9 Ancient Grains That Deserve a Place in your Plate

Birds are on the brink of extinction! WE ALL NEED TO MAKE CHANGES NOW! Audubon soc predicts 380 species are in trouble and threatened. All of us need to plant food for them and make daily changes in our lives to slow down climate change…THey eat a ton of insects and also help pollinate. 75% of penguins have gone extinct in Antarctica due to climate change and harvesting of Krill (for krill oil supplements)their ONLY FOOD SOURCE. Please write to the company to stop starving our penguins. THEY KNOW they are starving them, but do NOTHING to help these adorable birds. Additionally, thanks to Big OIL and GAS and us humans releasing carbon gas into our atmosphere. WHY cant we see our own damage? WHEN will we say enough is enough and start changing the way we do things?? We ALL MUST make sacrifices, and stop being so spoiled rotten to the point of killing ourselves and the world we live in.

I like to make bread out of a mixture of rye, spelt, oat and whatever else I can find (it is coronavirus time!). I can’t say I have noticed a difference in my health, but it does taste better

This video was terrible. You didn’t cover anything in depth, spoke misinformation and clearly had an agenda. Less gluten = lower quality? Gluten = energy?? What? What about nutrient composition? What about the chromosomes in modern wheat versus einkorn, and the effects of hybridization? SciShow is such a hit and miss channel.

Why non-GMO needs to stop. And all these other stupid health trends.

Ther term “ancient grains” is the grand-daddy of marketing coins

Try not to work the soil man. Check out gabe brown and what he does.

i tried to listen to dr greger and i just ended up geeking out so i had to banish him

Wow! Thank you for sharing this! Bless you and your dear ones!

I have never craved wheat but I have craved quinoa so it’s obviously more nutritious.

Recently purchased Emmer Wheat flour to make chapati (Indian Bread). Was blown over by the flavour. Compared to it, regular wheat flour chapati is tasteless. Emmer is 4 times more expensive, but plan to stick to it purely from a ‘taste’ perspective. It is that good.

The plastic clip is so vibrant looking though. I’m almost certain it has antho-cyanins and polyphenols.

I know this is an old video, but I am very disappointed. This video didn’t discuss the topic in the name of the video at all. It would have been an interesting topic. This video mostly discussed the yield rates of these grains. It’s fine, but it should have been named differently. Yes, modern wheat is so popular because it is easier to process and produces more grain. Also, it has more gluten in it. However, it is highly misleading to say that the protein is of a higher quality because of this, in a video that was supposed to be about nutrition. The reason why gluten is so great is because it traps the air bubbles in a dough making it rise more. Also the dough is easier to work with. This has nothing to do with nutrition, but it is great for baking. What a video with this title should have discussed is at least micronutrients and also FODMAPs. While all of those grains are good for most people, there are some people who can’t eat modern wheat but can eat spelt for example (because of gut problems, irritable bowel syndrome for example) and of course also people who can’t eat any of those grains because of celiacs disease.

Someone random chuckle head says “GMO’s are bad” while using heavily biased evidence and no one bats an eye, but actual scientist put out research proving that gluten is good for you(provided you don’t have Celiacs disease) and everyone loses their minds….

We grow sunflower, millet and sorgum in our garden this to encourage wild life but also to attract bees.
The seed pods are also fantastic for flower arranging.

my ancestors would be proud that people like you are keeping our historical food alive:) (I’m native american…mixed with a bit of Albanian and Scottish)

The major wheat producers of the world have modified it for one reason only: to make it more shelf-stable.  They don’t give two shits about the nutritional value to actual human beings, they just care about the bottom line of their corporations.

looks like the big producers would be amaranth, sorghum and perhaps the oats.

I have done a lot of research regarding the nutrition in wheat. Focusing on gluten, the burst of energy is a reaction similar to drugs like ritalin or speed. It isn’t that you’re body gets energy from the gluten. It is not like a nicotine buz from smoking cigarettes.

really enjoying these garden vids & then to table. you always bring everything of the past cultures forward & that’s appreciated more then you may know
best wishes Danitaga Shawn

2.04: Did anybody else find themselves saying out loud: “Put it to the test?”

Where were you able to purchase your Kamut Wheat and Einkorn? The Seed Supplier I used to purchase from Bountiful Gardens closed their doors in 2017? Anyone else supply Kamut for planting?

whats healthier
getting hit in the face or getting hit in the stomach?

Between making primitive tools using tendons, flint stone, hand carved shafts, and feathers, making various kinds of primitive traps, growing primitive foods, controlling his massive rodent problem, mind switching with Utsi the iceman and recreating his entire tactical gear, filming, editing, and post producing video, and having a family I just have one question. When do you sleep?

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestor, but borrow it from our children, quote of the year!

Einkorn wheat is more nutritious and better than modern wheat. Einkorn contains 3 to 4 times more Beta-Carotene than modern wheat, it contains twice the amount of vitamin A than present-day wheats, einkorn contain 3 to 4 more times lutein and it contains 4-5 times more riboflavin (antioxidants to slow aging and used to create energy) than modern wheat. Many people with gluten sensitivity can consume einkorn with no problem although einkorn has a higher ratio of gliadin to glutenin, However because Einkorn is not hybridized, the original DNA structure remains intact and actually helps the body to digest these gluten proteins properly. Also einkorn is tastier than modern forms of wheat, when you try einkorn you can’t go back to modern wheat!

How does someone eat the plastic clip on accident? My mind is boggled.

I want to know if the modern grains were organic or if they had Glyphosate used on them to dry them out before harvest. I know Glyphosate causes stomach issues, and i don’t know if they use Glyphosate on ancient grains.

I pity the fool that doubts the wisdom of the ancients( muppets)

I ‘m a african but I never know all of this about this grain,this is definitely stunning. after this epical illustration,the implementation of his ideas could be indeed the solution of the Africans issues

I love it when you add random facts for interest into your videos like the guy who ate the bread bag clip.

This new green background you are using is very unflattering!

So ancient grains are healthier at least in some respects. Good to know as I would eat these in some form as bread or pasta regularly in the past.

Please, your methods for small scale threshing, winnowing, hulling (steam or dry process), milling. Seed grain is one thing, consumable grain products are quite another. Each grain requires a slightly different process. Growing/harvesting is the easy part, processing is the hard part.

Yay, even more population growth and even more mouths to feed in Africa. That’s all we needed.

Shawn, I live in Portland Oregon is there any edible plants that you can suggest growing in this unpredictable climate

Wait Hohenheim is Edward Elric’s in the anime Fullmetal Alchemist

Gosh, you talked so fast that I couldn’t take in all of what were saying.
After my 3rd try to find “IF” you even mentioned the difference in gluten between the grains, I just gave up. Did you even bother to talk about it? Pls make another video, slow down your hyper speech and present a comparison chart, showing the differences with gluten & nutritional nutrients. Thank you.

What USDA zones can you grow nigella, fennel and quinoa? I grow pumpkin, sunflower, poppy, amaranth which we call Love Lies Bleeding, and coriander

Nutritionally, arsenic is identical to water. Not having a tall frosty glass with breakfast.

Why does the guy have to present the results of a scientific study, as if he were a stand-up comedian? Very annoying!

I like this guy a lot. He doesn’t get political or play the blame game. He mentions colonialism but only to lament how it engrained in the minds of Africans that their native crops were substandard. He mentions migration but only to take about the tragedy that the migrants felt compelled to risk their lives to leave Africa.

If someone were to grow a new grain into the U.S., the political and agricultural institutions in place would make it relatively easy. You’d have access to professional farmers who know how commercial farms are supposed to run even if they had to be trained for a new crop. Potential buyers would be reassured by government inspectors that your operations followed basic sanitary procedures. You’d call up an already established processing plant to see if they could expand and modify existing procedures to handle processing a new crop. So on and so on… Your financial success is inter-dependent with public institutions and other private enterprises.

It is very difficult to be successful without this inter-dependence. Imagine taking potential investors on an inspection visit to the African farms. The inspection is supposed to reassure them that you can deliver product as promised. They come back and tell you that they wouldn’t be able to accept your product even if it is delivered because it does not meet food safety standards. It’s hard enough to build a successful business let alone a successful business in a vacuum.

When the Europeans colonized Africa in the late 19th Century, Europe already had this inter-dependence of private business and government. Major European cities were in the process of getting electricity with modern automobiles just around the corner. For decades, there had been telegraph wires, railroads, and a very large number of industrial factories everywhere in the West. Sub-saharian Africa, by contrast, did not have any native written languages, was untouched by industrialization, and had few or no large cities.

There was a massive pre-existing gap in development. Africans became permanent consumers and not producers. We will never know one way or the other if Africans would have become producers if colonialism hadn’t happened. I tend to think Africans would NOT have becomes producers. The beneficial interdependence simply wasn’t there at that time. I also base my assessment on the current buying habits of Africans. Right now, Africans are buying Chinese products rather than taking the opportunity to build up their own industries. The path of least resistance is always to line someone else’s pockets until you are out of money rather than to find your own success. It is sad to see.

Wake up….modern wheat has been gen modified and tampered with so its just unhealthy!! This presentation was crap!

That’s awesome that you are growing so many different grains. Most people have never even heard of teff. Thanks for the great video and looking forward to more on your garden. I am so going to grow oats, buckwheat, and teff. Homemade injera!

Are the ancient grains better for celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivities? Please say yes.

I’m loving my scarlet amaranth plants so far! Very elegant shape and gives a nice color to the garden

Yep. I have bad IBS & I can’t even stomach one slice of white bread. I can’t eat one sandwich made from any other type of modern wheat, but I can happily eat kamut bread. That sells out quick though so sometimes I get spelt & I can eat a couple slices of that too. I don’t need anything more to show me what’s “better” than the pain I’m in or not in. But this was good to back up what I thought!

Try having an autoimmune disease not being able to eat any grains.

Old foods have not been messed with, and it is not cheap and easier for companies to give to a growing population.

love to see that you are growing Teff almost no one knows about it in the US but I like ethiopian injera so I’ve grown it too

I remember when all the wheats products where very good and then Monsanto came on.

Great video. Would love to see how you harvest and use the seeds in another video

This is the answer but the elite will never allow it to help anyone. If they would they would just GMO it. How do you patent a grain that the most High told us to partake of every seed bearing plant and root.

Ok but did the people in these studies know which kind of wheat they were eating? You didn’t say they were blind tests. If they weren’t, it could be placebo effect since a lot of people believe ancient grains are better.

Just wondering. Why is a high-protein content considered the basis for a better quality wheat? What are the markers for determining when a protein is of a higher quality? What about other considerations such as the long term effect of growing a genetically manipulated plant such as modern wheat, often patented by large corporations that want their piece of the pie? What about the amount of water the soil requires to grow modern wheat verses ancient wheat?

These are just some questions that I have. Not sure if you have the answers but maybe they are worth pondering.

All of your videos are great! I look forward to each new one. Your presentation is always top notch. Thanks

In our family we share sunflower seeds with bird-life over the winter when they dont have much to eat.
We give them food and they sing to us and we are both happy:)

I love your channel and all of your content but I must point out that the Aztecs never got to grew anything in South America.

Really an inspiring talk! what about fonio opportunities in country like India?

so what about gluten-free? if we say less gluten=lower quality?

It’s actually not gluten that caused the problem with wheat. Gluten is hard to digest but not as bad as other proteins in wheats. We really shouldn’t be producing hybrids they have lower nutrition. The ancient wheats will produce less and will need less fertilizer. It’s profitable. They make way better bread too.

Wow. Ok, so Doctor the question is, why? Could this be pesticide usage? If not a factor, I’m really curious as to what is happening at the microbiotic level to cause this…

“Maybe it’s worth looking into developing these ancient grains?” No thanks. Or should I say, “Hands off!” Lack of “development,” as you put it, is the very reason we’re willing to pay more to consume an ancient grain. Modern, does not necessarily mean better.

But, it’s a “science” channel, what else can be expected, but a watered down, biased report that favors man’s manipulation, aka hybridization, & calls it, “better for you.”

Great Vision
I pray they will see it done with exceeding success!

“””ancient””” grains. In germany we literally have shelves full of diffrent kinds of grains in supermarkets including spelt. millet etc. We cook them just like rice.

So this man devised a genius plan to help the economy of Africa and then says to himself “I’m gonna share this idea to white westerners, that seems like a good idea”

Fonio is one of my favorites foods. I grew up with it, but It was hard to find in Dakar, Senegal. My parents had our supply coming from Guinee year round.

Good luck with the quinoa, my mom tried growing it a few years ago and now we can’t get rid of it. Our garden beds get covered in the plants and choke out most other plants. This year I had some corn choked out by it, be careful.

I can find heritage varieties of grains and vegetables in my farm box

Does those “red amaranth” being grown for microgreens yield grains like these or they’re a different specie?

Very interesting video. How much space do you need for a loaf of bread? Would like to try growing some but space is at a premium.

Gluten giving energy from bread? fake new lmao.

How about doing it on actually cool ancient ”grains” that aren’t all wheat oats, chia, hemp (seed), flax, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, sorghum, millet and teff

Don’t forget about Wheat, Barley, Sorghum, Oats, Rye, and Rice.

I grew some and interspersed them in my garden & patio and it looked beautiful. The flowers were fuchsia pink and the stems and leaves were red also with some salmon orange in the leaves too. Very nice.

I wasn’t wild about amaranth greens when I tried them earlier this season so I ended up neglecting mine, they’re already toast, brown and dropped, so I didn’t collect any seeds. But I’m not planning on working that area again next year, particularly, and I haven’t run the birds through the area (though I might in spring) so I should have lots of volunteers. The stuff that’s hardiest and survives next year without my attention, I’ll save some seeds for and put them somewhere where they can live undisturbed year after year. Maybe I’ll like the greens more next year, if I grab them younger, we’ll see.:)

Its bit like the orange carrot never existed, its a hybrid from the original white & purple carrots. And purple carrots would be the good stuff, they have twice the beta carotene of the orange carrots. As the white carrots have none. And think about wild rice, it was black. We always seem to lose the antioxidants.

we need the seed sources who will sell to the public; I’ve used seed banks accessions in the past but they don’t seem as receptive to working with home growers

It’s SciShow, why didn’t you elaborate on what High or Low quality Protein is?

I definitely miss these garden videos. I wish you would take a break from the mouse traps every once in a while to update us.

You are awesome. I want to see you make this edible in bread or whatever. Thanks for inspiring me.

Modern wheat requires copious amounts of fossil-fuel fertilizer to make up for its shorter stature. I love the North American revival of grains from the 1800s and earlier, such as Turkey Red from the American midwest, Sonora White from the West and Northern Mexico, Red Fife from Canada. These all grow tall, crowding out weeds and supplying more nutrition to the resulting seed without needing as much artificial fertilizer. The only downside is yield per acre, which means the grains cost more.

Love all the variety in these old grains! Very interesting. Do you have any active measures to prevent fusarium infection or how do you control the seeds before eating them? A german youtuber tried to grow grain and when he got them tested, they found large amounts of fungal toxins.

You should do a video on you harvesting your grains like if you agree

I have a mild wheat allergy. It causes my sinuses to swell a bit if I eat any products derived from wheat. The type of wheat doesn’t matter. That’s why I just eat marshmallows!:D

buckwheat = best alternative to rice/potatos/pasta/other “on the side of “”true”” part of dinner ” food

i dont know if you need to prepare it somehow first tho, i myself just buy it

This is great and some of this I didn’t even know. Keep up the videos.

LOVE this! I get so many questions as practitioner from those who are suffering from metabolic syndrome, T2DM, or pre-diabetes, and they almost always ask me if they should give up carbs. The answer is always the same: it’s what carbs you consume, not the carbohydrates in general… I’m so happy someone like Dr. Greger is out there dispelling that myth everyday.

some info on thrashing and milling would be great.
also, apart from flour what do you do with your maze?

I come for the education, but stay for the anecdotes at the end.

Someone us getting old and fat on their vegan diet… Better get your ass back on the treadmill.

less gluten = less quality? better not tell that to all the non-celiac “gluten intolerant” people, lol

Great video showing how to grow food like the one with the red flower. Thank you for posting take care stay safe keep up the great work. God bless you all peace be with you all.

That’s pretty stupid. Modern wheat is destructive on our bodies. It gets digested super fast spiking our blood sugar in turn, getting stored as fat. As if that’s not enough, it contains a protein called gliadin that has a list of harmful effects on the body including stimulating your appetite. So in short, fattens you up, makes you wana eat more. If you’re wondering why wheat makes an appearance in foods that have nothing to do with wheat, now you got a better idea.
Oh and for the dickhead that wants to argue, it causes your intestines to be inflammed, and other regions of your body too. To some, it also causes brain fog.

Eating too much bread made with modern wheat makes me bloated and gassy. Rye, oat, and spelt breads don’t. Not a difficult choice for me. Also, I do genuinely love a slice of warm rye toast with gobs of melted butter. It doesn’t get soggy the way regular sandwich bread does.

What a wonderful presentation! I applaud his vision and drive. The background he provides gives a context of local problems and how they can be solved locally, but in a global market.

Does amaranth survive the winter; I mean does it revive back after the winter?

Awesome Video, Dr. Greger! Are quinoa and bulgur wheat ancient grains?

I think it’s 10/10 that you are growing Russian rice. it just had to be Russian. this is funny to me.

Flooding of rice is only for temperature control, avoiding other weeds, and avoiding insects. It’s not actually necessary. When rice is planted they are never fully submerged in water.

Another good video. I grow pumpkins and other squash, seeds sunflower for my bird. I want to try others for me and my birds also like Amaranth and caraway… Thanks

Is kamut more “ancient” than einkorn? I suspected it was all marketing but kept paying extra for einkorn anyway)

I want to grow chia seeds, someone recommended them to me. I haven’t had much luck with amaranth. Maybe the drought, maybe dodgy seeds.

Can quinoa be grown from quinoa seeds you buy from the supermarket?

This is such an interesting video Dr. Gregor! There are people talking about how modern grains are changed so much that they are no longer healthy, therefore I am super happy that you did this video. Thanks for the video. Your videos always inspire me to keep posting on my channel!

In India, our staple is roti or flatbread (made of wheat, sorgu or Millets) with veggies and buttermilk. Ghee is used go cook veggies.

Surprised you didn’t include dill seeds with the fennel and caraway.

thank you very much for your work. I have only one question for you: how do you feel about the anti-vaccination movement and the vaccine in General?

Rye is the healthiest grain I know of in terms of mineral content. Oats for protein. Bulgur for fiber. Black rice for antioxidants. Well that’s excluding broadleaves and legumes.

Do ancient wheats contain different forms of gluten or perhaps different binding proteins all together for the 20% of people with wheat sensitivity or those who are completely intolerant to gluten?

Letting dill go into seed is great! There is nothing better then chicken gravy with dill seeds. I also use the dill seed heads to add to my ferments and pickles.very versatile!

Do a show on grass! Meaning all we use in the grass family. Love these kind of videos

“Bring them back on a larger scale” after modifying them further and winding up right back in the same place as we are today. This video is sound, but misses the point of why so many people are seeking out these grains in the first place. Figuring out how to better commodify them is the last thing we need.

Many thanks for the inspiration
However Caraway is a perennial that only lives for two years?  
I guess you meant biannual? But even so “it only lives for two years suggesting you get two crops
Surely a biannual grows in it’s first year and only flowers in it’s second year before dying?
And a written report list table perhaps by a link would be great rather than trying to remember all the detail?
But otherwise great Thanks

Thank you, inspiring as usual! We grew amaranth this year but the amount of grain harvested and the fiddle of cleaning it of chaff was hardly worth the effort, but it’s a meal I grew myself. The most productive crop for us was the runner bean Tsar which can be eaten as a green bean but MUCH better to leave it alone to set seed. The seeds are fat and white and once dried can be stored and cooked like any dried bean, they are delicious.

This is all well and good, but my question is is Dr. Greger wearing any trousers in these videos since he’s only ever shown from the waist up? ��

Some great ideas! If I can find where to buy amaranth seed, I’ll give it a go.
(I wish there was an easy way to remove the shells from pumpkin and sunflower seeds. I find them so fiddly and I don’t like eating the shells! I wonder if anyone has invented a small manual seed shelling device?)