With inputs from Himanshu Kapoor, C Green Foods

A high energy level is the one of the most important requirement for today’s young mothers. While food gives us energy, it can support us only for an hour or two. Unfortunately today’s busy lifestyle has led us to fast food for instant energy – and one of the main components of most fast foods is refined flour, or maida. While much has been said about the negative health effects of refined flour, here’s how its story started.

REFINED FLOUR: the first fast food
The wheat grain is made of the outer bran (fiber) or chokker, endosperm (the starchy bit), and germ (the nutritious protein). What we do to the grain has a direct impact on its nutritive value. Here are the 3 main ways to grind grain into flour:

1. Iron & steel rollers were introduced in flour mills during the Industrial Revolution. These metallic rollers rip the grain off its bran & germ and crush only the endosperm (mostly just starch). Naturally, most nutrition and almost all fibre is lost.
2. Traditionally stone chakkis or mills crush the bran, endosperm and germ. The volatile oils of the germ are rich in B vitamins, omega 3 fatty acids and other antioxidants. This is nutritive whole wheat flour.
3. Cold Water Mills ensure that the temperature of the grain does not rise while being crushed, hence preventing nutrients from being destroyed due to the heat. This is the most nutritive flour.

In the next step in the process to make ‘refined flour’ or maida, the crushed grain is now chemically bleached, dried in high temperature ovens and basically this destroys any trace of nutrients that may remain there. Now, even when we consume the flour, we also consume the bleach residue, and this may lead to gluten allergies!

Since this flour is almost devoid of any nutrients, manufactures add synthetic nutrients and claim to have ‘fortified’ or ‘enriched’ the flour. Unfortunately, when they strip the grain of about 22 nutrients, only 4-5 are added in synthetic form to ‘enrich’ it.

Another concern is the effect on blood sugar levels. There is also a significant difference in the type of iron added to enriched flour, a type that may be toxic rather than nutritional. Enriched flour products tend to be higher on the Glycemic Index, quickly raising blood sugar levels. In contrast, foods made from whole grains tend to be lower on the Glycemic Index. Because they contain higher amounts of fiber and other complex carbohydrates, they take longer to digest; therefore, sugars enter the bloodstream in a slow and more controlled manner.

The resulting white flour has no fibre and is faster & easier to digest. It causes a flash flood of glucose in our body, and causes insulin levels to spike. But that is digested/ used quickly, and once the cells have taken all that glucose out of circulation, it makes us think we need to eat again or we start feeling low on energy.

So while we may eat more, this also gradually leads to a body deficient in nutrients. The absence of B vitamin and omega 3 fatty acids takes a toll on our health. Unfortunately, simply supplementing your food with B vitamin and omega 3 fatty acids won’t help.

Interesting study at Minnesota have found that a diet rich in whole grains is surely healthier than the diet which was adjusted for levels of dietary fiber with B vitamins, Folic acid, iron, zinc etc. This suggests that a whole food is more than the sum of its nutrient parts.

Traditional stone mills rely on water power and are typically placed next to a stream flowing down a hill or rivers. These are called Panchakki or Gharat. There is no heat generation and so the nutrients are not destroyed. The flour from these mills is high in Nutrients and sustainable energy for the day.

Take starch out to increase shelf life, fortify artificially, and it can never be as healthy as nature intended it to be.