Nothing Says 'Hip' Like Ancient Wheat (2016) | Hacker News Reader

Nothing Says 'Hip' Like Ancient Wheat (2016)

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51 pointsjelliclesfarm28 comments

I started making my own bread from einkorn.

The primary reason is that I have someone in my family who has a terrible allergy to gluten. They can eat this wheat since the gluten is different in some way. This was a life-changer.

The flour is expensive so I started buying the wheat berries and I mill them myself, its really easy, and the freshly milled flour is so much better tasting than already milled.

I use this countertop stone mill: (NutriMill Harvest)

I use this bread machine: (Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso)

using your mill and grain combo, can you speak to your experiences with different end products? reviews appear mixed so it would be interesting to add a data point for both the particular grain and the mill, in terms of specific final dishes.

The result amazing flavor-wise. Regular bread is very bland to me now. The resulting bread seems like actual substantial food, it is hard to describe this feeling.

Another key benefit of milling your own wheat, einkorn or otherwise, is that it gets you the germ, where the mono-saturated fats are. That is the "Whole" in whole wheat. The germ spoils quickly, ~3days, so processed foods and other supermarket fare usually remove the germ which is a shame.

Einkorn has ~35% more protein, and 65% for fat than durum wheat, thats even assuming the durum wheat did not have the germ removed which is not usually the case!

The mill is great. It is much quieter than I thought it would be. Adjustable grind...

I also sift the resulting flour a bit to remove some of the bran. I have been making bread with yeast, but I am about to switch over to my own sourdough starter once it gets going.

I am not sure which reviews you are referring to. I don't put much faith in online reviews.

Just saw a french documentary on TV5 about bread and one guy also had "gluten intolerance" just to find out latter he had an intolerance to insecticides and the like used when storing the grains. Large volumes of grains are attacked by insects and fungus and the easy solution are chemicals. To be found in flour latter on and in bread.

I've heard about this too. It may be why people are developing so many food sensitivities. Still though, most gluten sensitive people still can't tolerate the "organic" bread made from modern wheat.

Organic doesn’t mean pesticide free, it just means a different set of pesticides are allowed.

... at least here in the US. Source: https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/01/25/organic-101-allow...

Yeah, the labeling has become meaningless sadly.

Same here, my wife and a few of our friends are gluten sensitive (not celiac) and they have no reactions to the einkorn.

Do you find a benefit to the stone mill over a steel burr mill? I am under the impression that stone mills by adding small amounts of grit (byproduct ground stone) may be detrimental to tooth (enamel) health?

It’s quieter, it’s also a high-tech “stone”.

where do you get wheat berries ?

Jovial foods. Available on amazon and thrive market online.

Ancient Wheat is very 2016 now. I prefer Raw Wheat.

Anything like Kurt Saxon's "Perfect 3.3 Cent Breakfast"?

https://www.survivalplus.com/foods/The-Perfect-3.3-Cent-Brea...

Haha, very hipster. I am sure that is popular in Brooklyn.

OK, so long as "ancient" doesn't mean "propagated from grain found in Egyptian tombs".

Modern wheat is an appetite stimulant, so the more you eat, the more you want. (Good for increased sales.) I wonder which of these other varieties have or don't have this property.

> Modern wheat is an appetite stimulant

[Citation needed]

Well, from the perspective that it's lower in protein than ancient wheat, and higher protein foods lead to faster satiety...

Modern wheat has more protein.

This is not true.

Here is the specific chart which shows 36% more protein in einkorn over modern wheat:

https://youtu.be/6fciEfyYyK4?t=128

It also has 62% more fat.

The full video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fciEfyYyK4

Nope. It turns out if you breed wheat for higher yield, most of that bulk comes in the form of carbohydrates.

"Put it all together: wheat and related grains are potent appetite stimulants and obesogens–foods that make you fat."

I was just reading this today in the Wheat Belly cookbook. I'll dig up the studies references if I get time but there is data out there that suggest this.

https://www.wheatbellyblog.com/2015/08/wheat-makes-you-hungr...

The thing about nutrition is that we don't actually know anything about it, which means that the internet is full of pseudo-scientific woo. Pick a position and you'll find some obscure blog to support it. So what? You can find blogs about bigfoot too.

The claims in that link do not seem credible to me. If wheat increases the appetite, it does so because it's delicious.

https://www.ijmedicine.com/index.php/ijam/article/view/7

Didn't anybody see Scott Pilgrim vs The World?

"Modern wheat" is a type of highly processed food. Here is a study about the impact of highly processed foods:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S15504...

I think "appetite stimulant" is due to the fact that they don't provide a balanced nutrition. Somehow your body feels this and asks for more in order to fill up also on the elements that are almost missing. The problem is that you now have too much of the elements that are already abundant.

This is how I fell about most foods that are grown in an intensive way. "Intensive" means they grow using easy to find elements that are not that valuable from a nutritional point of view.

No, modern wheat gluten directly stimulates appetite, in a much more direct fashion.

Industrially farmed wheat may also be less nutritious, but varieties with less gluten stimulate appetite less, not more.

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