difference between wheat and whole wheat
White flour is flour that has been milled and the bran and the germ extracted, making a lighter fluffier product that rises higher in the oven and makes for less dense baked goods (on the whole). Whole wheat flour is the flour that results from grinding the entire wheat berry, and subtracting nothing. IT has both the bran and the germ still as part of the flour. It has a distinctive flecked appearance, often a bitter taste, and makes for heavier baked products. White whole wheat is a specific type of wheat, the flour is ground and the bran and germ are both left in the product. However, the bran on this particular type of wheat is lighter than bran on other types of wheat, making it seem more like white flour even though it has all the benefits of being a whole grain. It’s possible to get white flour that has the germ added back in, which is good from a health standpoint because of the beneficial protiens and fats in wheat germ.
My nutritionist told me that wheat is just a sneaky way of saying white flour, since all (wheat) flour is made from wheat. However, by saying wheat, it sounds healthier than white flour or flour, and so people are more likely to buy it. Another trick is to add molasses or something else to darken the product so it looks more like whole wheat. You’ll find a lot of “artisan” breads list both “wheat flour” and molasses. White whole wheat is an albino variety of regular whole wheat. It’s part of a thrust to get North Americans to eat more whole grains. You may have seen Wonder Bread ads for their new white whole wheat bread.
