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Comment by Karellen | Hacker News Reader

The "processing" of wheat is simply grinding it, in a mill[0]. The ears are literally just physically broken down into small pieces. No chemicals are added, and ideally no chemical reactions happen within the wheat/flour. Certainly gluten is not a product of the milling process; it is a protein that exists in the original ears of wheat[1].

Also, the process of milling cannot be described as cooking by any reasonable defintion of the word, so I'm not sure what you mean by wheat being "raw" in a way that flour is not. Unless you count finely chopped ingredients as no longer being "raw".

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gristmill

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat

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You make the point better than I did.

I would also add that, by this definition, any animal product eaten is processed - even eggs - which are cracked and then usually cooked. Ground beef is extremely processed - having been butchered and then fed through a grinder.

You can theoretically grow your own wheat and grind your own flour. If you can do it yourself without a food factory and secret ingredients, then I don't think it fits any reasonable definition of 'processed'.

Cool I see your point.

In my mind grinding is processing. It is being processed so we can make something something else out of it. Would you eat it on its own?

I broadly wipe that anything that can't be done with ones hands is processed. But that opens the question if cooking meat is considered processing.

I can't see prehistoric man grinding wheat to make a meal.

Wheat is used in many recipes without being ground into flour. See cracked wheat or bulgar wheat for examples.

Cooking meat causes chemical changes - maillard reaction. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction

Many low tech cultures use carbs obtained from crushing or pulping grains. The reason they don't use wheat is not because of the need for grinding but because of the need for agriculture.

> No chemicals are added

To be pedantic, chemicals are added to fortified and enriched flour... perfectly harmless chemicals that were lost in the milling process.

Being even more pedantic, fortified and enriched flour is normally created because the base product was bleached, not because of milling.

The removal of the wheat germ is the primary reason for re-adding the nutrients, without the germ, and the bran, you just have a large amount of starch in the endosperm.

Well aware that gluten is not a product of the milling process. Never said that either.

You have repeatedly called flour a processed ingredient; and linked that processing to gluten.

It's not surprising that people think you're claiming that milling flour is "processing" it, or that you think gluten is a result of whatever people are doing to flour.

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