October 15, 2010 - 12:51pm
Nutritional Benefits of Fresh Milled Flour?
Hi all,
I'm thinking about getting into home milling... like doing things myself, from scratch, so this is about as close as I can get with bread short of growing my own wheat. My main question is, what are the perscribed health benefits of fresh milled flour? I've read on several threads/sites that flour loses x% of its vitamins in the first x hours after being milled, oils go rancid, etc... While this intuitively seems like it could be true, are there any credible sources that support this? Most of what I read is from companies selling grain mills, so I'm hoping for a more objective source, like a university agriculture department study or something of the sort.
Thanks,
Jeff
Share
I personally doubt that that you will find that flour diminishes in its nutritive value with age, within reasonable time limits of course. Having said that, whole grain flours will get rancid with time. For that reason I store my whold grain flours in the refrigerator or the freezer. Flour can become infested with variouos insects, if left open. For that reason I keep the bags of opened flour sealed in plastic bags. Of course, The grains you are thinking of buying are also suscepitable to all of these things. Be sure that your source of grain protects the product and has a rapid turnover of stock.
The reference below concerns your question. Perhaps you may want to review the comments given there.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8800/nutrition-flour-after-being-milled
Ford
There is a book called "Flour Power" (Marleeta F. Basey - Jermar Press) that I read when I started milling. It seems well researched and deals with the nutritional advantages of fresh milling. Unfortunately it does not deal with milling - it just goes on and on about how wonderful home milled flour is for just about everything under the sun. So - I've kind of tipped my hand here about how I feel about it...
"I try not to eat anything that's good for me - the sooner my body gives out, the better."
Unfortunately there is a study that proves that just about everything is good or bad for you. Researchers must continue to get grants and the more provacative, the better.
But what I will not deny is the wonderful taste that you can get from freshly milled flour. Fresh whole or semi whole grain flour has a tremendous taste - like nothing you can buy. Fresher is always "better" - I've seen (and tasted) that so many times with so many foods that I can believe it.
That's why I mill. (You may wish to check out my blogs - or bwraith's blogs on the subject - they are getting a bit old, but they are still good.)
Good luck in your quest - it can take you as far as you want!
I mill my own flour, too, and think it has a far superior taste to the flour I buy at the store. I even grew a small patch of wheat on my front lawn this year, harvested, threshed, dried and then ground it into flour. I felt like a real pioneer woman! Now that's eating locally, and if I can grow wheat in the short growing season that central Maine has, maybe you can, too.