Whole Wheat vs. White Flour

Many people are quick to complain about the more wheat-y tasting versions of their favorite recipes made with whole wheat flour. But simply swapping white for whole wheat bread, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003, cuts a person’s heart disease risk by 20%. (Which is fantastic)

It’s not tricky to substitute whole wheat flour for white flour; start by using half and half and over time aim to replace all white flour called for in recipes with whole wheat flour. Companies even make whole wheat pastry flour to satisfy those needing fluffiness to their pastries; many people get used to the difference in the first few bites.

White flour is nutritionally useless, and breaks down in the body as a sugar. The body cannot tell the difference between eating a spoonful of sugar or a slice of white bread; the pancreas reacts by secreting insulin—at fat-storing hormone stimulating the appetite and slowing the metabolism. With the Western diet so full of processed foods the pancreas works overtime to balance the sugars consumed and eventually shuts down, causing low blood sugar, diabetes, and a handful of other problems.

Not only is white flour drastically less nutritious than whole wheat flour, but on top of the nutritionally worthless make-up of white flour, it is also chemically bleached. That's right, bleached. The bleaching process was invented due to, not surprisingly, money. Factories figured out they could speed up the normal aging process of flour (months) into literally days to make it ready to sell.

Flour mills add chemicals in the bleaching process such as nitrogen oxide, chlorine, chloride, benzoyl peroxide, and even potassium bromate, a known carcinogen banned in Europe, Japan, and Canada. Many European countries ban the bleaching process entirely. Except for an off-white tint, unbleached flour is identical to bleached flour in terms of cooking; many professional chefs will not use bleached flour due to the slight chemical taste in the final product many can detect.

So do you want to put something that basically has been bleached into your body?? I didn't think so.

DON'T BE FOOLED
The fact is Americans are tricked into believing so much about nutrition simply due to the money advertisers use to do so. It costs less to make white flour and use it in products, therefore advertisers make it appealing to those trying to be health conscious by printing “enriched with vitamins and minerals” on the label. However, with a simple glance to the ingredient list one can see the truth.

Aim for two grams of fiber per whole grain serving and look for the first ingredient in whole grain foods like flour, pasta, bread, and cereal to be whole wheat or whole grain. With the addition to real whole grains in the diet, people will feel the immediate effects on bowel habits and reap the long-term rewards of warding off diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and many cancers.



The same type of facts are applied to rice! White rice is also bleached!