Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Refined Grains

After talking about all the consequences processed food has on America we need to think about what is actually bad about processed food. In the next couple blogs I am going to talk about some of the  bad ingredients and processing techniques and why they are harmful. Today I will start with one word: Refinement. To refine a food is to strip it of some or all of its nutrients. When we talk about refinement we often think about refined grains. Refinement is another form of processing food. When you refine wheat the  germ and bran are stripped off resulting in the flour having a finer texture (white flour), a different taste and  a longer shelf life.

When grains are refined all that is left is the endosperm. The endosperm only contains carbohydrates, starch, protein and very small amounts of vitamins and nutrients. After the refining process a grain has lost about 25% of its original proteins and many nutrients. Below is a link to a great chart about the loss of nutrients by the Whole Grains Council:  http://wholegrainscouncil.org/files/backup_migrate/WGvsEnriched2011.pdf 
Once most of the nutrients are taken out of wheat there is not much left worth eating. As well as losing many nutrients a lot of fiber is lost in the refinement process. Below are three examples of ways that wheat is being treated. Two of them are refined wheat. 

1) Whole Grains (the grain is never refined). You want to make sure never you never confuse whole wheat bread with wheat bread. Any bread made out of refined or whole wheat flour is wheat bread because it contains wheat. Even some whole wheat breads contain unnecessary additives and preservatives. You want to read the ingredients of bread before you buy it. Ideally you would make it (I will blog about this later) but everyone does not always have time for that. 

Whole wheat bread with added seeds and grains 

Wheat before it has been ground into flour

2) Refined White Bread (germ and bran removed) 
Refined bread

3) Enriched Grains (refined grains with added nutrients).

Enriched bread

 The issue with enriched grains is when they add the nutrients back they also add other ingredients. Below is the ingredient list for Stroehmann King White Enriched Bread: 


ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR [FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, REDUCED IRON, NIACIN, THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1),RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID], WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, YEAST, SALT, SOYBEAN AND/OR CANOLA OIL,MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM PROPIONATE (PRESERVATIVE), DATEM, CALCIUM SULFATE, SOY LECITHIN, CITRIC ACID,GRAIN VINEGAR, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, WHEAT GLUTEN, AZODICARBONAMIDE, ETHOXYLATED MONO- ANDDIGLYCERIDES.


As you can see they added more than nutrients and vitamins. They added High Fructose Corn Syrup (I will blog about this later), preservatives and many other unpronounceable additives (I will blog about these later as well).   

There is a big difference between these breads. If you look at the link to the table above you will see the difference in nutrients, vitamins and proteins in these breads. This difference is very drastic. Wheat is just an example of a refined grain. The one minute rice you buy at the grocery store is
refined grain. The rice has been stripped of a lot of its fiber and nutrients.  



As you can see  written on the package this rice is enriched


When buying grains you should always be thinking about whether the food you are buying is refined. Dont let the word "Enriched" fool you. I am not saying cut it out of your diet completely and never touch anything refined again. Its all about moderation (I will blog about this later). In the recipes I will work on later I plan to find ways around refined foods and try to make  the food we enjoy unrefined and whole.  
In conclusion the best bread you could buy would be whole grain and even then you have to read the ingredients to be sure. The worst you could buy would be either enriched (weird ingredients and weird levels of nutrients), white (no nutrients left), or "wheat" (white bread labeled wheat because it is made of wheat).  


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