Buckwheat - A Super Food!

[Laura]

today I experimented and I mixed it with cooked lentils. It was delicious next to juicy steak :)

That does sound yummy. I bet it would be good with chopped spinach and onions too!

 

[Keit]

Recently I started adding cooked buckwheat groats to green salad (lettuce, green onions, lemon, olive oil, and perhaps some radish) with either sardines or small pieces of turkey/chicken. The same can be done with quinoa. It adds substance to the salad similar to croutons but without the crunchiness (ohhhh, how about buckwheat croutons?). If it is a salad with turkey or chicken, you can add caramelized onions to the mix.

And yep, try to make buckwheat kasha with grilled onions and eat it with yummy meatloafs or just homemade hamburgers with garlic and parsley/coriander. My grandmother used to do it, and it was always my favorite combination.

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Recently I started adding cooked buckwheat groats to green salad (lettuce, green onions, lemon, olive oil, and perhaps some radish) with either sardines or small pieces of turkey/chicken. The same can be done with quinoa. It adds substance to the salad similar to croutons but without the crunchiness (ohhhh, how about buckwheat croutons?). If it is a salad with turkey or chicken, you can add caramelized onions to the mix.

And yep, try to make buckwheat kasha with grilled onions and eat it with yummy meatloafs or just homemade hamburgers with garlic and parsley/coriander. My grandmother used to do it, and it was always my favorite combination.

Are buckwheat grouts and buckwheat kasha the same thing?? All I can find around here is the flour.

 

[3DStudent]

Are buckwheat grouts and buckwheat kasha the same thing?? All I can find around here is the flour.

Groats are just plain buckwheat, kasha is toasted groats. I don't think it makes a difference if you substitute groats and kasha. But I find that kasha tastes better.

 

[Keit]

Are buckwheat grouts and buckwheat kasha the same thing?? All I can find around here is the flour.

Groats are just plain buckwheat, kasha is toasted groats. I don't think it makes a difference if you substitute groats and kasha. But I find that kasha tastes better.

Sorry for not being clear. Had no idea that groats are plain buckwheat. The only buckwheat I know and eat (in non flour form) is toasted (brown). And think of kasha as porridge made from toasted groats. So in this sense kasha and buckwheat grouts are the same, just have slightly difference levels of preparedness. It can be cooked less if it is going to be used in a salad.

 

[RyanX]

Recently I started adding cooked buckwheat groats to green salad (lettuce, green onions, lemon, olive oil, and perhaps some radish) with either sardines or small pieces of turkey/chicken. The same can be done with quinoa. It adds substance to the salad similar to croutons but without the crunchiness (ohhhh, how about buckwheat croutons?). If it is a salad with turkey or chicken, you can add caramelized onions to the mix.

And yep, try to make buckwheat kasha with grilled onions and eat it with yummy meatloafs or just homemade hamburgers with garlic and parsley/coriander. My grandmother used to do it, and it was always my favorite combination.

Are buckwheat grouts and buckwheat kasha the same thing?? All I can find around here is the flour.

Mrs. Peel,

I believe "groats" are the hulled form of buckwheat. The buckwheat seed has a dark outer hull that makes cooking difficult unless it is removed or milled in the process of making flour. This is what is removed to make "groats". The term Kasha is sometimes used interchangeably with "groats", but I believe Kasha originally denoted a toasted form of hulled buckwheat. Buckwheat flour is usually made by milling the whole buckwheat seed, hull included, which gives the flour its dark color.

I think that's right... :)

 

[thorbiorn]

Recently I have looked into the buckwheat situation in the country I live, hoping to find a cheaper solution. One source, an insider of the market who is buying and selling buckwheat ( see _http://www.fyens.dk/article/443802:Business-Fyn--Den-sociale-moeller) estimated the market among 5,5 million people to be just 30 tons.

Another forum member told me of a "cheap" seller for buckwheat but that was wholesale to companies only and without 25% vat. The price of buckwheat in shops is five times that of oatmeal, which was my favorite, and more costly than many meats, but still only 2/3 of quinoa, which is REALLY costly.

Apparently however not everyone tolerate buckwheat equally well: _http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almindelig_Boghvede has that quite a number of people are allergic to the coloring on the surface of the grain which is called fagopyrin and mentions that fagopyrin can be removed by rinsing the grain in boiled water. I guess that buckwheat flower would be more rich in fagopyrin since it probably is not washed.

Another source _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckwheat has:

However, Buckwheat can be a potent and potentially fatal allergen by itself. In sensitive people, it provokes IgE-mediated anaphylaxis.[27] The cases of anaphylaxis induced by buckwheat ingestion have been reported in Korea, Japan and Europe where it is more often described as a "hidden allergen".[28][29] A recent article by Heffler E et al. showed that allergic reaction, even severe ones, induced by accidental ingestion of buckwheat as "hidden allergy" are not so rare as previously described.[30].

You can find the references for these claims on the wiki page if you follow the numbers.

I know this is a buckwheat page, but anyhow I am getting interested in the question of allergy and since the other option I looked at was quinoa, what can be found about this food and allergy:

_http://allergydetails.com/gluten-free-diet/cooking-quinoa/ has

However, a small minority of people report becoming sick after eating quinoa, usually after consuming it for some time. This is a real shame, as quinoa is very tasty, extremely nutritious, and easy to cook. It is versatile, and can be used in many ways.

The most likely problem is saponin, which protects the plant from insect and fungal attack. This is a soapy substance which can be washed out of the quinoa pseudograin. It has a bitter taste, and possible minor toxic effects.

Because of the bitter taste and possible toxicity, it is important that you wash out most saponin before cooking the quinoa. It certainly is not a very dangerous substance, nor is it as bitter as fish bile, so you do not have to take the same care with washing your quinoa as you would with preparing a puffer fish or something.

In this world nothing is for free, everything has a price, living beings eat and get eaten so many have a way of protecting themselves, even buckwheat and quinoa try to save themselves from their predators.

 

[gaman]

My wife bought some organic buckwheat in a bag (looks like little round peas) and I took some with me to work today for lunch. Another side was navy beans.

We have been looking to leave off the rice and the buckwheat seems like a good idea, but I have never had either of the two above before. After lunch, I've had really bad gas all day and since being on the diet beans haven't really given me gas.

I'm going to experiment some more but I was wondering if buckwheat has given anyone else similar "issues" :)

 

[Laura]

I'm going to experiment some more but I was wondering if buckwheat has given anyone else similar "issues" :)

Navy beans are famous for that.

 

[Gimpy]

My wife bought some organic buckwheat in a bag (looks like little round peas) and I took some with me to work today for lunch. Another side was navy beans.

We have been looking to leave off the rice and the buckwheat seems like a good idea, but I have never had either of the two above before. After lunch, I've had really bad gas all day and since being on the diet beans haven't really given me gas.

I'm going to experiment some more but I was wondering if buckwheat has given anyone else similar "issues" :)

Buckwheat blinis go through me like a freight train. :( I've been avoiding legumes because of lectins. Though I've read that soaking lentils over night can reduce that, my system is too inflamed to try it. At this point, its looking like meat and veggies are all I can handle.

(I love making muffins, and so far, my Hubby and the dog eat more of them than I can. )

 

[Laura]

Buckwheat blinis go through me like a freight train. :( I've been avoiding legumes because of lectins. Though I've read that soaking lentils over night can reduce that, my system is too inflamed to try it. At this point, its looking like meat and veggies are all I can handle.

You aren't the only one. That seems to be the best diet for a number of people. And usually, the same people have to be careful of fats, introducing them slowly and carefully and taking plenty of enzymes. I am wondering if Mark Hyman's IBS protocol would help?

Imagine having a condition with symptoms so severe that you can't leave the house, yet your doctor calls it a "functional," or "psychosomatic," disease -- meaning that it's all in your head.

Frustrating? Absolutely.

But it's a very real problem for the 60 million people -- that's 20 percent of Americans -- who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). These people are plagued by uncomfortable and often disabling symptoms like bloating, cramps, diarrhea, constipation, and pain.

I have lots of patients with IBS, some of whom have suffered for decades without relief. Their previous doctors couldn't find the cause of the illness, so they were told to just get more fiber or take Metamucil, or were prescribed sedatives, anti-spasm drugs, or antidepressants.

That is NOT the answer. I've found a better way. And in today’s blog I am going to share 5 steps you can take right now to cure IBS without drugs.

But first I want to tell you about a patient of mine ...

Alexis and Her Lifelong Irritable Bowel

At age 45, Alexis had suffered from IBS for 33 years -- almost all of her life! Her major symptom was sudden, painful, cramping diarrhea. She was doing the best she could to prevent it. She didn't consume dairy, didn't drink or smoke, and took Citracel every day. Yet nothing helped.

She would go to the bathroom 4 to 5 times before she even left the house in the morning. And she couldn't go out of the house at all without knowing where all the closest bathrooms would be in case she had what she called "s--- attacks."

That wasn't Alexis' only problem ... She also felt full and bloated after every meal, which starchy foods made worse.

An upper endoscopy had shown that she had gastritis, or inflammation of the stomach, and she had taken many antibiotics over the years. She also had severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS), with irregular periods, breast tenderness, sugar cravings, headaches, and agitation.

She also had unusual symptoms like rectal itching (often a clue to yeast infections or food allergies). And she was tired all the time.

Alexis tried to eat healthy, but her diet was less than ideal. She had a bran muffin and coffee in the morning and a salad for lunch. But her "drug of choice" was sugar -- in the form of cakes, ice cream, Jell-O, diet sodas, and other junk food. Not surprisingly, she was also about 20 pounds overweight.

To help Alexis, all I really did was identify and treat the UNDERLYING CAUSES of her digestive problems! To understand how I did that, you first have to understand a little bit about how the gut works.

How Gut Imbalances Can Lead to IBS

Imagine a tennis court. That is the surface area of your small intestine, where food is absorbed. Your small intestine is also the site of about 60 percent of your immune system. And this sophisticated system gut-immune system is just one-cell layer away from a toxic sewer -- all of the bacteria in your gut.

If that lining breaks down -- from stress, too many antibiotics or anti-inflammatory drugs, intestinal infections, a low-fiber, high-sugar diet, alcohol, and more -- look out! Your immune system will suffer and you can develop all sorts of digestive problems -- including IBS.

Let's talk a little more about all that bacteria. You've got about 3 pounds of it -- 500 species -- in your gut. In fact, there is more bacterial DNA in your body than there is human DNA! Among all that gut bacteria, there are good guys, bad guys, and VERY bad guys.

If the bad guys take over -- or if they move into areas that they shouldn't (like the small intestine which is normally sterile) -- they can start fermenting the food you digest, particularly sugar or starchy foods.

This is called small bowel bacterial overgrowth -- and it's a major cause of IBS.

The major symptom it causes is bloating, or a feeling of fullness after meals. What causes this bloating? The overproduction of gas by the bacteria as they have lunch on your lunch!

Small bowel bacterial overgrowth can be diagnosed by a breath test, which measures gas production by the bacteria, or by a urine test that measures the byproducts of the bacteria after they are absorbed into your system.

Bacterial overgrowth is a real syndrome and was recently described in a review paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The condition can be treated. In fact, a major paper was recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that showed using a non-absorbed antibiotic called rifaximin for 10 days resulted in a dramatic improvement in bloating and overall symptoms of IBS by clearing out the overgrowth of bacteria.

That's great news for many IBS patients. But, unfortunately, not all patients with the same diagnosis are created equal. There's more than one factor that leads to IBS. Another major cause of IBS is food sensitivities.

A landmark paper, was recently published in the prestigious British medical journal Gut that found eliminating foods identified through delayed food allergy testing (IgG antibodies) resulted in dramatic improvements in IBS symptoms. Another article, an editorial in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, stated clearly that we must respect and recognize the role of food allergies and inflammation in IBS.

So the research tells us that these are the two main causes of irritable bowel -- food allergies and overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine -- but there may be others, including a lack of digestive enzymes, parasites living in the gut, zinc or magnesium deficiency, and more.

And this is precisely why it is so critically important to personalize treatment based on the unique circumstances that exist for each person who suffers from IBS -- the solution is most certainly not a one-size-fits-all one. But solutions can be found if we look carefully at the underlying causes and treat them.

Which leads me back to Alexis ...

How I Helped Alexis Heal from IBS

I prescribed Alexis a non-absorbed antibiotic, an antifungal drug for her yeast problem, and had her eliminate the foods to which she was allergic. I believe in treatment that addresses the underlying cause of the problem. If there is a bacterial or yeast infection, then medications are often the best treatments. The key is to effectively treat the cause. If medications do that, then I use them.

Then I gave her supplements of healthy bacteria to normalize her gut and zinc to help with her digestive enzymes (chronic diarrhea can result in zinc deficiency).

I also gave her extra fiber to feed the healthy bacteria, fish oil to reduce gut inflammation, a multivitamin, and herbs to balance her hormones (which are greatly affected by abnormal bacteria).

What happened then may shock some, but I wasn’t surprised. It is the same result I have seen in patient after patient when the principles of functional medicine are applied ...

Alexis came back to see me two months later, and she was a different person. Not only did she lose 20 pounds, she had not had a "s---- attack" and was having normal bowel habits for the first time in 33 years! She also had more energy, and her PMS vanished.

She looked and felt 10 years younger and was free of the suffering she had endured for over three decades.

Do you suffer like Alexis did? It doesn't have to be that way. We have the understanding and tools to deal with this chronic problem and the suffering it causes one in five people. There is no need to wait for any more studies. I have been treating IBS in my practice for over 10 years with dramatic success.

In fact, just recently, one of my patients told me that, for the first time in his life, he didn't have any more stomach pains or digestive problems. He had previously been so bad that he had to have a phone installed in his bathroom!

To take advantage of these discoveries today, simply follow these five steps.

5 Steps to Curing IBS

1. Get tested. Try to get a test for IgG food allergies (see Immunolabs for more information on this testing) and eliminate the foods that test positive for 12 weeks.

2. Test yourself. If you can't afford the test mentioned above, then just eliminate the most common food allergens for 12 weeks -- that's dairy, gluten, yeast, eggs, corn, soy, and peanuts. And then reintroduce them to see if they cause symptoms. This is an effective way to isolate the foods that may be causing you problems.

3. Get rid of the unwanted visitors in your small bowel. Ask your doctor to prescribe rifaximin (Xifaxin) and take two 200 mg tablets 3 times a day for 7 to 10 days. This is often the best way to deal with the chronic bacterial overgrowth that causes bloating and irritable bowel syndrome.

4. Repopulate your digestive tract with good bacteria. I don't usually recommend brands, but when it comes to probiotics the quality varies so much that I suggest taking two specific brands. Take one packet of VSL3 or other high potency probiotic twice a day for 1 to 2 months. This probiotic has over 450 billion organisms per packet. I also recommend a probiotic called S. boulardii take two capsules twice a day for 2 months. This is a special probiotic that helps to further normalize gut function.

5. Read more about the condition and your options. My favorite book on this subject is Digestive Wellness by Elizabeth Lipski.

By taking these steps and seeking out the underlying causes of IBS, you can dramatically improve your health and overcome your digestive disorder.

From Wikipedia

Rifaximin is a semisynthetic, rifamycin-based non-systemic antibiotic, meaning that very little of the drug will pass the gastrointestinal wall into the circulation as is common for other types of orally administered antibiotics. It is used in the treatment of traveler's diarrhea and hepatic encephalopathy, for which it received orphan drug status from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998.

Uses

Rifaximin is licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat traveler's diarrhea caused by E. coli.[1] Clinical trials have shown that rifaximin is highly effective at preventing and treating traveler's diarrhea among travelers to Mexico, with few side effects and low risk of developing antibiotic resistance.[2] [3] It is not effective against Campylobacter jejuni, and there is no evidence of efficacy against Shigella or Salmonella species.

It may be efficacious in relieving chronic functional symptoms of bloating and flatulence that are common in irritable bowel syndrome.[4] There was recently a pilot-study done on the efficacy of rifaximin as a means of treatment for Rosacea, according to the study, induced by the co-presence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.[5]

In the United States, rifaximin has orphan drug status for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy.[6] Although high-quality evidence is still lacking, rifaximin appears to be as effective as or more effective than other available treatments for hepatic encephalopathy (such as lactulose), is better tolerated, and may work faster.[7]

[edit] Availability

Rifaximin is currently sold in the U.S. under the brand name Xifaxan by Salix Pharmaceuticals. It is also sold in Europe under the names Spiraxin, Zaxine, Normix, Rifacol and Colidur and in India under the name RIXMIN (Sold by Cipla, cost 9.90/capsule).

 

[Masamune]

Buckwheat blinis go through me like a freight train. :( I've been avoiding legumes because of lectins. Though I've read that soaking lentils over night can reduce that, my system is too inflamed to try it. At this point, its looking like meat and veggies are all I can handle.

I am in the same situation Gimpy. I have done a lot of experimenting over the years and the only things that I can tolerate at this point are certain types of meats, veggies, and oils. I also eat some fruit but the sugar can cause me problems. It seems like the healthier I get the more I notice the reactions with foods but also the cravings for the unhealthy foods have pretty much disappeared. I feel so good that I don't really miss the grains or other foods.

 

[Lucius]

OMG!Buckwheat Is Kasza gryczana !! I LOVE kasza gryczana:D When I was yong I have eat it every day,
Stoped 7 year ago! =) when move from my parent house

In Poland Buckwheat is very popular

Now gartering all recipients and going to full detox, no gluten
I want stocks for my familly good healthy food for this time that are coming.

 

[yev]

Hi guys,
I'm in a bit of a dilemma here, iv been having buckwheat for a long time, and now my peeps on the International Paleo Movement are saying its unhealthy, un-paleo, because it has lectins & phytic acid in it.
I'v read the articles they showed me, it was mostly reviews and Opeds. And couldn't really find anything useful on Google, only that buckwheat is very healthy and a great substitute for grains.
Does anyone know if buckwheat is actually evil with lectins? Really curious to here your opinions.
peace

 

[Tomek]

Hi guys,
I'm in a bit of a dilemma here, iv been having buckwheat for a long time, and now my peeps on the International Paleo Movement are saying its unhealthy, un-paleo, because it has lectins & phytic acid in it.
I'v read the articles they showed me, it was mostly reviews and Opeds. And couldn't really find anything useful on Google, only that buckwheat is very healthy and a great substitute for grains.
Does anyone know if buckwheat is actually evil with lectins? Really curious to here your opinions.
peace

Hello Yev,

This thread is to be taken in the context of our first attempts to regulate our diet, by eliminating gluten. Since that time, our research has actually led to consider that grains, including buckwheat, as harmful to the body because of the presence of lectins and their massive amount of carbs. I invite you to see the threads "Life without Bread" and "Ketogenic Diet" for more up-to-date informations about the diet.

Regards