By Dr. Joseph Mercola<\/a> on 05\/15\/2009<\/span> you, but most people don\u2019t know that when white flour is bleached, it It\u2019s generally understood that refining food destroys nutrients. With<\/p>\n the most nutritious part of the grain removed, white flour essentially *Half of the beneficial unsaturated fatty acids<\/p>\n And many more nutrients are destroyed — simply too many to list.<\/p>\n The Journey of the Wheat Berry<\/strong><\/p>\n Have you ever wondered how white flour is made?<\/p>\n The website Healthy Eating Politics<\/a> has an interesting article about the process.<\/p>\n Most commercial wheat production is, unfortunately, a \u201cstudy in <\/p>\n pesticide application,\u201d beginning with the seeds being treated with A whole grain of wheat, sometimes called a wheat berry, is composed of three layers<\/a>:<\/p>\n The bran is the layer where you\u2019ll find most of the fiber, and it\u2019s <\/p>\n the hard outer shell of the kernel. The germ is the nutrient-rich embryo White flour is made from the endosperm only, whereas whole-wheat flour combines all three parts of the wheat berry.<\/p>\n Old time mills ground flour slowly, but today\u2019s mills are designed White flour contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the <\/p>\n original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers having destroyed what Flour used to be aged with time, improving the gluten and thus <\/p>\n improving the baking quality. Now, it is treated with chlorine to According to Jim Bair<\/a>, Vice President of the North American Millers Association:<\/p>\n \u201cToday, the US milling industry produces about 140 million pounds of It has not been determined how many mills are bleaching flour with <\/p>\n chorine oxide, but we do know the use of chlorides for bleaching flour <\/p>\n The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines chlorine gas <\/a>as <\/p>\n The chlorine gas undergoes an oxidizing chemical reaction with some <\/p>\n Why Bleaching Makes White Flour Even Worse<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It has been shown that alloxan is a byproduct of the flour bleaching<\/strong> process, the process they use to make flour look so \u201cclean\u201d and — well, white. No, they are technically not adding <\/strong>alloxan <\/p>\n With so little food value already in a piece of white bread, now <\/p>\n So what is so bad about alloxan?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Alloxan, or C4 H2O4N2, is a product of the decomposition of uric <\/p>\n Beta cells are the primary cell type in areas of your pancreas called <\/p>\n There is no other commercial application for alloxan — it is used <\/p>\n Given the raging epidemic of diabetes and other chronic diseases in <\/p>\n Just How Much is Too Much?<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Similar to disinfection byproducts (DBPs) in water, alloxan is formed <\/p>\n So, this would suggest that perhaps 5 to 15 grams of protein per 100 grams of flour could be contaminated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Nearly everyone knows that white flour is not healthy for <\/p>\n
can actually be FAR worse for you.<\/p>\n
becomes a form of sugar. Consider what gets lost in the refining
process:<\/p>\n\n
fungicide. Once they become wheat, they are sprayed with hormones and
pesticides. Even the bins in which the harvested wheat is stored have
been coated with insecticides. If bugs appear on the wheat in storage,
they fumigate the grain.<\/p>\n\n
that will sprout into a new wheat plant. The endosperm is the largest
part of the grain (83 percent), making up most of the kernel, and it\u2019s
mostly starch.<\/p>\n
for mass-production, using high-temperature, high-speed steel rollers.
The resulting white flour is nearly all starch, and even much of today\u2019s
commercially processed whole wheat flour has lost a fair amount of
nutritional value due to these aggressive processing methods.<\/p>\n
little nutrients remain. But then it is hit with another chemical
insult–a chlorine gas bath <\/strong>(chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an \u201caging\u201d agent.<\/p>\n
instantly produce similar qualities in the flour (with a disturbing lack
of concern about adding another dose of chemicals to your food).<\/p>\n
flour each day, so there is no way to store the flour to allow it to age
naturally. Plus, there is a shelf life issue.\u201d <\/p>\n
is considered an industry standard.<\/p>\n
a flour-bleaching, aging and oxidizing agent that is a powerful
irritant, dangerous to inhale, and lethal. Other agents also used
include oxides of nitrogen, nitrosyl, and benzoyl peroxide mixed with
various chemical salts.<\/p>\n
of the proteins in the flour, producing alloxan as an unintended
byproduct. Bair and other milling industry leaders claim that bleaching
and oxidizing agents don\u2019t leave behind harmful residues in flour,
although they can cite no studies or published data to confirm this.<\/p>\n
to the flour — although you will read this bit of misinformation on
the Internet. But, they are doing chemical treatments to the grain that
result in the formation of alloxan in the flour.<\/p>\n
there is potentially a chemical poison lurking in there as well.<\/p>\n
acid. It is a poison that is used to produce diabetes in healthy
experimental animals (primarily rats and mice), so that researchers can
then study diabetes \u201ctreatments\u201d in the lab. Alloxan causes diabetes
because it spins up enormous amounts of free radicals in pancreatic beta
cells, thus destroying them.<\/p>\n
islets of Langerhans, and they produce insulin; so if those are
destroyed, you get diabetes.<\/p>\n
exclusively in the medical research industry because it is so highly
toxic.<\/p>\n
this country, can you afford to be complacent about a toxin such as this
in your bread, even if it is present in small amounts?<\/p>\n
when the chlorine reacts with certain proteins remaining in the white
flour after the bran and germ have been removed. Protein makes up
between 5 percent and 15 percent of white flour, depending on whether
it\u2019s cake flour, or high-gluten flour, such as what\u2019s used for pizza
crust or bagels.<\/p>\n