The only real problem with the book, I think, is it more or less demonizes wheat (and gluten) in general, rather than the processed, refined wheat. Doesn't matter whether it's heirloom or hybrid, if it's processed it's bad for you. Gluten is a protein, and far more people are convinced they have a problem with gluten than those who actually do. Gluten-free has become a marketing tool, yet only an incredibly small number of people have a real issue with gluten. Of course, gluten in refined white flour can present problems all on its own, which is why gluten gets a bad rap.
The main thing about wheat that people need to understand is most every wheat product you can buy is made with refined white flour, or at best these day, made with "whole wheat" flour. Neither is good for you.
The wheatberry, the entire grain of wheat, contains the bran (fiber), germ (protein) and endosperm (starch). The endosperm is the white powder that we know as flour. The bran and germ contain macronutrients such as vitamins, as well as protein and fiber, essential fatty acids, dietary minerals, and something called phytic acid, which is not digestible but has a strong binding affinity to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc, which results in "precipitation," making the minerals unavailable for absorption in the intestines. That may sound like a bad thing, but by not absorbing those particular minerals into the intestines, they are free to aid in and promote the digestion and absorption of the carbohydrates, eliminating the malabsorption of the carbs which results in heartburn and the ever-popular "beer belly," the classic sign of ingesting too many malabsorbed refined carbs.
White processed endosperm flour contains no micronutrients, much less macronutrients, and it's why flour is "enriched" and "fortified" with vitamins and minerals. It didn't used to be fortified or enriched, until it was discovered that people were getting sick from vitamin deficiencies because they were eating flour that contained no nutritional value whatsoever. So, the government mandated that enough vitamins be added to flour to prevent the illnesses associated with those vitamin deficiencies.
So, where's what you're looking at...
"Refined wheat" (white) consists solely of the endosperm and has a very long shelf life. Refined grains (wheat, rice, corn) are milled, a process that strips out both the bran and germ to give them a finer texture (and extend their shelf life). The refining process also removes nearly all nutrients, including protein and fiber. Refined grains include white flour, white rice, white bread and degermed cornmeal flower. Most breads, cereals, crackers, desserts and pastries are made with refined grains.
The "refined wheat" flour is usually "enriched" or "fortified," sometimes both. Enriched means that most of the nutrients lost during processing are added back in. Fortifying actually means adding in nutrients that don't occur naturally in the food, which is really retarded when you think about it. It turns a very natural thing like wheat into an invented food that doesn't exist in nature. Most refined grains are enriched, and many enriched grains also are fortified with other vitamins and minerals, such as folic acid and iron. Some countries (like the US) require certain refined grains to be enriched, and some to also be fortified. Whole grains may or may not be fortified. Most whole grains certainly don't need to be. See next paragraph.
"Whole grain" contains all of the germ, bran and endosperm, but has a short shelf life (up to 5 months instead of years with refined flour) due to the original oils present in the germ and bran. These are unrefined grains that haven't had any of their bran and germ removed by milling. Whole grains are better sources of fiber and other important nutrients, such as selenium, potassium and magnesium. Whole grains are either single foods, such as brown rice and popcorn, or ingredients in products, such as buckwheat in pancakes or whole grain wheat in bread.
"Whole wheat" flour is very different from "whole grain" as it has about 70% of the germ and all of the bran removed to prevent rancidity, and thus improve shelf life. So when you see "whole wheat" is ain't exactly whole. Gotcha. Unfortunately, you need the bran in order to process the germ (gluten). So rather than whole wheat or whole barley or whole whatever, you want whole grain, regardless of what that grain is, because there's a difference, and it's a difference that is intentionally meant to be confusing. The agriculture and food baking industries lobbied long and hard to get the distinction made between "whole wheat" and "whole grain."
Most of you are old enough to remember as a kid you could open a bag of flour and find it full of live bugs locked in foodie bliss. That never happened, then or now, with refined white flour. Even bugs know that it's not worth eating. Those that do, die. Farmers will tell you straight up that refined wheat flour is so nutritionally insufficient that bugs die when trying to sustain themselves on it in silos. The Star Trek "Trouble with Tribbles" episode was a direct shot at the USDA and the process of refining wheat.
China, Asia, Africa, they all eat wheat, and lots of it. And they aren't fat. Yeah, well, wheat feeds the world, but it's refined white wheat flour that creates and feeds fat people, and in China, Asia and Africa they eat whole grain wheat.
In order for your body (or bugs, or tribbles) to digest, process and utilize the endosperm as energy and as building blocks for cells, it must also have the bran and germ in order to do it. Without the germ and bran, the endosperm gets converted to sugar for energy, and what isn't burned immediately is converted and stored as fat.
"Whole grain" wheat breads also has the seemingly paradoxical side effect of stabilizing blood sugar, whereas "refined enriched" or "whole wheat" breads do the opposite, something that is confirmed by a glucometer.
But it has to really and truly be whole grain. They even have "whole wheat" bread now with added food coloring to make it browner so you'll think it's "whole grain." Subway's "9-Grain Wheat" bread is such an example. You might think it's made from the flour of 9 grains. You'd be wrong if you do. It does have 9 grains in it, but other than wheat, they are all listed at the end of the ingredients list, right after the "contains less than 2% of" part. The primary ingredient in this bread is plain old white flour, and high-fructose corn syrup plays a disturbingly more prominent role than any single whole grain. Essentially this is a white-wheat hybrid with trace amounts of other whole grains like oats, barley, and rye. The trace amounts are so small that if liquified they wouldn't even coat one tine of a fork.
Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup, whole wheat flour, vital wheat gluten, contains 2% or less of the following: oat fiber, soybean oil, salt, wheat bran, rolled wheat, rye nuggets, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate), yeast nutrients (calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate), degermed yellow corn meal, rolled oats, rye flakes, caramel color, triticale flakes, parboiled brown rice, refinery syrup, honey, barley flakes, flaxseed, millet, sorghum flour.
Take a close look at this "Eat Fresh" healthy bread. It's "enriched" and "fortified" refined white flour, with a little "whole wheat" flour added (remember, 70% of the germ and all of the bran removed), with some liquid corn for sweetening (you'd think that would be for the yeast, but no), because it doesn't contain enough wheat germ gluten to be elastic and rise on its own, it has "vital wheat gluten" added back into the flour. "Vital wheat gluten" is different from wheat gluten, in that it's a low quality powdered gluten product, made mostly from wheat, but lacking in all nutrients. It's called "vital" because it contains the vital elastic properties of gluten without the oils and proteins that make it actual gluten. It's disgusting.
DATEM is an emulsifier used to make the "vital" gluten work (also makes the bread and many pastries, biscuits and brownies "chewey"), and is made almost exclusively from genetically modified soya bean oil. Sodium stearoyl lactylate is a widely used food additive that makes breads and other baked good rise quicker and higher than with yeast, allows less butter and sugar to be used without affecting taste, and makes yeast breads stronger. They wouldn't need to add fake gluten and "dough conditioners" like DATEM and sodium stearoyl lactylate if they simply used real dough in the first place (although I can give them a pass on the sodium stearoyl lactylate since it's absolutely safe (it doesn't even mess up rats) and will help produce a consistent product).
But the real kicker is the ammonium sulfate, most commonly used as fertilizer (and in Oklahoma as a bomb component). You might use it to nourish your plants, and that's exactly what Subway does with it, it nourishes the yeast (because yeast doesn't like liquid corn all that much, either) and has miraculous effect of combining with the caramel color to turn the bread a rich, dark brown when baked.
Eat Fresh!
You know what you NEED to make healthy whole grain bread?
Whole grain flour, Baking Powder, Butter, Salt, Sugar, Water, Yeast.
That's it. 7 ingredients. Not the 34 ingredients of the Eat Fresh bread. You can skip the Baking Power and use a 70/30 mixture of whole grain and all-purpose (refined white) flour and it'll rise properly and still be miles healthier than the chemically enhanced Eat Fresh bread or most breads you can buy in a grocery store.
