magedragonfire: (Icewing)
[personal profile] magedragonfire
tl;dr about food/grains.

Reading an article in my troll-through of the Sun, and... Well. Most of it is pretty helpful advice, although I knew just about everything in there myself, buuuut... I kind of have to take umbrage with their little blurb about multigrains/whole grains, especially "What's more, multi-grain products typically contain endosperm, a source of starch and calories."

...Yes? Okay? Endosperm is in fact what's left when you strip the bran and germ away from a grain kernel. It's what flour is mostly made out of. Yes, even whole grain flour. 'White' wheat flour is just the ground up endosperm; mostly the inner endosperm. Whole grain includes the bran and germ, too. Flour without endosperm would have almost no structure to it; it'd just be... bran. Which, while great as an additive, doesn't exactly hold muffins or breads together.

In other words, I'm not exactly sure why this reporter chose to pick on that fact like it's some kind of bogeyman? Smacks of fearmongering and shoddy, ill-researched reporting, to be honest. This isn't even something nutritionally-related that could be open to interpretation or affects some people differently or whatever-have-you - it's plain fact, trivia, something that you could find out by opening a fifty-year-old book on grain biology. There's really no excuse for it.


In somewhat related news, in my hunting for jobs a couple of days ago, I came across a listing for a gluten-free production bakery looking for a baking assistant. Great, I thought - they're not too far away, and I certainly don't mind doing gluten-free baking. Except... On their website they trumpeted their use of aluminum-free baking powder in all of their goods, including breads. This is also okay. What wasn't okay was their justification for doing so: that yeast is always bad for celiacs and people with gluten sensitivities. Which is outright oppositeland in some cases. Yes, some celiacs/gluten-sensitive folks have allergies or problems with yeast, and obviously those people should abstain from eating it. But to suggest that it's unilaterally harmful, in the face of evidence to the contrary, is kind of shady.

It bothers me probably more than it should. I'd be happier if they just said 'we just don't like yeast', or gave no reason at all; there's no arguing with either of those things. But to seemingly base your decision on something that's not actually right... eeeeugh.

I obviously didn't apply. :P

Date: 2013-06-07 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] plushdreamer.livejournal.com
That whole endosperm thing makes very little sense. A person who is avoiding wheat or gluten is going to just avoid it altogether to save themselves the hassle. I do think they are being false in that most people who can eat grains without problems are perfectly capable of eating the entire product without needing to go through all that hoopla they are describing. Everyone else who had a health issue will just avoid grain outright if they need to.

The not using yeast thing I could see for customers who have yeast issues, but they could have just said they make yeast free products to accommodate people who need to avoid it.

I've never heard of Celiacs having issue with yeast. Yeast is a fungus and completely different from gluten. I have a mild-moderate sensitivity to gluten and I've eaten Asian pastries made from rice or tapioca flour that I'm somewhat certain had yeast in them (maybe not?) Only thing I can think of is the owner might have a personal health issue with yeast and didn't want to disclose that or something?

Date: 2013-06-08 12:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magedragonfire.livejournal.com
Yeeaah, it's basically a lie-by-omission to make whole-grain products look better. Which... isn't necessarily the case, either, since labelling things 'whole grain' doesn't necessarily mean they're made with 'straight' ground flour - it usually means that it's made with white flour as per usual, but has some bran and germ added back in afterwards, and usually not even in the proportions that you would find in a naturally ground wheat kernel. I kind of have to wonder what their motives are for reporting it like that.

Yeah, exactly! And that would be great, if they did say that! But... they don't, and instead are relying on shitty, incorrect statements. :|

Celiacs often have allergies or intolerances to things besides gluten. Lactose/dairy is a really common one, for example, but I've heard of people with it who have longer lists of what they're allergic to than what they can eat. I just can't even imagine living with something like that, eef. But yeast, I guess, shows up in those intolerances often enough.

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