I have been captivated by the story of the Rawsome raid in Venice, CA for the last week. The Nourished Kitchen first published a great article detailing not only the details of the case but how one could get involved. Rallies have been staged, protests have been waged.
But something seemed off to me when reading the article.
Since reading Jenny’s account of the raid, I have read several different versions, from the article at Natural News which it seems has been publishing more than a few articles on the topic. Forbes magazine published an article. So did a site called yovenice.com. To recap for those who haven’t heard, on August 3rd Rawsome Foods a raw milk buying club in Venice, CA was raided by armed agents who seized raw milk, raw cheese, raw kefir, computers and $4,536 in cash. They also arrested three people, the owner of Rawsome Foods owner James Stewart, Weston A Price liason Victoria Bloch and Healthy Family Farms owner Sharon Palmer. The raw milk community has cried foul on the raid as the government’s intimidation of raw dairy consumers in the marketplace. The allegation has flown that the FDA wants to limit our food freedoms and the state government of California is trying to force a private buying club into paying state sales tax to which it should not be subject. Every account that I have read has accurately centered around the fact that the 13 count arrest warrant alleges that Rawsome Foods was operating an illegal grocery store because they did not have the proper permits to sell raw milk in the state of California, among other conspiracy charges.
Here is a copy of the search warrant provided by Natural News
It is worth it to note that the sale of raw milk is LEGAL in the state of California. One must obtain the proper permits in order to sell unpasteurized dairy. However the news coverage of this case alleges that Rawsome was NOT a grocery store at all, but a private buying club. The Natural News went even further as to say “they are not a public store. Rawesome Foods is a private member club where members actually own a percentage of the cows, goats and farms that produce the raw dairy.” Rawsome, they say is just the pick-up location. Anyone would agree that if you and your family across town all owned the rights to a little plot of land, any vegetables grown on the land that you formally agreed to split would not be a sale technically. You would simply be co-operative owners. You would all be subject to splitting the maintanence costs, property taxes on the land, investment in the farming operation and any yield that the land might bring. That makes sense right?
Is this a case of the government squeezing your rights as a consumer to freely choose the most healthful food you wish? Is the FDA stepping over your civil rights by intimidating sellers of raw milk? Some things for me…well they just didn’t add up. First and foremost, if Rawsome foods was just a pick up and drop off location, why did they have so much cash? The more I kept thinking about it, I belong to a CSA. I pay a lump sum in spring and enjoy fresh vegetables delivered to me all summer and fall. My CSA has organized a drop off location. It is a couple of folding tables at a restaurant in the park. No one has ever asked me for cash. I send that via mail directly to the farmer. And in my CSA which is private, while I pay for a share, I do not co-operatively own parts of the farm. What kind of business model is Rawsome? The reports aren’t clear. If people joined with a membership fee and then purchased however much or as little as they wanted from week to week, that sounds like a co-operative grocery store, not a co-operative ownership. Still semi private, but a business nonetheless, as far as I understand subject to the tax and licensing laws of the land. I visited the website of this Healthy Family Farms owned by Sharon Palmer. They are truly set up as a private buying club, with a membership fee of between $25-$35 in order to purchase products. Then you simply order what you want from their website. There is not an ‘about’ page where interested people can gain more information. There is no info, location or otherwise, about the farm, and several products listed for sale are noted as coming from out of state. A membership is easily attainable through a fee, making this in my opinion a completely public group. It is simply a more expensive handling fee, just like I pay when I shop at Target.com. My CSA runs a waiting list, and each year you wait 4-6 weeks to find out IF you have been accepted. I don’t just go to an open website and load the CSA fee in my cart.
Of course the most heated debate was about the permits themselves. It is clear that Rawsome did not obtain permits to sell unpasteurized dairy in California. The three were arraigned in court August 9th after being held on bail since August 3rd. So it is clear that the judge feels that a law has been broken sufficient to bring the case to court and not just throw it out. But that debate will continue as details of the case come out. Likely though the case will progress as it is not the first infraction against Rawsome. They were raided in 2010 for similar violations.
My problem with all of this is that it detracts from the larger issue at hand, your right to buy the foods you want to. This meddling over permits and taxes doesn’t do anything to change the fact that RAW MILK IS LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA. All you have to do is follow the rules. There are dozens of states, including Wisconsin, the largest milk producing state in the country, that do not even allow people to purchase raw milk from the farmer at his own farm. The case against Rawsome has a lot to do with how laws are IMPLEMENTED, but I prefer to fight against BAD LAWS. I think there are few mainstreamers who would want to deregulate the food industry. There are enough egg recalls and ground turkey fiascos to go around right now. Additional deregulation isn’t the answer in my opinion. Fair laws in every state that are in place for the consumer rather than agri-business are the answer. I mean, do we really think that there are zero unscrupulous people in the raw milk business? Are all small farmers so honest and true that NOT A SINGLE ONE would ever sell meat from a sick animal? And what happens when demand outpaces supply of raw milk? Will the community grow ever larger with still no scandal or charlatans looking to make a buck off of you?
In fact, The LA Times reported on August 9th that Healthy Family Farms Owner Sharon Palmer “may be considered a flight risk given that in 2000 she and her partner Edward Rostami were arrested near the U.S.-Mexico border as they fled to avoid prosecution for a real estate swindle.” The linked article details how Palmer (allegedly then Palmer-Ross) was sentenced to three years probation for a reverse mortgage scheme targeted at an eldery woman in Malibu. The article states that Palmer-Ross had previously served a prison sentence for the same crime against a Santa Clara homeowner. Palmer-Ross has also according to the LA Times been “arrested while trying to reenter the country with three Mexican nationals in the trunk of her car.”
It is true. There is nothing definite except death and taxes. I don’t try and fight taxes. I am not going to sit here and fight the tax laws that are on the books. If my state says I need to pay sales tax on my ground turkey, so be it. But please don’t let a small group of people who simply are denying the government’s right to govern them make all of the raw food advocates look like a bunch of people on the political fringe. Business of scale indeed do need to be regulated and thanks to all our writing, cooking, word of mouth and passion, the local and raw food movements are a business of scale. Maybe not the same scale as agri-business, but we are getting there. We can't expect to continually escape regulations.
I will fight for raw milk. But I can’t fight for these people if they simply didn’t follow the letter of the law. I will continue to watch as the story unfolds. But it smells a little spoiled to me.
Also see: You Tube Footage of Stewart at Healthy Family Farms.
This post is shared with Simple Lives Thursdays and Fight Back Fridays and Traditional Tuesdays
One Family's Search For a Better Meal
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
CSA Pics Week 9: This iPad Has a Crappy Camera
Maybe the final post will turn out slightly better than I expect, but thus far it looks like to me that the iPad camera takes rather grainy images. I guess I will know tomorrow!
This week at the CSA I got two beautiful purple peppers (which is really saying something since I hate peppers), a pound of green beans, two yellow squash, one cuke, two bunches of rainbow chard, a head of lettuce and fifteen peaches. Everything look gorges and the quantity is managable.
WARNING: The complaints are piling up on the spousal front. He misses having a starch with dinner. My secret to getting through my CSA share this year has been making two veggies with every dinner. Dinner is simple in our house, a meat and one or more often two sides. I used to always offer the essential meat, starch and veg, but with the great amount of veggies in the house I have eliminated the starch in favor of another veg. Funny, I never did this in years past and I could never get through a whole share. Perhaps that is the trick I have been missing. I'll freeze or dry a bit, but overall I would prefer to just eat it fresh. I think I can hold off DH's complaining until potato season. He isn't a huge fan of potatoes, he much prefers rice, but I think he will be so happy to eat a starch after 6pm that he'll take what he can get!
What was your favorite item in your box this week?
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Recipe: Overnight Pancakes
I have a good go to recipe for pancakes. I posted it back in March. But in an attempt to soak more of my grains, I decided to tweak the recipe ever so slightly. Fortunately the result was way better than the original recipe I was using.
Overnight Pancakes
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 cups of keifer or yogurt 2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 tablespoons of honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.
Mix the flour and keifer or yogurt in a bowl and allow it to sit overnight, covered. I have been using my homemade keifer, I REALLY recommend it. Keifer is runnier than yogurt. It is more like buttermilk. Which makes it very well suited to cooking. I have used keifer in everything from smoothies to scones to potato salad to these pancakes. Definitely start making your own keifer! There really is nothing to be afraid of.
The next morning, add the remaining ingredients. The batter should be kind of bubbly. Heat your griddle and prepare pancakes as you normally would.
I found this recipe to be lighter and fluffier. The cakes also were thinner which helped them cook faster. I have found that my previous recipe sometimes yielded a thick batter and a gummy pancake. Said pancake took FOREVER to cook. Boo. These were more like what I expect and they use far less of the baking powder and soda than a normal recipe.
Enjoy!!
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays
Overnight Pancakes
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 cups of keifer or yogurt 2 tablespoons of melted butter
2 tablespoons of honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder.
Mix the flour and keifer or yogurt in a bowl and allow it to sit overnight, covered. I have been using my homemade keifer, I REALLY recommend it. Keifer is runnier than yogurt. It is more like buttermilk. Which makes it very well suited to cooking. I have used keifer in everything from smoothies to scones to potato salad to these pancakes. Definitely start making your own keifer! There really is nothing to be afraid of.
The next morning, add the remaining ingredients. The batter should be kind of bubbly. Heat your griddle and prepare pancakes as you normally would.
I found this recipe to be lighter and fluffier. The cakes also were thinner which helped them cook faster. I have found that my previous recipe sometimes yielded a thick batter and a gummy pancake. Said pancake took FOREVER to cook. Boo. These were more like what I expect and they use far less of the baking powder and soda than a normal recipe.
Enjoy!!
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays
Monday, August 8, 2011
Final Conclusions on Soaking Grains
When I started this blog I envisioned my search for truth in food. I imagined my trying out recipes, some working and some not working. But most of all I saw a community of people commenting and giving me tips of what to look and where to look.
When I posted my article last week, Do I Really Need to Soak My Grains? I was kind of nervous. I even weighed whether I should share the heretical post on the normal Real Food Blog Hops that I participate in. But...over 350 hits later and I think I discovered that I am not the only one who is confused.
Usually when one finds bits of information that seem contradictory it is normal to assume that some are true and some are false. Sorting through the true and the false takes time, but makes sense in the long run. But what happens when there are many bits of information that are contradictory but they are all true? What then? In my opinion you have on your hands a good old fashioned mystery. One must find the one situation in which all pieces of the story are in fact true. I LOVE mysteries. But rarely do they get solved in 48 minutes of airtime like on my much beloved Law and Order. In the case of soaking grains, much of my information was obtained from blogs like mine. I love reading blogs, but one must understand that they are opinion based and usually written by people like myself who really have no academic background in the science on which they write. The only thing that qualifies me to write about food is that I got a '5' on my AP English exam 14 years ago and I think I write a damn good research paper. But even I do not spend the time I need to get the fully researched picture all the time. And I assume that other bloggers are the same. That is why no writer is any better than the sources that they quote. Blogs that correctly quote lots of good articles are sure to rise to the top of their game.
But back to my conundrum. In the case of my soaking grains, what was I to do? Let's consider all the information.
* Substances like Lectins, Phytic Acid and other anti-nutrients reside mainly in the bran of the kernel of grain. These substances keep us from accessing all the available nutrition. These substances can also lead to severe gastrointestinal distress in sensitive people and minor gastrointestinal distress is others.
* Most people, about 85%, digest grains with no problem.
* Rates of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease have risen dramatically in the last 50 years, as have most other degenerative diseases and cancers. This has been proven by testing stored blood from 50 years ago. The rates of potential celiac among the stored samples was far lower than folks living today. Here is the Mayo Clinic article that details where and when the study took place.
* Despite what anyone else might tell you, celiac disease is presently found in approximately 1% of the population. Gluten sensitivity, or a more mild form of the disease, is found in an estimated 10-15% of the population.
* Soaking or fermenting grains for 12-48 hours in warm water, water with whey or an acidic liquid like keifer and yogurt does increases the digestibility of the available nutrition on a grain whether the grain is whole or refined. (I am citing Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)
* Soaking grains diminishes the celiac reaction in many sufferers. Some report that while they cannot eat traditionally prepared breads they can have 'soured' or soaked version like sourdough, etc.
* Sprouted grains and flours have some of the highest lectin content available because as the plant begins to grow it produces more anti-nutrients that discourage you from eating the plant.
* My great-grandmother and likely her mother and grandmother would never have left a bowl of pancake batter sitting in yogurt overnight on her counter top. Why doesn't the step of soaking (as it is presented today) survive in any recipes? And if the rates of celiac were so much lower 100 years ago, why? Why did so many cultures eat refined white bread daily and not experience the same amount of degenerative disease that we are experiencing today?
* I am not sick. While I have imagined that I have gluten sensitivity in the last couple of years, I only experience symptoms when I eat huge quantities of wheat, like 4-5 servings a day. I am likely just one of those people for whom gluten-free is a fad.
I asked many of those questions in my post last week. And I have to thank everyone who responded and commented and in general just read the post. Everyone who commented helped me gain more insight. And everyone was so supportive! I imagined being railed against for my heresy. But that didn't happen at all. And this wonderful community of people has given me links and suggestions. You all really added value to my search. And I definitely feel like I am not the only one who is confused. I think if more people were confident about the topic of soaking grains I would not have gotten the immediate traffic bump. Clearly people are confused by the contradictory information.
Writing this post has been a learning experience. Honestly, the topic of soaking grains annoys me. I feel a little criticized, like someone is wagging their finger at me telling me that I have been doing it wrong all these years. I have eschewed most store bought bread, yet I keep getting the impression that my additive free, organic, high-quality sprouted bread is still silently killing me and my ignorance...maybe I am over-internalizing that just a tad. Still, how could all of the above things be true? Surely some of them had to be false. Either soaking wasn't worth the effort or I was damaging my gut by eating improperly prepared food. And what about this so called 'traditional preparation'? It is nothing I have ever heard of before I got interested in food...or had I?
Ruth at Ruth's Real Food posted a very interesting post at her blog last week, just when I was open to hearing about proper preparation of grains. Her take was that modern factory produced bread was allowed to rise only 5 hours, not enough time to properly breakdown the grain for digestion. Add to that additives and dough conditioners and food coloring and you have one scary loaf of bread. EUREKA!! This was the missing link for me! I have heard of the modern bread preparation on the wonderful blog Fooducate, they wrote a post about it last spring. And incidentally, they just published an amazing article on gluten and cealic disease yesterday. Thanks Fooducate!My great grandmother surely would have made bread at home and she surely would have allowed it to rise, probably taking all day. This was starting to make sense. Maybe the step of soaking was hiding in all those old recipes under rising time.
I also in the post lamented my inability to find a good online post detailing the process, what do the bad anti-nutrients do, and what does the soaking, fermenting and sprouting do for them? Why is there little good information for an exacter like me? Am I wasting my time soaking? Then my dear friend Sara commented that she had recently read a great post from Mark's Daily Apple that questioned whether traditionally prepared grains were healthy. Mark details exactly what is IN the grains that makes them bad, then he details what different preparation methods do to reduce the effects of the antinutrients. His information is invaluable. Go and read the article. His conclusions? Sprouting does little to mitigate anti-nutrients and gluten, fermentation does a heck of alot more. But the preparation doesn't do enough to make him want to eat grains (he is one of those Paleo People).
Elizabeth also commented that there are such a thing as Overnight Pancakes. And yes, I did find some recipes online. Although mostly these recipes are to alleviate busy morning schedules, the soaking seemed like it would be helpful. But...since they are all refrigerated there is no fermentation. I don't know how much anti-nutrient eliminations these recipes would offer. But you got me thinking Elizabeth (see tomorrow's post).
And lastly to bobsgirl, I hear you. She commented something many of us are thinking "while reading your post I thought about reports from several years ago on how unhealthy the populace has become from eating 'white' bread/flours ..the answer and improved health we were told, came from eating whole grains. My question; how could so many have improved health and less disease from whole grain consumption if there are so many 'bad' things in it for us?" I haven't done adequate research on this, but my bet is that people who are interested in eating whole grains also are interested in eating lean meats and lots of fresh vegetables. Overall whole grains as part of a larger healthier diet might make it look like whole grains were the catalyst for health, but my gut says no. My gut says that if everyone just changed their hamburger buns and pasta to whole wheat and made no other changes to their Standard American Diet that our national health would be largely unchanged.
MY CONCLUSIONS??
So now, after reading all these posts, what do I do? Do I soak? Not soak? Do I worry? Do I throw caution to the wind? Well, I think it is yes, maybe, no and sort of.
I do think after reading all this information that it is worth it for me to try and soak my grains more often. I have...gulp...started a sourdough starter. Which is a huge step for me. And I am not sure if my marriage can handle more jars on the countertop. (Haha, just kidding). But seriously, I have two jars of kombucha, keifer, a jar of fermenting pickles and now a sourdough starter sitting on my counter? My husband thinks I am a loon.
But...I agree with Mark from Mark's Daily Apple, reducing grains is one of the best things you can do for your health. They are not really a fantastic source of nutrition and they crowd other healthier things off the plate. And I think we waste alot of time and energy grinding our own flour and hemming and hawing over 'whole this' and 'organic that', when our time would be better served adding another vegetable to our dinner plate daily, eliminating overly processed oils and sourcing grass fed meat. Reducing grains is not a small thing or a 'little tweak' to the Standard American Diet. Reducing grains is what helps people get OFF the SAD. So if I forget to soak the flour to the pancakes that will be my only grains in a day? Screw it. I am making pancakes anyway. And if I feel like having croutons on my salad lovingly made from in house baguettes from my dearest Fairway Grocery Store? Screw it, I am going to enjoy my croutons.
BOTTOM LINE: If grains are not a huge part of your diet, and you generally take care to properly prepare them, don't feel guilty about eating some unsoaked muffins. Save your worries for what is going on in Washington and on Wall Street.
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays and Fight Back Fridays
When I posted my article last week, Do I Really Need to Soak My Grains? I was kind of nervous. I even weighed whether I should share the heretical post on the normal Real Food Blog Hops that I participate in. But...over 350 hits later and I think I discovered that I am not the only one who is confused.
Usually when one finds bits of information that seem contradictory it is normal to assume that some are true and some are false. Sorting through the true and the false takes time, but makes sense in the long run. But what happens when there are many bits of information that are contradictory but they are all true? What then? In my opinion you have on your hands a good old fashioned mystery. One must find the one situation in which all pieces of the story are in fact true. I LOVE mysteries. But rarely do they get solved in 48 minutes of airtime like on my much beloved Law and Order. In the case of soaking grains, much of my information was obtained from blogs like mine. I love reading blogs, but one must understand that they are opinion based and usually written by people like myself who really have no academic background in the science on which they write. The only thing that qualifies me to write about food is that I got a '5' on my AP English exam 14 years ago and I think I write a damn good research paper. But even I do not spend the time I need to get the fully researched picture all the time. And I assume that other bloggers are the same. That is why no writer is any better than the sources that they quote. Blogs that correctly quote lots of good articles are sure to rise to the top of their game.
But back to my conundrum. In the case of my soaking grains, what was I to do? Let's consider all the information.
* Substances like Lectins, Phytic Acid and other anti-nutrients reside mainly in the bran of the kernel of grain. These substances keep us from accessing all the available nutrition. These substances can also lead to severe gastrointestinal distress in sensitive people and minor gastrointestinal distress is others.
* Most people, about 85%, digest grains with no problem.
* Rates of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease have risen dramatically in the last 50 years, as have most other degenerative diseases and cancers. This has been proven by testing stored blood from 50 years ago. The rates of potential celiac among the stored samples was far lower than folks living today. Here is the Mayo Clinic article that details where and when the study took place.
* Despite what anyone else might tell you, celiac disease is presently found in approximately 1% of the population. Gluten sensitivity, or a more mild form of the disease, is found in an estimated 10-15% of the population.
* Soaking or fermenting grains for 12-48 hours in warm water, water with whey or an acidic liquid like keifer and yogurt does increases the digestibility of the available nutrition on a grain whether the grain is whole or refined. (I am citing Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)
* Soaking grains diminishes the celiac reaction in many sufferers. Some report that while they cannot eat traditionally prepared breads they can have 'soured' or soaked version like sourdough, etc.
* Sprouted grains and flours have some of the highest lectin content available because as the plant begins to grow it produces more anti-nutrients that discourage you from eating the plant.
* My great-grandmother and likely her mother and grandmother would never have left a bowl of pancake batter sitting in yogurt overnight on her counter top. Why doesn't the step of soaking (as it is presented today) survive in any recipes? And if the rates of celiac were so much lower 100 years ago, why? Why did so many cultures eat refined white bread daily and not experience the same amount of degenerative disease that we are experiencing today?
* I am not sick. While I have imagined that I have gluten sensitivity in the last couple of years, I only experience symptoms when I eat huge quantities of wheat, like 4-5 servings a day. I am likely just one of those people for whom gluten-free is a fad.
**************************
I asked many of those questions in my post last week. And I have to thank everyone who responded and commented and in general just read the post. Everyone who commented helped me gain more insight. And everyone was so supportive! I imagined being railed against for my heresy. But that didn't happen at all. And this wonderful community of people has given me links and suggestions. You all really added value to my search. And I definitely feel like I am not the only one who is confused. I think if more people were confident about the topic of soaking grains I would not have gotten the immediate traffic bump. Clearly people are confused by the contradictory information.
Writing this post has been a learning experience. Honestly, the topic of soaking grains annoys me. I feel a little criticized, like someone is wagging their finger at me telling me that I have been doing it wrong all these years. I have eschewed most store bought bread, yet I keep getting the impression that my additive free, organic, high-quality sprouted bread is still silently killing me and my ignorance...maybe I am over-internalizing that just a tad. Still, how could all of the above things be true? Surely some of them had to be false. Either soaking wasn't worth the effort or I was damaging my gut by eating improperly prepared food. And what about this so called 'traditional preparation'? It is nothing I have ever heard of before I got interested in food...or had I?
Ruth at Ruth's Real Food posted a very interesting post at her blog last week, just when I was open to hearing about proper preparation of grains. Her take was that modern factory produced bread was allowed to rise only 5 hours, not enough time to properly breakdown the grain for digestion. Add to that additives and dough conditioners and food coloring and you have one scary loaf of bread. EUREKA!! This was the missing link for me! I have heard of the modern bread preparation on the wonderful blog Fooducate, they wrote a post about it last spring. And incidentally, they just published an amazing article on gluten and cealic disease yesterday. Thanks Fooducate!My great grandmother surely would have made bread at home and she surely would have allowed it to rise, probably taking all day. This was starting to make sense. Maybe the step of soaking was hiding in all those old recipes under rising time.
I also in the post lamented my inability to find a good online post detailing the process, what do the bad anti-nutrients do, and what does the soaking, fermenting and sprouting do for them? Why is there little good information for an exacter like me? Am I wasting my time soaking? Then my dear friend Sara commented that she had recently read a great post from Mark's Daily Apple that questioned whether traditionally prepared grains were healthy. Mark details exactly what is IN the grains that makes them bad, then he details what different preparation methods do to reduce the effects of the antinutrients. His information is invaluable. Go and read the article. His conclusions? Sprouting does little to mitigate anti-nutrients and gluten, fermentation does a heck of alot more. But the preparation doesn't do enough to make him want to eat grains (he is one of those Paleo People).
Elizabeth also commented that there are such a thing as Overnight Pancakes. And yes, I did find some recipes online. Although mostly these recipes are to alleviate busy morning schedules, the soaking seemed like it would be helpful. But...since they are all refrigerated there is no fermentation. I don't know how much anti-nutrient eliminations these recipes would offer. But you got me thinking Elizabeth (see tomorrow's post).
And lastly to bobsgirl, I hear you. She commented something many of us are thinking "while reading your post I thought about reports from several years ago on how unhealthy the populace has become from eating 'white' bread/flours ..the answer and improved health we were told, came from eating whole grains. My question; how could so many have improved health and less disease from whole grain consumption if there are so many 'bad' things in it for us?" I haven't done adequate research on this, but my bet is that people who are interested in eating whole grains also are interested in eating lean meats and lots of fresh vegetables. Overall whole grains as part of a larger healthier diet might make it look like whole grains were the catalyst for health, but my gut says no. My gut says that if everyone just changed their hamburger buns and pasta to whole wheat and made no other changes to their Standard American Diet that our national health would be largely unchanged.
MY CONCLUSIONS??
So now, after reading all these posts, what do I do? Do I soak? Not soak? Do I worry? Do I throw caution to the wind? Well, I think it is yes, maybe, no and sort of.
I do think after reading all this information that it is worth it for me to try and soak my grains more often. I have...gulp...started a sourdough starter. Which is a huge step for me. And I am not sure if my marriage can handle more jars on the countertop. (Haha, just kidding). But seriously, I have two jars of kombucha, keifer, a jar of fermenting pickles and now a sourdough starter sitting on my counter? My husband thinks I am a loon.
But...I agree with Mark from Mark's Daily Apple, reducing grains is one of the best things you can do for your health. They are not really a fantastic source of nutrition and they crowd other healthier things off the plate. And I think we waste alot of time and energy grinding our own flour and hemming and hawing over 'whole this' and 'organic that', when our time would be better served adding another vegetable to our dinner plate daily, eliminating overly processed oils and sourcing grass fed meat. Reducing grains is not a small thing or a 'little tweak' to the Standard American Diet. Reducing grains is what helps people get OFF the SAD. So if I forget to soak the flour to the pancakes that will be my only grains in a day? Screw it. I am making pancakes anyway. And if I feel like having croutons on my salad lovingly made from in house baguettes from my dearest Fairway Grocery Store? Screw it, I am going to enjoy my croutons.
BOTTOM LINE: If grains are not a huge part of your diet, and you generally take care to properly prepare them, don't feel guilty about eating some unsoaked muffins. Save your worries for what is going on in Washington and on Wall Street.
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Real Food Wednesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays and Fight Back Fridays
Friday, August 5, 2011
This Post is Officially Delayed
Buying an iPad sounded like such a good idea....such a great treat!!
I picked out a snazzy white one with an orange cover. I had the Apple people set it all up for me and I walked out with an amazing excitment.
That excitment was tempered by the fact that it didn't connect to the internet later that day. It was temepered even further when I got home and it still wasn't connecting. I was getting downright pissed when I spent almost an hour and a half on the phone with both AT&T and Apple until finally a very nice supervisor came in and fixed the problem.
Whew.
Anyhow...this blog is NOT coming live to you from a new iPad because it is now way too late. And 5am will be here too too quick. So I am crying technical difficulties until I can get back online.
Eat well and enjoy!
I picked out a snazzy white one with an orange cover. I had the Apple people set it all up for me and I walked out with an amazing excitment.
That excitment was tempered by the fact that it didn't connect to the internet later that day. It was temepered even further when I got home and it still wasn't connecting. I was getting downright pissed when I spent almost an hour and a half on the phone with both AT&T and Apple until finally a very nice supervisor came in and fixed the problem.
Whew.
Anyhow...this blog is NOT coming live to you from a new iPad because it is now way too late. And 5am will be here too too quick. So I am crying technical difficulties until I can get back online.
Eat well and enjoy!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Meet Jolene Galbreath, PhD
What if you needed a doctor? What if you could choose a doctor that had the same values as you? Someone who believed that whole foods were the best medicine? What if your doctor could give you top notch breastfeeding advice from both professional and personal experience? What if you knew that your doctor had had a VBAC at home because she believed that was the best choice for her and her family? What if this doctor also had a degree from a very well respected medical college like Kings College of London? What if such a doctor was winding her ways through the halls of medicine right now, but because she was an adult, a mother, she didn't qualify for most traditional student loans. What if there was a way that you could help such a doctor?
Meet Jolene Galbreath. I met Jolene in 1993 during my first year in high school. She was in the grade ahead of me and we became friends. I was always impressed with Jolene's drive, trustworthiness and honesty. She worked very hard in school (much harder than I did) and her grades were stellar. Upon graduation she found herself in the United Kingdom and went on to receive a PhD in biology from the University of Leeds. She and her husband, David, have two young boys. The first was delivered by cesarean section and the second was a VBAC homebirth assisted by a midwife because Jolene believed that if she went to the hospital, she would end up with another c-section.
Her experiences giving birth and caring for her children have made her realize that the medical profession is where she belongs. She believes that access to health care should be equitable and affordable to all. I rather agree. Denying care or giving lower quality care to someone who has fewer means is ethically wrong. Yet it happens every day. Between aggressive modern obstetrics that relies upon medical intervention, poor breastfeeding instruction and support, and venomous self serving formula companies, there are many obstacles for women to overcome when they bear children. And not every pregnant woman is educated enough about her options to navigate such a path and make a choice that is truly her own. Jolene felt that studying traditional western medicine was her opportunity to add value to an area that could desperately use some.
Recently Jolene and her family moved from Aberdeen in Scotland further south to Bristol. And even more recently she was accepted to the Kings College London as a medical student. She will begin commuting from Bristol to London every day to take her classes. Her plan is to write a book about being a wife and mother and non-traditional medical student for others who may be considering a similar path. Having children should be a labor of love or an added layer of experience and responsibility to one's life, but they should not be permanent road blocks to any mother.
Jolene has started a blog to document her journey, White Coat, Bluestocking. Being an older non-traditional student, she is ineligible for most grants and student tuition loans. While she has secured her tuition money through her own networks, she is currently searching for funding for her extensive commute. Like any smart working mother, she is planning on utilising the commute time to work on her studies and to write her blog and book. As an equally driven woman, I am very impressed by her drive, desires, vision and constitution.
Through a link on her blog, she has set up a page at Crowdfunder. Jolene is looking for 8000 pounds for her studies. The program is 5 years long and this should cover her commuting costs. With Crowdfunder, you can pledge large but also small amounts, 10 and 20 pounds if you please. BUT...Crowdfunder only releases the monies if the goal has been reached. Jolene currently has over 6500 pounds to go, and 40 days to do it in. I felt that given her commitment to limited medical intervention and natural living, I wanted to do everything I could to get the word out about her case.
Take a moment today to check out Jolene's blog and hear her story in her own words. Please donate if you are able, or share on Facebook or Twitter. Imagine if more doctor's were like Jolene? Imagine if you could go to the doctor without apologizing for deferring a shot, or not feel bad for investigating and asking questions? Think of all the times you have been seen by a doctor that didn't listen to the whole story of what was the matter, or simply wouldn't listen. Jolene is the kind of person that can make a difference in other's lives. She is smart and capable and she has natural ,non-processed values. That is the kind of doctor that I want to say is my primary care physician. So please, if you are able, help.
I asked Jolene to say a few words about where she has come from, where she is and where she is going...
In between the two boys, I became involved in the National Childbirth Trust As a consequence of our difficulty accessing good help with breastfeeding, I decided that it was an area that I could give back. Because I firmly believe that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (even more so when it is coupled with good intentions and a bit of survivor syndrome), I decided that I needed to do this properly and I started training with them to complete a diploma in breastfeeding counseling (with the University of Bedfordshire). I have nearly completed the course and will continue to volunteer with them.
My interest in maternal and fetal health has grown out of my background as an evolutionary biologist and parasitologist, my feminism and my personal experiences. (Whenever I think that perhaps I'm not needed in the system, I visit a blog like 'My OB Said What' or 'The Unnecessarean' or any on the state of the NHS and I realize that I'm just what's needed).
I think that my scientific qualities give me a level headedness and competence while my empathy and sense of self allow me to hear the patient and to be comfortable with the idea that they own their health. I think that paternalism (and perhaps kyriarchy, but that is something I am not yet educated enough in to explore fully) is particularly prevalent in the delivery of health care. I am certain that I think that this is common for many patients, but particularly women and minorities. Clearly, I think that benevolent paternalism is a poor method of healthcare provision. But, I ramble.
In Aberdeen, I shared a community garden with another amazing and inspirational family. At this point, we started moving away from just buying organic veg boxes and whole foods because they were touted as healthy to paying more attention to issues of sustainability as well. It has also, honestly, been great for us and the kids to grow the food that we eat. We're on our second lot of chickens (the first were served as our going away meal when we left Aberdeen-that may be too much information :) ) and the boys love feeding them scraps and collecting their eggs.
At the moment, I think that I will head into the Ob-Gyn /perinatology world. I would love to work in perinatology. My interest is in how the 9+9+9 months surrounding the birth of a child affect both the mother and child's lifelong health and well-being. I also think that I would be an able surgeon and that surgery would match well with my skills and personality. It would be an opportunity to have the best of both worlds.
I think that there is so much evidence that this 27 month period is very important, to the extent that your mother's in-utero experience will influence your development. Amazing stuff. I would love to run a unit someday where people (patients and staff), biology and evidence are respected. I think that the three are not at odds; perhaps they are only at odds with the funding models :)
Of course, it depends very much how the boys cope with my training and on the positions that are available when I graduate. I am by no means limiting my interests at this point! If the strain is too great, then I will become a general practitioner specialising in women's and children's health.
Thanks Jolene! I truly hope that we can make this happen! And thank you guys for reading and helping!
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays
Meet Jolene Galbreath. I met Jolene in 1993 during my first year in high school. She was in the grade ahead of me and we became friends. I was always impressed with Jolene's drive, trustworthiness and honesty. She worked very hard in school (much harder than I did) and her grades were stellar. Upon graduation she found herself in the United Kingdom and went on to receive a PhD in biology from the University of Leeds. She and her husband, David, have two young boys. The first was delivered by cesarean section and the second was a VBAC homebirth assisted by a midwife because Jolene believed that if she went to the hospital, she would end up with another c-section.
Her experiences giving birth and caring for her children have made her realize that the medical profession is where she belongs. She believes that access to health care should be equitable and affordable to all. I rather agree. Denying care or giving lower quality care to someone who has fewer means is ethically wrong. Yet it happens every day. Between aggressive modern obstetrics that relies upon medical intervention, poor breastfeeding instruction and support, and venomous self serving formula companies, there are many obstacles for women to overcome when they bear children. And not every pregnant woman is educated enough about her options to navigate such a path and make a choice that is truly her own. Jolene felt that studying traditional western medicine was her opportunity to add value to an area that could desperately use some.
Recently Jolene and her family moved from Aberdeen in Scotland further south to Bristol. And even more recently she was accepted to the Kings College London as a medical student. She will begin commuting from Bristol to London every day to take her classes. Her plan is to write a book about being a wife and mother and non-traditional medical student for others who may be considering a similar path. Having children should be a labor of love or an added layer of experience and responsibility to one's life, but they should not be permanent road blocks to any mother.
Jolene has started a blog to document her journey, White Coat, Bluestocking. Being an older non-traditional student, she is ineligible for most grants and student tuition loans. While she has secured her tuition money through her own networks, she is currently searching for funding for her extensive commute. Like any smart working mother, she is planning on utilising the commute time to work on her studies and to write her blog and book. As an equally driven woman, I am very impressed by her drive, desires, vision and constitution.
Through a link on her blog, she has set up a page at Crowdfunder. Jolene is looking for 8000 pounds for her studies. The program is 5 years long and this should cover her commuting costs. With Crowdfunder, you can pledge large but also small amounts, 10 and 20 pounds if you please. BUT...Crowdfunder only releases the monies if the goal has been reached. Jolene currently has over 6500 pounds to go, and 40 days to do it in. I felt that given her commitment to limited medical intervention and natural living, I wanted to do everything I could to get the word out about her case.
Take a moment today to check out Jolene's blog and hear her story in her own words. Please donate if you are able, or share on Facebook or Twitter. Imagine if more doctor's were like Jolene? Imagine if you could go to the doctor without apologizing for deferring a shot, or not feel bad for investigating and asking questions? Think of all the times you have been seen by a doctor that didn't listen to the whole story of what was the matter, or simply wouldn't listen. Jolene is the kind of person that can make a difference in other's lives. She is smart and capable and she has natural ,non-processed values. That is the kind of doctor that I want to say is my primary care physician. So please, if you are able, help.
I asked Jolene to say a few words about where she has come from, where she is and where she is going...
In between the two boys, I became involved in the National Childbirth Trust As a consequence of our difficulty accessing good help with breastfeeding, I decided that it was an area that I could give back. Because I firmly believe that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (even more so when it is coupled with good intentions and a bit of survivor syndrome), I decided that I needed to do this properly and I started training with them to complete a diploma in breastfeeding counseling (with the University of Bedfordshire). I have nearly completed the course and will continue to volunteer with them.
My interest in maternal and fetal health has grown out of my background as an evolutionary biologist and parasitologist, my feminism and my personal experiences. (Whenever I think that perhaps I'm not needed in the system, I visit a blog like 'My OB Said What' or 'The Unnecessarean' or any on the state of the NHS and I realize that I'm just what's needed).
I think that my scientific qualities give me a level headedness and competence while my empathy and sense of self allow me to hear the patient and to be comfortable with the idea that they own their health. I think that paternalism (and perhaps kyriarchy, but that is something I am not yet educated enough in to explore fully) is particularly prevalent in the delivery of health care. I am certain that I think that this is common for many patients, but particularly women and minorities. Clearly, I think that benevolent paternalism is a poor method of healthcare provision. But, I ramble.
In Aberdeen, I shared a community garden with another amazing and inspirational family. At this point, we started moving away from just buying organic veg boxes and whole foods because they were touted as healthy to paying more attention to issues of sustainability as well. It has also, honestly, been great for us and the kids to grow the food that we eat. We're on our second lot of chickens (the first were served as our going away meal when we left Aberdeen-that may be too much information :) ) and the boys love feeding them scraps and collecting their eggs.
At the moment, I think that I will head into the Ob-Gyn /perinatology world. I would love to work in perinatology. My interest is in how the 9+9+9 months surrounding the birth of a child affect both the mother and child's lifelong health and well-being. I also think that I would be an able surgeon and that surgery would match well with my skills and personality. It would be an opportunity to have the best of both worlds.
I think that there is so much evidence that this 27 month period is very important, to the extent that your mother's in-utero experience will influence your development. Amazing stuff. I would love to run a unit someday where people (patients and staff), biology and evidence are respected. I think that the three are not at odds; perhaps they are only at odds with the funding models :)
Of course, it depends very much how the boys cope with my training and on the positions that are available when I graduate. I am by no means limiting my interests at this point! If the strain is too great, then I will become a general practitioner specialising in women's and children's health.
Thanks Jolene! I truly hope that we can make this happen! And thank you guys for reading and helping!
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays
Monday, August 1, 2011
Do I Really Need To Soak My Grains?
Several weeks ago now I had the pleasure of staying up until an obscene hour with an old dear friend and talking like a couple of girls who didn't have to wake up at 6 in the morning with four kids between us. I love food, MS loves food. We both agree that the best food is real and non-processed.
Admittedly, while I just preach about real food of the mostly non-chicken nugget variety, MS really lives it, organ meat and all. Living abroad in a country where most milk, meat and vegetables are grass fed and organic by default because the local farmers are too poor to buy feed and fertilizer, MS takes non-processed to the max. It is quite inspiring. MS is quite versed in soaking her grains and flours but as we talked, I lamented my inability to soak my own grains. I understand why one soaks grains, to make them easier to digest. But every morning I wake up ready to make some baked oatmeal (or mmmmmm oatmeal blueberry muffins) only to realize that I have forgotten to soak the oatmeal the night before. I know I could just go ahead and proceed, but I really want to try the soaking. It seems exotic to make soaked flour pancakes. And many texts have lead me to believe that there are no redeemable qualities to unsoaked grains. They are all gut damaging, blood sugar spiking beasties.
But, I have some issues with the idea that grains are useless unless soaked overnight. It just doesn't all add up to me. If soaking grains is so traditional, how come it doesn't survive in a single recipe that I have come across? Everyone still soaks dried beans because just cooking them from their hard state takes forEVER. And if you want to try it for shits and giggles, improperly soaked beans will make you quite the gas machine. Sadly, I have that issue everytime I eat beans in a restaurant. Just about every restaruant out there cooks their beans too hot and too quickly. And while they feel edible on your tounge, they will leave your bowels (and possibly your personal pride) ravaged. But while soaking beans is pretty common from Maine to Mexico, I don't know of any great grandmother that left flour mixed in yogurt sitting on her countertop overnight. Please, my great grandmother had probably never heard of yogurt. And yes I have heard stories about Quaker Oats long ago coming with the instruction to soak the oats overnight. But never have I heard of a text confirming such a story with some first hand account. This soaking thing is really a new concept to me.
I am NOT being difficult, I promise. I just wonder why I haven't heard of the traditional practice of soaking flour until now. The whole premise is that soaking whole or ground grains (better known as flour) in warm salt water or an acidic liquid like keifer, yogurt or even just water with whey sort of pre-digests those nasty lectins or antinutrients and phytic acid found in grains. These antinutrients are substances within the grains that inhibit you from digesting all the nutrition that the grain has to offer. This phenomenon is a defence mechanism of the plant. The seed does NOT want you to chew it up and digest it. It gains nothing from that. So the plant gives us a reason to not want to eat it at all so that it's seed can stay intact. When you eat the grain, it upsets your tummy a little and you get little if any nutrition. This is quite true of raw grains. You would never eat a grain raw, gross. It is worth noting that these antinutrients are found in the bran, which has been removed from white flour. White flour has easily been produced since the mid 1700's, so it is possible that any recipes that included soaking have long been lost (see my post A Brief History of Refined Flour). But the truth is...I don't know. The typical Western diet is not high in these lectins and phytic acid because the typical Western Diet is not high in WHOLE grains. White flour doesn't need to be soaked because it does not contain the bran, which contains the problem antinutrients. So no research has really been done here.
But while you might never eat a raw grain, what does regular ole' cooking do for grains? I certainly don't get an upset tummy from eating a slice of bread made from flour that has not been soaked. The collective opinion is that standard cooking renders some of the nutrition in whole grains available, but not all. Soaking your flour in some acidic medium is said to render more if not all of the nutrition available because the antinutrients are 'pre-digested'. BUT...my biggest issue is, no one seems to know how much nutrition we are really getting with either preparation method. Are you digesting only 30% of the available nutrients of the unsoaked grains and over 90% of the soaked variety? Or are you getting 80% of the available nutrients of the unsoaked grains and 95% of the soaked ones? Does anyone actually know? (By the way, that is not a rhetorical question, if you do think you know, will you please comment?? I am truly interested.)
All I am saying is that I have had a hard time remembering to soak my grains and an equally hard time quantifying how much this soaking will benefit me. And if I didn't obsess about these pithy details, why on earth would you read this blog?
Then recently, to add to my confusion I recently read a blog post from another blogger (who I cannot find now) that explained that the calcium found in fermented dairy products inhibits your ability to digest the nutrients found in flour. This blogger suggested that one should soak their flour in only warm water with a little salt. Then to add even more feul to my fire, Dr. Mercola recently published an article that stated that sprouted grains had some of the highest lectin content out there. He was challenging the notion that sprouting or soaking grains is really worth it. He states, "The sprouts of grains such as wheat, maize, and rye are increasingly being consumed as health foods, and are also used for the production of dietary supplements. However, sprouted wheat actually contains the highest amounts of wheat lectin (WGA)—which is responsible for many of wheat's ill health effects! And that's not all. These sprouts (wheat, maize and rye) also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs). Benzoxazinoids are part of the plants' defense system against pests, and are actually toxic components..." Dr. Mercola does admit that there isn't enough evidence to state that sprouted grains are actually dangerous. And I will continue to buy sprouted grain bread.
Add to these articles, author Rebecca Wood recently published an article in her interesting monthly newsletter that came largely to the conclusion that I have. In her great article Best to Soak Grains? Wood details why one would soak their grains but also the textural changes that grains will undergo as they are soaked. Oatmeal left to soak overnight become more gummy and soft. Some people may love such a texture, others not. Wood states that there are many great reasons to soak one's grains, all of which I have mentioned here. But she also says, "Possibly the advice of some contemporary food writers to soak all grains, seeds and nuts—and even their flours—is a tich overboard. There’s no precedent for soaking almond flour. Taking one bit of information (soaking is best) and carrying it to a time intensive and new-fangled extreme has a fundamentalist ring to me."
It has occured to me that to obsess over the proper way to soak grains may be missing the point. Many of us have been guided to traditional foods because they offer a way to eat intuitively. For me, shunning processed foods has helped me to eat more nutritious foods, but also to stop obsessing over numbers and nutrition panels, Vitamin D content and antioxident availability. I know that when I eat non-processed whole foods I can trust that the natural combinations of vitamins will be right in order to help my digest my food. When I choose whole milk that has been only minorly pasteurized I know that there will be enough fat to help me absorb the Vitamin D. Whole foods have evolved over time to have the most natural chemical structures with nutrients that work together. When we isolate individual vitamins and take them in excess, such as in supplements, we might find that they may not work as well, or that our bodies don't absorb them at all. Worrying about soaking, or becoming preoccupied with the VERY best way to soak one's grains to make them as close to 100% digestable as possible is actually just as obsessive as worrying about saturated fat and counting calories. In eating whole foods I should be able to simply trust that the food is right. Or that it is just as it should be.
Soaking does render the grain more easy to digest. But while soaking grains may be good, unsoaked grains aren't a waste of your time. If you do not suffer from some compromised digestive disorder and you are not a candidate for the GAPS diet, your gut can digest cooked, but unsoaked grains and flour, it just doesn't get as much nutrition from them. And I don't buy into the idea that the vast majority of the population has a digestive sensitivity to grains. Numerous websites all agree that only about 15% of the population is sensitive to the most allergenic grain, wheat. And every now and then I come across a blogger that tells their mass following that wheat is bad for everyone. That is so not true. If you have some health problems wheat intolerance and digestive health is worth considering. But if you are healthy like me, wheat is probably not causing you any trouble at all.
That being said, grains, even soaked grains should not be the foundation of our diet. Regardless of whether it is wheat, rice or corn, two servings per meal with some extra in between isn't a good idea for just about everyone. I feel best when I have 1-3 servings of grains per day. They give me some great energy, so no grains often leaves me feeling tired and unenergetic. But too much makes me feel run down and strung out. Soaking may be good for the digestability, but it doesn't transform grains into something that you should be eating all day every day. Grains simply have their place in our diet behind protein foods and fresh vegetables. So I will try my damnest to soak my flour and oatmeal. But when I forget to soak my flour the night before, I will probably still wake up the next morning and make my muffins.
Also read : Soaking Grains, Healthbanquet.com
Gluten Sensitivity, Wikipedia
UPDATE, August 4th, 2011: I just read a very interesting post at Ruth's Real Food. She mentions the rise of Celiac Disease in the last 50 years, and she quotes an actual study, something I appreciate. Ruth mentions that factory produced bread is given less than 5 hours to rise, when traditional sourdough is given 12-24 hours or more. I get that. Rising times are techinally soaking times. Perhaps that is the missing link in my thinking? Even basic bread recipes from the last 75-100 years that include little packets of yeast include 1 or 2 lengthy rise time that can equal 8-12 hours. While my great-grandmother wouldn't have left pancake batter sitting on the counter top, she would have allowed bread to rise twice before baking it. I don't believe that yeast is the devil, but I do think factory produced bread isn't worth the money spent on it. Maybe it is the rising time that is the key?
More food for thought....
UPDATE AUGUST 11th, 2011: My wonderful readers and commenters gave me so much to think about that I have written a follow up post. I bring it all together in Final Conclusions on Soaking Grains.
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays and Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays
Admittedly, while I just preach about real food of the mostly non-chicken nugget variety, MS really lives it, organ meat and all. Living abroad in a country where most milk, meat and vegetables are grass fed and organic by default because the local farmers are too poor to buy feed and fertilizer, MS takes non-processed to the max. It is quite inspiring. MS is quite versed in soaking her grains and flours but as we talked, I lamented my inability to soak my own grains. I understand why one soaks grains, to make them easier to digest. But every morning I wake up ready to make some baked oatmeal (or mmmmmm oatmeal blueberry muffins) only to realize that I have forgotten to soak the oatmeal the night before. I know I could just go ahead and proceed, but I really want to try the soaking. It seems exotic to make soaked flour pancakes. And many texts have lead me to believe that there are no redeemable qualities to unsoaked grains. They are all gut damaging, blood sugar spiking beasties.
But, I have some issues with the idea that grains are useless unless soaked overnight. It just doesn't all add up to me. If soaking grains is so traditional, how come it doesn't survive in a single recipe that I have come across? Everyone still soaks dried beans because just cooking them from their hard state takes forEVER. And if you want to try it for shits and giggles, improperly soaked beans will make you quite the gas machine. Sadly, I have that issue everytime I eat beans in a restaurant. Just about every restaruant out there cooks their beans too hot and too quickly. And while they feel edible on your tounge, they will leave your bowels (and possibly your personal pride) ravaged. But while soaking beans is pretty common from Maine to Mexico, I don't know of any great grandmother that left flour mixed in yogurt sitting on her countertop overnight. Please, my great grandmother had probably never heard of yogurt. And yes I have heard stories about Quaker Oats long ago coming with the instruction to soak the oats overnight. But never have I heard of a text confirming such a story with some first hand account. This soaking thing is really a new concept to me.
I am NOT being difficult, I promise. I just wonder why I haven't heard of the traditional practice of soaking flour until now. The whole premise is that soaking whole or ground grains (better known as flour) in warm salt water or an acidic liquid like keifer, yogurt or even just water with whey sort of pre-digests those nasty lectins or antinutrients and phytic acid found in grains. These antinutrients are substances within the grains that inhibit you from digesting all the nutrition that the grain has to offer. This phenomenon is a defence mechanism of the plant. The seed does NOT want you to chew it up and digest it. It gains nothing from that. So the plant gives us a reason to not want to eat it at all so that it's seed can stay intact. When you eat the grain, it upsets your tummy a little and you get little if any nutrition. This is quite true of raw grains. You would never eat a grain raw, gross. It is worth noting that these antinutrients are found in the bran, which has been removed from white flour. White flour has easily been produced since the mid 1700's, so it is possible that any recipes that included soaking have long been lost (see my post A Brief History of Refined Flour). But the truth is...I don't know. The typical Western diet is not high in these lectins and phytic acid because the typical Western Diet is not high in WHOLE grains. White flour doesn't need to be soaked because it does not contain the bran, which contains the problem antinutrients. So no research has really been done here.
But while you might never eat a raw grain, what does regular ole' cooking do for grains? I certainly don't get an upset tummy from eating a slice of bread made from flour that has not been soaked. The collective opinion is that standard cooking renders some of the nutrition in whole grains available, but not all. Soaking your flour in some acidic medium is said to render more if not all of the nutrition available because the antinutrients are 'pre-digested'. BUT...my biggest issue is, no one seems to know how much nutrition we are really getting with either preparation method. Are you digesting only 30% of the available nutrients of the unsoaked grains and over 90% of the soaked variety? Or are you getting 80% of the available nutrients of the unsoaked grains and 95% of the soaked ones? Does anyone actually know? (By the way, that is not a rhetorical question, if you do think you know, will you please comment?? I am truly interested.)
All I am saying is that I have had a hard time remembering to soak my grains and an equally hard time quantifying how much this soaking will benefit me. And if I didn't obsess about these pithy details, why on earth would you read this blog?
Then recently, to add to my confusion I recently read a blog post from another blogger (who I cannot find now) that explained that the calcium found in fermented dairy products inhibits your ability to digest the nutrients found in flour. This blogger suggested that one should soak their flour in only warm water with a little salt. Then to add even more feul to my fire, Dr. Mercola recently published an article that stated that sprouted grains had some of the highest lectin content out there. He was challenging the notion that sprouting or soaking grains is really worth it. He states, "The sprouts of grains such as wheat, maize, and rye are increasingly being consumed as health foods, and are also used for the production of dietary supplements. However, sprouted wheat actually contains the highest amounts of wheat lectin (WGA)—which is responsible for many of wheat's ill health effects! And that's not all. These sprouts (wheat, maize and rye) also contain benzoxazinoids (BAs). Benzoxazinoids are part of the plants' defense system against pests, and are actually toxic components..." Dr. Mercola does admit that there isn't enough evidence to state that sprouted grains are actually dangerous. And I will continue to buy sprouted grain bread.
Add to these articles, author Rebecca Wood recently published an article in her interesting monthly newsletter that came largely to the conclusion that I have. In her great article Best to Soak Grains? Wood details why one would soak their grains but also the textural changes that grains will undergo as they are soaked. Oatmeal left to soak overnight become more gummy and soft. Some people may love such a texture, others not. Wood states that there are many great reasons to soak one's grains, all of which I have mentioned here. But she also says, "Possibly the advice of some contemporary food writers to soak all grains, seeds and nuts—and even their flours—is a tich overboard. There’s no precedent for soaking almond flour. Taking one bit of information (soaking is best) and carrying it to a time intensive and new-fangled extreme has a fundamentalist ring to me."
It has occured to me that to obsess over the proper way to soak grains may be missing the point. Many of us have been guided to traditional foods because they offer a way to eat intuitively. For me, shunning processed foods has helped me to eat more nutritious foods, but also to stop obsessing over numbers and nutrition panels, Vitamin D content and antioxident availability. I know that when I eat non-processed whole foods I can trust that the natural combinations of vitamins will be right in order to help my digest my food. When I choose whole milk that has been only minorly pasteurized I know that there will be enough fat to help me absorb the Vitamin D. Whole foods have evolved over time to have the most natural chemical structures with nutrients that work together. When we isolate individual vitamins and take them in excess, such as in supplements, we might find that they may not work as well, or that our bodies don't absorb them at all. Worrying about soaking, or becoming preoccupied with the VERY best way to soak one's grains to make them as close to 100% digestable as possible is actually just as obsessive as worrying about saturated fat and counting calories. In eating whole foods I should be able to simply trust that the food is right. Or that it is just as it should be.
Soaking does render the grain more easy to digest. But while soaking grains may be good, unsoaked grains aren't a waste of your time. If you do not suffer from some compromised digestive disorder and you are not a candidate for the GAPS diet, your gut can digest cooked, but unsoaked grains and flour, it just doesn't get as much nutrition from them. And I don't buy into the idea that the vast majority of the population has a digestive sensitivity to grains. Numerous websites all agree that only about 15% of the population is sensitive to the most allergenic grain, wheat. And every now and then I come across a blogger that tells their mass following that wheat is bad for everyone. That is so not true. If you have some health problems wheat intolerance and digestive health is worth considering. But if you are healthy like me, wheat is probably not causing you any trouble at all.
That being said, grains, even soaked grains should not be the foundation of our diet. Regardless of whether it is wheat, rice or corn, two servings per meal with some extra in between isn't a good idea for just about everyone. I feel best when I have 1-3 servings of grains per day. They give me some great energy, so no grains often leaves me feeling tired and unenergetic. But too much makes me feel run down and strung out. Soaking may be good for the digestability, but it doesn't transform grains into something that you should be eating all day every day. Grains simply have their place in our diet behind protein foods and fresh vegetables. So I will try my damnest to soak my flour and oatmeal. But when I forget to soak my flour the night before, I will probably still wake up the next morning and make my muffins.
Also read : Soaking Grains, Healthbanquet.com
Gluten Sensitivity, Wikipedia
UPDATE, August 4th, 2011: I just read a very interesting post at Ruth's Real Food. She mentions the rise of Celiac Disease in the last 50 years, and she quotes an actual study, something I appreciate. Ruth mentions that factory produced bread is given less than 5 hours to rise, when traditional sourdough is given 12-24 hours or more. I get that. Rising times are techinally soaking times. Perhaps that is the missing link in my thinking? Even basic bread recipes from the last 75-100 years that include little packets of yeast include 1 or 2 lengthy rise time that can equal 8-12 hours. While my great-grandmother wouldn't have left pancake batter sitting on the counter top, she would have allowed bread to rise twice before baking it. I don't believe that yeast is the devil, but I do think factory produced bread isn't worth the money spent on it. Maybe it is the rising time that is the key?
More food for thought....
UPDATE AUGUST 11th, 2011: My wonderful readers and commenters gave me so much to think about that I have written a follow up post. I bring it all together in Final Conclusions on Soaking Grains.
This post is shared with Traditional Tuesdays and Simple Lives Thursdays and Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays
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