Barley tested to LOWER blood sugar and help with fat loss....

Today's Post:  Thursday, 2-18-2016

1.  This is news about a grain that may IMPROVE your health to eat AND make it easier to lose fat and keep it off!

On, February 10, 2016, a bit over a week ago, Medical News Today reported research that found barley did do those things.  That may be very significant news indeed!

Any food that can result in lower blood sugar and less insulin resistance and reduce over-active appetites and cravings is important and well worth knowing about!!

(We cover that research in more detail later in this post.)

2.  For people who want to eat some kind of grains but stay healthy and to stop being fat or not GET fat, it has looked as if there was no such thing!

Here’s some of why that is so:

Wheat is the most used grain; and though most people eat it and do not know this yet, eating wheat is as harmful as smoking or drinking soft drinks.  Worse, eating wheat is as fattening as drinking regular or diet soft drinks or more!

Grains are high in pro-inflammatory omega 6 oils.  High inflammation from eating grains, eating grain oils like soy oil and corn oil AND from eating animals and fish fed grains results in a very high intake of omega 6 oils – as much as 20 times or more what is safe for humans to eat.

That results in high chronic inflammation which is a major cause of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis and many cancers.  (In this regard, it is very important to note the researchers found barley triggered an ANTI-inflammatory effect.  See the quote below.)

Hybrid wheat whether refined grain flour or real whole wheat foods slams up blood sugar 50% MORE than sugar.

So, eating those wheat based foods is unusually fattening and contributes to getting type 2 diabetes and more!

Hybrid wheat tends to cause a bad reaction to its version of gluten; and in some people this causes a bad reaction to all gluten.

Most bread and crackers and packaged snacks and packaged desserts are made with refined grain wheat flour AND have other ingredients that cause disease and reliably fatten people.

As a result people who eat bread, crackers, hamburger buns, and the like tend to have sky high triglycerides and the resulting sky high risk of heart disease and strokes.  And they tend to have low HDL which magnifies those risks!

Doctor William Davis found that in people who eliminated wheat and other grains, these heart damaging indicators improved dramatically within a few days!!

By actual test, this is one of the fastest and most effective ways to cut the risk of heart attack ever found!

3.  Eating in a way that minimizes all carbohydrate intake is important if you want to stay healthy and not be fat.

That’s true in part because your body needs health OK proteins and oils more AND because of the proven very high health value of organic greens and other very high nutrition, high fiber, vegetables all of which are free of carbohydrates or very low in them per calorie of food.

4.  You’ll feel better; have more energy; and be much less hungry if you have some carbohydrates in addition to that at least part of the time.

BUT grains are NOT needed for this!

Organic vegetables high in health protective carotenes such as carrots, red Garnet yams, sweet potatoes, pumpkin puree are high nutrition, high fiber foods but DO have more carbohydrates.

Some organic fruits and dried fruits can be OK in moderation or eaten occasionally and are also higher in carbohydrates.  They too are high fiber.  These include bananas, organic raisins, organic prunes, and pineapples.

Raw, unsalted and un-oiled tree nuts for those not allergic have health protective oils, fiber, and protein that are very satisfying and appetite lowering AND have close to zero impact on blood sugar; but they too have carbohydrates.

Organic, cooked, beans and lentils are quite high in fiber and nutrients and protein AND they also have some carbohydrates.

So you have an abundant choice of foods that are NOT grains but are very nutritious but do have enough carbohydrates to help you feel better; have more energy; and be much less hungry.

And if you eat them in moderation &/or not every day, you can get and stay free of excess fat.

5.  But if you are used to eating grain foods or want extra variety, wouldn’t it be nice to have a grain that when you ate it resulted in lower blood sugar and less insulin resistance and reduced any over-active appetites and cravings and reliably LESS hungry??!

I’d read that people who ate barley were leaner than people who didn’t; but with the fearful harm of other grains, I was reluctant to suggest it.

6.  Now -- for people aren’t badly impacted by any food with gluten, there is direct evidence that barley may indeed do just that.

In fact, eating barley as a cereal or in place of rice may be EVEN more effective than these researchers found because they served it as a bread that included wheat flour!

Here’s some information on how to see the original article and some quotes from that I think are very significant:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306356.php is the URL.

Barley 'reduces appetite and improves metabolism'     [I put that in bold.]

Those who are on a constant quest to stay healthy may want to include barley in their regular diet;

a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition reveals that incorporating barley into the diet reduces the risk of diabetes and lowers blood sugar levels.

[I added the underlining.]

In the wake of an obesity epidemic in the US, these findings are particularly important.

Currently, one third of adults in the US are obese, putting them at risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.” 

[Adding the people who are fat by having a large waist but not by BMI, the reality is that HALF of all adults in the US are obese!]

,”….the team carried out a study with 20 healthy, middle-aged participants, some of whom ate barley kernel bread at breakfast, lunch and dinner for 3 days. The other participants ate a control white wheat bread during the 3 days.

Between 11-14 hours after their dinner each day, the team assessed the participants for risk indicators of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Results showed that the participants who ate the barley kernel bread had improved metabolisms for up to 14 hours,

and they also experienced decreased blood sugar and insulin levels, as well as improved appetite control and increases in insulin sensitivity.  [I added this underlining.]

"It is surprising yet promising that choosing the right blend of dietary fibers can - in a short period of time - generate such remarkable health benefits," says Prof. Nilsson. 

Barley 'increased gut hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite'

According to the researchers, the positive health effects come about when the dietary fibers in the barley kernel reach the gut, where they increase good bacteria and instigate the release of specific hormones.

"After eating the bread made out of barley kernel, we saw an increase in gut hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite, and an increase in a hormone that helps reduce chronic low-grade inflammation, among the participants," Prof. Nilsson says. "In time, this could help prevent the occurrence of both cardiovascular disease and diabetes."

[Here’s where they reduced the impact of just using barley as a rice substitute but instead made it into a bread that included wheat flour:  ]

Medical News Today asked Prof. Nilsson about the specific content of the bread used in the study. She explained that the goal is to have as much intact boiled kernels as possible.

In one loaf of bread that they used, they had 595 g of uncooked barley kernels that they boiled in 520 g of water for around 12 minutes. She explained that the cooking time can be made longer, but the amount of water must be adapted to the size of the cooking pot.

In short, all water should be absorbed into the kernels for it to be ready. She explained further to MNT:

"We added 105 g of white wheat flour to the cooled kernels, 300 g water, 6 g dry yeast and 5 g salt. The dough (we call it dough, but it doesn't look like an ordinary dough) was kneaded for some minutes and proofed 30 minutes in the bowl, followed by another 35 minutes proofing in a baking tin. It is important to press the dough in the baking tin so that there are no air pockets. This can be done by cover with plastic foil and then press with your hands or, as we did, with another baking tin."

She added that, due to the small amount of gluten in the dough, it does not change much in appearance during the proofing period.

They baked the bread until the inside reached 96 °C (nearly 205 °F), which took about an hour. Then, they covered the bread in the oven with aluminum foil and allowed it to cool.”

7.  The best way to use this high fiber less refined kind of barley is as a substitute for rice or brown rice or as a  with milk as a cereal instead of oatmeal or shredded wheat.

But, for people who want a bread with barley there are other ways to do so without using wheat:

For people who want a lower gluten flour, you can use half barley and half gluten free buckwheat flour.

For people who want a lower glycemic, higher protein flour using half barley and half quinoa flour might work.

Another lower glycemic, higher protein way to go would be to use half barley and half almond flour.

All of those likely would bind together and be less crumbly by adding some fresh pastured eggs to the recipe since they are all low in free gluten.