Wheat Info

Parts of the Wheat Kernel

 

Three layers: [plant chart]

1. Bran – the outside layer where most of the fiber exists

2. Germ – the inside embryo of the wheat kernel, where many nutrients and essential fatty acids are found. Vit. E (richest source: warts, monthly cycle). Oil that goes rancid. Need 44 nutrients; wheat has 40! (Vit. A, C, D, fatty acid).

3. Endosperm – starchy middle layer containing many different proteins. Where white flour comes from. Gluten:

   1. Produced when two important proteins (gliadin and glutenin) in the endosperm come in contact with water and heat, followed by aggressive mixing, and “grab” the water and each other to form strong elastic strands. These bubble gum-like sheets are called gluten.

   2. Gives elasticity and strength to baked goods, making it easier for the flour to build up a tough structure to trap the waste carbon dioxide gases of yeast during the kneading & leavening processes without developing large air pockets. This allows the dough to rise effectively.

   3. Different types of flour contain different amounts of protein. The protein content of any given type of flour determines how tender, strong, elastic, stretchy, pliable, etc. the dough is that you make with it, and also the texture of the finished bread, waffle, cookie, croissant, etc. The amount of available gluten-forming proteins increase as the protein levels of the flour increase.

   4. In chemically leavened products (eg. Baking powder), we do not want gluten formation. That is why we use low-protein wheat (soft wheat). Less gluten produces a lighter, less chewier texture desired in tender pastries, like cakes and pie crusts and biscuits. Structure and strength of soft wheats is measured, not by gluten quality or quantity, but by moisture retention, an important soft wheat flour characteristic.

   5. All wheat flours are best with low alpha-amylase activity, because alpha amylase turns starch to sugar and prevents development of proper dough characteristics.

“Whole grain” refers to the grain before it has been milled into flour, which contains the bran, germ and endosperm. (Whole-wheat flour is whole-grain wheat flour.) The high nutrition in the grain exists only when these three are intact. When milled, oxidation takes place: lose 45% nutrients in 1^st day, lost 90% of nutrients by 3^rd day! (Vit. E first to go).

Whole wheat in store has protein and fiber, but no minerals and vitamins.

 

How White Flour is Made

 

Mechanism

Flour was originally produced by grinding grains between large stones. The final product, 100 percent stone-ground whole-wheat flour, contained everything that was in the grain, including the germ, fiber, starch and a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. There is no heat build up, so all the nutrients stay intact as the four is made. However, this was a relatively slow process. Without refrigeration or chemical preservatives, fresh stone-ground flour spoils quickly. After wheat has been ground, natural wheat-germ oil becomes rancid at about the same rate that milk becomes sour.

Technology’s answer to these issues has to apply faster, hotter and more aggressive processing. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the kernels were ground by a large mill with steel hammers or rollers. It was very efficient but the steel surfaces heated up with the high speed and volume of wheat being ground, causing some of the vitamins to be destroyed during the grinding process.

 

Sifting

As well, the steel roller mills separated the endosperm from the bran and germ, hence keeping the white flour (the refined and ground endosperm) from spoiling. Removed 25-30 vitamins and minerals! Even whole wheat flour is compromised during the modern milling process (High-speed mills reach 400’F, which destroys vital nutrients and creates rancidity in the bran and the germ. Vitamin E in the germ is destroyed, a real tragedy because whole wheat used to be our most readily available source of vitamin E.)

Take the “waste product”—the most nutritious part of the grain—is sold as “byproducts” for animals. New Zealand lady ask miller: process (take out bran & germ), what do with it (cattle), reverse products (cows die!)

 

Enriching

Beriberi (nervous vit. B deficiency) and pelegra (GI disorder), so put 4 (synthetic) vitamins back in (niacin, riboflavin, thiamin and iron) and call it enriched! [“Enriched flour contains vitamins and nutrients that have been added to offset the loss from the grinding and aging of flour.”] Like saying I will steal $25 and enrich you by giving you back $1! Some flour brands will also contain additional vitamin A, C, and D; and vit. E is often added to bleached wheat. However, when this flour is used in cold cereals, for example, the high temperatures and high pressures to make them create additional toxic components and further destroy nutrients—even the synthetic vitamin.

 

B&B (Bleaching & Bromating)

Bleaching can be accomplished by aging the flour for 10 days—10% nutrients now left! (the oxidation of the flour causes the yellow pigments to white)—which is more expensive due to the time required–or speeding up the natural whitening process through a chemical means (usually chlorine dioxide and potassium bromade). The aging process removes some of the vitamin E in wheat.

Bromated flour has a maturing agent added—usually bromate–that helps with developing gluten (a role similar to the bleaching agents). Bromated flour has been banned in much of the world, but remains available in the United States.

 

Chemicals

Then if that is not enough, chemical preservatives are added so bread can be shipped long distances and remain on the shelf for many days without spoiling and without refrigeration. Dough conditioners are added, as well as toxic ingredients like partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and soy flour (which is loaded with antinutrients and is added to most brand-name breads to improve rise and prevent sticking.)

 

 

 

So white bread, biscuits, and cakes made from white flour and sugars became mainstays in the diets of industrialized nations, and people forgot how real bread and baked goods should taste, becoming so accustomed “to the mass-produced, gooey, devitalized, and nutritionally deficient breads and baked goods.” (Resulted in tooth decay, fertility problems, mental health and disease progression).

1900 — #1 healthiest nation in world

1910 — widescale white flour (“rich man’s flour”)

1920 — 2^nd healthiest nation

1980 — 95^th healthiest nation (rich man’s diseases—see CD)

 

Fiber

 

Why so sick? Flour devoid of nutrients AND fiber

Insoluble (soluble in fruits and veggies)

1. Jobs

   1. Main job = regulates water into the colon

   2. Draws toxins and carcigenians to itself

2. Process

   1. Food to stomach and to intestines.

   2. Colon – nutrients go back into the body

      1. Water comes in, fiber absorbs it like a sponge, increases bulk, causes colon to squeeze and you eliminate

      2. Good bacteria in colon, which feeds on insoluble fiber (colon is place where keep disease under control) – yogurt, raw milk.

      3. Fiber scrubs walls of colon.

3. HOWEVER, if no fiber

   1. Water comes in, nothing to absorb it so water exits and waste sits there and backs up.

   2. Toxins reabsorb

      1. Waste not get out, SO

      2. Secondary elimination system = NOSE! (runny nose, allergies, sinus; then take stuff to stop runny nose!)

      3. Where can toxins escape???? Tonsils then kick in

 

Just adding freshly milled whole wheat to your diet can do wonders. In Fall session:

2 off constipation medicine (Venita & Debbie A.)

2 more energy (Venita and Donna)

Not hungry (Audie)

Acid reflux (Israel, & Venita off medication)

Warts (David & others: 500 on one!) – allows body to fight the viral disease

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wheat Berry Divisions

 

Almost 30,000 varieties of wheat. Divided according to their planting schedule and the protein-to-starch ratio in the endosperm.

1. Hard red winter

2. Hard red spring

3. Hard white spring

4. Durum

5. Soft red winter

6. Soft white winter

 

Winter or Spring?

1. Winter wheat – Hardy, so planted in Fall, green dormant stage in Winter, & shoots up the next spring to be harvested early in the summer (June-July). Grown in milder climates.

2. Spring wheat – planted in Spring in colder, northern climates, and harvested late in the summer.

Most wheat grown is winter wheat (spring wheat yields are significantly lower).

 

Hard or Soft?

Texture of the Endosperm:

1.  

   1. Degree of bonding between the starch and protein

   2. How the endosperm breaks down in the milling process

      1. Hard textured grains (which have less starch and more protein) require more grinding energy to reduce endosperm into flour.

      2. During this milling process a larger number of starch granules become physically damaged.

      3. Damaged starch granules absorb more water than undamaged granules (and the water is what the protein absorbs to produce gluten).

It was also stated that the hardness of the outside kernel of the ripened grain determines whether it is hard or soft. Not quite sure about this. hardness – The hardness of the outside kernel of the ripened grain:

 

Red or White?

The color of the bran determines if it is red or white.

 

Types of Wheat Berries

1. Hard Wheat – higher protein and gluten levels, making it more elastic and the best choice for making breads. It will produce a large loaf volume, good crumb structure (lighter and more porous texture) and good keeping qualities. The coarse, gritty flour falls into separate particles if shaken in the hand.

   1. Red – both winter and spring is usually higher in protein than other wheat flours, with the spring begin the highest protein wheat. Hard red wheat accounts for more than 40% of the U.S. wheat crop and half of U.S. wheat exports. Bronze Chief is a hard red spring berry containing 15-17% protein and 9.5-10.5% moisture (amount of moisture/water in the flour, which millers add to the wheat to assist the milling process).

   2. White – closely related to red wheat, except for color, in milling and baking qualities. However, it offers a milder, sweeter flavor. It is the newest class of wheat to be grown in the United States. Prairie Gold is a hard white spring kernel containing 15-17% protein and 9.5-10.5% moisture.

2. Soft Wheat – lower protein levels and more starch. The less gluten results in less elasticity and a more tender crumb, making it the best choice for biscuits, cakes, cookies, pastries, and piecrusts. (It makes a more tender cake because it holds more moisture.) It produces a very fine flour that clumps a bit and tends to hold its shape if pressed together, and that feels smooth like talcum powder.

   1. Red winter – has a low to medium protein content.

   2. White winter – has a low protein content. Provides a whiter product for bakery products other than breads (although it is ideally suited to Middle Eastern flatbreads). Soft white wheat contains 7 to 8% protein and 13% moisture content.

Pastry flour is a type of soft wheat which has an 8-9% protein content. Recommended for piecrusts, it lets you create baked goods with a little body and texture but still with the tenderness we associate with a well-made biscuit or pastry. However, baked goods may tend to crumble because of the low gluten content. It is soft and ivory in color.

1. Durum – hardest of all U.S. wheats and has the highest protein content and the highest gluten content of all mass produced wheat flours. It is milled to produce semolina flour for pastas, and it is also commonly used to make Indian flatbreads. It is a spring wheat, and may be either white or red.

 

Wheat’s Distant Cousins

 

Spelt

One of the oldest cultivated grains. There are few differences between hard red wheat and Canadian spelt. Modern wheat has been altered over the years through breeding to simplify its growth and harvesting, increase its yield and raise its gluten content for the production of commercial baked goods–all of which has rendered modern wheat more difficult to digest. Spelt, on the other hand, has not been as popular in our food supply and has therefore retained many of its original traits; thus, it may be easier for humans to digest than wheat.

Kamut

An ancient relative of durum wheat. (“Kamut” is actually an ancient word for wheat.) Similar to spelt, this grain has been untouched by modern plant-breeding techniques that have been imposed on wheat.

 

 

 

Wheat flour is highly explosive when airborne. In medieval flour mills candles, lamps, or other burning substances were forbidden.