This is another post about food.
I
was eleven and in the bathroom, doing whatever eleven-year-old girls in
the late '80s did (probably something involving a curling iron). I
know I wasn't texting or socializing via media. Maybe I was stealing a
few private moments on the cordless phone, but what I did not want to
hear was an innocent knock on the door followed by my mother's voice
asking: "Can we talk?" I'll skip the awkward details of my "coming of
age" conversation, but I will tell you it was a chat I did not want to
have. I did not want to think about why my body was changing or how my
life would be different as a result, and I certainly couldn't process
that everything was evolving, and that I had to evolve and adapt as
well.
So, knock knock! Can we talk? Don't lock the door and turn on the shower - this is about food, remember?
As we go through life, we
need nourishment to grow and maintain our bodily functions. Our diet
is a source of energy and nutrients necessary for daily life, but it can
also be a cause physical and emotional complaints. Total Body Analysis
is all about shedding toxic layers to allow healing. Some toxins we're
born with and some we acquire over time from stressful situations,
germs, the environment, and (you guessed it) food. Processed,
hybridized and pesticide-ridden items bring energetic frequencies into
our systems that are not compatible with healthy human life. Food can play another role in the hurting-versus-healing dichotomy: Highly
nutritive "healthy" whole foods can often be what I call "aggravators" -
catalysts for disagreeable and sometimes life-threatening symptoms we
experience and often try to treat with medication and/or elimination or
"special" diets. If a client is allergic to soy, for example, soy is an
aggravator for her. TBA allows us to antidote
why she gets hives when she eats tofu, to address the root cause of
her reaction to the soy, and when her body is ready, to detoxify (get rid
of) the real problem.
In the modern world there are a variety of foods that
can be aggravating as well as toxic to our systems. Over time, human
beings have evolved and adapted to our environment, but more recently,
we have been changing the food we grow and how it's propagated to feed
our explosive population. The result is crops that are easier to grow,
harvest, and distribute, but are vastly different from what the human
body has come to recognize as nourishment. Although this hybridization
and modification applies to myriad modern day crops, I am going to focus
on the one most prevalent in many of our lives: Wheat.
Before we get
into it about the glutenous grain, let it be known that I loooove baked
goods. Bakeries are one of the first (if not the first) things I check
out in a new city, and our local cooperative bakery/café is one of my
favorite places in the world. I love the radiant heat of the ovens, the
comfort of a cup of coffee and a soft, handmade breakfast treat, and
the unmistakably appealing scent of toasty, powdery wheat alchemizing
into... anything, really.
Wheat
can be the culprit for a variety of ailments from digestive gas to
"brain cloud" to muscle soreness. It may also not be simply that you eat
wheat, but the
kind of wheat, how it's been processed, and the amount
in your diet. Even if you are not having problems with wheat (or
simply haven't noticed), for nutritional reasons alone, it is a good
idea to consider replacing it (even whole grain sandwich bread for the
kids) with a variety I've listed below.
Spelt!
Spelt is one of my favorite baking grains. Its flour looks, feels, and
smells like wheat, except it retains its ancient grain form - it hasn't
yet been hybridized, its gluten is weak and can be much more easily
digested, and many gluten sensitive individuals can easily tolerate it.
When baking bread, spelt can be hard to work with because its gluten
won't give the structure of that of wheat flour. But in muffins, cakes,
and some cookies, spelt will fool even the most wheat-centric
eater. The only drawback is that in order to "unlock" all of its
nutrients, spelt, like wheat flour and other grains, needs to be soaked
or soured. Don't worry if you're not ready to climb down the rabbit hole
of soaking and using sourdough starters, we can get to those in later
posts.
As far as convenience and nutritional back for your buck,
sprouted flour wins. Sprouts=Vegetables. Sprouted wheat or
spelt = vegetable to your digestive system. Sprouting the grains before
grinding them into flour also reduces gluten and causes
nutritive changes in the grain that produce digestive aids. No
soaking or souring required here. You can purchase sprouted grain bread (and other sprouted goods) frozen in most large grocery stores.
If you
use a lot of sprouted flour, buy it in bulk online (it is shelf stable
for six months). Or consider buying freshly milled spelt flour from a
local farm or bakery and storing it in the fridge or freezer to preserve
precious nutrients and prohibit rancidity. Sprouted flour absorbs more
moisture than unsprouted, so be careful in substituting in in recipes.
There are many great sprouted flour recipes in the internet. I've
included my own chocolate chip cookie recipe below.
Coconut flour
is a gluten-free "flour" made simply from the fruit of the coconut.
It's main source of calories is medium-chain fatty acids,
which give quick
and lasting energy without triggering insulin reaction like
carbohydrate calories do. That means you won't crash after a couple of
coconut flour scones for brekkie. It's also high in fiber for that
fully satisfied feeling after a meal. Coco-flo can be found at most
supermarkets, but cannot be directly substituted for regular flour; it
needs lots of liquid and egg or a flax slurry to hold it together for
baking. Coconut flour does not have to soak or sour to get its
nutritional benefits. Like sprouted wheat or sprouted spelt flour, it
can be used right out of the bag. Don't be concerned about its price,
because it absorbs so much liquid, you'll use at most one-third of the
amount of wheat flour you'd normally need.
I employ all of the aforementioned flours and
techniques, but, as I said, I loooove baked goods and this lends variety
to my repertoire.
Here is a recap list of options for making a slow shift
away from everyday "junk food" wheat toward a "cleaner" burning fuel
for your metabolic fire:
Spelt Flour =
Easiest to sub for wheat pastry flour (whole spelt for whole wheat,
"white" spelt for all purpose or white pastry flour).
Can be soaked our soured for optimal digestion and nutrient assimilation.
Sprouted
wheat or sprouted spelt flour = Digestible and nutritious right out of
the bag. Be careful subbing for regular flour as sprouted absorbs more
moisture.
Coconut Flour = Gluten free. Great (fat) energy source and can be used right out of the bag as well.
Enjoy these easy, sprouted flour muffins as a guilt-free and highly nutritious breakfast, snack, or dessert.
Sprouted Flour Muffins
Adapted from
Arrowhead Mills recipe
1 3/4 cup sprouted wheat or spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil
1 cup milk of choice with 1 tablespoon lemon juice or
vinegar
1/2 cup maple syrup or sugar of choice
2 eggs
1-2 cups chocolate chips, nuts, or other addition
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12-cup muffin
tin. Whisk dry ingredients in a large
bowl. In a small bowl, whisk wet
ingredients. Stir wet into dry until
combined and then add chips. Bake 15
minutes and let cool until just warm.
