Q: I’ve heard that eating wholegrain bread is healthier, as it contains nutrients not available in processed flour, and that the whole grains are good for giving your digestive tract a good cleanout. Is this true? I’d just like to check it with you before I spend extra money on gourmet loaves.

Our expert is Dr Teri O’Brien, biological scientist.

A: More than 12,000 years ago, some clever women noticed some of the wild wheats had heads that did not shatter when the grain was ripe, thereby freeing the harvesters from the tyranny of the short period between grain ripeness and easy harvesting that had been the custom for the previous 3 millennia.

These observant ancestors thus began a journey which culminated in the development of the modern bread wheats.

In modern times we have increased the number of types of this grain to more than 30,000, most of which is milled to flour for baking bread, the staff of life.

So when you think about it, thousands of years of evolution have led up to this basic decision we make sometimes several times a week – white or multigrain?

Although we like to think that wholegrain breads are better for us, putting a bit of “rustic goodness” back into our over processed diet – there is something a little misleading in this logic and it takes a closer look at the milling process to understand why.

Milling achieves three things – it removes the grain embryo, fractures the starch-rich grain into flour, and removes the hard seed coat that encased it.

Removing the seed casing strips out a large reserve of high-quality protein, rich in essential amino acids, many minerals, and B-vitamins, but putting the casing back into the dough doesn’t mean your body will actually be able to absorb those nutrients.

The grain tissues that contain these nutrients are encased in highly-indigestible cell walls that resist the enzymes of the human gut and effectively pass straight through your system.

It is well over a century since a curious Frenchman named Girard discovered this phenomenon by the unappetising task of examining his own faeces after ingesting corn, and it has since been confirmed for barley, oats and rye (by more modern methods).

So unless these grains are severely ground up before baking, they add very little except indigestible fibre to the loaf.

Turns out expensive wholegrain loaves aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

So, is it worth a premium to buy such loaves? Nutritionally, probably not, since there are much cheaper and more effective ways of getting a good dose of fibre – fresh carrot and celery for example.

But if you like the taste, spend your money how you wish!

Food for thought: It is possible that modern bakers could learn a lot from our tribal ancestors who found they could unleash the extra nutrients in corn by pounding the grain into a paste, then cooking it by sitting it on very hot rocks.

The steam produced appears to tear the cells to pieces, rendering a lot of the nutrients available.

Your say

I've been researching a lot about grains lately and found information about proper soaking of grains, the neutralisation of phytic acid and improving digestion of the whole grains. Here is one link (of many possibilities) that would be a good place to start: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/03/nourishing-practices-soaking-grains-2.html

I think that proper soaking of whole grains in an acidic medium would alleviate the problem of the nutrients going right through the system. It still renders whole grain bread a wash, unless you can find soaked or sprouted whole grain bread (possible, but even more expensive). For your readers' sakes, though, I think it fair to share this information with them.

I would be happy to share more resources with you and hear your thoughts, as I'm just getting into this part of the nutritional landscape myself.

Thanks,

Katie Kimball

...

Our expert Dr Teri O’Brien, says:

Fermenting or soaking grains prior to cooking is indeed a well-recognized tribal behavior and strongly recommended by Bill Mollinsonof Permaculture fame in his book on fermentation. When long continued, specialised bacteria often accompany the process and are capable of rendering a poor quality food material (eg., cabbage) into the highly nutritious sauerkraut, but a lot of the extra nutritive value comes from the addition of microbial protein that arises from the fermentation.

Prolonged soaking begins to transform a dormant seed into a growing one, and reserves that were perhaps very unavailable in the dry grain may be rendered a bit more available in a human digestive tract. After all, the grain's embryo is starting to digest its reserves. But the devil is in the detail in this kind of discussion and unfortunately, the published literature on how the human digestive tract behaves, is not always helpful.

There is little evidence to suggest that soaking grains actually make those trapped nutrients more acessible.

...

Thank you! This is a lot of food for thought; there is a rather large niche of people following the "Nourishing Traditions" style of food preparation for whom soaking grains is paramount. Did Teri catch the part about soaking in an acidic medium? A Tbs of whey, yogurt, buttermilk, vinegar, or lemon juice is always added to the water to soak the grains, which takes 12-24 hours to "neutralize the phytic acid" as Nourishing Traditions claims. It sounds like a complicated issue! Thanks for the detailed reply; looks like I should do more research before jumping on the "soaked grains" bandwagon.

One last question for the expert: is there any reason soaking the grains in an acidic medium (sometimes already in flour form) would be harmful to digestion?

Thank you!
Katie

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