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Fermented Grains for Better Nutrition

Deborah Oakes' photo
Oklahoma City Natural Health Examiner

Fermented grains for better nutrition is not a new idea. Our ancestors used fermentation throughout the world before turning grains and other foods into nutritious food. This is also true for products such as ghee which is the most nutritious food there is, according to Ayurveda. The milk is cultured before turning it to butter and then to ghee.

Phytic Acid

Phytic acid, found in nuts, seeds, grains, legumes and tubers, chelate important minerals and also inhibit enzymes needed to digest food. The end result is phytate's block mineral absorption of food. Cooking is not enough to reduce phytic acid.   Most often, an acid soaking medium is needed, before cooking, to activate phytase which corrects phytic acid.  Following are different methods of preparing these foods for removal of phytic acid.

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Sprouting
Sprouting releases vitamins which make grains, beans and seeds more digestible. However, it is a pre-fermentation step, not a complete process for neutralizing phytic acid. Consuming grains regularly that are only sprouted leads to excess intake of phytic acid. Sprouted grains should also be soaked and cooked.
 
Roasting 
Roast on as low an oven temperature as possible or use a dehydrator to remove a significant portion of phyates. 
 
Germinating
Usually involves soaking 12 hours, draining, and keeping in a warm place for 1-3 days, rinsing often until the seeds, nuts, etc: open and you can see the start of a shoot.
 
Fermentation or Souring 
This is introducing lactobacilli to the soak by adding keifer, whey, yogurt, buttermilk, sourdough starter or fermented brine to the soaking water. If grains are kept warm and wet, they often ferment on their own but could rot, so watch carefully.  
 
Sprouting
This is rinsing sprouts for several days after germinating which encourages longer shoots to form. 
 
Soaking 
Let grains, legumes or nuts sit in water, usually overnight. This usually precedes germination but with high phytase grains like wheat and rye, may be sufficient to reduce a significant amount of phytates. Soaking in acidified liquid (with whey, lemon juice, vinegar, etc. added, 1 Tablespoon per cup of water) encourages the activity of phytase. Some add a bay leaf to the soaking water to reduce gas.
 
 Basic Soak Recipe
To bring the phytate content of your diet to a minimum, add freshly ground rye flour or a sourdough rye culture to rolled or cut oats, cornmeal, rice and other low-phytase grains, then soak in an acidic medium such as water with whey, yogurt or sour milk added.
 
This is often done on a hot plate to bring the temperature up to about 100 degrees F. You can keep whole rye grains and grind a small amount in a mini grinder for adding to these grains during the soaking process.
 
All these methods improve nutrition which results in better health. The key is to plan ahead and do this in steps. Once a pattern is set, these foods become staples and the family looks forward to the taste of nutritious food such as fermented grains.
Learn Nutritional Benefits of Fermented Grains
Learn Nutritional Benefits of Fermented Grains
Photo credit: 
morgueFile.com/ Irish_Eyes

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, Oklahoma City Natural Health Examiner

A certified National Product Specialist and freelance writer, Deborah helps clients across the globe succeed with health challenges using natural health products. Passionate about writing, Deborah produced a cookbook and is currently writing two non-fiction books. ...

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