Healing & Cleansing Your Kidney with Barley

BarleyHigh in fiber, barley is also a kidney cleanser.
Better yet, regular intake of it helps prevent
heart disease.

BARLEY water was always a regular drink
when we were still living at home. Whenever
we had to go for a medical exam that included
a urine test, my mum would make us drink
barley water a day before it to make sure we
got a positive result!

My mother was a wise woman. I later found
out from an Australian naturopath that
barley is known to be a kidney cleanser, and
he happily downed glasses of it at a meal
we had in a coffee shop here.

Barley is good for your intestinal health too.
Try to eat the barley grains you find in your
drink or sweet broth with fu chook (bean curd
skin) and ginkgo nuts.

It's high in fiber which feeds the friendly
bacteria in the colon and helps speed up the
transit of fecal matter in it. In this way it
helps prevent! haemorrhoids and colon
cancer.

The propionic acid and beta glucan from barley's
insoluble fiber also help lower cholesterol and
prevent the formation of gallstones.

Eating barley regularly is a preventive step
against heart disease as, besides the fiber content,
it is also high in niacin, a B vitamin good for lowering
cholesterol.

Diabetics should eat more barley as the fiber
will prevent blood sugar levels from rising too
high.

It also provides relief from constipation or diarrhoea
for those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Barley is rich in selenium which prevents cancer
and relieves symptoms of asthma and arthritis.
It is a good source of manganese, copper and
phosphorous.

Malt sugar comes from sprouted barley which,
when fermented, is an ingredient in beer and
other alcoholic beverages.

Barley, whose Latin name is Hordeum vulgare,
has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years.
Since ancient times, barley has been used for
healing purposes and has been known to the
Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
Athletes in Greece and Rome in those days
were known to eat barley bread to give them
strength.

Besides the usual things we do with barley,
I enjoy having it in a western soup. The larger
pearl barley is used and I love the sticky bite
of it.

Here's a recipe for barley soup:
Barley soup with roasted garlic
1 cup pearl barley
5 cloves whole garlic, roasted
2 liters chicken stock, (steeped from
1 chicken breasts simmered in 3
Liters water)
2 Table spoons vegetable oil
2 large onions, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
150g turkey ham, cut up
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp sea salt or to taste
1 tbsp chopped parsley

Method:
1. Wash barley and soak it in a bowl of water
for three hours. Drain.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry onions. Add carrots
and celery, then the barley and fry for
three minutes.
3. Add chicken stock, pepper and roasted
garlic and simmer over low heat for at
least an hour, or until barley is soft.
4. Add salt to taste and serve the soup
garnished with chopped parsley.