Grains- What They Are, Potential Issues, and How To Prepare Them Properly
What Are Grains?
Grains are the food group that have been around for about 10 thousand years, but that really depends on who you talk to. Certain populations have consumed them in the past with success. The way our ancestors have prepared the grains is much different than what we we do today. They used to soak and sprout them to reduce some of the anti nutrients in them, and increase nutrient bioavailability. These can be beneficial at certain times, and for certain people.
Potential Issues With Grains
Grains contain a lot of anti nutrients. These include lectins, tannins, phytates, phytic acid, and gluten. These essentially bind to nutrients in our body, and make them inert. Gluten is the biggest one, but this is contained in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten activates a protein in our small intestine called zonulin, which makes our gut lining permeable, and causes leaky gut.
How To Prepare Them Properly
First, you want to make sure you are in a optimal state of health. If you have any auto immune disease, or chronic disease, it’s probably a good idea to avoid these. We also want to make sure were getting organic, and non GMO. This is very important. If your in a optimal state of health, and these foods speak to you, then here’s how to do it. With grains we want to soak, and sprout them. This involves soaking them in a solution of water, salt, or vinegar. It depends on the grain for how long, but there are many soaking charts. Sprouting involves a longer proves of doing this multiple times. After this, we want to dry them in a food dehydrator. This dramatically reduces the anti nutrients, and actually unlocks certain nutrients in there, so it’s actually more nutritious.
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