The kernel of wheat is perfectly designed to store nutrients inside. The germ contains the richest source of vitamin E. Once broken, as in milling, the nutrients immediately begin to oxidize. In approximately 72 hours, 90% of over 30 nutrients are virtually gone.
Prior to 1900's most flour was milled locally and the bread baked at home. Since the flour could not be stored, only enough grain was ground fresh each day to meet the needs of the community.
In the 1920's new technology allowed enterprising millers to separate the wheat components. By removing the germ, germ oil, and the bran, the remaining white flour can be stored indefinitely.
The new milling process to remove the "by-products" of the wheat, allowed the bran and the germ to be sold as high protein food supplements for cattle. The process stripped away the B Vitamins as well as 24 other nutrients from the wheat kernel. People developed beriberi and pellagra which was a direct result of the lack of B vitamins.
Instead of losing the lucrative market, millers chose to enrich the flour. Therefore the white flour was enriched by replacing 4 of the 24 vitamins and nutrients. Enriching solved the problem of beriberi and pellagra, but now other diseases are directly related to consumption of white flour...i.e. appendicitis, diverticula disease, hiatal hernia, heart disease, diabetes, obesity and more.
Many foods we eat are literally making us sick because they are devoid of the fiber and natural nutrients that are essential to our health. Food that has been over processed, under enriched, and literally digested and reshaped for our consumption.
