Whole Grain Bread and Flour: How to Choose and Store
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You hear it almost daily: “A diet rich in whole grains, fruits and vegetables can reduce your risk of_____________.” Fill in that blank with almost any condition, heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, constipation, acid reflux just to name a few. The term whole grains is used to distinguish them from refined or white grains. 
A grain, such as oats, wheat, rice or barley has three layers in its natural state (see the picture from Wikipedia.) A whole grain contains all three layers. A white grain contains only the inner layer, the endosperm. It is white in color and is mostly starch. The vitamins, oil, antioxidants and fiber are found only in the brown colored bran and germ layers. Refined grain and flour makers add back around 12 nutrients. This is called enrichment. But enrichment does not replace the hundreds of nutrients and fiber that were in the original whole grain.
Here are a few tips on choosing whole grain bread and flour:
Read labels carefully. Look for the word “whole.” “Wheat flour” or “rice flour” is refined flour. Brown color does not mean whole grain. Breadmakers will add molasses or other brown coloring to make white bread look brown. The whole grain should be the first ingredient. This gives some assurance that the product is predominantly whole grain. There is a bit of an art to making a 100% whole grain bread that rises well. So it is common to add enriched flour. The percentage of white flour should be no more than 30% of the flour to maximize the benefits of the whole grains.
Find a local source. Once a whole grain is milled into flour, the oil is no longer protected by the germ. It is dispersed throughout the flour and can go rancid. Transporting flour and bread products over long distances increases the chance of spoilage and may explain a bitter taste.
Store it properly. Refrigerate whole grain bread and flour and freeze any you intend to keep longer than two months. Use a freezer bag or other tightly sealed container. Our local whole grain bakery opens only three days a week. So daily bread isn’t an option. We slice the bread and place it into freezer bags two slices at a time. Frozen the same day it’s baked, it loses very little after thawing.
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