White Flour--The Other Sugar

I borrowed this title from an excellent article that can be found at the Weston A. Price Foundation and from which I pulled the information for this post.

"Even though white flour doesn't taste sweet, it breaks down into sugar (glucose) and can lead to the very same problems caused by eating too much refined sugar."

This is certainly no new concept to me. My mother taught it to me long ago, so I am amazed that much of the industrialized world remains ignorant of this truth. It just makes so much sense!

"White flour is what's left after stripping virtually all the nutrients and fiber out of a whole grain of wheat. So what you're left with is a dead, lifeless powder that no longer goes rancid and can be used as a perfect binding agent to hold together sugar, sodium, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, additives, and other chemicals. White flour is basically "white gold" for food manufacturers.

"Products made with white flour are nutritionally useless, yet the American Dietetic Association recommends that we eat 8-11 servings of them everyday. The public has been programmed to believe that white flour products are "healthy" because they are low in fat, cholesterol and calories. So people eat things like pasta, bagels and pretzels and believe they are eating healthy because these foods are 'fat-free.' But what food manufacturers have failed to mention in their clever advertising is that white flour products have zero nutritional value and can lead to poor health."

I think of a few of the diabetics I know and what their diets are like (mostly made up of white flour) and I just cringe. How is it that so much of the American population (and others) can be so unquestioning and unconcerned about what they're putting into their bodies?!

"As far as your blood sugar is concerned, your body doesn't know the difference between a teaspoon of sugar and a slice of white bread!"