Refined Flour and Sugar

Whole grain flour and natural sugars have been consumed for thousands of years. Whole grain flour, produced from the whole grain, contains the germ and bran, which contain all the nutrients in the wheat. As Weston Price documented, elaborate rituals existed for preparing whole wheat, and it was eaten with ample animal fat. Industrialization changed things drastically for these two substances, effectively turning them into highly addictive drugs. Goldkeim, producers of whole flour, explain:

An important problem of the industrial revolution was the preservation of flour. Transportation distances and a relatively slow distribution system collided with natural shelf life. The reason for the limited shelf life is the fatty acids of the germ, which react from the moment they are exposed to oxygen. This occurs when grain is milled; the fatty acids oxidize and flour starts to become rancid. Depending on climate and grain quality, this process takes six to nine months. In the late 19th century, this process was too short for an industrial production and distribution cycle. As vitamins, micronutrients and amino acids were completely or relatively unknown in the late 19th century, removing the germ was an effective solution. Without the germ, flour cannot become rancid. Degermed flour became standard. Degermation started indensely populated areas and took approximately one generation to reach the countryside. Heat-processed flour is flour where the germ is first separated from the endosperm and bran, then processed with steam, dry heat or microwave and blended into flour again.

In other words, industrialization solved the problem of flour perishing and ruining by industrially removing the nutrients from it. Sugar, on the other hand, existed naturally in many foods. In its pure form, however, sugar was rare and expensive, since its processing required large amounts of energy, and its production was almost universally done by slaves because few would choose to work that exhausting job of their own volition.

As industrialization and capital accumulation allowed for slave labor to be replaced with heavy machinery, people were able to produce sugar in a pure white form, free of all the molasses and nutrients that accompany it, and at a much lower cost. Refined sugar and flour can be better understood as drugs, not food. Sugar contains no essential nutrients, and flour only contains very few, in small amounts. The pleasure of consuming them is akin to the pleasure you get from a hit of an addictive substance.

In Bright Line Eating, Susan Thompson explains how the process of refining sugar and flour is similar to the refining process that has made cocaine and heroin such highly addictive substances. Whereas chewing on coca leaves or eating poppy plants will give someone a high and an energy kick, it is nowhere near as addictive as consuming purified cocaine or heroin. Many cultures consumed these plants for thousands of years with adverse effects far less severe than the damage their refined and processed descendants do to their modern consumers.

The industrial processing of these plants into their modern, highly potent drug form has made them extremely addictive. It allows those consuming them to ingest large quantities of the pure essence of the plant without any of the rest of the plant matter that comes with it. The high is intensified, as is the withdrawal that follows it and the craving for more. Thompson makes a compelling case that the processing of these drugs is very similar to the processing of sugar and flour in how addictive it makes them, citing studies that show sugar is eight times more addictive than cocaine.

“The Fiat Standard: Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization” Book by Saifedean Ammous