Don't Shoot the Messenger!

I am constantly combing articles and recipes looking for fun new ideas to bake and info simply to help my cooking curve. I recently came across info from Wheat Grain Counsel. It addresses GMO; gluten; obesity due to wheat and much more. I think you will enjoy the quick read from Whole Grain Counsel.

"Twenty percent of the world’s calories come from wheat, according to the United Nations – a larger share than any other single food. Ever since our distant ancestors discovered that this grain could be mixed with water, left to ferment, then baked to airy, crusty perfection on hot rocks, wheat has been a cherished staple of diets around the world.

And yet a few popular diet books like Wheat Belly and Grain Brain now advise us to “Just Say No” to wheat, cutting it completely from our lives. In today’s blog, we’ll take a closer look at some of the fictions in these fad books and some interesting facts about modern wheat.

“Our wheat is GMO” - Nope.

It’s widely believed that today’s modern wheat is GMO (genetically modified). It’s not. In fact, US wheat farmers have been the loudest voices fighting against the introduction of any GMO wheat. ((Here's a 2010 article, in Reuters, that reports this concern, for instance.) Half the U.S. wheat crop is exported – and any GMO wheat in our food supply would dry up sales to other countries.

“Today’s wheat is higher in gluten” - Nope.

Glutens are proteins in wheat (and barley and rye) that help it stretch and rise into crusty loaves of bread. The wheat-naysayers claim that modern wheat has been bred to contain higher levels of gluten. Donald Kasarda, a researcher with USDA, reviewed data going back more than 100 years, and found no evidence that gluten levels have risen in wheat.

Two caveats here. Kasarda’s data do show that average consumption of gluten is rising, especially in the last 15-20 years. That’s because gluten is being added as an isolated ingredient in so many processed foods. (Not an issue, if you eat your foods more on the intact / minimally processed end of the scale.) Research also shows that wheat has been bred to increase its pest resistance -- a worthy goal to save the environment through use of fewer pesticides. Some people are sensitive to these compounds (ATIs, or amylase tripsin inhibitors), however.

“We’re simply eating more wheat than ever” - Nope.

Another argument says that wheat is doing us in because we’re suddenly eating so much more than we ever have. Not so. US wheat consumption hit a peak in the 1870s of almost 230 pounds per person per year. It then dropped steadily until the early 1970s, when it rose once again, as fast food restaurants and supermarkets made more different wheat-based foods more readily available. In the last decade, wheat has once again dipped – and is now at about half its peak.

That said, we recommend you change out some of the wheat in your life for other grains. When our doctor says “eat more vegetables” we don’t simply eat carrots and leave it at that, as healthy as carrots are. No, we understand instinctively that it’s important to eat a variety of vegetables to get a range of nutrients, textures and tastes. Same thing goes for grains, folks. Wheat’s just fine, but change it up!

“Wheat is the main reason we’re overweight and obese” - Nope.

Wheat makes an easy scapegoat, but other countries with much higher per-capita wheat consumption have much lower rates of overweight and obesity. (The French, for instance, consume nearly twice as much wheat per person as Americans, but have about one-third our obesity rate.) Weight problems are almost never the fault of one food; it’s total diet and lifestyle that matter. Go ahead and enjoy your whole grains, especially in their intact and traditional minimally processed forms, in the context of a diet overflowing with fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, olive oil, and other health foods. A whole grain cookie (even a gluten-free one) is still a cookie.

“Pasta sends your blood sugar spiking” - Nope.

For good health, it’s best to eat foods whose carbohydrates are absorbed slowly, giving us steady fuel, rather than foods that cause a sudden surge in blood sugar. A measuring system called the Glycemic Index awards the steady-fuel carbs a “low glycemic index” while those sudden-surge carbs are said to have a “high glycemic index.”

One of the very cool facts about pasta is that it has a low glycemic index, due to the way the pasta extrusion process rearranges the starches in the wheat. Cook it al dente, top a small portion with healthy “partners” like vegetables, olive oil, tomato sauce and beans, as traditional cultures have done for centuries, and you have a very healthy meal.

So why are people singling out wheat?

Wheat and gluten intolerance are on the rise, and of course it's important to find out why. I recently attended the International Celiac Disease Symposium in Chicago, to learn more about this important topic.

Here's one of the thoughts I came away with, from this top-level international scientific conference: Imagine that all your life you’ve been able to run marathons. Sure, it’s difficult, but you stay in shape and your body is up to the challenge. At some point as you age, though, you just can’t handle 26.2 miles anymore – not because the marathon has changed in any way, but because you have.

Some people suspect that eating gluten (and therefore wheat) is like that. The complex gluten proteins are extremely challenging for our bodies to digest, but when we’re healthy, 99% of us can consume gluten without any problem. When our digestive system is already compromised by antibiotics, stress, inflammation and a steady diet of processed food, however, some of us discover we’re no longer up to the challenge of digesting gluten. It’s not because the wheat has changed, but because we have. Don’t shoot the messenger!

Visit the WGC’s Gluten Free Grains page for links to other blogs on the important factors of gluten intolerance and celiac disease. (Cynthia)"

Wheat Concerns Saga Finale? Part IV

I say the Wheat Concerns Saga Finale as I am sure this topic is droning on way too long for you and I am in a sense 'beating a dead horse' as my hubby tells me when I talk about the same thing over and over!

The last BIG gluten free pro/con question asked me, "Have you read or heard of the Wheat Belly book?"

 The answer is: YES! 


I have no motivation to bash those who love the book and/or followed Dr. Davis diet.  This post is for those harried people out there who read the Wheat Belly book and are scratching their heads wondering what is next on the 'to do list' of health hurdles to jump.  For those who are wondering what to believe and what not to believe.  So, before you read further, I know I will be stepping on toes for those who have lost weight, who feel better, and who love Dr. Davis.  Let's still be friends and just agree to disagree. :)

On to my personal review of the Wheat Belly book.  I need to make a disclaimer that I am not promoting any medical advice nor trying to tell you what to believe or not believe.  This is merely MY PERSONAL OPINION of the Wheat Belly book.

As I read Wheat Belly, I found myself saying "Really?  Really, he believes this stuff?"  It was very frustrating to read as there were a lot of stories to prove his position; there were lots of words that said studies show.  As I said in my first post, don't let the buzz words be the litmus to make a decision.  Be an informed consumer on any subject and check the studies IF it is telling you to radically change your life.

As in my last post (Wheat Concerns Saga Part III), I told a story about Laura Ingalls Wilder's life who was  so small in size that it should be blamed on the unmodified wheat. (No, I don't think that!)  I could have told the story and then said, "This real life example proves my theory is correct."  I think most of you would say "No, it just happens to support what you want to propose as truth, but that is not a factual way to prove your theory."  As I read the Wheat Belly book, Dr. Davis would say he noticed his patients had this success or that success in better health and he attributed it to giving up wheat.  There was NO documentation that wheat is all the patients gave up to get to the health level.  If I give up doughnuts, fried foods, SUGAR, pop/soda, all manner of processed foods and don't super size my foods, I will lose weight AND I will feel better.  As I said in an earlier post (Wheat Concerns Saga Part II), you won't find super-size portions in the gluten free foods and the variety of gluten-free foods that you can eat will be limited.  You will lose weight, when you don't eat as much!

I have a family member who was Type II diabetic.  Her diet was changed (wheat was still a part of her daily routine) to more vegetables and no desserts.  She is now off her meds!!  The diabetes was not a wheat induced problem but poor food choices in general.  I can't say it enough....PROCESSED FOODS ARE NOT GOOD FOR YOU!!

Just for good measure, there are NUMEROUS broad statements made in the Wheat Belly book.  Yet another example: (pages 184-186) Davis states wheat is the cause of  alopeci areata (hair loss...baldness!) with no studies to prove his theory; no evidence; not even  a patient who gave up wheat as an example for this claim.  I really don't care that Davis made the claim except that these bold type claims throughout the book are off the wall and too many people are reading them and believing the book in total which has some truths and LOTS of  misinformation.

This brings up another interesting point.  Davis labeled wheat products as: HoHos, Scooter Pies, Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, TV dinners, etc. (page 7)!  I am sorry, but this is NOT true whole wheat products but processed, dead foods that used highly refined flours and high amounts of sugar.  He talked about how fat he was and then got off these "wheat products" and magically lost weight.  Anytime you stop eating the junk food, the desserts, the processed foods which make you crave more and leaves you hungry, you will lose weight.  This is basic 101 weight loss plan and not 'a wheat is the bottom of all problems.'

It bothered me throughout the book we were made to believe that refined flours were equal with whole wheat/whole grains.  An example: Davis says (page 33) , "two slices of whole wheat bread is really little different, and often worse, than drinking a can of sugar-sweetened soda or eating a sugary candy bar."  He says (page 8) whole wheat bread has a glycemic index of 72.  He sites a study done in 1981 for his data (page 33), yet here is a study done by Harvard Medical School saying 100% whole grain bread has a glycemic index of 51!  There are other studies out there saying the exact same 51 glycemic index for true 100% whole wheat bread.

Hum?...maybe I should put a plug in for the Nutri Grain Mill as this gives you the best whole wheat flour for all your baking and making it a healthy choice to get the 39 nutrients, fiber and low glycemic index foods back into your diet!  It also will mill all the non-gluten grains with no cross-contamination and giving all the wonderful nutrients found in the non-gluten grains.

I am not going to go on and on about different parts of the book that made numerous blanket statements, but I have one last red flag to make you step back and think about  all the information Wheat Belly is promoting  and read it with caution.

Davis recipes are in the back of the book and he is coming out with an entire cookbook for his 'new diet' plan.  His desserts give you sugar choices to use, one being Splenda!! Davis says (page 239) " The compromise I draw in order to re-create several familiar dishes sans sugar is to use the artificial or non-nutritive sweeteners that I believe are the most benign and well tolerated by the majority."  I would challenge you to simply google Splenda and check for yourself whether you think it is a benign substance to consume!  There are NO benign artificial foods we can ingest that won't have consequences.

Bottom line, be an informed consumer.  Do not let marketing ploys suck you in to eat and cook certain ways.  Food chains are all too aware of the latest fads and trends.  They are marketing you to make you believe you are getting the best foods.  Why would potato chips say "Gluten Free?"  There was NEVER any flour in a potato chip.  It is all about convincing you to buy their products through marketing.

Get informed by taking the time to do your own research and not letting talking points lead you down a slippery slope.  Keep things simple and basic.  Enjoy life and stop to smell the roses. :)

Wheat Concern Saga Continues Part III

Question #2  Is your wheat GMO free? YES

 I sell  GMO FREE wheat.

I think the bigger issue is the info that is claiming our wheat is not the same as the ancient wheat and that we are not getting the nutrients we need.  This type of info gives the impression you are eating chemicals...dead, artificial foods.  The answer is NO!!!  I guess this is more fear mongering words that are making the masses at large jump on the band wagon to take wheat out of their diet and not consider if the facts are true.

Remember, it is the PROCESSED foods that are our real enemy!  Many talking points site all the grocery  isles of wheat products (cereal isles, baking isles, bread isles, foods in frozen section, TV dinners) as the bad wheat.  The talking points don't point out that the 'wheat' used in these multiple products is highly refined, processed flour with most of the foods having additives, artificial colorings and flavorings, not to mention loaded with high refined sugar!  Could it be the lowly wheat kernel is taking all the blame when the sugar and the chemicals created to give us the flavors and colors we think we deserve are the real blame?

Let's get a broader view and think about ancient food of old.  I would first point out that with the grains of 'old' and the foods of old, were the people healthier than we today?  Were life spans as long as today's life span?  This is not to start a battle on foods or to determine life spans, as I think we eat way too much processed food and need to eat more natural foods made from scratch.  The  point is we have put the ancients on a pedestal.  In trying to get some balance on this subject, I have been reading VERY boring paleontology info (study of ancient diseases)  which  talk about the small bone frames of the ancients; skeletons w/ bones that are poc marked and huge tooth decay.  This doesn't give you the idea that the ancient grains were giving the people great bone density nor the overall health.  In fact, most of the sites talk about 40 years old as a ripe old age for the 'ancients'!  I am just saying we need to take a breath and not memorialize the health and foods of the ancestors.

So for today's food choices, I would tell you that certified organic anything is best for you.  Before you throw wheat out as the culprit for all health woes...Have you completely changed your diet making everything that you put in your mouth to 100% organic foods?  Do you eat canned goods (they leach aluminum into the food)?  Do you eat out (processed food served here)?  I guess my point is that is we need to do our best and relax.   Though I would love to say that our family is eating everything organic, we are not.  We do what we can and enjoy life.

Unfortunately, health is almost a god in our society and we jump on whatever bandwagon will tell us that we will live to be a zillion years old with a youth potion that will keep us from looking a zillion years old!  I think we need to make healthy choices but not to the detriment of our sanity in trying to jump all the health hurdles put before us.  We need to deeply inhale and enjoy the journey of life and the people around us.

Since all of us like stories and the talking mantra seems to give stories as their backbone for truth, I give you a story....

Have you read Laura Ingalls Wilder books?  Have you read The Long Winter?  This is a depressing book if I ever read one and I am glad that I am not a pioneer!  I love my air conditioned/heated home; I love my Bosch mixer that makes my bread; I love my Nutri Mill that grinds my wheat and not a coffee mill that the Wilder family used.  I am made to live with conveniences and in  the modern world!

In the Long Winter book, it showed how the family survived the winter on a parcel of wheat bread each day as their only sustenance.  They made it through the winter and lived to tell about it.  Our family went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Missouri and got to see many of the artifacts that are talked about in the books.  Very interesting.  The museum even had the clothes and shoes they wore.  It was amazing to see how tiny Laura's dress was...how small her shoe size was.  It looked like a child's shoe.  The point?  Not the image of a strapping young woman who grew up on the untainted wheat that the talking points make us believe grew these Godzilla type people.   In fact, if you go to any Civil War type museum and you will see small, child size uniforms that the adult men wore.  These men were eating the wheat of old that talking points want us to believe made thin, fit and bronze people.

So with a story told to 'prove' my theory: ancient whole wheat didn't make a bigger better human any more than today's whole wheat makes a fatter, malnourished human.  Unfortunately, I don't think my hypothesis would be validated by my story but it does make sense. No?  The real story is the 'ancients' ate whole grains but didn't have abundant food supplies and were for the most part malnourished and therefore skinny.  Here in our industrialize world we have too much processed fast food available to stuff our bodies with making us fat and happy!

 My mantra is to sit back and smell the roses and let the anti-wheat/anti-gluten proponents have their say as you enjoy a nice slice of WHOLE WHEAT bread made with FRESHLY GROUND WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR with all its 39 vitamins and minerals.

Wheat Saga Continued...Part II

Before you delve in reading this post, I would encourage you to read the "Part I" post to get on board with my reasons for even joining in the fray of the anti-gluten/anti-wheat discussion.  On the surface, it will appear I am only trying to drum up some business or defend my turf.  Both of these are far from the truth.  I am motivated to step in and hopefully bring balance back to the over the top info bombarding us with the gluten free fad.

Dare I use the word "fad?!!"  This is almost a  fighting word to label this new gluten-free trek for health a fad.  So, this leads me to talk about coconut oil.  What you say?  We are talking about wheat and you chase a rabbit about coconut oil.  For you old timers, you might remember coconut oil was pulled off the shelves and deemed not only unhealthy for us but the oil of a sure heart attack!  We were warned that to use the coconut oil we would be clogging our arteries and be in line for a certain heart attack.  You might chuckle at the lack of education and knowledge at the time would cause us to lose the very oil that is now herald as heart healthy choice.  Coconut oil is considered the oil of choice not only for the heart but a whole gammet of other nutritional benefits.  Those I won't go into as I would be truly chasing the rabbit.  The point is that 20+ years ago, we all jumped on the band wagon following the 'certified studies' proving that we should not eat coconut oil.  Hum....today, everyone is jumping on the band wagon to cut gluten from our diet because 'studies show' the validation.  Really?

Again, let me reinterate, I am NOT addressing those with celiac who must get off gluten products.  This is to the masses who have simply jumped on the band wagon to go gluten free not even knowing why.

In my last post, I mentioned questions/comments that were given  me which I will address yet another one today.

"I feel so much better since I have gone gluten free and I have even lost weight!"

To answer this I appear to chase yet another rabbit.  My husband, Robert, is a financial adviser with Parsonex Financial Services.  He helps people with all types of financial services from living trusts, college funding, life insurance, 401K rollovers....okay the advertisement is over! lol.  Anyway, he also does financial counseling and helps people set up a plan to get out of debt.  We are Dave Ramsey advocates and Robert  uses the snow ball approach to help people get out of debt.  The first thing Robert does, when counseling someone, is for them to write down every dime and nickle they spend for two weeks.  The in debt person will balk and tell Robert they really don't spend that much money, but will commit to tally their spending for two weeks.  The result?  The in debt person comes back shocked at how much money they nickled and dimed themselves to death.

Now, transfer this same scenario to diets and eating.  None of us would readily admit that we eat processed food nor that we really eat that much.  We just don't know how this extra layer of fat got on our bodies.  We just woke up one day and bam...there was this 'love' handle!  What is the method of all diet programs?  Track what you eat!

When you go on a gluten free diet, suddenly you become aware of everything you put into your mouth.  You start asking..."Is this gluten free?"  It will definitely limit the food selection you can consume.  No longer are you able to snatch the cookie, the cake, the doughnut, the multiple other snack foods.  Another interesting fact, the gluten free restaurant portions are normal size, if not smaller.  There are no 'super size' meals in the gluten free selections!  So what happens, when you no longer super size your meals?  You lose weight!

Most who go on the gluten free diets also are told to cut out sugar, pop (soda if you are from the east!), saturated fats, all processed foods.  No wonder you would feel better!  Anyone would feel better skipping the doughnut and the bag of chips and the pop and the....

The problem with the gluten free diet is it is not a long term good diet for you.  As I said in my last post, the gluten free diet depletes you of many necessary vitamins, minerals and fiber that the gluten grains have because the gluten products readily available are made from refined gluten free grains.  If you jump on the band wagon that the current gluten free fad is calling you to do, you have to make a concerted effort to reintroduce those missing nutrients into your diet.  The average person/low information person hasn't even considered the nutritional loss.  There are a lot of people who are going to be suffering other health symptoms due to lack of nutrients.

Will this 'fad' be something we laugh at like we do the coconut oil fad of yonder years?

For those who are finding their ears steaming reading my post, my only plea is to research for yourself the facts and not to jump on the coat tails of Dr. So n' So said nor let the verbiage 'studies show' sway you.  Read the information for sure but don't believe everything you read!  Just as all the studies and doctors assured us that coconut oil would kill us, take today's info with a grain of salt.  Hum? There is that pun again using the word grain! :)  Till we meet again on yet another commonly asked question.

Wheat and Anti-Grain Concerns Part I

I have been on the road at various trade shows and have had numerous emails and calls all with people who are concerned about the recent anti-wheat info...the impact of wheat and other grains on their diet.  I would talk with people one on one but had decided to stay out of the fray of the argument for or against wheat and gluten grains in general. I have remained silent on my blog/face book about the topic because it is so volatile and people have so much passion in their views for or against gluten or wheat.

I preface that my views are not based simply because I sell the Nutri mill grain grinder and the Bosch Universal mixer and only want to defend my marketing audience.  For example,  people think my saying "I LOVE my Bosch mixer" is only because I sell the Bosch Universal mixer and wear the apron donning "Bosch."  I quickly tell people at trade shows that any who pass by my booth and have a Bosch mixer; the first words they say will be, "I love my Bosch; I couldn't live without my Bosch mixer; The Bosch mixer is the best mixer I could have ever bought."  So, what do these comments have to do with the anti-wheat and anti-grain push seen today?

My motivation is not to defend my machines but simply bring balance to the broad claims made about taking grains out of your diet.  I think there is too much pressure on us to jump certain nutritional hurdles; and if we don't jump the hurdles, we must not really love and care for our family.  Remember the peer pressure we endured in our school days that made us do things that really weren't us...made us wear a facade.  Humm...are we still there??; only the peer pressure is in the realm of what we eat or don't eat; how we choose to educate our children; how our children perform/act in front of others...the list goes on.

I guess, I have come to a point of speaking up on the anti-wheat issue because there are too many harried women who have come to me desperate with all the wheat information...the gluten issues....they are not intrigued nor excited about the subject but only have hallow eyes saying, "I must be failing in feeding my family nutritionally, and I can't take one more thing on my 'to do list!'  Help!"   So, these postings (it will take several) are for those harried women to step back; take a breath; and know things are not as bad as it appears or are led to think!

So now, I dive in to hopefully shed some light or a different perspective on all the information and be so bold to say misinformation circulating around the food talking circles...the anti-grain issue is no different than other issues which have some truth with a lot of erroneous ideology mixed in.  The anti-grain...anti-wheat proponents throw words like "studies show; Dr. So n' So said; an M.D. behind their name."   These buzz words make us give credibility to the person writing and information proposed without questioning whether the study was done validly.

The first question I am usually asked...What do you think about gluten?  Is your wheat GMO?"..."I feel so much better off of gluten and I lost weight!"...have you heard/read the "Wheat Belly" book?  What do you think?

Question #1  What do you think about gluten?
There is so much hype about gluten today.   Truth:  There are people who are truly allergic to gluten grains and need to use only non-gluten grains.  I am NOT denying there are those with celiac and who truly need to avoid all gluten.  This information is not to tell them to start using gluten!!

I want to counter the ideology that tells the general masses: "get off of gluten" "gluten is bad for you" "gluten is the cause of your allergies" "gluten is the cause of your weight gain" "gluten makes you sick".

Many who say they are gluten intolerant are not intolerant to the true wholesome whole wheat kernel, which contains gluten, or whole wheat bread made with fresh ground whole grain flour; but are reacting to the processed flour that is in all processed foods, condiments, in packaged foods you purchase at the grocery store, used in restaurants, and the list goes on.  Even those who mill their own whole grains into flour and make their own bread from fresh milled whole grains, like my family, are still consuming the processed flour and other processed foods.  If you eat out, you are eating processed flour...usually loaded with white sugar.   These processed foods are a huge culprit in developing allergies to the masses.

We need to stop/curb the processed foods we consume and not blame ailments we suffer simply on the whole gluten grains.  There is so much valuable nutrition in the whole grains. Whole grains, which contain gluten, are a good source of fiber, vitamins and minerals. (see the nutrition break down below).  Gluten-free products you purchase or consume in the restaurants at large are made with refined gluten-free grains, and are low in nutrients. Gluten-free foods tend to be deficient in fiber, iron, niacin, thiamine, calcium, vitamin B12, phosphorus and zinc.  You have to make a concerted, knowledgeable effort to put those nutrients back into your diet when eating a gluten-free diet which the average person is not doing.  When eating whole gluten grains, you get these naturally in your fresh milled flour.  Notice, I said FRESH MILLED FLOUR!  If you are buying the processed flour in the store, you are not getting the nutrients you need.

Current talking points lump anything with gluten as the culprit for all ailments and that specifically wheat is not a healthy choice for you or your family.  Below are nutritional details of whole wheat.  I do want to add those who are truly gluten intolerant need to consider a Nutri Grain Mill so they can mill the non-gluten grains and keep the nutrients and fiber these non-gluten grains contain.  The key here is FRESH MILLED FLOUR and stop the processed foods/flours.

Many will say they went gluten free and feel so much better and lost weight.  Well, this is for the next post!  I have rambled too long and given too much info for you to digest...pun intended! :)  Till we talk again....

Notice how many nutrients you are getting from the whole wheat grain?!!  The processed flour is depleted not to mention bleached.  The processed white flour is just not good for us and yet we consume it in high volumes just as we consume white sugar.  Again, if you eat out....if you buy any processed or canned type foods, you are getting the depleted, processed flour and white sugar which are culprits for making us sick.

Here shows the parts of the wheat to help understand what that tiny wheat kernel has and benefits us.  Plus you can see how much we lose with the white "enriched" flour!

• Bran - Essential to good health; it permits the body to rapidly eliminate wastes and toxins which are believed to be the cause of many health problems and diseases.  It is resold to us consumers (minus much of the original nutrients).
• Middlings -This highly nutritious outside layer directly under the bran; contains a high percentage of minerals and vitamins and is sold to ranchers and farmers as livestock feed.
• Wheat Germ - This important source of vitamins and minerals is also removed and sold separately as a food or food supplement.
• Wheat Germ Oil - This oil is rich in vitamins, but is removed along with the wheat germ to insure longer shelf life.  Oils exposed to air oxidize and rapidly turn rancid, giving a bitter taste to foods that become harder to digest.  Wheat germ oil is widely used in cosmetics because of its high percentage of Vitamin E.
• White Flour - The result of the commercial milling process is white flour, almost entirely devoid of nutritional value.  It is tasteless and usually flavored with sugars, fats and salt, which are at the root of many of today's diseases: obesity, constipation, diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension, heart disease, etc...  "Enrichment" which is required by the US government (not the Japanese government), consists of only restoring artificially 3 vitamins (B1, B2, and Niacin) and 1 mineral (iron) after having removed 39 of them plus the bran.

Why is my bread dry and crumbly?

I have lots of people calling with the same questions and came to the conclusion that maybe there are a lot people out there with those same questions but simply haven't called to ask.

1. My bread is dense, dry and crumbly. What am I doing wrong?

Solutions:
I know it will be hard to believe but you are adding too much flour. 

 
a. If you are using your Bosch Universal Mixer, you add flour till it just starts pulling away from the side of the Bosch bowl. If you find your bread is still crumbly, back off on the flour again. Bottom line: back off on the flour!

b. Don't automatically use the recipe flour measurement! Most recipes have about 15%-20% too much flour! If you are using freshly milled flour it is like a sifted flour consistency. If you are using bagged store flour, it is compacted and thus you are using more flour with each cup of flour. Did I say...back off on the flour? :)

c. Don't flour your counter surface or knead with extra flour. Oil your counter surface and oil your hands. This will keep the dough from sticking to your hands and counter but not add the flour which dries out your loaf of bread.

Bottom Line: Too much flour makes a dense, dry, crumbly loaf of bread!


2. My bread always sinks in the middle while baking.

You need to put your rising bread into the oven sooner. The dough has risen too much outside of the oven. Remember, it will continue to rise as it begins baking. The best test is to lightly touch the side of the rising bread. If the bread stays indented when lightly touched, it is ready to go into the oven for baking.

Break free from Junk Food!

Do I need to even give the definition of junk food?  For those who might be in denial that they don't eat junk food, humor me as I give you junk food definition!

Junk Food products are made up of refined ingredients (white flour, white sugar, chemicals, coloring and additives for flavor) with empty calories with little or no vitamins, minerals or fiber.  Junk food does have carbohydrates, protein and fat that keep you alive but not nutritionally fed.

Pretty bleak when you put junk food in light of the definition.  Unfortunately, it is too convenient to stick junk food into our children's lunch or for that matter our meal as well.  Another downer to junk food, it usually tastes great which means we don't want to give junk food up!

So why are American's so hooked on junk food?  It is what we have trained our tastes buds to like.  If you think about it, all human kind has the same taste bud arrangement; yet, you can travel all over the world to different nations and have completely different food type preferences.  We have the different food preferences because that is what we have grown up eating.  Most Americans food preference...junk food. sigh.

So what is our solution?  What can we do to change our palate or our children's taste preferences?  We need to decide to help our taste buds 'grow up' again with new food tastes.  We have to learn to enjoy wholesome foods.  If this doesn't appeal to you or your children are not on board with your new challenge to get off junk food, start small.  Have bite size healthy food choices available.  Require your kids to eat their small portion of your new healthy choices.  They really will learn to 'grow up' their taste buds into a newer healthy way of living.

A great example is what happened in our own family!  Through this blog, I began to try lots of new recipes and breads.  I have been such a stick in the mud cook for years!  I began to share my old traditional recipes on this blog but that doesn't go very far!! :)  My daughter and I began to try new foods and new whole grain breads.  At first, my family baulked at the new food flavors.  I have been pleasantly surprised that the family enjoys food groups (veggies and grains) that my older kids would never have eaten!  The difference?  I have retrained our families taste buds.

Be encouraged to start choosing less junk food and more wholesome, natural foods.  It really won't take that much time to create the wholesome foods.  My motto is fast and easy.  Search some of my recipe ideas in my blog to help your family eat more natural. :)

How to know when food is really whole wheat!

Since school has started, the sandwich is king for an easy lunch to fix.  Having whole grain bread enhances the nutrition for your child's school lunch.  To be honest, bread products on the market...should I say your typical grocery store breads...won't measure up to the below standards listed below for choosing whole wheat bread.  Here is an easy recipe for great whole wheat bread: Whole Wheat Bread Recipe!

Sue Gregg has a wonderful cookbook selections  that have great recipes but also have lots of nutrition information.  Below is one of the check lists Sue Gregg gives to make sure you are getting the whole grains you are wanting in your bought bread.  (Click here and check out page 1 & 2 to see her many cookbooks)

LOOK FOR                                                   AVOID

100% Whole Wheat flour                               Wheat flour (means white)

                                                                      White enriched flour

                                                                       Bleached white flour

Sprouted Grains

Other Flours                                                    Unbleached white flour

(Kamut, spelt, corn, rye,                                

Buckwheat, oats, millet,

Barley, brown rice, oat bran,

Wheat bran, rice bran

Vegetable oil or no oil                                     Fats: hydrogenated or partially

                                                                      Hydrogenated vegetable oils,

                                                                      Shortening, margarine

Nuts, seeds                                                     

Honey, raisin syrup, barley malt                     Refined sugars: white, brown

Or no sweetening                                          corn sweetener, corn syrup,

                                                                    Dextrose

Sea Salt                                                        Monodiglycerides

Yeast                                                            Unpronounceable chemicals

Sour dough

Note from Paula:  I think it makes it easier to just make your own bread!  You can make 100% whole wheat bread or multi-grain breads in one hour.  You will know what is in your bread...fresh nutritious whole grain bread!  The Bosch Universal Plus mixer makes bread making a breeze. 

On-line Nutrition Class

Kelly of Kitchen Kop has lots of great nutritional information and now is offering a class. She has extended the class sign up so don't wait and sign up today!! I love her solid information about healthy eating and avoiding over-processed, chemical-laden foods...

Kelly is offering 12 classes focused on cooking real, healthy food that meets your budget and your schedule. Enrollment ends September 5!

Click here to learn more about the Real Food for Rookies classes... and enroll!

So why have a hearty Breakfast? Part Two

This info made me convicted to try more diligently to feed my children a healthy breakfast. I have to admit my older kids were eating much better than my younger. In the ‘old days,’ I would seldom buy bought cereal and we would eat a great breakfast. Due to old age?…complacency?...convenience?...I slowly bought more cereal and we morphed into having only cereal for breakfast.

Isn’t that really how sin creeps in as well? Just a little here, a little there, and then before you know it, it becomes a full blown habit. Not saying eating cereal is a sin but it sure crept into our lives.

So why is Sue Gregg and other health type teachers down on bought cereal…..

“Consider this: in a year when $9 million was made on Puffed Wheat, the rats tested on it lived for two weeks. Otherwise they got the same nutrient solution given to rats fed whole wheat, who lived over a year. The rats on sugar lived for a month. All the groups got water. In another study, one group of rats got rat chow and scampered right along; another group got Corn Flakes, while a third group got he Corn Flakes box; they all got water, too. The box guys became lethargic and eventually died of malnutrition. The cornflakes chompers suffered schizophrenic behavior, threw fits, went into convulsions and suffered organ failures fro insulin shock. Is the god of convenience worth this? Of course, we don’t see such dire effects on humans because we eat a lot of other, more nourishing things. But if you were stranded on a desert island with only cornflakes to eat, you might die more peacefully on the boxes!” from “Breakfast” by Sue Gregg

Stay tuned for So why have a hearty Breakfast? Part Three

I will post some great solutions and give some easy convenient ways to have a hearty breakfast for your kids.

So why have a hearty Breakfast? Part One

I must admit that I fall in the category of 50% of Americans who either don’t eat breakfast or only eat a token piece of toast. However, when you hear this info taken from Sue Gregg’s Cook, “Breakfasts…with Blender Batter Baking & Allergy Alternatives,” you might consider making a hearty breakfast!

Excerpts from the Sue Gregg Breakfast Cookbook:
•Breakfast will take off unwanted pounds, because it helps you regulate better what you eat the rest of the day and because breakfast calories seem to be better metabolized than evening calories.
•Statistically, people who eat breakfast live longer. Researchers who discovered this theorized that going without breakfast is a sign of self-neglect and that who neglect themselves die younger.
•Breakfast stimulates more productive work because it improves your mental performance, your ability to concentrate, and increases your physical energy. Children who eat a good breakfast perform better in school.
•Eating breakfast makes problem solving easier because blood sugar is raised to an adequately sustained level.
•Breakfast gives families one more daily opportunity to eat together.

Okay I will try to eat breakfast, at least more regularly!  Stay tune for more breakfast info!