To enrich something means to make it richer by adding good things to it. If you add some organic apple cider vinegar to your water, you’ve enriched it. Enriched white flour, then, has had lots and lots of good things added into it, so it’s good for you. Right? WRONG!
The truth is, so many of the good things that were originally in it have been stripped out through refinement that they HAD to add a little something back in. Now here’s the really scary part. What they are adding back into your flour is actually toxic!
Iron is one of the “nutrients” added back into enriched flour, except that the type of iron that is added in is not really a nutrient at all, but is considered a metallic iron. Metallic iron is obviously not available for use by the body, and was never meant to be consumed in the first place.
Enriched flour is absorbed by the body not as wheat or a grain, in which case your body could use the energy slowly and effectively, but as a starch. That is because the wheat germ has been stripped from the flour; the FDA specifically states that enriched flour cannot have greater than 5 percent wheat germ.
Enriched Flour: How It Affects Your Health
Okay, so this stuff has been stripped down and you’re left with a starch (that makes a nice paste when combined with water). How does your body react to pure starch? The same way it reacts to pure sugar! The consumption of enriched white flour or products containing enriched white flour causes your body to scream through the ride on a sugar high/low roller coaster.
Enriched white flour also makes people fatter. White flour is really nothing more than refined carbohydrates. According to a study that was referenced by Natural News, Americans are eating enough extra calories (mostly through refined carbs) to add three pounds of body fat per month to their weight. Carbs should come from unrefined sources, like fresh organic fruits and vegetables. Not from something that’s been processed and bleached and then had trace amounts of synthetic nutrients added back in so that the “industry” can sleep at night.
Alternatives to Enriched White Flour
It’s difficult to live flour-free. So many of the foods that people cook and buy are made with flour of some type and it is hard for most people to go flour-free without switching to an all-produce diet or raw food diet.
Luckily there are alternatives to enriched white flour. Popular diets demand the removal of products containing enriched white flour and call for replacement with either nothing or with whole wheat based products. Pasta and bread are the foods that most commonly contain white flour, but pay attention to what you eat because even foods like breaded chicken nuggets contain enriched flour products.
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If you can find sprouted flours these are the best.. (Always buy organic of course)
You can also buy a lot of foods that are already made without white flour, typically they are labeled as “whole grain” foods. Eating organic sprouted whole grain pastas and breads are becoming easier and easier to obtain, as America wakes up to find itself overweight and undernourished.
Whole Grain Flour vs. White Enriched Flour
- Whole grain foods are higher in fiber because the wheat germ and bran have not been processed out of them.
- Whole grain foods are digested more slowly, so you feel fuller for a longer period of time and end up eating less.
- Whole grain foods have more overall nutrients than “enriched” foods.
- Whole grains are not processed as a starch, so they don’t throw your body into a sugar dependency cycle.
Banishing enriched white flour from your diet isn’t really all that hard, after all. If you’re interested in tracking your progress or challenging others, you should! Start a 10 day no enriched white flour challenge group online-you might be surprised at the number of people who will participate! Better yet, share the challenge with your family and friends.
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