White Flour and Diabetes - hidden alloxan

Most of you know already that refined-white flours do more harm than good to our bodies. To make white wheat flour, wheat kernels must be stripped of their bran and germ layer, which removes the most nutritious parts of the grain, such as fiber, minerals and vitamins. But this unfortunate process does not stop there. The flour, which is naturally brown, still needs to be whitened using a chemical (that is standard in the flour industry) called chlorine gas or chlorine dioxide. This gas, when it comes in contact with some proteins in the flour, forms another substance called alloxan. Guess what does alloxan do? It destroys pancreatic function. In lab animals, alloxan destroys beta cells, the specialized group of cells in the pancreas that make insulin. And insulin by the way, is what makes your blood sugar level go down. So the more alloxan consumed, the more likely the development of diabetes...at least in lab animals. And this is not a secret at all, because scientists use alloxan to induce diabetes in rodents. Alloxan destroys beta cells because this substance is very similar to glucose which is taken up by betal cells very rapidly, and then alloxan sparks free radical within the cells and kills them, so they can no longer produce insulin. Therefore, when enough beta cells were destroyed, insulin production ceases and diabetes takes place.

Alloxan is a toxin categorized as a pesticide, aging, oxidizing, irritant, dangerous to inhale and lethal by the Enironmental Protection Agency. This harmful chemical is never disclosed on labels of products that use bleached white flour.

I really don't want to be another guinea pig to see the effects of alloxan in humans, therefore I use that simply as another excuse for not consuming white flours. Because there are a wide range of other reasons why I stay away from white flours. And they go from health to political reasons... But I can leave that for another post.

Have a wholesome weekend!