This is my third year joining Andrew Wilder of Eating Rules in his October Unprocessed Challenge. Each October, Andrew challenges you to get more informed about what you’re eating, and, if couldn’t be made in a home kitchen, skip heavily processed foods for a month. All month long, other great bloggers are posting recipes and information about eating unprocessed. Please join the challenge and feel the difference cutting out processed foods can have on your health.
Disclosure: Bob’s Red Mill is a sponsor of October Unprocessed. I was given free product by Bob’s Red Mill when I developed this recipe. All opinions are my own.
Recently, I did a sugar detox for three weeks and it opened my eyes even wider to just how much sugar is in our foods. The main focus on the detox was to remove all sugars, even those from fruits and focus on whole, real foods. The more I would turn around a food on the shelf, the more I would see sugar in many iterations lurking in so many foods in the store.
One of the foods that’s easy to find lots of sugar in it is granola. Most companies use several different kinds of sugars for flavor and to use as a binder to hold all the ingredients together. Depending on what brand you pick up, you’ll find lots of sugars that fail the Kitchen Test, as well as just more sugar in a food than your body and blood sugar should handle in one sitting.
Rather than skip out on granola this month, try making it yourself. Granola is very easy to make with less sugar without compromising on flavor. It’s also easy to make in a way to be friendly to people with gluten and dairy sensitivities, as well as those who eat paleo or who don’t eat grains. Grain-free granola takes the oats and any other wheat out of the granola and focuses on nuts, seeds, and coconut. This increases its fat content and makes it more filling than other granolas.
Read on about my Grain-free Granola and get the recipe at Eating Rules!