which is what you will end up with if you ferment your whole grain flour, is that it makes whatever you bake, far more moist and gives it a lovely flavour.

One thing you need to be sure of is that the flour you buy hasn't been processed in any way. A way to be safe is to simply grind your own flour. If you have a grain mill, it makes things really easy but you can also use a coffee grinder. Making your own flour at home means you can be sure that the whole process has been done right from start to finish. If you have to buy flour, just make sure you don't buy it from Pick n Pay or any other grocery store. Go to a health store, or a dischem and buy whole grain. 

If you have IBS or celiac disease, you will benefit hugely by cutting grains out of your life altogether. I bake only with coconut flour and chickpea flour and it has made the world of difference to my life! If I must eat rice, I soak it overnight but I seldom do. I usually eat my stew with vegetables instead. There are always options for food if you cut grains out. You just need to make the adjustment and then it becomes like second nature to you. There is no rule that says we need to eat stew with rice or pasta. We only THINK we need to eat pasta, bread and rice, because that is what we've grown up with and it's comfortable. But the whole point of progress is that we now KNOW better. Having the knowledge means we have to do something with it, right? 

Armed with these tools, you will probably find your digestion starts to improve after a short amount of time. Try as hard as you can to cut store-bought food made with grains, out of your life, especially bread, which is utter poison to your body. 

I promise, your body will thank you!