The Hidden Truth About Enriched White Flour

To enrich something means to make it richer by adding good things to it. If you add some organic apple cider vinegar to your water, you’ve enriched it. Enriched white flour must have lots of good things added, so it’s good for you. Right? Wrong!

The reality is that many of the good things that were originally in the flour, like fiber and phytonutrients, have been stripped out through extensive chemical and mechanical processing. Processing removes 20 essential nutrients — a mere 5 are added to the finished product.^[1] The added nutrients are iron, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), niacin (b3), and folic acid (B9). But these aren’t natural vitamins and minerals added to the flour. The forms added to enriched processed flour are often created in labs or harvested from soil, rather than grown in nature.

There’s a common misconception that enriched flour is not that bad for you, it’s just not as good for you as whole wheat. After all, the flour producer did add some nutrients back to it. But this flour is not neutral — it’s actively harming your health. Consuming enriched flour products is like eating pure sugar and popping a multivitamin.

What sets enriched white fiber apart from whole wheat fiber is which parts of the wheat berry make it into the flour. White flour has a very high glycemic index because it contains only the endosperm, or starchy component of the wheat berry.^[2] Whole wheat flour contains the whole wheat berry, including the bran, germ, and the endosperm.

How Enriched Flour Affects Your Health

Enriched white flour is not absorbed into the body like whole grains. When you eat refined flour, your digestive system quickly and easily breaks down and absorbs it like pure sugar. This causes your blood sugar to spike, which activates insulin, a hormone that herds all those free sugar molecules into cells, causing your blood sugar to drop.

A drop in blood sugar is actually the best case scenario. Over time, these cycles can lead to weight gain and insulin resistance. During this time, you still produce insulin, but it’s no longer able to send sugar into your cells. You’re left with dangerously high blood sugar, which leads to blood vessel damage, increased oxidative stress, and depleted antioxidant activity, while contributing to high blood pressure.^[3]

Why Whole Grains Are Better

On the other end of the spectrum, whole grains are absorbed from the digestive tract slowly because they contain both types of fiber and a wide range of phytonutrients. The fiber and nutrients help maintain your blood sugar, help you feel full for longer, preserve your insulin sensitivity, and protect you from a slew of diet-related diseases.^[4] Refined flour does the opposite. It increases the risk and incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain cancers.^[1, 5]

Benefits of Whole Grain Flour vs. White Enriched Flour

• Whole grain foods are higher in fiber because the wheat germ and bran are still included.
• Whole grain foods are digested more slowly, leaving you feeling fuller for a longer.
• Whole grain foods have more nutrients than “enriched” foods.
• Whole grains are not absorbed like pure sugar, so they won’t spike your blood sugar.

Alternatives to Enriched White Flour

It’s difficult to live flour-free. Many foods are made with flour of some type and it is hard to go flour-free without switching to an all-produce diet or raw food diet.

There are alternatives to enriched white flour. Try replacing enriched flour with whole wheat, oat flour, rye flour, almond meal, brown rice flour, or millet flour. Pasta and bread are the foods that most commonly contain white flour, but pay attention as many processed and frozen foods contain enriched flour.

If available, sprouted flours are best. Preferably, organic. Organic sprouted whole grain pastas and breads are becoming easier to obtain although the best diet plan would contain little to no grains and more live fruits, seeds and vegetables. You can also try incorporating enzymes, like proteases, to help your body break down the protein in flour. I personally recommend Veganzyme® to keep your digestive system functioning well when eating foods that contain gluten.

The fiber and nutrients help maintain your blood sugar, help you feel full for longer, preserve your insulin sensitivity, and protect you from a slew of diet-related diseases.^[4] Refined flour does the opposite. It increases the risk and incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain cancers.^[1, 5]

Whole Grain Flour vs. White Enriched Flour

• Whole grain foods are higher in fiber because the wheat germ and bran have not been processed out of them.
• Whole grain foods are digested more slowly, leaving you feeling fuller for a longer.
• Whole grain foods have more nutrients than “enriched” foods.
• Whole grains are not processed as a starch, so they don’t throw your body into a sugar dependency cycle.

Experiment with a 10 day, no enriched white flour challenge, you might be surprised at how easy it is. Better yet, share the challenge with your family and friends.