What you should know about flour

published under int.Creative Commons 4.0 Lizenz

We are an interesting species.

We can celebrate degeneration as progress.
An example for that consumption would be the story of one of our favourite staple food: flour.
Within the last 170 years we adapted our nutrition for the benefit of durability and to the needs of an industrialized economy. Based on our current state of knowledge, we created a solid base for what is called disease of our civilization. Depending on how we want to go on, a restoration of our food would be pleasing.
But let me show it to you …

The different qualities of flour

If you buy flour or flour-based products you’ll get:

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Nearly always: Degerminated flour

Imagine degerminated flour as an egg without yolk and eggshell but named: Egg.
The majority of flour and flour-based products on the market are made of more or less coloured degerminated white flour. It is likely that you fill yourself with this kind of quality.

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Rather rarely: Heat-processed flour

By that kind of flour the germ is treated either with steam, dry heat or microwaves.
It can be imagined like an egg with hard-boiled yolk but liquid egg white (which is advertised as egg with “very healthy vital yolk”). Generally it can be said that the majority of whole-wheat flour is heat processed. White flour of this kind is rather unusual.

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Hardly ever: “Goldkeim” flour

“Goldkeim” flour is flour made of the whole grain and consists of endosperm, bran and the germ. A good metaphor would be a real and untreated egg. Whenever the story of mankind and flour is told, apart from the last ~140 years, this quality was meant to be original.
“Goldkeim” white flour consists of endosperm and germ; the bran is entirely or partly taken out. Depending on the production method the germ is partly lost.

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Out of competition because silly: Enriched flour

Enriched means that you first take out bran and germ and than put some of the vitamins back which were most likely there in the first place. Those you put back are produced by genetically modified microorganisms and it is not so important if the added vitamins were part of natural flour. And yes, it can be imagined like an egg. Where, for example, instead of yolk you will find parts of healthy fish and banana. As mentioned earlier, we are an interesting species. You can then differentiate these qualities into conventional and organic agriculture.
Odd: The word “conventional” has its root in “common, traditional” so conventional would suit traditional organic agriculture. For some reason the word is misused for the hardly 150-year-old industrialized agricultural mass production. Another of our field studies that went terribly wrong. At least if health and environment is of concern.

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Basics – A fundamental description of a bread grain

Bread grain is a grain which is (surprise!) used to make bread. It is by tradition spelt, wheat, rye, emmer, somehow Kamut and others. Such a breadstuff-grain basically consists of husks that surround endosperm and germ. Important for the flour production are;

ed. endosperm (food, energy, good),
f. bran or aleurone layer (protection, shape, good),
k. the germ (life, meaning, used to be a problem)

What is flour?

Flour is made by milling grains.
If you grind grain the end product will be flour, nowadays called whole-meal flour .
If you remove the bran partly or entirely you will get superfine or white flour .

About the germ

The germ consists of the actual embryo and a flimsy skin which separates the embryo form the endosperm. This skin is rich in vitamins, bears the famous name „Scutellum“ and initiates the enzymatic starch conversion after germination. Because of this process the endosperm becomes digestible for the embryo. This embryo becomes grain again.

About the bran

According to excretion, the bran is one of the bodies as well one of the microbioms favorable foods. Officially it is rich in fibres and includes loads of good stuff, more on that later.

Why degerminate?

Let me introduce you to a historical journey.
Whenever you read about flour, apart from the last ~140 years, throughout history flour was meant to be Goldkeim flour. Graphically explained it would look like:

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The bran-line is dotted because it is linked to fashion. Taking out the bran is first mentioned in Egypt around 4000 BC and finds its first peak during the French revolution. Part of the newly-achieved freedom was to eat like aristocrats and they ate white flour. This was also revolutionary from a physical point of view, now everyone had the possibility to degenerate in an industrial way.

„Normal“ flour production

Until the industrial revolution started in 1712 grain was stored and milled only on demand. It was done either by the people themselves or in small local mills. The huge number of mills throughout the country depended on natural power sources such as humans, animals, wind or water.

The industrial revolution

Characteristic of the industrial (busy) revolution (turning) was the gradual disappearance of local mills and the advent of large centrally-operated mills. In 1785 the first fully automated mill was erected by Oliver Evans in the USA. Thermal and later nuclear energy made milling companies independent from topographic needs such as wind or water. Transportation distances increased. New in milling history was the storage of a significant amount of industrially produced flour.
The central problem of this development was the preservation of flour. Transportation distances and a relatively slow distribution system collided with natural shelf life.
The reason for the limited shelf life are the fatty acids of the germ which react from the moment they are exposed to oxygen. This occurs the moment grain is milled. The fatty acids oxidise and flour starts to become rancid.
Depending on climate and grain quality this process takes 6 to 9 months. In the late 19th century this period was too short for an industrial production and distribution cycle.

Solution: Degerminate flour

As vitamins, micronutriants and amino acids were completely or relatively unknown in the late 19th century, taking out the germ was a brilliant solution. Without the germ flour cannot become rancid. Degerminated flour became standard.
Degermination started in densely-populated areas and took approximately one generation to reach the countryside. Thus, not only the bran but also the germ was lost to the human body. It is interesting to compare this development with the exploration of vitamins.

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Heat-processed flour

Heat-processed flour is flour where the germ is first separated from the endosperm and bran, then processed with steam, dry heat or microwaves and merged into flour again. This innovation is remarkable because:

  • There is no need to do it. Distribution cycles are in the meantime fast enough to accommodate the natural self life of flour. Compared to dairy products this shelf life is remarkably long.
  • The heat procedure is normally not mentioned. Just the opposite is the case. It is widely promoted as flour with “very healthy vital germ”. Due to the fact that vitamins, amino acids and fatty acids are commonly known as heat sensitive this is somewhat misleading.

Conclusion: There is no reason to degerminate or heat process flour today and there never was a reason to exclude the bran. The exception for debraning would be culinary reasons. Some recipes just won’t work with included bran.

Known ingredients

According to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) a grain consists of:

  • Qi (endosperm, energy)
  • Jing (germ, essence)

There is no correlation for the bran but it is meant to be hard, which will be dealt with later. This general classification is used for any kind of grain! Rice and corn would also consist only of Jing and Qi. Natural science is a completely different approach where something is fractured into sophisticated details. From a natural scientific point of view there is a difference, although only very little, between rice, corn, wheat, Rye, etc. Since wheat is worldwide the very dominant bread-grain it is taken here as an example.
The wheat-germ consists of:

  • Vitamins: Thiamin B1, Riboflavin B2, Niacin B3, Panthotenic acid B5, Pyridoxine B6, Folic acid B9 and Tocopherol E;
  • Essential mineral nutrients: Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium;
  • Essential micronutrients: Iron, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium;
  • The eight essential amino acids: Valine, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, threonine and lysine. Histidine, tyrosine and arginine are said to be essential for children and sick people too.
  • Secondary amino acids: Alanine, glycine, proline, serine, cystine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid;
  • Saturated fatty acids: Myristic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid;
  • Unsaturated fatty acids: Malmitoleic acid and oleic acid;
  • The polyunsaturated linoleic acid.

Once you combine these ingredients, stick it into an endosperm, cover it with a husk and put it into the soil – what will get is mold. So something important must be missing!

The bran consists of:

  • Vitamins: Thiamin B1, Riboflavin B2, Niacin B3, Panthotenic acid B5, Pyridoxine B6, Folic acid B9, Tocopherol E and vitamin K.
  • Essential mineral nutrients: Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium;
  • Essential micronutrients: Iron, zinc, copper, manganese, selenium.

Assumed effect

Both concepts, natural science as well as TCM, came to the conclusion that the substances of the germ are essential to the human body. An absence of these substances will be one origin of an infinite variety of discomforts in body and mind.
In the concept of TCM the endosperm is the energy flow „Qi“ while the germ is the essence „Jing“. It is the vital substance of the body. Jing is the material basis that nourishes, fuels and cools the body. Preserving Jing is essential for longevity and good health. Death means the Jing is used up. If there is no Jing in your nutrition you live on your substance, which will make your life diseasy. Once you increase the amount of Jing in your daily diet your body will restore itself remarkably.

The Chinese character „Jing“ originally means „fine rice“.
Interesting is that the character “Qi’”also originates from rice.
It means “the steam” you see when rice is cooked.

The concept of natural medical science comes up with the same but a more differentiated conclusion. The whole body is made of these substances. Skin, tissue, bones, blood cells, teeth, hair, nails, hormones, nerves, DNA … all is made of amino acids, minerals, fatty acids and micronutrients.
The entire communication system of the body, metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins, immune system, fertility, stress handling and concentration abilities depend on these substances. If you don’t get them you will experience dis-eases. A lack of essentials in the daily diet will cause multiple malfunctions in fundamental functions of the body. The list of interdependencies seems to be endless.
Getting the substances again, the body will repair itself step by step.

The bran, the enteritic nervous system (ENS) and some Chakras

For centuries people had a feeling that something intelligent is located in the intestines. This intelligent something can be found in the ~4000 year old concept of the Chakras or energy centres or in the concept of natural science where it is called enteritic nervous system and microbiome. Astonishingly, both concepts came to similar conclusions although they followed very different paths.

The Chakras

/images/Chakren-in-Gebo-engl.jpg#floatright The concept of Chakras describes basically an energy system in the body. According to this concept there are seven main Chakras in the human body. All of the seven have specific characteristics and are aligned and connected by an central energy channel located in the spine. The energy circulating in this channel is widely known as Kundalini – life force.
The goal is to have the Chakras working propper to experience life in a desirable way. If this system is out of balance it will cause specific dis-eases. The 3rd Chakras would match the ENS that is inhabited by the Microbiome.

The enteritic nervous system (ENS)

According to natural science the human body does not only have one brain but two. One is in the head and is reading right now, the other is located around the digestive organs and is called enteritic nervous system – ENS. This ENS is made of the same type of cells, produces and reacts more or less to the same chemicals and has the same receptors as the brain. It operates nearly autonomously from the brain. If you ever had a feeling that something “intelligent” is located in your gut – this something is the ENS interacting with the microbiome interacting with your brain.

So what have ENS and Chakras to do with bran?

The human body is basically a tube. While the skin forms the external border and defence line the intestinal wall does the same but inside. Both borders have to be cleaned. As mentioned earlier TCM says food has to be hard and soft and the fibres of the bran are hard. If ones own digestion is observed it is easy to recognize that fibres clean up the colon. With a share of ~70% the intestines form the major part of the immune system so it is downright wise to keep them tidy.
The bran is hard and if the ENS is mechanically stimulated it produces psychoactive chemicals such as serotonin, dopamin and various kinds of opiate-like substances. To cut a very long story short: The very simple fact is that these chemicals make you feel better.
Note: Once you belong to the group of people who suffer from Alzheimer, diabetes, Parkinson, obesity, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, immune deficiencies and so on – let it be recognised that it is known that the bran helps to ease your condition.
As will the „Goldkeim“.

Alimentation, health and disease

Alimentation is an important factor for health and disease (and ecology and politics and preservation of a species and a fair world and so on and so on). Nutrition is part and parcel of life and so are discussions, publications and infinite research about it.
But if you aim for healthy nourishment in a scientific way you will probably come to the point where your life becomes downright exhausting. This could occur from the fact that the term „health“ is, more or less intentionally, used in various ways. Therefore the …
… Definition of „health“
On the 22nd of July 1946 health was defined by the World Health Organization:

„Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.“
– Constitution of WHO

This definition has not been amended since it came into force on 7 April 1948!
It is the only western definition of health and is accepted nearly worldwide (191 of 192 UN states).
According to this definition health is based on physical and mental and social well-being.
Not „or“ but „and„. All of the three aspects are equally important!
This is the reason health-related statements cannot be made.

Wholesome word „disease“

The origin of the word disease lies in the French word desaise, des- „without, away“ plus aise „comfort, pleasure“. This definition brightens up the meaning of „diseases of longevity“ or „diseases of civilization“.
Both, longevity and civilization, are absent today.
It is interesting that the english word „disease“ describes the result while the german word for disease „Krankheit“ describes the cause. The original meaning of „Krankheit“ is „a lack of something“. A lack of something (essential) brings discomfort.
Who could have guessed?!
We are all surprised.

Is „Goldkeim“ flour healthy then?

An honest health-related statement would have to imply the knowledge of someone’s physical, mental and social condition. What is fair to say is that we, as human species, lived some 10 000 years on „Goldkeim“ flour and began to degenerate once we started to exclude bran and germ in our staple food.
Give it a try, it is not about knowing, experience is what counts.

Hypothesis & Solution

Flour is a staple food. What happens if a staple food of a population is denatured?
In the mid‘ 1800’s all grain-staples were denatured. It appears to have started with rice, continued with bread grains and at some point also affected maize.
A staple food has to satisfy basic needs, if the quality is corrupted it affects the entire organism.
If you take a look at the official evolution of mankind you will see that humans lived:

  • At least 20 000 years on Goldkeim flour,
  • about 220 years on white Goldkeim flour,
  • 150 of the 220 years on white degerminated flour.

Hypothesis

According to natural medical science and TCM a bunch of known and unknown disorders would come out of nothing. Also new would be the density of afflicted members of the species.
The substances of germ and bran are essential to the human body which means, we have a natural addiction to them. Once we don’t get them we would commonly suffer from withdrawal symptoms which could be called civilization diseases. To name a few examples, affected would be …

  • the entire! (fat, protein and carbohydrate) metabolism,
  • central nervous system, memory and concentration abilities,
  • immune system, stress handling and healing abilities,
  • genetic code and fertility,
  • condition and function of tissue, cells, nerves, skin, nails and hair,
  • internal communication based on biochemical messengers such as hormones and neurotransmitters,
  • the microbiome and by that the entire human being again**
    **

It would be naive to assume the only origin of these diseases is the missing germ and bran. Environmental pollution, the way food is produced and processed, the limited amount of daylight, the lack of movement we have decided to live with and so on are co-factors in our civilization diseases. But these interdependencies are well known.
What is not known is that the essential parts of flour is taken out.
When the idea came up to degerminate flour at the end of the 19th century nobody was able to foresee the consequences. There is no evidence that the act of degermination was publicly announced or tested.

Solution

There is no reason to degerminate or heat-process flour today.
Since healing is a natural phenomenon a certain amount of life quality could be restored to entire humankind by simply not throwing the germ and bran away. This would result in a reduction of civilization diseases.

So what can you do

What is possible on all levels of existence is: experience Goldkeim flour and talk about it.

  • If you are „just“ a person who eats flour you can help yourself using Goldkeim flour for your daily diet. If you can’t get ist you could mill your grain at home.
    Small home-mills are easy to get for reasonable prices. A home-mill is nearly a lifetime investment and makes you independent. Even if industrial flour production is converted into “Goldkeim” flour a home-mill is good to have.
  • If you are an executing part of a family you could also ease the life of those who are nourished by you.
  • If you are baker, confectioner or chef – simpley use Goldkeim flour.
    Doing so opens you a non-competitor-market. And you serve your community.
  • The same is true if you are an industrial decision-maker.
    Simply decide to produce or use Goldkeim flour.
  • If you are a politician you could order the Goldkeim research.
    And than pass a law according to the result.

If you want to contribute

Since nearly everybody is eating degerminated and debraned flour, there is in fact a lot to do.
The goal is that everybody is able to get Goldkeim flour; so if you have an idea please come up with.
Furthermore you are very welcome to translate this website. If you want to promote Goldkeim in your country you can set up a national office.
In any cases please contact.

The Goldkeim miracle

The difference between flour and Goldkeim flour is satisfaction. A metaphor for the experienceable effect would be: Imagine you come home, unlock the door and make yourself comfortable. That what you use to unlock the door, the key, would be the germ. What you experience by unlocking is the effect of the germ. You do it every day and it is quite likely that you don’t even realize it. If you use degerminated flour you come home but have no key. If you use heat-processed flour you come home but have the wrong key. What you then experience is the effect of a non-existing or heat-processed key. Because this is your daily experience you won’t even recognize that you live on the street; it is normal to you.
If you accidentally get the Goldkeim-key again you will probably feel a difference when you make yourself comfortable at home. Until that moment you don’t realize it because it becomes normal to you again. If you then forget your key for a period of time you will feel a difference again.

The Goldkeim Feeling

It is in the nature of feelings that they are not satisfyingly explainable so if you ask someone who has experienced the Goldkeim feeling you will hear circumscriptions like:

  • Feels good from head to toe
  • Feels somehow right
  • Is balanced
  • Satisfying
  • Feels better
  • Gives one simply a good feeling…

The magnificent something

Strikingly absent in these paraphrases is thinking or knowing. It is all about feelings; one simply feels better. That’s it. A better feeling. (What is effective on the mind and the surroundings.)
If you are used to Goldkeim flour but have to eat degerminated or heat-processed flour for a short period of time you’ll find something missing. This something should be the effect of the germ.
There are explaining theories about the effect (see “assumed effects”). Knowledge about the “what acts how, where and why” is not possible in state-of-the-art science and technology.

Thus the Goldkeim miracle…

… we don’t know, for the time being, we are only able to wonder. Although satisfied.
PS: For those who like to do things themselves: eating homemade bread, biscuits, pizza etc. is a lot more pleasant. And far cheaper than than the ready made.

The Goldkeim research

If a staple food is changed it must have an effect on all parties involved. In the case of flour this change will affect nearly all mankind. So the question which would be interesting to answer is: what happens if the essence is taken out of a staple food? And even more important: what happens if the essence is given back?

The initial point

From the point of view of natural medical science as well as TCM degermination would harm basic functions of the human body. It would have a direct and indirect impact on the human mind and in consequence on the social surrounding. Due to the tasteless and odourless nature of the germ it is possible to research this theory in an empirical blind/double-blind study.

Ambition of the research

Sine the composition of the germ is partly known and the various kinds of flour differ clearly it is possible to cross-link the observed processes medically, politically, economically and ecologically. The outcome of this research would be a regulation tool to coordinate the needed changes in environment, health, education and economy.

Structure of the research

The research is structured into four cells.
The grain coming from farms (1) is milled into different kinds of flour (2).
The flour is processed to certain products (3) and unfolds its effect in the human being (4).

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1st cell – agriculture
Collection of the impact of the major agricultural methods (industrial and organic) concerning biodiversity, development and condition of humus, water-saving abilities, CO2 balance and other relevant ecological and economic data.
2nd cell – mill
Analysis of vital substances of the grain after harvesting, before and after the milling process.
Collection of relevant ecological and economic data
3rd cell – foodstuff production
Processing of Goldkeim flour and degerminated flour to common products. Analysis of the end products.
Collection of relevant ecological and economic data
4th cell – human being
Creation of case history and profile of the consumer (human) concerning the physical, mental, social, ecological and economical state. Diagnosis by natural science (medical science, psychology) as well as traditional Chinese medicine. Period of monitoring: 6 months.

Invitation

Invited are humans and organizations who are interested in this research.
To guarantee the possible synergies for all participants, this research is being conducted under a Creative Commons licence.

About Goldkeim

Goldkeim is an artificial German word made out of “Gold” = gold and “Keim” = germ. Gold is an old metaphor for something precious and germ is a metaphor for life. Combine the two and you will get: precious life, Goldkeim! The reason word and logo was invented was the fact that it became impossible to talk about flour and be understood correctly.