How to get more nutrition out of your whole grains

6 years ago, when I started this whole natural food thing, I read about soaking whole grains to make them easier to digest. I think I tried one recipe. It seemed "too weird" so I stopped doing that. I've revisited it and you know what? It isn't really weird at all. Take any recipe that contains whole grain flour and liquid (so any pancake, muffin, biscuit, bread, cake, etc) and allow the flour to sit in that liquid for 7-24 hours before you finish the recipe. Seriously, that easy. Why did I think that was weird?

Why do this, you ask?? Because whole grains contain phytic acid, which actually blocks the absorbtion of nutrients. If we soak it, ferment it, or sprout it, the phytic acid gets neutralized and the nutrients are more available. In addition, this helps break down the grain a bit and makes it easier to digest (particularly the gluten, which some people have trouble with). This also makes for a lighter, fluffier product than other whole-grain recipes usually produce.

Soaking is easy, as I stated above (and you don't soak and drain it like soaking a stained shirt, you just let it sit and then continue baking). Fermenting is easy too. You can just add a little lemon juice, vinegar, buttermilk, or yogurt to the liquid and fermentation occurs. Sprouting is still "too weird" to me. I'll get back to you on that when I get gutsy enough to learn how.

Something else I learned 6 years ago, but forgot, is that freshly ground flour loses 40% of its nutrients within 24 hours of grinding (unless sealed or refrigerated) and 80% is lost in 3 days. So using freshly ground grains, or refrigerating store-bought ones preverves the nutrients.