Wheat flour

When producing wheat flour, the fact is traditionally put to use that the seed coats and the germ are very stringy and elastic while the endosperm itself is crisp. The grains are therefore ground in such a way that the endosperm is crushed into powder whereas the other parts are only cut up into larger pieces. When sifting, the flour can easily be separated from the seed coats and the germ.
The seed coats
The seed coats (the bran) contain the coloured components of the grain, and, therefore, removing them will result in the whitest kind of flour. As early as the beginning of the 50s, white flour became very popular and, to a large extent, still is.
The quality of the flour; its baking power - which is its elastic ability to make the bread rise as much as possible - is dependent on gluten. Gluten is a part of the flour and an important way of measuring the quality of flour is therefore to measure its gluten content.
Health-wise, the seed coats are important. When it comes to peristalsis and digestion, the bran is very important, but also in regard to lowering the blood cholesterol concentration, for example, bran is of great importance. Both a generally reduced gastro-intestinal function and an increase in cholesterol-related diseases have had an upward tendency for the last 40 - 50 years.

The germ
Wheat germ is rich in healthy unsaturated fatty acids such as linolic acid, linolenic acid, and
oleic acid.
The particular type of foodstuff that contains the largest concentration of vitamin E is wheat germ; 2.5 I.U. per gram of wheat germ oil. Vitamin E is present in several closely related forms called tocopherols - from the Greek "Tokos" = birth and "Pherein" = to bring.
Vitamin E is often referred to as the fertility vitamin or the anti-sterility vitamin; these can be ufortunate names as all vitamins are important to the normal reproductive capacity. However, in vitamin E deficiency, the reduced reproductive capacity takes on a more specific form and is not the result of a general weakening of the person's health.
A lack of vitamin E affects the fertility of both males and females. The effects of vitamin E deficiency have been extensively studied in rats, but the effects are generally supposed to be the same in other animals as well. Female rats who are not provided with sufficient amounts of vitamin E can be fertilized normally and nothing unnormal will be observed during the first 2/3 of the pregnancy.
If the rat is then killed and examined, normally developed foetuses will be found in its uterus. However, if the rat had lived on, the foetuses would die; they would not be rejected as abortions but be broken down and absorbed so that only a couple of blood spots would be left in the uterus after a period of time.
If the female rat is fertilized again, the pregnancy takes on the same course as before. If, on the other hand, the rat is provided with a vitamin E supplement, it can carry on the pregnancy in a normal way and bring forth fully developed baby rats. The infertile effect of vitamin E deficiency is therefore reversible in the female rat.
Similar effects have been found in both mice and guinea pigs. No general agreement has been reached as to the significance of vitamin E in human reproductive capacity. It is hardly likely, however, that vitamin E deficiency is a significant factor in the tendency of some women to miscarry for no apparent reason.

In the male rat, the result of vitamin E deficiency is a destruction of the cells that produce the spermatozoa in the testicles; the male rats will therefore become sterile. These changes are irreversible and can therefore not be cured by providing the rats with vitamin E. Similar effects have also been observed in dogs, rabbits, and apes.
Besides the effects on the reproductive capacity, the lack of vitamin E also results in other symptoms, e.g. myasthenia of the sceleteal muscles, but also cardiac impairment and a peculiar dark colouring of various organs have been observed in mice, apes, caged birds, dogs, rabbits, rats, and guinea pigs.

Vitamin E is an antioxidant, meaning that the vitamin protects fats from going rancid as a consequence of being exposed to oxygen. This is also the ability that causes vitamin E to have such a protective effect on vitamin A. Vitamin E deficiency can therefore lead to overuse of the vitamin A reserves in the liver. The tocopherols probably also protect other substances from going rancid in the same way.
Wheat germ oil can be bought as dietary supplements but is also used for many other purposes, e.g. in skin creams.
To give an opinion of which influence vitamin E deficiency has on humans is difficult as, for years, vitamin E has not been subject to studies and research with regards to its relation to human nutrition and health. Yet, a basic food such as wheat flour and its reduced quality from discarding the germ can be a contributory cause of the increase in lifestyle diseases such as reduced intestinal function, poor digestion, and reduced sperm quality.
It could very well be believed that the number of other lifestyle-related antioxidant-dependent diseases such as arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer could be reduced if the supply of bread was enriched with vitamin E and unsaturated fatty acids.
In my view, it would be such an improvement to a highly important source of nutrition as wheat, if, once again, we would be able to make bread from all the real components of the wheat kernel.