Everything the Wheat Kernel has to Offer

If you read our freshly milled flour section, you will know why grinding your own grain at home results in superior flour. That’s what you get in RAW dough—freshly milled flour, packed with all that the wheat kernel has to offer.

Unfortunately, the convenience of getting flour off the shelf jettisons those good parts of the kernel. To increase shelf life, millers have had to remove all trace of the bran and the germ – losing at least 22 of the 26 known vitamins and 83 percent of the nutrients, with mostly starch remaining. The fiber is gone, and the vitamin E content is reduced. The flour that is produced is so useless as a food that it must be fortified with synthetically manufactured thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin, as well as iron. Thirty-five of the 50 United States require that white flour must be thus enriched to be sold. In addition to nutritional abuse and synthetic vitamin fortification, flour often suffers further adulteration with chemicals used to age, bleach, whiten, and preserve the product. Chlorine dioxide, an irritant to both the skin and respiratory tract, is used to bleach flour. Other additives include benzoyl peroxide, methyl bromide, nitrogen trichloride, alum, chalk, nitrogen peroxide, and ammonium carbonate.

Whole-grain flour, when milled properly, does not lose its nutritional value. No synthetic nutrients or chemical additives are necessary. Quality whole-grain flours smell sweet and fresh, and deliver plenty of flavor when they are eaten. And that’s why RAW dough is so cool: you get the best of whole-grain flour, all within reach just when you need it. Just take it out of the freezer, thaw, bake and eat. It doesn’t get much better than that unless you grind the grain yourself.

Poor carbohydrates. They aren’t “bad,” just misunderstood. Years ago nutritionists advised the American public to reduce our fat intake and eat more carbohydrates. They had in their minds all of America boosting their intake of raw fruits and vegetables and whole grains. But as it were, with enthusiasm and hope to reduce our waistlines, we loaded up on low-fat, refined carbs like pasta, white bread, and white rice – not exactly what the nutritionists had in mind. These foods were simple carbs, stripped of their fiber, making them easy to overeat…which now explains America’s obesity problem. It is much harder to overeat bananas, broccoli, and brown rice. “Here’s the skinny,” Marleeta F. Basey, author of Flour Power, A guide to modern home grain milling, says of fiber found in whole, complex carbohydrates, “Fiber takes longer to eat, and it takes longer to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Our stomachs are full before we’ve overeaten because of all the fiber we have swallowed. Thus, we tend not to overeat.”

 Avoid, like the plague, those simple, refined carbohydrates. Rather, choose fiber-rich, complex carbs for optimum human nutrition. You can find them in lettuce and zucchini, apples and tomatoes, whole grains and brown rice. And, surprise, RAW dough!