BARLEY - HEALTH BENEFITS

BARLEY - HEALTH BENEFITS

(Hordeum vulgare)
Family:Poaceae
General Information
Barley is a multi-use cereal grain with a rich nutty flavor and an appealing chewy consistency. Barley resembles wheat berries, although it is slightly lighter in   color. Barley can be found as whole barley, hulled barley, pearled barley and barley flakes. Barley is most commonly used in soups and stews. But when fermented, barley can be used as an ingredient in beer and other alcoholic beverages. Curiously, it had the reputation for being a ‘strong’ food; it was awarded to the champions at the Eleusian games, and gladiators were called 'hordearii', ‘barley men’, because that was the chief component of their training diet.

History 
Barley originated in Ethiopia and South-east Asia, where it has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years. Barley was used by ancient civilizations as a food for humans and animals, as well as to make alcoholic beverages; the first known recipe for barley wine dates back to 2800 BC in Babylonia. In addition, since ancient times, barley water has been used for various medicinal purposes. Barley played an important role in ancient Greek culture as a staple bread-making grain as well as an important food for athletes, who attributed much of their strength to their barley containing training diets. Roman athletes continued this tradition of honoring barley for the strength that it gave them. Gladiators were known as hordearii, which means “eaters of barley.” Barley was also honored in ancient China as a symbol of male virility since the heads of barley are heavy and contain numerous seeds.

Since wheat was very expensive and not widely available in the Middle Ages, many Europeans at that time made bread from a combination of barley and rye. In the 16th century, the Spanish introduced barley to South America, while the English and Dutch settlers of the 17th century brought it with them to the United States.

Nutritional Benefits
The propionic acid produced from barley’s insoluble fiber may also be partly responsible for the cholesterol-lowering properties of fiber. In addition, barley’s dietary fiber is high in beta glucan, which helps to lower cholesterol by binding to bile acids and removing them from the body.

Medical Benefits
Yet another reason to increase your intake of barley is that, in addition to its fiber, barley is also a good source of niacin, a B vitamin that provides numerous protective actions against cardiovascular risk factors. Niacin can help reduce total cholesterol and lipoprotein (a) levels. (Lipoprotein (a) or Lp(a) is a molecule composed of protein and fat that is found in blood plasma and is very similar to LDL cholesterol, but is even more dangerous as it has an additional molecule of adhesive protein called apolioprotein (a), which renders Lp(a) more capable of attaching to blood vessel walls.)

Additional Information
Barley and other whole grains are a rich source of magnesium, a mineral that acts as a co-factor for more than 300 enzymes, including enzymes involved in the body’s use of glucose and insulin secretion. For people worried about colon cancer risk, barley packs a double punch by providing the fiber needed to minimize the amount of time cancer-causing substances spend in contact with colon cells, plus being a very good source of selenium, which has been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer significantly.

One type of phytonutrient especially abundant in whole grains such as barley are plant lignans, which are converted by friendly flora in our intestines into mammalian lignans, including one called enterolactone that is thought to protect against breast and other hormone-dependent cancers as well as heart disease. In addition to whole grains, nuts, seeds and berries are rich sources of plant lignans, and vegetables, fruits, and everages such as coffee, tea and wine also contain some. When blood levels of enterolactone were easured in over 800 postmenopausal women in a Danish study published in the Journal of Nutrition,women eating the most whole grains were found to have significantly higher blood levels of this protective lignan. Women who ate more cabbage and leafy vegetables also had higher enterolactone levels.  Copper, another trace mineral supplied by barley, may also be helpful in reducing the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.