Cooking with Wheat 101 (Part 1)
Introduction
This post is part 1 of Cooking with Wheat 101.
It provides a definition of wheat, an overview of its history and its nutritional properties.
What is Wheat?
The wheat we know today goes by the Latin name of Triticum aestivum and it is also referred to as “common wheat”.
It is part of the larger family of cereal grasses cultivated for their edible grain.
Note: You will often see the wheat grain referred to as a wheat “berry.”
History of Wheat
When looking at the history of wheat, many titles come to mind.
I struggled to choose among the ones below:
- “The Rise, Fall and Renaissance of Wheat” (pun only half intended)
- “From Staff of Life to the Demonization of Wheat”
- “How Our Daily Wheat Bread Gradually Became Toxic and How to Get Back to Life Sustaining Wheat”
You will be able judge for yourself whether there is any exaggeration here – sadly, I don’t believe there is.
For this history overview, we will use as an outline the first title: The Rise, Fall and Renaissance of Wheat.
In addition, we will step through the many gradual changes that have turned modern conventional wheat bread into a toxic synthetic nonfood.
The historical focus is on wheat bread because that is the main form in which wheat has been consumed throughout history (especially if you consider cakes a form of bread 😉 ).
From Ancient History to the 1800s: “The Rise of Wheat“
Wheat Family Tree
While scientists don’t all agree on the origins of the wheat plant, below is a brief history with approximate timelines.
The wheat we know today, “common wheat” is considered to be an indirect descendant of a wild wheat grass plant known as einkorn wheat.
A variant of the wild einkorn did not shatter its seed as easily and that variant became domesticated einkorn (believed to have appeared around 12,000 years ago) somewhere in the middle east (opinions are varied on the exact location).
In time (around 10,000 years ago) , domesticated einkorn wheat is believed to have hybridized with wild goat grass to produce domesticated emmer wheat.
Still later in time (around 5,000 years ago), emmer wheat is believed to have hybridized yet again with another type of wild goat grass to produce common wheat and spelt wheat.
At each step of hybridization, the genetic code of the wild goat grasses was added on to the existing genetic code of the domesticated variety.
Accordingly:
Einkorn wheat is a diploid, with 2 sets of 7 chromosomes, total of 14. (AA)
Emmer wheat is a tetraploid with 4 sets of 7 chromosomes, total of 28. (AABB: AA from einkorn and BB from wild goat grass)
Common wheat is a hexaploid with 6 sets of 7 chromosomes, total of 42. (AABBDD: AABB from emmer wheat and DD from different wild goat grass)
Thanks to its more complex genetic code, common wheat can grow in a wider range of climates than its ancestors and there are around 30,000 known wheat varieties. (source)
Over time, wheat became increasingly popular because of its unique ability to rise and form risen loaves, thanks to the gluten protein it contained.
Ancient Farming and Breeding Methods
For most of its history through the 1800s, farmers were responsible for breeding the best wheat.
They would select the best of the harvest – based on taste, bread baking qualities, resistance to disease – and plant those wheat berries each year.
This created local varieties that were well adapted to their microclimates.
In many cases, wheat was planted as part of a crop and livestock rotation which gave time for the soil to be replenished and helped to manage pests and disease.
Ancient Milling Methods
For most of history, wheat was ground down with stones – either by hand, using animals or a windmill.
In all those cases, all parts of the wheat were included in the flour: the oil rich germ, the mineral and fiber rich exterior bran layer as well as the starchy inner layer, aka endosperm.
For the rich, wheat flour might be bolted – which consisted of a light sifting to remove the outer bran layer.
Even with bolting, some of the oil rich germ and bran layer would remain.
The 1800s through to the mid 1900s : “The Gradual Downfall of Wheat Bread”
Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, many changes were made to traditional wheat bread making processes in the name of efficiency and progress.
The National Cancer Institute defines toxic as “Having to do with poison or something harmful to the body. Toxic substances usually cause unwanted side effects.”
Below are 11 changes to the wheat bread making process that I believe contributed to its current toxicity.
1. Baker’s Yeast – Making Wheat Less Digestible
Baker’s yeast is the isolated strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae which helps dough rise quickly in a less acid environment than sourdough.
It became prominent in the mid to late 1800s as a replacement for the yeast and malted barley byproducts of beer making which bakers were using at the time.
This fast rising strain of yeast also replaced sourdough, a slower fermenting combination of wild yeast and acids that had been used in making bread for millennia.
Why would baker’s yeast be listed as one of the ways wheat became toxic?
Research shows us today that faster acting baker’s yeast does not break down antinutrients in wheat flour such as phytic acid and gluten as thoroughly as sourdough.
As a result, bread made using baker’s yeast is not as easily digestible as bread made using sourdough fermentation.
Note: The slow fermentation of bread using the no knead method and small quantities of baker’s yeast mimics sourdough fermentation. Therefore the no knead method is a better option when using bakers’ yeast.
2. Roller Milling of Flour – Stripping Wheat of its Life Sustaining Properties
In the late 1800s, roller mills with purifier machines capable of fully extracting out the mineral rich bran from the starchy flour started to appear in Europe and later spread to North America and the rest of the world. (source)
Roller milling technology works in “breaks”: depending on the distance of the rollers, different parts of the wheat can be extracted out.
To roller mill wheat, it typically will pass through multiple rollers at different distances from each other.
The end result will be fully separated out mineral rich bran, oil rich germ and gluten rich flour.
Many economic advantages were found from these fully separated outputs.
A miller could now sell the bran for animal feed, the germ as a health food and the flour for baking.
In addition, because the flour had no oil in it that could go rancid and thus is gained a much longer shelf life.
What was lost in white wheat flour was a host of 20 vital micronutrients including B vitamins, vitamin E and Folate.
As a result, after roller mills with purifier machines became popular, a number of major deficiency diseases appeared, particularly among poorer populations whole relied on cheap flour for the majority of their calories.
These diseases included beriberi caused by vitamin B1 deficiency and pellagra cause by vitamin B3 deficiency.
Because it lacked any fiber, this stripped aka “refined” wheat flour also had a much higher glycemic index.
Today, research has shown that whole grains are instrumental in preventing a variety of diseases.
3. Flour Enrichment – Adding a Fraction of Lost Nutrients Back Using Less Absorbable Synthetic Chemicals
As discussed in more detail in this post, around the 1940s, 5 of the 20 micronutrients removed were replaced with synthetic versions to create enriched flour.
If you look at a package of enriched wheat flour, you will see these chemicals listed: Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid.
According to this post, synthetic chemicals are not as well absorbed by the human body as their natural equivalent and may be the cause of various health issues.
4. Bleached and Bromated Flour – Increasing the Toxic Chemical Load
The traditional process of making wheat bread flour required a flour aging stage of several weeks.
During that time, the wheat flour oxidized and its gluten protein strengthened – leading to a more voluminous loaf of bread.
When wheat flour is oxidized, its natural creamy color lightens further.
Because flour aging takes time, in the early 1900s, millers searched for ways to speed up the aging process.
Since that time, scientific studies have determined that potassium bromate is a carcinogen.
It is claimed that most potassium bromate evaporates during the baking process and the FDA continues to allow its use.
However, potassium bromate has been banned from use in human food products in many countries including the European Union, Brazil, Canada and the U.K.
Furthermore, some research shows that not all potassium bromate evaporates and a significant amount can remain in baked breads. (source 1, source 2)
Bromated flour typically is bleached as well to give it the same appearance as naturally aged flour.
According to bakerpedia, some common flour bleaching agents are: chlorine gas, chlorine dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, calcium and benzoyl peroxides, azodicarbonamide.
Until the 1950s, 90% of the flour bleached in the U.S. and the U.K. used the nitrogen trichloride (the agene process).
This practice was discontinued when it was found that “agene treated flour caused severe and widespread neurological disorders in humans and dogs”.(source)
Personally, I know that I am allergic to chlorine.
According to this site, “Chlorine dioxide, the most widely used agent in North America, neutralizes the yellow pigment and improves the gluten quality. It does, however, destroy the tocopherols (vitamin E complex)”.
Just a quick Google search provided a link to a scientific article which found the toxin Alloxan in some chlorine gas bleached flour.
5. The 1950s Green Revolution – the Breeding of Modern Dwarf Wheat Optimized for Synthetic Fertilizers
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Haber process was perfected to create synthetic nitrogen needed to produce explosives during World War I.
Later, this process was also used to create synthetic nitrogen fertilizers for agriculture.
Norman Borlaug, hoping to feed our growing world population and avert world hunger, spent years breeding wheat that could rely on cheap synthetic fertilizers.
Older, taller varieties of wheat would grow too fast when synthetic fertilizers were applied and they would then fall over (“lodge”).
Fallen wheat plants were susceptible to molding and other damage – thus ruining the harvest.
Norman Borlaug found a solution in Japanese dwarf wheat which did not grow as tall and was able to produce an abundant harvest.
However, what was gained in grain volume was lost in micronutrient quantity. (source)
6. Modern Dwarf Wheat Requires Increasingly Higher Doses of Toxic Herbicides, Pesticides and Fungicides
While older, taller wheat varieties were able to crowd out weeds thanks to their height, this was not the case with dwarf wheat.
As a result, in many cases using dwarf wheat means using toxic herbicides which the short plant cannot naturally crowd out.
According to this expert site, some of the herbicides applied to wheat (with their likely toxicity sourced from various sources) are: 2,4-D (known hormone disruptor) , dicamba (likely carcinogen), glyphosate (likely carcinogen), metsulfuron (danger to aquatic life), Aim EC (carfentrazone) (likely carcinogen).
Synthetic NPK fertilizers only bring to the soil what we might call its macro nutrients – Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.
A healthy soil microbiome needs many micro nutrients which are present when using traditional organic farming practices but these are absent when using synthetic NPK.
Because of the poor soil microbiome, typically modern dwarf wheat is not as resistant to a variety of pests and over time, routine use of toxic pesticides became associated with their use.
According to a 2022 U.S. state survey:
In the surveyed states, farmers used 96 different pesticide active ingredients on winter wheat acres, 68 different ingredients on other spring. These pesticide active ingredients are classified as herbicides (targeting weeds), insecticides (targeting insects), fungicides (targeting fungal disease), and other. Herbicides were used most extensively, applied to 60% of winter wheat planted acres, 95% of other spring wheat acres, and 94% of Durum wheat acres.
Research has shown that traces of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides are found in wheat, wheat flour and baked wheat goods.
Often, scientists tell us the traces are under a safe threshold.
However, so many of these chemicals have unknown long term adverse effects and therefore a safe threshold is difficult to determine.
7. Synthetic Pesticides Used in Storage
While organic wheat has a very limited number of more natural chemicals that can be used for controlling pests and mold during storage, conventional wheat has been stored using very toxic chemicals which are now being phased out in Europe due to the growing evidence of the harm they cause.
8. Industrial Bread Manufacturing Needs Synthetic Dough Improvers and Artificial Preservatives
Industrial bread baking machines can produce hundreds of bread loaves in a fraction of the time it takes to make traditional bread.
In order to do this, industrial bread uses a large amount of yeast, high speed mixing (greater oxidation of flour) and a large number of synthetic dough improvers.
Bakerpedia provides a long list of synthetic dough improvers used in bread making:
- Hydrolases (amylases, xylanases, lipases, proteases, cellulases);
- Oxidases (glucose oxidase, hexose oxidase, lipoxygenase);
- Transferases (transglutaminase), Polysorbate 60, Ethoxylated monoglycerides , Succinylated monoglycerides, Calcium stearoyl lactylate (CSL) , Sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL), Mono-glycerides, Calcium stearoyl lactylate (CSL),Sodium stearoyl lactylate (SSL), Ascorbic acid, Azodicarbonamide (ADA), Potassium iodate, Calcium peroxide, Potassium bromate, Hydrogen peroxide, Benzoyl peroxide, L-cysteine, Glutathione, Inactivated yeast, Sodium bisulphite, Sodium metabisulphite
In addition, some common artificial preservatives are: calcium propionate, sodium benzoate, and potassium sorbate.
According to this medical site many of these additives are known to have damaging health effects.
9. Industrial Baking Leads to Breeding Harsher Strains of Gluten in Modern Wheat
Industrial baking requires very strong elastic dough to withstand the pressures of mechanical baking as can be seen in this baking video starting at 2:48.
It stands to reason that the stronger the gluten, the harder it is to break down and digest.
Indeed, gluten in some varieties of modern wheat have been found to be more allergenic than gluten in older, heirloom and ancient wheat varieties. (source)
10. Recent Replacement of Diastatic Barley Malt with Synthetic α-Amylase
It’s not just the wheat in flour that has changed.
For decades, natural barley diastatic malt was added to all purpose flour for its natural enzymes which boosted the fermentation process.
From a brewing website, I learned that diastatic barley malt enzymes include: ß-amylase, exo-peptidase, carboxy-peptidase , ß-glucanase, endo-proteases, α-amylase and pentosanases.
Nowadays, diastatic barley malt often gets replaced by fungal alpha amylase.
Enzymes help to break down food into more digestible components.
By reducing the type of enzymes used, it is likely that the flour will be less digestible.
11. GMO Wheat – Around the Corner
In August 2024, the FDA approved GMO wheat as “safe to grow” in the United States.
According to this news source, because the U.S. is an exporter of wheat and many countries have a ban on GMO wheat, it is still uncertain whether GMO wheat will actually take hold in the U.S.
Regardless of whether GMO wheat is grown or not, conventionally grown wheat (and other crops ) still has issues similar to GMO wheat.
Usually, GMO crops are bred to withstand the herbicide glyphosate, a probable carcinogen.
However, in recent years, glyphosate has grown in use as a desiccant for conventionally grown wheat – therefore, whether the conventional wheat is GMO or not, it is likely to have been exposed to glyphosate.
The late 1960s to the Present – “From the Back to the Land Movement to the Artisan Bread Revival“
While most commercial bread quality declined, there have been farmers, millers and bakers that bucked the trend.
In the late 1960s, many individuals focused on returning back to the land and farming organically.
These back to the land folks often grew their own grain and milled their own flour with manual mills.
Over time, many farmers grew disillusioned with the increasing costs associated with conventional crops and rejected the pesticides and herbicides which made them, their workers and their families sick. (Note: while researching online wheat vendors, a common reason for switching to organic farming practices was their family’s health.)
Many young bakers who traveled to Europe discovered bread that nourished and satisfied the soul.
These bakers, including Daniel Leader and more recently Chad Robertson, opened up bakeries back in the United States, wrote books and generally were part of the artisanal bread movement.
As these bakers needed quality flour, a demand grew for locally grown and milled organic wheat.
This has created a local, stone milling renaissance that is well documented in The New Bread Basket: How the New Crop of Grain Growers, Plant Breeders, Millers, Maltsters, Bakers, Brewers, and Local Food Activists Are Redefining Our Daily Loaf by Amy Holloran.
As an appreciation of organic wheat and flour grew, many individuals founded companies that manufactured and sold electric mills.
These trends have placed healthy wheat within reach of the home maker and consumer once again.
Whole Wheat Nutrition
While the prior section focused on all the bad stuff done to wheat, this section focuses on all the good stuff whole, unadulterated organic wheat has to offer.
Depending on its stage of growth, whole wheat has different nutritional benefits.
When we think of whole wheat, most of us think of the dried whole wheat berry.
But it is important to also consider sprouted wheat and wheat grass as they also have tremendous nutritional value and can be grown at home.
Whole Wheat Berry Nutrients
When we talk about whole wheat, we are actually referring to a group of wheat varieties with different nutritional properties.
Types of Wheat Berries
As I explained in great detail in this post, in the United States, wheat berries are classified according to the hardness of the exterior bran layer.
A wheat berry is either hard or soft.
Generally speaking, hard wheat flour is better suited for bread baking while soft wheat flour is typically used for pastries.
Then the wheat berry is identified by color – either red or white.
The red color comes from the tannin in the bran layer which imparts a more pronounced, nutty flavor to the wheat berry and sometimes can also have bitterness.
White wheat does not have any tannin and therefore is usually much milder in flavor.
Finally, hard wheat berries are further broken down according to the season they are sown: winter or spring.
Hard winter wheat has a lower protein (and gluten) content than hard spring wheat.
Traditionally, hard winter wheat has been preferred for sourdough bread baking while spring wheat most often is used when making conventional yeasted bread.
Nutrients in Wheat Berries
Protein content in wheat can be as low as 6% for soft wheat and as high as 16% for hard spring wheat.(Gluten accounts for about 70% of the wheat protein.)
Carbohydrate content in wheat averages 70% by weight.
Fats in the form of vitamin E in the germ only account for 2% of the wheat berry by weight.
Finally, fiber in the bran outer layer accounts for around 10% of the wheat berry by weight.
A chart with the micronutrients in wheat can be found here.
The bran and germ layer contain the majority of the vitamins, minerals found in wheat as well as important phyto chemicals.
Scientists are discovering that phytochemicals have an important role to play in fighting off disease.
Phytochemicals in wheat include: phenolics, carotenoids, vitamin E, lignans, β-glucan, inulin, resistant starch, sterols, and phytates.(source)
Nutrients in Sprouted Wheat
Sprouted wheat is in the early growth stages of the wheat plant when enzymes are extremely active.
When activated by the right water and temperature combination, enzymes serve to break down the bran layer of the wheat berry, turn the starch reserve into sugar to fuel the wheat plant growth and many other complex processes.
According to this research document:
“the three most important groups of enzymes with regard to the process of baking: Enzymes that hydrolyse carbohydrates, such as cellulase, amylases, and pentosanases, enzymes that hydrolyse proteins, such as proteases, and enzymes that affect fats and oils, mainly lipase and lipoxygenases. Although the enzymes are inactive during the storage of grain and flour, they become active when water is added, and, thus, play a significant role in determining the functional attributes of flour”
I like to view enzymes as my assistants in predigesting whole wheat: the more work they do, the less my body needs to do to get the nutrients it needs.
As a result of enzyme activity, nutrients in sprouted wheat are more bio available than in dry whole wheat.
In addition, vitamin C levels are multiplied in sprouted wheat while they are nonexistant in dry whole wheat.
Nutrients in Wheatgrass
What is Wheatgrass?
Wheatgrass is the young grass plant of the wheat berry, best harvested just before the jointing stage when the plant splits into two leaves.
While some ancient cultures were known to use grasses for various health benefits, wheatgrass was made popular in the West by Charles Schnabel in the 1920s and later Ann Wigmore.
Charles Schnabel, an agricultural chemist, found that feeding wheatgrass to chickens tripled their egg production.
He then experimented on feeding other animals as well as his own family with remarkable health benefits.
Wheatgrass is considered by many to be a superfood and research backs this up:
“A total of 297 proteins were identified and their functional annotation revealed that a majority of them were involved in preventing many diseases, oxidative stress, primary metabolism, storage, and energy related mechanisms. Particularly to mention, peroxidases, superoxide dismutases, and cytochromes are abundantly present in wheatgrass.”
Research has shown that antioxidant activity in wheatgrass in multiplied as the plant grows from day 0 through day 16.
Additional nutrients in wheatgrass that are not found in dry whole wheat include chlorophyll which is believed to aid in cancer prevention.
Nutrients in Whole Wheat Flour
Freshly milled whole wheat flour contains the same nutritional properties as whole wheat berries.
However, if not used within a few days, the volatile vitamin E oil is believed to dissipate quickly.
Milling and preserving whole wheat flour at cool temperatures is known to slow down the loss of nutrients.
Conclusion
This concludes part 1 of Cooking with Wheat 101 which covers wheat’s history and nutritional value.
Many people today feel better when they avoid wheat products which has led them to conclude that they are gluten intolerant.
Not everyone is aware however of the way in which conventional wheat products have been doused with synthetic chemicals from the growing phase all the way through to the industrial manufacturing stage.
Hopefully, the history of how wheat became increasingly toxic, as provided in this post, will help you realize that perhaps it is not wheat that is the problem but rather the chemicals applied to it.
If you are interested in finding healthier, tastier, organic sources of whole wheat berries and flour, be sure to check out this post which includes a FREE PDF download with over 60 online sources of wheat berries.
Wishing you a grainlicious experience!
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or a nutritionist. This post is provided for general educational purposes. For a full disclaimer, please see here.
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