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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
Sarah, Why are Crispy Nuts okay to eat, but not crispy granola?
By the way, I agree totally with you on not eating granola, I am just
curious about the nuts.
Hi Barbara, the proteins in grains are very difficult to digest .. not so with the ones in nuts 🙂
Therefore, a simple soaking/dehydrating for nuts (keeping them raw) is sufficient to make them very easily absorbed and assimilated. Grains need that final thorough cooking after soaking/sprouting or sour leavening.
I was very disappointed when I learned last yr. from another source, that granola was not good for you. Fortunately, right about that time I learned about kefir and have been making it ever since. So, now I have kefir smoothies every morning. Still miss the deliciousness of granola, though. (I would like the recipe to the nut granola mentioned, too.)
I would, also, like to know the answer to Lara’s question.
Thanks again, for all you teach us, Sarah. :o)
Hi Sarah! A while ago you had posted on your Facebook page about Unique brand sprouted wheat pretzels and how you were happy to see they were made with olive oil. Based on that post, we tried the pretzels and my kids adore them. Do you think this same idea, though, about the granola, would apply the same way to the sprouted wheat pretzels. Obviously they are baked and crunchy at the end. Thoughts?
Yes, they are fine on occasion .. they are MUCH different from granola though as they are made with sprouted flour not the entire grain unground as with granola. They are also baked and not toasted at the lower temps that granola is typically prepared at.
That being said, those sprouted pretzels are SO filling, I can only eat one and be done with them. Very unlike regular store pretzels where you can eat the whole bag and feel like you ate nothing. I usually eat the one pretzel with a piece of raw cheese and it all digests quite nicely for a midafternoon quickie snack.
Hi Again
Sorry forgot to ask. If I soak my oats and then mix up the same type batter you mix for your cereal into the oats so they are like a cake batter and cook that and crumble it and dry it out would that be ok? I like the idea of not giving my kids a gluten cereal but are not big on the nuts and seeds version so oats work well.
Yes, that might work well. It is important for the oats to be soft after cooking. I think mixing in the batter and baking would probably do the trick.
Hi Sara
It doesn’t seem to be important that the oats are soft if you use Lara’s method. Her method is the same way you make your cold cereal. Your cold cereal is not soft in the end. Am I misunderstanding the soft part? She is cooking a wet batter in a high oven. The point is to get a crunchy texture just as in you r cold cereal. Thoughts? Thank s for blog.
Hi Sarah
Sorry I am alittle confused. How is soaking the oats and then cooking them in the oven any different to the cold cereal you mention. Isnt that soaking the spelt flour and then cooking it in the oven into like a granola type cereal only it is spelt not oats?
One more question. If I made granola like this and soaked it overnight in yogurt again and ate it like a bircher would this make any difference.
Thank you for all your information.
When you bake the batter it is with ground flour and uses a wet heat (wet batter in a hot oven) .. making granola is a dry heat only, lower temp (200F or so) and the oats are unground. Very different result.
No Granola is Good Granola http://t.co/NqiEgWC2
Just a quick question for ya’ll…I read on another reputable blog the other day that soaking wheat still did not rid it of toxins, specifically wheat germ aggragluten. Anyone know whether that is accurate? I am just starting to work with soaked grains and don’t have enough experience to have any reasonable insight. Thanks!
Soaking what breaks gluten down into more digestible components.
I totally agree. I used to make soaked & dehydrated oats which did fine with us, but once I tried making granola with it… couldn’t handle it at all. I would get bloated and gassy after eating them. Even before I started on the road of NT food, I never liked granola because of that reason… I hated oatmeal because I would feel terrible after eating it and always felt like bricks were weighting down my stomach. When I learned the proper way of preparing oatmeal… no problems! Now we enjoy porridge a couple times a week along with oatmeal bake (http://just-making-noise.blogspot.com/2012/01/strawberry-pineapple-oatmeal-bake.html)
Look at this great article I just read about creating a perpetually ferment porridge pot! I am going to try it!
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2012/01/fermented-grains-the-perpetual-soured-porridge-pot/
What if the soaked “oatmeal” is cooked first on the stove, like a breakfast porrige, and then dehydrated?
I tried that once and the result was not appealing to my family. 🙁
OK, I tried it, and it worked for us! It was not easy to make, but my 6 guys gobbled it up! I soaked the oats two days, rinsed them lightly in a strainer, cooked them on the stove in some water, and then dehydrated them for a loooooong time. I’m starting my 4th batch this evening. My recipe is a cross between the “Eat Fat Lose Fat” Coconut Granola, and my own twists.