Two organizations, the FDA and USDA, are supposed to be for our health and safety, however, that is not actually the case. Things are supposed to be labelled as to their content, but the "content" meaning changes as these organizations change them over the years.
You would be surprised what that "ingredient" means, or what is allowed in your food without being an ingredient.
"Pure Honey" does not have to be only honey. There is a percentage of HFCS that can be added, and it still called "Pure Honey". And if below that level, its only ingredient is "pure honey". (and be sure to watch out for Honey flavored, usually with Honey in giant letters, and flavored in tiny ones)
Ketchup can have up to 3% insect parts. You don't find bugs in the ingredients list, but they are there. And if they only accidentally got 1% bugs, they can add 2% more of farmed bug, and there is change to the label.
Today i am going to talk about "Wheat Flour" a substance you find on all grocery store shelves (unless it is out, because everyone is locked down, or are trying to save money baking their own bread)
history of grinding wheat
Long ago, and probably even longer, we ground meal seeds into flour. Usually with some kind of mortar and pestle. Or flat stones. You can still find boulders with little divots in them where people ground some kind of seed/nut.
It is one of the first uses of a water wheel, or a windmill. To turn the stones to grind wheat into flour.
You would take a bag of wheat berries to your local mill and it would be ground. You would only grind as much flour as you would use in two weeks, because this stuff had wheat germ oil in it and that would go rancid.
Breads made from this wheat were very dense (and often had little bits of stone left in it)
There was a thing called white flour, but it was reserved for kings, because you would have to pay someone to remove the germ and bran from each seed before grinding what remained. That was a lot of work by hand.
And so, the common people lived on.
White flour
Along comes steel mills during the industrial revolution. This allowed wheat to be ground far easier and faster. It allowed the separation of the germ and the bran. And so, white flour was available to the masses in large quantities.
And people started falling over. No, really. Like they showed you, to scare you about the Covaids. People would be walking along and just keel over.
They found out what was happening is that people were eating plenty of food (sugar+starch), but they weren't getting enough nutrition. (the white flour makers had removed the nutrition) And so they required wheat mills to add nutrition back in.
That is why the bag of white flour says "enriched" white flour. They add 4 chemical nutrients into the white flour, so that people no longer just fall over.
What about all those other labels?
Brominated - means they added bromine. When you first grind flour, it does not rise as well as if you let it sit for a day. But, if you and bromine, the flour will act like the day old flour. So, you can get right to baking.
Bleached - yes it means what they said it means. They bleached the flour to make it whiter. And do you think you can wash the flour afterwards to get the bleach out? Or just let the chlorine evaporate?
Presifted - You would used to have to sift the flour before each use. It would stick and clump and condense. Not what you wanted for baking. Further, you used to sift the flour to catch any rocks in the flour.
Self Rising - This means they added baking soda (or similar to the flour). Be sure to avoid Aluminum Phosphate
Bread Flour - This can have all kinds of meanings. It usually means that the flour is the finer grind, and they have added extra gluten to it. (and since gluten is from wheat flour, they do not have to mark that as an added ingredient.)
Whole Wheat Flour Isn't
Of all the information in this post, this is the one i am the most angry about.
"Whole wheat flour" is actually white flour with SOME of the germ and SOME of the bran put back in.
The wheat germ oil (essential for nutrition) is gone, as that would make the bag of flour turn rancid in a couple of weeks. Not good for selling. You want that stuff to sit on the shelf for years without depredation.
Whole wheat flour is no where close to freshly ground entire wheat flour.
So, what we have in our stores is no where near what people have lived on for thousands of years (without problem). But now, we have problems showing up everywhere.
We eat way to much wheat, and that wheat is adulterated and formed into all kinds of things that are just bad for you.
And the USDA / FDA could at least warn us of the adulteration of our food, but instead, they seem to hide it.
(they will do the same with bugz)