Is there any added nutritional value in Whole wheat flour?
I am looking at this issue from both quality and quantity perspectives. Maybe someone with nutritional background can address these points:
Quality: Rose Levi Beranbaum appears to have made an extensive research in her book “the bread bible” so I feel comfortable quoting her (p. 545) “when baking bread with flour ground from the whole wheat grain, it is necessary for the germ to still be alive when ground to make bread with good texture and flavor. The germ is viable for only a few weeks after grinding, which is why whole wheat flour over six weeks old is no longer good for baking bread”.
If this is true, all store bought whole wheat flours (and separately bought wheat germ) past their 6 weeks due date way before we even made the purchase. Grinding at home is a next level that at least for me is not viable.
Quantity: a whole grain contains about 2.5% germ. The FDA defines RACC (reference amounts customarily consumed) as 50 gram – so a person eats about 50 gram of bread in one sitting. 50 grams of 100% whole wheat bread with 66% hydration contain 30 grams of flour and therefore only 0.75 gram of germ. This is such a small amount that even if the quality of the germ is good it might not have any real nutritional impact. It is interesting that Bob’s red mill define the germ serving size as 11 gram, which are actually about 15 servings of 100% whole wheat bread according to the RACC.
So my conclusion (which might be wrong) is that it is better to buy white bread flour since it has longer shelf life than whole wheat and to add a large amount of separately bought germ, hoping it is fresh enough.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=101.12
https://www.bobsredmill.com/wheat-germ.html
... the right answer to this question. It's highly unlikely that the right answer even exists, because people's aims and preferences are different.
If you find an answer that brings the results you want, then it's your right answer for today, and that's the best you can get.
Grind you own whole grain flour, and use it within a day or two. That's what I am doing.
David
... that grinding his own is not right for him, at least not now.
See? No right answer. Lots of right answers instead. ?
I would question a lot of this.
In the quote, what is the definition of "viable" and "good". It is the oils in the germ that we hanker after and if oil degrades over months, not weeks, then what new knowledge/research is she bringing in here?
I eat much more than 50g of bread in a sitting! My son is 4 and he eats almost 50g in a meal. I know I love carb, but I don't think I'm overeating tremendously when I have 100g or sometimes more in a serving.
I've been sifting wholewheat flour recently for recipes. Using a Shipton Mill very coarse stoneground flour I can get 20%+ 'bran' out with a normal household sieve. Even if there was some white in that, it is still a LOT more than 2.5%.
After many years of health and pleasure seeking, I agree with the above commented idea of 'your truth'. We find what we can and we do what we can with that. I trust my tastebuds, my enthusiasm and my instinct. I'm moving towards a home-mill. Until I get there I'll buy the best flour I can, store it for only a short time and make 100% wholemeal loaves.
looking at volume can be misleading. bran is 14.5% by weight, germ is 2.5%. see link below:
http://californiawheat.org/industry/diagram-of-wheat-kernel/
I see! Useful to know. I still want my bran and germ...my body and tastebuds like it that way.
Beranbaum seems to be talking about texture and flavor rather than nutritional content there. On nutrition, the bran is useful as well as the germ, and I doubt the germ loses all its nutritional value as the flour sits.
From a texture/flavor point of view, whole wheat flour can absolutely go rancid because of its oil. Fresh is good. I buy a pound or two at a time from a grocery store that sells a really tasty variety in bulk. You can generally just smell it and tell how fresh it is. I'd really be guided by how it tastes in the loaf. Another option is to freeze whole wheat flour.
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