Glorious Grains!

I've been really inspired lately by the nutrition school that I am in right now, and have been dying to write about the wonderful world of whole grains. I know I mentioned them in my last post, but I wanted to go a little deeper with that subject and talk in detail about why I am such an advocate for eating grains and ancient grains. I know that a lot of people struggle with a gluten intolerance, however, wheat is not the only grain in the world. Here are a list of non-gluten grains:

Buckwheat, aka Kasha
Quinoa
Brown rice/Wild rice
Amaranth
Millet
Teff
Sorghum
Corn

Andrea Beaman introduced me to the health benefits and importance of whole grains. Whole grains do a lot in the body. The bran and fiber content keep your colon moving, they increase your energy, balance blood sugar levels, and on top of it all, chewing grains more finely assimilates digestion... not to mention they fill you up. Grains include:

Enzymes
Iron
Dietary Fiber
Vitamin C
B-complex Vitamins

To take a look into history for a moment, it's important to recognize that grains have been central to every culture and region since the beginning of time. Brown rice contains the highest about of B Vitamins than any other grain... pretty cool. So something about grains that isn't very well known in the general community, and is new to me too, is phytic acid. There are so many articles written about phytic acid and how it is an anti-nutrient to your body. It has binding properties which extract minerals from your body. However, if you are relying solely on grains to get minerals and fiber, there is an issue... you should have high amounts of vegetables and leafy greens being absorbed into your body every day.

Here is the upside of phytic acid AND ways to reduce phytic acid.

Phytic acid is said to be a powerful antioxidant and is helpful in ridding the body of heavy metals and other toxins. One great way to reduce phytic acid AND is a good thing to do for easier digestion is to soak your nuts, grains, and seeds. Soaking these foods also reduces tannins and helps to decrease health disease and conditions. There are a lot of articles on phytic acid if you want to learn more, I know I am definitely still learning, so I recommend checking out this article that Andrea Beaman shared on her Facebook page:

http://wakeup-world.com/2012/03/04/the-benefits-of-soaking-nuts-and-seeds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-benefits-of-soaking-nuts-and-seeds

I hope this provides at least a small amount of insight on grains! I also understand that not everybody enjoys eating them, and that's fine too... but for those of you who are questioning the consumption of grains, I hope this was a tad educational.