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Several readers have emailed me recently inquiring about how to best go about making homemade granola.
One person carefully soaked oats for 24 hours in water with an acidic medium and then dehydrated before mixing with the other ingredients and toasting in the oven.
Another used sprouted, organic rolled oats and baked in a 200F oven with various other ingredients to make her favorite version of homemade granola.
While both of these approaches to making granola are certainly a huge improvement over any of the granolas to be had at the store, the fact is that even organic granola made with rolled oats that have been sprouted or soaked is not an easily digestible food.
The proteins in grains are extremely difficult to digest. They have the potential to cause health problems over the long term, which is why traditional societies took such great pains to soak, sprout, or sour leaven them before consuming.
Not only did traditional peoples soak, sprout, or sour leaven their grains, they also thoroughly cooked them as the final preparation step before eating.
Why Granola is SO Difficult to DigestÂ
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 might work on occasion. The reality is that most people have sensitive guts anymore due to 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. I have no grain allergies and my digestion is in pretty decent shape. Interestingly, thoroughly cooked unsoaked oatmeal digests far better. The lesson at least to me is that the final cooking step is very important!
I have only made granola for my family once or twice. However, I stopped after observing the undigestibility of consuming this non-traditional food even when seemingly prepared in a traditional fashion.
Do your digestion a favor and opt out of any grain based granola entirely. Even homemade, organic, and soaked and/or sprouted versions aren’t good for your long term gut health.
Healthy Alternatives to Granola
Don’t hesitate to use soaked or sprouted grains that are fully cooked for all your other dishes and baked goods!  This article plus video tutorial for a healthy cold breakfast cereal recipe is a very digestible alternative to granola.
Another alternative is to make grain free Paleo granola using the linked recipe.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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Sources and More Information
Nourishing Traditions, p. 454
Soaked Oatmeal Benefits Without the Soaking?
Hi would it work with organic white rice flour … I have an issue with oxalates (12mm kidney stone) so it is the only grain I can have … it would be lovely to make ‘cereal’ – thank you for the fab posting <3
Hi would it work with organic white rice flour … I have an issue with oxalates (12mm kidney stone) so it is the only grain I can have … it would be lovely to make ‘cereal’ – thank you for the fab posting <3
Hello Sarah
So happy to find you thru Weston Price. I believe there is one exception to the precooking rule and hope you can clarify this. In Sally Fallon’s book she has a cold Middle Eastern cereal “Kishk” that is soaked and then directly baked at low heat without a high temp cooking step. Please advise.
I made the cereal and found it too hard to chew. I am trying a second batch and lowering the temp on my oven to the very lowest it will go. I think my oven is very powerful and was too high for the cereal.
Hi Renee, you are right about that. I’ve made it before a very long time ago and it was too hard. I’ve had good results with the homemade cold cereal recipe posted on this blog though although you have to be careful of that one getting too hard too if you overdry. I would think that kishk would follow the same principle that it would be for those with iron stomachs only. Perhaps the fact that it is fermented would break the grain proteins down a bit better than soaking or sprouting.
Another thought Renee … bulgur flour is sprouted so perhaps using sprouted flour then fermenting which is how you make kishk helps considerably. Also, kishk is made out of flour .. not the unground grain as with oat based granola which makes breakdown so much more difficult due to the large pieces of grain involved.
oh no- my partner (who’s mostly pretty supportive of the food choices I make for our family) & I disagree over cereal. The recent compromise was that he could make granola for the kids, so as to have a healthy, ready-to-serve option on some mornings. I think I may just tuck this info away & share it with him in a few months. They don’t eat it often anyway.
Might be more appropriately used as a small topping/condiment, sprinkled on top of yogurt, etc.
Fully cooked oatmeal that has been soaked overnight is fine of course.
I rarely make granola anymore, but I wonder if you made oatmeal by cooking it, then adding your fat and sweetener, then drying it out in the oven and crumbling it?
for those who have not tried it, i would give Emmer wheat (Zea) a go. Being the most ancient and easily digestible food of the Gods n’ all, before big business introduced us with all the wrong grains for us, in favour of profit.
What about oatmeal?
Very informative post. I have given up all grains myself, but since my kids won’t it’s nice to know how to make it better for them.