CHAPTER 4

GRAINS

In Denmark grain is all around, fields and fields of it.

 

I LOVE THE EARTHY PURENESS of food made with whole grains. You could fill a paintbox of colors with different grains: millet, rice, buckwheat, rye, barley.

Recently we have lost much of the quality of grains by removing and discarding much of the grain to produce refined flours.

Grains are actually the seeds from the fruit of plants in the grass family. These seeds make up the bulk of food for peoples around the world: not only corn, soy, rice, and wheat, but also the lesser known rye, buckwheat, and oats, which I love, to make bread, pasta, cereals, and baked goods. The grains are usually processed, by rolling, milling, grinding, or other methods, which removes the hull (the outer husk called the bran), the inner seed or germ, and other portions of the fruit. These parts, which are typically discarded or used for animal food and, more recently, biofuel, contain most of the nutrients of the plant. So many “white” flour products have historically had to be enriched and fortified with vitamins; this is why whole grain products are more nutritious and contain more fiber.