I encourage you to go down the rabbit holes yourself, but our understanding of whole grains today is very different from the propaganda that was pushed when I was growing up (and long before!). The understanding today all circles around one central idea: whole grains are very different nutritionally from the refined flour products most people eat.

The bran, germ, oils, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other compounds in the whole grain work together to provide much more nutrition that refined flour cannot - specifically vitamin E and other nutrients that can deteriorate after milling and storage, which is one of the reasons we believe freshly milled flour is preferable.

We have been told to automatically view bread and grains as harmful. I'd like to push back on that.

Research today shows an important distinction between wheat itself, and the highly processed flour products commonly made from wheat. When we are told wheat is inherently unhealthy, I'd like to point out that much of the modern wheat controversy involves people eating highly refined flour, sugar, and processed foods rather than intact whole grains.

Don't fear the grain—fear what we've done to it. I believe foods made with whole grains are nutrient-dense foods, but refining, separating, storing, and heavily processing it can strip away or degrade much of what made the grain valuable in the first place. As a community, let's return to the whole kernel, mill it fresh, use a variety of grains, and prepare food from recognizable, minimally processed ingredients. Fresh milling my flour isn't simply about making bread taste better; it's about preserving the whole grain and making food from it as close to its original form as practical.