Want to reduce your risk of premature death from all kinds of disease by 15 percent, just by making one small change to your diet? Start eating whole wheat.
Perhaps, some additional information about what whole wheat is and what its benefits are for the body can help a little. Here are some facts about whole wheat.
Whole wheat is whole grains
Grains are the seeds and fruit of cereal plants, such as wheat, rye (rye), rice, oats, buckwheat (buckwheat), brown or brown rice, and barley which have been the staple food of humans for thousands of years.
This grain group includes plants that are efficient in converting sunlight, fertilizer, water, and oxygen into macronutrients.
The end result is long-lasting seeds, and can store for a long time.
Whole wheat processing
In pre-industrial times, these grains were usually eat whole (whole wheat). However, advances in milling technology and processing of raw materials meant that these grains had to go through large-scale separation processes.
The process includes flaking, cracking, inflating, or fine grinding.
All of these processes can remove the skin or bran attached to the seed, which is actually the most nutritious part of the seed.
The result of this process is wheat flour or white flour which you usually find in the nearest supermarket or shop. The product consists only of starch.
White flour products (such as white bread, white rice, white pasta, noodles, breakfast cereals, snacks and biscuits) are consider refine grains.
Whole wheat characteristics
In the process of making flour, more than half of the vitamin B complex (B1, B2, B3), vitamin E, folic acid, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, iron, and fiber are lost.
A new whole grain can be said to be whole wheat if the seed still has:
germ (inner part of the seed that contains good fatty acids),
endosperm (the middle layer, aka the seed body, which is enriched by carbohydrates and proteins, and then covered by the skin), or
bran (outermost layer with lots of fiber, vitamins and minerals).
Whole grains can be a meal on their own like oatmeal, brown rice, jam or popcorn. This ingredient is also make as a food support ingredient such as whole wheat flour in bread and breakfast cereals label “whole grain”.