Whole Wheat History

Long before we had artificial chemicals, microwaveable foods, and refrigeration, people had to travel from place to place in search of food. They would eat whatever they could find that grew wild. When the population began to grow however, more and more food became harder to find. The travelers had to settle and figure out how to grow food themselves.

Wheat could possibly have been one of the first plants to be cultivated by people, because of how well it adapts to harsh environments this seems likely. After it was discovered you could grow wheat, considerable changes started taking place. People realized they could grow their own food, so they no longer needed to wander around in search of it. The stable food supply caused people to start settling permanently.

The travelers became farmers, and as the growing of wheat developed, so did the farmer's knowledge. They began to make the wheat easier to grow and cook. Gradually they started choosing seeds from their best wheat plants for the following years' planting. By doing this it eventually ended up producing better crops and better quality of wheat that was passed down from one generation to the next. Wheat quickly became one of the most substantial crops in the world. To this day it is grown on more land area worldwide than any other crop!

It is said that the first evidence of wheat was discovered in the Middle East. When the farmers started generating enough crops to feed more than enough people, trading began between the many cultures. Wheat eventually made it's way from the Middle East to other countries and then into America with Christopher Columbus. Over time, the growing of wheat spread even more and is still one of the highest producing crops in the world!

Before the 1800s all of the wheat grains were baked or ground whole. Which means that the bran, wheat germ, and the endosperm were still intact. However a new way of mass refining and milling took hold in the wheat business when the industrialization wave hit. The manufactures started removing the bran and wheat germ from the wheat because they found that the wheat products wouldn't spoil as quickly and could sit longer on store shelves. What they did not take into consideration is that almost all of the essential vitamins, fiber, and minerals were removed as well. There have been increasingly more health problems since that time.

Whole wheat has the attention of nutrition experts of today. They have seen how the entire kernel contains fiber, healthy phytochemicals and nutrients that are essential for good health. People long before out time used to eat wheat this way, and in most cases they lived longer than we do now! We need to get back to eating wheat in it's natural form, whole.