12 Steps to Whole Foods
Replacing White Flour with Whole Grains Regardless of whether phytates in whole grains lead to mineral deficiencies, soaking and slightly fermenting your grain clearly aids in digestion. It costs nothing and doesn’t really add time to a recipe’s preparation, although you do a portion of the work in advance. Most adults in the Western world need to be kind to their digestive systems. That’s because before most of us get serious about treating our bodies right (which you have done, if you are reading this book), we have abused our bodies with the modern lifestyle. In particular, we’ve abused our digestive systems. Some of us have decades of damage to undo. Part of your new whole-grain habit, then, is to soak your flour or grain for up to 24 hours as often as possible and add a bit of whey, kefir, or yogurt. Even 8 hours of soaking is very helpful. Many of the recipes in this chapter call for soaking the flour or grain. The grain with the highest phytate content is oats, so if you like oatmeal, put the boiling water in the rolled oats right after eating breakfast. Add 1-2 Tbsp. of yogurt or kefir, cover with a lid, and just reheat it for breakfast the next morning. Leaving it out for 24 hours will not create any problems. If you like sourdough and fermented foods, you’ll probably like the slight tang of the oatmeal done this way. This requires thinking ahead, but if you do it for a while, it becomes a habit—and one worth developing. Unlike oats and wheat, brown rice, millet, and buckwheat have low phytate content, so you can soak them just overnight, for shorter periods of time. When I am serving brown rice for dinner, I put boiling water in it in the morning, cover it, and leave it to steam all day in the oven, preheated to 350 and then turned off. The rice is perfectly cooked at dinnertime. When making kasha (buckwheat cereal), I put the boiling water in the night before, letting it steam overnight. When making baked goods, get in the habit of putting the flour in the blender or bowl with the required liquids (and with a bit of a fermented dairy product like kefir), and just leaving it all day (or night) before completing the recipe. You’ll also find that your baked goods are lighter, with a lovely texture, as you take this additional step. The fermentation creates leavening, so you can reduce or leave out the baking powder when you have presoaked flour with kefir or yogurt. This extra step of soaking grains or flour, while requiring you to think ahead, doesn’t add time to your preparation, since the dish is then ready, or nearly ready, when breakfast or dinnertime rolls around. You’ll be glad to know that you don’t always have to make soaked-grain breads and grain products from scratch. At your health food store, you can buy sprouted-grain tortillas, English muffins, and manna bread with several varieties like sunflower seed, carrot-raisin, and more. Don’t be frustrated if you just learned about phytates for the first time and now wonder if whole grains are good for you! If you’re stumped about whether eating whole grains (even unsoaked) is better than white flour, the answer is a definitive YES! First of all, white flour robs your body of minerals, too, at a faster rate—and it’s virtually devoid of fiber and nutrition. Second, remember that literally hundreds of studies document the link between whole grains and blood sugar control, among many other health benefits. And those studies were based on unsoaked grains. That one benefit alone—that fiber dramatically slows the release of sugars into your bloodstream—is critically important to your future. Third, the phytate issue, while worth discussing here, is by no means settled science. In fact, Reddy and Sathe published a book in 2001 called Food Phytates that surveys the growing body of research on phytates. They claim that phytates are free-radical scavenging antioxidants that may reduce blood glucose as well as the risk for high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, kidney stones, and some forms of cancer. 2 So, the jury is still out on the precise role of phytates. Whether or not they are heroes or villains is a hotly debated controversy— 250 12 Steps to Whole Foods © Copyright Robyn Openshaw
Replacing White Flour with Whole Grains so perhaps the best strategy is to soak, sprout, or ferment wherever possible, but enjoy eating unsoaked whole grains sometimes, too. Should I Combine a Grain and Legume for “Perfect Proteins”? Twenty years ago, a fad in vegetarianism was to create “perfect proteins” in any given dish or meal with a legume and a grain. The amino acid profiles of legumes are complemented well by the amino acids in grains, so that all the amino acids needed for the body to assemble proteins are there simultaneously when you eat, for instance, beans and rice. Those avoiding meat became fearful that they would become malnourished if they didn’t go to a great deal of food-combining effort. Fortunately for those who find this tedious, we now know that special food combinations are unnecessary, because the body stores and releases a free-floating pool of amino acids over an approximate 24-hour time span. Also, a significant portion of our protein needs are met by the body recycling its own cell proteins. This also helps balance out any variation in amino acid intake from meal to meal. This logic is borne out by the fact that powerful animals such as gorillas, elephants, and rhinoceroses are vegetarians who are very obviously supplied plenty of protein by plant sources. This should put your mind at ease about any need you may have felt to make each meal contain particular elements, which unnecessarily complicates dietary planning and preparation. However, you can rest assured that your body will assemble plenty of protein only if you are eating predominantly whole-plant foods. If your diet is heavy in white flour and sugar, for instance, you may possibly have amino acid imbalances, since refined products do not contain them in anything close to a complete or balanced state. All that said, many of the recipes in this book are marked with an asterisk (*) before their names, showing that they are, in fact, “complete proteins” combining a grain and a legume. Partly that’s because, as many of the cultures on this planet show, those foods simply go well together. A second reason I did this is to satisfy those readers who feel they need high-protein meals to achieve a sense of satisfaction (usually because of a lifetime of meat eating). And finally, I did it because I personally exercise intensively six days a week and burn a lot of calories: I find the legume/grain combination to be a more satisfying and sustaining meal. Why Is Commercial Yeast Bad and Sourdough Good? For thousands of years, bread was made with natural sourdough (fermented grain) traditions. The bread was given lots of time to rise naturally, and “yeast” was a starter culture that gathered natural yeast spores from the air, which I will call “wild yeast” or “natural leavening.” Bread was also baked at higher heats in stone ovens. The entire process was an all-day activity for women in ancient times. On the other hand, commercial yeast was created only in the past 100 years. And more recently, “quick-rise” yeast makes bread making faster than ever, for people who don’t want to plan ahead and wait for their bread. The manufacturers have isolated certain yeast spores that are very enduring and hardy for this purpose. © Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 251
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Replacing White Flour with <strong>Whole</strong> Grains<br />
Regardless of whether phytates in whole grains lead <strong>to</strong> mineral deficiencies, soaking and slightly fermenting<br />
your grain clearly aids in digestion. It costs nothing and doesn’t really add time <strong>to</strong> a recipe’s preparation,<br />
although you do a portion of the work in advance. Most adults in the Western world need <strong>to</strong> be kind <strong>to</strong> their<br />
digestive systems. That’s because before most of us get serious about treating our bodies right (which you have<br />
done, if you are reading this book), we have abused our bodies with the modern lifestyle. In particular, we’ve<br />
abused our digestive systems. Some of us have decades of damage <strong>to</strong> undo.<br />
Part of your new whole-grain habit, then, is <strong>to</strong> soak your flour or grain for up <strong>to</strong> 24 hours as often as possible<br />
and add a bit of whey, kefir, or yogurt. Even 8 hours of soaking is very helpful. Many of the recipes in this<br />
chapter call for soaking the flour or grain.<br />
The grain with the highest phytate content is oats, so if you like oatmeal, put the boiling water in the rolled oats<br />
right after eating breakfast. Add 1-2 Tbsp. of yogurt or kefir, cover with a lid, and just reheat it for breakfast the<br />
next morning. Leaving it out for 24 hours will not create any problems. If you like sourdough and fermented<br />
foods, you’ll probably like the slight tang of the oatmeal done this way. This requires thinking ahead, but if you<br />
do it for a while, it becomes a habit—and one worth developing.<br />
Unlike oats and wheat, brown rice, millet, and buckwheat have low phytate content, so you can soak them just<br />
overnight, for shorter periods of time. When I am serving brown rice for dinner, I put boiling water in it in the<br />
morning, cover it, and leave it <strong>to</strong> steam all day in the oven, preheated <strong>to</strong> 350 and then turned off. The rice is<br />
perfectly cooked at dinnertime. When making kasha (buckwheat cereal), I put the boiling water in the night<br />
before, letting it steam overnight.<br />
When making baked goods, get in the habit of putting the flour in the blender or bowl with the required liquids<br />
(and with a bit of a fermented dairy product like kefir), and just leaving it all day (or night) before completing<br />
the recipe. You’ll also find that your baked goods are lighter, with a lovely texture, as you take this additional<br />
step. The fermentation creates leavening, so you can reduce or leave out the baking powder when you have<br />
presoaked flour with kefir or yogurt. This extra step of soaking grains or flour, while requiring you <strong>to</strong> think<br />
ahead, doesn’t add time <strong>to</strong> your preparation, since the dish is then ready, or nearly ready, when breakfast or<br />
dinnertime rolls around.<br />
You’ll be glad <strong>to</strong> know that you don’t always have <strong>to</strong> make soaked-grain breads and grain products from<br />
scratch. At your health food s<strong>to</strong>re, you can buy sprouted-grain <strong>to</strong>rtillas, English muffins, and manna bread with<br />
several varieties like sunflower seed, carrot-raisin, and more.<br />
Don’t be frustrated if you just learned about phytates for the first time and now wonder if whole grains are<br />
good for you! If you’re stumped about whether eating whole grains (even unsoaked) is better than white flour,<br />
the answer is a definitive YES! First of all, white flour robs your body of minerals, <strong>to</strong>o, at a faster rate—and it’s<br />
virtually devoid of fiber and nutrition. Second, remember that literally hundreds of studies document the link<br />
between whole grains and blood sugar control, among many other health benefits. And those studies were<br />
based on unsoaked grains. That one benefit alone—that fiber dramatically slows the release of sugars in<strong>to</strong> your<br />
bloodstream—is critically important <strong>to</strong> your future.<br />
Third, the phytate issue, while worth discussing here, is by no means settled science. In fact, Reddy and Sathe<br />
published a book in 2001 called Food Phytates that surveys the growing body of research on phytates. They<br />
claim that phytates are free-radical scavenging antioxidants that may reduce blood glucose as well as the risk<br />
for high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, kidney s<strong>to</strong>nes, and some forms of cancer. 2 So, the jury is still<br />
out on the precise role of phytates. Whether or not they are heroes or villains is a hotly debated controversy—<br />
250 <strong>12</strong> <strong>Steps</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Whole</strong> <strong>Foods</strong><br />
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw