Barley is a type of whole grain mainly used to make beer. Beer! Do I have your attention? Well, we are not going to brew beer today, but make barley water. Why?
A diet high in beta-glucan from barley helps lower blood LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad cholesterol that becomes lower!).
Barley water
First go shopping for pearled barley.
I found this pearled barley bag in a big supermarket and I also saw it in the organic shop. Always buy organic food, your health will thank you in the long run! All these pesticides from normal food sooner or later will accumulate in your body and then people wonder: Why do I have cancer?
Take half a cup of pearled barley and add at least 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and keep boiling on a medium fire with the lid off the pot. Make sure you check regularly and add more water if the barley water becomes too dry or really thick.
Boil the barley water for at least 1 hour and add rock-sugar to taste. Some prefer to drink it hot, myself I like to add some ice in my barley water drink. If you go eating out in Malaysia, you can just ask for "barley" or "barley hot", and some buffet restaurants give a barley drink for free.
Organic lower cholesterol drink: barley water
You can add in some lime, lemon or like we do here in Malaysia, some soy skin.
Barley in cooking
Since we just saw that barley water becomes quite thick, why not use barley next time you are making a soup or a stew?
And add some cold cooked barley into your salads, not too much but every little bit of barley helps lowering your cholesterol!
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