A Closer Look at Some Carbohydrate “Foods”

Hopefully by now you have been working on building your metabolic machinery.

So, today we are going to return to our Top 5 NOT FOOD list (read that here) and talk about processed and/or refined carbohydrates and grains. Let’s begin here:

unbleached enriched flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, whole wheat flour, honey, wheat gluten, sugar, wheat bran, contains 2% or less of each of the following: yeast, cultured wheat flour, salt, soybean oil, soy flour, calcium sulfate, monoglycerides, enzymes, monocalcium phosphate, soy lecithin, ascorbic acid, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin riboflavin (vitamin b1), riboflavin, folic acid, calcium carbonate

The above ingredient list you just read belongs to the #1 selling “bread” in the US - Nature’s Own Honey Wheat. As I frequently tell my kids, “that is NOT FOOD.”

And I should know. Because I frequently make my own sandwich loaves from scratch for my family. Here are the ingredients:

sourdough starter, einkorn flour, whole raw milk, water, sea salt, butter

Does that look even remotely similar? Nope: 6 whole food ingredients as opposed to 30 processed ones. And what is the most vile ingredient that I have been telling you to avoid? It’s right there in the list - soybean oil. In bread?! Um, no, IT IS NOT BREAD.

This is the problem with our country. We craft these materials in a lab to please the human mouth and turn it into something that looks like a loaf of bread and then sell it as such when it is NOT, all to make a buck and with no thought to the health detriment it is causing.

And you find this everywhere:

Whole grain oats, sugar, canola oil, yellow corn flour, honey, soy flour, brown sugar syrup, salt, soy lecithin, baking soda, natural flavor - Nature’s Valley Oats N Honey Bars

Whole grain wheat flour, soybean oil, sugar, cornstarch, malt syrup (from barley and corn), salt, high fructose corn syrup, monoglycerides, leavening (calcium phosphate and/or baking soda), soy lecithin, vegetable color - Original Wheat Thins

Whole grain oats, sugar, modified corn starch, honey, brown sugar syrup, salt, tripotassium phosphate, canola and/or rice bran oil, natural almond flavor, vitamin E - Honey Nut Cheerios

And lest you think if you shop at only gourmet or health food groceries stores that you can avoid all this, check this out:

Water, Modified Tapioca Starch, Cornstarch, Potato Starch, Brown Rice Flour, Sunflower Seed Oil, Whole Teff, Psyllium Husk, Cane Sugar, Raisin Juice Concentrate, Dextrose, Whole Millet, Amaranth Flour, Yeast, Red Quinoa, Modified Cellulose, Pea Fiber, Distilled White Vinegar, Sea Salt, Powdered Egg Whites, Rice Bran, Cultured Cane Sugar, Cellulose Gum - 365 by Whole Foods Market Multigrain Sandwich Bread

Organic Milled Corn, Organic Whole Grain Wheat, Organic Granola (Organic Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Expeller Pressed Canola Oil, Organic Crisp Brown Rice [Organic Brown Rice, Sea Salt, Organic Brown Rice Syrup], Organic Honey, Organic Corn Starch, Organic Vanilla Extract, Salt), Organic Cane Sugar, Sea Salt, Organic Natural Flavor, Mixed Tocopherols - 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Honey Flakes and Oat Clusters Cereal

Organic Granola (Organic Whole Grain Rolled Oats, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Expeller Pressed Sunflower Seed Oil, Organic Honey, Organic Soy Lecithin [Emulsifier]), Organic Tapioca Syrup, Organic Semisweet Chocolate Chips (Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Chocolate Liquor, Organic Cocoa Butter, Organic Soy Lecithin [Emulsifier]), Organic Crisp Brown Rice (Organic Brown Rice Flour, Organic Cane Sugar, Calcium Carbonate, Salt), Organic Cane Sugar, Organic Honey, Organic Expeller Pressed Sunflower Seed Oil, Organic Dried Coconut, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Organic Nonfat Dry Milk - 365 by Whole Foods Market Organic Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars

Don’t be fooled by the “organic” label. There is absolutely nothing organic about industrial sludge (more here). Question everything the government tells you about your food.

The best way to avoid this toxin is to STOP BUYING IT. Clean out your cabinets and be meticulous about checking labels. All processed and refined carbohydrates in commercial foods are to be avoided for this very reason. They are almost always packaged with industrial seed oils.

Remember:

NOT EVERYTHING YOU EAT OR ARE ENCOURAGED TO EAT CAN BE CLASSIFIED AS FOOD.

The other nasty toxin that is linked to processed and refined carbohydrate products is glyphosate. And it is NOT listed on the label, unfortunately. 

Glyphosate is a chemical that is sprayed onto American crops that wreaks all kinds of havoc in our bodies, especially the bodies of our children. It is so prevalent now that it is even in our rainwater. But it is most highly concentrated in processed foods. You can read more about this at the Detox Project here. 

Among other terrible things, the glyphosate molecule can substitute for glycine in your body. Glycine is the amino acid most required for all kinds of important pathways, especially neurologically. It also is an important ingredient for making glutathione, which is your body’s main antioxidant and detoxifier. Glyphosate floating around in your body can mess up all these pathways.

You can help your body detox from glyphosate by consuming extra glycine (get it here, it has a slightly sweet taste and goes well in your workout mixes), and making sure that you eat lots of glycine-rich foods like collagen, bone broth, meat, dairy, eggs and fish.

Also, to help your body detox glyphosate and other toxins as well, consume 6 g of organic sulfur daily (for my favorite source, extremely pure MSM, go here). My kids take 3-6g every day.

But most of all, you must try to keep your levels as low as possible by avoiding processed foods.

These two toxins - industrial seed oils and glyphosate - are the main reasons processed and refined carbohydrates are in our Top 5 NOT FOOD list. However there are many other reasons, not the least of which is the conventional farming of wheat and other grains themselves. They do not belong in your diet and are to be avoided.

So hopefully now you understand better why I make my own bread (I can control all the fats that go in them), and I use Jovial brand Einkorn flour (get some here) imported directly from Italy. Einkorn, nature’s original wheat, has never been hybridized and remains in its original diploid form. It will produce as close to the biblical version of “bread” as we can presently find. Also, its gluten-forming proteins are completely different than conventional wheat and can be tolerated by most gluten-sensitive people. And thankfully, European countries smartly restrict the use of glyphosate.

Because we are an animal-based food family, we don’t eat bread or bread products every day. In fact, I typically only make bread every other week, and it is always sourdough from a starter that I cultivated several years ago. My kids do not eat cereal, crackers, chips, bars or any kind of snack that contains highly processed carbs. Instead, throughout the week they snack on beef sticks, raw cheese, dried fruit, oranges and apples. My oldest son loves Kion bars (which you can get here) and my youngest likes plantain chips (Barnana brand small batch cooks theirs in coconut oil). Whole milk cottage cheese and soft-boiled eggs are also great options. Epic brand, along with their great beef bars, even makes a Beef with Liver snack that is super tasty and will absolutely fool your kids (available here)!

When they do get to have some delicious homemade sourdough bread, slathered in grass-fed butter and raw honey with a side of raw milk, it is a special day indeed. They learn valuable lessons about the function of FOOD. They learn that real food is slow food and is made with great care and love so that it will enrich their entire bodies, not just their mouths.

“And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Deuteronomy 26:9

“Curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs, rams of Bashan and goats, with the very finest of the wheat— and you drank foaming wine made from the blood of the grape.”

Deuteronomy 32:14