Vegetables
Fresh vegetables can be the highlight of every meal. Few of them require much time to prepare, and most need very little time to cook. Furthermore, almost every vegetable that has been studied has been found to contain substances that benefit the hearth and blood or counteract the formation of tumors. Fresh vegetables, eaten with the right fats on a daily basis, are one of our best protections agains coronary heart disease and cancer.
Fresh vegetables can be the highlight of every meal. Few of them require much time to prepare, and most need very little time to cook. Furthermore, almost every vegetable that has been studied has been found to contain substances that benefit the hearth and blood or counteract the formation of tumors. Fresh vegetables, eaten with the right fats on a daily basis, are one of our best protections agains coronary heart disease and cancer.
There are several broad categories of vegetables. First are the dark green, leafy vegetables, such as spinach, chard and beet grains. These contain abundant vitamins and minerals, particularly B vitamins, calcium and trace minerals, and should be included in the diet on a regular basis – at least once or twice a week. A second category is the cruciferous vegetables – cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli – which contain natural chemicals shown to block the formation of tumors in the digestive tract. Other categories are tubers (potatoes and sweet potatoes), root vegetables (carrots, turnips, parsnips and beets), the squash family (including zucchini), the lily family (onions, leeks and garlic) and the nightshade family (tomatoes, eggplant and peppers).
Steaming is the best way to cook most vegetables. This preserves most vitamins and minerals and a good many enzymes as well, if the process is not allowed to continue too long. Light sautéing in butter, olive oil or coconut oil is also an acceptable cooking method. Some research indicates that cooking foods in fats and oils actually makes nutrients more available. Other methods include blanching in boiling filtered water and, for root vegetables, cooking in a clay pot.
Some vegetables are best eaten cooked. For example, cabbage, broccoli, Bryssels sprouts and kale contain chemicals that block production of thyroid hormone (known medically as goitrogens). Beet grains, spinach and chard contain oxalic acid that blocks calcium and iron absorption and irritates the mouth and intestinal tract. Raw potatoes contain substances called hemagglutinins that disrupt the proper function of red blood cells. Cooking destroys or neutralizes these harmful substances (as does the fermentation process). Spinach and cabbage are popular salad foods but should be eaten raw only occasionally.
Do not save the vegetable cooking water, because pesticides and nitrites from commercially grown produce along with many of the harmful compounds listed above, particularly oxalic acid, ends up in the water. The solution is to steam lightly and not very long. All commersial vegetables should be washed in water with a little Clorox bleach, hydrogen peroxide or Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds, and then thouroughly rinsed to remove chemical residues.
Dark green, leafy vegetables tend to concentrate nitrates when commercially grown with high-nitrogen fertilizer. In the intestinal tract these nitrates may be transformed into potent canrcinogens. Nitrates also tend to form in cooked vegetables during storage; for this reason you are cautioned against eating reheated vegetables, particularly green vegetables.
Don’t hesitate to put butter on your steamed vegetables. The fat-soluble vitamins and vitamin K2 in butter are just what your body needs to fully utilize minerals in plant foods. Season vegetables lightly after cooking with sea salt.
Grains
The well-meaning advice of many nutritionists, to consume whole grain as our ancestors did and not refined flours and polished rice, is misleading and often harmful in its consequences; for while our ancestors ate whole grain, they did not consume them as presented in our modern day cookbooks in the form of quick-rise breads, granolas and other hastily prepared casseroles and concoctions. Our ancestors, and virtually all preindustrialized peoples, soaked or fermented their grains before making them into porridge, breads, cakes and casseroles.
A quick review of grain recipes from around the world will prove our point; In India rice and lentils are fermented for at least two days before they are prepeared as idli and dosas; in Africa the natives soak coarsely ground corn overnight before adding it to soups and stews., and they ferment corn or millet for several days to produce a sour porridge called ogi; a similar dish made from oats was traditionally among the Welsh; in some Oriental and Latin American countries rice receives a long fermentation before it is prepared; Ethiopians make their distinctive injera bread by fermenting a grain called teff for several days; Mexican corn cakes, called pozol, are fermented for several days and for as long as two weeks in banana leaves; before the introduction of commersial brewers yeast, Europeans made slow-rise bread from fermented starters; in America the pioneers were famous for their sourdough breads, pancaces and biscuits; and throughout Europe grains were soaked overnight, and for as long as several days, in water or soured milk before they were cooked and served as porridge or gruel. (Many of our senior citizens may remember that in earlier times the instructions on the oatmeal box called for overnight soaking.)
All grain contain phytic acid (an organic acid in which phosporous is bound) in the outer layer or bran. Untreaded phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in urfermented whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss. The modern misguided practice of consuming large amounts of unprocessed bran often improves colon transit time at first but may lead to irritable bowel syndrome and, in the long term, many other adverse effects. The simple practice of soaking cracked or rolled cereal grains overnight will vastly improve their nutritional benefits.
Soaking with warm water also neutralizes enzyme inhibitors, present in all seeds, and encourages the production of numerous beneficial enzymes. The action of these enzymes also increases the amount of many vitamins, expecially B vitamins.
Scientists have learned that the protein in grains, especially gluten, are very difficult to digest. A diet high in unfermented whole grains, particular high-gluten grains like wheat, puts an enormous strain on the whole digestive mechanism. When this mechanism breaks down with age or overuse, the results take the form of allergies, celiac disease, mental illness, chronic indigestion and candida albicans overgrowth. Recent research links gluten intolerance with multiple sclerosis. During the process of soaking and fermenting, gluten and other difficult-to-digest proteins are partially broken down into simpler components that are more readily available for absorption.
Animals that nourish themselves primarily on grain and other plant matter have as many as four stomachs. Their intestines are longer as is the entire digestion transit time. Man, on the other hand, has but one stomach and a much shorter intestine compared with herbivorous animals. These features of his anatomy allow him to pass animal products before they putrify in the gut but make him less well adapted to a diet high in grains – unless, of course, he lets the friendly bacteria of the microscopic world do some of his digesting for him in a container, hust as these same lactobacilli do their work in the first and second stomachs of the hebivores.
Grains fall into two general categories. Those containing gluten, such as oats, rye, barley and especially wheat, should not be consumed unless they have been soaked or fermented; buckwheat, rice and millet do not contain gluten and are, on the whole, more easily digested. Whole rice and whole millet contain lower amounts of phytates than other grains so it is not absolutely necessary to soak them. However, they should be gently cooked for at least two hours in a high-mineral, gelatinous broth. This will neutralize some of the phytates they contain and provide additional minerals to compensate for those that are still bound; while the gelatin in the broth will greatly facilitate digestion. Do not use the pressure cooker for grains because it cooks them too quickly.
If you buy grains that have been rolled or cracked, they should be in packages and not taken from bins, where they have a tendency to go rancid. All whole grain flours quickly goas ranci and develops a bitter taste, so it’s best to buy organic or biodynamic whole grains and roll or crack them yourself using a roller or grain grinder or a corn mill.
Sprouting accomplishes a veritable predigestion of grains. Phytic acid is largely decomposed. So are certain sugars which cause intestinal gas. Part of the starch is transformed into sugars and numerous enzymes that aid digestion are produced. Bulgur or cracked wheat is a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine, used in tabouli, kibbeh, soups and casseroles. It is traditionally made from from sprouted grain for a product infinitely more delicious and digestible than today’s store-bought cracked wheat. Kasha, or cracked buckwheat, is to Russia as bulgur is to the Middle East – the staple carbohydrate food used in numerous dishes but chiefly as a simple casserole.
Housewives of old knew that the most delicious pancakes, muffins and cakes could be made from soaking flour in sour or cultured milk, buttermilk or cream. Flour products should be soaked at room temperature for at least 12 hours but better results may be obtained with a 24-hour soaking. This method has the further advantage of so softening whole meal flour that the final product is often indistinguishable from one made with white flour. Breads, muffins and pancaces that have been made with soaked whole wheat, kamut or spelt flour rise easily with baking soda alone; they do not require baking powder.
A caution against using soy flours. Soy contain a high phytate content as well as potent enzyme inhibitors. These are not inactivated by ordinary cooking methods, such as soaking, but only after a long, slow fermentation process that results in traditional fermented soy products, such as natto, miso or tempeh. The antinutrients in modern soy products and soy flour can inhibit growth and cause intestinal problems, swelling of the pancreas and even cancer. In addition, soy contains a high omega-3 content that quickly goes rancid when the bean is made into flour. Soy flour has a disagreeable taste that is difficult to mask – nature’s way of telling us to avoid it. The phytoestrogens in soy have been promoted as panaceas but they are actually goitrogens that depresses thyroid function.
Raw honey is noteworthy for having considerable plant amylase. The amylase does not come from the bee but is a true plant enzyme, concentrated from the pollen of flowers. If you wish to predigest a starchy food, such as bread, spread some raw honey on it. The moment the honey and bread come into contact, the honey enzyme starts predigestion; and as you chew more digestion takes place. If the bread with its honey-enzyme coating is allowed to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before you eat it, there will be less work for salivary amylase.
Baking with natural leaven is in harmony with nature and maintains the integrity and nutrition of the cereal grains used. The process helps to increase and reinforce our body’s absorption of the cereal’s nutrients. Unlike yeasted bread that diminishes, even destroys, much of the grain’s nutritional value, naturally leavened bread does not stale and, as it ages, maintains its original moisture much longer.
A popular “health food” snack we must warn you about is rice cakes, made from puffed or extruded rice. Although theoretically nutritious, because made from whole grains, they are grains that have been subjected to high heat and pressure to cause them to puff. Diets of puffed grains cause rapid death in test animals.
Source: Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon
