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Why granola even if organic is not a healthy choice nutritionally or for the gut microbiome. Making your own is not even a healthy choice!
Is granola healthy to eat? Are brands from the store that are organic and/or sprouted acceptable?
What about homemade granola?
Sadly, the answer to all three of these questions is a resounding NO!
Even so-called “traditional granola” recipes, where soaked organic oats (or sprouted) are used before toasting in the oven, are not in the least bit digestible.
While soaking or sprouting oats before making granola is a big improvement, the fact is that digestive damage is still going to occur if you eat it. This preparation method is not traditional in the slightest.
Many granola fans do not seem to know that oats, even if sprouted or soaked first, are still not properly prepared in a traditional manner.
Thus, the proteins in the oats remain in a form that is extremely difficult to break down in the digestive tract.
Difficult-to-digest food that is not metabolized completely leaves undigested residues in the gut that cause pathogens to thrive.
This is why some people “crave” granola…it’s an addictive food like sugar that feeds gut pathogens.
Over time, pathogen overgrowth in the gut leads to a disrupted microbiome and eventually digestive symptoms.
The high potential of improperly prepared grains to harm health…with granola being perhaps the most prominent modern example…is why traditional societies took such great pains to soak, sprout, or ferment (sour leaven) them.
Here’s the last piece many folks seem to miss…
Not only did traditional peoples soak, sprout, or sour leaven their grains. They also thoroughly cooked them as the final preparation step before eating!
In other words, toasting sprouted or soaked oats in the oven does not fully deactivate the anti-nutrients.
Let’s explore this important precept of traditional diet in more detail below.
Why Granola is SO Difficult to Digest
The dry heat of an oven at the proper toasting temperature is simply not hot enough to complete the breakdown of anti-nutrients in oats or other grains.
Thus, even homemade granola is extremely difficult to digest. Eaten often, it can damage the gut over time.
Perhaps if a person has an iron gut, then homemade granola that is soaked or sprouted but not fully cooked might work on occasion.
The reality is that most people have sensitive guts today. This is a generational decline in health that is the result of several generations of children raised on antibiotics and processed foods.
Most people have some sort of digestive sensitivity to grains, even if there are no grain allergy symptoms present.
I know for me, I bloat terribly if I eat homemade granola that has been soaked or sprouted and then toasted.
Interestingly, thoroughly cooked unsoaked oatmeal digests far better.
The lesson to me is that the final cooking step for sprouted grains is very important!
Healthy Alternatives
The good news is that when you ditch granola, there are other options to consider that are very tasty and no more difficult to prepare.
In my home, I make these healthy breakfast cereal recipes instead of granola. Several of them provide that lovely crunch that is so yummy in milk for breakfast.
Another alternative is to make grain free granola that uses soaked nuts, fruits, and soaked seeds instead of grains as the primary ingredient.
Sources and More Information
Nourishing Traditions, p. 454
Would that mean that the baked oatmeal that I make in the oven (with soaked oats) is not good either? So pretty much any recipe with oats that are only baked in the oven, are not broken down enough to digest? Just want to confirm before I ditch my baked oatmeal recipe :-/
Thank you!
Baked oatmeal would be fine because you are still cooking it in hot water just in the oven not on the stovetop. When you dehydrate it in the oven, the oats aren’t being cooked only dried out, so the anti-nutrients aren’t being broken down.
No Granola is Good Granola – The Healthy Home Economist
http://t.co/Ul90uFus
What do you think of this recipe for dehydrated fermented granola?:
Actually, this process looks very much in line with the Weston A Price Foundation teachings. It’s well fermented before being dehydrated. And the very last note is that an optional method of preparation is to use leftover soaked, cooked oatmeal, which can then be flavoured with dried fruit and spices before being dehydrated. I’m very interested to hear Sarah’s opinion on this!
Leftover soaked, cooked oatmeal would work. The issue that Sarah raises is that traditionally oats need to be soaked/sprouted AND thoroughly cooked. And oats cook well in liquid (like oatmeal) but not well in a hot oven where they merely toast. Another thing to note is that oats are low in phytase so soaking them with a higher phytase grain like rye or buckwheat (GF) helps eliminate a more significant amount of the phytates in oats.
I second the Paleo granola. So yummy! I have to be careful not to eat too much.
I actually make a “paleo” granola now that is all nuts (soaked of course) and dried fruit roasted in
the oven in a little honey and coconut oil. So delicious.
Yes, that is a great alternative.
I tried soaking almonds and then dehydrating them in the oven according to directions found here or some other traditional foods site. They were AWFUL. No matter how much time in the oven they stayed mushy. Yuck. Who wants to eat mushy nuts? I wasted a very expensive bag of almonds, wish I hadn’t done it. Wouldn’t have done it if I’d known that was the outcome.
Melinda I’m sorry your nuts did not turn out. The first time I did them they turned out squeaky but were dry. Since then I have not had that problem. I don’t think that I did anything different than the first. Maybe try again with a smaller amount and see how they turn out? At least then it would not be the entire bag!
Mine were hard to dry in an oven so I bought a food dehydrator. Works very well.
I think this is a great example of why we each need to listen to our own bodies. If I eat even 1/4 cup of paleo “granola” I bloat up, look pregnant and am uncomfortable for hours. (Even with sprouted nuts.) I can eat store-bought organic granola and feel great although I highly prefer my homemade fermented granola made in my Pickl-It.
I avoid nuts even soaked and/or sprouted nuts. I thought I read that the anti-nutrients aren’t broken down even after they are soaked/sprouted and cooked. Well, then again, maybe the anti-nutrients aren broken down but then once you cook them you kill the enzymes to help digest them. I think I might be a little confused….
Molly, would you be able to post your “paleo” granola recipe? Thanks!!!
Also, granola is too “scratchy” for your digestive system, so a big no no for people with digestive problems. Same goes for bran,
Peggy at To Your Health sells raw sprouted oat groats that can be flaked and cooked in 5 minutes. It is not necessary to soak them. I think if you use these, granola would be fine to eat. If you wanted to make them even more digestible, you could flake them and then soak them prior to dehydrating.
No you can’t use those either. Oats must be cooked even if sprouted.
If you cook first that’s ok.
Dehydrating or drying in the oven is not cooking though.
Sorry for all the comments 🙂 The point is the oats must be soft as in after a thorough cookin .. if they are still crunchy and hard like what granola is supposed to be like, no go for digestibility.
Thanks for all of your helpful information. I’m curious why soaking then baking granola (at 350 or 375 would not compare to soaking bread dough, then baking it in regards to digestability. Thanks!
If it’s nice and soft, then it should digest fine 🙂
I have another batch of homemade breakfast cereal soaking as I type. My husband is a man of convenience. Even though it is grain based it is better than store bought. I do make him breakfast several days of the week but it is nice to have this as a back up for days that start off in an unusual manner. It is a great recipe. My favourite addition to it is unsweetened carob chips!
Sarah,
I have tried dehydrating my “soaked and baked” oatmeal recipe and it’s more chewy than crunchy. However, do you think this would probably make it more digestible? Most people find it hard to give up granola since it is so good & satisfying.
If it is really mushy and soft probably ok. Many people confuse “satisfying” as food sitting like a brick in their stomach though. Satisfying is that it is light in the stomach, easy to digest, and doesn’t slow you down or make you tired after eating.
Are quinoa flakes ok for the gut? You could substitute them for the oats. Technically they are not a grain?