What is the difference between refined and unrefined grains?
Grains, cereals, beans, nuts, and other seeds should be the cornerstone or centerpiece of a diet to support the health of your heart. However, for maximum goodness nutritionally and in taste and texture, they must be unrefined. You should limit your eating of white bread or cookies to rare occasions. Historically, before the advent of roller milling in the late 1800s, which made it easy to produce the very white flour that is so prevalent today, populations ate hearty whole grains. These had flavor, texture, and all the natural, wholesome goodness that nature put into the grain. Even the white flour made from old stone mills and sifted at home to remove some of the bran was preferable to the white flour of today, as some of the bran and germ came through the oldfashioned sieves. The good fibers, proteins, vitamins like vitamin E , and minerals are in the germ or bran of the wheat. The wheat germ also contains a large number of newly discovered, precious phytochemicals that we are no...