Some excerpts from the Ecological Agriculture Projects website on the history of grain production and nutrition, which you can also access here
The earliest version of today's iron roller mills were first used in Hungary in 1839. Between 1870 and 1890, they quickly replaced the stone mills throughout Europe and North America, and milling soon became completely automated (Davis 1981; Hall 1974). The roller mills were more economical and more efficient. The milling process could be controlled to produce as white a flour as the public demanded (Mount, 1975). However, the resulting flour was devoid of bran and germ, and consequently many nutrients were lacking
A very sophisticated process is currently employed for the milling of grain. Cleaning is accomplished by means of separators, aspirators, scourers, magnets, and washer-stoners. The wheat is tempered or conditioned in water to toughen the bran to reduce fragmentation when it is removed, and to obtain a moisture content resulting in particles of the desired size. The bran and germ, which make up about 28% of the wheat, are totally removed in this process. They are used in the production of animal feeds (Davis, 1981), as -well as by pharmaceutical laboratories for making diet supplements (Sablier, 1984).
In the 1940s, a flour enrichment program was instituted to compensate for wartime shortages of other foods. However, in the 'enriched' flour only the B vitamins - thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin - and the mineral, iron, were added, in amounts approximately equivalent to those removed from whole wheat (Jenkins, 1975). Flour 'Enrichment' implies a loss of nutrients and should not be equated with wholesomeness. For approximately 20 nutrients, there is an average loss of 70-80% to in refined and enriched flour (Davis, 1981). Its consumption clearly places the body at a disadvantage, casting a burden on the rest of the diet. The addition of more nutrients to refined flour has been considered, but it is limited by, for example, the effect of some nutrients on sensitive individuals (Pomeranz, 1988).
For centuries, bakers have known that 'good quality' baked goods could not be made with freshly milled flour, because the dough would lack strength and resilience to trap gas. Until the 20th century it was common practice of storing flour for months to allow oxygen to condition it. However, as well as storage costs, spoilage and insects caused losses. Chemical oxidizing agents or bleaches were developed to produce the same aging effects in 24-48 hours (Baker's Digest, 1962). They cause one of two effects: oxidation of the gluten (so less sulfhydryl groups are left to disturb disulfide bonds that need to form during dough fermentation for the bread to rise), and bleaching of the yellowish carotene pigments which could have been sources of vitamin A (Thomas, 1986; Jenkins 1975; Freeland-Graves & Peckham, 1987).
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Does Bread Alter Birthrate?
Steel roller mills were introduced in Britain in 1872. By 1876, the birth rate began to decline from 36/1000 to less than 14/1000 in 1941, at which time the National Loaf became compulsory (85% extraction, including the germ). In the next two years, the birth rate rose to 16/1000. Vitamin E deficiency was the suspected cause, since it was believed to have something to do with human and animal reproduction, and is destroyed in the refining of flour. Friend Sykes was said to get his horses and cows to breed by feeding them wheat germ for two months, and Dr. L. J. Picton did the same with his stallions (Day, 1966)
What did they know in the 1940's about enriched white bread?
Dr. Estelle Hawley, of Rochester University, fed a group of rats McCay-Cornell bread made with unbleached flour, wheat germ, and soybean flour and a lot of milk solids. She fed another group commercial enriched white bread. Both groups also received an amount of margarine equivalent to 10% of the weight of the bread (Rorty, 1954). The first group lived healthy, but the second group became ill, produced stunted offspring and were extinct by the fourth generation.
A journal article, written in 1942, discusses the deterioration of the physique of the British, between the 18th century and the Boer War around 1900 (Alvarez, 1942). The most probable explanation was that they had come to depend too much on white flour and sugar, whereas their ancestors had eaten plenty of 'whole wheat flour.’
In Denmark, during World War II, due to a food crisis, many domestic animals were slaughtered and their grain rations fed to humans. Consumption of white bread was stopped, and replaced by a bread made from a wholemeal of 67% rye, 21% oats, and 12% bran, called Kleiebrot. Consequently, the death rate fell to the lowest level ever registered in Europe. There were significant declines in the incidence of high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney problems, diabetes, and cancer, and there were no cases of digestive troubles (Marine & Van Allen, 1972; Day, 1966).
Enriched flour may have a lower vitamin bioavailability, since synthetic vitamins have been found to act different',y. For instance, they react differently to light, and synthetic vitamin C does not cure scurvy in mice as quickly as natural vitamin C (Day, 1966). Enriched flour products have also been found to lose more vitamins due to heat than do non-enriched products, because added vitamins are less heat-resistant. This is believed to be due to the absence of naturally occurring stabilizers (Mender, 1983; Thomas, 1990).
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Mineral absorption study in rats:
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