Why is bleached flour bad for you

The bleaching process is completed in about 24 hours, yielding a uniformly mature flour every time. Spread, texture, volume, and quality of grain must be exact each and every time… but for the home baker, the only thing bleach has to offer is a whiter bread or cookie.

We put it to the test ourselves. With a picky panel of Cooking Light food editors and test kitchen professionals, we baked and tested 4 different recipes in a side-by-side comparison using bleached and unbleached flour. Two higher fat-to-sugar-ratio recipes, sugar cookies and vanilla pound cake; a batch of buttermilk biscuits, and brioche — a yeasted egg bread. The verdict was unanimous — substituting unbleached flour was far from compromising, and in some cases, actually preferred. Our sensitive palates detected a slightly nutty, earthier flavor in the buttermilk biscuits made with unbleached flour — and even a bit fluffier than the bleached version.

Visual differences were minimal, see our example below — and if anything, more desirable in the browner-is-better mindset of late.

Whether or not you choose bleached flour over unbleached is a matter of preference. For the home baker, bleached flour merely offers visual appeal — a whiter, brighter flour that only sometimes translates in the final baking product. But neither, no matter how enriched they may be, are a true whole grain. Starting last year, Cooking Light began using whole grains and whole-grain flours as the default over refined. Both varieties contain the same number of calories and amounts of protein, fat, carbs, and fiber per cup grams.

However, unbleached, unrefined, whole-wheat varieties may be richer in several important nutrients. In particular, whole-wheat flour packs more fiber, vitamin E, manganese, copper, and antioxidants 4. Both bleached and unbleached flours are also often enriched with B vitamins like folate, niacin, vitamin B6, and thiamine 1. Bleached and unbleached white flours are nearly identical in terms of nutrition. Other varieties of unbleached flour, such as whole-wheat flour, may contain more fiber, vitamin E, manganese, copper, and antioxidants.

For example, potassium bromate, which is a common additive used in bread-making, has been linked to kidney damage and cancer in some animal studies 5 , 6 , 7 , 8. Benzoyl peroxide is another common food additive that is generally recognized as safe by the Food and Drug Administration FDA 9. Still, some test-tube and animal studies have found that it may harm your antioxidant status and break down certain nutrients in foods, including essential fatty acids 10 , Keep in mind that most current research is limited to animal and test-tube studies using very high doses of these chemical compounds.

Therefore, more studies in humans are needed to evaluate the safety of bleached flour when consumed in normal amounts. Some chemical compounds in bleached flour have been linked to adverse effects in animal and test-tube studies.

More research in humans is needed to evaluate the safety of these bleaching agents. Bleached flour has a finer grain and absorbs more liquid, which works well for foods like cookies, pancakes , waffles, quick breads, and pie crusts. Meanwhile, the denser texture of unbleached flour can help baked goods hold their shape a bit better, making it a good fit for puff pastries, eclairs, yeast breads, and popovers. That said, both types can be used interchangeably in most baked goods without significantly altering the final product or needing to adjust other ingredients in your recipe.

Bleached flour works well in recipes like cookies, pancakes, waffles, quick breads, and pie crusts. Meanwhile, unbleached flour is better suited for puff pastries, eclairs, yeast breads, and popovers.

Bleached flour is treated with chemicals to speed up the aging process, whereas unbleached flour is aged naturally. Opting for unbleached, whole-wheat flour may increase your intake of several nutrients and minimize your exposure to potentially harmful chemicals.

Still, both varieties can be used interchangeably in most recipes without significantly altering the final product. Because Einkorn only has two sets, these peptides are not present, potentially making Einkorn OK for those with gluten-intolerances. Read more about this here. You can quickly work these methods into your daily routine without really adding much time at all since most of the time-consuming part is purely hands-off. For you, better might be swapping it out with organic whole wheat, or even subbing up to half the flour in a recipe with whole wheat to add more nutrition.

Hi Kelsey, great post. Thanks in advance. Hi Sugi! Great question! As far as buying flour goes, this will be your best bet. However, once the grain is ground it starts losing its nutritional value rapidly and can go rancid quickly. I also use Einkorn flour, and my starter is from Einkorn but I never have 2 cups at one time, let alone have some left over. So would your recipe yeld 2 plus cups? Great post! Thank you! I wondered about coconut flour though.

My understanding it that coconuts do not have the same concerning phytates as grains. Does the coconut flour on a grocery shelf have less nutrients that freshly made? How do you make coconut flour? Great question Alisha! However, sourcing an organic, high quality brand IS important. We recommend Nutiva brand , which can be found in many grocery stores or on Amazon.

I really think that freshly ground flour fermented over a long period of time produces the easiest-to-digest end product. I am also a huge fan of heirloom grains and am really enjoying gluten-free sourdough breads at the moment. What a great resource! Thanks for putting all this info together, Kelsey. If I accidentally run out and have to go buy regular whole wheat flour from the store, my starter throws a fit.

Everyone kind of has their own journey. Personally, we use a lot of nut flours in place of regular flour or my favorite grains like oats and quinoa. Turkey Red and Red Fife among others. A diploid actually has 14 chromosomes, 2 sets of 7 from each parent. Spelt has Marty, we appreciate your reply, and thanks so much for catching our typo on the chromosomes!

If you can point me to them, please do! Thanks again for your comment! Great question Estelle! It should say on the bag. To the consumer, that makes us happy to see these things added back in.

But adding in these nutrients is never a substitute for the nutrient in its natural form. Often these are synthetic and unusable by our body. Furthermore, not all nutrients are added back in, or some nutrients are added in larger quantities like iron.

When this balance is messed with, it makes it difficult on our body. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. By Kelsey Steffen. In Food , Sourdough. Is Flour Bad for You?