Real Food (26 page)

We have seen how carbohydrates cause blood sugar and insulin to spike more than fat and protein. Complex carbohydrates cause
blood sugar to rise less quickly than simple ones because they must first be broken down into simple carbohydrates called
mono-saccharides.
The simple carbohydrates
{mono-
and
disaccharides
such as sugar and juice) are small and able to enter the bloodstream rapidly. The larger complex carbohydrates
(polysaccharides
such as whole wheat) must be dismantled first. That takes time, so blood sugar rises slowly.

The fiber in complex carbohydrates further delays the spike in blood sugar. Fiber explains why an apple, even though it contains
a lot of the simple carbohydrate fructose, is healthier than a soft drink sweetened with fructose— or even pure apple juice.
In the apple, fructose comes with plenty of fiber.

Let me repeat: uneven blood sugar makes you fat. But even for slim people, steady blood sugar is desirable. Peaks and valleys
in blood sugar also lead to diabetes and make you moody and lightheaded. With carbohydrates, this is my rule of thumb:
avoid the
ones that go straight to your head.

A SIMPLE GUIDE TO COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES

All carbohydrates consist of monosaccharides and end up as mono-saccharides after digestion. Complex carbohydrates may contain
hundreds of monosaccharides, and they cause blood sugar to rise more slowly than simple ones. Fat and protein are even better
for steady blood sugar.

The fiber, B vitamins, vitamin E, and antioxidants in whole wheat, brown rice, and other whole grains prevent obesity, diabetes,
heart disease, and colon cancer. The government recommends three servings of whole grains daily, but the average American
eats only one. The recent emphasis on the benefits of whole grains has led to an explosion of commercial whole grain breads,
pasta, and baking mixes; quality is improving, too. For busy people and nonbakers, this is good news. The Oldways Preservation
Trust, a food think tank, has devised the Whole Grains Stamp to alert buyers to foods containing whole grains.

Whole grain flour is nutritionally superior, but in certain baked goods, white flour gives a better texture. With pie crust,
for example, you can just about get away with using one third whole wheat flour; add any more and the crust crumbles at the
touch. You will have to make up your own mind about baked goods. For me, the occasional white flour crust (with lard and butter,
of course) strikes an acceptable compromise between health and pleasure.

The complex carbohydrates in whole grains and legumes can be difficult to digest, causing bloating or cramps. Gluten intolerance,
or celiac disease, is another problem common with wheat. All grains and legumes contain phytic acid, called an
antinutrient
because it reduces absorption of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc, and other minerals. Other antinutrients in grains and beans,
called
protease
inhibitors,
interfere with protein digestion by blocking protease enzymes that break it down.

Yet these nutritional drawbacks have not stopped us from eating grains and beans. To aid digestion, reduce phytic acid, and
increase nutrients, people all over the world sprout, soak, ferment, and cook corn, rice, wheat, and beans. All over the world,
grains are a staple food for the poor. Dependence on grains would be catastrophic without these time-honored methods. In effect,
foods are partially predigested by such kitchen tricks.

In the Americas, for example, conquistadores and colonists saw that the Aztecs soaked or ground corn with lime, but they didn't
know why. Later, corn traveled to Europe without the tip about using lime, and people suffered for it. "Peasants who lived
on corn throughout the winter came down with 'corn sickness,'" writes Betty Fussell in
The Story of Corn.
In 1771 an Italian named it
pellagra
(rough skin), but its cause remained mysterious. It was thought, perhaps, to be triggered by a kind of corn rot. Not until
1915, when the National Institutes of Health appointed Dr. Joseph Goldberger to investigate an epidemic of pellagra in the
American South, did anyone suspect that pellagra was diet-related. Today we know that treating corn with lime (or some other
alkali) liberates its vitamin B
₃
, and that pellagra is caused by lack of vitamin B
₃
, which is vital for metabolism.

Ancient cooks knew all this. An early recipe for cereals was pounded gruel. The Greeks ate a fermented, slightly alcoholic
barley porridge, while Native Americans made a corn mush. After rudimentary porridge, the next development in grain cookery
was unleavened bread. In the Old Testament, Ezekiel commands, "Take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt and put
them in one vessel and make bread of them." This passage also calls for sprouting the grains. Essene bread, a thin wafer of
sprouted wheat flour, was probably the unleavened bread the Jews carried as they fled Egypt. Rich in vitamin C and protein,
sprouts are remarkably nutritious, and many people who cannot digest wheat can eat sprouted grain breads, which are sold in
whole foods shops.

Following traditional culinary and nutritional advice, I first soak the ground corn overnight with a pinch of baking soda
when I'm making polenta, grits, or corn bread. According to Anson Mills, the miller of heritage varieties of American wheat,
rice, and corn in Charleston, South Carolina, where I buy corn, lime also accentuates the floral flavors and aroma of grits.
I soak rice for an hour and dried beans overnight, again with a pinch of soda. In effect, soaking is a mild form of fermentation.

THE OTHER WHOLE GRAINS

As with apples, pork, and every other food, monoculture reigns in grains. Today the dominant crops are wheat, corn, and rice,
but this is a historical blip. For millennia, people have eaten dozens of others.

•
Amaranth.
An Aztec staple, amaranth has no gluten.

•
Barley.
Grown by the Egyptians, barley has a lot of fiber and needs long cooking. Pearled barley is slightly refined and cooks more
quickly.

•
Buckwheat.
A cousin of rhubarb, not a grain, buckwheat contains the antioxidant rutin and is famous in American pancakes, Japanese soba
noodles, and Russian kasha.

•
Kamut.
An ancient wheat with large, yellow, sweet grains. More protein and fats than durum wheat.

•
Millet. A
small, round grain with a delicate, nutty flavor, millet is a staple in India and delicious with butter.

•
Oats.
Buy whole rolled or steel-cut oats and soak overnight in water with a spoonful of yogurt or whey.

•
Quinoa.
Cultivated by the Incas, quinoa is a member of the beet family. Light and fluffy, it cooks quickly.

•
Rice.
One of the most easily digested grains, rice may be brown, red, or black.

•
Rye.
With more fiber than wheat, rye makes a dense bread and superior sourdough.

•
Spelt.
An ancient wheat, with more protein, it is often tolerated by people who can't eat wheat.

•
Teff.
A kind of millet with a very tiny, somewhat sweet grain, it is a staple in Eritrea and Ethiopia, where they make a spongy
fermented pancake called
injera.

•
Wild rice.
A swamp grass, not technically a rice, with a strong flavor and more fiber than rice.

The next development in grain cookery also used fermented grains, this time in the form of sourdough and yeast bread. The
first leavened bread was invented by the Egyptians around 2300 BC. The early bakers let flour and water sit uncovered for
several days, allowing it to bubble and expand from wild yeast spores in the air. Essentially, this is the same sourdough
starter traditional bakers use today. Next, one adds flour and water to the starter, kneads the dough, and lets it rise with
the action of the yeast. A good baker keeps a bit of starter for the next batch. Some starters have lasted for generations
in the kitchen.

Natural, spontaneous leavening was the basic method of Western bread baking until the twentieth century, when commercial yeast
was introduced. In 1961, bread suddenly became industrial with the invention of a technique by the Flour Milling and Baking
Research Association in Chorleywood, England. The "Chorleywood bread process," as it is known, uses chemical improvers and
low protein wheat, even though high protein wheat makes superior bread. Fermentation is dispensed with altogether. Unfortunately,
"it's the fermentation time that makes bread digestible," says John Lister, a traditional miller at Shipton Mills, in the
Cotswolds in England.
³
Real bread also tastes better.

Perhaps you think soaking corn meal in soda, or finding a bakery that makes proper bread, is quaint, peculiar, or just too
much trouble. I hope not. It's worth the effort, for health and flavor. But my commitment to old foodways, as historians like
to call these culinary legacies, is nothing compared to advocates of the Stone Age diet, whose view of the ideal diet is far
more radical. They believe that bread itself— not only industrial bread— is bad for you, and it's worth hearing what they
have to say.

In 1985, Dr. Boyd Eaton wrote a seminal article in the
New
England Journal of Medicine
called "Paleolithic Nutrition." Eaton noted that high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer were rare among
modern carnivorous hunter-gatherers such as the !Kung in the Kalahari Desert, aborigines in Australia, and Ache in Paraguay.
Loren Cordain, a professor at Colorado State University, was inspired by Eaton's work and decided that we should eat like
Stone Age people. What does that mean?

In
The Paleo Diet,
Cordain calls for liberal amounts of green vegetables, fruit, fish, game, and pastured meat, poultry, and eggs. On that much,
experts agree, but Cordain goes farther— right back to the Stone Age. His diet forbids all farmed foods, including grains,
legumes, dairy, potatoes, and honey. Cordain is particularly critical of cereals, which he calls "nutritional lightweights"
compared with meat, fish, and produce. Per calorie, meat and fish contain four times more vitamin B
₃
than whole grains. A one-thousand-calorie serving of vegetables contains more calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron than
a similar serving of whole grain cereal. The vegetables also have five times more vitamin B
₆
, six times more B
₂
, and nineteen times more folic acid than whole grains.

When I delved into Stone Age nutrition, I was surprised to learn that the rise of farming was not entirely good news for human
health. Archaeologists agree that early farmers had diseases and conditions not seen in hunter-gatherers, including parasites,
syphilis, leprosy, tuberculosis, anemia, bone infections, and rickets.

On the Neolithic diet, humans got shorter, a reliable sign of poor nutrition. Farming did cause a population boom— largely
because grain is an inexpensive, easily stored source of calories— but general health declined.
⁴

The proponents of Paleolithic diets have a point: the body does not require wheat, corn, chickpeas, or milk, which are relatively
recent additions to the diet. All the essential nutrients are found in Stone Age foods. Given the emphasis on the nutritional
value of whole grains today, it is perhaps surprising that you can get plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fiber without grains,
but true. As for dairy, East Asian cultures thrive without it. Dr. Ben Balzer, an expert on Paleolithic nutrition, says that
for the same calories, the typical hunter-gatherer diet has more vitamins, minerals, omega-3 fats, and antioxidants than the
modern diet.

Americans do eat too many grains and refined grains. The main villain is corn, in three forms: corn-fed beef, corn oil, and
corn syrup. On factory farms, cattle eat corn that is too rich in omega6 fats; then we eat the beef and milk lacking the omega-3
fats we need. Corn oil, the main source of excess omega-6 fats, is a major cause of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
Corn also becomes high fructose corn syrup, the main caloric sweetener in junk food. Intake of high fructose corn syrup grew
by more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding changes in consumption of any other food. The rise of corn
syrup mirrors the increase in obesity.
⁵
Fructose also raises insulin, blood pressure, and triglycerides. If you take only one piece of advice from the Stone Age
diet, stop eating all forms of industrial corn. It's far better to eat this delicious native vegetable in the traditional
way: boiled with butter or in whole corn grits— ideally soaked first.

The Stone Age diet of whole foods has much to recommend it, but I'm not convinced it's necessary to give up all farmed foods.
Our saliva and digestive tract contain enzymes such as amylase to digest starch. During the last Ice Age in North America,
Siberia, and northern Europe, a wild wetland tuber called wapato was prolific, suggesting that ancient humans ate potatoes.
What matters most is how we farm and how we prepare foods.
⁶