Here’s an observation: Though men mainly invent and manufacture (unhealthy) factory foods, women most often protect us from the consequences. I keep a list of heroines of nutrition—women who challenged the established but erroneous beliefs of their day. (There are a few good men on the list also.) Although science is about the search for knowledge, reformers fighting for a new truth must endure the wrath of those invested in the old truth. So it’s good to remember those who struggled to improve the world of nutrition—like May Yates (1850-1938). To appreciate the story of this good woman, we need a bit of history:
In the 1870s a new process for making flour that used steel rollers instead of the traditional millstone was invented. This new method also separated the bran and germ from the endosperm, making flour that was finer and cheaper. (The lost bran and germ was fed to farm animals, lucky creatures.) The new flour, pleasingly white and modern, quickly dominated the market—out with the old, in with the new. This was a critical change because grains provide more of mankind’s daily energy than any other food group.
Food innovations often have unintended consequences and this was the case with the roller mill. It took time to understand what had been thrown out with the bran and germ. Vitamins had not yet been discovered, that was a generation off. The function of the missing minerals was unknown. And the importance of fiber and antioxidants was also a mystery. By the time these things became known eating habits had changed and we, like the sheep who lost their way, were caught in history’s biggest food experiment: “What happens to a civilization if the vital nutrients in grains are removed from the diet?”
The harm was hard to measure as it happened before public health data was kept, and modern flour was only one of three food disasters:
• Cheap sugar following the Civil War,
• Refined white flour in the late 1800s, and
• Trans fats in the early 1900s (via hydrogenated margarine and shortenings like Crisco)
Now back to our heroine. May Yates was a society artist who lived in England after the consumption of refined flour was well established. She took a vacation trip to Sicily, where people were still eating traditional whole grains. Yates noted the robust physical condition of the Italians and contrasted this to the poor health of the English. It was concluded that a primary cause of England’s declining health was the use of modern refined flour. Yates was so moved by this tragedy that she returned home determined to return whole grains to the diet. She devoted her life to this new cause, selling her jewelry to finance her crusade, and founding the Bread Reform League. In 1909 the league successfully established ”standard bread”—made with 80% whole grains—as the norm in England.
Americans eat their weight (more or less) in grains each year, but 90% of the grains are not whole. That’s a lot of lost nutrients—our goal is to reverse that ratio. We started with breakfast cereal, this post is about bread, a future post will address the other grains in our diet.
The other night we went through the bread aisle of the local grocery store, comparing the healthiness of a confusing number of breads. We’ll report the findings in our next post. In the kitchen we’ve been experimenting with bread recipes using whole grains—do you have one you like? Also, please share your ideas for restoring whole grains to the American diet.
Need a reminder? Download our Healthy Change reminder card. Print and fold, then place in your kitchen or on your bathroom mirror to help you remember the Healthy Change of the week.