bread

Bread is one of the most basic foundations of our nutrition. The sages referred to this nutritional bounty of within bread when they said to eat "a slice of bread in the morning"
(Shulchan Aruch 155b ).

How does bread made from grains affects the person? Bread stimulates the liver, which is connected energetically with the brain. Therefore, bread indirectly stimulates the brain and nervous system. Depending on the individual's health of the liver, and processing ability, bread will cause a stronger liver, and therefore stronger brain and nervous system. Or, it will cause liver congestion, leading to brain and nervous system weakness. In naturopathic medicine, bread "allergies" are known to typically cause dizziness, migraines, frontal headaches, eye-pain and other neurological symptoms. Liver dysfunction is also known to cause hormonal imbalances, susceptibility to cancer, diabetes, and inflammation.

Those negative effects are caused mainly by gluten - the main protein that is found within all of the grains - more in wheat, barley and oats, and less in rye and spelt. It is the gluten which typically causes "allergies" (indigestibility), inflammation, weight gain (metabolic rate decrease) and diabetes (insulin resistance) in many people. Therefore, it is important to be aware of our ability to digest gluten-containing breads.

We can decrease the negative aspects of gluten, while maintaining the nutritive strengths of the 5 grains group by sprouting the grain kernels before baking the bread. This not only pre-digests the gluten; it also activates the enzyme, vitamin and mineral factory within the grain kernel, improving the nutritive value. Sprouting the grain before baking also brings other advantages. The bran of all grains contains substances called phytates. These substances bind with minerals, such as calcium, iron, magnesium phosphorus and zinc in the intestines, preventing their absorption. Since most people in our modern times are relatively deficient in these essential minerals, this effect is very harmful. The fermentation process that occurs in soaking and sprouting grains neutralizes the phytates, making the minerals more available to us. It's also important to know that the wheat that we use today is not the same wheat of which the Sages spoke. Modern wheat, after thousands of genetic engineering changes, is much stronger than the original wheat species, kamut and spelt. We see this in the fact that kamut and spelt produce much smaller blood sugar elevations, and subsequent insulin responses, than that of wheat.

I have also discovered that mixing sprouted wheat or rye berries with spelt flour, which has a much milder strength, decreases the intensity of the bread. This allows many people who cannot normally tolerate grain bread, or who already have health challenges, to gain the great benefits of bread with fewer problems.

As a final note, any person with a health challenge, especially candida, should only eat non-yeast breads. The sourdough that we use instead of yeast allows greater fermentation of the grain bran, increasing all of the positive effects of sprouting as mentioned above.

For Dr. Yeuda Ben-Asher website: www.thenaturalpath.co.il