In this day and age, with all the law suit crazy people in this world, we here at TWJ must needs put the above information in it′s place for everyone′s protection.

Yes, it has become a sad state of affairs when doing such becomes not only necessary but also the norm.

Too, you will see the above Important, Before Continuing information repeated on each and every page where we are endeavoring to provide help to our neighbors.

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What is the food pyramid hoax?

What led up to the agriculture industry to push the eating of whole grains?

What are grains and how are they processed?

What is important to know about eating grains?

How should grains be prepared, prior to eating?

Are their prepared grains available commercially?

The answers to the above questions are on the following pages.

For more information, click on any blue links on this page.

You can't watch television without hearing some spokesperson tell you how great whole grains are and how the Food Pyramid encourages us to make them a large part of our everyday diet.

The hoax perpetrated by the agriculture industry and their political lobbyist is that Whole grains are undeniably better than processed grains.

However, when fully examined, the truth of the matter becomes: There is Absolutely No Difference!

And the shocking truth about this matter is that apparently, the agriculture industry has known about this for a long time.

Recent, well documented discoveries have show that natural components existing within all grains and legumes called anti-nutrients, which are triggers causing inflammation. The anti-nutrients include: the mineral-blocking phytate, gastro-intestinal track damaging lectins, enzyme inhibitors, the vitamin-blocking glucosides and others.

Given all the available evidence, can it be anything other than a bad joke that the pro-whole grain hype continues to be promulgated from both the agriculture industry and the clueless, corrupt, and industry lobby-influenced health authorities. Too, it is truly sad that even university educated PhDs are so easily taken in by such rubbish.

It has long been common knowledge that refined grains are not the most healthy choice, especially products that have been processed to the state of being white. In the refining process, the bran and germ are removed, taking away the fiber and most vitamins and minerals. This processing then continues with bleaching and brominating.

Thus, during the last century, because medical science has found that those who were eating refined grains suffered from severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies, the food industry began to enriched the flour with synthetic vitamins and minerals. However, this synthetic enrichment has subsequently been found to be hard on the liver.

Even if what the food industry says is true, that the enrichment is fundamentally equivalent to naturally occurring vitamins and minerals, the vitamin and mineral content artificially added back into the processed flours will never measure up to the amount or quality inherent in the unprocessed whole grains properly prepared.

Grains are essentially the seeds of domesticated grass. The purpose of seeds are to propagate their species. Seeds, as part of their construction, have several outer layers of protection, layers, some of which insure that they pass through the digestive systems of animals allowing the seed to remain unharmed so that it can grow in the place where the animals deposited them. Despite the fact that humans have a fairly acidic digestive tract when compared to the average bird and we do a better job at breaking down the grains, not all of the grain is digested when eaten by humans. So further research would be needed to help us get the most from our food, in this case, grains.

You would think the understanding of eating grains would be simple because it is as old as agriculture, but during the last century the industrialized grains we eat now are highly processed. Too, refined flours have become the mainstay in just about every processed and baked good on the market today and especially in the restaurant industry, including: breads, cereals, crackers, snacks and a list that is unending. Even the industry proclaimed healthy alternatives, whole grains, are today dangerously devoid of nutrients thanks to the modern methods of grain agriculture, processing and preparation.

Like most people, we endeavor to get as much nutrition as possible from the food we eat and in these days of economic insecurity, we would like for our food dollar go as far as possible. Therefore, it behooves us to learn about nutrition so as to increase our personal nutritional intake.

As mentioned above, grains are hard on our digestive systems, and we don′t digest any grain completely. Undigested particles of grain get stuck in the microvilli of our intestinal walls, building up with time, and ultimately undermining our ability to properly digest other foods. If the interference becomes extreme, a host of intestinal and auto-immune disorders can result including leaky gut syndrome, gluten intolerance, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Also ingested with grains is the enzyme inhibitor phytic acid and other inhibitor whose purpose is to lock up all the nutrients until the seed is ready to germinate. These inhibitors are commonly called an anti-nutrients because they block the digestive system from absorbing nutrients from the seed.

When the phytic acid and other anti-nutrients contained in most grains, get loose in our own digestion, they bind with the vitamins, minerals and nutrients present to keep us from absorbing them. Most of these anti-nutrients work so well that they could even draw extra nutrients from our body.

GMO is an acronym for genetically modified organism. What this means is that the GMO have been engineered to withstand without harm, the direct application of herbicide and insecticide, or even to produce it′s own an insecticide. This means that not only is the plant been modified, but later, before harvesting the crop, toxic herbicides and insecticides are routinely sprayed on the crop.

Of the wheat grown in the US, over 95 percent is grown from genetically modified organisms (GMO) and can not be healthy. In fact, GMO wheat is able to pass the brain blood barrier. The brain blood barrier is a safety feature in the body to prevent toxins from reaching it′s most critical and sensitive area, the brain.

In most all of the body, blood vessels molecules are relatively loosely connected allowing molecules of oxygen, nutrients and waste to pass freely between the blood vessels and the body. This allows for the proper nutrition of the cells as well as for wastes to be moved to locations to be excreted from the body. However, the blood vessels molecules in the brain are tightly connected to prevent this free flow of particles.

The tightly connected molecules in the vessels in the brain prevent toxins and other unwanted molecules from entering the brain, thus the blood brain barrier. However, GMO wheat does pass this barrier as shown by the brain fog that you get when you eat food with processed wheat.

Never had brain fog? Neither had I noticed it before, until I eliminated all types of bread and other wheat products from my diet for two weeks. Then I had a craving for a breakfast burritos and stopped by the local f-mart, purchased and ate two breakfast burritos, which of course were wrapped in processed wheat tortillas. For the rest of the morning, I was in a daze, could not think, could not work because I was experiencing what is called the brain fog. I hate that feeling and now I am even more determined not to eat GMO products, especially wheat products.

Even in ancient times during hard economic times, a soldier, when trying to feed his family, would forego purchasing wheat, the best quality but also the most costly grain and purchase a lesser quality grain, oats, at a lower cost to increase the quantity of the grain available for himself and his family. Yes, we too, wish to get the most from the food we purchase.

However, we are not left without a way to increase the amount of nutrition we receive from both grains and legumes. It turns out that traditional grain preparation techniques solved most of the problems associated with eating grains, particularly the anti-nutrients problems. So, how can we prepare grains and legumes so that we may obtain the most nutrients from them? ¹

So, if you eat grains, consider some different ways of preparing them to get the most nutrition possible from the grain.

Yes, without preparing legumes, seeds and/or whole grains prior to eating, you risk bringing on one or more of the dietary problems discussed above as well as many other associated diseases. Too, preparing these foodstuffs as herein described is the only way known to insure the release of most all of the nutrients which are normally incarcerated by these foods. Further, if we desire these nutrients to be allowed absorption by the human body, at least one or more of the below techniques are necessary.

Remember, most reasonable people believe that a healthy lifestyle and true healing is the real quest. Do we not also want a reasonable and scientifically proven path for life and to avoid being plagued with a lack of nutrition and the numerous ailments associated with the anti-nutrients contained within these foods.

Therefore, if you are going to eat legumes, seeds and/or grains, you should endeavor to prepare them with the same methods that traditional cultures have done so for centuries, which is one or more of three methods: fermenting, soaking, or sprouting. For most recipes, this consists of making a few minor and easy adaptations. So, make the effort, plan to cook this way and with practice, you will find that in reality, it only takes a few extra minutes.

Most grain naturally contains a type of wild yeast, which is utilized when preparing all sourdough breads. Fermenting whole grain flour also neutralizes the phytic acid and does an even more thorough job breaking the grain down, even to the point that many of those who suffer from gluten intolerance have no trouble eating traditionally prepared sourdough bread!

The milled whole grain flour or rolled grain is soaked in an acidic medium like buttermilk, whey, yogurt, lemon juice, vinegar or apple cider vinegar before being cooked. Soaking whole grain flour in an acidic medium overnight will neutralize the phytic acid by activating phytase, an enzyme also present in the grain which subsequently breaks down the phytic acid, rendering the grain easier for us to digest.

Whole grain kernels, once sprouted, can be eaten as is, or the sprouts can be dried for eating later or for grinding into flour. By sprouting grains, these not only neutralizes the phytic acid, but also radically increases the nutrients present. This results because, by sprouting, the grain has essentially been turned into a vegetable. When comparing sprouted wheat to unsprouted wheat on a calorie-per-calorie basis, the sprouted wheat contains: (a) four times more niacin; (b) nearly twice as much vitamin B6 and folate; (c) five times more vitamin C; and (d) significantly more protein and fewer starches and sugars.

Nowadays, it is becoming easier to find sprouted grains products at the markets, both sprouted whole grains and sprouted whole grain flours.

Some of the products that I have found include: sprouted lentils, sprouted mung beans, sprouted rice (sometimes called germinated rice), and sprouted quinoa. Too, sprouted whole grain flours are getting easy to find including: oats, rice, rye, teft and wheat.

It is only time before more sprouted products will begin to show up on the shelves of every food market. I have personally found most of these products at the large hg-mart chains. Nowadays, sprouted grains and sprouted grain flours are available in many grocery stores or can be purchased online.

It is usually always better to buy grains and flour products in sealed packages rather than from the bulk bins, simply because the expiration date cannot usually be determined in bulk bins. However, if you plan to use the products immediately, then the cost difference for the bulk bin product may be the best buy.

In sauce, gravy and stew recipes that call for corn starch, ² use arrowroot flour instead which is a grain free tasteless thickener made from the plant′s root.

Ground flax seed (GFS) can be used as an egg substitute. For one egg substitute, premix one tablespoon of GFS with one tablespoon of water and let set for fifteen minutes.

On one GFS label, it specified that GFS can be used as a substitute for not only eggs, but also butter and oil, but I have not tried this yet.

Since bread has always been considered a staple in most cultures, I find it very hard to abstain from all types breads. However, a good solution is to convert to sprouted grains, especially now since the newness of the product with the high prices has past and more and more locations are stocking their shelves with both the sprouted grain flours and sprouted grain baked goods at reasonable prices.

Remember, sprouted grains provide more nutrition together with the elimination of health problems caused by the anti-nutrients found in all grains. However, grains, no matter how you prepare them are still grains and according to recent research, all grains cause inflammation in the body and should therefore not be eaten by persons with diabetes or those who just want to loose weight.