Thursday, March 27, 2008

Anyone heard of Teff?

I found this article on an interesting grain called teff. It's gluten-free and high in calcium and iron. A two ounce serving contains 7 grams of protein.

This article was in my inbox and caught my attention with the following headline and description:

Teff - Staple Grain of Ethiopia
BellaOnline Wed, 26 Mar 2008 8:23 AM PDT
This tiniest grain packs a healthy nutritional punch. A great grain for low-carb and gluten-free diets.


So would this really be a low-carb solution to grains in our diets? The article itself says nothing about low-carb. It does say it's high in complex carbs, which isn't necessarily a good thing. I did some searching for nutritional info on teff. Here's what I found:

1 cup of uncooked teff yields 73 carbs with 8 fibers. The same amount of traditional white flour yields 76 carbs with 3 fibers. While this may be a good option for those who have to stay gluten-free, I don't foresee low-carbers jumping on the teff bandwagon. It's in no way a carb bargain for us.

I'm guessing who ever wrote the byline for this article must have assumed that low-carb and gluten-free are synonymous. The lesson here is never assume. You'll probably be wrong. :0)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fermented teff is used to make the traditional spongy flat bread known as injera. It's wonderful stuff, but--as you point out--it's hardly low carb.

Amy Dungan said...

Interesting! Thanks for your comment!