12 Steps to Whole Foods

CHAPTER 9
Replacing White Flour with
Whole Grains
Your Goal:
To replace refined (white) flour in your diet with a variety of hearty, nutritious whole grains full of
vitamins, minerals, and fiber. You’ll learn how to make old-fashioned, whole-grain bread without
mineral-leaching phytates, and without quick-rising commercial yeast that causes significant health
problems.
What You’ll Need:
You can grind grain in your high-powered blender. (Note that if you're using a VitaMix blender, you
will need a separate “dry” container for this.) But, if possible, you should have a grain mill (Blendtec
offers an excellent one which we have in the GreenSmoothieGirl.com store). A grain mill allows you
to grind large quantities of grains into very fine flour, especially helpful for cookies, cakes, and
pastries. It is a good investment for a whole-foods kitchen.
You’ll want to obtain a high-quality sourdough start. See our best source for sourdough bread starter
for whole-grain breads under “Robyn Recommends” on GreenSmoothieGirl.com.
You will also want a large bread-baking stone or bread pans.
My great-great-great-great-great grandfather, the world-traveling pioneer Benjamin Franklin Johnson,
once lived for six months on horseback eating nothing but cornmeal. He developed scurvy as a result,
in addition to other nutritional deficiencies that made him susceptible to malaria and smallpox. I don’t
recommend that one-grain-only diet!
However, the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, as
documented in Ezekiel 4:9, once lived on a
combination of four grains and four legumes
for over a year—resulting in much more
robust health than my pioneer ancestor. Some
companies now sell Ezekiel Bread, or a grain
mix based on this formula of excellent
proteins, complex carbohydrates, and fats.
Every nutritional component needed by
humans, except sunlight, is contained in that
combination of grains and legumes.
© Copyright Robyn Openshaw 12 Steps to Whole Foods 245