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TOPIC:
"Ancient Grains Series – Quinoa
The Mother Grain"
Ancient in its origins, Quinoa (pronounced keenwa) with its some 1800 varieties, has been feeding millions for almost 5,000 years. No wonder it’s known with great respect as the “Mother Grain.”
Although relatively new to North Americans, Quinoa has been cultivated in the South American Andes since at least 3,000 B.C. and the ancient Incas revered it as sacred.
Thankfully, this amazingly nutritious ancient food is now enjoying the process of being rediscovered by North America.
In South America, a renewed respect for indigenous crops and traditional foods is helping to reverse a 400-year decline in Quinoa production that began with the Spanish conquest.
There were many factors that for many years prevented Quinoa from taking its rightful place amongst the world’s most nutritious grain sources.
For instance, what had once been a staple and hardy food source amongst the natives of the Andean altiplano for millennia, suffered serious repression at the hands of the Spanish rule around 1532.
Some say that this repression of a well organized, sophisticated food and agricultural system that supported the Incan population was a means of disrupting and dispiriting the Incas and their entire culture.
There is no doubt that under the Spaniard’s rule, the production of this valuable food source (as well as others) suffered enormous losses from which it has only very recently begun to recover.
However, besides cultural ignorance, there were other reasons, such as exportation of huge wheat surpluses, which acted to skew markets in poorer countries, such as, the high mountainous regions of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, southern Colombia, and northern Argentina and Chile, which grow most of the world's quinoa.
And let’s not forget the US subsidized white flour production to discourage cultivation of native grains and
wheats.
Despite all this adversity, still Quinoa survived and has enjoyed a comeback to the point now where it is quite easily found in health food stores or the healthy section at your local grocer in the form of cereals and flours.
Like Amaranth, Quinoa is a small seed that looks like a cross between a sesame seed and millet. The
color is usually pale yellow, but the huge variety of Quinoa species may produce seeds that vary in color from white through to black with pink, orange, red and purple seeds as well.
Again, like Amaranth, Quinoa is not a true grain, but is technically a fruit of the annual herb that grows from three to six feet high.
The seeds grow covered in their own natural pesticide called saponin, which is an extremely bitter, resin-like substance that must be removed by washing in alkaline water.
Besides its delicious taste, from a nutritional point of view and compared to other grains and vegetables, Quinoa is high in protein, calcium, and iron, which makes it a great food source, especially for vegetarians, because it’s a balanced amino-acid source of high quality protein.
Seniors can also benefit from eating Quinoa because it’s a high iron food that raises the hematocrit levels and delivers more oxygen to the brain, thereby fighting senility.
As well, those who are diabetic can easily add Quinoa to their daily diet because it has a very low glycemic index of only 35.
Quinoa is also a relatively good source of phosphorous, calcium, iron, vitamin E, and several of the B vitamins with a good balance of amino acids. Some wheats may come close to matching the protein content in Quinoa, but cereals such as barley, corn, and rice fall far below that of Quinoa with less than half the protein.
As well as being nutritious, like Amaranth, Quinoa is a very hardy plant able to thrive with low rainfall. It grows well at high altitudes, in cold air, hot sun or sub-freezing temperatures and even in sandy, poor and alkaline soil.
This ability to thrive where other crops cannot is the main reason why Quinoa has provided a staple food source for millions of descendants of the ancient Incan Empire.
In Peru and Bolivia where annual rainfall may be no more than four inches, Quinoa is the principal food crop, assuming the level of importance not unlike that which the buffalo once had for the Plains Indians of North America.
So, if you haven’t yet tried Quinoa, what are you waiting for? It’s nutritious, it’s delicious, and it’s survived the test of over 5,000 years.
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