I wonder, why aren’t whole grain used? Like refined grain is everywhere, and cheap too. You want to buy whole grain it’s like an arm and a leg, for grain that is less processed at that.
Like why don’t they make Doritos with whole grain corn flour rather than refined corn flour? Why not make fried chicken using whole grain flour as batter? I wonder what would the taste be like?
I mean hey if we’re going to eat unhealthy food at least make them out of whole grains…
Why do we have so much refined grains anyways, to the point where whole grains (like brown rice, whole grain wheat flour) is rare as hen’s teeth? I heard it’s because whole grains don’t last long…
What happens to all the removed stuff from refining grains?
Is this something you can get from biandang stores?
I seen rice that looks like it was mixed with red bean, what are those? They look purple. I don’t remember brown rice looking like this.
I still think it would be great if Doritos, Cheetos, etc. have whole grain version of their products with the same flavor. I wonder what it would taste like?
It’s hard to get even wholemeal flour. Most supermarkets don’t stock it. And much of the remaining wholemeal flour is actually processed flour with the whole grains re-added. Go figure!
I’ve bought it there before once or twice but the brands have changed. Again. I used to buy stoneground UK flour from Sogo’s supermarket but they never stocked it regularly. So I had to quit buying it. They also had excellent wholemeal flour from Japan, but again typical supply issues: they stopped stocking it. City Super ain’t so super. It is available on Shopee.
Flour is cheap, and white flour is way more common. It’s not hard to imagine that a slightly lower milling cost might not be the crucial factor determining the final price.
Nutritionists talking about “whole grains” triggers me in about the same way as TV doctors saying “safe and effective”.
The last person in history (that I’m aware of) who ate “whole grains” was Tollund Man, and he ended up dead. Why TAF do humans need to eat “whole grains”? We’re not birds. We’re not mice. Grains are a right pain in the ass to cultivate and process to make them palatable, and they don’t yield particularly well. There are various reasons humanity latched onto grains as a food source, but healthfulness wasn’t one of them. And “whole grains” would have been a meal of last resort (or of the condemned); the only form of grain-based food that we’ve ever eaten is heavily processed. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, as long as it’s not the basis of your everyday diet.
Somewhere in between the mad prescriptions of nutritionists and the slick advertising of the junk food comglomerates lies a happy medium. Aim for that point and you’ll be fine.
The stuff removed from refining grains usually goes into animal feed.
The issue of ‘fiber’ (which covers a whole load of indigestible carbohydrates) is a complex one, but humans really don’t need a lot of it, and there is some limited indications that people who eat loads of really coarse fibre are at risk of damaging their gut. As you said, you can get whatever is required from things other than grains.
There isn’t any actual nutritional requirement to eat the outer layers of wheat grains. It’s quite literally something the nutritionists just pulled out of their ass. If there’s any logical justification at all, it boils down to the fact that humans have to eat a lot of bulk to subsist on a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Carb-based foods are not very energy-dense, so if you choose to eat that way, you end up eating a load of carbs to fulfil your calorie requirements, leaving very little space for anything else. In other words, you’re at risk of various deficiencies. Because nutritionists refused to let go of the idea that their prescribed diet was healthful, they had to find workarounds for this problem; one of them was recommending the use of ‘wholemeal’ flour in the vast amounts of bread that they prescribed; there are a few vitamins and minerals in it, so anyone adhering to the recommendations would at least not end up in hospital. When it became apparent that people didn’t like ‘wholemeal’, they switched to recommending fortified flour, which has various nutrients added to it.
Honestly if I had unlimited budget I’d be eating meat, and a small amount of grains, and some added sugar. Grains should be fed to pigs, not people.
It would feel fuller and you’d end up eating less calories.
But it’s ungodly expensive. It was obviously designed so that if you aren’t independently wealthy, you have to subsist on mostly grains.
I used to recall eating rice seasoned with only soy sauce and sesame sauce, and also noodles with soy sauce, and vegetarian meat sauce. It was very tasty and it’s cheap. You can have a meal of less than 1 USD per day easily this way. You could add vegetables and eggs if you want to allow for a little more budget.
We have a lot less control over our diet than we think.
Jokes aside, honestly I try to avoid these types of fact-based conversations about highly specialized topics because I’m not an expert. I’ll give you my opinion on subjective topics like Taiwan politics and traffic and food any day of the week. I’ll even share knowledge about stuff I’ve experienced, like applying for a TARC. But when it comes to black and white facts, I’ll leave it to the experts. Sharing my opinion about facts isn’t going to change the facts.
