Whole Wheat

We would all be much healthier if we ate like they did hundreds of years ago, growing their own wheat, grinding it, making their own bread. With everything processed and refined these days we are really doing damage to our health.

White flour is wheat that has been subjected to the refining process, which basically removes the bran and the germ from the wheat, and along with it most of the nutrients (including all of the fiber).

White flour has been shown to increase your risk of type 2 diabetes (because it has a high glycemic index which affects blood sugar in unhealthy ways, similar to just eating a spoonful of white sugar). It also raises your levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) causing heart disease. It’s been adversely linked to colon health because of the lack of fiber, which can lead to Crohn’s disease, IBS, and colon cancer. And it’s associated with excess fat, especially around your middle (true story, I’m not making this up). It makes you feel sluggish and less inclined to want to exercise. I have experienced this, but I also read it so I swear it’s not just my opinion.

Eating whole grains has the opposite effect, decreasing your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and colon cancer. People who eat whole grains weigh less. It also lessens chronic inflammation, helps prevent gallstones, keeps your GI tract regular, even protects against breast cancer. (Okay, now I feel like I’m giving my breastfeeding speech, which just so happens to include a lot of the same benefits.)

There are actually more benefits listed on this site. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=66

Have I sold you yet? Are you ready to toss out your white flour? If not that’s okay. But for the sake of this competition, let me just say that once you get all your servings of whole grains/fiber for the day, you won’t have much room left for white flour. And if you are eating a whole lot of it along with everything on our list that you need to eat each day, most likely you are not going to lose weight because you’ll be getting more calories.

There is a wide selection of whole grain pastas in the stores now. There are a lot of whole grain tortillas. Of course there’s also a lot of products that claim ‘whole grains’ when they are really mostly refined flour. But I’m not going to get too nit-picky with the competition. Just do your best to choose high fiber foods for your three servings.

It’s true brown rice doesn’t taste as good as white rice. But that probably means that you won’t eat as much of it, right?

This is one of the things I gained a better understanding of from doing a competition like this. You look at food and ask what it is providing for you. Vitamins? Fiber? Calcium? Protein? Wheat bread with honey is actually good for you. Where as Nilla Wafers are just empty calories that play with your blood sugar. (But they sure are yummy :))

You can substitute whole wheat flour for white flour anywhere in your diet. I've even used it for gravy! Try it. It's awesome. I can't go back.