[Magdalen] farro salad

[Roger Stokes]

On 02/08/2015 15:27, Jay Weigel wrote:
> Some people also claim they do better with breads made with sprouted
> grains. Ezekiel Bread (it's a brand) is popular here in the states. It
> draws its name from a bible verse but I've never bothered to look it up.

The relevant passage is Ezekiel 4:9, a prophetic action concerning the 
time of the Exile of the people of Israel.  I can understand the theory 
behind sprouting the grain as it starts the process of breaking down the 
starches and other things in the grain.  We are probably more used to 
this concept in the malting of barley or rye prior to making it into 
beer, and then possibly distilling that into spirits.

When I looked at some of the articles promoting this as a healthier form 
of bread I was immediately suspicious as they compared it with white 
bread, which has had much of the goodness taken out of it in the 
refining process.  I then found an article from the LA Times which said 
there is no real difference in nitritional value between sprouted grain 
and multi-grain bread, which doesn't surprise me.

The one difference I would expect is for those people whose digestive 
systems cannot process the grain properly rather than (as where this 
thread started) are allergic to something in it.  They would find the 
whole-grain an irritant and appreciate the fact that the processing into 
less complex forms started before the bread was made.  I would not be 
surprised if this was especially likely to be the case for someone who 
has followed a succession of esoteric rather than balanced diets.

Roger