I have found my substitute for rice! I can not stand brown rice which is what the doctor told me to eat because it does not raise insulin like white rice as fast .
Barley is much more pleasant to me
SOUPS
Whole-grain hulled barley is ideal for soups that often simmer on the stovetop for a couple of hours. Add some beans, vegetables, and seasonings for a hearty meal. Pearl barley will work equally as well and requires a shorter cooking time.
Barley combined with vegetables, potatoes, dill, and a variety of dried mushrooms blend together to create a richly flavored Polish-style Mushroom Barley Soup called Krupnik. Polish cooks (vegetarian Polish cooks, that is) top off this soup with a dollop of tofu sour cream.
BREAKFAST
Barley grits make a quick breakfast that delivers a wholesome dish in practically no time. Follow the directions on the package for the barley grits, then add a topping of chopped fresh fruits, a sprinkle of cinnamon, some chopped nuts, a heaping tablespoon of flaxseed meal, and a sprinkle of evaporated cane juice, if desired. A little soymilk tops off this great starter we call Breakfast Sundae.
Breakfast Sundae comes together even more quickly with leftover cooked barley. Simply reheat the barley by adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of water to the pot, cover, and warm over medium heat for about 4 to 6 minutes. Then create your own toppings with a dash of cinnamon, raisins, nuts and seeds, a little maple syrup and your favorite soy milk or rice milk.
SALADS
Leftover cooked barley, either hulled, pearl, or barley flakes make the perfect base to build a salad. Add some chopped tomatoes, thinly sliced sweet onions, trimmed snap peas, raw sweet corn, minced garlic, and chopped basil leaves. Dress it up with some extra virgin olive oil, lemon or lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
Other combinations work equally as well. Choose your favorite crunchy veggies or even leftover steamed or roasted vegetables, such as steamed broccoli, roasted peppers, roasted zucchini, or roasted carrots.
For a heartier salad, add nuts, seeds, sautéed tofu cubes, diced vegan cheese, chopped vegan meat substitutes, or crumbled veggie burgers.
SIDE DISHES
While your barley is steaming, sauté some chopped onions and minced garlic. Simply add these to your cooked barley and season if needed.
MAIN DISHES
Barley Primavera: Create your own original Barley Primavera just as you would with pasta. While the barley is steaming, sauté chopped vegetables, add seasonings to taste, and prepare your favorite sauce. For each serving, mound the barley on the center of the plate, top with some sautéed vegetables, and finish with the sauce. The sauce could be a marinara, oil and garlic, or a creamy tofu sauce. A light sprinkle of toasted nuts or seeds adds an appealing touch.
Stuffed Vegetables: Barley is an ideal grain for stuffing vegetables. Try stuffing cabbage, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, acorn squash, or even Japanese pumpkin (kabocha squash). To the barley, add sautéed chopped vegetables, ground nuts or chopped vegetarian sausage, and dried herbs. Season to taste, and bake about 25 to 30 minutes at 350 (Gas Mark 4).
Barley Risotto: Pearl barley makes a delightfully creamy risotto. Refer to your favorite recipes; however, the timing will vary with barley. For risotto, use only the pearl barley. The hulled barley will not break down to the creamy state like pearl barley.
DESSERTS
Barley Pudding: Make a barley pudding much like you would make a rice pudding. Add sweetening, spices, and dried fruits. Prepare a fruit sauce by whirling your favorite fruits in the processor with a touch of sweetening and a squeeze of lemon and use that as a topping.
An alternative sauce can be quickly prepared in the food processor with 1 12-oz. (340 g) package of soft silken tofu, 15 to 18 pitted dates, and a 1/4 t. vanilla extract.
Here's a hearty main dish with great flavor that will satisfy even the fussy eaters. It's also an ideal make-ahead recipe you can proudly serve your guests. For a complete meal serve with a tossed salad and some steamed green vegetables such as string beans, okra, broccoli, or asparagus.
BARLEY STUFFED EGGPLANT
Eggplant
2/3 C. (158 ml) barley flakes*
2 C. (480 ml) water
3/4 t. salt
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/3 C. (59 ml) raw pine nuts
1/3 C. (59 ml) raw pumpkin seeds
2 large eggplants or 4 small to medium size
1 T. organic canola oil
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 C. (59 ml) water
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1. In a 2-quart (2 liter) saucepan combine barley flakes, water, salt, onion, and garlic. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Turn heat to low and steam 25 to 30 minutes, until all liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat and set aside for10 minutes.
2. Combine pine nuts and pumpkin seeds in a non-stick skillet. Toast over high heat, stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. Pour into a dish to cool and set aside.
3. Wash eggplants and cut them in half lengthwise. Using a grapefruit knife, remove eggplant pulp leaving a 1/2" (1 cm) rind. Brush rinds with canola oil, and put them on a baking sheet. Broil rinds about 3" from heat source for about 10 minutes, or until pulp begins to soften. Set eggplant rinds aside.
4. Chop eggplant pulp and put into a large stir-fry pan.
5. Add bell peppers, onions, garlic, salt, water, and olive oil to stir-fry pan and sauté over high heat, stirring frequently, until softened, about 10 to 12 minutes.
6. Add cooked barley flakes and toasted nuts and seeds to stir-fry pan and mix well. Adjust seasoning if needed.
7. Spoon barley mixture into eggplant rinds and bake uncovered at 350 F (Gas Mark 4) for 25 to 30 minutes. Serves 6 to 8. Large eggplants can be cut in half crosswise to make 8 servings. Small to medium eggplants will also make 8 servings.
*Barley flakes are available in health food markets and Asian markets.
Resource from here
BENEFITS OF Barley
Barley's Fiber for Regularity, Lower Cholesterol, & Intestinal Protection
Wish you were more regular? Let barley give your intestinal health a boost. In addition to providing bulk and decreasing the transit time of fecal matter, thus decreasing the risk of colon cancer and hemorrhoids, barley's dietary fiber also provides food for the "friendly" bacteria in the large intestine. When these helpful bacteria ferment barley's insoluble fiber, they produce a short-chain fatty acid called butyric acid, which serves as the primary fuel for the cells of the large intestine and helps maintain a healthy colon. These helpful bacteria also create two other short-chain fatty acids, propionic and acetic acid, which are used as fuel by the cells of the liver and muscles.
The propionic acid produced from barley's insoluble fiber may also be partly responsible for the cholesterol-lowering properties of fiber. In animal studies, propionic acid has been shown to inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme involved in the production of cholesterol by the liver. By lowering the activity of this enzyme, propionic acid helps lower blood cholesterol levels
In addition, barley's dietary fiber is high in beta glucan, which helps to lower cholesterol by binding to bile acids and removing them from the body via the feces. Bile acids are compounds used to digest fat that are manufactured by the liver from cholesterol. When they are excreted along with barley's fiber, the liver must manufacture new bile acids and uses up more cholesterol, thus lowering the amount of cholesterol in circulation. Soluble fiber may also reduce the amount of cholesterol manufactured by the liver.
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests barley's fiber has multiple beneficial effects on cholesterol. In this study of 25 individuals with high cholesterol (postmenopausal women, premenopausal women, and men), adding barley to the American Heart Association Step 1 diet resulted in a significant lowering in total cholesterol in all subjects, plus their amount of large LDL and large and intermediate HDL fractions (which are considered less atherogenic) increased, and the smaller LDL and VLDL cholesterol (the most dangerous fractions) greatly decreased.
Lastly, when barley provides insoluble fibers that feed friendly bacteria in the digestive tract, this helps to maintain larger populations of friendly bacteria. In addition to producing the helpful short-chain fatty acids described above, friendly bacteria play an important protective role by crowding out pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria and preventing them from surviving in the intestinal tract.
Barley's fiber can prevent or help with a number of different conditions. For example, when barley's fiber binds to and removes cholesterol-containing bile, this can be very beneficial for people struggling with heart disease since it forces the body to make more bile by breaking down cholesterol, thus lowering cholesterol levels.
In this 8-year trial, involving 41,186 particpants of the Black Women's Health Study, research data confirmed inverse associations between magnesium, calcium and major food sources in relation to type 2 diabetes that had already been reported in predominantly white populations.
Risk of type 2 diabetes was 31% lower in black women who frequently ate whole grains compared to those eating the least of these magnesium-rich foods. When the women's dietary intake of magnesium intake was considered by itself, a beneficial, but lesser- 19%- reduction in risk of type 2 diabetes was found, indicating that whole grains offer special benefits in promoting healthy blood sugar control. Daily consumption of low-fat dairy foods was also helpful, lowering risk of type 2 diabetes by 13%. So, if you'd like to enjoy a hot bowl of barley for breakfast (an especially good idea-see immediately below), serve topped with low-fat milk.
A Better Breakfast Choice for Persons with Type 2 Diabetes
Barley may be an even better breakfast choice than oats for persons with Type 2 diabetes. In a study conducted by the Agricultural Research Service at the Diet and Human Performance Laboratory in Beltsville, MD, barley was much more effective in reducing both glucose and insulin responses than oats.
In this study, which involved 10 overweight women (mean age: 50 years, body mass index: 30), subjects ate a controlled diet for 2 days and were then given, in rotation, glucose alone and then 4 test meals in which 2/3 of the carbohydrate came first from oat flour then oatmeal, barley flour or barley flakes.
Glucose responses were reduced after test meals by both oats and barley, although more by barley (29-36% by oats and 59-65% by barley). Insulin responses after test meals were significantly reduced only by barley (44-56%). Interestingly, whether the oats or barley was consumed in the form of meal, flakes or flour had little effect. What seems to have been responsible for barley's significantly greater effectiveness in reducing both glucose and insulin responses is barley's soluble fiber content. The barley used in the study (a cultivar called Prowashonupana) contains more than 4 times the soluble fiber of common oats.
Barley Can Help Prevent Gallstones
Eating foods high in insoluble fiber, such as barley, can help women avoid gallstones, shows a study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Studying the overall fiber intake and types of fiber consumed over a 16 year period by almost 70,000 women in the Nurses Health Study, researchers found that those consuming the most fiber overall (both soluble and insoluble) had a 13% lower risk of developing gallstones compared to women consuming the fewest fiber-rich foods.
Those eating the most foods rich in insoluble fiber gained even more protection against gallstones: a 17% lower risk compared to women eating the least. And the protection was dose-related; a 5-gram increase in insoluble fiber intake dropped risk dropped 10%.
How do foods rich in insoluble fiber help prevent gallstones? Researchers think insoluble fiber not only speeds intestinal transit time (how quickly food moves through the intestines), but reduces the secretion of bile acids (excessive amounts contribute to gallstone formation), increases insulin sensitivity and lowers triglycerides (blood fats). Abundant in all whole grains, insoluble fiber is also found in nuts and the edible skin of fruits and vegetables including tomatoes, cucumbers, many squash, apples, berries, and pears. In addition, beans provide insoluble as well as soluble fiber.
Promote Optimal Health with Barley's Fiber and Selenium
For people worried about colon cancer risk, barley packs a double punch by providing the fiber needed to minimize the amount of time cancer-causing substances spend in contact with colon cells, plus being a very good source of selenium, which has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer significantly.
A cup of cooked barley provides 52.0% of the daily value for selenium, an important benefit since many Americans do not get enough selenium in their diets, yet this trace mineral is of fundamental importance to human health. Selenium is an essential component of several major metabolic pathways, including thyroid hormone metabolism, antioxidant defense systems, and immune function. Accumulated evidence from prospective studies, intervention trials and studies on animal models of cancer has suggested a strong inverse correlation between selenium intake and cancer incidence. Several mechanisms have been suggested to explain the cancer-preventive activities of selenium. Selenium has been shown to induce DNA repair and synthesis in damaged cells, to inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells, and to induce their apoptosis, the self-destruct sequence the body uses to eliminate worn out or abnormal cells.
In addition, selenium is incorporated at the active site of many proteins, including glutathione peroxidase, which is particularly important for cancer protection. One of the body's most powerful antioxidant enzymes, glutathione peroxidase is used in the liver to detoxify a wide range of potentially harmful molecules. When levels of glutathione peroxidase are too low, these toxic molecules are not disarmed and wreak havoc on any cells with which they come in contact, damaging their cellular DNA and promoting the development of cancer cells.
Not only does selenium play a critical role in cancer prevention as a cofactor of glutathione peroxidase, selenium also works with vitamin E in numerous other vital antioxidant systems throughout the body. These powerful antioxidant actions make selenium helpful for the prevention not only of cancer, but also of heart disease, and for decreasing the symptoms of asthma and arthritis.
Phytonutrients with Health-Promoting Activity Equal to or Even Higher than that of Vegetables and Fruits
Research reported at the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) International Conference on Food, Nutrition and Cancer, by Rui Hai Liu, M.D., Ph.D., and his colleagues at Cornell University shows that whole grains, such as barley, contain many powerful phytonutrients whose activity has gone unrecognized because research methods have overlooked them.
Despite the fact that for years researchers have been measuring the antioxidant power of a wide array of phytonutrients, they have typically measured only the "free" forms of these substances, which dissolve quickly and are immediately absorbed into the bloodstream. They have not looked at the "bound" forms, which are attached to the walls of plant cells and must be released by intestinal bacteria during digestion before they can be absorbed.
Phenolics, powerful antioxidants that work in multiple ways to prevent disease, are one major class of phytonutrients that have been widely studied. Included in this broad category are such compounds as quercetin, curcumin, ellagic acid, catechins, and many others that appear frequently in the health news.
When Dr. Liu and his colleagues measured the relative amounts of phenolics, and whether they were present in bound or free form, in common fruits and vegetables like apples, red grapes, broccoli and spinach, they found that phenolics in the "free" form averaged 76% of the total number of phenolics in these foods. In whole grains, however, "free" phenolics accounted for less than 1% of the total, while the remaining 99% were in "bound" form.
In his presentation, Dr. Liu explained that because researchers have examined whole grains with the same process used to measure antioxidants in vegetables and fruits-looking for their content of "free" phenolics"-the amount and activity of antioxidants in whole grains has been vastly underestimated.
Despite the differences in fruits', vegetables' and whole grains' content of "free" and "bound" phenolics, the total antioxidant activity in all three types of whole foods is similar, according to Dr. Liu's research. His team measured the antioxidant activity of various foods, assigning each a rating based on a formula (micromoles of vitamin C equivalent per gram). Broccoli and spinach measured 80 and 81, respectively; apple and banana measured 98 and 65; and of the whole grains tested, corn measured 181, whole wheat 77, oats 75, and brown rice 56.
Dr. Liu's findings may help explain why studies have shown that populations eating diets high in fiber-rich whole grains consistently have lower risk for colon cancer, yet short-term clinical trials that have focused on fiber alone in lowering colon cancer risk, often to the point of giving subjects isolated fiber supplements, yield inconsistent results. The explanation is most likely that these studies have not taken into account the interactive effects of all the nutrients in whole grains-not just their fiber, but also their many phytonutrients.
As far as whole grains are concerned, Dr. Liu believes that the key to their powerful cancer-fighting potential is precisely their wholeness. A grain of whole wheat consists of three parts-its endosperm (starch), bran and germ. When wheat-or any whole grain-is refined, its bran and germ are removed. Although these two parts make up only 15-17% of the grain's weight, they contain 83% of its phenolics. Dr. Liu says his recent findings on the antioxidant content of whole grains reinforce the message that a variety of foods should be eaten good health. "Different plant foods have different phytochemicals," he said. "These substances go to different organs, tissues and cells, where they perform different functions. What your body needs to ward off disease is this synergistic effect - this teamwork - that is produced by eating a wide variety of plant foods, including whole grains."
Barley's Copper Can Benefit Arthritis Sufferers
Copper, another trace mineral supplied by barley, may also be helpful in reducing the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Copper is an essential cofactor of a key oxidative enzyme called superoxide dismutase. Superoxide dismutase disarms free radicals produced within the mitochondria (the energy production factories within our cells). Copper is also necessary for the activity of lysyl oxidase, an enzyme involved in cross-linking collagen and elastin, both of which provide the ground substance and flexibility in blood vessels, bones and joints. One cup of cooked barley provides 32.0% of the daily value for copper.
Development and Repair of Body Tissue
The phosphorus provided by barley plays a role in the structure of every cell in the body. In addition to its role in forming the mineral matrix of bone, phosphorus is an essential component of numerous other life-critical compounds including adenosine triphosphate or ATP, the molecule that is the energy currency of the body. Phosphorus is an important component of nucleic acids, the building blocks of the genetic code. In addition, the metabolism of lipids (fats) relies on phosphorus, and phosphorus is an essential component of lipid-containing structures such as cell membranes and nervous system structures. A cup of cooked barley will give you 23.0% of the daily value for phosphorus.
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