Barley: all the properties and health benefits.

Currently, despite being the most cultivated cereal in Spain by extension and constituting a small nutritional jewel, it is hardly used for human consumption. The time has come vindicate all its virtues.

There is no agreement on when and where barley began to be domesticated and consumed. Remains of grains from about 23,000 years ago are known near the Sea of ​​Galilee (Israel), as well as archaeological sites from the late Paleolithic (about 18,000 years ago) in southern Egypt that confirm its existence in that period.

In fact, it is known that barley was closely linked to the religious rites and celebrations of ancient Egypt, where it was used as offering to the gods and at funerals.

Its germinated grain symbolized the resurrection of the god Osiris. Herodotus already described the importance of barley beer in ancient Egypt.

On one of his visits there, Pliny the Elder witnessed the use of barley in Medical treatments and took that knowledge to Greece. Hippocrates noted the Egyptians’ consumption of barley water, and noted that it gave them strength and well-being.

Ethiopia is another of the cradles of barley, with a long history of cultivation and use, where related agricultural practices have been discovered as early as 3,000 BC. C. Ethiopia is known for being the origin of a good number of native varieties.

Barley is believed to have reached the Iberian Peninsula around the fourth or fifth millennium BC. C., and a few thousand years later it spread through central and northern Europe, cold lands where barley grew in poor fields where other cereals did not achieve a good production.

Rafael Rubio, an archaeologist working at the Iberian site of La Bastida de les Alcusses, Valencia, comments on how the diet of the inhabitants of that area in the 4th century BC. C. was already based on the consumption of barley: “the cereal remains of the Iberian deposits in this area are often barley, because the settlements were usually located in high areas, for defensive reasons, and many times they were arid soils and not very fertile where barley can grow well but wheat can’t.

In the heart of Asia, the tibetan diet It has been based for millennia on two foods: tsampa and yak butter tea. The tsampa is made with toasted barley flour (similar to the Canarian gofio), which is mixed with the aforementioned tea to make a paste of great nutritional value.

Barley properties

It is a food with many more nutritional and gastronomic possibilities than those that make it appear as the basic ingredient of beer.

It is a good source of energy, especially slow assimilation carbohydrates and is remineralizing due to its content in potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and phosphorus.

But its greatest treasure is its trace elements, among which stands out the antioxidant selenium, zinc, manganese and copper, that make it an ideal food in deficiency states.

In addition, barley is rich in several group B vitamins (B1, B3 and B6).

Although it does not have as much protein as wheat, its contribution is not negligible (almost 10%). Its soluble fiber, rich in beta-glucans, It is associated with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

Barley Benefits

In the last twenty years, research aimed at confirming the best of barley in relation to the cholesterol control and cardiovascular protection.

Among the three large food groups that provide the most fiber to the diet (vegetables, fruits and cereals), the fiber in some cereals is the one that has been most strongly associated with the prevention of cardiovascular diseases.

CSIC researcher Luis Cistué and his department are investigating the varieties that can provide the greatest amount of beta-glucans –an important part of the soluble fiber of barley–, as well as those that can grow in the most diverse conditions and be profitable.

Interestingly, beta-glucans are avoided by the brewing industry because they create cloudy beers and can also block breweries’ filter equipment.

In contrast, beta-glucans are present in both whole grain and what is known as pearl barley”, which is the one from which the husk has been removed and bleached until obtaining something similar to white rice, with the difference that in the case of pearl barley hardly any fiber is lost (it still contains 15.6% compared to 17, 3% of the integral) and retains a good part of its nutrients.

barley in the kitchen

Barley has a long culinary tradition in many cultures. Incorporating it into the daily diet is simple.

For one, you can substitute part (or all) of the rice in a recipe with whole or pearl barley grains. As a general rule, pearl barley no soaking required and cooks in 30-40 minutes.

The barley grain is soaked overnight and cooked for 40-50 minutes.

In central and eastern Europe, one of the classic dishes is the kashasemolinas of this cereal cooked in milk (in its sweet version) or with oil and seasoned with pepper or caraway, in its salty version.

Barley flour and semolina can be easily added to purées, porridges or as a substitute for other cereal flours, such as wheat.

Of course, barley is ideal for making an infinite range of flatbreads, where this cereal gives its best (its low gluten makes barley flour loaves somewhat dense, similar to rye).

The range of varieties

There are many ways to classify barley, but if we do it according to its use, broadly speaking, we can distinguish between malting barley, in which a low amount of protein is of interest; the one of I think, in which the opposite is interested, a complete feed for cattle; and the consumption as food for humans, in which its components (fibers, minerals, starches) present all the nutritional advantages that the grain is capable of providing.