Is Enriched Flour Better for You?

If you’ve read many of our articles, you may be picking up on the fact that unless you know what an ingredient is and what it does, it can seem innocuous or even healthy and truly be neither. Label Reading isn’t anyone’s favorite pastime but it is the only way to really understand what you are putting in your body, especially when it’s a pre-processed product. Even if you do make a lot of things from scratch, basic ingredients like flour are not free from deceptive labeling. One such example is the use of “enriched” when referring to wheat flour. Enriched sounds like it would be a healthy alternative to white flour or even more full of beneficial ingredients than plain wheat flour but let's take a closer look. 

We’ve discussed before the benefit of fiber as opposed to highly processed foods lacking fiber. Fiber slows down the digestion and really allows the body to gain energy and nutrients as needed and over a longer time. It regulates the use of sugar and helps prevent spikes in blood sugar. It also plays a big role in what makes you feel full so you tend to eat less food when it’s fiber rich. In wheat or wheat flour, the fiber is packed into the bran and germ along with most of the nutrients naturally occurring in wheat. With the endosperm, these three parts make up a whole grain. Based just on the name, you might think enriched flour would just be this whole grain with some vitamins and minerals added in but that is not the case. Enriched flour is flour that has been stripped of the bran and germ, leaving only the endosperm behind. This is often done to make the flour more fine in texture and more palatable to the average American. Manufacturers then try to add back some nutrients specifically, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folic acid and Iron. This is now required of food manufacturers because the rise of the practice of removing the germ and bran correlated with a rise in certain illnesses linked to malnutrition. We also know that even with the added vitamins, the endosperm based flour lacks the fiber to moderate the use of sugar and will instead quickly be broken down and cause a major sugar spike in the blood. The addition of these vitamins is then more of an empty gesture than a true fix.

The bottom line here is that while it sounds healthy, enriched flour is actually pretty bad for you.The empty calories don’t fill you up and you will continue to eat but gain very little in the way of nourishment. You might not be surprised to learn that unfortunately it is in EVERYTHING. Donuts, snack foods, cereal, pizza dough, cake mix, pancakes and, of course, bread are all commonly full of enriched flour. There are, of course, healthier alternatives! When you shop, check the label for enriched flour or even just “wheat flour” without the indication that it is 100%. This might be enriched flour too. When you bake, pick up all purpose whole wheat flour instead of the enriched variety to make sure the things you bake include the germ and the bran. Avoid a diet that relies heavily on processed goods as the more processed a baked good or wheat-based snack is, the more likely it is that it was made with highly processed, enriched flour. If you really want to get back to the basics, you may even be able to find locally ground flour from a farmers’ market or a local CSA! So shop locally if you can and be aware of what’s in your favorite foods so that you can make the best choices about what to put into your body. 

Resources: 

Flour Enrichment | Baking Processes | BAKERpedia

Find a CSA Community Supported Agriculture - LocalHarvest 

Food Recall: What Actually Happens?

We’ve touched on the FDA’s role in our food safety system but what actually happens when there is a food threat and a food recall? What do we need to do as the consumer and what basics should we know? 

A food recall is usually caused by one of three things. First, food is recalled when there is a physical contaminate like say Jeff accidentally fell into one of the canned soup machines and though we fished him out, his jacket and left shoes have been cooked down into several thousand cans of spaghettiOs.  Second, food might be recalled due to a pathogen like E. Coli. or Salmonella. The third common reason for recalls is mislabeling. For example, if a product goes out without noting that it contains Yellow 5 or some other allergen that requires listing. This last one can be particularly dangerous if, say, something with trace amounts of peanuts goes out unlabeled and someone with a serious allergy eats it believing it to be safe. 

How is something like this caught? Usually, the manufacturing company is checking inhouse and will be the first to notice that something is off. For example, say Jeff was working alone when he fell in and didn’t tell anyone about his mishap. However, Susan was inspecting the cans of soup from that run later and found teeny, tiny pieces of rubber in several cans. Susan or her superiors would call a halt and they’d be the ones to contact the FDA or FSIS and together they’d work to reclaim as many cans of the contaminated soup as they could. They’d also trace the soup back to its source (probably fire Jeff, sorry Jeff) and tag that whole batch of soup. 

Sometimes, the FDA or FSIS is the first to know about a contaminant through their own investigations. In that case, they would encourage the manufacturing company to do a recall voluntarily and put legal pressure on them to force a recall if they refused. Additionally, we as consumers can report an illness or contamination issue to our local health department or the FDA directly and start the process that way. 

Once food recall is deemed necessary, it is categorized into one of three classes. Class 1 includes the most dangerous types of food hazards that are pretty likely to cause health issues or even death. Class 2 has the potential for harm but it’s probability of that harm occurring is pretty remote. Class 3 is unlikely to cause harm even if the food is consumed. 

Over the last decade we’ve seen the number of food recalls go up dramatically. This increase is due in part to the improvements we’ve made in technology over that time period. In other words, we are better equipped to catch and deal with a food recall so the increase in frequency isn’t all bad. Better to know, right? 

As a consumer, when you find out about a food recall here’s what you do:

• Do not eat the food! Even if you feel like you’ll be fine and the food looks ok, why risk it?

• Don’t open the food! Especially if it is a pathogen contamination. You risk contaminating your kitchen and home with the same pathogen. Remember, this is a microorganism and can and will spread given the opportunity. 

• Don’t feed it to the neighbors (even if you don’t like them) or your dog. Again, pathogens can affect more than humans and your cat or dog may have some serious reactions to the contaminant as well. At the very least, they might develop diarrhea and no one wants to deal with that kind of mess. 

• Don’t freak out but be mindful of how you feel if you’ve already eaten the recalled product. Contact your doctor if you start to feel nauseous or develop any new signs of sickness.  

• Do follow the recommendations listed with the recall as they will vary based on the specific kind of recall you are experiencing. This might include returning the unopened product to the store where you bought it. Often, you will be refunded the cost of the item. 

• Do sanitize your space particularly if the food in question was a meat or animal by-product. 

Cut Carbs Some Slack!

You’re staring down at the leftover sweet potato casserole from Turkeyday and thinking about how many carbs that basically-a-pie entree probably carries. It’s so good but it’s so heavy! In fact, looking at the bread, stuffing and mac-and-cheese, you begin to wonder if you shouldn’t just skip carbs entirely for a while. Low carb diets are better anyway, right? Let’s take a look.  

Carbs are one of the most readily available forms of energy the body has access to. When you go to exert yourself in any way, carbs supply the fuel that lets you push. This is especially true in regards to physical workouts and exertion. Carbs are a big part of what are bodies’ run on. So then, are carbs good? Hmmmm, it’s a little more complex than that, though in this case complexity is a good thing 

Carbs can be classified in a couple different ways. The most common is probably by type. There are sugars, starches and fiber. Sugars include those naturally occurring in fruits and veggies or dairy products, as well as processed sugars like what you use to bake or what’s found in almost anything sweetened. Even things like high-fructose corn syrup and agave nectar fall into this category. Sucrose, fructose and even lactose are all, technically, carbs. 

Starches include grains like rice, beans, potatoes and even corn. Starch is a densely packed pod of energy that a plant forms to store what it collects from the sun. It is usually wrapped in an outer shell of some kind which in the case of grain consists of a bran and germ. This fibrous outer layer is filled with vitamins and minerals and is the reason whole grain foods are generally considered to be more balanced and nutritious than refined ones. 

Fiber, as we’ve discussed in a previous blog, is the indigestible part of foods like beans and legumes, fruit and veggies, whole grain foods and more, that mostly passes right through the body but has a big impact on digestion and gastrointestinal regulation. It allows you to absorb more nutrients from your food and to regularly pass what the body doesn’t need. Fiber is hugely important and also falls under carbohydrates. 

You can probably tell right away that the idea of totally cutting out carbs might not make as much sense as you may have been told. A lot of the healthiest and important foods we need are technically carbs. Fiber, for example, is crucial to digestion and adults in the US get only a small portion of what is recommended (which according to the American Diabetes Association is about 25 to 30 grams a day). Carbs aren’t always bread and potatoes. Sometimes they are split peas and corn or bananas and almonds. 

The amount of carbohydrates that each person needs is much more dependent on the individual than any blanket statement could cover. The pile of gooey marshmallows topping that sweet potato casserole might be something to consider when cleaning up Thanksgiving leftovers but keep in mind that not all carbs are created equally!

Resources: 

American Diabetes Association

Role of polysaccharides in food, digestion, 

https://exceednutrition.com/all-about-carbohydrates/and health