How Not to Diet

by Michael Greger

I like to start my mornings with what I call my BROL bowl. BROL stands for barley, rye, oats, and lentils. Most people are only familiar with pearled barley, which is partially refined by having some of its bran polished off. You can buy barley groats, sold as hulled or hull-less barley. If your budget allows, go for purple barley, which naturally contains some of the antioxidant pigments found in berries as a bonus. Rye groats are typically sold as rye berries. Oat groats are just oat groats, though I’ve also seen the terms hull-less and hulled oats. And since I know I should probably check off a morning legume box on my Daily Dozen, I add black lentils, which are the most antioxidant-packed,4982 sold as beluga lentils due to their resemblance to expensive caviar. I have them all premixed in an unimaginative 1:1:1:1 ratio and then, in an electric pressure cooker, just cook one scoop of dry BROL to two scoops of water. There’s probably a quicker way to do it, but I simply press a default one-touch button for thirty minutes, and it comes out fine. Of course, that’s just the base. It has a great texture but very little flavor. Depending on my mood, I go savory with greens and mushrooms or sweet with frozen dark red cherries, cocoa powder, dates, and walnuts, giving me more of a chocolate-covered-cherry sensation. I’ll make sure to include a bunch of these recipes in my forthcoming cookbook.