The Allergen Free Ancient Grain That Is Making a Comeback
- Written by Brittany Bennett
There’s no doubt that Australian’s love a superfood. Just look at kale, quinoa and chia seeds, they have dominated the health blogs for a while now and it appears that they are here to stay.
But ‘out with the old, in with the new’ doesn’t apply to everything in life. In fact sometimes the more ancient the better and this is often the case with food.
Due to modern processing techniques, some foods that technically should be good for us now arrive to us with a lower nutritional value than before, not to mention the occasional Allergan due to processes used or additives, but there is one ancient grain that is making a comeback and for all the right reasons.
Here’s all you need to know about Tigernuts.
They are Not Actually a Nut
Tigernuts are not actually a nut, but a small root vegetable- also known as a tuber.
A tuber is the thickened part of an underground stem of a plant, such as a potato. They are essentially the buds from which a new plant grows.
They Are Allergen Free
Well this is something that you don’t hear everyday, but a tigernuts allergy is probably one of the rarest allergies in the world! This is because as they are a tuber, they are completely free of soy, grain, nut and seeds.
Great news for those who suffer from grain or nut allergies!
They Played a Key Nutritional Role in Our Evolution
Tigernuts are pretty much as Paleo as you can get. In fact, a study conducted by the Oxford University has concluded that our ancient ancestors who lived in East Africa between 2.4 million and 1.4 million years ago survived mainly on a diet of tigernuts.
Scholars have debated why our early human relatives used to have such strong jaws, indicating that a diet of hard foods, such as nuts, used to be the norm and the study was based on this fact.
A further study done on baboons found that they eat large quantities of C4 tigernuts. As tigernuts contain significantly high amounts of minerals, vitamins and fatty acids that would have been particularly important for the hominin brain, the study concluded that baboons intuitively select food according to their needs, and the nutritional demands of a hominin would have been quite similar.
In more recent times, there are also a number of famous Egyptian artworks that depict Tigernuts favourably.
They are Great for Your Digestive System
Tigernuts are the #1 source of Resistant Starch as they contain a prebiotic fibre that makes a healthy digestion system and becomes fuel for our Probiotic bacteria.
They are also a great source of healthy fats as they have a fatty acid composition that is similar to olive oil.
Healthy digestion, healthy human.
They Can Be Enjoyed In So Many Ways
Soak tigernuts overnight and enjoy them as a snack, turn them into flour or make Tigernut milk. There are so many ways that you can enjoy tigernuts so there is an option for everyone depending on your likes and needs.
For recipes, click here and get experimenting!
Health and Harvest is the leading supplier of this incredible superfood. Visit them here for more information www.healthandharvest.com.au
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