Soaking Grains and Other Things I Learned

Right now I have kefir fermenting on my bookshelf, rice soaking in water and lemon juice, and I am making plans to start purchasing raw milk. Why?

I have heard from a few different sources that grains should be soaked before cooking. For a long time I have felt as though planning meals far enough in advance that I remember to soak anything was too much of a pain but I recently began trying to do so, even if only for a couple hours. I had a niggling feeling, however, that there is more to soaking grains than just putting them in water and letting them sit.

On Sat I had a conversation with one of YDAO’s volunteer staff – Eric – about food. He explained to me that the reason for soaking grains is to begin the digestion process. It takes us 24-36 hours to pass food through our systems but in that amount of time grains have barely begun to break down. Also, whole grains contain something called phytic acid, which blocks us from absorbing the nutrients in the grains. If we soak grains in order to begin that digestion process, the phytic acid breaks down and we absorb the nutrients.

As I guessed, there’s more to soaking grains than just putting them in water overnight. In order to start this pre-digestion process, the grains must be soaked in something acidic. Eric told me what acids are good for this but I had to look it up in order to remember: kombucha, kefir, raw apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, yogurt, to name a few. According to this site you mix 1 tbsp of the acid per cup of water and soak overnight. Another site says to soak 12-24 hours. I’m excited to have a new way to use my kefir; it doesn’t taste very good by itself. I was imagining how tasty rice soaked in coconut kefir will be. Mm-mm.

If you are drinking milk right now or eating yogurt or anything dairy I suggest you either put it aside or wait until you’re done eating as you read this next part. Purchasing raw milk has become very important to me as per my conversation with Eric. I had already heard that pasteurized milk kills all the healthy bacteria which helps build our immune systems as well as the vitamins and enzymes that make milk healthy. Here’s something I didn’t know:

Cows were never supposed to produce as much milk as the cows hooked up to machines and sucked dry. These cows develop mastitis – an infection in the udder – and up to 50-70% of the milk is pus.

Here, have another glass of pus – I mean, milk.

Gross.

I have just ordered the book “Nourishing Traditions” from the library. I’m excited to continue learning about healthy eating. Hopefully my food budget can keep up! ;)