White Flour vs. Wheat Flour || Which One Is Healthy for You?

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Is white flour or wheat flour healthier? Well the names are weird because white flour is also made from wheat. So what’s the difference? And how’s a boy to know which one to use to be healthy? Well, we’re gonna get into all that, so hang on to your horses. And let’s get to it.

Today we’re gonna go over 2 questions: what’s the difference between white flour and wheat flour? And once we know that… which one is better for you—which one is healthy?

What’s the difference between white flour and wheat flour?
- Both are technically wheat flour
- Both can be made from any variety of wheat crop: red wheat, white wheat, durum wheat, you get the picture.
- The type of wheat plant has no bearing on our discussion

Whole wheat flour (unrefined) - all 3 parts of the wheat grain (wheat berry)
- Imagine the 3 parts of a hard-boiled egg
- Been used throughout history

White (refined) flour - only contains the starchy inside, the endoplasm
- A mostly modern food due to the complex mechanics required to separate the different parts of the wheat berry.
- It has been consumed occasionally in the past, but only rarely due to the crazy amount of tedious manual labor needed to sift out the hull and germ.

Which one is better for you?
- It depends. White flour has very low levels of micro-nutrients, like vitamins and minerals, because those are mostly contained in the hull and germ which are removed during the refining process. So, it’s natural to assume that whole wheat flour which contains those elements would be more nutritious, right? Yes, except that those same parts of the grain that contain the nutrients, also contain anti-nutrients to prevent the wheat berry from growing before it’s planted in the ground.
- It’s like a safe that needs to be unlocked.
- The traditional solution to unlocking the grain was to use slow preparation methods that take at a minimum 12 hours but can span multiple days. These methods include sprouting the grains, soaking the flour, or fermenting the dough in the case of sourdough bread.
- The modern solution to unlocking the grain is simply stripping out the hull and germ, leaving us with flour that is mostly just empty calories. Granted, it no longer contains anti-nutrients, but we’ve lost all the good stuff too. A little bit of white flour here and there isn’t going to kill you, but too much over a period of time will displace healthy foods in your diet, and cause nutritional deficiencies resulting in tooth decay, susceptibility to disease, chronic problems, and general poor health. And no, incase your wondering, enriched white flour makes barely any difference, and in some cases can actually be worse.

So in summary, whole wheat flour contains all 3 parts of the wheat berry and is best used for making traditional style, slow prepared breads. And refined white flour only contains 1 part of the wheat berry and is best for quick purposes like thickening sauces and gravies, and for making sweet treats like pie-crusts and cookies.

Now, I recognize there’s a lot more that could be said regarding wheat flour—like what variety of wheat you should buy, whether or not you need to get organic, and if you should even be buying wheat at all or going for a gluten-free flour. And so, I’ll be making another video going over everything you need to know when choosing healthy flour.

But in the meantime, make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss my next video on flour, or my other videos on kitchen tools, nutritious cooking, and healthy living. That’s about it.

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:32 - What’s the Difference Between White and Wheat Flour
3:36 - Is White or Wheat Flour Healthier?
6:26 - Summary

#DennisFromScratch #DennisRussell

[terryoneill]

As a complete newb, I must say that this is exactly the video I needed. You smashed it, thanks.

[GutsAnGlory]

Awesome video! This convinced my wife and I to use whole wheat flour for our homemade sourdough bread.

[zach]

Whole wheat flour doesn’t spike your blood sugar as much which is important in a world full of overconsumption.

[felicitykenter]

Thank you for this detailed explanation, it was very helpful.

[maryjurisons]

Some misinformation here! Whole wheat flour does not have all 3 parts of the berry. What we have in the stores is a ramped up version of the white flour. The white flour has the bran and the germ taken out. The whole wheat flour only has part of that put back in. Unless you are milling your own berries, what you buy in the store lacks vitamins and minerals. Study Sue Becker’s book The Essential Home - Ground Flour Book.

[DIO_KaiKi]

Thank you this video saved my chemisrty presentation! very well made video!

[simpmaster]

Very informative video.Thank you for making this fantastic video.

[tomtommyl]

Neither if you have problems with Insulin spikes.

[sllingky]

Better 6et, get a home mill and mill your own flour. Fresh and full of nutrients with so much variety of grains available.

[paigeturner]

After this video, I can say that food science is the best!!!😄❤

[ibstayfly]

I been stopped using white flour and currently use whole wheat flour. But I just watched another video and I may switch to other flours like Quinoa flour Almond flour etc

[Javaman]

At least you got the most general outline of things. Whole grain is better, and its better to break it down by the sprouting, soaking or fermenting. Other than that, you missed mentioning that bread in general is a "fast carb" Hopefully your subscribers will search out that information themselves.

[starwreck]

Wheat for the win! Can we get a video or segment about collagen?

also the gluten free video sounds interesting

[StefanImig]

"white flour in moderation won't kill you"
Me who has eaten nothing but white flour my entire life: 👁️👄👁️

[MangoMan]

The fact that he didn’t bring up Fiber in order to not tip. The scale completely towards Wheat flour is insane.

[yadiracumberbatch]

excellent info. could you recommend what brand can we buy. Thank you ❤️

[nattyasrat]

I stopped buying white flour and changed to whole wheat and the rest is history, meaning never turned back to white flour. but definitely okay to use it occasionally

[EacProductions]

Wow this is a great vid! So you’re saying whole wheat sourdough bread is one of the best?👀

[McbrideStudios]

White flour, another luxury iteam turned into junk food by modern industry

[sierrahhofzon]

Thank you! That was super informative.

With that I wonder, do Rotis which we eat everyday in my Indian culture and are made from Whole Wheat Flour (Atta), are we actually getting nutrition from them?

Am not sure if the way we prepare them negate the anti-nutrients.