I have been doing a little research on the nutritional profiles of the different grains that traditional foodists consume on a regular basis. In the course of that project, I came upon this blog post by Amanda Rose, the author of the book Rebuild from Depression:
“Below is a graphic display of a study from the food science literature comparing the reduction of phytic acid in various grains. Notice that the phytic acid content of wheat, rye, and barley decrease rapidly with soaking. It is apparently the same with buckwheat, kamut and spelt… Phytic acid in oats and corn decreases very little over the same 12-hour period. These grains are both noted exceptions in the food science literature.”
Since finding Amanda’s research (and her handy dandy little phytic acid reduction chart, go take a look at it at the link), I am now adding one tablespoon of freshly-ground buckwheat flour to every cup of steel-cut oats that I soak. If you aren’t gluten-free, you can use any of those grains. But since we don’t consume gluten, I now have placed buckwheat on an even more honored place on my pantry shelf. My kids haven’t noticed the change and I don’t taste any difference since we usually flavor our oatmeal with something like molasses or cinnamon. And now any time I am making a soaked baked good that contains oat flour, I am sure to include some buckwheat in the soak.
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Thank you for this post. While researching, Dr. Rose’s link no longer exists as given, but found her .pdf:
https://www.functionalmedicineuniversity.com/phyticacid.pdf
You are inspirational!