Sample Essay: Healthy Eating – White Flour

FLOUR AS A SOURCE OF NUTRITION??

Flour is an essential element of our daily life food products. Flour is a powder made from grinding wheat. Even though white flour is plentiful and cheaper, white flour is a poor choice for the human body because nutritional experts and medical data prove it. Flour has many kinds, and people all across the world consume floor in different forms, whether it is bread, cake, pasta, pastries, pizza or even in the form on Nan in eastern countries such as India. The availability and pricing of floor have always been major political and economic issues throughout the world as people consider flour as one of their basic requirements. Most flour in the U.S. is grown in the great plains of southern states. The most commonly used is red winter wheat. The process used by manufacturers today is roller milled. This process crushes the grain, which destroys the protein and vitamins. In the middle Ages refined flour was used by nobility, thus white flour began to be associated with wealth and status. White flour became available to the middle class Americans in 1870′s which lead to too many digestive disorders (dyspeptics). The history of flour is very old, and flour has been utilized by mankind since prehistoric times. Wheat goes through five stringent cleaning processes and is separated by grades. “Flour intended for baking bread is made from hard flour (containing 11-18% protein) it has more gluten allowing it to rise. Soft flour (containing 8-11% protein) is used for baking cakes and pastry”. Before wheat goes through the milling process to become flour, it goes through a cleaning and conditioning process to remove foreign material, poor quality grains, and or any infested kernels. The process is done with a verity of machines that uses air currents, magnets and screens to remove contaminants and the wheat from the chaff. Kernel size, friability, dimension, and density under impact are all qualities that can be exploited to effect separation.

Once upon a time many Americans believed food manufacturers of the country were keen to provide the consumers with nutrient enriched food, and it was at their best interest. However, this all changed with the increasing number of criticism that started to arise from all corners including media sources. Various documentaries began reporting on food manufacturer’s production practices and nutritional flaws in the manufacturing processes. Majority of the population in United States consumes wheat in the forms of bread. The bread itself goes through a manufacturing process, where the bread is bleached in chemicals resulting in loss of essential nutrients. “Two very important parts of wheat “Bran” and “Germ” are also removed during the manufacturing process which results in loss of almost every single bit of Vitamin E, and consumers end up getting poor quality protein and fattening starch”. Recent studies conducted by the “National Institute of health” shows that when companies claim to have refined the flour, most of the basic nutrition in flour is lost. To be precise 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. There are four nutrients that are added back later in the refining process, however the consumer loses fifteen essential elements. Even thought white flour is plentiful and cheaper, white flour is a poor choice for the human body because the lack of nutrients is harmful for human health.

White flour is nothing but starch; it has great baking qualities and has almost no nutritional qualities. As we know by now, that the refining process eliminates many essential nutrients from the white flour and adds some unwanted forms of protein and starch so that they can label something under the nutrients section of their packaging. Nature produces the food in a very organized manner from its first bud to the final ready to eat form. Since thousands of years, the mankind has been eating non-refined flour which was more nutritious as compared to today’s refined flour. “There are some nutrients present in unrefined flour which are very helpful in tackling chronic diseases such as Cancer”. [Andrew W. Saul, Fire Your Doctor- How to be independently Healthy, Pp 35, ISBN 1591201381]

Wheat flour on the other hand is more nutritious than white flour. The whole wheat flour uses bran, germ, and endosperm however the white flour uses the endosperm only. In the preparation of wheat flour none of the nutrients are lost and therefore it can be considered as a better form of flour. One cup of Wheat flour includes “400 calories, 85 grams of carbohydrates, 16 grams of protein, 120 grams of weight, 2 grams fat, and 0.3 grams of saturated fats”. Whole wheat can be considered as very good source Calcium, Iron, fiber and other minerals like selenium. [Nutrition Fact and analysis, Retrieved on February 9, 2008 from website: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c21Ue.html]

The refined flour is not only less in nutrients but health disorders are among its other disadvantage. Simple sugar and refined carbohydrates require very less metabolism and therefore enter the blood stream very quickly. This causes the body to react in a different manner. First of all the Pancreas, the organ that regulates the amount of insulin released in the body is not able to deal with the heavy amount of sugar intake. Therefore, it releases more insulin into the body. This insulin includes sugar and starches. Secondly, “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”. [U.S department of Health]Sugar increases weight, which causes chronic diseases. If two groups are fed the same amount of calories in a day, group one takes its calories in sugar and refined products, and the other group takes its calories in fruits, vegetables and nuts we see that the group which consumes more amount of sugar and refined products gains more weight as compared to the second group. A breads level of sodium is 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.

“Sugar consumption has risen 1,500 percent in the last 200 years.  Today, the average American consumes 150 pounds of sugar a year compared to the 12 pounds consumed in the early 1800s”. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that is equal to 52 teaspoonfuls of added sugars per person per day. The U.S government is putting greater emphasis on the diets and dietary patterns now, it is time we educate our selves about the intake of certain foods and their side effects. Today is the time we realize how certain foods add to the miseries of a nation and find alternatives for it. When we consider white flour responsible for the weight gain we can also get alternatives such as Wheat flour and Rice Flour as alternatives. Complete wheat flour is more nutritious than white flour as mention earlier in this paper. The rice flour on the other hand is already used in great quantities in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, and other Middle Eastern countries.  These alternatives are high in nutrients and do have qualities to be the perfect substitute for white flour. White flour can be substituted with many other kinds of flours such as wheat flour, rice flour and so on. Wheat flour can be considered as best alternative for white flour because it is not much different is taste, yet it provides the consumer with all the essential nutrients required by a human body. Grinding wheat flour at home can also be a good option incase of unavailability [Marye Audet, Grind Whole Wheat Flour at home, and Retrieved on February 9, 2008 from website: http://hubpages.com/hub/Grind-flour]

It can be concluded that refined flour is not a very healthy food component and it may lead to obesity, cardiac diseases and many other chronic diseases as well. It is time we take responsibility to change the future. It usually takes up to 200 generations to adapt a certain change in the dietary patterns and right now our generation is not ready for this kind of change. Technology can be a blessing and can cause serious hazards as well; in this case the refining of flours is not only playing with our lives but also playing with the nature. The next time flour is purchased for the family pay close attention to the ingredients in it. Doing so will improve your health and that of those you love. We must take responsibility for our own health. If we don’t, who will? If this attitude is adapted by majority of people living all over the globe, we can and we will change the way things are done for the betterment of humanity.

REFERENCES

http://www.answers.com/topic/whole-wheat-flour-1

Nutrition Fact and analysis, Retrieved on February 9, 2008 from the website listed: http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c21Ue.html

strong>Marye Audet, Grind Whole Wheat flour at home, Hub Pages website : http://hubpages.com/hub/Grind-flour

Fire your doctor- how to be independently healthy?, Andrew D. Saul, Published 2005,Basic Health Publication Inc, ISBN 1591201381

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Fire your doctor- how to be independently healthy?, Andrew D. Saul, Published 2005,Basic Health Publication Inc, ISBN 1591201381