QUINOA AT A GLANCE: "While no single food can supply all the essential life sustaining nutrients, Quinoa comes as close as any other in the plant or animal kingdom". Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa or goosefoot) is in fact not technically a cereal grain, but is instead known as pseudo cereal. Botanically, Quinoa is related to beets, chard and spinach and in fact leaves can be eaten as well as the grains. It's Testimonial to know how far Quinoa has come in the last five years that most people now know its pronounced Keen-wah . Sacred to the Incas, Quinoa was referred to by them as chisaya mama, or the mother of all grains. Legend has it that each year Incan emperor would sow the first Quinoa seeds, with much solemn ceremony. Although it's estimated that Bolivians in the Lake Titicaca area began to cultivate Quinoa at least five thousand years ago, Quinoa came close to disappearing after 1532. That's when Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish explorer , destroyed the quinoa fields to undermine the Incan culture, built as it was on ceremonies that almost all involved Quinoa. Only small pockets of wild Quinoa at high altitudes survived, and Quinoa was largely forgotten until its rediscovery by the outside world in the 1970s. Today, an amazing range of products are made with Quinoa .from breakfast cereals to beverages. Quinoa pasta are popular among those following a gluten free diet.