Hoxsey Cancer Diet Blog

Whole grain flour is flour that is unbleached, unbromated, and unenriched.  But what does all that mean?

Unbleached seems fairly obvious but I found it shocking nonetheless.  Bleached flour is just that, bleached.  Companies add benzoyl peroxide or chlorine dioxide to chemically whiten, or bleach, their flour.  It’s crazy to think that we’re actually eating something that has been treated with benzoyl peroxide (which you man recognize as an ingredient of acne crème) and chlorine dioxide (the same kind of stuff you use in the laundry or the pool). 

Unbromated flour was another revelation.  Unbromated means potassium bromide hasn’t been added to your flour.  Some companies add potassium bromate to add stability to the flour.  Potassium bromate is a suspected carcinogen that has been banned from food products in Europe, Japan, and Canada. Food in California that contains potassium bromate must bear a warning label.  Once again, it’s amazing to me that these kinds of things are added to our food.

Unenriched means that nutrients aren’t added back into the flour.  You might think having the nutrients added back in is a good idea.  However, the only reason flour has to have nutrients added back in is because all of the nutrients are removed during the milling process.  The other problem is that most of the nutrients that are added back into the flour are synthetic. 

You might see white flour that is unbleached, unbromated, and unenriched.  Flour that is unbleached, unbromated, and unenriched is basically straight starch.  The bran, germ, and endosperm are all removed, leaving just starch.  You loose about 50% of all calcium, 70% of phosphorus, 80% iron, 98% magnesium, 75% manganese, 50% potassium, and 65% of copper is destroyed.  About 80% thiamin, 60% of riboflavin, 75% of niacin, 50% of pantothenic acid, and about 50% of Pyridoxine is also lost. 

Probably the worst loss caused by processed flour is the fiber.  Most of us don’t get enough anyway; eating bleached, enriched, bromated flour doesn’t do us any favors on the fiber front.

The ideal kind of flour is whole grain.  That means the entire grain is ground and kept together to provide a nutritious, hardy flour that tastes great and is great for you.

Some breads that are legal on the Hoxsey Diet are Ezekiel 4:9 bread.  It comes in different flavors and is carried by most health food stores and even some regular grocery stores.  As always, please read the label… manufacturers sometimes change ingredients on me and I don’t want to recommend something without you checking on it!

Another great bread is made by French Meadows Bakery.  They have several different types of bread (bagels, tortillas, rolls, pizza crusts) that are made from whole grain spelt which is a fantastic alternative to wheat.

Tags: , Hoxsey Diet, whole grain flour, whole grains

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Bread, Food Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.