PKD DIET

Spelt

Enjoy spelt

Spelt is the one grain that has not been modified over the years. Since ancient times it has remained the same. It is the grain that Roman conquering armies carried with them into battles. It seems to be useful for both PKD Polycystic Kidney Disease and PLD Polycystic Liver Disease.

Spelt is ancient wheat. The great great grandfather to modern day wheat. It is an ancient grain highest in proteins, lowest in phytic acids, easily digestible, and if it is harvested by the low yield traditional methods of old, it can be carried on long trips and still provide nourishment. Spelt was the food the Roman armies carried to sustain them on their long tours. It is a grain with different amino acids than those contained in wheat. It is these amino acids that gives spelt its maximum assimilation.

Hildegard von Bingen

The mystic Hildegard von Bingen published her works on spelt, some 800 years ago. At that time it was unheard of for a woman to be allowed to publish or to be a learned person. It is a great accomplishment that we today have the availability of Hildegard's published works. Hildegard von Bingen, (St. Hildegard) had this to say about spelt:

She claimed it gladden the heart.

Spelt Native to Europe

Native to southern Europe, where it's been used for millenniums, spelt is an ancient cereal grain that has a mellow nutty flavor. Its taste resembles a bowl of warmed chopped nuts. This easily digestible spelt has a slightly higher protein content than wheat and can be tolerated by those with wheat allergies. Spelt flour, available in health-food stores, can be substituted for wheat flour cup for cup in baked goods. Spelt has a fragile gluten content, making it easier to digest, especially by those who are wheat-sensitive. When something is difficult to digest, it begins to compromise the immune system. Because of spelt's incredibly hard hull, there is no need for pesticides, as insects cannot penetrate it. In Germany, the name for spelt is dinkel and was the basis for the names of such towns as Dinkelsbühl, Dinkelhausen, and Dinkelrode. In fact, the town of Dinkelsbühl has a museum devoted entirely to the spelt. In the city park, there is a life-size monument of a farmer holding a sheath of spelt.

Spelt Grass Juice

Spelt grows best in the ground then picked for juicing at the stage before the first jointing takes place. This is the growth stage before the spelt plant splits into two leaves, two blades. Juice this in a wheatgrass or angel juicer. Expect only about an ounce of juice. It is a small enough amount, even if you are water restricted, providing the body with essential amino acids the building blocks for many body processes. One can follow drinking about an ounce of spelt grass juice (or other cereal grass juice) with a quick bite into a fresh orange slice.

Chlorophyll and Spelt Grass Juice

Many potent food alkalizers are filled with chlorophyll: cereal grass juice, kale juice, leafy greens juice. Chlorophyll is said to have a similar structure to that of blood hemoglobin. The chlorophyll molecule and the hemoglobin molecule are almost identical in shape. At their center hemoglobin has iron whereas chlorophyll has magnesium. This similarity was first suggested in 1855 by Verdel. Consuming chlorophyll allows one to capture sunlight as energy according to one recent theory. Can insects do it?

Can I Eat Organic Wheat?

This is always an individual choice. If you live in the USA, I would so no, it is not OK to eat whole wheat products. You yourself can be the judge. When traveling the cost of spelt flour was really high, almost 2x the cost of wheat. I tried purchasing wheat flour; baking and cooking with wheat; but the taste was not there. It tasted empty, devoid of nutrients, stripped of minerals and vitamins. Even organic wheat has become changed. The kernels, the grain itself has been modified (In the USA) so the wheat grown does not resemble wheat of old.

Certain fruits have also become modified. I notice apples are lacking in taste; however grapefruit seems fine. Perhaps it is that there is not much interest in interfering with a lowly grapefruit whereas with apples commercial growers have developed a niche in their sale, marketing them specifically for the unsuspecting consumer. Many mainland fruits we receive are imported; they are picked green; they withstand travel for long distances and long times; finally arriving on barges, on boats that have been in the ocean for a week or longer. Then the apples must be unloaded from the docks and transported by trucks to market placed on the shelves by produce people for sale. And we purchase these beautiful looking apples that lack flavor. Apples have changed over the years.

My father-in-law had a grapefruit tree. My sister has a grapefruit tree. The grapefruits from these trees are so delicious, so sweet, so wonderful. And the grapefruit that is given freely by the tree because it has become ripe has a remarkable flavor.

Spelt grain (Triticum spelta) has an outer husk that has never been sprayed by chemicals. Its outer husk is harvested differently than wheat. After cutting spelt it is left in the field to dry for a few days so it imparts a nutty flavor.

Unlike wheat, the tough hull remains on the spelt kernel through harvest, through shipping, and through storage. Spelt seeds that will be processed for human consumption are mechanically de-hulled just prior to milling. This additional step makes spelt more difficult and expensive to process than wheat. Spelt has a much tougher outer husk than wheat, and unlike wheat, which loses its hull when harvested, spelt kernels must be mechanically dehulled. It is thought that this impervious hull has its advantages. This hull protects the spelt kernels from insects and pollutants, and safeguards it nutrients and freshness remaining unchanged for 9000 years.

The spelt bakers.

Spelt is basically unchanged for 9000 years from the times when Roman armies carried spelt to sustain them on their conquering adventurous.

Hildegard Von Bingen, a psychic from around the year 1000 and a woman wrote a book about spelt for healing. It was unheard of in those times that firstly a book could be written and secondly by a woman, and that that woman could be educated. 25 pounds of hulled spelt berries go for about $76 from amazon.

Farmer Joel Steigman grows organic spelt in Pennsylvania. For this reason he is in great demand. Some manufacturers (like Berlin Bakery, makers of spelt sourdough without yeast bread) get their spelt from Germany.

We are  sharing our experiences with PKD/PLD Diet, an adjunct diet envisioning it complementing a physician's prescribed medical therapy. Consider testing this with your doctor's prior knowledge, who can  adjust it according to your own uniqueness by adding it to your current  treatment.

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