Roasting Seed as a Substitute heavy coffee drinkers start experiencing ailments One of the burning garden controversies of the 1830s related to their coffee intake, they are advised to ward and 1840s was using okra seeds as a substitute for off the hot beverage they love. coffee. The proponents were proclaiming it as the best Coffee drinkers now don’t have to miss the comfy cup. thing since ... well, coffee. There were even scammers, Rice coffee is now lauded all over the world as a healthy who took advantage of Florida's remoteness and exotic alternative to real coffee and a lot of coffee drinkers appeal, calling okra seeds "Florida coffee seeds" and have already started to get into the habit. selling it for the astounding price of $2 a pound to Gone are the days when rice coffee is given as a cure people who wanted to grow their own. for “pasma” as the rural folk usually say. It is now One old farmer's magazine published Okra Seeds A recognized as legitimate beverage for the health Substitute For Coffee - We find in the papers* a letter conscious urbanite who are constantly searching for signed J. F. Callen, addressed to H. L. Ellsworth, organic alternatives to commercial consumer goods. declaring that the seeds of Garden Okra, when roasted and used as coffee cannot be distinguished therefrom, Health Benefits and many who have tried it pronounce it equal to the Rice Coffee has lots of benefits compared to real coffee. best 'Java.' The beverage is perfectly healthy, and as the First, rice coffee has a calming effect. It does not seed is easily raised, he thinks it "destined at no distant increase the heart rate and blood pressure. It does perk day, to expel from our markets one of the most up the coffee drinker’s day sans the trembling hands, extensive articles of import." palpitation and the migraine of a coffee addict. We know how well expelling coffee from our markets Second, rice coffee contains the same benefits as worked. Okra seeds were revived as a uncooked rice. It contains B vitamins, has insoluble during the Civil War, when coffee was scarce and fiber which helps in having good digestion, has no expensive in the South because of the blockade by the cholesterol and is low in sodium. It is therefore good for North. As soon as the blockade was lifted, coffee took its those suffering hypertension and heart ailments. customary place on the table. In the interest of science I sacrificed a half-cup of seeds Third and most importantly, Rice Coffee contains and an hour of my time to roast and brew some Trigonelline. In an article in The Philippine Star -free coffee substitute. The resulting concoction (September 14, 2008), Dr. Constancio A. Asis, Jr., a was drinkable, but there was no chance of my scientist of the Philippine Rice Research Institute mistaking it for the best Java. With a bit of practice, you (PhilRice) discovered that rice seeds contains a could make a brown, mellow-tasting, beverage. compound that can attract nitrogen fixing bacteria. Although it was definitely better than , I agree This compound was later found out to be Trigonelline. with most of the writers from the 1840s. The best place Studies show that Trigonelline has anti-tumor and anti- for okra seeds is inside the unripe pods, cooked as a cancer properties especially for the cervix and the liver. vegetable. It also has anti-migraine, antiseptic, hypoglycemic and and brewing okra seeds could be an mutagenic properties. It is also found to help prevent interesting activity for a Civil War history class or for dental caries by preventing the bacteria Streptococcus the gung-ho Civil War role-playing group. mutants from adhering to the teeth. RICE COFFEE

A Healthy Alternative Many people have depended on coffee to perk them up at the start of a long working day. However, when