BALANCE YOUR LIFE #3
“Balance Your Life” is a regular Monday morning feature here at Pure Grace Farms. I have teamed up with some pretty incredible ladies to offer a few ways to bring balance to your life. The goal is to share information on four different blogs balancing Spirit, Mind, Body and Heart.
- Spirit is represented by Heather @ My Sweet Mission. Visit to see what great wisdom she is sharing today.
- Body is covered by Caroline @ Fit Pink Mom. She shares simple exercises to get the body moving.
- I represent Heart @ Pure Grace Farms sharing healthy recipes and ideas with an emphasis on whole food.
- Mind comes from Christina & Millie @ 2 Crochet Hooks sharing easy crafts, book reviews, games and activities to build memory.
I hope visiting all four blogs enriches your experience at Pure Grace Farms, helping to add a little balance to your life.
What’s the Scoop on White Enriched Flour…Is it a Real Food?
Flour has been a main topic of conversation as of late. Especially with many who have issues with Gluten. While I have not had any particular problems that I am aware of, I do know many that do. Whether you are trying to eat gluten-free or are looking to increase the whole grains you eat in your diet, a little information may help in the choices you make. I’m going to keep my definitions extremely basic but will give plenty of links for you to follow up on if you would like to know more.
White Enriched Flour: Is it a Real Food?
Any time flour has been refined you can be sure that a great deal of the nutrients have been removed also. The bleaching process involves a chlorine gas to whiten the flour which can’t be good. Because much of the nutrients have been taken out in the process, a specific amount of nutrients are then returned to the flour. Many of the returned nutrients are not easily absorbed by our bodies.
The Global Healing Center states in their article The Hidden Truth About Enriched White Flour
Once this stuff has been stripped down, you’re left with a starch. How does your body react to pure starch? The same way it reacts to pure sugar!
There are better alternatives to using Enriched Bleached White Flour. Let’s take a look at my favorite option.
Whole Wheat Honey Wheat Bread: Pure Grace farms
White Whole Wheat Flour
I have been using white whole wheat flour for over a year now and have in the last few months eliminated Enriched Bleached White Flour from out diets completely. I haven’t missed it a bit. When I am substituting White Whole Wheat Flour for enriched flour I may have to add a touch more liquid to the recipe, but other than that everything else remains the same.
Early American Cottage Loaf : Yesterfood
What is White Whole Wheat Flour?
Clean Cuisine says it this way in What is white whole wheat flour? Is it healthy?
White whole wheat flour is every bit as nutritious as whole wheat flour (it contains the nutrient-rich germ and the fiber-rich bran), it just bakes better and tastes more like the unhealthy all-purpose flour.
Homemade Whole Wheat Crusty Bread: Natural Chow
Whole Wheat Flour and other Whole Grains
Louise Tremblay with Demand Media in Healthy Facts About Whole-Wheat Flour Vs. White has this to say about Whole Wheat Flour…
White flour is made from heavily refined and processed wheat grains, while whole-wheat flour is made from grains that have not undergone heavy processing.
As stated before, the nutritional values of the two are vastly different, including the effects on blood sugar, fiber content, vitamins and minerals. This is a good reason to try and infuse more healthy grains into your diet.
Gluten-Free Flour
My Gluten Free Kosher Kitchen in their Kosher Celiac Cookery guide says this about Gluten-Free…
Flour is basically the powder obtained by grinding grains, seeds and tubers. Many plants other than wheat-can be made into a flour and include maize, chickpeas, tapioca, chestnut and potatoes. For those who suffer a wheat or gluten allergy (coeliac disease) or people who are intolerant, these flours offer an alternative to wheat.
The take away here is that there are alternatives to the flours one uses and plenty of choices. If you are trying to eat more of a real food or whole food diet, avoiding highly processed refined foods is a great place to start. If you are new to the idea, start slowly and begin to replace some of the enriched white flour with white whole wheat. You will be amazed at how easily the changes will come.
Gluten-Free Dinner Rolls: Titus 2 Homemaker
BREADS FOR THE TABLE
In the spirit of using alternative flours I have chosen a few recipes for breads for the table around the web this week. Many types of flour is represented in this great round-up. Have fun with these great breads and get adventurous and experiment with a few. I would love to hear how they come out!
Delicious Breads For the Table
- Sundried Tomato and Corn Bread: With a Blast
- Dutch Oven Artisan Bread: I Thee Cook
- Almost Sourdough Bread: Yesterfood
- Gluten-Free Poppy Seed Bread: Country Cottage Musings
- Irish Soda Bread: A Mother’s Shadow
- Tender Whole Wheat Muffins: A Mother’s Shadow
- Challah Bread: In the Kitchen with Jenny
- Buttermilk Whole Wheat Raisin Bread: Yesterfood
- Best Potato Yeast Rolls: Recipes For Our Daily Bread
- Whole Wheat Pita Bread: Pure Grace Farms
- Hearty Oat Loaf :Big Rigs ‘n Little Cookies
- Blue Corn Tortillas: Pure Grace Farms
- Whole Wheat Apple and Green Tomato Bread: Pure Grace Farms
What’s the Scoop on White Enriched Flour: Is it a Real Food? shared with:
The Ultimate Linky: Bloggers Brags * Plucky’s Second Thoughts *Memories by the Mile: Treasure Box Tuesday *Lou Lou Girls *April J Harris: Hearth and Soul *Table for Seven: Share your Stuff *Creative K Kids: Tasty Tuesdays *Recipes for our Daily Bread: Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop *Teach Inspire Love Raise: Wake up Wednesday *Crafty Allie: Worthwhile Wednesday *The Crafty Wife: Wednesday Roundup * Smart School House:Whimsy Wednesday * The Cookie Puzzle: Party in your PJ’s *Lamberts Lately: Create it Thursday *The Newlywed Pilgrimage: Moonlight and Mason Jars *Sweet Haute: Sweet Haute * 2 Crochet Hooks: Snickerdoodle Sunday
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Hey Shari, I’m SO glad I happened on your awesome post and THANK YOU for including some of mine. Please let me know when you’re back up like this, I MISS YOU my friend!!!! Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Hi Carrie. Glad to hear from you. I have begun posting again. I am taking in slowly with only one post a week. Trying to juggle working and blogging is a challenge but I am enjoying being back in the thick of things. I’ll stop by and say hello when I can.
Blessings, Shari
Thank you so much for the link back; I appreciate it!
So many delicious-looking breads here! 🙂
Loved your recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Great post Shari and fantastic recipes to show off. Thanks for including my Challah bread!
Jenny.U recently posted…Salisbury Steak and Mushroom Gravy
Your challah looked delicious. I was thrilled to be able to include it!
Great share! I love honey wheat bread but admit I do have some of the awful bleached flour in the house. I am making it a priority to replace! We so love fresh, hot bread and Joy sure does have some awesome recipes over there 🙂
Kristina and Millie recently posted…Discovery in the city of Cary NC
She surely does, that girl can bake!
Thank you for including my breads, Shari. I enjoyed reading this post- there’s so much important information about nutrition. Many of us are ingesting very little real nutrition at all.
Joy @ Yesterfood recently posted…Treasure Box Tuesday 36
I could have used every bread recipe on your site. They all looked amazing!
I have celiac so it white enriched flour doesn’t matter to me 😉 But I always cringe when I see it on the backs of packages. I always yell at my mom for buying my brother food with it (any one in my family) and always tell them they are just depriving themselves of real food nutrients they can get in so much better tasting grains!
I agree. Whole grains with their textures and tastes are so much better than pasty white flour.
This is a great post! I had no idea about any of this!
Thanks for joining the Link Up this week!
Jess recently posted…Link Up #51
Loved your party. Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
Blessings,
Shari
You’ve convinced me. I do try to eat different types of flour and we have several kinds in the cabinet right now. But I’m going to try to get better.
Michelle @ A Dish of Daily Life recently posted…Lebanese Stuffed Swiss Chard {Healthy Dinner}
It took a while for me to rid myself of all the enriched bleached flour. This weekend Tim wanted chocolate chip cookies (he’s a great baker) and went to the cupboard to get the while flour. I told him all we had was the white whole wheat. He used it and loved them. They were really quite tasty. I am working on ridding my shelves now completely of the white sugar. Baby steps. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing my whole wheat crusty bread recipe and all this info! I hope you’re having a wonderful week!
Thanks Margaret. Your bread looks amazing and I love that it’s whole wheat too!
I definitely didn’t know the difference, but now that I do, you can bet I will be cutting out enriched flour as much as possible. As for your bread recipes, now you are just making me want to try eat bread this morning and totally pinning for your recipes look amazing, but then again they always do 🙂
Janine Huldie recently posted…Hopeful Wonder…
Thanks Janine. I am enjoying experimenting with all the different whole grains in my recipes. With just a few tweaks the recipes are easily changed. Thanks for stopping by.
Blessings,
Shari
Thank you for including my Sundried Tomato and Corn Bread, Shari !
Linda @ With A Blast recently posted…Cellphone Back Cover Makeover
I loved your recipe Linda. Thanks for sharing it.