White bread has had its day. Once upon a time it was a very popular stable of the average westerner's diet. Today things have changed. Health conscious folk got in the way and put a stand against this highly refined product, stating that it was just not healthy to eat something so processed. White bread has now been relegated to the "unhealthy" in place of the more "natural" brown bread that graces many a western home. It took a little while for palates to change but when they did brown bread became a very popular alternative. In the hope that more is more we now opt for the all too popular variety of whole grain breads that include more than one type of grain. And many grains we do not include elsewhere, such as Quinoa, millet, buckwheat, spelt, kamut (although some are not technically grains), etc.
The idea behind the unrefined craze is that "natural=better". This may well be true in most instances, but it might be a little simplistic to say that this is true in all cases. If we were to gain a richer understanding of our heritiage and the traditions of our ancetors we would notice that although they did consume unrefined grain, they did not consume un-processed grain. Their grain was unrefined in that it was not polished with a special machine that takes off it's fibre. But it was processed. Traditional cultures all over the world have soaked and fermented their grain before consumption. Science has now recognised the importance of doing this, as it breaks down a substance on the grain called phytic acid. Phytic acid has the ability to block the uptake of minerals in the body. This means if one consumes too much phytic acid they may, over time become somewhat mineral deficient. This is an important point for those who already suffer mineral deficencies, or those who concern that this might be a problem.
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