Smart bran

Smart bran asks what the research says about this byproduct of refining wheat.

I will admit it up front that this page is about the best ways to get extra fibre into your diet and has nothing to do with the brand name.

It is fibre that will concern your chiropractor because of the increased risks of osteoporosis due to inhibition of calcium absorption from extra, added bran.

Fibre comes in two forms in the diet; one is like bran but the other is soluble, for example, the pectin in an apple; it absorbes water and swells in the gut. Both are necessary for a happy colon.

In addition they affect how the substances in food are absorbed; for example, if you have adequate fibre in your diet, blood cholesterol will be far less of a problem. You can have your butter and eat it.

Probably the most important effect of fibre is to give the stool easy passage through the intestine; it makes for soft faeces and stops constipation dead in its tracks. That is why it prevents diverticulosis, haemorrhoids and colorectal neoplasms; all of them are nasties to be avoided at all costs.

It is of importance in chiropractic too because straining on the toilet is very hard on the discs in the lower back.

Less than five percent of Americans consume the recommended amount of whole grains which is why there is an epidemic of these horrific bowel diseases; it is also central to the heart stroke diabetes epidemic that is killing 1000 people every day unnecessarily because of a poor diet lacking in fibre.

Herein lies the catch laid bare by the researchers who have published in the Journal of the American Medical Association; all is not as it seems. So-called wholegrain pasta may not be what you think it is.

Millers are allowed to describe their flour as whole, even though they have removed up to 40 percent of the goodies; the germ where the minerals and vitamins are found, and the bran. It is definitely no longer the nutritious stuff that we were talking about.

How this anachronism ever arose is a mystery, but certainly it enables food manufacturers to mislead us into believing that their product is the good stuff. Of course we, the public, are at least partly to blame; our palates have become accustomed to bread that is soft and easy to swallow, and often we abhor 100 percent whole grains. Pass me a white roll please.

Millers are simply providing us with what we want; still, to mislead and deceive us into believing their wholegrain in fact contains 100 percent of the wheat is disingenuous beyond belief.

Smart bran

Our dietary deficiency of fibre has come about in part because the USDA requirements that in essence, at least 50 percent of the wheat must be whole grain."

It matters not apparently that the other half of your wholegrain can be cake flour.

You can read about it by googling the whole grains council website. Smart bran is just one part of this blurring of the facts.

Smart bran is the brand name for a cereal that is made from wheat and oat bran, and psyllium; 20 percent of the product is added sugar to make it palatable. They describe that as a light touch, but at one fifth it is misleading.

One helping also contains 5 percent of the recommended dietary allocation of salt; that is not high in itself, but considering that we mostly consume far too much, it is one more nail in the coffin.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the ingredients in smart bran, other than the sugar and salt, but they should be consumed as part of the 100 percent whole grain, researchers at JAMA recommend, rather than as an added cereal.

Smart bran added to a diet of refined grains has much less of a beneficial effect. Rather enjoy 100 percent wholewheat bread; if you can find it. Just one slice contains 5 to 7g of fibre, about one-fifth of a woman's total daily requirement. Men require nearly twice that.

Dr Alice Lichtenstein recommends in the JAMA research that we do not judge a grain or cereal by its colour. Food companies like to deceive us by adding caramel or other chemicals to darken it; rather read the label searching for the term 100 percent whole wheat, or oats.

The fibre in our diet is not only obtained from grains, but also from fruit and vegetables; nuts and seeds too. The average American diet contains about 15 grams per day which is totally inadequate.

The researchers in the JAMA study have been following two groups of people, totaling over 100,000 for over 25 years. Adding just one ounce, 28 grams of whole grain to the diet, less than one slice of bread, has decreased the overall mortality by 5 percent and from heart disease by nearly double that.

Better still, if you substitute a 100 percent whole wheat slice for white bread, then that five percent drop in overall mortality jumps to eight.

Substituting one serving of whole grain for one of red meat and you will have a massive 20 percent drop in cardiovascular mortality; that is apart from the reduction in bowel diseases like colorectal neoplasms and diverticulitis.

Returning to our fibre story, Dr Lichtenstein points out that simply adding smart bran, for example, to a diet which is high in refined grains like white bread and pasta yields no benefit.

Sadly you cannot have your cake and eat it; adding smart bran yields no benefit.

She recommends we look out for 100 percent whole grains, and perhaps add more smart bran to that; the latter I cannot endorse because of the effect on calcium and pyridoxine absorption.

If you bake your own bread, finding 100 percent wholewheat flour is difficult. Purchasing a loaf like this from your supermarket is virtually impossible in many countries.

The best way to resolve this problem is to purchase your own wheat grinder and make your own wholegrain flour.

If you are going to purchase a bread machine, then I recommend you go the whole hog and get that wheat grinder too; otherwise you are likely to join the great mass of people who never use it.

What may come as a surprise is that takes only six minutes to grind your own healthy flour and prepare the dough such as for our panera bread menu recipe; then of course it must bake for a minimum of five hours to rise, prove and bake.

The bran in your 100 percent wholewheat contains the lignans which block the hormone receptors in the breast, protecting it against high levels of circulating oestrogen.

Researchers found that oats, wonderful healthy grain that it is, and corn bran did not supply the protection against breast and bowel tumours that wheat gives.

Healthy flour

In short, get your smart bran by grinding your own healthy flour; it will mean finding a source of wheat. If you bake three or four times a week, you'll need two large bags per year; in South Africa they come in 50kg.

Careful of lifting them or you will be seeing more of your chiropractor. We move it as soon as possible to a dedicated deep freeze.

JAMA also reports by the way that consuming 100 percent whole grains is also associated with a  lowered risk of getting type 2 diabetes.

"We observed a significant inverse association between total dietary fiber intake and risk of diabetes; of the different sources of fiber, cereal fiber was most strongly associated with decreased risk."

Vitamin B6

Vitamin B6, also known as pyridoxine, comes in eight different forms in many diverse foods. Researchers reporting in J. Nutr report that adding extra cooked bran to the diet depressed the plasma levels; instead it was excreted in the faeces^[1].

Ironically one of the forms of B6 is found in the bran, but adding extra inhibits the others.

Added seeds

Added seeds, provided they are first ground, provide substantial smart bran to your daily slice of 100 percent wholewheat bread. Many like flax and sesame pass through the gut undigested, the fibre useless, and in fact may get stuck in diverticuli; you must grind them first.

The solution is a small, inexpensive coffee-grinder. I prepare enough for a week and keep it in the fridge.

A vegan seed-bread is very simple to prepare. The nutty flavour of sunflower and even almonds makes it a delight; if you can add them after an hour or more it rises better.

Most margarines have toxic trans fats by the way; researchers combining 80 of the best research projects on cholesterol find absolutely zero scientific proof that there is any benefit moving away from butter if you have heart disease.

In short, butter is back, thank goodness, many of us sigh; margarine is so awful. In chiropractic we are pleased about that; getting back to natural foods. 

100 percent whole wheat

Getting your smart bran from 100 percent whole wheat does create other logistical difficulties. Some would say we are bordering on fanaticism; perhaps so, but having witnessed the miserable death from colorectal cancer of a chiropractic colleague in our practice who ate only white bread and processed meat for lunch, I have become obsessed with not going down that road.

We heartily endorse the 'real bread' revolution that is sweeping through Britain; apart from anything else, it tastes so much better.

Weevils will attack that 100 percent whole wheat; they relish the germ where all the vitamins and minerals are stored. The only sensible solution is to keep a freezer dedicated to your natural whole grains. Because it is only occasionally opened, we power it only during the day when the sun is providing free energy. Refrigeration using solar power is not rocket science.

Alternatively it must be poisoned with phostoxin, or some similar toxic substance, or your supplier must freeze it; even in the fridge it seems to be fine.

Look for the 100% sign

Look for the 100% sign when buying bread; otherwise you should add smart bran to your diet.

You are not likely to find this in any supermarket; you will have to hunt for it, or bake it yourself. Be prepared to pay more, because it is worth far more.

On the other hand because it is only ground and not processed, it is far less work for the miller; but he cannot then sell the best part, the germ, to vitamin companies and pig farmers.

You are not likely to have visited Ludlow in England, but at this little bakery, some seventy years old I believe, still run by the same family, I found the most delicious 100% wholemeal bread. The chiropractor was pleased; I have never seen a shop like this in South Africa, though they abound in Holland.

• Go from smart bran to healthy flour
• Association between dietary whole grain intake and risk of mortality

Nutritious lunch

This nutritious lunch, full of both soluble fibre from the greens and insoluble from your 100 percent whole wheat bread will supply virtually your total needs for the day. Why add extra smart bran? Chiropractic stands for letting your food be your medicine.

Making your own pesto incidentally is a dream; add avocado, orange peppers, half an egg and you have the perfect meal.

Should you slip a disc, constipation is a huge problem; bearing down on the toilet becomes very painful and aggravates the condition. Chiropractic help recommends a diet high in fibre not just to ease your colon but to improve your overall well-being.

Banting diet

The Banting diet, also known as that of paleo, with some important differences, requires a near zero carbohydrate menu; that means no grains and of course no smart bran either.

It is purely anecdotal, of course, but a good friend, after just a few months on the Banting diet, developed acute abdominal pain, and had his appendix excised.

It remains to be seen whether the Banting diet, restricting all grains including the bran, increases the incidence of colon disease.

Rather we recommend the Banting diet modified; it does not exclude the nutritious, low GI carbohydrate and legumes.

Lignans

Lignans are oestrogen like compounds found in many foods but particularly in smart bran and seeds; they have many beneficial effects, one of which is to block the cancerous effect of hormones on the breast. This is vitally important for the chiropractor as every day we are treating women complaining of rib pain. 

By limiting the lignans in 100 percent whole wheat from the diet, whether by diets prohibiting all carbohydrates, or lax laws that allow food companies to mislead the public into believing that are eating truly whole grains, we are de facto promoting breast and colorectal tumours.

Is it any wonder that the United States has the highest rate of breast CA in the world?

Wholewheat should mean just that; 100% of the grain with all the constituent parts in the same ratio as in the kernel.

One half is our 100 percent whole wheat flour, with all the smart bran, lignans, vitamins and minerals.

The other half is described by the miller as stone-ground wholemeal; I have been on a tour of the mill. Everything is turned into cake flour and then some of the bran is added back.

The deception is obvious; there is no cigar for guessing which is the real McCoy. One prevents large bowel disease and breast cancer; the other just makes you fat.

Chiropractic

Why all this about smart bran on a chiropractic website? Simply because our profession was born out of naturopathy, and are into better health, and that's far more than just fixing subluxations.

Just recently I've been in Holland, and it was with mixed feelings that I was greeted by a patient of old whom I would sent to her doctor; he had pooh-poohed that there was anything wrong with her bowel, denigrating me as not a real doctor. It is a story that ends well; three years later he finally conceded to a referral to a specialist who confirmed a colorectal tumour; now she has a stoma.

Think rather of smart bran and more fibre in general in your diet. Remember, less that 5% of Americans enjoy the required amount of whole grain in their diets.

Plus, 100% whole grain is not fattening like your delicious white scones; on high and holy days only.

1. The effect of wheat bran on the bioavailability of vitamin B-6 in young men.

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