Enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables

Enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables to lower the Glycemic Index; you will also add extra nutrients, vitamins and many minerals.

There's a long tradition going back into the mists of time of adding greens to a starch to enrich it. For example, in Holland the cooks would mix finely chopped cabbage into mashed potato to make "stamppot." Another is the "blatsara" made from cornmeal in Epirus, the northwest of Greece.

In the Transkei province of South Africa "umfino" is the common grits to which dark-green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage and often an onion have been added.

These greens add more fibre, minerals and important phytonutrients like lutein to the meal. They would slow gastric emptying reducing the glycaemic index and making the dish available to diabetics.

Most of those eating typical grocery store food get less than 50% of the required magnesium from their food, for example; heart disease soars.

• Magnesium heart
  

And macular degeneration from a lutein deficiency is tragic.

• Maize meal porridge
  

Whilst this is true of the basic wholemeal corn grits that the Xhosa people have eaten for hundreds of years it is even more important today; the "real deal" is no longer commonly available and few women still grind their maize themselves.

All they can get is "super maizemeal" from which all the goodness, flavour and fibre have been extracted by unscrupulous millers. So they have become accustomed to large amounts of sugar and too much salt.

Umfino

The word umfino actually means greens; but we will use it in a more general sense. One can add the vegetables of your choice. The Xhosa people typically use spinach, onions and new potatoes all recently harvested from their gardens.

New potatoes have a low GI^[2].

Today we add a little tomato, red peppadew and green onion tops too; tailor it to your needs and liking.

Personalise your umfino

We all have particular needs. Perhaps you have threatening macular degeneration; add in a few leaves of kale, the richest source of lutein.

• Lutein macular degeneration
  

I personally have a tremor in my right hand which is well controlled by the L-dopa in fava beans; you can see them lurking in the photos above.

• Fava bean nutrition
  

Diabetes

Diabetics have to beware of all carbs, even the good ones. That is especially true of the ultra-refined grits generally eaten around the world; known as super maizemeal in South Africa.

All the fibre and fat have been removed, gastric empty is rapid as is the surge in blood glucose. Obesity and type 2 diabetes soon follow in those eating large amounts daily.

Dr Campbell's ten year diabetes rule is invoked; large amounts of sugar added to tasteless ultra-refined grits.

Flavour

100% wholegrain maizemeal has a wonderful, rich aroma; but once those phytonutrients have been extracted by the millers it becomes utterly boring. Either add large amounts of sugar or enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables to make it palatable.

Vegetable extract

Simply cooking grits in stock made from scraps is another way to enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables. Use your own creativity; I never get locked in by a recipe.

Fruit

Add fruit either raw or cooked occasionally; it is another way to enrich your grits instead of greens and other vegetables.

Lignans

Lignans are phytonutrients found in the bran of seeds and other vegetables. Wholemeal corn grits is a particularly rich source of these very important compounds; once they enter the colon they are devoured by the normal flora forming substances with a similar structure to human oestrogen.

They compete with oestrogen at sites on the breast. Just one helping of a whole grain each day reduces the incidence of malignant tumours by nearly 50%^[1]; that's massive.

• What are lignans
• Lignans protect the prostate gland too
  

Enrich; and allow to retrograde

Perhaps the simplest way to reduce the GI of starches so that even those who are wary of carbs because of their calories can enjoy them, is to allow them to cool overnight. The molecules set in a crystalline form slowing gastric emptying and the work of the digestive enzymes; it's called retrogradation.

The grits forms into a thick, stodgy mass. Simply add boiling water, stir and heat briefly on the stove; the GI remains low.

• Reheating resistant starch
  

Yellow or white?

The chief difference is that yellow maize gets its colour from a very important nutrient called beta-carotene; it is the precursor of vitamin A.

It is estimated that half a million children go blind every year because of a vitamin A deficiency; if they simply ate yellow grits instead of white they would have near complete protection.

It's no coincidence that farmers feed their cattle, pigs and chickens on yellow corn.

Two-thirds of a cup of cornmeal (100g) would give a small child almost complete protection; 214 IU of the RDA of 300.

Marketing

There are some disgraceful things about marketing. Once something is considered a "health food" the price goes up radically and it rarely goes on a special promotion.

Have you noticed that peanut butter with no sugar or emulsifiers can cost double the price of the ultra-processed product?

100% wholegrain cornmeal or wheat flour are difficult to find and will usually cost substantially more than their ultra-refined cousins; despite being far less work to produce.

The Zulu and Xhosa people in South Africa eat vast amounts of ultra-refined maizemeal daily for energy; the women in particular have become amongst the most obese in the world. Their wealthier counterparts enjoy cornflakes. In many communities over 30% of adults are fully diabetic.

The farmer is paid R4.20/kg in South Africa for his maize. Degrading it utterly, food companies will charge around seventy rand for cornflakes. They can sell the best parts for pig food and then demand over ten rand for the hollowed-out calories in super meal; seventeen if you purchase just one kilo. 

See what the price of 100% wholegrain corn costs in your grocery store; if you can find it at all. We have purchased a mill.

Enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables

Enrich your grits with greens and other vegetables for more flavour; allow it to cool overnight if you are concerned about your weight.

Cook enough for three or four days; retrograde the leftovers in the fridge.

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