Why is Flour Worse than Sugar?

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As humanity begins to work on finding healthier means in which to make food without needing to read every line on the package, so has manufacturing evolved to find a way. 

As we learn to make these improvements, sources of glucose and starches become focal in understanding these quick-burning fuels. 

Flour is a basic need for baking and casserole making. It comes in four primary types, including all-purpose flour and whole wheat varieties, each with a different level of nutritional impact. 

Sugar is a natural glucose that comes from a plethora of natural sources, from sugar cane to sugar beets. 

Why is Flour Unhealthy?

Not all flour types are unhealthy, but all-purpose flour goes through industrial machinery that needs to be cleaned daily when going through the bleached and enriched process. 

Sometimes these are not perfectly cleaned, which chemicals can get into the flour, but more importantly, gluten is a health complication.

Referring to evolving diets, gluten has become a forefront of health concerns in food, particularly in flour. 

Celiac disease, gluten intolerance, and other gluten sensitivities can lead to serious health complications. However, we have learned ways to avoid this form of protein through medical science.  

There are alternatives to traditional flours. For example, coconut and quinoa flour has been known to have good flavor and provides a gluten-free lifestyle. 

 

Does Flour Turn into Sugar in Your Body?

As was lightly touched upon above, flour contains proteins and starches, with a few glucose molecules as well. 

When the body breaks down bread or similar foods made with flour, it removes the fast-burning (ATP-rich) molecules, mostly sugars, and grains, and burns them first, ideally. 

This is the case with most foods, not just bread, but when the food is packed with these two ingredients, the body can easily process them. However, even with the alternative flours, this digestion process will include turning some of the food into glucose (sugar). 

So, the flour will turn to glucose when consumed in a baked form or other cooked finished food products. 

 

What Happens if You Stop Eating Flour?

If we think about this biologically, the body will adapt to the changes and begin learning to use other forms of energy to provide the fuel and nutrients needed to maintain and run the body. 

Flour is in a bunch of everyday foods, from breakfast sandwiches and pancakes to your lunch’s fresh baked loaf of bread, to the slice of cake to cap the evening. 

To remove flour from one’s diet, in effect, would be removing many of the easiest forms of food to find and consume. 

A person would need to have a protein-rich diet with meats, soy-sourced foods, and pescatarian habits, and it should be sufficient to provide the body with what it needs. 

 

Are Some Types of Flour More or Less Healthy?

As mentioned above, there are going to be around four basic types of flour to consider. All-purpose flour is the type at the highest risk of having unhealthy effects, and we have bread and whole-wheat flour. 

Bread flour is going to be the stronger of the four, having emulsification properties that help give baked goods structural support, and will come in four different subvarieties. 

Whole wheat will be the highest in nutritional value in most cases, being made of one hundred percent natural grains. 

 Then we have the newly formed gluten-free flours, which have become increasingly popular for their nutritional value (still getting proper data) and health benefits from these new mixtures of flour. 

 

Which Flour is the Healthiest?

If we go by the knowledge from health and science, Whole wheat has been the leading source of flour that provides the highest quality nutritional value for baked goods. 

But today, there is a contender, gluten-free varieties have challenged this previously known fact and provided an evolutionary update to the human knowledge database. 

As more and more data comes in about potato bread, coconut bread, and other new varieties of flour, it will become clear that these new flours will stand atop the food pyramid of flour. 

In the meantime, if gluten is not an issue, feel free to enjoy a healthy slice of whole-wheat toast. 

 

Final Thoughts on Why is Flour worse than Sugar?

There will be specialized types of flour, cake flour, and confectionary types for dessert goods and morning pastries. 

But, for the most part, if you are making anything for the family and need good flour, there are healthy varieties of all-purpose which should be sufficient for the recipe being prepared. 

When it comes to the new gluten-free types of flour, do not fear trying them. With this protein removed, they are safe for every human to use and consume. Not to mention, they just might be the healthiest choice available. 

 

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