Buckwheat, The Super Food

The buckwheat is a super grain which power is often underestimated in the States. Though it is usually thought of as a grain, it’s a seed. That surpasses other grains in many ways.

First of all, buckwheat ranks low on the glycemic scale. Second, it’s gluten free. Third, buckwheat has more protein than rice, wheat, millet or corn and is high in the essential amino acids lysine and arginine, in which major cereal crops are deficient.

Hulled and roasted buckwheat kernels (groats) known as kasha—a staple food in Russia and Eastern Europe. Kasha is eaten as hot cereal or as a side dish. In China, Korea and Japan buckwheat is often enjoyed in the form of buckwheat "soba" noodles—a form that's become increasingly popular in the West as a healthy substitute for wheat pasta.

Buckwheat is a very healthy food. It contains lots of magnesium which relaxes blood vessels, improving blood flow and nutrient delivery while lowering blood pressure. Buckwheat promotes the better blood sugar control and lowers risk of diabetes. Eating foods high in insoluble fiber, such as buckwheat, can help women avoid gallstones and breast cancer.

Buckwheat is not a new grain for 7 Grain, because we add it to our famous 7 Grain Bread. But we developed entirely new gluten free recipe based on buckwheat. It’s our new Buckwheat Oats Bread. It’s moist inside, has a lot’s off fiber and has a unique but not overpowering taste.

Nutrition facts

Serving size    1 cup   168 g

Nutrient amount                     %DV

Protein                                    5.68 g  11.36

Carbohydrates                        33.50 g 11.17

Fat                                         1.04 g  1.60

Dietary Fiber                          4.54 g  18.16

Calories                                 154.56 8.59

New Grains in 7 Grain Menu: Long Grain Brown Rice

Rice is a basic grain for most gluten free products. We use Cajun Country Long Grain Brown Rice which is grown and produced in Louisiana. We mill it ourselves to make sure our customers get the freshest brown rice flour available. Brown rice has much higher levels of many vitamins and minerals than white rice.

It’s an excellent source of manganese and selenium. Just one cup of cooked brown rice provides 88% of your daily need for manganese, a mineral that helps us digest fats and get the most from the proteins and carbohydrates we eat.

Studies indicate that whole grain brown rice may cut diabetes risk, lower cholesterol, helped maintain a healthy weight. It is a natural whole grain rice with nothing but the husk removed, so it retains all bran.

We developed few delicious new gluten free recipes based on brown rice flour: Brown Rice Millet Bread, Brown Rice Biscotti with Flax Seeds and Oat Bran Apple Cinnamon Muffins. Check them out when you are at the Covington or Slidell Farmer’s Market next time.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1/4 cup (49 g)

Nutrient Amount % DV

Calories 170      Calories from Fat 14     

Total Fat 1.5 g 3%     

Sodium 0 mg 0%

Total Carbohydrate 38 g 13%     

Dietary Fiber 3 g 13%     

Protein 4 g

Interesting Facts about Bread

• People are eating bread at least for 7500 years and today it’s still considered to be a staple food.
• The workers who built the pyramids of Egypt were paid in bread.
• In Biblical times bread was called “the Staff of Life”
• First bread in Americas was the unleavened cornmeal cakes that Indians used to make.
• According to the legend Christopher Columbus brought the first leavened bread to the New World. It was a small pot of a sourdough starter.
• First wheat crop in America was grown in 1602 in Massachusetts by British sea captain Bartholomew Gosnold.
• To make one loaf you would need approximately 350 ears of wheat.
• Bread provides more protein, iron, B vitamins and complex carbohydrates per penny than any other food.
• Bread is the major source of fibre in our diet, providing a quarter of our daily intake.
• Bread contains very little fat and virtually no sugar.
• Otto Frederick Rohwedder invented the first commercial slice-and-wrap bread
• machine in 1928. He sold his pre-sliced and wrapped bread in a bakery at Battle Creek, Michigan. By 1933 80% of all bread sold in the US was sliced and wrapped.
• Every year approximately 72 million loaves of bread are sold in the USA.
• 70% of that bread is white!