What’s so great about Pinole?

Pinole’s main ingredient is Masa Harina., which is cornmeal– treated with lime ( the mineral, not the citrus fruit ). Adding lime makes the food in your gut easier to digest.

Easy digestion is the secret super-power of Pinole – you get a dense source of incredible nutrients that are packed into an easily digestible food that won’t leave you with a sugar-crash. Cornmeal itself is a slow-burning fuel source that is perfect for endurance workouts or for distance running.Our pinole is made more nutrient dense with chia seeds and dates.

“Pinole ticks all the boxes for almost everyone,” says Dr. Elizabeth Trattner. “It’s gluten-free, vegan, and high in healthy fat and fiber.” (source: organicatthurity.com )

Chia is a superfood loaded with essential fats and plant protein. Chia seeds provide essential nutrition but are slow the absorption of water, helping to keep your body hydrated throughout the duration of your run or exercise routine. Plus, they contain lots of antioxidants for quick recovery and repair after your run is over.

Dates add a hint of sweetness to our chips. Making for a perfect taste profile blend of salty and sweet. Dates are a superfood. Packed with fiber and other nutrients like B vitamins, vitamin K, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and manganese.

 

Who are the Tarahumara?

The Tarahumara is an isolated tribe isolated inside the rugged landscape of the Copper Canyons in Mexico.They are a reclusive community but is one of the healthiest in the world. “In this tribe, there’s no diabetes, heart disease, cancer, or obesity,” reports Thrive Market “Though researchers can’t pinpoint exactly why, they suspect it all goes back to nutrition.”

Running 50-100 miles a day is not uncommon. One of the Tarahumara ran 435 miles in a little over two days.

A lot of the Tarahumara’s incredible health, mental drive, and stamina comes from their ancient diet. The staple foods of the Tarahumara diet includes Pinole.

 

Here is the tech stuff why Masa Harina is better for you than traditional cornmeal.

Nixtamalization (/nɪʃtəməlaɪˈzeɪʃən/) is a process for the preparation of maize (corn), or other grain, in which the corn is soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (but sometimes aqueous alkali metalcarbonates, washed, and then hulled. The term can also refer to the removal via an alkali process of the pericarp from other grains such as sorghum.

Nixtamalized maize has several benefits over unprocessed grain: It is more easily ground, its nutritional value is increased, flavor and aroma are improved, and mycotoxins are reduced by up to 97%–100% (for aflatoxins).

Lime and ash are highly alkaline: the alkalinity helps the dissolution of hemicellulose, the major glue-like component of the maize cell walls, and loosens the hulls from the kernels and softens the maize. Corn’s hemicellulose-bound niacin is converted to free niacin (a form of vitamin B3 ), making it available for absorption into the body, thus helping to prevent pellagra.

Some of the corn oil is broken down into emulsifying agents (monoglycerides and diglycerides), while bonding of the maize proteins to each other is also facilitated. The divalent calcium in lime acts as a cross-linking agent for protein and polysaccharide acidic side chains.

As a result, while cornmeal made from untreated ground maize is unable by itself to form a dough on addition of water, the chemical changes in masa allow dough formation. These benefits make nixtamalization a crucial preliminary step for further processing of maize into food products, and the process is employed using both traditional and industrial methods, in the production of tortillas and tortilla chips (but not corn chips ), tamales, hominy, and many other items