Eat Grains

Archive for March, 2008

It's been rainy.
It's been too cold to be spring.
It's made me stay in the kitchen. Now THAT is a GOOD thing!

When I get antsy to get outside, and I can't, I experiment with food!
So while I was making my usual home-made granola (with dates, almonds, oats, etc) that we eat for cereal or with yogurt (home made too), I got a creative itch to try something else. Something new was brewing in my head.

Our girls go to college locally and hardly EVER have time for real lunch. Grabbing food between class doesn't work well, so I wanted to make something high protein that would still be wholesome and portable.

In it are sunflower seeds, honey roasted soy nuts, peanuts, peanut butter, honey, sucanant (sugar cane natural) organic wheat germ and organic oats. YUM!

If you've signed up for the newsletter when the little tab drops down – you'll get the recipe in a week or so! I love to share what I learn with others.

I've got to go get one of those wholesome, portable high protein granola bars now! I've made myself hungry.

Eating whole grains for the health of your colon may seem like old news. To be sure, we have heard this for a while now. So why restate old news? I do it to give the chance for not just information but motivation to add whole grains to our diets.

Did you know that the average person carries about 15 extra pounds of 'stuff' in their colon that has not been cleaned through? Vegetarians can blame this on a diet with meat; Cardiologist can blame it on the fat in the average diet; but both would agree that a lack of fiber contributes to this impacting problem.

When your colon is healthy, you digest your food better; enzymes are absorbed into the walls of the intestines more readily to be used in digestion and nutrient absorption. Wouldn't it make sense to keep those walls 'swept' clean to have the most surface for digestion and absorption inside the longest organ in our bodies? Yes.

Whole grains offer this benefit. The average person gets between 10-16 grams of fiber a day. The recommended minimum amount is 20 grams. Whole grains offer the much more fiber than white breads or processed flours.

By adding whole grains to your diet, you'll not only improve your colon health, but you will also improve the digestion of your other foods and enzymes in your system as well. The side benefit is that you may also lose the 15 pounds of 'matter' that you may very well carry around in your middle. Lightening this load can be a very good thing!

Seems that many people wonder why someone would choose home milling as a life style and dietary choice. To some people, milling at home is just one more step in the baking or cooking process. It is more than that to me.

I was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity in the end of 2002 and was told to stay away from most (if not ALL) forms of gluten. This of course included wheat. For several months I did my very best to avoid breads, pastas, and baked goods. The price of the gluten free alternatives was outrageous. The taste of these expensive items was aweful (most of the time).

I began milling grains at home and trying to eat wheat again in the Spring of 2004. To my surprise, I could eat all the home milled bread as my usual portions, with no gluten intolerant symptoms. The fact that I did not ADD gluten to make the bread and the flour was FRESH as it could be, and there were limited ingredients (all of which I could pronounces) cured me.

Now, home baked, freshly milled baked goods are almost all that I WILL eat! It's good to be able to have BREAD again! My bread tastes better and because I milled it at home, it does not cause problems that the store bought breads did when first diagnosed with gluten sensitivity.

Not long ago a bushel of wheat grains cost $3.50 United States Dollars. As of today's post, the quote for trading wheat is $12.28 USD per bushel. The expected market trend is that in May of 2008, a bushel of wheat will be approximately $16.00 USD a bushel. This will soon show up more and more in the price of bread you find on your grocer's shelf.

The suggestion would be to buy grains NOW before the cost goes even higher and learn to mill and bake your own wheat products at home. The rising cost of a bushel of wheat is only one concern. Other concerns are paying for the production of bread on TOP of that already high cost.

Wheat grains can store for years if cared for properly; cool, dry and away from sunlight. This is a cost effective way to make sure the cost of this 'staple' of bread itself stays stable for years. Buy bushels now before the cost increases more.

Millers Grain House

Wheat prices have risen.

Get your order in for Whole Wheat and Grains before the prices go up further. Visit our store at Millers Grain House.com.