The Holistic Parrot by Leslie Moran

Wheat is a food staple grown all over the world. It has been known to have been cultivated in Europe and Asia as long as 9,000 years ago. The bran is the skin on the outside of the wheat berry. The endosperm, which makes up most of a wheat berry, is inside the bran and the germ is the part of the wheat berry that sprouts to grow into a new plant. And it is this part of the wheat kernel, the wheat germ, which is actually the most nutritious part of the wheat berry. Let’s learn more about this.

During the milling process that converts whole wheat grains into flour, the nutritious wheat germ is stripped away. Grain mills do this because the fat in the germ portion of the wheat contains fats that can become rancid and shorten the shelf life of the flour. So, unless a wheat product is specifically described as 100 per cent whole wheat, the majority of commonly eaten foods such as breads, baked goods, cereals and pastas lack the nutrient-dense benefits found in wheat germ. If the wheat flour was produced using the stone ground method, this older type of milling process retains the nutrient-dense goodness in wheat germ. Because stone ground whole wheat flour contains the germ it must be stored either in the refrigerator or freezer to preserve nutrients and prevent rancidity.

The elements that help grow a wheat sprout include a variety of minerals that can be enjoyed from this nutritional powerhouse that support the body in performing different functions. Zinc, manganese, phosphorus, and magnesium are all inside the germ.

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