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The Benefits of Whole Grains Baking

One of the most obvious benefits of baking/cooking with whole grains is the taste. I can guarantee that once you have used fresh flour in your baking the store bought stuff will taste stale to you! So will all the products made with the "processed" flour...stale..stale...stale! Grains have been referred to as the perfect food! Whole grains contain the majority of basic nutrients essential for life. Grain also has the capacity to reproduce itself over and over again. Grain can be stored and transported without damage or spoilage. Some grains have actually been found in ancient tombs and were able to be sprouted and reproduced even after thousands of years. Wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, rice and corn have been dated back to sometime around 12,000 BC.

Let's first start with anatomy of the grain. Basically the grain is composed of the bran, endosperm and the germ layers. Please note there are many layers within these layers each with there own specific functions. For the sake of simplicity I will list links at the end so you can read more about each layer and it's significance. The most significance in milling your own flour vs. using store bought flour is the nutritional content. The commercial millers remove the outer bran and germ layers of the grain. Unfortunately this is where 90% of the nutrients are found. So in essence the commercial millers are stripping the grain of it's life sustaining capabilities and thus leaving the consumer with not much more than gluten and starch. Refining flour means taking out the nutrients and fiber not to mention the phytochemicals and many other life sustaining elements we are just discovering. They do this to make the product (flour) more marketable by allowing it to last longer for shipping, storing and ultimately sitting on the store shelves. Sometimes it is chemically bleached for nothing other than making it look "prettier" to the consumer. Boy, have we ever been taken advantage of! The commercial companies would then "enrich" their flour. Enrichment is so partial it's just a joke! Enriching flour does add a few (maybe 2-4) of the original over 20 vitamins and minerals they've removed. Enriching does nothing to replace the fiber, protein and phytochemicals! They ONLY way to get truly fresh whole grain flour it to mill it yourself! Even health food stores that claim to sell freshly milled flour have to be evaluated. Remember freshly milled flour can also lose it's nutrients via oxidation. This is said to occur within 72 hours. It is best to use flour immediately after milling. The next best way to store your flour is to freeze it. This will slow down the oxidation process.
It's a shame that in our new diet fad of low carb diets that many people have cut out breads, pastas, etc. If they only knew that the store bought counterparts ARE void in nutrients/fiber/phytochemicals and all of the good things for our bodies. They DO increase insulin levels and are probably responsible for all they are accused of. But using whole grains to make your breads, pastas and other goodies act a totally different way in our bodies.
While throughout the years the food industry and scientists usually not only changed their mind frequently but would also be contradictory to themselves and each other there is one thing they did agree on. The Scientists and the Food Industry all seem to agree that whole foods like grains, seeds, vegetables and nuts were designed to provide our bodies with the right nutrients, in the right combinations and with the exact chemical make-up that our bodies can absorb what it needs and the correct amount of fiber to flush out toxins we don't need. When you have something that good why mess with it! Please check out these links for specific nutritional analysis. Please feel free to email us with your favorite links regarding using whole grains. The Whole Grain Guide