Healing and cleansing with barley

High in fibre, barley is also a kidney cleanser.. Better yet, regularintake of it helps prevent heart disease. EU HOOI KHAW writes.
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, mymum would make us drink barley water a day before it to make sure we got apositive 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 happilydowned glasses of it at a meal we had in a coffeeshop here. Barley is good for your intestinal health too. Try to eat the barleygrains you find in your drink or sweet broth with fu chook (beancurd skin)and ginkgo nuts. It's high in fibre which feeds the friendly bacteria in the colon andhelps speed up the transit of fecal matter in it. In this way it helpsprevent haemorrhoids and colon canc er. The propionic acid and beta glucan from barley's insoluble fibre also helplower cholesterol and prevent the formation of gallstones. Eating barley regularly is a preventive step against heart disease as,besides the fibre content, it is also high in niacin, a B vitamin good forlowering cholesterol. Diabetics should eat more barley as the fibre will prevent blood sugarlevels from rising too high. It also provides relief from constipation ordiarrhoea for those suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Barley is rich in selenium which prevents cancer and relieves symptoms ofasthma 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 hasbeen known to the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Athletes inGreece and Rome in those days were known to eat barley bread to give themstrength.

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 litres chicken stock, steeped from 1?chicken breasts simmered in threelitres water

2 tbsps vegetable oil 2 large onions, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

150g turkey ham, cut up

1 tsp ground white pepper

1 tsps 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 heatfor at least an hour, or until barley is soft.

4. Add salt to taste and serve the soup garnished with chopped parsley.