Who'll stop the Grain?

Public Health Enemy #1 is enriched white and whole wheat flours because processing magically transforms wholesome wheat essentially into sugar. Our bodies perceive bread, bagels, breakfast cereals, English muffins, and pasta as if we were eating refined granular sugar. Sprinkle flour fairy dust over adults and children and "poof", they become overweight and obese.

Unprocessed whole wheat grain contains phenolics and other body pollution cleansers known as antioxidants. But before we start separating the wheat from the chafe in terms of what's good for you, let's examine the different parts of an ear of wheat.

The outer part of the wheat kernel is the bran, which is usually ripped off during refined milling. It contains smart protein, niacin, riboflavin, magnesium, iron, and fiber, the kind of unprocessed fiber that helps fight cancer and being overweight. Supplement fiber has been shown to be ineffective in combating these conditions.The "body" of the kernel is composed of smart protein, good carbohydrates in the form of slowly absorbed and energy-providing glucose, minerals, B vitamins, and fiber.

The smallest part is the germ, and it contains omega oils, smart protein, fiber, vitamin E, riboflavin, thiamine, iron, and minerals. These three parts make whole wheat grain one of nature's most nutrient-packed medicinal foods or nutraceuticals before it's processed and put in breads, buns, cakes, cold breakfast cereals, cookies, muffins, pastas, pitas, pizza crust, rolls, snacks, and wraps we eat. The antioxidant, fiber, omega oil, smart protein, and good carbohydrate removal begins with certain milling procedures.

It's crucial that breads and baked goods be milled properly to ensure that they're nutrient-rich medicinal foods containing bioavailable or usable antioxidants. The best antioxidant-containing and overall nutrient-preserving baked goods come from stone mills because they grind slowly and in a cooler environment. Cooler grinding methods don't heat antioxidants, omegas, proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients as much, and preserve the medicinal value of the whole grains.

On the other hand, we usually buy bread, baked goods, and manufactured foods containing wheat flour that have been milled at high speeds, using cylinder or hammer mills that can generate temperatures up to 150 degrees F. This process can destroy enzymes and nutrients, cause oxidation, and change antioxidants and omegas so they permit brain- and mind-rusting as well as a long list of other medical diseases. The end result of cylinder or hammer milling can be ransacked flour that's low in antioxidants and nutrition. The resulting starch or "sugar" dust is so deficient that processed thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and iron, which in many instances have also been rendered nutritionally less useful by processing, must be added for "enrichment." Smart protein, good carbohydrates, omegas, fiber, and other lost nutrients are not re-included.

And as if that weren't enough, enriched flour is often bleached afterward with chlorine dioxide or benzoyl peroxide. And chlorine dioxide behaves just like disease- and cancer-producing free radicals. Other additives may include methyl bromide, nitrogen trichloride, and nitrogen peroxide. Here's a good general guideline: If an ingredient is difficult to pronounce, eat antioxidant-containing foods along with it, or just say no. Even manufacturers would agree that none of these chemicals have one germ of antioxidant or nutritional value.

A search of scientific literature shows no significant association between breads, pastas, or breakfast cereals made from "enriched flour" and increased antioxidant activity inside the body. This should come as no surprise, and unfortunately, if enriched flour is not part of the solution to brain- and mind-rust, Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, it may be part of the problem. To sum it up in a wheat-bran shell: With phrases like "100 percent whole wheat" and "Multigrain" added, most commercial breads, buns, cakes, cold breakfast cereals, cookies, muffins, pastas, pitas, pizza crust, rolls, snacks, and wraps may give us the misimpression that we're getting a lot more "whole grain" than we actually are.

In reality, the first listed or main ingredient in these products is either bleached enriched flour or enriched flour, and hiding behind the "whole wheat flour" ingredient façade doesn't make it more healthful. "Whole wheat flour" is most often a blend of bleached enriched flour and unbleached cylinder- or hammer-milled whole wheat flour, while the preferred first ingredient should read "100 percent stone ground whole wheat flour."

In my opinion, the use of "enriched flour" in the American diet is nothing short of a nutritional felony, especially when products made from enriched flour comprise such a large portion of the base of the food pyramid. This weakness in its foundation may eventually contribute to its collapse. In contrast, the pyramid of the future will be built on antioxidant- and omega-containing produce, legumes, nuts, and whole grains, including stone ground whole wheat flour, wild rice, and old-fashioned oatmeal.

Because cylinder- or hammer-milled flour is depleted of antioxidants and other nutrients, Psyche Nutrition Sciences has compiled original nutrient-rich recipes for breads, chips, pastas, pizza crust, rolls, buns, cakes, cookies, and baked goods, that uses flour containing 100 percent stone ground organic whole wheat, among two other antioxidant-containing ingredients, for people who can't wait for manufacturers to wake up and smell the more healthful baked goods.

 

Dr. James Cocores