The Staff of Life
The quick answer: For the best health value, eat a variety of whole grains, (unless you have a tolerance problem).
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Sunday School
If you’re Mormon and attend Sunday School, you can count on hearing a lesson on the Word of Wisdom (the scriptural guidance on nutrition) in the next week or two. This scripture has two parts:
- Prohibitions: Mormons are advised not to use tobacco, or drink alcohol, coffee or tea (herbal teas are allowed). Among the faithful, there ‘s remarkable conformity to these proscriptions—a big reason for Mormon’s better longevity (5 years more life per one study).
- Prescriptions: Things “to do” are left to each person’s judgment, but Mormons are counseled to eat herbs (vegetables) and fruits in season (meaning “fresh”), include (whole) grains as the “staff of life,” and eat meat sparingly.
The purpose of this blog is to help people follow the prescriptions. This is a big challenge because Mormons typically eat the same as the people in their community, meaning the modern American diet (MAD), which has been described as a “toxic food environment.” So around the world, as Sunday School teachers approach this lesson, there will be a moment of attention to better eating. In sum, this is a lot of attention so could be a really good thing.
But there is one reality here: Food habits are difficult to change. It took Food Inc. a century to sell us on over-processed factory food, and it will some time for us to find our way back to healthy eating. That’s why we spread the Healthy Changes over a year, and repeat them year after year. Talk is easy; change is hard.
I spoke with a Utah book publisher about a book on nutrition according to the Word of Wisdom. They were cautiously interested but balked at the idea of needing 52 weeks to undo a century of bad food advice. “Couldn’t you write a book for a 30-day program?” they asked.
Staff of Life
Grains really are the staff of life—2/3 of the world population would starve without them. Depending on the region, rice, wheat or corn are popular forms. Over the last century health enthusiasts have advocated a return to eating grains whole, rejecting the modern refined form for lack of vital nutrients. (Whole grains are high in nutrients and low in calories; it’s the opposite for refined grains.) Society has generally ignored this guidance, preferring the sweetness of refined grains, though this is now changing.
In recent years advocates of the Atkins, or of the Paleo diet, have argued against grains. In addition, a small, but growing, fraction of the population do not tolerate gluten so must avoid certain grains (wheat, rye, barley, spelt, karmut, triticale, and sometimes oats). Celiac disease is a potentially fatal form of gluten intolerance.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 recommends eating at least three services of whole grains daily. The Whole Grains Council notes these proven benefits of eating whole grains, vs. refined forms:
- Risk of stroke reduced 30-36%.
- Type 2 diabetes risk reduced 21-30%.
- Heart disease risk reduced by 25-28%
- Better weight control
- Reduced risk of asthma, inflammatory diseases, high blood pressure, and gum disease or tooth loss.
In our home, we eat a variety of whole grains and avoid refined white flour (except for making white sauce or the occasional cake). Here’s a summary of recent posts about grains:
The Whole Darn Grain: This was the first post on grain and it introduced the “fiber-greater-than-sugar” rule for purchased cereal products.
Are Carbs Good or Bad? A post influenced by Gary Taubes’ book, Good Calories, Bad Calories, provided ten steps to a lower, and healthier, glycemic index.
The Bread of Life: We eat our weight in flour each year; for most less than 10% is whole grain. This post solicited reader’s favorite bread recipes.
A Few Good Women: The story of May Yates, a food heroine, who fought for whole wheat bread in England.
Flour and The Hundred Years War: Discussed the issue of freshness and preservation of whole grain flours and suggested grinding close to time of use.
The Good Breakfast: This is the easiest meal to make completely healthy. See the link to Healthy Recipe #1: Breakfast Compote.
Waking Up In The Bread Aisle: This popular aisle visit discussed the practice of “slotting fees,” then examined the bread for sale in a typical supermarket and found just 3 of 70 met the fiber health rule.
Trouble In The Cereal Aisle: In this post we spend a Friday evening in the cereal aisle and find just 8 of 128 meet our fiber-greater-than-sugar rule.
Healthy Change
Comment: Whole grains are one of the best food values but we think it best to enjoy a variety. Please comment on how you include whole grains in the diet of your family, or share a favorite recipe.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013 at 8:31AM | by Skip Hellewell | 10 Comments | 11 References | Share Article | Email Article 
Reader Comments (10)
We like to use whole wheat and whole spelt for all of our baked goods. A great resource for whole grain recipes is HeavenlyHomemakers.com. There are recipes for crackers, cookies, cakes, etc. -all made with whole wheat. We can make all of our favorite treats at home, using whole wheat/spelt, not just our bread!
Skip,
I found an article that I'm going to share with you, as I know it will help you in your desire to encourage others to consume grains. Many have the gluten, lectin, phytic acid, insulin-resistance argument. It's a legitimate argument. But natural yeast is the answer to their problems with grains.
http://ranprieur.com/readings/natleavbread.html
Some will then argue that it's not practical. It's intimidating, that's true, but it's more than possible, it's actually ridiculously easy, and more practical than driving to the grocery store for bread. I recommend "The Art of Baking with Natural Yeast" to start with.
Thanks!
Isn't this Change #10 for this year?
We had that lesson last week in Sunday school. It was disappointing. I was frustrated that the whole lesson was mainly focused on the prohibitions when it's likely that no one in the room was doing those things anyway. When comments were made about how and why to eat healthy, people said things like, "We need to be careful that we're not being prideful about living the WoW." and "Living the WoW is a very individual thing..." It's like no one wants to talk about the basics of healthy eating.
There are so many people out there advocating giving up grains altogether, which really does go against the WoW, but their arguments do seem convincing sometimes. I have to remind myself that I have access to knowledge on the subject from a better source. I too have had success eating wheat prepared with my sourdough starter, and haven't found it to take up too much time.
Jamie
Thanks for the book suggestion; I'll get it. Mike Pollan's new book, "Cooked," has a big discussion of the benefits of natural, or sourdough, yeasts. We'll come back to this with a recipe for making sourdough yeast. Skip
Hi Emily
You've a very good eye for detail. The Healthy Changes for grains go like this:
#10 Your daily bread should be whole grain (more natural fiber than sugar). The "fiber>sugar" rule is also applied to other factory-made grain products like breakfast cereals.
#23 Enjoy a variety of whole grains. This means to make more of your own grain products, using whole grains, but to expand your variety. Note the picture; perhaps the variety needs more emphasis.
#36 Use "fresh" whole grain flours. This post informs about the importance of grinding your own wheat and other grains as the omega-3 and other nutrients are perishable.
#49 Crackers must be whole grain, with more fiber than sugar. I think this HC could evolve to a discussion of natural (sourdough) yeasts rather than the factory-made products long in use but right now people eat so many cracker products we gave it specific attention.
Thanks for your comment, you've a good eye for detail. Skip
Lindsey
It's good that you feel bad to hear the W of W taught so incompletely. In my own congregation I've asked if I could teach this lesson (on the Word of Wisdom) and it's this coming Sunday. Wish me luck on getting my message across. Maybe I should make a post about what I say.
Think about this: The W of W scripture gets taught once every four years. If we took a survey of how it's taught we could chart our progress on getting to a fuller understanding of the nutrition guidance. I think this a promising idea.
Do other readers have comments about this Sunday School lesson?
Skip
I'd really like to hear how your Sunday School lesson went.
Skip - How sad but telling that they wanted a 30-day book. Eating whole and clean is a choice that we all must make every day, and that's okay... If it were easy or something that took 30 days, it wouldn't be a lifestyle change. Thanks for your wisdom.
I continue to try to sort through all of the varying and conflicting information there is out there about how best to eat and measure it against the word of wisdom . I've often wondered what grain is the staff of life means. There's a new book out called Grain Brain and caused me to wonder yet again what it means that grain is the staff of life. If we had to produce our own grain to eat I think it would limit how much grain we eat. Is that a good gauge to go by it when determining how much to consume?