Is Whole Wheat Flour Addictive?

Today, I want to explain why whole wheat flour is a problem for us, even though it may not have been a problem in the past. Beth wrote in with a great question. She said: “Though I am convinced that white flour is horrible for your body and your mind, I’m not convinced about whole wheat flour. Many centuries ago, people ground whole wheat and other grains to make their flour. Why was whole wheat not a problem for them?” Centuries ago, the food environment was different. Whole wheat flour might still have been triggering, but they ate unrefined meats, vegetables, fruits, and unprocessed foods. No industrial ingredients, no chemicals. They weren’t getting 50 to 60 percent of their fuel from ultraprocessed food. Plus, there were times when they ate and times when they didn’t—they were out in the fields, and working. In that food environment, people weren’t getting obese or developing food addiction at the rate we see now. But that doesn’t mean whole wheat wasn’t a problem. Centuries ago, gluttony was one of the seven deadly sins, and looking back, I think, what were they getting gluttonous about? It sure wasn’t broccoli! Maybe bread and butter were in the mix. So we don’t know that it wasn’t a problem. But in the context of a sane, wholesome, farm-to-table diet, the population didn’t develop food addiction or obesity the way ours does. So, wheat flour in the past may not have had enough impact on those diets to cause many people to become food addicted. But if you are living with a weight struggle and an addictive relationship with food that is already formed, what you must eat now to recover may be different from what they were able to eat in the past to stay healthy. I’d put honey in this category also. People ask me about honey all the time. It’s not refined or made in a factory. And hunter-gatherers may binge on it when they find it, and that’s fine. But if you have an addictive relationship with food and a weight struggle, whole wheat flour or honey are highly likely to throw you off track. For many years before I lost weight, I was in a 12-step program called Overeaters Anonymous. They didn’t have a specific food plan; they asked you to figure out the foods that caused you problems and abstain from them. The brown flour vs. white flour experiment was often run. I watched many people, including myself, try to manage with whole wheat flour. I discovered the utter deliciousness of whole wheat tortillas and pastas. They became much-craved and highly dominant parts of my food plan. And what I found is that people didn’t recover when they included whole wheat flour and abstained from white flour only. They didn’t lose their weight and they didn’t break free from food obsession. Whether whole wheat is a problem also depends on how badly your brain is wired for food addiction. Take the Food Addiction Susceptibility Quiz at foodaddictionquiz.com. If you’re a 5, then you probably don’t have food addiction, and whole wheat flour might be able to be part of your program. If you’re a 7 through 10, though, I predict the whole wheat flour experiment won’t work. Running it can help you figure it out for yourself. I do my best to save people the pain and skew my materials to people who are 7 and above on the Susceptibility Scale. But you’re responsible for you. The Bright Line Eating program is strong. It’s for people with a weight struggle or food addiction who want a way out of the struggle, a pathway to freedom, that has worked for thousands. And brown flour is not in our plan. Let me transition to this: We have a Boot Camp coming up in June 2025. We are opening applications for scholarships from Wednesday, May 21, to Sunday, May 25. We are giving out 20 full scholarships to this Book Camp 2.0. Click below, fill out the application, and let us know if you’ve applied before. The launch is going to be about true secrets to success, beyond weight loss drugs. We’ll review research and how these drugs work. Our results in Bright Line Eating continue to parallel the weight loss drugs. Long-term data shows that Bright Line Eating even beats the weight loss drugs. All that starts June 10, and then the Book Camp starts at the end of June. *Applications for a Boot Camp 2.0 scholarship are now closed. FOR THIS EPISODE and MORE: https://ble.life/e5aewk Is Whole Wheat Flour Addictive? | Bright Line Living | The Official Bright Line Eating Podcast