To start off, the main thing about freshly milled flour that improved my life is that I no longer struggle with painful and debilitating eczema. For two years the flare ups grew increasingly severe and frequent to the point that I was home bound while having a flare up.
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How Freshly Milled Flour Improved My Life: Eczema
As I already stated, consuming freshly milled, whole grain flour completely changed my health in regards to eczema. There are many things that whole grain flour did for me, but this is the most profound change I have experienced with freshly milled flour.
A few months postpartum after my second child, I broke out with strange sores on my hands and feet along with a painful rash. Hand, foot, and mouth disease had been going around at the time and my symptoms mostly pointed to that. I did find it strange, but Dr. Google assured me that adults could get hand, foot, and mouth disease. That didn’t explain the rash, but I had also been cleaning out my garden beds and weedy areas a few days before the rash began. I chalked it up to having accidentally come in contact with poison ivy.
It went away within a week and I moved on with life. Then it came back six weeks later. I knew I couldn’t blame it on hand, foot, and mouth disease or poison ivy this time. Was it my liver? I had had similar skin issues as a teen and it had turned out my liver had needed support. This began a two year process of detoxes, blood and genetic tests, all without ever getting any answers. The rashes and sores kept coming back so regularly, I could almost set my calendar to them.
Finding Freshly Milled Whole Grain Flour
During my third pregnancy the rash and sores subsided for a while. This made me wonder if I was experiencing an autoimmune disease of some sort. Sometime around the end of the second trimester it came back again. I felt exhausted and tired of my body becoming one huge weeping,scabby, itchy mess. The typical outbreak would last for a couple of weeks and then take a few weeks to heal. As soon as my skin would heal, the rash would come back. It was getting to the point where my skin was scarring after every outbreak. The time from healing and the next rash had grown shorter and shorter. On the suggestion of many people I went gluten free hoping to find relief.
Becoming gluten free didn’t really seem to help, but I felt like I was out of options. After my baby was born I began doing gentle detoxes and enemas and still nothing seemed to break the cycle. It was during this time that I met Andrea (you can find her own blog here!). God nudged her to share her own testimony of being gluten free until she started milling grains at home. She sent me a couple of links to some talks given by Sue Becker. I felt hope rise within me as I watched Sue speak of why freshly milled flour is so good for us.
Taking The Plunge Into Freshly Milled Whole Grain Flour
I was nervous to try milling! What if I invested in a grain mill and it was another flop? Thankfully I was able to borrow my mom’s grain mill. She wasn’t using it and let me try it for a month. I decided to begin with ancient grain sourdough. Even though going gluten free hadn’t helped, I was still nervous about a possible negative reaction. I bought a five pound bag of einkorn grain from Azure Standard (more about them here) and took the plunge.
Nothing noticeable happened at first. I made some bread and ate it. No immediate rash popped up, so I started slowly incorporating it into at least one meal a day. The first thing I noticed? I was having to go to the bathroom more often. A lot more often. Not in an unhealthy way, more like my body was gunked up and cleaning out. It had never occurred to me that only one bowel movement a day is the minimum for a healthy body. Even with consistent once daily bowel movements, my body wasn’t fully eliminating and my gut was putrid.
Within a few weeks of transitioning all flour products to only freshly milled whole grain flour, I noticed the rash had only come back in a small patch. This time it didn’t appear with the sores on my hands and feet! It also healed quickly.
Freshly Milled Whole Grain Flour is THE Reason I am Eczema free Today!
I bought my Nutrimill Harvest grain mill in October of 2021, the two year mark of when the rash had begun. I’ve never looked back! You can read about how much I love my mill and why I chose it here.
I have only ever had one more outbreak of this rash since milling my own flour. It happened during a time when I got lazy and started cooking with refined flour more than usual. I have found that my body can tolerate moderate amounts of refined wheat flours, as long as I faithfully clean out my system with some freshly milled grains. I was cheating on my freshly milled flour and my body revolted. The rash came back with a vengeance I had never experienced before. I still have some scars on my skin to prove it.
During the last outbreak I incorporated a new supplement that has helped me a lot, but I’ll write about that another day. This post is supposed to be all about freshly milled flour after all!
HOW Did the Freshly Milled Flour Heal the Eczema??
To this day I do not have answers as to why freshly milled flour was the answer to my problem. If you search for “whole grains helping eczema” there are quite a few sources that tell you to cut out that particular food group (along with dairy). No one can really agree, there’s always a conflicting data and recommendations.
This is what I know from my personal situation and experience: freshly milled whole grain flour is completely different from “whole grain” products you buy from the store. Unless you are purchasing from a source that mills their flour right in the shop, you aren’t buying true 100% whole grain flour products. And the freshly milled part is the most important component. The vitamin E in whole grains rapidly declines as soon as the grain is broken open. Vitamin E is an antioxidant and gives up itself to protect the other nutrients in the grain from oxidation. Our bodies need vitamin E for a whole host of different functions, and it is very good for the skin.
The other components of whole grains that I believe made the difference for me are the fiber content of whole grains and phytic acid:
Fiber Cleans Out The Bowel
Fiber plays an important role in many different ways, but it’s #1 claim is probably the ability to keep us “regular”. Most Americans do not consume enough fiber and as a result live off of laxatives. I thought that having one bowel movement a day meant I was healthy, but obviously it wasn’t enough! The fiber comes through and cleans out the bowel, acting like a brush to sweep out all of the debris. If you’ve ever missed trash day, you know how funky your house gets from all that stuff sitting around. Our bodies are the same. It’s interesting to me that every body asks for help in different ways. For some it’s through presenting skin problems and disorders. For others it’s chronic illnesses and diseases or cancers. Still others have migraines, excessive body odor, etc.
I believe (as there’s no way to prove despite many tests and consultations) that my body was desperately trying to tell me that it needed to clean out. It couldn’t do it the way it was supposed to, so the rot had to come out elsewhere.
Is Phytic Acid In Grain Bad?
“Grains are bad for you because they contain phytates, consume with caution!”. If you have spent any amount of time researching grains, you’ve definitely read the above statement. Many popular whole foods books are proponents of avoiding grains entirely or only if they have been soaked and/or sprouted. Granted, many ancient civilizations did soak, sprout, and ferment the grains they ate. But to say that they did this 100% of the time probably isn’t true.
For instance we see in the Bible where God commands the Israelites to not allow their breads to be leavened, which would have been a form of souring/soaking. It is still a command followed by observant Jews for an entire week during Passover. I am well aware that God had many reasons for this command. However, if the phytic acid in grains is so scary, why would He command it? Why would He create grains with a substance like phytates in the first place?
Phytates Can Help Remove Toxins From Our Systems
I truly believe that phytates have been misunderstood. Phytates are considered “anti nutrients” because they bind with minerals and metals and carry them out of the body. Research hasn’t really revealed answers to the exact amounts of minerals that can be bound and carried away by phytic acid. This article by the Harvard School Of Public Health suggests to vary the types of foods you consume throughout the day. Don’t load up on calcium rich foods or supplements right before or after eating whole grains.
The Bread Becker’s website has this article about why phytic acid may not be the foe we are often told of. In short, I believe that sprouting/soaking/fermenting grains isn’t bad for us and should be a regular occurrence for the added heath benefits. However, I also don’t worry if I can’t sprout or sour my grains. There’s balance in all things.
As I stated earlier in this post, I still do not know the exact reason why the freshly milled whole grain flour helped improve the eczema. One thing I do know is that many of us are experiencing toxic build up in our bodies. Heavy metals from paint, dental work, shots, and other environmental exposures will take it’s toll. It’s not easy to remove them from our bodies either!
Vitamin E Is the Powerhouse of Freshly Milled Flour
Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin. It’s well known as a powerful antioxidant that protects our bodies from damaging free radicals. It’s also known to aid in heart health, prevent blood clots,membrane integrity within our cells, and skin healing. Freshly milled flour is an excellent source of vitamin E. Store bought flours, including “whole grain” flours will be much lower in vitamin E, if they have any at all.
Vitamin E is stored in the germ portion of grains. During commercial milling, the germ and bran are separated from the endosperm. Although “whole grain” flour from the store has had some of the germ and bran added back in, the germ has been treated to remove most of the oils to prevent spoilage. This process removes a good portion of the vitamin E. Sue Becker has an interesting article about how much our bodies need vitamin E. Although none of my blood work showed that I was severely lacking in vitamin E, I know that I must have been low. This also brings up another question: most Americans are probably pretty low in vitamin E, does this skew our perception of what a normal range of vitamin E should be, if nearly everyone is low?
I came across this interesting study of serum vitamin E levels in chronic inflammatory skin diseases. In this study they compared 20 case controlled studies that included skin diseases such as vitiligo, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis (eczema), and acne. This study found that most of the subjects within these studies were low in vitamin E.
Our review and meta-analysis indicated that lower serum vitamin E levels were associated with several chronic inflammatory skin diseases, such as vitiligo, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and acne. This is an important finding in terms of future randomized controlled trials that might reveal a direct cause and effect relationship between vitamin E intake, as well as serum vitamin E levels, and the risk of skin diseases. Furthermore, the potential mechanism associated with the preventive effects of vitamin E should be further elucidated in future studies.
Liu, Xiaofang et al. “Serum vitamin E levels and chronic inflammatory skin diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis.” PloS one vol. 16,12 e0261259. 14 Dec. 2021, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0261259
Should We Give Grains A Chance?
Despite all of the conflicting information on leading eczema websites, I believe we should. There are many options for freshly milled flour. Even if you are gluten sensitive or truly need to be gluten free, there are grains for you! My body obviously needed the combination of fiber, phytic acid, and vitamin E in order to heal. While that combination might not be the case for everyone, switching to freshly milled whole grain flour is a wonderful way to boost intake of components severely lacking in our modern diets.
The goodness of God and freshly milled whole grain flour are the reasons I am completely free of eczema today. I have also had improvement in other areas of my health as well, such as less hormonal acne, better digestion, less gasiness, more energy, less sugar cravings, etc. My hope with this post is to give others some of the answers I was looking for over two years ago. Your body was created to heal! Eating real food made by the same Creator who made you is the best place to start!
More Resources About Health Benefits of Freshly Milled Whole Grains:
As promised, here is my free download containing all of my favorite resources for learning about home milling, which includes: YouTube videos, blogs, recipes, books, and websites. I also have a full post linked below with more information on the health benefits of freshly ground whole grain flour!
I hope this post may have shed some light on why whole grains aren’t to be feared. Perhaps it gave you another stepping stone in a journey to find health! The past few years have been ones of learning, healing, and growing, Praise God for His goodness and provision!
Shalom and happy milling,
Olivia
