What is Home-Milled Flour?

Home-milled flour is the process of taking whole grain berries and grinding them at home when you are ready to use them as flour. This optimizes the freshness and the nutritional profile of the flour. Most flour available at conventional stores is ground into flour, then “fortified” and “enriched”. Basically, what this means is the flour would oxidize and go rancid on the store shelves, so they added synthetic preservatives (enriching). Then they reintroduce synthetic versions of the vitamins and minerals that would be lost during the time sitting on the shelf (fortifying). It seems to me all this would be solved if we cut out the middleman who grinds the flour long before it’s ready to use. Nowadays, whole grain berry options are available in stores like Co-ops and health food stores or they can be purchased online. Choosing to switch to whole grain berries and investing in a grain mill can cut down the amount of synthetic preservatives you ingest and be beneficial for your health in the long run.

Benefits of Fresh Ground Flour

Milling flour when you are ready to use it leaves you with the most nutrient-dense flour. Home-milled flour is naturally rich in B vitamins, including niacin, thiamin, B6, and folate. Minerals naturally found in fresh flour include iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc. In a culmination of the naturally occurring vitamins, minerals, fiber, and some antioxidants in fresh ground flour, they provide other benefits. Better digestion and reduced risk of chronic disease and diabetes can be a result of the high nutrition content of the flour. Store-bought ground flour will not compare in freshness or flavor to home-ground flour. 

Buying in Bulk

When you transition to grinding your flour at home, you also gain another perk. Buying wheat berries in bulk is exponentially cheaper than buying flour in bulk. Plus, wheat berries keep for a long time because of their outer protective bran layer, which protects them from oxidation and moisture absorption. So you get to keep a lot of flour on hand still while also preserving the nutrional value of the flour. 

Conclusion & Other Resources

Food is medicine. I truly believe this, and I think there is so much value in not trading your health for convenience. Consider investing in a grain mill and seeing for yourself the nutritional change and healing that can take place when consuming fresh flour. As always, I encourage you to further your research on the benefits of fresh flour, and I challenge you to read the ingredients list on store-bought flour the next time you pick some up. 

Written By: Jessica