If you're as confused as I am about the issue of whether or not grains are good for you, and wonder if there is such a thing as healthy grains, hang in there. Today you'll learn more and I'm still not done with the topic, we'll keep sorting through all of this together.
Here's what we have so far:
- How to properly prepare grains for best nutrition and digestion
- Q & A with Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly
- The Great Grain Controversy – Q & A with Ramiel Nagel, author of Cure Tooth Decay: Heal and Prevent Cavities with Nutrition
- Did you see Ann Marie's post, Cortisol Belly or Wheat Belly? She has a different view on the issue and gives you more to think about.
- I've got another post in the works where I plan to somewhat wrap this up, and share my own conclusions after an appointment with a naturopath friend of mine.
- Today, however, I want you to hear from the ‘other side' of the grain issue with an interesting Q & A. I think you'll agree that this makes a lot of sense…
Meet Peggy, if you don't know her already, owner of the To Your Health Sprouted Flour Company. She is such a sweetheart (can't you just tell from her picture above?) and has the cutest Southern accent. She read Wheat Belly over the weekend, just so we could do this Q & A today and hear her ‘take' on all of this.
Kitchen Kop Q & A with Peggy Sutton
1. How long have you been in business and how did you get interested in sprouted grains?
To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. is celebrating its 5th Anniversary this year. I started out baking organic sprouted breads, crackers, muffins, and granola for friends and family in my kitchen and today my business is housed in a 7,200 square feet building with 10 employees. We’re producing more than 20,000 lbs. of organic sprouted grains and flour a week. For a business that I didn’t intentionally try to make happen, it continues to grow and I’m still excited about providing healthy, nutritious, digestible grains to those wanting to eat healthy.
What started as a personal quest to try to discover the truth in nutrition led to my discovery of the goodness of sprouting grains for digestibility and nutrition. I fell in love with sprouting and the baked goods I made from sprouted grains were fabulous. The distinct tastes of the different grains were enhanced and for the first time in my life I could eat bread without it going to my hips or giving me that water retention feeling.
2. What makes sprouted flour better for us?
There are several benefits of sprouted grains and flours, all of which are an important part of eating a healthy diet.
When grains are sprouted they are converted into a living food with more vital nutrients which are more readily absorbed by the body. Complex sugars (starch) are broken down and as a result, painful intestinal gases and potent carcinogens and enzyme inhibitors are neutralized (digests like a tomato, not a potato). This is especially beneficial for folks with sensitivities to wheat as they often discover that they can digest sprouted grains without any problem (organicwheatproducts.com).
Sprouting also increases B vitamins in the grain, especially B1, 2, 3, and 5. Biotin, folic acid and vitamin C also increase. I have to say at this point that sprouting increases vitamins that are present in the grain. In other words, if I have organic raw grain that doesn’t contain any vitamin C, then sprouting isn’t going to create any. Unfortunately, organic today means that your food doesn’t have any chemicals or pesticides in it and is non-GMO, but it does not necessarily mean that it is more nutritious in other ways for you.
Sprouting also aids in the absorption of calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation). Other resources for the benefits of sprouted grains include Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and The Wheat Council.
3. Sprouting versus Soaking?
As explained above, sprouting does so much more for grains and flours than just soaking them. While soaking can aid in the breakdown of phytates in the grains which aids digestion, it does not change the seed from its dormant state into a living food (plant). Soaking can certainly make grains more digestible by eliminating the seeds’ natural barriers, but it doesn’t break down the grains’ starches or increase the nutrients in the grains. Your pancreas is still going to do most of the digestive work if you’re eating soaked breads versus sprouted breads. If you’re in a hurry to make bread or cook oatmeal, sprouted grains and flours allow you to skip the soaking and get to the baking, so it’s a real time saver.
4. What do you think of the latest hubbub over the dangers of wheat and other grains, and how it’s gotten so hybridized that it’s only a very small step away from being GMO?
I just finished reading Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis. I have to agree with the author that wheat has definitely been hybridized over the years. I would think that genetic modification may be just around the corner. It will be interesting to see if any organic certifiers respond to this information. While Dr. Davis expounds on the “dangers” of wheat in his book, he indirectly gives testimony to the state of most of our foods today – most of them have been hybridized or genetically altered in some way. Think about it; there are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes. Seems like every year there are new lettuce mixes coming out. My organic seed catalog is always introducing new breeds of vegetables available for my spring and winter gardens. Wheat is simply one of many seeds that has been altered to grow in today’s compromised soil climates.
Wheat could be dangerous, or at least uncomfortable, to a compromised immune system and ailing intestinal tract. But it wouldn’t be the only bad apple in the barrel.
5. Do you agree that there are some who do best without grains in their diets?
I believe that God made us all a little different on the inside, just like the outside. That’s why some folks seem to be able to eat whatever they want (I’m referring to healthy foods) without any adverse reactions, and some folks find it hard to eat more than a few items without some unpleasant physical or mental effect.
We as a nation are finding it difficult to step back from our “grain fed” lifestyles. And I will agree that all processed grain products need to be eliminated from our diets. But I believe that properly prepared grains have an important place in a well-balanced diet.
The GAPS Diet seems to be very popular with lots of WAPF folks to help them detox, regain health, and discover what’s been plaguing them and causing their chronic symptoms. For people needing to heal I can understand that grains as well as other food categories have to be eliminated from the diet for a time. I don’t believe that any diet that eliminates complete food groups should be adhered to for a lifetime. That’s not God’s plan for us and I don’t believe it is a healthy way to eat long term. However, having said that, I understand that there are rare cases where someone simply will never be able to tolerate certain foods and enjoy good health.
6. Do you agree that while most people can eat properly prepared grains with no problems, that it should not be the huge part of their diet that the USDA suggests in their food guidelines?
Yes, I agree that grains have a proper place in our diets, but not a prominent place. I’m personally a pork fat and butter-eating gal. Bread is a great vehicle for lots of butter, just like coffee is a great vehicle for super thick raw cream. And if it isn’t cooked with pork fat (or butter works, too), there aren’t too many edible vegetables to be had on my plate. Breads and baked goods are great occasional meal accompaniments. Some foods are just plain better with them than without.
7. How do you need to bake differently with sprouted vs. regular grains?
When you're baking with sprouted flours you can substitute cup for cup sprouted flour in place of processed flour, except when making yeasted breads.
If you're making a pound cake, cookies, or breads leavened with baking soda or baking powder, cup for cup works because of the fat usually called for in these recipes.
If you're making a yeasted bread or sourdough you will need to add, on average, 1 tablespoon of water per cup of sprouted flour. If your recipe calls for 4 cups of flour and 1 1/2 cups of water, increase the water by 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons.
If you're hand kneading your yeasted bread I recommend you add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until you get the consistency you want.
8. What are your best selling products?
Our sprouted wheat flour is by far the most popular product we sell (about 80% of sales), followed by our sprouted spelt, rice, and corn flours. Our sprouted grains are popular, too, especially for those with home mills or who enjoy sprouted cooked grains as cereals and side dishes.
9. Do you have any new products to tell us about?
We have recently added several new sprouted grains and flours to our product list. Our sprouted oats are our best-selling new product. Imagine, no more soaking your oatmeal overnight! While our oat groats are whole, you can purchase an inexpensive grain flaker (about $59 at www.wheatgrasskits.com) and make fresh rolled oats for cereal and granola.
We’ve also added several new non-gluten sprouted items: buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth. Our newest sprouted ancient grain is Kamut (pronounced ka-moo). It has a wonderful sweet taste and great texture for bread baking. I especially like to use kamut when making crackers.
THANK YOU PEGGY!!
Be sure to visit the To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. and look around their online store. 🙂
Please share your comments about all this below!
Lynne Bowers says
I have loved reading this. So much to consider….
Annette K. Scott says
Kelly thanks for the work on this. I really appreciate your having done all this footwork for “us”.
Erica says
What a great article! Very informative and interesting. I am so new to all of this but I never get tired of learning about how to improve my health, I can’t wait to try baking with these new flours.
Heather@Food Ponderings says
I’d like to ask some questions about using Biblical evidence to support our dietary choices. While many of the types of foods discussed in the Bible may seem similar to what we can get today, there are bound to be many differences, not just from the speed of evolution of the plants and animals being faster than ours, but the CLIMATE and TERRAIN of the Biblical lands was completely different than anything we have in North America. Not to mention, how different were early agricultural practices from what we have today. How do all these things affect the food we eat? And finally, I’d like to point out that people from other cultures, some that Weston Price documented, the hunter-gatherers, did not have all these food groups as such as are described in the Bible, like the Maasai.
Kelly says
Heather,
I’d like to respond to some of your questions/comments. I tend to ask the same kinds of questions, though some of these I hadn’t really thought about. My first thought is that nothing is evolving, we’ve been in a continual state of de-volving since we left the garden. The perfect bodies that Adam and Eve had have gotten worse with each generation, as have all the rest of creation. I do think that’s a big component of this discussion though. Several thousand years ago, the average person was still in far better shape than the average person today, simply because of the de-volving thing. So now we’re taking a food that not only has succumbed to thousands of years of getting worse, but it’s also been subjected to hybridization and grown in depleted soil. Then we feed it to our less healthy bodies and it makes more sense why more people are having trouble with it.
The part of the country I live in is actually very much like the climate and terrain of Israel, so there are similarities, though I don’t think much grain is grown here.
I do believe that as long as whole foods, prepared by traditional methods, are consumed, that the evidence Dr Price documented proves we do very well on a variety of food sources. I don’t think it’s cause to remove something that our culture (and others) have done well with for centuries. I think the biggest culprit in this whole issue is interference from man trying to make God’s creation better. Just my thoughts.
Heather@Food Ponderings says
A very interesting response, so thank you. I do have to point out that I do not take the story of Genesis to be literal truth, but allegory for the purposes of spiritual/moral truth, so I cannot buy the argument that we ever had “perfect” bodies while in the garden of Eden. The fossil remains that we have still show many of the same degenerative diseases that we have, starting from the birth of agriculture, whereas hunter-gatherers had other problems to worry about, such as being eaten themselves!
Have we really done well with agriculture for centuries? Surely it has given us plenty of cheap food to be fruitful and multiply with, but I cannot be sure that it has done our actual health any real favors. And the Industrial Revolution has merely accelerated the process of health decline, given the amount of pollution we now spew into the air, water, and ground. Mother Earth is strong and will survive, but will we?
Kelly says
We are apparently starting from different foundations and thus arriving at different opinions based on that. I believe the entire Bible to be truth and the accounts of Genesis to be literal, so my ideas and opinions start there. Yes, I think people have done quite well with agriculture until man really started messing with it. I agree that the Industrial Revolution was the beginning of the end, but the earth and all of creation will survive for as long as God has ordained it. 🙂
Kira says
Can you not cook the oat groats as they are? Isn’t that what steel-cut oatmeal is? I love the idea of sprouted oatmeal!
Peggy Sutton says
Yes, you can cook the sprouted oat groats whole. They’re delicious that way. It is certainly not necessary to roll (flake) them before eating.
Kelly says
I’ve been following many of the real food bloggers posts regarding grains and agree that the whole topic is very confusing! When we started our real food journey and would come across conflicting evidence we applied the God filter. Which side did the Scriptures support? How did God make it? That worked great for raw milk, grass fed meat, etc, but It hasn’t been quite as easy with grain. Maybe because the grains referred to in the Bible aren’t what we have access to today? I’ve recently determined that we would continue to eat whole grains (God made the whole plant, right?) mostly prepared by soaking or souring.
It seems to me that we’re missing a piece of the puzzle. If there really are anti nutrients in grains, seeds, nuts and beans, why are they also such powerhouses of nutrients? Is there a component that’s been lost over the centuries, such as preparation, food combinations or the like? Or is it simply a matter of hybridization, soil depletion and improper preparation? Maybe the other processed foods cause us to be lacking something needed to unlock the anti nutrients? Still a mystery to me, but I don’t believe in eliminating entire food groups from our diet.
damaged justice says
“Food groups” are a completely artificial, man-made concept, and the entire notion smacks of nutritionist reductionism.
Kelly says
I don’t think the concept of grouping like things together is as negative as you seem to be presenting. Perhaps I’m totally misunderstanding you though, what would you call it when someone promotes removing a whole bunch of similar food sources from the diet?
damaged justice says
If those things demonstrably have more negative effects than positive, then I would call it good sense.
Kelly says
I’d say touche, except there’s as much evidence saying grains are a vital part of a healthy diet as there are saying they’re not. I believe that’s why it’s such a hot topic, there’s strong evidence on both sides, as well as plenty of passion on the topic.
damaged justice says
Then it comes down to the quality of the evidence, and who we choose to place our trust in after applying as much reasoning as we feel necessary. Unfortunately, the state applies direct force or indirect pressure — increasingly, the former — which remove your ability to freely choose, and even decrease your impact of making such choices. Scientists — and reasonable people — will always disagree on some things, which is why it should be so important to not force everyone to live the same way. And unfortunately, most other people seem to view it instead as the most important thing in the world to find The One Right Way, and then force everyone to live That Way.
Kelly says
Amen to that! I totally support our right to choose what food we eat or choose not to eat. These days though, that’s becoming quite a challenge!
damaged justice says
What did Cain offer to G-d?
What was G-d’s response?
From a Biblical perspective, agriculture and its fruits may be viewed as “the curse of the field”. We mortal beings can never achieve perfection, or return to Eden before the fall/days of paleo cavemen. But we can use those ideas as templates, as frameworks, to better our lives. As the (smarter) paleo types say, it’s not about recreating life in a cave, but about using the best available evidence and reasoning. And G-d did give us the gift of reason, which in theory makes us the uniquely human animal.
Kelly says
I don’t believe there ever was a “paleo caveman”. Prior to the fall, neither humans nor animals ate meat, everything was vegetarian. After the fall, Adam’s sons grew crops and raised animals to eat, so there never really was a time when there weren’t crops being grown.
As to whether Cain’s offering of grain was at fault, or the attitude of Cain was at fault, I lean toward it being a heart issue since God made it all, He only wants our hearts, the rest is immaterial.
damaged justice says
Is not self-harm demonstrating a lack of respect for the temple of your body?
Ray Audette of NEANDERTHIN paraphrased Genesis 2:17 from the original Hebrew as: “Do not eat the fruit of the technology that makes edible the inedible, for when you eat it you will surely die.” Knowledge = technology, edible/inedible being synonymous with good/evil. Grains are quite literally the first “processed food” — i.e., requiring processing to become edible.
“The story of Joseph as vizier of Egypt under an unnamed Pharaoh, found in the book of Genesis in the Bible, symbolically illustrates this well, since he ‘invents’ the storage of grain for lean times. In the next book (Exodus), we find his people, the Israelites, working as slaves in Egypt, building their great border cities Pithom and Rameses.”
Considering their demonstrable deleterious effects on our health even prior to the previous century, I consider them unfit for human consumption unless starvation is quite literally your only alternative. All of their “positive” qualities have nothing to do with their healthfulness, but everything to do with their storability, fungibility, and profitability to tyrants from Mesopotamia to Monsanto:
https://www.gnolls.org/2542/real-food-is-not-fungible-how-commoditization-eliminates-nutrition-impoverishes-farmers-and-destroys-the-earth/
For every reason possible, both moral and practical, I advocate truly sustainable and scalable permaculture over unsustainable agriculture as we know it.
Kelly says
I appreciate your passion and willingness to advocate on behalf of your beliefs. However, using a person’s paraphrase of God’s word does not make it any more powerful than a simple opinion. I also see no Scriptural evidence of Joseph “inventing” grain storage, nor do I know of any place in the Bible where grain is condemned. My first online search for the word grain revealed this:
Genesis 27:28
“Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine.”
That makes grain sound like a blessing. I appreciate the time you’ve taken on this, as I do not recall this verse and it has helped me in my quest to determine whether or not to eat grains. I believe I shall continue to partake of one of the very foods we know Jesus ate and stop being concerned with the whole issue.
I find this passage to support the eating of bread made from find flour, it’s found in Leviticus 6:14-16.
“14 ‘This is the law of the grain offering: The sons of Aaron shall offer it on the altar before the LORD. 15 He shall take from it his handful of the fine flour of the grain offering, with its oil, and all the frankincense which is on the grain offering, and shall burn it on the altar for a sweet aroma, as a memorial to the LORD. 16 And the remainder of it Aaron and his sons shall eat; with unleavened bread it shall be eaten in a holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of meeting they shall eat it.”
KitchenKop says
You two have been having a very interesting, intelligent and respectful conversation, I love it! Thanks for being that way even though you disagree. 🙂
I think that, as usual, this is going to come down to each person and what works best for their own body. Still trying to figure that out for myself and will talk more about all of this in my next post on the issue.
Kel
damaged justice says
Kelly (both of you!), you’re most welcome. And thanks for providing the forum and getting the conversation started.
Kelly says
I, too was glad to see a respectable debate, thanks!
Martha says
I’m enjoying these posts, Kelly. Thank you! I’m reading Wheat Belly right now.
Linda says
Kelly, very good post. As you may recall, I’ve been low carbing too. Mostly that means cutting back on eating bread. I find that I don’t want to eliminate grains entirely. I’m going to print this post & comments to refer back to. I’m also going to check out her sprouted grains.
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
Magnesium is a huge issue. I struggled with deficiency (I believe) post-pregnancy for a couple months. I would crave grains sometimes, and chocolate with nuts (both rich sources of magnesium). I think our diets are generally very deficient in it. Magnesium-rich herbs taken as teas are also good.
After 18 months mostly grain-free we are going back to grains, though still limiting them. We’ll never go back to plates of pasta for dinner, but we might have a little on the side. As long as we get a good balance of fat, protein, and carbs we do okay now.
Orrie says
Yes, magnesium is critical for many body functions. Most people are deficient. It can get confusing about which type to take and how much as there can be negative digestive ramifications.
However, the best way I’ve found to up magnesium “intake” is to use magnesium oil! You simply rub on a several drops; feet, legs, arms, etc.
Leave it on for a half hour for absorption and then rinse/take a shower.
Also, it works great if you have RLS (restless leg) or sleeping problems.
It totally bypasses the digestive tract and simply goes into the body where it is needed.
Heather@Food Ponderings says
I tend to stay away from grains, though I have been doing rather badly with that lately, just eating lots of GF stuff which honestly hasn’t been doing me any favors in the digestion department either. But I have noticed that I had some signs of magnesium deficiency also when I go too low carb.
If you look at those websites that espouse a no to low grain intake, like Mark’s Daily Apple and the Perfect Health Diet (which only allows white rice, but is otherwise very WAPF friendly), they keep bringing up the dark leafy greens, nuts and SWEET POTATOES. Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of magnesium, and for those of us who want to stay away from grains altogether, but not be ZLC or VLC, it’s a wonderfully delicious food to add to our meals.
Crystal says
Thanks Cheeseslave for mentioning your experience. I’ve realized recently that with proper diet, people shouldn’t smell ‘off.’ I couldn’t figure out what I am consuming that would make me have an odor only on certain days. My second issue is a long standing problem with constipation and hemorrhoids. I drink coffee 5x per wk… Could this be the cause.
Tiffany@ The Coconut Mama says
Thank you Kelly and Peggy (and CHEESESLAVE), for your input on this subject!
I’ve been very confused about grains (gluten grains in particular), for a long time. I read a lot of blogs and have read many books on this subject. So many different opinions out there!
For now, I’ve come to the conclusion that its okay for my family to eat wheat in the form of sprouted grain bread occasionally, but I really like mixing up the different types of grains we eat the rest of the time. I do a lot of baking with sprouted quinoa, brown rice, amaranth, buckwheat and millet. I also like to bake with coconut flour when I want to take a break from grains or to give myself a break from soaking and sprouting.
Thanks for taking the time to research this topic, Kelly! I look forward to reading your next (and final?) post on the subject!
Ann Marie @ CHEESESLAVE says
Hi, Kelly! Thanks for this post.
I am a big fan of To Your Health Sprouted Flour and have been a customer of Peggy’s for a few years now. For the most part, I find it a lot easier and more convenient to buy her sprouted grains than soaking grains. I have been buying the sprouted wheat and spelt flour, sprouted cornmeal, and sprouted brown rice. I also just bought the raw sprouted oats the other day and just ordered my oat flaker — I cannot wait to try making freshly rolled oatmeal!
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to this subject lately, as you have (and we’ve had some good talks on the phone about it).
I have not yet Wheat Belly yet but I will go ahead and download right now it to my iPad so I can read it.
One of the biggest concerns to me is magnesium. I recently discovered that I am magnesium deficient. Partly this was due to drinking wine and eating sweets every night (both “waste” magnesium). But I think it also has to do with the fact that I have been eating more “low carb” and cutting out whole grains.
The fact is, whole grains that are sprouted or soaked are one of the very best sources of magnesium in our diet. Sprouted whole wheat or brown rice is very rich in magnesium. (White rice and white flour do not have it.) If you’re not eating whole grains, you’ll need to eat other sources of magnesium, like kelp and other sea vegetables, nettles and/or dandelion, and soaked beans, nuts and seeds. If you don’t eat a lot of these foods, it’s important to supplement.
We also need more magnesium if we are eating a diet rich in saturated fats (as most of us are). Caffeine and other drugs also “waste” magnesium.
I was avoiding whole grains and nuts and seeds due to the carbs. Magnesium deficiency contributed to my hypoglycemia, which in turn caused insomnia and adrenal exhaustion. It’s a vicious cycle!
Since I’ve been eating more soaked/sprouted whole grains and supplementing with magnesium in the past week or so, I’m seeing amazing results. My insomnia is almost completely gone. I still have low blood sugar but I’m making sure I eat every 2-3 hours (magnesium deficiency is also related to low blood sugar and diabetes).
Also, I’ve had two other neat results. (1) My bowel movements are so much better! They were good before but now they are PERFECT. (2) My body odor has completely disappeared. I didn’t have a lot of body odor before but I always felt uncomfortable without deodorant, especially on hot days. I’m not wearing any deodorant now and there is NO smell.
Anyway sorry to write a novel here. I’m fascinated by this. I’m working on a post about magnesium deficiency — it will go up on my blog in the next day or two.
Curious to hear what others have to share.
Merry Lynn says
SEVERAL lightbulbs went on while reading Ann Marie’s post. Your narrative describes me perfectly. I just hadn’t put those particular elements together. You said you have been taking magnesium supplements and are feeling markedly better? Which form, which brand and how much? If you don’t mind sharing. :o) I would be sooo grateful. THANKS!!!!!!
Ann Marie @ CHEESESLAVE says
I am working on the post now. Will try to get it up today (it’s long). I’ll discuss types of supplements in the post. If you have a damaged gut, the best form of magnesium supplement is magnesium oil which is transdermal. Oral supplements can be hard to digest.
Jenny says
You can take epson salts through the skin as well…just dissolve in water. Magnesium oil isn’t bad…just significantly more expensive. Personally, I use gelatin capsules and make my own pills.
If you are hypothyroid, you body doesn’t retain magnesium and potassium….even if you are getting a good amount in the diet. Coffee contains lots of beneficial nutrients, it doesn’t CAUSE magnesium deficiency, but not being able to handle it is a SYMPTOM of magnesium deficiency.
Grains are starch, PUFAS, lectin and phytates (varies depending on type and processing) vitamins and minerals and a small amount of storage form protein.
Soaking/Spouting can convert some of the starch into sugar and make the protein more available, but it won’t affect the PUFAs or minerals. CHEWING can also convert starches (but who is willing to chew that long?) The biggest issue to a healthy person (no leaky gut issues) is the damage caused by PUFAs. Saturated fat is protective if it’s at least 50% of the meal. So yeah, bread and lots of butter isn’t a bad thing…but bread and margarine…or even bread and olive oil isn’t…protectively speaking.
For those that have any kind of inflammation issues, a potato contains tons of potassium and magnesium and egg quality protein and is actually half sugars and half starch (which can be reduced even further by long cooking…like for mashed potatoes or potato soup)….without the damage potential of the PUFAs.
Beets and most other root crops are excellent alternatives as sources of minerals without PUFAs.
Linda says
Ann Marie, does this mean you won’t use an deodorant at all? I’ve been using coconut oil and baking soda. My hubby is still using nasty sore bought deodorant. I’m thinking of asking him to try just baking soda over the weekend and see how that works for him. I think it’s interesting that you don’t need it at all.
Ann Marie @ CHEESESLAVE says
I am not using any deodorant.
If you want to stay dry, a powder puff with some cornstarch works great. Baking soda is too abrasive for me.
I also put coconut oil on but am finding it is just not necessary — no more odor.