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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
At what temperature do soaked oats need to be cooked to become digestable? Why is this possible to achieve on the stove but not in the oven?
Granola is typically toasted at about 200F which is not hot enough. If you go higher in the oven … to 350F or so, it burns it or makes it too hard. On the stovetop, this temperature is easily achieved.
I am so confused. I’ve made the cold cereal and found it to have a hard, crunchy texture. It is a soaked grain that is then dehydrated. I do not understand how that is different from a sprouted grain (oats) that is then dehydrated?
The cold cereal recipe is cooked too.
Hi Sarah,
Can you provide any links to peer-reviewed research on anti-nutrients in oats?
Thank you
Hi Sarah! I make a yummy and what I thought was a healthy, simple cookie for my kids with slightly ground rolled oats and mashed banana. If I were to use soaked oats with the banana and then bake in the oven, would that suffice to make them as digestible as the cooked oats for breakfast above?
sorry, in my last sentence I was referring to another of your posts i read today on soaking and cooking oats for breaky.
Soaked oats really need to be cooked thoroughly on the stovetop before eating. Toasting only in the oven doesn’t work quite as well.
Thank you for this blog- I come to it often for guidance and ideas! I wanted to add that I have just finished making a large batch of soaked and dried buckwheat, nut, seed and fruit ‘granola’. I don’t use a lot of sweetener – just the fruit and a bit of raw honey, plus coconut oil. I only use oats for soaked oatmeal. I have tried making this granola raw and sprouted, too, but that was a LOT of work! (It was good, though.)
Hello Sarah,
Thank you for your wonderful blog! I’ve learnt so much from you. I’m curious if this granola also extends to Bircher Müsli. I like in the alps and the people consume tradtional bircher müsli regularly, that is they soak a bit of oats in yougurt and add fresh fruit the day after, or or two days later and wet it down with fresh milk. No cooking. They seem pretty healthy and robust. Maybe you’ve covered müsli already on your website and I just haven’t found it?
Many thanks,
Grüss,
Erica
Sarah, I just saw this post and wondered if this was an acceptable version? It looks more like a wet batter than the dry roasting. We love your cold cereal recipe but would love another option and thought this one might actually be an okay oats recipe?
http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/04/the-best-soaked-granola-gluten-free-option/