The soaking story
When I set out to cure myself of IBS, I had no clue just how much I’d end up learning about food. I thought it’d be a case of ‘Aha! I should avoid (enter random food group here)’ but it’s been a rollercoaster journey of trial, error and realisation.
The human body is a complex thing. I’ve always been a relatively healthy person (who does enjoy the occasional treat) but some of us are just not geared up to process everything that’s available on the market today, most of which – I’m sad to say – can hardly even be classed as food anymore.
For me, the first step was switching to a diet based on whole foods with no additives (excluding many problematic foods such as wheat). While this has helped a lot, and I discovered an intolerance for vinegar, dairy and high animal fats, I’m still tackling the last little devils that make daily life difficult. My stomach still dances around at night with plenty of un-ladylike trapped gas and there are a few other nasties lurking about when it’s clear they’re unwelcome!
I’m taking a few homeopathic remedies to help cross the border into problem-free stomach-hood but I also stumbled across a number of articles about how to utilise some of the healthy, whole foods I’ve been indulging in. Have I been preparing my food all wrong? I knew to soak beans overnight, but never bothered to check exactly how to do it. What temperature should the water be? Should you add anything to it? Should you keep them on the bench or in the fridge? I also never bothered to pre-soak my oats unless I was making bircher, nor my amaranth, buckwheat or any other grain for that matter. And nuts or seeds? Nope, never soaked those either.
It’s something I’m definitely willing to try as, from what I can tell by reading the articles, it makes these whole foods far easier to digest. That’s enough to sell me, even if it does add even more hours to my food prep time! To make things simpler, here’s a list of soaking and sprouting times for common nuts, grains and legumes. I’m yet to answer all the details about water temperature and all that jazz, so if anyone has tales of what’s worked for them, please let me know!
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