Sunday

Why It Really Is Advantageous To Mix Flours

By Robert Adams


Nutrition is the key to the wellness of a person. When we talk about it, what comes to mind is food. The most basic of all necessities. Without food, no living creature on earth can exist. It is from this substance that energy to make the body function is derived. One of the staples of humans is bread which is made from flour, a powdered substance milled from cereals. Today, most people prefer to use gluten free flour blend.

Since it walked first on this planet, man has always had to eat in order to survive. It is the basic requirement. Primitive humans got their nutrition from berries, edible plants, and meat from hunted animals. Food production as we know it today still did not exist. Early tribe members were hunters and gatherers, highly dependent on what nature provided them.

Mountaintop soils are washed down by heavy rains which end up in rivers and are deposited along the banks when the river overflows. This is really the reason why deltas have fertile soils. So, it was by no means an accident when early civilizations flourished in these places.

The domestication of wild creatures was the next step in what will be known as food production. The tamed animals were harnessed for work and some were bred for their meat and milk. Thus, the livestock industry was born. This development expanded the source of the growing population. No longer would humans have to forage in forests.

The different cultures in the world also differ in beliefs, habits, and tradition. They also differ in food preference. This depends on the resources that are available in these areas. Some plant varieties only thrive on certain weather conditions. Staples are the main diet of populations. Different regions on the planet are prone to one type of staple.

It would not come as a surprise then why bread is the staple of most countries in Europe and in the Americas, America being a cousin of Europe. They rely heavily on wheat. Asian and Oceanic countries prefer cooked rice as rice thrives in that area where rainfall is consistent. In the drylands of Africa, the peoples have main diets of vegetable, fruits, and tapioca.

No matter what place one is in, flour is always available. It really is the main substance used in baking. It is a substance in powder form that is the result of milling cereals like corn, wheat, rice, and rye. A plant that does not belong to the cereal family can also be milled like tapioca, sweet potato, and other tubers. It certainly is good for making cookies, pasta, bread, and pastries.

Most flours, particularly the wheat based ones contain gluten, a protein that makes dough elastic and holds it together. It also helps in maintaining the shape or acts as binder making it a very important quality in food preparation. There are some people whose physiology cannot tolerate this glutinous protein. Somehow the organs have difficulty breaking these down.

There actually is no such thing as gluten free substances. All flour products have gluten on it. The right term for it would probably be less glutinous flour. The term is a just a subtle commercial and marketing name. Yes, it can be substituted but no, it cannot be eliminated. The combination of different flours along with wheat flour which by the way is glutinous is just a blend. It is not pure in itself.




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