"Amber waves of grain" - Dietary staple of the Western world
- True grains are the seeds of grasses
- Nutritionless, REFINED grains are a staple of the Western Diet
- Grains of any kind should be eaten in low to moderate amounts to avoid metabolic syndrome
- Whole grains contain “antinutrients” which need to be dealt with before consuming them
- Better choices concerning grains
- Store-bought bread
- Bread – To refrigerate or not?
- About the different grains
- Bran – Maybe not the health food you thought it was
- Grains – SOAK + SOUR or SPROUT for healthier consumption
True grains are the seeds of grasses:
- Wheat. Various species include Durum, Semolina/CousCous (purified from Durum), Spelt, Bulgar, Triticale (a wheat hybrid), Kamut, Einkorn and Emmer (two of the earliest cultivated forms)
- Rye
- Barley
- Oats
- Rice
- Millet
- Corn (Maize)
- Sorgum
- Teff – superlative calcium content (1 cooked cup has 123mg)
- Wild Rice – aquatic seed mostly in freshwater lakes of Canada and the Great Lakes area; nutty flavor
- Others
Pseudo grains are the seeds of broadleaf plants, including:
- Amaranth – high amino acid content, contains lysine; combines well with other grains’
- Quinoa – complete protein (with the 8 essential amino acids); fluffy, slightly crunchy, slight nutty flavor
- Buckwheat
- Chia
Nutritionless, REFINED grains are a staple of the Western Diet
Why do we do this to ourselves!? We indulge in nutrition-less, devitalized bagels, bread rolls, pastries, cake, cookies, crackers, white bread, pasta, cereal, noodles, pretzels, tacos, waffles, pancakes, muffins; grains extruded / pressed to make crunchy breakfast cereals!
Refined (Processed) and high temperature-milled grains have a poor nutrient content (except for those that have been added). Refined grains lack minerals (since the parts containing the fiber and ~80% of the nutrients have been removed). E.g. white flour, made from the endosperm of the grain is mainly starch; diets high in such refined grains lead to serious mineral deficiencies. E.g. bone loss, Parkinson’s, arrythmia.
Even UNrefined grains contain negligible amounts of vitamins A, C, D or B12. Maize (corn) is the only grain that contains beta-carotene (vitamin A’s metabolic precursor)
Grains of any kind should be eaten in low to moderate amounts to avoid metabolic syndrome
Most all consumed grains turn rapidly into glucose, causing blood sugar spikes. Fiber in whole grains slows down the conversion, but the end product is still sugar.
- Quinoa – is on the low end of the glycemic index (GI) and won’t cause blood sugar spikes; good choice for diabetics;
- Barley – cooked pearl barley has the lowest GI of all the grains (~25). Pearl barley is a great substitute for white rice;
A “NO-GRAIN” diet is the way to go if you want to lose weight. Use coconut or almond flour as grain substitutes
Regular grain consumption leads to INSULIN resistance and “FAT STORAGE”. Ongoing daily blood glucose spikes increases pancreatic INSULIN production for the purpose of taking the glucose out of the blood and into cells. After repeated bombardment from INSULIN, the cells protect themselves from INSULIN by downregulating their INSULIN receptors. The result is that INSULINs message can no longer be “heard” effectively, and blood sugar increases or is stored as fat, with all the consequential health problems of metabolic syndrome, including type 2 diabetes, CVD, and obesity.
Typical symptoms can include:
- Fatigue, sleepiness, depression, brain fog
- Hypoglycemia – i.e low blood sugar
- Increased trigycerides, blood pressure
- Weight gain -due to increased fat storage
Whole grains contain "antinutrients" which need to be dealt with before consuming them
“— antinutrients in whole grains include enzyme inhibitors which can inhibit digestion and put stress on the pancreas; irritating tannins; complex sugars which the body cannot break down; and gluten and related hard-to-digest proteins which may cause allergies, digestive disorders and even mental illness.”
“Proper preparation of grains is a kind and gentle process that imitates the process that occurs in nature. It involves soaking for a period in warm, acidulated water in the preparation of porridge, or long, slow sour dough fermentation in the making of bread. Such processes neutralize phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors.”
Antinutrients are present in specific grains to varying degrees and affect each person differently. Those who are sensitive to them can experience damage to the gut lining (which can sometimes cause a breach leading to inflammation in diverse areas of the body), immune system modulation, gut flora imbalance and nutrient malabsorption. The main culprits in grains are:
- Agglutinins. Wheat germ contains the particularly harmful wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) lectin
- Prolamins. E.g. gliadin in gluten – the digestive-troubling half of the gluten molecule
Harmful food lectins (prolamin and agglutinin)
- Phytic acid.
“— Phytic acid, for example, is an organic acid in which phosphorus is bound. It is mostly found in the bran or outer hull of seeds. Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption.”
– Sally Fallon Weston A. Price Foundation
Some people are intolerant to certain amino acid sequences in wheat, barley, rye and possibly oats. Prolamins are proteins containing amino acid sequences (E.g. Pro-Ser-Gln-Gln and Gln-Gln-Gln-Pro) which can provoke an inflammatory reaction that is damaging to intestinal tissue that is sometimes diagnosed as Celiac Disease in those with severe intolerance. E.g. In those overly sensitive to gliadin in gluten, the immune system creates antibodies to attack gliadin. The real problem occurs as water-soluble gluten dissolves, since it can then bind to body cells, and during the immune system’s “fight” with the gliadin, those cells and surrounding tissue also get “hurt”.
Prolamins include:
- Gliadin (a component of gluten) – mainly in wheat, rye and barley.
- Hordein – in barley
- Secalin – in rye
- Avenin – in oats (doesn’t contain as many inflammation-provoking amino acid sequences as gliadin, hordein and secalin)
The grains with the highest amount of inflammation-provoking amino acid sequences in prolamins. Include Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rye, Semolina, Bulgar, Durum, Kamut, Spelt, Triticale.
Some grains, even though they contain gluten, do not have significant amounts of prolamins (such as gliadin). These are usually tolerated by those with Celiac Disease. These include Rice, Corn, Buckwheat , Millet,Sorghum, Teff, Quinoa, Amaranth and possibly Einkorn wheat.
Gluten-containing grains are hard for us to digest and absorb. These should be appropriately prepared for consumption. Sprouting and overnight-soaking do not have much effect on gluten levels – only sourdough bread made traditionally using 3-day fermentation (souring) will be gluten-free. Be aware that many sourdough breads sold are not gluten-free because they are not traditional sourdough breads – the real thing will list a sourdough starter instead of yeast in their ingredient list.
Better choices concerning grains
First consider
You can substitute vegetables for grains in a meal. E.g. Sustitute rice or noodles with “Cauliflower Rice” (recipes galore on the net) or chopped cooked cauliflower, or spaghetti squash for pasta
Wheat in any form is probably not good for you. Eat wheat products sparingly, if at all
Wheat – “Ain’t what it used to be”
Grains must be properly prepared to be more healthful
“Look for organic, stone ground, sprouted or sour dough whole grain breads and enjoy them with butter or cheese.”
– Sally Fallon, Weston A Price Foundation
OVERCONSUMING UNsoaked / UNgerminated WHOLE grains (i.e. by eating them as a regular part of your diet) could be a major cause of your health problems – benefits of these traditional preparation steps include:
- Produce natural enzymatic activity to make the grains more digestible – and so make its nutrients more available to us.
- Removes many antinutrients (E.g. phytate, lectins, tannins, others) contained in whole grains- which, if they remain, can cause nutrient deficiences, overgrowth of harmful bacterial and irritate the intestinal lining, possibly causing a so-called “leaky gut”. The scene is set for many potential health problems, including:
- Food intolerances / allergies.
- Gluten (50% lectins) insensitivity
- Impaired immune function – Lectins are associated with auto immune disease
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
- Osteoporosis
- Chronic Inflammation
- INSULIN resistance – Involved in metabolic syndrome, obesity / weight gain, Type 2 diabetes
- Blocked mineral and protein absorption – Active phytic acid blocks both protein and minerals both in the grain food and in other recently consumed foods; minerals blocked include calcium, iron, magnesium, copper and zinc.
- Decaying teeth – Resulting from mineral deficiencies
To make WHOLE grains more digestible, make their nutrients more available, and partially remove phytic acid they must be soaked (usually overnight), then soured (fermented as in sourdough) or sprouted at a low temperature– these methods encourage phytase enzymes to break down some of the grain’s phytic acid content, but in those grains with a low phytase content, much of the phytic acid will remain unscathed;
- Grind organic, WHOLE grains yourself using a grain mill or buy organic, 100% stone-ground, whole-grain flour (usually found at a natural health food store) – freshly ground grains generally have more phytase enzymes than older flour with which to break down phytate;
- “Unfortunately, studies do NOT tend to support the significant reduction of the lectin “wheat germ agglutinin (WGA)” in WHOLE wheat by either soaking, sprouting and/or souring – WGA is particularly high in the wheat germ (agglutinin is also abundant in peanuts, soybeans, and red kidney beans) and even small amounts have been shown to cause inflammatory activity in the immune system. WGA’s trail of devastation includes gut inflammation, activating immune system’s white blood cells, attaching to nerve-protective myelin sheath, and cellular toxicity and death. There are many reasons not to eat wheat, It is probably prudent to steer clear of WHOLE grain wheat altogether, since WGA is contained in the wheat germ of the whole grain seed and is difficult to remove. It almost “kills” me to say this 🙂 . . . but if you insist on including wheat as a regular part of your diet, then your health would probably be better served by eating white wheat bread rather than whole wheat!
Grains -SOAK + SOUR or SPROUT for healthier consumption
BTW – Wheat used to be left to sprout in the fields after harvesting – prior to modern farming methods, harvested wheat was left in the fields for several days, where the morning dew provided enough moisture to partially sprout the wheat, thus enhancing its nutritional bioavailability by removing phytates.
Eat grains with nature’s fat-soluble vitamins A and D
“Fat-soluble vitamins A and D found in animal fats like butter, lard and cream help us absorb calcium, phosphorus, iron, B vitamins and the many other vitamins that grains provide. Porridge eaten with cream will do us a thousand times better than cold breakfast cereal consumed with skim milk; sourdough whole grain bread with butter or whole cheese is a combination that contributes to optimal health.”
– Sally Fallon, Weston A Price Foundation
Are there any good store-bought breads?
Prefer organic, stone-ground, sprouted or traditionally processed sour dough, whole grain breads
Unfortunately , sprouted wheat grain breads still contain the harmul wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) – since it resists degradation by traditional methods
Bread, bagels, rolls etc - To refrigerate or not?
| Fridge | Room temperature | |
| Freshness | Goes stale up to 6 times faster | Stays fresh longer |
| Mold rate | Slower | Faster |
Best solution – leave enough bread products for a couple days anticipated use at room temperature and freeze the rest (stops mold growth).
