Diabetes is on the rise. Auto-immune and inflammatory diseases are being reported at higher rates now than before. New cancer cases worldwide are expected to skyrocket! Are these conditions all due to the fact that modern wheat is very different from what our ancestors grew up with? I don’t know, but I’ve read enough to believe that maybe it’s time to drop modern wheat from my shopping list and perhaps find a more preferable alternative.
As I continue to learn about modern wheat production, and how different our wheat today is from what was consumed just 50-100 years ago, I am becoming more and more impressed with ancient wheat varieties. These ancient varieties, one example being Einkorn wheat flour, are genetically the same today as way back when, depending upon which variety you are looking at. Einkorn wheat flour is supposed to be the original flour, “the first species of wheat to be domesticated from wild by humans during the Neolithic Revolution”, according to Jovial Foods, one of the few Einkorn flour providers.
Another supplier of Einkorn flour is Organic Sprouted Flour, an online resource for all sorts of sprouted grains and sprouted ground flour. I’ve now had the opportunity to have ordered Einkorn wheat flour from each of these providers, and have been pleased with each of their products. But they are different flours, they do not ship the same product. According to Jovial’s website, their organic Einkorn wheat flour “is high-extraction flour at 80%, which means most of the germ and bran have been removed for lighter flour that stays fresh for longer.” And in direct contrast, the ground sprouted Einkorn shipped from healthyflour.com is a whole grain flour, meaning nothing is left out of the final product, you get 100% of the ground wheat, including the germ and the bran.
It turns out the the differences between the two products is more than just visual, they have a different nutritional panel as well. The biggest difference between the two is obviously the amount of fiber present in each serving. In the high extraction flour from Jovial, there are 2 grams of fiber in one serving, which is 1/4 cup. But the whole grain sprouted flour comes in at 5 grams of fiber, two and a half times as much!
Going forward, I will most likely be using Jovial’s flour as a white flour substitute. It’s lighter than most whole wheat flours, but a healthier alternative to the white flour most often available today in supermarkets. And for a high fiber whole wheat, I’ll be using the sprouted Einkorn wheat flour. But I will most certainly be keeping both flours around the house, and will be posting pictures and recipes as time and my baking abilities allow.
Einkorn sounds like a great alternative to modern wheat flour products especially when starting to wean younger family members off high carb consumption. But the problem will arise when demand for the product increases to such a degree that current growers of einkorn have to put aside their noble ideals and farming techniques to increase yields. That’s when the integrity of the product starts to deteriorate through tampering and hybridisation. Isnt this how we ended up with unhealthy modern grain?
I suppose that is always a concern, but with a little luck, if society demands a high quality product and is willing to pay for it, then the suppliers will find a way to produce it. Look at Organic foods, people used to laugh at how fringe and demanding it was, but that sector is growing like crazy because people want it and are paying for it. It would also help if our government would start subsidizing smaller high quality producers and quit giving money to big ag companies who make low quality food.
Do you know anything about the glycemic index of Einkorn? I’ve heard low 50s, but don’t know if here is a difference between whole grain, the Jovial lite (which I like a lot!), or sprouted Einkorn???
I can’t say that I do, at least not on hand, but if most of what I read is to be believed, then even though Einkorn is an ancient wheat and should react better when consumed, it is still mostly a carbohydrate and will likely have a much higher glycemic index rating than a fat or protein.
A research gate study compared white bread and einkorn bread.
Glycemic indexes were about 54 and 45 respectively.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Postprandial-glucose-and-insulin-responses-after-einkorn-EB-or-wheat-WB-bread_fig1_329818267
Hello,
Thank you for this informative article about Einkorn flour.
In your article you mentioned two companies that sold the flour. Please note that the company “organicssproutedflour.net” have changed the name of their website. Their website is now called “healthyflour.com”.