Special plant nutrients in wheat

Special plant nutrients in wheat are embedded in the grain enabling the body to digest the food, give protection against serious disease and feed the microbiome. We are talking here about those phytochemicals over and above the carbohydrate, protein and fat.

There are a great many of these important plant nutrients so obviously we can only take a brief look at those that are considered more important. It would take several books to cover all the vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals in detail.

Written by Dr. Bernard Preston (BSc, BEd and DC)

Disclaimer

Vitamin E

I begin with vitamin E perhaps because that is where my journey with wheat began nearly fifty years ago. Attending a lecture by a world renowned cardiologist it was deeply imprinted on me when he stated that prior to the commercial milling of flour around 1870, heart attacks were almost unknown. Today they are the leading killer of human beings.

• Vitamin E dosage
  

Embedded in the germ and bran of wheat and other seeds, is where alpha-tocopherol is located; it is nature's chief anticoagulant. It stops clots from forming unnecessarily in the blood.

Once we began to extract the germ and bran where the alpha-tocopherol is found, sudden death from heart attacks and strokes began to soar.

Vitamin E is in fact a family of 8 compounds; they have diverse functions and are located in disparate foods. Only two are well-researched; the alpha and gamma forms of the tocopherol.

They compete with each other for absorption so taking a large supplementary amount of alpha-tocopherol as found in wheat germ oil will inhibit the gamma form which gives protection against prostated cancer.

Clinicians were dismayed when they found that prescribing alpha-tocopherol for their heart patients that the prevalence of cancer in the nether regions began to increase. Nutrition is an extremely complex subject. Get your vitamins from your food remains for ever the best advice.

Lignans

Not in logical order but as I personally have been moved by the special plant nutrients in wheat, we proceed. Lignans are important phytonutrients located primarily in the bran of seeds but different forms in legumes too; we need both. They prevent cancer.

Thus it comes as no surprise that the Cancer Association recommends a true wholegrain and legume at every single meal. No one does that; nor does our family, I must confess. But we certainly do at least once every single day.

Less than 2% of those eating typical grocery store food are consuming the RDA of whole grains.

The lignans in the bran of just one slice of true wholemeal bread per day give nearly 50% protection against the two most prominent killers; breast and prostate cancer.

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Just one slice per day gives nearly 50% protection

Thiamine (Vitamin B1)

Thiamine was the first vitamin every discovered; prior to that doctors thought that all diseases were caused by germs and toxins. It is located in the germ primarily but also the bran of wheat and other grains.

Brown rice is another important source; once millers began to polish rice, tens of millions of people, far more than C-19 died from beriberi.

And still people eat refined bread and white rice; and wonder why they are suffering from generalised muscle weakness, peripheral neuropathies and obesity.

• Weight loss: What is the Microbiome Enhancer Diet?
  

Without thiamine from our food, the microbiome shifts towards those pathogenic bacteria in the gut that make us fat.

• Obesity, generalised muscle weakness and the microbiome
  

Betaine

Betaine really should be considered a vitamin. We cannot live without it. But it can be formed from dietary choline

The problem is that those deficient in betaine are almost certainly short of dietary choline too.

Betaine is a very important nutrient; deficiencies cause birth defects, serious disease from a rise in homocysteine and liver cirrhosis.

• What is betaine?
  

Calcium

The element calcium is vitally important in human wellness and many people are deficient. The problem is that it is still generally thought that it is only a problem of post-menopausal women and the solution is dairy products and supplementation of the elderly with various mineral salts.

There are numerous problems associated with these assumptions. The first is that young women who do not acquire normal bone density by their early 20's are already predetermined to suffer from osteoporosis and disability. The question of calcium needs to be addressed in childhood, not when the damage is already done.

The second problem is that adequate calcium can be obtained from whole foods and not just from dairy products which are still questioned by many because firstly of its cholesterol and secondly its acidifying nature on human metabolism.

The third is that mineral supplementation is strongly associated with deposition in the great vessels, hypertension and heart disease; that includes added synthetic calcium added to commercial bread.

The long and the short of it is that young and old alike need to exercise daily and eat foods rich in calcium. True wholegrain wheat bread contains 13mg of the mineral per slice; and cooked spinach 250 milligrams per cup.

The Real Bread Movement was born out of the desire to retain these special plant nutrients in the flour; with no need to "enrich" it again with synthetics after the natural substances were extracted and sent for animal feed.

Fibre

Fibre is an essential nutrient for the friendly bacteria in the gut that do so much for human immunity and wellness; and in particular those that can themselves produce thiamine.

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Only 5% of those enjoying typical grocery store food are consuming the recommended dietary allowance of around 35 grams.

• How to get more fibre
  

Special plant nutrients in wheat

Special plant nutrients in wheat are located chiefly in the bran and germ; once the flour is refined most are lost.

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