We’ve all seen it, 100% whole wheat bread that sits next to white bread. It looks like white bread, but it says enriched. Enriched with what? Well, let me back up a bit. When the wheat is harvested, the whole grain is taken to the refinery. REFINERY, did you see that? The wheat is heated to a point where the germ and bran fall off. What’s left is the starch, the white part, the part that is not good for you. The part that has a long service life and is resistant to insects. Do you know why it is resistant to insects? Insects CANNOT sustain life in it. They will die if they only eat this refined grain. So why the heck, with the abundance of good for life foods, do we eat white flour, which is the starch of the ground wheat grain? Honestly, do I need to answer that? Take a look and you will see that obesity is on the rise, and now not only adults are overweight, but children, young children, are getting more and more fat. Why? We are feeding ourselves with all kinds of unhealthy foods. Some do it because it is cheaper, others for pleasure and others simply because they do not know any better.

So now that I’ve explained what white bread is made of, let me continue to answer the question of “what exactly is enriched”? After the refinery disassembles the grains and produces white flour, which has no nutritional value, they add some vitamins, some minerals, and some fiber, but not even a gram. White bread is enriched with some of the same things that they worked so hard to get out. However, they don’t add as much of the grain that they take away, otherwise it would be whole. Just enough to add some flavor and calories.

What is whole grain? It is the WHOLE grain that is used in the process of making bread, cereal and the basic components of many other foods. To be truly healthy, whole grains must be listed on your bread, cereal, or other food in the number 1 or number 2 position on the ingredient list. No, whole wheat flour followed by (enriched white flour, niacin and iron) is not healthy, it is a way of making people believe that they are getting a whole wheat bread. Don’t lie, it’s whole wheat flour, but not whole grain. It comes from the wheat plant and is all wheat, but not all grain. Everything is just another word like everyone else. If you look a little further down the list, you will see molasses, why are you asking molasses? Color the bread to make it appear brown. Yes, the white flour plus the vitamins and minerals still do not return the bran to the bread. The bran is what helps give the bread its natural brown color. So again, they add something, to try to make it look like something it isn’t.