Arcadian, Your Opinion on Grits

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

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I am interested to hear your take.  I learn quite a bit from them, even if not to take them up but just for purposes of research.

How do I make my favorite?

Air fried philly cream cheese and blue cheese bacon jalapeno poppers chopped into small pieces and rolled into instant grits.

[Arcadian_Dreamer]

Grits are ground dried maize - a grain, not exactly the most nutritious thing in the world but it does taste good, I love it for breakfast myself, I used to eat oats every morning thinking I was eating healthy. It wrecked havoc with my teeth, needed lots of fillings. Get organic, most maize nowadays is GMO, avoid store bought processed ones if you can. General rule is to avoid refined, processed, & manufactured food as much as you can. Get nixtamalized corn and add lots of butter to it, I add milk and a bit sugar - I have a terrible sweet tooth. I have been doing sugar free February this month though. Important thing is don't make it a staple, switch up your breakfast routine.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Grits are ground dried maize - a grain, not exactly the most nutritious thing in the world but it does taste good, I love it for breakfast myself, I used to eat oats every morning thinking I was eating healthy. It wrecked havoc with my teeth, needed lots of fillings. Get organic, most maize nowadays is GMO, avoid store bought processed ones if you can. General rule is to avoid refined, processed, & manufactured food as much as you can. Get nixtamalized corn and add lots of butter to it, I add milk and a bit sugar - I have a terrible sweet tooth. I have been doing sugar free February this month though. Important thing is don't make it a staple, switch up your breakfast routine.

Does that nixtamalized(never heard that word before) stuff taste funny?  I use direct sugar exceedingly rarely in anything I take. 

[Arcadian_Dreamer]

Does that nixtamalized(never heard that word before) stuff taste funny?  I use direct sugar exceedingly rarely in anything I take.

Nope, its doesn't taste funny. Lucky you, sugar is a drug. Do you have any fillings?

Nixtmalization is a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous potassium carbonate), washed, and then hulled. This process removes up to 97%–100% of aflatoxins from mycotoxin-contaminated corn. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.

Nixtamalized maize has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced. Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize. Corn's hemicellulose-bound niacin is converted to free niacin (a form of vitamin B3), making it available for absorption into the body, thus helping to prevent pellagra.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Does that nixtamalized(never heard that word before) stuff taste funny?  I use direct sugar exceedingly rarely in anything I take.

Nope, its doesn't taste funny. Lucky you, sugar is a drug. Do you have any fillings?

I don't have any fillings.  The one I had underwent a root canal procedure.  My weakness is dairy(kefir, cheese, milk ...).

Nixtmalization is a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous potassium carbonate), washed, and then hulled. This process removes up to 97%–100% of aflatoxins from mycotoxin-contaminated corn. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.

Nixtamalized maize has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced. Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize. Corn's hemicellulose-bound niacin is converted to free niacin (a form of vitamin B3), making it available for absorption into the body, thus helping to prevent pellagra.

Interesting.  I am assuming that's what gives tamales their taste.  It never ceases to amaze me the countless number of things natives(Central Americans and Mexicans) were able to do with corn.  My Kenyan mind had never put its use much beyond roast maize, uji and ugali.

[Arcadian_Dreamer]

I don't have any fillings.  The one I had underwent a root canal procedure.  My weakness is dairy(kefir, cheese, milk ...).

Surprising. With your high dairy intake, you avoiding sugar I would think you shouldn't be having any dental issues?! Grains may be the culprit. Where do you get your Kefir? Store bought Kefir is sorry replacement for the real thing. I love milk and its derivatives myself. I have a weakness for raw cow milk especially Jerseys, so creamy and delicious, no other beverage compares. I don't buy conventional grain fed 2% trash that gives you cramps. Buy whole milk pasture grazed, much more expensive but its worth.

Interesting. I am assuming that's what gives tamales their taste.  It never ceases to amaze me the countless number of things natives(Central Americans and Mexicans) were able to do with corn.  My Kenyan mind had never put its use much beyond roast maize, uji and ugali.

Partly. Yeah Meso Americans first domesticated maize so they have a deep knowledge of it. Africans only started cultivating it in the last 500-700 years. It has not been good for us. Maize is responsible for much mental and physical retardation in Sub Saharan Africa, but it kept many a people from starving so its a mixed bag. Without it populations would crash. I prefer fufu to ugali. 

Without alkaline processing, maize is a much less beneficial foodstuff, and malnutrition struck many areas where it became a dominant food crop. In the nineteenth century, pellagra epidemics were recorded in France, Italy, and Egypt, and kwashiorkor hit parts of Africa where maize had become a dietary staple.

Maize was introduced into the diet of non-indigenous Americans without the necessary cultural knowledge acquired over thousands of years in the Americas.

When maize was first introduced into farming systems other than those used by traditional native-American peoples, it was generally welcomed with enthusiasm for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever maize was introduced as a staple food. This was a mystery, since these types of malnutrition were not normally seen among the indigenous Americans, for whom maize was the principal staple food.

It was eventually discovered that the indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water (the process now known as nixtamalization) —made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide) since at least 1200–1500 BC by Mesoamericans and North Americans—which liberates the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which was the underlying cause of the condition known as pellagra..

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

I don't have any fillings.  The one I had underwent a root canal procedure.  My weakness is dairy(kefir, cheese, milk ...).

Surprising. With your high dairy intake, you avoiding sugar I would think you shouldn't be having any dental issues?! Grains may be the culprit. Where do you get your Kefir? Store bought Kefir is sorry replacement for the real thing. I love milk and its derivatives myself. I have a weakness for raw cow milk especially Jerseys, so creamy and delicious, no other beverage compares. I don't buy conventional grain fed 2% trash that gives you cramps. Buy whole milk pasture grazed, much more expensive but its worth.

I get it from the store.  They specialize in Eastern European groceries.  They also stock some Amish varieties.  Why is it a sorry replacement?  I do use fat-free and 2% milk if I use milk for tea.  No cramps for me .

Interesting. I am assuming that's what gives tamales their taste.  It never ceases to amaze me the countless number of things natives(Central Americans and Mexicans) were able to do with corn.  My Kenyan mind had never put its use much beyond roast maize, uji and ugali.

Partly. Yeah Meso Americans first domesticated maize so they have a deep knowledge of it. Africans only started cultivating it in the last 500-700 years. It has not been good for us. Maize is responsible for much mental and physical retardation in Sub Saharan Africa, but it kept many a people from starving so its a mixed bag. Without it populations would crash. I prefer fufu to ugali. 

Without alkaline processing, maize is a much less beneficial foodstuff, and malnutrition struck many areas where it became a dominant food crop. In the nineteenth century, pellagra epidemics were recorded in France, Italy, and Egypt, and kwashiorkor hit parts of Africa where maize had become a dietary staple.

Maize was introduced into the diet of non-indigenous Americans without the necessary cultural knowledge acquired over thousands of years in the Americas.

When maize was first introduced into farming systems other than those used by traditional native-American peoples, it was generally welcomed with enthusiasm for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever maize was introduced as a staple food. This was a mystery, since these types of malnutrition were not normally seen among the indigenous Americans, for whom maize was the principal staple food.

It was eventually discovered that the indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali-water (the process now known as nixtamalization) —made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide) since at least 1200–1500 BC by Mesoamericans and North Americans—which liberates the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which was the underlying cause of the condition known as pellagra..

That's interesting.  I believe corn is damaging for Africans because it was so easy to produce that it ended up replacing more nutritious foods that they previously relied upon.

[Arcadian_Dreamer]

I get it from the store.  They specialize in Eastern European groceries.  They also stock some Amish varieties.  Why is it a sorry replacement?  I do use fat-free and 2% milk if I use milk for tea.  No cramps for me .

Store bought Kefir has few beneficial bacterial strains, at most 10, while the real one has upwards of 60 strains. I would go with the Amish varieties.