Why do you think so many people have digestive
problems? It’s not because they’re getting old, and it’s usually not because
they eat spicy foods. It’s because they eat too much of the wrong foods, and
don’t take care of the inner workings of their body. Over-the-counter digestive
aids won’t solve the problem, but changing your diet might.
One of the common mistakes people make is to think
that highly processed foods that look attractive and feel good to the touch are
healthy as well. I believe that white-flour products, which look nice and feel
soft, are some of the most damaging processed foods on the market. Not only is
the flour stripped of its nutritional value, it’s made into some of the least
healthy foods you can buy, such as cakes, pastries, and cookies that are also
loaded with sugar and fat. On top of that, many people develop sensitivities to
wheat and I have to wonder if that’s because of the stripped-down, processed
wheat products we eat.
Do you
still eat white bread? Do you feed it to your children? During the processing
of white wheat flour, much of the nutritionally rich parts of the grain are removed;
what’s left is then bleached white. When this process was first developed, it
was expensive; only the very rich ate foods made with white flour. White bread
was considered a nicer, cleaner product than whole-grain bread. Its softness
was attractive, although that means it has less substance.
As with so many products, if the rich have it, the
masses want it. So techniques for producing large quantities of white flour
were developed, and soon everyone bought it. We eat it because that’s what our
parents ate, and their parents before them, and so on, all the way back to the
generation that felt that eating white flour made them more like the rich.
That’s not a good reason to eat a food that has less nutritional value than
other products on the market.
If you want to help your body maintain a healthy
digestive system and you care about the nutrients you get from your food, one
of the things that has to go is white flour. If you’re willing to make that
change, congratulations! Change your white-wheat habit a little at a time—as
with any other change, a step at a time works best. If you have children, this
can be a challenge. For some reason, kids seem especially attached to white
bread. Remember that kids learn their attitudes about food from their parents.
Bad habits are inherited, along with bad health.
Introduce children to whole grains by introducing such
foods as something special. Start with the more processed whole-grain products
and work up to less processed. How do you tell which is which? The squeeze
test. The softer it is, the more processed it probably is. Many people are
turned off by the texture of whole-grain products because they’re used to
spongy-soft breads, cakes, and cookies. Whole-grain foods don’t have to be
rock-hard, but their firmness may take some getting used to.
Don’t be
fooled by highly processed foods masquerading as whole-grain products. Learn to
read the ingredient labels. How much whole-wheat flour is used in the product?
What other types of flour are used? A general rule of thumb is the more
ingredients it has, the more processed it is. You can also generally say the
more ingredients that you don’t recognize and can’t pronounce the names of, the
more processed the product is.
Many grocery stores now carry whole-grain breads, rolls,
and tortillas. For whole-grain hotdog buns, pita bread, and cookies, and cake,
pancake, and waffle mixes, you may have to shop at the health-food store. Many
such stores have bakery sections where you can get everything from donuts and
croissants to fancy wedding cakes, all whole-grain.
For those of you who bake from scratch at home, start
substituting some of the white flour in your recipes with whole wheat. It does
change the texture somewhat. Each time you bake, add more whole-grain flour,
until you’ve adapted your recipes and whole grains are the only grains you use.
(Hint: Use more liquid than you would with white
flour;
whole-grain bread tends to be more dry.) There are many great whole-foods
cookbooks on the market today to help you make the transition.
Of course, like most changes you make in your diet,
going whole-grain doesn’t mean you can never eat white flour again. On special
occasions, you might still want to serve an old-fashioned white-flour cake.
That’s OK, but you might discover that, after you’ve eaten whole grains for a
while, the white stuff no longer seems attractive. Use whole-grain products
daily, and use white flour occasionally, if you like.
Make this change and you’re on your way to increasing
the nutritional value of your diet as well as ensuring that you have a
digestive system that works well enough to do its job without the help of
over-the-counter drugs.
