Fitness: Improve the Health of Your Diet by Avoiding White Flour

I'd like to share some research with you that may make you think
twice before eating your next sandwich on white bread. It will
also help your efforts to lose weight and will improve your
health.

Eliminating white flour in favor of whole wheat has long been
the foundation of healthy eating and is a big part of the latest
eating right pyramid put out by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

Studies now show that there is a chemical in white flour, called
alloxan that makes it look "clean" and "beautiful". The problem
is that alloxan damages the beta cells of the pancreas so they
no longer produce enough insulin and the cells malfunction and
die. So you may be devastating your pancreas and putting
yourself at risk for diabetes by eating "beautiful" flour.

In fact, the Textbook for Natural Medicine calls alloxan "a
potent beta-cell toxin".

Scientists have known about this for years because diabetes
researchers commonly use the chemical to induce the disorder in
lab animals. In a research sense, giving alloxan to an animal is
similar to injecting that animal with a deadly virus because
alloxan and the virus are both being used to cause illness.

It also applies to brown rice compared to white rice. The
unprocessed brown rice is more natural and therefore has a
higher nutrient content, better protein digestibility and a
lower insulin response.

It's also wise to get in the habit of checking the labels of
grain products because they're not all created equal. Although
originally they were until we started tampering with it to make
white flour and other enriched products.

The bottom line is that whenever you take a natural food and
change it by deleting nutrients or adding chemicals, you will
always have less nutritional benefits. Whole grains are just
another example that nature knows best.