Miraculous Spelt Flour

It has been a good number of years since I replaced wheat flour with spelt flour.

At first I simply liked it more. It was milder, slightly golden and nutty. Everything I made from spelt flour tasted better.

But then I learned about the wonders of spelt flour.

“Spelt is the best grain, warming, lubricating and of high nutritional value. It is better tolerated by the body than any other grain. Spelt provides its consumer with good flesh and good blood and confers a cheerful disposition. It provides a happy mind and a joyful spirit. No matter how you eat spelt, it is good and easy to digest.”

These are the words of Hildegard of Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess, also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine. Hildegard, who lived in Middle Ages, had visions about how to use what nature gives us to safeguard our health.

Already 15,000 years ago, people were growing spelt. But in recent times, this magnificent grain was replaced by wheat and largely forgotten. Spelt, which cannot be treated by chemicals, is not suitable for large-scale farming. Undemanding and cold-resistant, the plant thrives in poor soil; but pesticides and fertilisers used in industrial farming would kill it. It can only be grown at bio farms.

That is an even bigger reason to like spelt, also known as dinkel. Dinkel is also richer in protein, healthy fats and dietary fiber than wheat. It is a good source of vitamin A, and several B vitamins and minerals, such as iron, zinc and magnesium. The alkaline elements help suppress hyperacidity in the body.

For Hildegard, dinkel was an essential food, one we should eat daily in bread, pasta, porridge or sweets.

“Where one is very weak from an illness, unable to get up and nothing helps, make him eat dinkel and he will recover,” said the Sibyl of the Rhine.