As a Result of Eating Commercially Processed Foods, Especially Bread, the United States Has Become One of the Sickest Countries in the World, According to Sue Becker.
Sue Becker, a food scientist, recently revealed the grisly past of contemporary flour in an interview. She detailed the process by which wheat was processed in an industrial mill to produce white flour, which is softer and lasts longer. However, many of the beneficial byproducts, including bran, germ, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and essential oils, are given to animal feed.
In this interview, we’ll talk about gluten intolerance, the emergence of “enriched” flour, bleaching chemicals, nutritional inadequacies, digestion, stomach acid, celiac disease, and the contrast between store-bought flour and bread produced from freshly milled whole grains.
n 1992, Sue Becker started The Bread Beckers, a kitchen equipment and natural foods supplier in Cherokee County, Georgia, USA, which also offers nutritional education through classes, books and online resources.
At the end of July, she joined John Lovell on the War Poet Society podcast. During the interview, they discussed: what industrial milling removes from wheat; why white flour became food for the masses; how “enriched” flour got its name; why gluten may be taking the blame for a larger problem; the connection between fibre, digestion, cravings and energy; why bread carries such deep significance throughout Scripture; how to select wheat and begin milling flour at home and personal stories from people who changed the bread they ate.
“In 1900, we were considered one of the healthiest nations in the world. You can see it drop, drop, drop, drop to now, we’re one of the sickest nations in the world,” she said.
“I learned [that] most of the common diseases that plague Americans are directly related to commercially processed food, particularly our bread … It’s not gluten. It’s the processed white flour.”
All the healthy stuff has been filtered out of the white flour. “Vitamins, minerals, and then most importantly the fibre,” she said.
“They’re essential nutrients that your body needs for life. Take away all the fibre, all the vitamins, all the minerals. Feed everybody this food. Three diseases became epidemic around 1900: Beriberi … a vitamin B1 deficiency, Pellagra … a vitamin B3 [niacin] deficiency, [and] iron-deficient anaemia.”
Speaking about Pellagra, Becker said that one of the symptoms is Dementia, “mental insanity so severe that the people had to be institutionalised.” Other disease-specific symptoms include skin sores, dysentery and death.
The first case of Pellagra in the United States was documented in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1902. 30,000 cases of Pellagra were diagnosed in America that first year, Becker said. “At first, they thought it was an infectious disease till they traced it to vitamin B3 deficiency.”
We have embedded the video below to begin where Becker speaks about the three epidemics caused by bread made from flour which is lacking nutrients.
The average American gets over half their calories from ultra-processed foods, which may be shortening their lives—but also lengthening them in a handful of cases, report Tufts University researchers.
Their analysis of the eating habits of nearly 40,000 U.S. adults, published November 26 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods—products manufactured via multiple steps with preservatives, additives, and chemicals not used in home cooking—increased the risk of death from all causes.
Researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy found that for every 10% increase in calories from ultra-processed foods, mortality risk rose by 9%. This means that someone who gets 60% of their calories from these products—which are often packed with added sugars, salt, and carbohydrates, and often lacking in nutrients such as dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals—has a 27% greater chance of dying of all causes compared to someone who limits these foods to 30% of their diet.
