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Lisa
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Sue Becker
Plethora of problems and you can trace it to the white flower. That was the information that woke me up and opened my eyes and then introduced me to the whole idea that I could mill my flour at home with a little machine that sits on my counter. The health of our family changed so drastically. My children, they didn't get ear infections, they didn't have snotty noses. I tell people in the 25 years of raising that many children, we only had to go to the doctor twice for an illness and two times on antibiotics. It's been an amazing journey of health.
Lisa
My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities. I help you learn how to cook from scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing Series. I also help people reach their goals from home through my business courses, Create your blog Dream and YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes and description box below.
Now let's get into the show. Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. Today I am having on a guest I've been really excited to talk to, Sue Becker from Bread Becker's. I get lots of questions about whole grain baking with it, how to convert recipes from all purpose to whole grain. I have been getting more convicted that we should be consuming most of our grains whole and not with all purpose flour. And so I had to reach out to her after listening to a few of her presentations to see if she'd want to be on the podcast and thankfully she decided to join us. So I think you're really going to love this interview. Sue, welcome on the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. I'm really excited to have you on. I recently, well, I've been baking with whole grains brains for, I don't know, 15ish years now, something like that. My oldest daughter was a baby and somewhere along the line, you know, we'll get into all of this. But I listened to a lot of, you know, you, you talk about in your presentations, kind of the demonization of gluten of phytic acid. I know you, you talk a lot about that. And recently I was listening to one of your presentations a friend sent me and it was, I forget which one. It was one of your long form presentations on YouTube and you had a lot of very compelling arguments for why that has happened over the years and how it's actually really bad guidance. And you've been on a mission for how many years now with your business, Bread Becker's teaching, all of this?
Sue Becker
Yeah. So we started bread Beckers in 1992, but I actually learned of the health benefits and what has been done to our flower in 1991 through a publication that I had received and so started on the journey myself personally saw the health of our family change so drastically. I'm like, okay, I've got to help other people learn this. And then as people started sharing their testimonies with me, I started even digging more and more and more and learning more and more and more of what has happened to the bread and how everything's so related to that. So that's kind of the journey I've been on 33 years now. And I'm just as passionate today as I was when I started because I see the truth of it.
Lisa
Yeah. And you have so many like you've collected over the years, so many testimonies, I'm sure of people who have switched over to whole grains and what that's done for them. Let's talk a little bit about the history of flour. That's something you talk about on your presentations. Just what, where that went wrong.
Sue Becker
Yeah, and that's what, that's what compelled me to kind of look into this more and more. I graduated from the University of Georgia as a food science major. And that's kind of the study of food processing. Well, not kind of. It is the study of food processing. Everything they wanted do to the food to make it sit on the shelf forever. And so. But I had a passion for chemistry, biochemistry, physiology, and studying the human body. So this publication that came, I came in contact with, was entitled how to greatly reduce the risk of common diseases. In that the history of white flour was presented. And then a brief discussion on the common diseases that plague most Americans, such as heart disease, cancer. But even simple ones, constipation, diverticulitis. Well, they're not simple, but we don't think of them in the grand scheme of things like heart disease and cancer. So here's what I learned. I learned that prior to the 1900s, most of the bread baked in this country, consumed in this country, was baked at home. People either had the capacity to mill their own flour or communities built up around the local miller who, you know, once animal power, water power was discovered, they made bigger mills so that they could produce bigger volumes of flour. So people, but people still that was local, they consumed it on a daily, regular basis, you know, and quickly. So what I learned though, that as long as the grain is kept whole and intact, it is storable. The nutrients are perfectly retained. But once you mill it into flour, those inside nutrients, the oils and the vitamins and minerals particularly, are exposed to the air and it begins to oxidize and lose nutritional value, but also spoil. So maybe before the 1900s, people consuming the flour on a regular basis, they may not have known they were losing nutritional value, but they knew the flour spoiled. But in the late 1800s, someone discovered, if we take away the bran and we take away the germ, the bran's the outer part, the germs, the inner part, where the oils and the fatty acids are. The bran, of course, has all the vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytonutrients, Just so much nutritional value in the bran and germ. And then the germ has the oils. If they sift those away, take them away, remove them and leave only the white flower. Endosperm is what it called, is protein and starch. The flour wouldn't spoil. So it led to the invention of these Huge steel rolling mills that would crush the grain, send it through a sifter, take away the bran and germ, take out the oil and leave only the white flour. Long lasting white flour. Eureka. Wonderful discovery. The flour won't spoil now. So local millers went out of business, homes threw away their grain mill and flour began the road, the slippery slope of, of massive white flower production. It appeared to be a wonderful discovery. But what began to happen is three diseases became almost epidemic when the steel rolling mills displaced the local flower millers, the stone flour mills and began to just produce white flour to the mass public. And so these diseases became epidemic. And it was three basic ones. Beriberi, which is a vitamin B1 deficiency, results in nervous disorders. Pelagra is a skin issue, usually very inflamed skin, oozing sores, but also GI disturbances, dementia, mental insanity. And that one is, like I said, a vitamin B3, that's niacin. And then the last one was anemia. And this began to plague the United States. In fact, pelagra was the first case of Pelagra was diagnosed here in Atlanta, Georgia. I believe it was 1905 and there was 30,000 cases in that first year. This puzzled health officials. They thought, hey, this is infectious diseases. Where are these coming from? But they eventually traced it to the missing nutrients and fiber that were now being lost when they took the bran and germ away from the protein and starch portion of the grain. So they urged the millers to put the bran and germ back in. The millers were like, nah, we're not going to do that. They were selling the bran and germ to the cattle feed industry, animal feed industry, and that is actually still done today. And so they were like, no, we're not going to give up that lucrative market. So it took almost 50 years and it was 1948. The government stepped in and mandated that they had to fix the flour to help keep these diseases from showing up. So they mandated that they enriched the flour for the roughly 35 to 40 nutrients that are lost when you take away the bran and germ. They only put four back in. They put three B vitamins and iron. And what you have to understand is these were synthetic B vitamins and synthetic iron. And so supposedly to stop it stopped, supposedly beriberi, pellagra and anemia. But I always have to ask the question, how many nervous disorders do we have in this country today? How much skin issues do we have in this country day? GI disturbances, mental insanity, dementia, these are all still plaguing our country. And then it took 50 years. They watched the rising incidence of birth defects, traced it to the missing folic acid that was no longer in our flower because of the removal of the bran and germ. So they now mandate that they put folic acid in, again, a synthetic form, which is now creating a whole host of problems. I don't know if you're familiar with mthfr, but this is a problem that is now showing up, and I'm seeing it more and more and more. I only learned about it in the last last four or five years, but now I'm meeting people everywhere that are saying they have this issue. They can't break down the synthetic folic acid. They're loving the bread because they can freshly mill and get their folic acid in a. In the natural form. So this is what I began to learn. And I saw, you know, what appeared to be a wonderful discovery actually has caused many, many, many diseases in this country that we don't necessarily even relate. And if that were not enough, the residual oils that the germ kind of leaves behind, they. It caused the flower to have some yellowing. So they were like, we can't have yellowing in the white flower. So they begin to bleach the flower. A product called nitrogen trichloride was used for more than 25 years. And when I say bleach, and did you hear the key word chloride, a chlorine derivative to bleach the flour, just like we bleach, you know, our clothes. But it was used for about 25 years till they took it off the market. Why they take it off the market? Market because they discovered it caused seizures and hyperactivity. And when I read that in the 90s, that was kind of the beginning of the scourge of hyperactivity. And add that we now see, you know, every child in school is diagnosed with it. So it really, really caught my attention. And they use other. They expose it to benzoyl peroxide, another bleaching agent, which can cause liver and thyroid, or liver issues, kidney issues, I think, and then potassium bromin can cause thyroid issues. So we're seeing this whole plethora of problems. And you can trace it to the white flower from heart disease. I even talked to an optometrist this week, and he's tracing macular degeneration to the early 1900s when we lost those key B vitamins that are so important for our eye health. So I just keep learning more and more and more, but that was the information that woke me. Up and opened my eyes to wait a minute, and then introduced me to the whole idea that I could mill my flour at home with a little machine that sits on my counter and didn't have to have a big barn, didn't have to have a grist mill or anything like that. I have a nice little mill that would mill the flour. So that began my journey back in 1991 to mill my own flour, make all the bread for our family. I had five young children at the time, went on to have number six, number seven, adopted two, so we have nine. But this was a path that I've never looked back. And the health of our family changed so drastically. Myself, primarily was. I noticed it in me the most because I had some. Some significant issues going on. But then my children, I just. They didn't get ear infections, they didn't have snotty noses. And I. I tell people in the 25 years of raising that many children, we only had to go to the doctor twice for an illness and two times on antibiotics. That's. That's pretty significant. There's families now that go twice a week, some twice a day, you know, so it's been an amazing journey of health and it's just been exciting.
Lisa
What I like about it too, you mentioned being able to have your own grain meal on your counter and it not being really as hard as people think that it could be.
Sue Becker
Oh, yeah.
Lisa
But also, it's very simple. One of the first introductions I had to healthy eating was way back when my, I think my first daughter was a baby. I got a book called what the Bible says about Healthy eating living.
Sue Becker
Yes. Dr. Rex Russell.
Lisa
Yeah.
Okay.
And he really emphasized whole grains in that book. And so I right away got. Got a grain mill. I got a mixer, a Bosch mixer at a homeschool convention. Because when I. When my daughter was little, I thought I need to go to homeschool conventions, which is so hilarious to me now because now we actually homeschool. And I don't go. But I was sold on the idea. And then somewhere along the line, I started reading a lot about phytates and phytic acid. And so of course I started doing sourdough. But then I also wondered, like, well, if it's the bran and the germ that are not really. I think it's just the bran that has most of it. Because that's the defense mechanism of the seed.
Sue Becker
Yes.
Lisa
Then is it better if I'm not doing sourdough to do all purpose? Which I know is not true because you're taking away something that God put there. But I think a lot of us have these views about whole grains. There's been a trend over many years to avoid gluten, to avoid dairy, which I'm also really into raw milk, having it in its natural form. We've been doing that for 15 years as well. Yeah, but what have you seen about that? Like the messaging, not just from, I mean, not from like the top down. I feel like it's more like you hear it on social media, you hear about how bad gluten is and how you should ferment all your grains. And honestly, for the most part, it doesn't seem. People don't seem to be really making much distinction when you make homemade bread between all purpose and whole grain. Just as long as it's homemade and it's sourdough, it's good. Have you seen that trend? Yes, I mean, I participated in it, so. Oh, gosh.
Sue Becker
The sourdough trend has. Has skyrocketed, particularly since 2020 during the.
Lisa
Absolutely.
Sue Becker
Crisis when yeast was hard and everybody was back home. But then it's just kind of continued and, and it's the propagation of this, this, this thought which I don't think is correct, of, you know, that's the only way it's more nutritious and all that. And I can't find any great scientific documentation to say that it's that much more nutritious to do sourdough as opposed to just commercial yeast. But won't get into that too much. But I've seen over the years, it's like a new battle to confront a new myth to put down or to research and say this, this is just not the case. Started with phytic acid and the whole, you have to soak your grains. But to break down the phytic acid. Well, I started researching that because I was like, well, I don't want to teach this wrong. You know, what is this? And I came across a book by a biochemist and her whole teaching was we need to eat more grains and beans. The more toxic our world comes world becomes from radiation and all the things that we get exposed to that we can't get away from, that we need to be eating grains and beans means because of the phytic acid that it says powerful antioxidant anti chelator. And so that's some of the information that I've read that I just, it's. It's not correct that phytic acid is going to chelate your iron, your calcium and those types of minerals. If anything it's going to keep you, protect you from over absorbing those. And that's something a lot of people don't realize. Too much calcium is not good, too much iron is not good. And, and it's interesting that phytic acid is in foods that tend to like grains and beans. They have those minerals, your intestinal organisms produce, phytase, which should break the phytic acid down. It's our source for inositol, which is an excellent nutrient that our body needs. So there's, you know, you gotta love the Internet and you gotta hate it. It's a wonderful place that we have in our hands on our phone, a great source of information. But then if wrong information gets put out there, it doesn't take long for it to get passed around. So phytic acid to me is not an anti nutrient. From everything I've studied, it's, it's not at all. Lectins are not at all an anti nutrient. And, and then gluten, that's the biggie. So, you know, when I first started in 91, it was just how to teach people that, that commercially milled flour, whether it was white or whole grain, was not what you thought you needed to mill your own to retain all the nutrients and to have the fats and oils there that are so good for you and make the flour nice and fluffy and, you know, or make the, you can, the bread you make with that flour's nice and fluffy instead of dry and gritty. But so then it, you know, then the phytic acid, then this, then that, then that, and then the whole gluten thing that started 10, about 10 years ago, I guess now, maybe longer.
Lisa
Maybe even longer maybe. I think it's been a while.
Sue Becker
Yeah, it's been a, a while. But what people don't understand is gluten. Grains don't even contain gluten. Gluten is, is a, is a name for the stretchy substance that forms when wheat flour is hydrated. And that gluten forms from two unique proteins, or did you hear what I said? Proteins that are found in wheat and they're unique to the wheat family. Who put them there? They were. Wheat is not genetically modified at this time. There's none. Yeah, yeah.
Lisa
Hybridized, but not genetically modified. I think people confuse those.
Sue Becker
Yes, they do. But those two proteins have been in wheat since the beginning of time because they're important. When you leaven bread with yeast, whether it's sourdough or commercial, you know, just straight isolated yeast, because those proteins, when they form that stretchy Elastic strands of protein, they trap the carbon dioxide gas that the yeast produces. And that's what allows the bread to rise. So that's why since the beginning of time, wheat has been the king of bread making, because those proteins have always been there. And so that's what it is. And it, it troubles me that this is getting such a bad name because what I'm finding is people aren't differentiating between wheat and the bread in the store. They're calling that stuff in the store wheat and it's like raw milk.
Lisa
Like that's not the same thing.
Sue Becker
It's not the same. It's not the same. Well, that's like one day I was looking at a piece of paper and that would be, that would be like me calling this piece of paper a tree. That's, that's how far removed that stuff in the store is from that kernel of wheat that is, is the most nutrient dense food that God has given us. Loaded with vitamins, loaded with minerals, the fiber to keep our guts healthy and clean and moving. And then the proteins, we need the white flour portion, but God never intended us to separate it out. And what's happening is the bread that's in the store, whether it's white flour or even what's labeled whole grain bread, they're adding the extra gluten forming proteins to that to make that bread rise better. So that's what's happening. We're consuming those proteins outside of the proportion that God intended us to eat it. And without the vitamins, minerals and nutrients and the fiber to keep things moving. And those two proteins are actually very important. We need them. They're very healing to the gut. And then the other thing that I learned is that proteins are digested in the stomach for the most part. Carbohydrate digestion begins in your mouth. You eat your food, it goes into your stomach, and for all practical purposes, carbohydrate digestion kind of stops. And protein digestion picks up protein. Digestive enzymes must have an acid environment. Okay. To work. So what is one of the most commonly prescribed drugs in America?
Lisa
Antacids.
Sue Becker
Right, antacids.
Lisa
I heard this on your presentation.
Sue Becker
Yes, that is just when I kind of put that piece of the puzzle, that kind of blew my mind a little bit because we're blaming wheat, the most nutrient dense food God has given us. But could it be that we've adulterated that wheat, we've stripped everything good away from it and now we're eating just those proteins and starch and on top of that we're taking antacids that are compromising our protein digestion and wondering, you know, what's going on and blaming it on wheat. And we have had so many people, and this is probably one of the most exciting things in the last 10 years is to be able to share with people that truth. Because I've, I've read Some statistics about 60% of people that think they have to go gluten free are self diagnosed and they're not true celiacs. And that's another thing. True genetic celiac affects less than 1% of people in this country. And it's genetic, you're born with it. And I'm even doing some research now is even if that's reversible. But we're finding hundreds of people that have been gluten free, some for 15, 20 years of their life and had severe abdominal cramping issues, bowel issues, headaches, acne. I mean, all these symptoms from eating what they thought was the gluten, that was the problem. And they hear the teaching and they go, I'm going to try this bread. Not only are they thriving on this bread, it has those gluten forming proteins in it. Freshly milled flour, we don't take that away. But with the bran and the germ and the vitamins and the minerals and the fiber to keep their gut clean. And so they're not only thriving, they're getting well, they're getting better. I had a mom of a young boy just showed up in one of my classes, I think it was a Christmas class or something. And I don't talk a lot about bread and that, but I just happened to mention, and I happened to get on my soapbox about gluten and you know, what it really is and everything. And her son had, they put him on all this medicine and he was on a gluten free diet. Diet. She bought a meal, started milling, making bread. She, she, I saw her like six months later and she told me this story. I didn't meet her in the class. She said, my son is now off all this medication and he's thriving, he's doing well, he doesn't have stomach aches. And I'm hearing it all the time. We have several on our, my podcast that I interview of people getting wealth. And what I've also noticed is the more restrictive our diet, especially when you restrict bread, the next thing you know, you can't eat eggs, you can't eat milk. I had a lady come in my class and come up to me and said, she was down to seven foods was all she could eat. And she was so excited. Now she could eat this bread. She was thriving on this bread. And now they can eat milk and now they can do their. And one lady on the podcast, it was. She said, this is my farm. Fresh eggs that I couldn't eat, you know.
Lisa
Right.
Sue Becker
So. So that's what I'm seeing. And people are finding freedom and health and healing and. And that. And that one's been a tough one, but it's. It's been a real blessing to see people get their life back.
Lisa
Yeah.
Sue Becker
You know, just with this one simple change of. Wait a minute. You mean I can eat bread? And I heard a doctor one time, the kind of propagator of this whole antigrain, anti gluten. And he said, wheat is the easiest food to give up. And I'm like, I don't know what planet you live on, but it is not easy to give up. And he called it the most talk, toxic, poisonous food that we're eating. And I'm like, we hear that a lot, though.
Lisa
That's. That's not. There's probably people who are listening to this who are like. But it is, though, because when I talk to, like, any functional doctor type of person, they're always like, no gluten, no wheat, even if it's sourdough, even if it's whole grain. And it's. It's such a hard dynamic to balance because you hear from these experts who are experts in a natural field, which is what, you know, I am a proponent of. Like, I like natural health. I think that you can, you know, for the most part, most things can be worked out with certain lifestyle, dietary changes. And they'll say such things that are conflicting to what you teach is very common sense. Like, we read in the Bible, you talk about the. All the metaphors that Jesus uses with bread throughout the whole Bible. So it makes sense to me that we would be healthy. And then if God put, you know, it in this whole form, that you'd grind it. And then it even makes sense to me that you would, you know, use the ancient practice or whatever of. Of sourdough and rising it. But it just seems so simple and so common sense that it's almost like, you know what, maybe that just is the most we need when it comes to confirming whether or not this is a good idea.
Sue Becker
And that. And that's the way it was with me when I read that information. I'm like, this is biblically correct and scientifically correct. And like, you said it was so common sense. And the other thing, I've been teaching this now since 1992. It's not changed. It maybe has grown.
Lisa
Exactly.
Sue Becker
More and more people share. Yeah, it hasn't changed. And in fact, the free CDs that we have that, you know, we used to give away, we started a little cassette and then we went to CDs, and now people don't even have CD players. But that was recorded in 1993. It's still the same information. And, you know, it's. It's just amazing. And I just. I've never seen in. In all my years of studying healthy eating and I continued to study the body and physiology and biochemistry even after I graduated college and because it fascinated me. And even today, I mean, I love reading a physiology book. I'm like, I gotta figure this out, you know, And. And I have, in all my years, of all the things I've tr. Even over the years, Bourges, green drinks, and those are some great things. But never have I seen any one dietary change make such a significant, noticeable difference. Immediate, noticeable difference. And I mean, constipation, sinus congestion. I lived on antihistamines before the bread, and now I've not had an antihistamine since 1991.
Lisa
And that was the only change you could even trace it back to.
Sue Becker
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and I did. I was eating healthy for the most part, except for our bread. I did breweries drinks, I did green drinks. I took my vitamin C. I did all those things. And. But if we're feeding our body stuff it, those things aren't going to make that big a significant difference. And then, like I said, and my energy levels. I had six young children I homeschooled like you, and we were busy. We were active in church and my kids played sports and they took piano, you know, so all the things. But when I made this change, it was. It was. I mean, it changed our life, of course, in more ways than one. But the health of our family. My kids ate food. They were satisfied. They weren't just eating junkie things or looking for food all the time. I mean, we ate a meal and we were done for four or five hours. They didn't snack and, you know, just. They were just healthier, stronger, noticeably stronger children.
Lisa
Well, and it's so interesting to me, like, with this movement against girls, grains that all kids and babies love or, you know, over once they're past nursing, once they're weaned and all that. They all love bread. Doesn't matter if it's whole grain, does not matter. What. You know, they love all things grains and carbs. I'm always like, why did you know if that's true? Why did God mess this up so bad?
Sue Becker
Yes, yes. But he didn't. We did. We did. And I tell the story on myself. I was like, before bread, bread, you know, when you have toddlers and they don't want to eat, you know, you'd make a sandwich or something and so you take the, the meat off the sandwich and say, just eat the meat after bread. I'd take the meat off the sandwich and go, just eat the bread. Because just about every nutrient that our body needs is there. The only thing that's slightly deficient in grains and beans is vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin D and B12. And an amino acid is slightly low in grains, but it's high in beans and vice versa. So they complement each other. But it saddens to me. I mean, Jesus compared himself to bread because, and he said, I am the real bread of life. He who comes to me shall be satisfied. They knew, I mean he was comparing himself to bread and they knew bread is satisfying. And there's many countries around the world that bread is the mainstay. Grains and beans are the mainstay of the diet. And it's sad that in this country we blame it for making us fat when most of the world, world eats a whole lot more than we do. And in the last hundred years our grain consumption has actually decreased, not increased. And that's another misnomer that's put out there.
Lisa
Well, it's very storable. You can stock up on it. It's very cheap to feed a large family. A protein based diet without much bread is extremely expensive. But to fill a lot of the gaps in with freshly milled bread is a really great tip for as you know, inflation and all of the prices rise. That's something that people can really fall back on.
Sue Becker
Yeah. When I, when I, I know I've had people come and they're trying to sell you this meat package or whatever and they said, oh, we can greatly reduce your monthly budget. And when I showed them my monthly budget, they're like, okay, we're done.
Lisa
Not yours, we're out.
Sue Becker
We can't, we can't fix this.
Lisa
Go to the next lady.
Sue Becker
Yeah. And, and like you said, grains are storable. They don't have to be radiated to be stored. They don't have picked early and ripened. As long as you keep them in a, in a Safe environment, away from moisture and where they don't get exposed to bugs or rodents or moisture, they're storable and their nutritional value does not diminish. And that is what is powerful. And I think honestly, some of this anti grain stuff, it's, it's scary to me because, because you know, when they messed up our bread in the 1900s, we became sick and now fat and I mean obese and you know, all these health issues. And then when that antigrain stuff started happening 12 years ago or whatever, it is concerning to me because, you know, when in the 1900s when they messed up the bread and now we're sick and obese and all these things. But then during difficult times, grains are storable and they, there could come a time in our country where they're the only reliable food that we have. And that's, that's interesting to me and this is something that has been concerning to me as well. And you, you brought it up. This is the first time in all my years of studying that I have seen conventional allopathic doctors and integrative and complementary health professional all jump on the anti grain bandwagon.
Lisa
Yeah, they all have.
Sue Becker
Yes.
Lisa
The first thing they tell you, including dairy, give them up.
Sue Becker
Yes. And it, it's just, it's. And that's what I was like, this is not wheat. Don't compare it to wheat. It's just not, you know, you know that bread in the store is not wheat. Don't compare it to wheat. So I don't know if you've ever heard of Dr. Ben Edwards, but he had me on his program and he was like, okay, I've got to rethink the way I'm doing things. Because he was taking people off grain. And now he's one of the biggest proponents of freshly milling your flour. And he talks about it all the time. So it's.
Lisa
Well, I wonder if it's.
They don't expect that people are going to take that step and so they just take them off altogether because they're not thinking that they're actually going to be able to convince them because it sounds really tricky. But of course you and I know we've been doing it forever, that it's not, it's literally you put the grains and it comes out and you make bread. And fact, a lot of the recipes are even simpler because the way that I make them, they're just very easy. It's actually not. But I think they might think maybe that people won't take the time to Source that take the time to sock their kitchen, take the time to go to a farm and get milk. They're, you know, they're like, well, if you're going to be buying everything from the store, just stay away from gluten and dairy.
Sue Becker
Just stay away from it. Yes. And I, that is probably a very valid point, you know, that just stay away from it all. And so. Yeah, but it's sad because like I said, it's the most nutrient food God has given us and nutrient dense food God has given us and it's sad that we'll take that away.
Lisa
Well, when you first learned about this back in the 90s, I mean I started reading about stuff like this, more like 08. But those times were so much simpler. I read it and I was like, okay, great, now I just use all whole foods. I take grains, I mill them, I make bread, I eat meat, vegetables, just all the simple things, things. And it was such an easy approach and now the waters are so muddy that this just reminds me back to the basics. Just how simple eating healthy actually is. It's not, you know, we don't have to go to this expert and get this level checked. And I'm sure there's people who are like, oh, but you do. And I'm sure maybe for some things you do. But for people who have just average, like I don't really have any symptoms necessarily, but just to improve your health, just taking it back to that is very doable thing. It's not confusing. I don't need to go to five experts and cross check and reference. It's just kind of like, okay, yeah, eat the basics.
Sue Becker
Yeah, yeah, just do it and, and see for yourself. I mean, for me, just the energy that I noticed, I, I mean I had, I had nursing baby and three young children. Well, I had five children, but I had three that I were little stair steps and I homeschooled and when I, I mean eat the bread today and I, I noticed a significant difference the next day with the energy that I had. And you'll, you'll notice and you know, I was thinking one day read, reading in the scriptures and you know, why do you worry about what you're going to eat or what you're going to drink? And I know the context is that I'm going to provide. That was the context. But I got to think about, I was like, lord, is that what I'm doing by you know, like being concerned about what I eat? And what he kind of, I don't know, spoke to me was no, the ones that are concerned is the ones that have to. How many carbs, how many fat grams, how many protein, how much sugar? Yeah. And I'm like, the only reason we have to look at that is when you're eating processed food, have you ever noticed there's no, there's no nutrition labels in the fruit and vegetable section?
Lisa
Because it doesn't have to be, you.
Sue Becker
Know what you're getting. There's no nutrition labels on the eggs and the meat and the butter and the, well, maybe on the butter and the milk. And you know what you're getting. It's up and down those aisles. You don't know what you're getting there. So they got to tell you. And so, so that was, that was kind of a revelation to me. And I see people all the time, you know, what do I need to do to get healthy? And I'm like, buy a grain mill, make your bread and just start shopping the perimeter. Eating real food.
Lisa
Simple as that.
Sue Becker
Yeah, it really can be. And that's what I loved about Dr. Rex Russell's book. We still carry it. And I did, I did conferences with him when he was alive because that was the only book on nutrition that I felt was worth reading. It really was. I've read so many and I'd agree with some and then I'd throw some across the room. I was like, this is ridiculous. Ridiculous. But when I read his, I'm like, this is just so simple. Just food that God created. I needed as close the way as he created as possible. I mean, how easy is that?
Lisa
Yeah. I didn't feel overwhelmed with that information early on in my motherhood. It just, it seemed very straightforward. It didn't seem like something I needed to learn. All of these things. It's like, okay, this is. I got this. And then over the years there's been so much more. And you know, over. It's just like I don't even know which direction to turn. And I always end up back to just like, eh, I'll just cook things from scratch with whole foods and that's going to have to be good enough.
Sue Becker
Yes, well, it is. Yes. It's the way God intended it, so.
Lisa
Right. Yes.
Sue Becker
And I know another thing. People used to always say, oh my gosh, you mill your flour and you make your bread. You must spend all your time in the kitchen. And I was like, no, I actually spend less time. I make the bread and they eat, they're satisfied, they're not in there wanting more food. And you know, so it was really an easy adjustment for me. And I know I already baked and cooked, you know, from scratch much, you know, before I learned about milling. So I get it that some people, we've moved so far away from that some people that's so foreign to them. But yeah, it is really so easy. It's just so easy and it, the benefits outweigh any, any investment of time. I mean it's just amazing. The benefits and the reason we're all.
Lisa
Going to spend time in the kitchen because we all have to eat and unless you're.
Sue Becker
Yeah.
Lisa
You know, have just massive wealth, it's going to be cheaper and more practical and easier to eat at home. So no matter what, you're spending that time there. So I think it does make sense to just invest in more quality ingredients.
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So with that, what grain are you stocking? Like hard white wheat, hard red wheat. Any softer you just kind of do everything with wine.
Sue Becker
I started in the very beginning when I first started milling. I only knew hard red wheat so that became my favorite. My staple for especially yeast bread. You need hard wheat for yeast breads or sourdough. I mean either one if it's a yeast leavened. So I do hard red mostly I do like hard white for you know, pizza dough, garlic rolls and things like that. I love Kamut. I actually blend hard red, hard white and Kamut or Either hard, red and kamut. That has become one of my favorite blends. Kamut's an ancient grain that's a TR name for corosan wheat. It's a pasta making wheat. Most of the kamut grown in this country or a lot of it goes to Italy to make pasta. So if you're a pasta maker, it's a great pasta making grain. But it makes, doesn't make great bread all by itself, but it adds such a flavor and a texture. So those are three of my favorite grains. I love spelt. For years I made my bread exclusively from spelt. I just like the flavor of it. Then the last few years it wasn't as high in protein or a different grower from where our elevator was getting our grain elevator was getting it from. So it wasn't as great. So I kind of switched to the red and kamut. I love soft wheat for my pastries, for cakes, cookies, biscuits. I don't make a lot of that, but I do, you know, from time to time I make brownies, cakes, cookies, just like most every American family. And of course we're southern, so we do biscuits. I like mixing it with a little bark. Barley, hulled barley, not pearled because pearl has the bran polished off. And then I've started substituting and storing barley to substitute it in place of rice. Grains are storable with the exception of two that I know. A brown rice does not store. And oats don't store because the oils are in brown rice, the oils are in the bran. So they're on the surface. So that's why they started polishing that off to give you white rice so that, you know, it would store. So brown rice is not as storable and probably only a year, a year or so. And then oats, the oils are in every layer. The bran, the germ and the endosperm. And so that's why oats are steamed. But even still steaming them, that's still only about a year or so shelf life. So those two don't store as well. So I buy smaller quantities of those. Maybe vacuum seal them, put them in a, you know, put them in a myar bag and vacuum seal them. But the other grains store very well. But that's why I started storing barley and using that in place of rice, brown rice, because it's storable. So those are some of my favorites. I love millet. I love the crunch of millet. I throw it in muffins and bread dough and I'm trying to think of some other Things, the Ezekiel mixture. We sell a mixture of grains and beans. That's wheat, spelt, barley, millet, lentils and kidney beans, pinto beans and Great Northern beans. We mix it together in a proportion that's a recipe that we have. And I use it a lot, whether I make Ezekiel bread or I just use that mixture and make my muffins and pancakes out of that flour. And that's one of my favorites. And that's a great. If you're into food storage, that's a great combination of grains and beans. Because if you have those things, that's wheat and spelt and barley. There's barley, millet, all the things I love. And then lentils and your beans, whether you combine it and make the Ezekiel mixture. You got beans to cook, you got barley to cook, you've got millet, lentils, you know, all those things. So that's a great food storage item, you know.
Lisa
And then you put that whole thing through the mill.
Sue Becker
Yeah, you can put it all in the mill. The. The wonder mill will grind any kind of dry grain or beans. So.
Lisa
Yeah. Yeah. And then I've. I remember back in the day, a friend of mine made bread, and she always put millet in there whole, and it was a really nice texture, so adding that. But I kind of forgot about that.
Sue Becker
Yeah, it just gives a little crunch. I put it in my muffins a lot. And then the bread we used to our bakery and. Well, it was my recipe. We called it Crunchy, See Bread. Just adding a tablespoon of millet, sunflower seeds, and whole flax seeds to your bread dough, and it just made a nice little crunch in the bread. So anyway, it was nice. And then there's another grain. Oh, rye. I use a little bit of rye. I don't use it a lot, but I love a good rye bread. It's a little. Rye's very tricky to work with, but those are some of my favorites. Yeah.
Lisa
So a lot of people have asked me, or not a lot, but I've been asked occasionally over the years, years, since I'm really into sourdough. And I started all of my sourdough for the first, like, eight, ten years. I only ever did it with whole grain flour. And so I just basically made my exact same sandwich loaf that I was making before, but just substituted the yeast for sourdough and then let it rise longer. But I'd been asked, since the nutrients break down so quickly after milling, do you find there's any effect of, you know, with sourdough, you're Letting it sit longer before you're baking it. I'm sure you've been asked this question too. Does. Does that break down. No, it does break down phytic acid and all that good stuff. But then does that negate some of the nutrients being lost through that long process?
Sue Becker
Not from everything I've studied. In fact, I actually had a bread biochemist explain to me that once the yeast, or whether it's from sourdough or commercial yeast, begins to produce carbon dioxide, that. That oxidation begins to stop. And that's why you may notice that your. If you refrigerate paint pancake batter, you'll notice it turns dark, whereas your long rising and proofing of your sourdough, it doesn't turn dark, it doesn't oxidize. So that was an indication there. But he said once that yeast starts producing carbon dioxide, oxidation virtually stops. So you shouldn't be losing any nutrients. And if anything, the fermentation, it's making more nutrients available of the fermentation of the yeast and even your lactic acid bacteria in your sourdough. So those are producing and making, producing B vitamins and other things. So, yeah, should be just fine.
Lisa
Yeah.
Sue Becker
And then everything I've read, once the bread is baked, the nutritional loss is minimal. God made grains to be able to be baked. You know, fruits and vegetables, we can eat raw, but it's kind of hard to eat raw grains, you know, so that. And I had a biochemist explain to me that the enzymes in grains, Grains are considered a superfood, that those enzymes actually heat when heated, make those nutrients available. So that's just what I've learned. And, and I've seen we actually, our bakery had our bread laboratory tested instead of just, you know, I don't know if people know this, but a lot of times nutrition labels are just punched into a database and pull down from there. You know, you punch the recipe and it kind of gives you. But we actually wanted to know. And so our bread was tested. It had 100% of your daily requirement for vitamin E in one slice.
Lisa
Wow.
Sue Becker
It had the riboflavin, the niacin, the thiamine, and yeah, it had your B vitamins. Your folate was there. It was. So that was proved to me that after the bread is baked, the nutrients are there.
Lisa
Yeah, they're still there.
Sue Becker
Yeah.
Lisa
Do you have a. I know you do all your own recipes, so this probably is something that you haven't done in a long time. But converting recipes from all purpose to freshly milled. Are there any special considerations that you take.
Sue Becker
No, I still convert recipes. I pull recipes from everywhere. When I'm like, oh, what could I do this. So general rule of thumb with the hardware wheat, it's higher protein, lower moisture. I find that it's pretty much. And that's what I'm using in my yeast spreads, which, you know, yeast bread. It varies how much flour you use. You kind of have to determine anyway, but I find it's pretty much a one for one substitution. Soft wheat is where you. It gets tricky when you're using softweed is your pastry flour. So when I'm converting, say a white flour cake or cookie recipe, if your recipe is by weight, which some of mine are, most of my recipes, I'm old school. I learned to cook by cups and. Yeah. And volume measurements. So if it's by weight, then you just weigh the grain and. And just use that same amount of weight. You don't have to change anything because it's going to correct itself in volume. But if you measure by volume, what I have found with soft wheat, I need more flour or that cookie's gonna just flatten out. Out, the cake's gonna fall. So what I found, for the most part, and this can still vary from year to year depending on the growing season and the moisture. You know, rainfall during the growing season really affects the protein content and the moisture content. But what I found is for every cup of white flour called for, say in a cookie or cake recipe, you need about a cup and one quarter. So a quarter cup more freshly milled soft wheat flour, that makes. So if it calls for a cup of white flour, cup and a quarter salt. Freshly milled soft wheat.
Lisa
Okay, that makes sense. I find that exact same thing with Einkorn, like an ancient grain. It also, it just, it. I don't know why you need a lot more. Yeah.
Sue Becker
Yes. Einkorn and spelt and rye and soft wheat, those are all higher moisture, lower protein grains. Now again, it'll vary. So it's not a hard and fast rule. So you just have to kind of play with the recipe a little bit. And if your cake kind of falls or sinks or that cookie flattens, you know you need just a little more flour. But that's been my pretty standard substitution when I'm converting a white flour recipe. And, and that's important, especially this time of year. Christmas is, you know, we're all going to make those cookies and our family favorites. And I just want to tell everybody you can do it and they'll like it even better because.
Lisa
Oh, absolutely. The Kids don't notice one bit. Like you can make, like you said, brownies, cookies, anything with that whole grain flour. Now do you always take the time to go get soft white? I say go get cause like mine are all down in the basement. But do you take the time to get soft white wheat berries when making cookies and cakes and muffins or do you just do? Because I personally just do hard with everything. Yeah, but I know technically it's better to do soft.
Sue Becker
Well, for, for the first couple of years, like I said, I only knew hard red wheat. And we ate the chocolate chip cookies that I made with hard red wheat. We ate the brownies once I discovered soft wheat. And it really does make a more moist cookie, a more moist brownie, a more moist cake.
Lisa
Yes.
Sue Becker
I typically, typically do take the time to go get my soft wheat and use it and, and mixing it with a little barley flour is really nice too. It's, it's very nice. But a lot of times I just use soft wheat or the Ezekiel mix. I really like the Ezekiel mix and cookies and brownies and things. So. Yeah, but it will, it will make a difference. I think the hard wheats, you're going to get a little more crumbly. Still tastes delicious, but a little more crumbly there. Cookie or brownie.
Lisa
Something less similar to what you would have gotten with all purpose, probably. So people are, they're wanting to convert over in their family not to, you know, get upset about it. Probably taking the time to get the soft white and to do the quarter cup more flour per cup is.
Sue Becker
Yeah.
Lisa
A good idea.
Sue Becker
But and here's something I want to say because we get this question a lot and says, okay, my recipe calls for heart all purpose flour. What, what grain do I need? The basic general rule of thumb there is if it's a yeast bread recipe, you need the hard wheat. If it's a pastry using baking powder or whatever, no yeast, then a soft wheat is going to give you a better texture. So it's not so much what the flour that's called for in the recipe. Is it yeast or is it a quick bread?
Lisa
Absolutely.
Sue Becker
Yeah.
Lisa
Yeah. And so I also do keep Einkorn and I find that Einkorn is probably really similar to salt soft white. When I do cookies with Einkorn.
Sue Becker
Yeah.
Lisa
They're literally better than all purpose, so.
Sue Becker
Oh, absolutely.
Lisa
Yeah. That would be another one that you could reach for when it's not a yeast bread would be Einkorn.
Sue Becker
Exactly. Yeah. Einkorn, spelt, rye, all of those. A lot of people don't, don't gravitate towards rye or they think they don't like it because they think, oh, I.
Lisa
Don'T like rye with like caraway usually. Right. Like that's what they're thinking.
Sue Becker
Caraway is the distinction. Flavor of rye, not rye. And it can make great. In fact, years ago I had a chocolate cake recipe with rye flour and it was delicious. Yeah.
Lisa
People probably thought like, I don't know. But yeah, it's the caraway you're confusing with it, not the actual rye.
Sue Becker
Exactly.
Lisa
That's a good point. Cause I even do that. And I know that because I've made rye bread and I understand that I add caraway and molasses and like it's a little different. But when you don't add that, it doesn't taste different.
Sue Becker
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's more like a sauce soft wheat. So.
Lisa
Okay, well, that's good to know. That reminds me to, to stock that.
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You have probably you're making bread all the time. There's something that you, there's a lot of recipes that you love. You try. But like, what is your go to staple? Like, I don't know. You know, we're busy today. I'm just going to throw something together. Yeah, what's that? Go to bread for you?
Sue Becker
It's going to be my basic bread dough recipe that's that I've used for years and years. It's, you know, it's just one that I tweaked over the years and kept kind of going. It could be a little softer and I, you know, but it is so easy. Cup and a half of water, 30 cup of oil, 30 cup of honey, two teaspoons of salt, four and a half roughly cups of flour. Depending on the flour that I'm using. If I use spelt or rye, it may take more and, and then a tablespoon of yeast and that's it. That's my go to. And I can change that up. If I use spelt, I know that it takes five and a half cups of flour. I can do half rye, half wheat. So that's my basic bread dough. And this is what I tell people. Find a bread dough that you like, a basic bread dough. And it's going to vary depending on where your wheat is grown and where it comes from, you know, so find one you like. You don't need a million different bread recipes. That basic recipe I use for cinnamon rolls, I use for donuts, I use for garlic rolls, I use for pizza dough. I may cut some of the honey out because I don't like sweet pizza dough. But I mean, you know, it's, it's just an all purpose bread dough. We make a Reuben bread, you know, where we roll the dough out and put the corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and roll it up. It's the same basic bread dough. And that' me through those early days when I had so many kids at home. I made six loaves of bread twice a week. And so I would make a big batch of bread dough and I would make hamburger buns out of some of it. I would make a loaf of bread out of some of it. I would make a cinnamon loaf out of some of it, you know, and dinner rolls out of some of it. And then I was good. I had breakfast, lunch and dinner covered. So that's what I tell people. It can be so easy. Now my husband, it's just my husband and I at home, we're empty nesters for the first time in 44 years. But so, you know, I may throw a batch of that basic bread dough in my bread machine, divide it into two loaves. The other day I did one plain loaf and I did another one where I spread it with some butter, sprinkled it with some cinnamon, drizzled it with some blood orange olive oil, rolled it up. Oh my goodness, it was delicious. So there was breakfast and then there was our daily bread of sandwiches or toast or whatever. So it's just easy. Just find a bread dough that you like and then muffins, pancakes, coffee cake, those were my staples. You know, when we weren't having bread of some kind, we had muffins, we had pancakes, we had coffee cake.
Lisa
You know, so the simplicity of that, like you said, these moms with young kids taking one massive batch of dough and then turning into all of those things. Yeah, that's something we can wrap our brains around. Right? Like that's not something that we're going to have to worry about doing. We'll have it memorized. We could do it, no problem at all. Mix it up while kids are at your feet and then throughout the day kind of baking it in a different things and bulk prep that and have it for the week. I think that's a really great tip.
Sue Becker
Yeah, and that's, that's the Way it is with all, with my basic recipes. Like my muffin recipe is two and a quarter cups of flour, teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of baking powder. Why do they complicate a muffin?
Lisa
Yes. Why 1, 1, 8.
Sue Becker
Yeah. Yes. Half a cup of oil, half a cup of honey, a cup of buttermilk, you know, and then just the other day I did a kids class. We did, we had three groups of kids. We had that same basic recipe, some mashed banana and added some cinnamon and millet to it. Okay. Same basic recipe. The other group grated an apple and added cinnamon and used one of our infused oils. But even if you didn't do that, it's delicious. Blueberry. Just add blueberry and cinnamon and nutmeg. And I even took that same recipe, my basic muffin recipe. One night. I wanted cornbread, didn't have time to make, you know, to bake cornbread, it took longer. So I just took my basic muffin, milled corn and used corn instead of flour, you know, the flour, used corn flour and added some hot pepper jack cheese, a cup of frozen whole kernel corn, and it was delicious.
Lisa
Yeah, that sounds amazing.
Sue Becker
Corn muffins, you know, to the same muffin recipe. So that's what I love. And we even did that same thing to my waffle. I took my waffle recipe one time and used corn flour and added the corn and the cheese to it and then we serve chili over it.
Lisa
That sounds really good.
Sue Becker
Yeah. So this is what I love. If you just start get some basic recipes that are easy. I've added pumpkin to my pancake recipe with pumpkin pie spice. You know, to make pumpkin pancakes, the coffee cake, I've used orange oil and put dates in it or blueberries. I mean, so those were my four basic recipes. And just find an easy one. You don't have to go looking for a blueberry muffin recipe, a corn muffin recipe. Just find a recipe that's simple. I think mine are. So. Yeah, yeah.
Lisa
And get them memorized and just.
Sue Becker
And then just go with it.
Lisa
Yeah, go with it. Now, where do we find your recipes? I know you have a book, right? Like a downloadable book.
Sue Becker
Yes, I do. I'll just show you. I have my essential home ground flower book. This is, has a lot of nutritional information in this. So this is my essential home ground flour book. It's got a lot of good nutritional information, over 100 recipes. But I'm telling you, my basic ones are just, just so easy. And then it's got a lot of how to's chapter on different grains and how to use them and how to mill them. And then this is our tried and true Bread Becker's recipe collection. It's got my basic muffin, basic pancakes, the coffee cake, and then of course, the basic bread dough. It has some other recipes too, but this was in the early days of developing my recipes. I just kind of compiled it. Then when we started going out teaching and doing shows, people would say, where can I get your recipes? I would go home, print them up, and finally I compiled them into a book. And so it's, it's old, it's been around for a long, long time. But people kind of know. They'll talk about Sue's Little Red book. So that's it.
Lisa
Right. Well, and then like you said, this information doesn't change. You know, it's just simple.
Sue Becker
Right. Then this one came out. In 2016, I was actually hired by a publishing company to write this book. So. And I'm real pleased with it. It was, it was a, it was a real endeavor. But all the bread baking recipes, the flour recipes that are in my red book are in the essential home ground flour in the.
Lisa
Okay, well, that's good to know. And then tell us what all you offer at Bread Becker's and where are you located. So you talk a lot about a lot of classes.
Sue Becker
Yes, we are located in Woodstock, Georgia. We have a big 10,000 square foot warehouse. It's a store that you can walk into. And then we have about, I guess our classroom is about 2,000 square feet. We offer classes online. We have a lot of classes that we've recorded and we put them online and we sell every kind of grain or bean you can imagine. We sell grain mills, bread machines, mixers, raw honey. We get our olive oil from Greece. We just, we have a lot of amazing products. We have co ops also. If you don't live locally to Woodstock or anywhere close, if you live anywhere close, I say come, just come visit the store. You'll be amazed. Even locals will walk in and go, we never knew this was here because we're in, we're in an industrial park. But we love what we do and we, but we do have co ops. We felt God kind of called us to supplying his people with grain. So we develop what we call co ops. We have about 120, maybe 130 now we have you on an ordering schedule. And so different locations or like Florida will order all at the same time. And. Yeah, and so I didn't know about this. Yeah, you can go on Bread Becker Co op.com and find one in your area and sign up and you can order as much as or as little as you need. But it's a great way to get especially the wheat, the grains that so heavy. You know a six gallon bucket of wheat weighs 42 pounds, then by the time you box it up it's 50 pounds. So UPS loves to charge you lots of money for shipping. So that's why we developed the co op so people can order and. And it's usually about 16 cents a pound. So which is a lot less than what UPS will charge. Depends on how big the order is and where it's going. So. But yeah, and there's no minimums, there's no cost to join the co op and we deliver every four months.
Lisa
Okay.
Sue Becker
Right. Yes. Three times a year.
Lisa
Wow. So many great resources for people who just want to get back to the basics and not over complicate healthy eating. I think that's my favorite thing about your message. So we'll leave links down in the show notes in the description box for all of this stuff and then online where's just like one easy place to send people.
Sue Becker
So breadbeckers.com is the easiest. That's our website. And then I highly recommend my podcast, Sue's Healthy Minutes. You can get that on his podcast platform. But and then breadbeckersco op.com if you want to go straight there. But you can, you can get to there on our website and we have all the classes and videos that you can find on our YouTube channel as well.
Lisa
Yeah, great. All right, well, thank you so much, Sue. I really appreciate it.
Sue Becker
Oh gosh. Thank you for having me on. It was my pleasure to meet with you and talk with everyone.
Lisa
Thanks as always for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast. My husband Luke and I and our.
Eight kids work together side by side.
On our little homestead and use our blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach other homemakers, home cooks and home setters with practical recipes and daily family life. For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmos.com and to dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bit Ly farmhousesourdocourse.
That's all one word. Bit.
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If you're looking to learn how we.
Earn an income online, check out my free blog Success Masterclass at bit.ly farmhousebloggingschool and my YouTube course at bit ly farmhouse.
YouTube course.
All one word, SA.
Podcast Summary: Simple Farmhouse Life - Episode 267
Title: Transform Your Family's Health with Freshly-Milled Whole Grains | Sue of Bread Becker's
Host: Lisa Bass
Guest: Sue Becker, Founder of Bread Becker's
Release Date: December 10, 2024
In Episode 267 of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast, host Lisa Bass welcomes Sue Becker, the founder of Bread Becker's, to discuss the transformative power of freshly-milled whole grains on family health. With over three decades of experience, Sue shares her journey from discovering the detrimental effects of processed white flour to advocating for whole grains milling at home. This episode delves deep into the history of flour processing, the misconceptions surrounding whole grains, and practical tips for incorporating freshly-milled grains into daily life.
Sue Becker begins by illuminating the historical shift from whole grain consumption to refined white flour and its unintended health consequences.
Sue Becker [04:56]: "Prior to the 1900s, most bread was baked at home using whole grains... Once you mill it into flour, the nutrients are exposed to the air and begin to oxidize and lose nutritional value."
Sue explains how the removal of the bran and germ during the milling process stripped flour of essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber. This not only reduced its nutritional value but also led to the widespread adoption of synthetic vitamin enrichment.
Sue Becker [04:56]: "They took away the bran and germ, leaving only the white flour. This led to diseases like beriberi, pellagra, and anemia becoming almost epidemic."
Despite government mandates to enrich white flour with synthetic vitamins and iron in 1948, Sue argues that many health issues persist due to the incomplete restoration of lost nutrients.
Sue Becker [04:56]: "They only put four nutrients back in—three B vitamins and iron—in synthetic forms, which hasn't fully addressed the underlying health problems."
Sue shares her personal journey of discovering the benefits of freshly-milled whole grains and the dramatic improvements in her family's health.
Sue Becker [01:23]: "The health of our family changed so drastically. My children didn't get ear infections, they didn't have snotty noses... We only had to go to the doctor twice for an illness in 25 years."
By milling her own flour, Sue ensured that her family consumed grains in their most nutrient-dense form, retaining the natural oils and fiber essential for overall health.
Sue Becker [01:23]: "With a little machine on my counter, I could mill my own flour and make all the bread for our family. It was a path that I've never looked back on."
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to addressing common misconceptions about whole grains, particularly phytic acid and gluten.
Sue challenges the widespread belief that phytic acid is an anti-nutrient that hinders mineral absorption.
Sue Becker [15:36]: "Phytic acid is not an anti-nutrient. It actually helps protect against over-absorption of minerals, which can be harmful in excess."
She emphasizes that natural phytic acid in whole grains serves beneficial roles, including acting as a powerful antioxidant.
Contrary to popular belief, Sue clarifies that gluten itself is not inherently harmful unless present in excessive forms due to modern processing techniques.
Sue Becker [19:24]: "Gluten is the stretchy substance that forms when wheat flour is hydrated. It’s essential for trapping carbon dioxide produced by yeast, allowing bread to rise."
She highlights that issues arise when commercially milled flours have excess gluten-forming proteins added to compensate for the removal of bran and germ.
Sue Becker [19:24]: "Store-bought bread often contains extra gluten-forming proteins, consumed outside the natural proportion intended, which can lead to gut health issues."
Sue provides actionable advice for listeners interested in transitioning to freshly-milled whole grains.
She discusses her preferred grains and their applications in baking.
Sue Becker [42:07]: "I primarily use hard red wheat for yeast breads and hard white for pastries like pizza dough and garlic rolls. Kamut blends add excellent flavor and texture."
Not all grains have the same shelf life. Sue advises on proper storage techniques to maintain grain freshness.
Sue Becker [42:14]: "Grains like brown rice and oats have shorter shelf lives due to their oil content. Vacuum sealing in Mylar bags can extend their usability."
Transitioning from all-purpose to whole grain flour requires some adjustments.
Sue Becker [49:32]: "For soft wheat used in pastries, increase the flour amount by a quarter cup per cup called for in the recipe to prevent flattening or sinking."
She reassures listeners that with minor tweaks, whole grain flours can seamlessly replace all-purpose flours in most recipes.
Sue Becker [49:32]: "If your recipe is by weight, use the same amount of freshly milled flour. For volume measurements, a slight increase works best."
Sue shares success stories of individuals who improved their health by switching to freshly-milled whole grains, even those with self-diagnosed gluten sensitivities.
Sue Becker [24:49]: "We have several podcast guests who were thriving after switching to our bread, reducing their need for medications and improving overall health."
She emphasizes that many who believe they need to eliminate gluten can benefit greatly from consuming whole, freshly-milled grains.
Sue Becker [24:49]: "People are finding freedom and healing with just this one simple change. It's been a real blessing to see people get their life back."
Sue provides information about her business, Bread Becker's, and the resources available for those interested in adopting freshly-milled whole grains.
Sue Becker [64:10]: "We offer a wide range of products including grain mills, bread machines, and raw honey. Our classes are available both in-store and online."
To address the challenges of shipping heavy grains, Bread Becker's has developed a co-op system.
Sue Becker [64:10]: "Our co-op at breadbeckerscoop.com allows members to order bulk grains at a reduced rate, delivered quarterly without any membership fees."
Sue has compiled her knowledge into books for easy reference.
Sue Becker [63:37]: "Our 'Essential Home Ground Flour Book' contains over 100 recipes and detailed information on different grains and milling techniques."
This episode of Simple Farmhouse Life serves as an enlightening guide for listeners seeking to improve their family's health through the incorporation of freshly-milled whole grains. Sue Becker's extensive knowledge and passionate advocacy provide practical steps and debunk prevalent myths, making the transition to whole grains accessible and beneficial. Listeners are encouraged to explore Bread Becker's offerings and consider milling their own grains to unlock the full nutritional potential of their diets.
Listeners interested in enhancing their family's health through whole grains will find Sue Becker's insights invaluable. By understanding the history, benefits, and practical applications of freshly-milled grains, this episode empowers homemakers to make informed and impactful dietary choices.