Quesadilla- in an Indian style

Quesadilla originated in Mexico during its colonial era and over the years has spread over the world with many wonderful variations. The original Quesadilla had a soft corn tortilla, which was folded and stuffed with stringy Mexican cheese.

A very similar dish is the ‘sincronizada’ ('synchronised' in Spanish) which has meat and cheese sandwiched between two tortillas and cut into wedges, when serving. Sincronizada and Quesadilla are two different dishes, but most Mexican restaurants today serve sincronizada as a quesadilla and so do we. :)

Quesadilla has undergone various metamorphosis, as it spread from Mexico- wheat tortillas in the United States and potato pancake (lefse) in Scandinavia are quite common variations.

Like all other dishes in our menu- we too have given the humble tortilla an Indian twist. The gluten-free tortilla is made of nine whole grains and millets, namely Foxtail Millet, Proso Millet, Finger Millet, Pearl Millet, Amaranth, Yellow Sorghum, Barnyard millet, Little Millet and Red Sorghum. While the filling is a spiced up mixture of five sprouted pulses: Bengal gram, cowpea, black pea, yellow pea and green gram.

This one quesadilla provides a wholesome, gluten-free, vegan meal and will make any quesadilla proud.

Are you a Canape?

Couch potato is a term used to refer to someone who spends a lot of time on the couch, perhaps watching television or immersed in the virtual world. One of the dishes we feature on the menu of our Deli is a Multigrain Canape- the couch potato of the food world!

Canape comes from the French word for Sofa, perhaps some French chef felt that the garnish that sits on top of the bread is like a person couched on top of a sofa!

We have taken some inspiration from the couch potato and given it a zing. Our canape is made from an organic nine-grain slow baked sofa, Er! Bread, made of Yellow Sorghum, Red Sorghum, Red Rice, Buckwheat, Yellow Pea, Amaranth, Pearl Millet, Finger Millet. The garnish is made from sprouted pulses: Cowpea, Bengal gram, Green gram, Black pea and Yellow pea and flavoured with a date-raisin spread.

Just one bite- and the couch potato looks very interesting.

Baking slow for good health.

A couple of posts ago, we gave a gist about how our breads are made and why it takes 48 hours to make and bake them. As promised earlier, here is the reason why we bake at low temperatures – something, we all must know if we would like to bake and eat healthy food.

Most baked products and bakers suggest that they make healthy food, simply on the basis of having used whole grains while making them. While the intentions are good, they don’t go the whole way in making it truly healthy to stake such a claim. The major reason being – the baking temperature, while most breads are baked at 180c and above, some are baked at temperatures as high as 220c- a temperature that turns a lot of healthy food into harmful ones! Here’s how…

In 2002, Swedish scientists discovered acrylamide in certain kinds of cooked food- this rang alarm bells because acrylamide is a known carcinogen. It was discovered, that cooking at high temperatures, caused a chemical reaction between certain sugars and an amino acid called asparagine, which is present in food, to form acrylamide. So what kinds of food are likely to form acrylamide- Foods that have starches, like those made from grains, vegetables and fruits. Acrylamide formation begins when food is cooked above 120 c and rapidly increases with increasing temperature. At 200c and above, the acrylamide formation reaches very high proportions, and it is the temperature at which most baking occurs.

So what do we do to make our breads safe? We use a four-pronged technique to reduce acrylamide formation.

1. The most effective method is to bake at a lower temperature- although it takes a longer time, we bake our breads at 140C/150C which is slightly above the temperature at which Acrylamide is formed- albeit at lower quantities.

2. Yeast fermentation: Studies have shown that the process of yeast fermentation degrades asparagine, a lower level of asparagine means lower levels of acrylamide.

3. High humidity during baking: High humidity during baking also retards the formation of acrylamides - we keep a water bath in our oven, to provide the necessary humidity.

4. Soaking of grains: As mentioned earlier, we soak our grains for at least twenty four hours. Soaking leeches asparagine and, lesser asparagine means reduced acrylamides.

Industry standards require that a maker disclose all ingredients in their product. However, it’s not just the ingredients, but the baking temperature too that plays a vital role in how healthy a food really is! So, the next time you eat a so-called healthy baked product, try and find out at what temperature it was baked! And if you are a home baker, bake at lower temperatures, preferably below 180c.

Ref:
1. http://centaur.vri.cz/docs/EU2011/_Keramat_AA.pdf
2. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002364380700028X
3.   https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/44133779/Fermentation_reduces_free_asparagine_in_20160326-9894-1pixh2z.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1514830333&Signature=bFxgKtwQJQ3EEC9dWMMABcw3q%2FY%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DFermentation_Reduces_Free_Asparagine_in.pdf
4. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6c92/68f8d01556d51f643acf5bb7c3cc46cd6f18.pdf

Bean there eaten that...

In 2012, when we eliminated gluten from our home- we were also left pondering on what food we could eat, given that rice and wheat formed a substantial part of what we ate. Out of necessity, we began experimenting with various grains, many of which we never had even heard of. Subsequently, we also felt that we should try and grow our own food- Organically.

On our rocky piece of plot, with a couple of inches of soil and lots of books on how to grow food, we began our journey of growing our food. Durig this journey one such seed we sowed was this ‘broad bean’, and when in six months, it did not yield any legumes we had all but three creepers removed.

Two years later, the three remaining creepers finally flowered and have given a bounty of ‘broad beans’. The creeper is doing extremely well and in its long life has never been infested with any pest or disease. Not just that, we have been negligent in maintaining our plot- for months we have not watered it or mulched it and many of our crops and plants died during these periods of neglect. However, many did survive and one such survivor was this ‘broad Bean’. The plant grows in perhaps less than a few inches of soil in our plot and is thriving. It has seen sporadic periods of care and neglect and we find it hard to believe that it is so full of flowers. The reason why we put this post is, it conveys a powerful message.

As we connect to farmers around the country we see a growing number of them cultivating exotic crops that are not endemic to our climate- the major reason being, people are willing to pay a higher price to these products. In turn, we are increasingly consuming pesticide-laced vegetables, facing an acute water crisis and rising food cost- one major reason being we have forgotten the local variety of good food. Their resistance to pest and vagaries of climate, all built over years of evolution is something that is getting lost on us as we are relying more and more on chemicals to do what nature has provided us on a platter.

 At House of Grains, we try our best to use such ethnic ingredients that are local, if not to the Konkan coast, at least to India. We hope, as days go by we can also make these items available to all those who visit us and hopefully restart an interest in local healthy food- they drop out of our memory.

Why do we need two days to make our gluten-free breads?

We always tell our clients, that we need at least two days’ notice to bake our breads. Why do we insist on this time period? It’s simple as this- that is how long it takes to bake our breads! Yes, it’s as slow as that- and today, we will explain our snail pace baking process.
All our breads are made of multiple grains or pulses- The first thing we do when we have to bake our bread is soak them. The grains or pulses, when harvested are dried and go into a dormant state and so do the bacteria and yeast that are naturally found in these grains. We soak these grains for at least 24 hours and by soaking we restart the cycle of life- the dormant seeds and microbes come alive again. We would ideally like to soak it longer than 24 hours and if we have a longer time schedule we indeed do it.
Next, these grains or pulses are strained, milled and begin the process of fermentation. Every grain has its own time period for fermenting- pulses are quick off the block, while millets and buckwheat take their own sweet time. The yeast we add and those present naturally, start breaking down the starch, releasing carbon-di-oxide and produce alcohol. The naturally present bacteria meanwhile breakdown the starch and produce aldehydes, ketones and organic acids albeit in a much smaller quantity.
The breads are then baked for nearly 2 hours at a lower temperature of about 140c - (most bakers bake their breads in 20 to 60 minutes at a high temperature)-the lower temperature degrades the least number of essential nutrients and prevents the natural fats and oil forming carcinogenic by-products (more about this in a later post). The breads then gently cool and are sliced- 48 hours after we started the process. Truly susegad style !
We could have made our breads much faster- but then we would not have been true to our philosophy of providing genuinely wholesome food.

P.S. The pizza base in the photograph, was made from green gram sprouts- the base takes 4 days to make.

Surprising Number of Conditions Linked to Celiac Disease.

We usually associate, only the celiac disease with wheat. In our earlier posts, we have mentioned various studies which show celiac disease to be associated with many other conditions.

Recently, at the World Congress of Gastroenterology 2017, Dr. Daniel Karb, stated, that he and his colleagues searched the Explorys database of electronic health record, an aggregate of about 35 million people and, found a significant association between celiac disease and 13 other autoimmune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. "Every autoimmune disease we looked at is associated with celiac disease, other than primary biliary cholangitis." Dr Karb reported.

From the image above, you will notice that the rate of celiac disease is almost 5 times higher in those suffering from migraine than in those without and, it is 20 times higher in those with Autism. So what does it indicate? We could certainly conclude - the unknown is more than the known and, a lot of further research is needed in order to identify why such a skewed co-relation exists between wheat and auto-immune diseases.

So, what does it mean for all of us? Does it mean if you have a migraine, you need to go off wheat? Well, most of us work towards identifying the root cause of any ailment that we or our loved one may be ailing from. If during this phase, you haven’t given thought to consuming foods which are free from gluten then perhaps, trying a gluten free diet for three to six months at the least will not be such a bad idea after all.

Original article at https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/889005 

Grain Vs Human alter Ego.

Ever since we started writing this blog, we have shared many of our successes and all our stories had a happy ending. As we all know, life is not a bed of roses and success rarely comes without failure. So today’s post is about one such baking failure that we had today.

A few days ago, we posted an all pulse bread that we baked and we had made a lovely sandwich out of it. Before introducing it in our menu, we had to try making it again, and again and yes, yet again.  This was one of our repeated attempts and, it definitely hit an iceberg.

It’s not just with this bread, but with nearly every other product that we make- they are extremely demanding and very unforgiving on the baker. Aarina goes to great lengths to maintain the precision with measurements. Perhaps her training, on measuring with burettes and pipettes helps, but despite great precautions, incidents like these happen regularly. Sometimes, it’s more about the consistency than the measurement, given that, different batches of grains behave differently. Worse still, disaster strikes during our orders, however, we are very fortunate to have clients who have been very understanding and forgiving when it was their orders at stake.

We are constantly working on making our products more resilient to such baking idiosyncrasies, and our experiments, are forever on. But the one thing we choose not do- is to use binders, gums or any such additives. More often than not, our products may not seem presentable to the eye - but they will always be wholesome and nutritious.

Working with grains in such a fashion is indeed a tremendously humbling experience! Every kind of grain is different in its own way, making one grain mimic another grains property is an emotional experience. Oftentimes, Aarina breaks down crying during her experiments, “Don’t most of us live our lives doing just this - mimicking, cloning and being something that we are not!”

Dal and Rice bread

Dal (Lentils) and Rice are generally associated with an everyday meal, however, we decided to use the same Dal and Rice and make it into a bread. Our gluten-free bread today was made from Goa rice (boiled rice) and Moong dal ( green gram lentil), and it makes a light flavoured bread, perfect for lightly flavoured sandwiches.

Our Sandwich filling was Beetroot, tomatoes, carrots and a spicy green chutney.

There comes a time when you realise that one can do bread with almost anything, and when that dawns on you wheat bread sounds so boring!

Goa’s Traditional Cake- Baath.

Across bakeries and homes in Goa, especially, during the Christmas season, it is a tradition to bake Baath or Batica. Baath is a traditional Goan cake, and unlike other cakes- Baath is different, for it uses Semolina and not flour. It has coconut in it and is allowed to sit overnight prior to baking.

So where did Goa get it’s Baath from? We are not entirely sure, however, the closest cake to Baath is the ‘Basbousa’, from the Middle East. Basbousa makes use of Semolina, has coconut and is very similar in preparation to Baath. In Egypt, it is specially made during the Christmas season. Food historians believe that Basbousa originated in Somalia, and considering Goa had historic maritime links with Somalia (even before the arrival of the Portuguese) it is possible that the ‘Basbousa’ from Somalia arrived in Goa, and somewhere during its historic journey- Basbousa became Batica, further shortened, to Baath.

It is interesting to note that the original Basbousa, unlike the one baked today, was made not from wheat Semolina, but from Sorghum! Yes, it was gluten free and like many other traditional recipes, the convenience of wheat made cooks adapt wheat to replace the traditional grains!

We have adapted this recipe and our Baath is made from Sorghum, rice and Yellow pea semolina- so now, wheat should not be a reason why you can’t eat Baath! Our Gluten-free Baath does not contain Vanilla essence, we use the vanilla bean and, just like all our other products, we do not use baking powder.

The House Of Grains Deli .

This blog has been silent for some months now- however behind the veil of silence, we have been working hard over our recipes and there is some good news that we would like to share with you! Great news for all those in Goa, who either want to enjoy wholesome eating options or need to eat nutritious, gluten-free food.

On 18th December, “House of Grains” will open a little, ethical “Deli” which will focus on using Gluten-free, ethnic, and mostly organic ingredients, to make and serve not just nutritious but conscious speciality food. 

We wish for our deli to be a homely space, reflecting not only the ethos of “home-cooked meals are made with love and are nutritious”, not to forget, our food is certainly just that, but also, the kind of persons that we are, homely and casual. Also, given that, garbage is such a massive issue, we are consciously working towards eliminating plastics, composting all our kitchen waste and thereby, eyeing to become a “zero waste deli”.

We are using recycled cane furniture, eco-friendly fans (power consumption 32 Watts as opposed to 65 plus watts in the regular fans) and LED lights. Our curtains are made from cotton Khadi while the cushion covers are made from cotton fabric, printed using vegetable dyes.

Although, we would have preferred using regular plates and bowls, water shortage in the area has forced us to consider disposable options. The plates and bowls we use are made from Bagasse (Sugarcane waste), which will then be composted in our garden.
At a later date, we plan on offering gluten-free, organic groceries and wish to keep all of it packaging free. We would love our patrons to bring in their own boxes/ bags to help each of us become garbage free.

Come 18th December, we look forward to chatting with you over a cup of freshly ground coffee. Having said that, we would like you to know that we have already begun taking orders for our breads and cakes.

P.S. Kindly find the menu on the menu page.

A tale of two Breads

These two mini bread boules may appear similar but appearances are deceptive. Both are gluten free breads and are made from exactly the same ingredients- Barnyard millet, salt and a bit of grated carrot. However, they have one fundamental difference. The one on right- sitting on a pedestal of bread slices was slowly fermented with wild starters- it's a sourdough bread and the one on the right is fermented with yeast. The sourdough took about 8 hours to ferment, while its yeast sibling took one hour. Nutritionally, there is no significant difference between the two, neither in texture- But how about taste? Hmmm... we have been eating bread made by both these methods and this is what we felt:

Just like Theory of Relativity, which states that speed is relative to the frames of reference of an observer- taste too is relative to the palate of a taster. However, this is what our taste buds suggested- The sourdough bread combines best with, spicy curries, mild cheeses, chutneys, sunny-side-up eggs and peanut butter. The yeast bread goes best with jams, mild curries, sharp cheese and scrambled eggs. Sourdough bread goes nicely when dunked in coffee, while the yeast bread does will with tea. It feels much like how one would choose their wines- but unlike the connoisseurs, we were more than happy to have any bread with any dip- Its not just wholesome but healthy too. 

Barnyard millet, Sourdough Pie

Our heads are reeling with ideas, but working on the technique, is what slows us down. We have been working on a sourdough pie crust for sometime and this morning it turned out just right. " Eureka was the word, echoing in our kitchen labs". There is some more tweaking that needs to be done, but for the moment we have a nice crunchy crust and a pillow soft crumb.

The gluten-free, pie  was made from, Organic, whole Barnyard millet only and was infused with herbs. We used our leftover bread dough from the previous day as a starter. The fermentation took about 8 hours and involved a slow one-hour baking. The filling for the pie was a mixture of all the veggies I could gather from the fridge and cooked it like, how one would make a Mangalorean masala dosa filling.

Millets make an amazing breakfast grain, they fill you up quite quickly, sustain you for a longer time and they come in a large verity. We work with nine different millets and we can do all that we want to do, in a much more healthy and sustainable way. 

The Billion Dollar Idli,

 For reasons I have not tried to find out- Barnyard Millet is also called the 'Billion Dollar grass' hence the title of this post. For a large part of human history, millets were a staple and it sustained and helped flourish many a civilisation. However, in the last few decades, the convenience of wheat has replaced most of these millets in our diets and we, humans are essentially living on a diet of a single kind of grain and vitamin supplements!

Barnyard millet, from which these idlis were made, can be used exactly the way rice is used. For these idlis, we substituted the rice with whole, unpolished, organic barnyard millet and fermented it with the previous day's leftover sourdough bread dough as a starter. So, unlike a conventional idli, this one has neither rice nor black gram (urad dal) and yes it was stuffed too - with vegetables and spices. Small things that make life amazing! What say?

Vada Paav

Our attempt to bring Mumbai's beloved street food- Vada Paav, home. When Aarina went off gluten, Vada paav was perhaps the biggest casualty. Not anymore- we made a much healthier version of the paav (bread) for breakfast. Made from Little millet and proso millet only, the bread was made with wild leavening and took 8 hours to ferment. The starter was the previous day's bread dough, which was only proso millet.  

The best part of millet bread is that they sustain one for much longer hours and their much lower glycemic index make them the best grain option for people suffering from type 2 diabetes. Way better than wheat or rice.  

Eggxact Eggs

We make something special for most major festivities- it's fun to celebrate and even more, fun to eat!

Aarina, baked a gluten free Date and Walnut cake on Sunday. Made of Sorghum, water-chestnut, rice and tapioca, the cake other than being gluten free was also very low in sugar (20 grams of muscovado for 500 gram cake) since the dates provide enough sweetness and the flours the flavour.

Now, this is a post to share an interesting observation of ours. Since the last five years, Aarina has baked lots of gluten-free cakes, so many that we have lost count of them and even stopped making notes! (Yes, bad habits) However, there is something that we noticed in our kitchen lab during our trials.

We do not use any baking powder or yeast in our cakes, air is incorporated by long, patient beating of the mixture. It so happens that if we use eggs from mass farmed, layer hens, the cake inevitably falls flat or caves in. But it never happens with the traditional, free range hens- The cakes always have a wonderful rise and colour.  Since the day we noticed this, we have always used local, free range eggs in our cakes and we have been unable to find why such a difference. (The reason we tell ourselves is that it could be the difference in the strength of the albumins protein matrix- but it's just a speculation!)

Being off- sugar, we could just have a bite of the cake- but it was a delight to see the family enjoy a great gluten-free cake- that too nearly organic (except for the dates) and margarine free. 

Germ of Life

Yesterday, we made a nine millet gluten-free sourdough bread- today's was a single millet gluten-free bread. Proso millet, it has lovely yellow colour and we love the light yellow hue that it lends to the bread. We added the seeds for the crunch, but as an afterthought, we also realised that the seeds add the precious phytic acid lost during milling and fermentation of the millet. Yes, we love phytic acid and feel its essential for our well being.

The starter used was yesterday's, nine grain left over dough and it took just 6 hours to ferment. We have noticed that among millets, Proso, is the quickest one to ferment and Sorghum the slowest.

The seeds comprising of Sunflower, Chia, Nigella, flax and sesame were lightly roasted along with Moringa and tamarind leaves cooled and added to the bread before baking. The baking took some time- 160c for 70 minutes and produced a 400 gram boule and it was completely organic.  

Sourdough Buns

It is that time of the year when bakers are dishing out 'Hot Cross buns' and we tried our hand with the bun- and it was great fun!

We did a gluten free, nine millet, sourdough bun and scoured it with a cross. It was hot, it had a cross, so it should be a hot cross bun I told Aarina, No she said ! Grrr...

We made it from Red and Yellow sorghum, Proso, pearl, finger, barnyard, kodo, foxtail and little millet. Other than being gluten free, it was also sugar-free, salt-free, oil free, egg free and gum free. The slow fermentation took about 12 hours and the starter used was the leftover batter from our yesterday's Idli's.

The one complaint I have is, unlike yeast fermentation which has neutral flavours and lets one enjoy the flavourful grains that we use, Sourdough fermentation changes the flavours dramatically- Not that it tastes any less tasty, but I do miss the millet flavour.

The organic buns- were made from home milled grains and does not include anything other than water and millets! That's a two ingredient bun!

Jambul Idlis with stories

An ancient Indian breakfast! Not really but the ingredients are. The Jabul (Syzygium cumini ) or Indian blackberry tree in our yard is like a mini ecosystem of sorts. During March to May when the Jambul flowers bloom the tree buzzes with activity. This tree is a nesting place for weaver ants throughout the year, once the flowers bloom, bees, butterflies and sunbirds make regular forays to the tree. This attracts birds like the 'Paradise flycatchers' (featured below) and other insectivores aves.

As the fruit ripens and falls down, it attracts small rodents and hence becomes a favourite hunting ground for rat snakes, which in turn attracts peacocks. The tree also attracts apex predators like me (Yes, all the above-mentioned lifeforms are darn scared of me) and I use the fruit to make nourishing breakfast interesting.

Take for example today's breakfast, made from ancient Indian grains of Proso millet, little millet, rice and Sorghum. Fermented overnight with 4 tablespoons of the previous day's fermented batter as a starter. This organic batter itself is quite nutritious and is made from ingredients that Indians traditionally ate. To this, we added the pulp and skin of the Jambul fruit (Indian Blackberry or Malabar Plum) which gave the idlis a light purple colour, light sweetish taste and some interesting history.

Jambul, tree and fruits are mentioned many a time in ancient Indian texts, not just as ayurvedic remedies but as part of philosophies and stories. I, however, remember it best from my days when reading stories from Kannada literature. According to the puranic cosmography, the entire Cosmos is divided into seven concentric island continents. Each concentric island separated from the outer one by different bodies of liquid- sea-water, sugarcane juice, wine, ghee, curd, milk and water respectively. The innermost Island was called Jambudvipa and this is where ordinary humans lived. Dvipa meant island. and the Jambu is said to be derived from the jambul tree. Considering the tree is very beneficial, there is no doubt it would be given such an esteemed position in our past history.

For now, though, the pulp of the Jambul fruit will grace our breakfast, desserts and wines. 

Phytic Acid Myth

Our understanding of the natural world is changing very fast. Newer discoveries, aided by modern technology is helping us understand some of the many mysteries. One of the challenges that often pops up in this fast-changing scenario is accepting newer discoveries while letting go of past beliefs. Today’s post is about one such belief and we felt the need to write about it because we read some well-followed bloggers, who wrote about nutrition, suggesting to their readers to reduce grain, legume and seed consumption as they contain ‘Phytic acid’- informally termed as an ‘anti-nutrient'.

So does one need to fear Phytic acid? This is our take on it.

What is phytic acid? Phytic acid (or Phytate) is a major phosphorus storage compound of most seeds, legumes and cereal grains. It has a high affinity to phosphorus, and the seed stores the phosphorus reserve in phytic acid. When seed sprouts, the phytic acid degrades and releases the phosphorus, which nourishes the young plant. The structure of Phytic Acid is such, that it not only has a property to attract and lock in Phosphorus but also some other minerals, namely, iron, zinc and calcium. It was believed that because phytic acid locks these minerals, they are not available for us during digestion. For this reason, alone, it was termed as an ‘anti-nutrient’. Although no other nutrient is targeted, somehow the name stuck and became convenient to those who promote certain kinds of diets and food products.

So, do we need to shun Phytic acid? Contrary to those who call it a Pariah of the nutrition world - Science is actually asking us to smartly embrace Phytic acid and, we will tell you why and how.

1. Phytic acid is a powerful antioxidant: Phytic acid is shown to protect the liver from alcohol-related injury. It is also able to protect the DNA from free radicals, this protective action is enhanced in foods that are roasted (unfermented Chapati’s / flat breads). (1)

2. It reduces inflammation and its harmful effects: Phytic acid decreases the inflammatory cytokines IL-8  and IL-6, especially in the colon cells. (2)

3. Helps prevent certain types of cancers: Phytic acid was found to have anti-cancer properties against bone, prostate, ovarian, breast, liver, colorectal, leukaemia, sarcomas and skin cancers (3)

4. Helps repair DNA damage: Phytic acid can enter cells and aid the DNA repairs of breaks in its strands.  This has potential anti- cancer implications. (4)

5.  It can help prevent osteoporosis: Although it was implicated to inhibit calcium absorption, Phytate consumption has a protective effect against osteoporosis. Low phytate consumption, in fact, is a risk factor for osteoporosis.  Adequate consumption of phytate may play an important role in the prevention of bone mineral density loss in postmenopausal women (5)

6. Helps prevent Kidney stones: Phytic acid has shown to prevent calcification in the kidneys of rats, which suggest a potential for preventing kidney stones. Similar results were obtained in human cohort studies. (6)

7. Helps people suffering from Gout: By inhibiting the enzyme xanthine oxidase, phytic acid blocks the buildup of uric acid and can help prevent gout. (7)

These are just a few of the benefits of Phytic acid if included in our diet. Evidence from newer research showing more benefits like skin protection, gut protection and protection from heavy metals among others is also pouring in.

Now, the dilemma is how to enjoy the benefits of Phytic acid despite its inhibitory effects? The answer is simple - Eat a variety of food, encompassing a range of grains, pulses, vegetables and fruits.

How does this help? Firstly, contrary to what was believed, Phytic acid does not treat all iron and zinc equally. Absorption of iron and zinc from animal sources is not inhibited by phytic acid (8), so if your diet includes fish and meat - you do not have to bother.

What about Vegans then? If you are consuming fruits, vegetables and leaves along with the grains and seeds, then Vitamin C and other organic acids which are found in fruits and vegetables can enhance iron absorption and help reduce the effects of phytic acid. Vegetarian food is naturally high in Zinc and generally exceeds the RDAphytate may actually help control excess zinc absorption.

Finally, when it comes to calcium, Phytic acid has a lesser affinity to Calcium as compared to phosphorus and zinc. Moreover, proteins and vitamin D improves calcium absorption from Phytic acid. (9)

So what about Phosphorus? Phytic acid reduces phosphorus and other minerals absorption only when meals containing foods that have phytic acid are consumed, but does not have any effect on subsequent meals which do not contain foods having phytic acid. Not just that, phytic acid is easily degraded during cooking. Fermentation (like making idlis, Dosas and breads) degrades nearly 100 % of the phytic acid and makes phosphorus available and, so does sprouting. Also milling, boiling and chewing food degrades a large amount of phytates, all of which, release phosphorus, which our digestive system can then absorb (9).

So Phytic acid (or phytate) is a friend and not a foe. It is something we need to embrace and not fear. A varied diet is certainly nutritionally wholesome in more ways than one, and we need to embrace it. So the next time, if someone tells you to give up a certain kind of wholesome food because it contains phytic acid - it will help to realise that such advocates have a lot of catching up to do.

Meanwhile, Aarina, made a lovely gluten-free nine-grain millet bread. We made a sandwich with lots of fresh vegetables and salad leaves. A great way to start a day with a wonderful whole grain bread.

Source:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24009840 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14738912 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21895422

2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23285690 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23285696

3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23424873 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16979586, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20127021, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22655458 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12594974

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11030616

5.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19053869 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21794821

6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9764452 , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10961468

7. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14738912

8. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2492337 , https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12936958 , https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24871479

9. http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S0002-8223(03)00294-3/fulltext

Virus that can cause Celiac disease

The latest issue of the journal Science (1) has an interesting research paper published. Researchers Bouziat et al. have discovered that the seemingly innocuous and common gut infecting reovirus has the potential to cause Celiac disease in people. People who develop celiac disease will have a life-long intolerance to wheat, rye and barley.

The researchers discovered that a reovirus infection (which is quite common) triggers an immune response in people (that's the job of the immune system) and when this immune response happens in the presence of gluten, the immune system loses its tolerance to gluten. Once tolerance to gluten is lost, the presence of gluten in our food can keep the immune system activated, every time a person consumes products containing gluten.

So what does it means to us? In a previous post, we had told you that herbicide used in agriculture can cause celiac disease (2), similarly, reovirus is a newly discovered trigger for celiac disease. Celiac disease can happen at any age and many times people do not realise it until a substantial damage is done. Discoveries like these are adding to mounting evidence that it is time we relook what we are eating and make an earnest change in it, for the better of our own long-term health.

Meanwhile, we had some amazing Paddu's for breakfast. Made from Little Millet and fermented overnight, we just loved the crunchy crust and the springy crumb.


1. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6333/44
2. https://glutenfreeingoa.blogspot.in/2017/03/celiac-disease-in-fish.html