Barley
The Bible is filled with reference to barley, which is among the earliest known and most nourishing grains ever to be cultivated. In fact, some scholars say The Feast of Unleavened Bread was an ancient barley harvest festival that became the celebration of the Passover. The fact that barley is mentioned so often shows that the people of the period consumed great quantities of this grain, which played a vital role in their weight management and healing, whether they knew it or not.

Roman gladiators were sometimes called hordearii, meaning ‘barley eaters,’ because the grain was added to their diet to give them bursts of strength before their contests. In some places, barley is recommended as ‘medicine for the heart.’ That’s because, say nutritionists, it is full of beta glucans, a type of fiber that can lower the risk of heart disease by reducing levels of artery clogging LDF.

As anyone who has done any Bible study at all knows, bread was always made from barley or other whole grain flours and was regarded as so vital to good weight management and a long life that it was called ‘the staff of life.’ Barley is effective at shutting down the liver’s production of the bad LDL cholesterol that does so much damage to our arteries ? the kind that can cause strokes and heart attacks.

In a follow-up study, scientists at Montana State University discovered that a high barley diet had the same effect on people. In that study, a group of men ate many foods containing barley, including cereal, bread, cakes and muffins made from barley flour. After six weeks of three servings a day, the men’s cholesterol levels dropped an average of 15%. Those whose cholesterol levels were the highest at the start showed the most significant improvement.