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Has anyone seen this grain? Tef..

first14808

Well-Known Member
Messages
405
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Finally found a grain I'd been looking for. Used in some African cooking to make Injera, which is a sourdough flatbread. And tasty, kind of a naan alternative, and would also be good for making wraps. But the best bit is..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eragrostis_tef
Carbohydrates 19.86 g
Dietary fiber 2.8 g

So much lower in carbs than most traditional wheats, and also low in gluten for people who have problems with that. Looks like there's some cultivation outside of Africa now, so availability may improve.
 
Interesting. The Wiki data's taken from the USDA database, but shows a typical cooked value vs raw for H&B. So I found this:-

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266316373_Teff_Nutrient_Composition_and_Health_Benefits

Complex carbohydrates make up 80 percent of the teff grain. It has a starch content of approximately 73 percent, making teff a starchy cereal.

By a researcher in Ethiopia, so should know. I guess my quest for low-carb breads continues! If the cooked values are right though, suggests it's pretty hydroscopic, so might be a healthier alternative to stuff like cous cous?
 
Dr. William Davis, Medical Director, is a preventive cardiologist and seeker-of-truth in health. "Over 80% of the people I meet today are pre-diabetic or diabetic. In an effort to reduce blood sugar, I asked patients to remove all wheat products from their diet based on the simple fact that, with few exceptions, foods made of wheat flour raise blood sugar higher than nearly all other foods. Yes, that’s true for even whole grains. More than table sugar, more than a Snickers bar. Organic, multigrain, sprouted–it makes no difference."

https://www.wheatbelly.com
 
But.. but.. bread! Also given wheat and other grains have a long agriculture and diet history, why would they now become so hazardous to health? Especially as grains would've been a fairly major part of the average diet, at least until being displaced by the spud.
 
Everything in moderation is my answer. I the past how much grain did we eat and how much exercise?
 
People smoke tobacco has been around a long time.
Alcohol has been drunk since the dawn of history
Because things have been around for a long time and have been consumed with no obvious hazards to health it does not mean there was no hazard.

Diabetes has been with us since ancient times may be even as long as bread has been with us.
 
In the past, people who developed T1 diabetes died quickly. And people who didn't also died young. I imagine that many of the T2s on this Forum (including me) would never have had a problem with diabetes if they had died at 40 or earlier.
 
If you are referring to the Dr. Davis who wrote "The Wheat Belly" book, it is fantastic and I would recommend a read for those who are looking for wheat alternatives for baking and eating in general....I lost 75 pounds following his "diet" which became gluten free, sugar free, and also caffeine free! (I chose to add those to the wheat free) He has cookbooks as well and his bread recipes are easy and oh so tasty! His latest cookbook is Thirty Minute Meals".
 
Thanks for the links. Even before diagnosis, I was curious why diabetes was on the increase. So that could be because we're testing people more regularly and detecting it, or there's something(s) about our diet that's causing it.. Which could also be a combination of diet and lifestyle/activity levels.

But I've always been a bit of a breadaholic, to the point of making my own. And for a simple food, there are many varieties.. But for the UK and other countries, standard bread is probably the Chorleywood version. Developed to mass produce bread, and use lower quality wheat.. Which probably then fed back into wheat growing, ie low protein wheats that suited the CBP process.

I'm tempted to find some tef flour and experiment though.. Which also gives me an excuse to try making a sourdough starter again. Not really the time of year for that, but comparing a slow fermented bread to a CBP version could be interesting.
 
Alexandra100 said:
In the past, people who developed T1 diabetes died quickly. And people who didn't also died young. I imagine that many of the T2s on this Forum (including me) would never have had a problem with diabetes if they had died at 40 or earlier.
Click to expand...
You're right, if only I had died before I got to 67 I would have avoided diabetes, just my bad luck!
 
The grains we eat today are certainly not the sort of things developed over the centuries - but agriculture is very modern in terms of the whole evolution of man and the animals fed by us - as far as I know there has never been any work done on creating a plant which is healthy for us to eat. Certainly not by big business.
 
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