fitness articles

Ugly Truths about White Flour

Highly processed white flour (alias "enriched wheat flour" or "wheat flour") is missing the two most nutritious and fiber-rich parts of the seed: the outside bran layer and the germ (embryo).

A diet of refined foods leaves many women malnourished, constipated, enervated and vulnerable to chronic illness. Popping fiber, vitamins and mineral supplements, in the hope of compensating for what's missing from our diet, will not work. For just as "enriching" refined flour with spray-on nutrients can't make up for those lost during refining, health experts say supplements can never replace whole foods.

The more refined foods a person eats, the more insulin must be produced to manage it. Insulin promotes the storage of fat, making way for rapid weight gain and elevated triglyceride levels, which can lead to heart disease. Over time, the pancreas gets so overworked that insulin production grinds to a halt, and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or diabetes sets in. Either way, the body is getting little or no fuel from the food you eat and tries to convert muscle and fat into energy.

Besides, refined/bleached flour and wheat products, is the fuel of infection and high blood sugar levels created by the consumption of these products decrease immune reservoir and response.

The constant refined sugar/refined flour intake places a continual stress on the adrenals to pump out balancing hormones. This, of course, ultimately weakens the adrenals making it harder and harder for them to respond as the "emergency system" they were created to be. When real adrenal failure sets it, you really have a problem.

White bread is "dead" bread.

Why is the color of white bread so white when the flour taken from wheat is not?

It’s because the flour used to make white bread is chemically bleached, just like you bleach your clothes. So when you are eating white bread, you are also eating residual chemical bleach. Flour mills use different chemical bleaches, all of which are pretty bad. Here are a few of them: oxide of nitrogen, chlorine, chloride, nitrosyl and benzoyl peroxide mixed with various chemical salts.

One bleaching agent, chloride oxide, combined with whatever proteins are still left in the flour, produces alloxan. Alloxon is a poison and has been used to produce diabetes in laboratory animals. Chlorine oxide destroys the vital wheat germ oil. It will also shorten the flour’s shelf life and nurture insects.

Besides, in the process of making flour white, half of the good unsaturated fatty acids, that are high in food value, are lost in the milling process alone, and virtually all the vitamin E is lost with the removal of wheat germ and bran. As a result, the remaining flour in the white bread you buy, contains only poor quality proteins and fattening starch.

But that is not the whole story as to the loss of nutrients. About 50% of all calcium, 70% of phosphorus, 80% iron, 98% magnesium, 75% manganese, 50% potassium, and 65% of copper is destroyed. If that is not bad enough, about 80% thiamin, 60% of riboflavin, 75% of niacin, 50% of pantothenic acid, and about 50% of Pyridoxine is also lost.

An eye-opener:

Simple sugars and refined carbohydrates (white flour, noodles, processed, devitalized foods, etc.) require little metabolism and enter the bloodstream rapidly. This is the "lift" phase! But oh, the crash that follows!

Strike One! The pancreas, the organ that regulates how much insulin is released into the blood, is "caught off guard" by the sudden surge of sugar. Sensing that it has more work to do than it really does, it releases too much insulin. (Insulin processes starches and sugars to keep blood sugar at an even level.)

Strike Two! The result of all this chemical "warfare" is a dramatic drop in blood sugar (usually within the hour), and a resulting feeling of lethargy, mental confusion, weakness, and false feelings of "hunger!"

Strike Three! If it could be worse, this has got to be it: Sugar causes weight gain, not merely because of its caloric content, but because it actually alters the metabolism, as well! What does this mean? This means: If two groups of people are fed the exact same number of calories, but one group takes its calories in sugar and refined products, while the other group consumes the calories in the form of whole grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, the sugar group will gain weight, while the other will not. This finding comes to us from studies published by the U.S. Department of Health.

A final note. Don't forget to check a bread's level of sodium, a prime culprit in high blood pressure. Breads range from 90-300 mg per slice. However, since size and calories per slice vary so much, an easily gauged upper limit is two milligrams of sodium per calorie.