For those of you who like to know all the details, here’s the facts on wheat and why it’s so good for you.
Wheat is a grain, which is to say it’s basically a seed. And like all seeds, wheat has everything it needs to sprout and grow inside a protective hull, called a husk. Just inside the husk is a layer of bran, which is where you’ll find a great deal of the nutrition as well as fiber. As you go further into the wheat kernal, the next layer is the endosperm. If you were to sprout the wheat, this is the part of the seed that would feed the new plant until it developed roots. It makes up about 80% of the kernal and is almost entirely starch.
The inner core of the kernal is the endosperm. This is roughly equivalent to the yolk of an egg. This is where the sprouting process starts. It contains a high degree of fat (comparatively speaking. We’re talking wheat here, not pork chops), a lot of vitamins, and a lot of minerals.
Now, if you browse the baking goods aisle of your local grocery store you’ll notice several different kinds of flour. The overwhelming majority of what’s available will be All-Purpose flour, the white powdery stuff that most of you will have been using all your life. This is made from wheat that has had the germ and the bran removed. (You’ll rarely see the husk on whole wheat berries. Besides being inedible, the hulls tends to drop off as the wheat is being harvested.)
With the germ and the bran gone, what’s left is the endosperm, which makes a very nice, light-colored flour, free of fiber and with very little nutrition. Vitamins and minerals do get put back in (this is why it’s called “fortified”) but not as many as are taken out. While there has been considerable debate over the healthiness of eating white flour, it can’t be denied that nutritionists know what they’re talking about when they tell us to eat more whole grains.
Whole wheat flour is made from the entire grain. Having the bran and the germ in there make it much healthier with a greater fiber content and lots more minerals and vitamins. It does make it darker, though, and gives it a different texture. (Which might take your family a while to get used to.) Also, because of the high fat content of the germ, whole wheat flour doesn’t store well. It tends to go rancid. If you grind your own (and we’ll talk later about wheat grinders) you’ll want to either use it right away or store it in the freezer.
As a side note, it’s worth mentioning that researchers have found a correlation between eating whole grains and lower weight. They don’t know just why, yet, but there’s no denying there seems to be a link.
According to the USDA 1 cup of cracked wheat contains:
Water (g): 17.68
Energy (kcal): 441
Protein (g): 17.02
Fat, total (g): 2.08
Carbohydrate (g): 96.09
Sugars, total (g): 0.55
Fiber, total dietary (g): 16.5
Saturated fatty acids, total (g): 0.364
Monounsaturated fatty acids, total (g): 0.27
Polyunsaturated fatty acids, total (g): 0.85
Calcium (mg): 39
Copper (mg): 0.552
Iron (mg): 4.09
Magnesium (mg): 170
Phosphorus (mg): 370
Potassium (mg): 466
Selenium (mcg): 95.4
Sodium (mg): 3
Zinc (mg): 3.58
Vitamin B-6 (mg): 0.364
Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol (mg): 1.36
Folate, total (mcg): 36
Vitamin K (mcg): 2.6
Niacin (mg): 6.634
Riboflavin (mg): 0.146
Thiamin (mg): 0.41
Carotene, beta (mcg): 7
Lutein + zeaxanthin (mcg): 267