Functional Food

Although only few scientific studies exist in the literature, it seems obvious that Einkorn has numerous important nutrients. Compared to bread wheat, content of minerals like selenium, zinc, manganese, copper and iron is 2-4fold for Einkorn. Similarly, fat content of Einkorn is higher and the composition better than in bread wheat. Einkorn has a higher content of unsaturated fatty acids and a reduced content of saturated fatty acids, which delivers beside their health benefits also a better end product quality. Compared to bread wheat, an 8fold higher content of lutein and carotinoids is claimed for Einkorn. Lutein delivers a bright yellow colour to Einkorn products coupled with a unique intensive taste. Finally, low activities of the lipoxygenase as well as the α- and β- amylase warrant high concentrations in the end product. For experts, I recommend the review of Hidalgo and Brandolini.While researchers around the world try to boost GM rice and wheat modified for nutrients, these nutrients naturally exist in Einkorn, but we still not use it! For more details, see the work of Jochen Ziegler. Recently, we published a large proteomic study comparing einkorn and emmer with spelt and bread wheat across > 3.000 proteins. Interestingly, einkorn had almost none of the 250 proteins from wheat, which are potential allergenic to 1-5% of human population. However, further human studies must proove this finding.