Spelt is known, perhaps unflatteringly as one of the 'ancient' wheat grains. We are inclined to believe that what was good for our ancestors must surely be good for us. They had no internet to list it's ten best health benefits, or daytime TV cookery programmes going all leftfield and suggesting we try this obscure new fad. It hadn't yet become a 'wonder food'. For them, experience and circumstance meant that it was central to their diet and a vital part of their lives.
It's current 'obscurity' says more about the evolution of agriculture than any shortcomings as a nutritional food source. In some ways spelt could be said to be a symbol of the pre-Industrial Age. From archaeological findings it first makes it's appearance around 7,000 years ago in the south Caucasus region, the land between the Caspian and Black Seas and continued to spread in popularity as far as Great Britain. For centuries it was the food of the peasantry, being hardy and easy to cultivate, adaptability being key in a rapidly changing world.
Here and there it crops up in our literature. In around 30BC the Roman poet Horace mentions it in his tale of the town mouse and country mouse. While the former feasts on more refined dishes his less urbane host restricts himself to simple grains of spelt.
Most interestingly for us at Ku, it
appears again in the writings of a remarkable 12th century Benedictine abbess called Hildegard von Bingen. Living in Germany around the time of the Crusades, she was also a philosopher, composer of stunningly beautiful liturgical music and a prolific writer. Aside from theology she wrote extensively on science and medicine.
She was a strong believer in the holistic approach, that the whole person must be treated including the importance of diet. Writing about spelt she focused on it's special nutritional and digestive properties. Among other things, she observed that it provides 'good flesh...good blood and confers a cheerful disposition'. She also noted that it was relatively easy to digest and '...is better tolerated by the body than any other grain.'
These observations genuinely have some validity. Take racehorses. They are fed spelt to improve their performance by building up and strengthening muscle tissue it is highly water-soluble so the body can absorb it easily. It also contains high levels of B vitamins, phenylalaline and tryptophane, all of which contribute to the enhancement of mood.
Spelt was only later supplanted by
wheat as the go-to grain as it was seen to be much more suited to mass-cultivation, being more easily grown and cheaply harvested. The debate continues about the nutritional values of spelt versus wheat, but the fact remains that variations in structure makes spelt the more easily digested than common wheat and more friendly to our bodies. For adherents of the macrobiotic diet spelt adds variety of taste if nothing else. It's nutty flavour can be used in a multitude of ways.
As George Harrison once sang all things must pass but luckily for us spelt is still cultivated, it's time isn't up just yet. It has proved popular with organic farmers as it requires minimal fertilisers. Incredibly it is now referred to as a 'speciality' or 'relict' crop, something which may have bemused our ancestors.
It's current 'obscurity' says more about the evolution of agriculture than any shortcomings as a nutritional food source. In some ways spelt could be said to be a symbol of the pre-Industrial Age. From archaeological findings it first makes it's appearance around 7,000 years ago in the south Caucasus region, the land between the Caspian and Black Seas and continued to spread in popularity as far as Great Britain. For centuries it was the food of the peasantry, being hardy and easy to cultivate, adaptability being key in a rapidly changing world.
Here and there it crops up in our literature. In around 30BC the Roman poet Horace mentions it in his tale of the town mouse and country mouse. While the former feasts on more refined dishes his less urbane host restricts himself to simple grains of spelt.
She was a strong believer in the holistic approach, that the whole person must be treated including the importance of diet. Writing about spelt she focused on it's special nutritional and digestive properties. Among other things, she observed that it provides 'good flesh...good blood and confers a cheerful disposition'. She also noted that it was relatively easy to digest and '...is better tolerated by the body than any other grain.'
These observations genuinely have some validity. Take racehorses. They are fed spelt to improve their performance by building up and strengthening muscle tissue it is highly water-soluble so the body can absorb it easily. It also contains high levels of B vitamins, phenylalaline and tryptophane, all of which contribute to the enhancement of mood.
As George Harrison once sang all things must pass but luckily for us spelt is still cultivated, it's time isn't up just yet. It has proved popular with organic farmers as it requires minimal fertilisers. Incredibly it is now referred to as a 'speciality' or 'relict' crop, something which may have bemused our ancestors.
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