What are the main things to know about flour? For example, which type of flour is the most popular? The answer is simple and clear: unfortunately, the most popular flour today is white, fluffy wheat flour, which is used by both our Ukrainian brothers and our English friends to make everything and anything. They bake homemade bread from it using chemical yeast, as well as buns, pancakes, and pies, and then they rejoice, saying, “Look how cool I am, I bake my own homemade bread, and I’m a wonderful cook!” But such a baker does not realize that all the ingredients in his loaf (pancakes, pies, cookies, etc.) are often artificial, and that white, fluffy flour is useless, that yeast is so fast (because it’s chemical) — it’s all harm and no benefit. Yes, of course, it is very convenient that the dough for the same bread rises and fluffs up almost instantly — it looks beautiful! But, alas, there is absolutely no benefit from such so-called “homemade” bread, just like from store-bought bread, which is made from essentially the same ingredients. Only harm.

After all, we all know that any grain consists of a shell (protective layer), an embryo (the most important and useful part), and a fatty, fluffy bed that envelops this very embryo to keep it safe and sound (the most useless part for food). So, someone foolish once decided to remove the embryo completely, leaving only the white, fatty, fluffy nonsense, and started using this “miracle food” as food. It’s tasty, beautiful, and fluffy! What difference does it make that it’s harmful and adds almost twice as much weight, because no one really cares! And people, in their naivety and gullibility, took this complete nonsense at face value and happily began to use this terrible chemical flour wherever they wanted — and even where they didn’t. But, hand on heart, it’s not needed anywhere. Anywhere, ever.

For example, when you bake a cake, biscuits, or pancakes, why not try using wonderful beige wholemeal flour instead of fluffy, white chemical flour? Or dark rye flour? What’s the problem? Are you afraid it won’t taste good or look nice? Or both? Have you tried it? No? Then try it first, and then draw your conclusions. After all, for thousands of years, our ancestors baked bread with sourdough from different types of wholemeal flour, and it never even occurred to them that they could take and disfigure, literally kill, precious whole grains just to make them tastier and more attractive.

So what, you may ask, is everything so badly neglected that now we all have to go without bread — both shop-bought and even homemade, which has always been considered a panacea (admittedly, by uninformed people)? Fortunately, things are not as bad as they might seem at first glance, and there is an alternative to both white and brown harmful bread. And that is sourdough bread. Yes, yes, imagine that — it is still baked, and not only in Ukraine, but even here in England. True, this bread is at least twice as expensive, but believe me, it’s really worth it.

By the way, some advanced English people even sign up for special courses to learn first-hand from experienced bakers how to bake sourdough bread. These courses are not cheap, but the knowledge, skills, and some ingredients (I mean not only natural sourdough, but also a couple of types of healthy wholemeal flour) gained from them will ultimately pay off handsomely for a wise person.

For an intelligent person, this is clearly food for thought, isn’t it, dear friends? So think about it. And don’t just think about it — draw the appropriate conclusions!