Magic Mill Wheat Grinder -Opinions?

[framing fowl]

I'm thinking about bidding on a magic mill wheat grinder at an auction. Anyone have any opinions or advice? It has a 3/4 hp motor and uses stones as the grinding mechanism. Similar to this on e-bay http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Magic-M...=230558700490&ps=63&clkid=5575020080429245575.

My other question is we try to eat low GI carbs. I'm trying to mentally reconcile the info in NT with soaking the grains and figuring out if that makes them low GI or not. I would like to add some healthy breads to our diet and make my own tortillas which is why I'm looking at the grinder.

 

[TanksHill]

 

[dacjohns]

My opinion on the mill is that it looks like it is a high speed mill that will make lots of dust, hence the cabinent. Some people think that a high speed mill heats up the flour too much and you loose some nutritional value. I have a low speed mill that doesn't make dust, grinds fast enough, and doesn't have a cabinent. It's made by Retsel, a company out of McCammon, Idaho.

http://www.retsel.com/

Mine is similar to the Mill-rite.


GI--I assume is glycemic index. I know very little about GI so I don't know if whole grains will work for you or not.

NT--what is NT? Not all of us are up on tons of acronyms.

Soaking grains before grinding--I think that would clog up the stones and you would just get a big mess. Stones and water don't get along.


Just my opinion. I don't see death and destruction in gluten, yeast, soy, carbs, sugar, etc. But then I'm not allergic to any of them and I believe in moderation even if I'm not good at practicing moderation.

 

[freemotion]

Whole grains have a lower GI than processed grains, soaking doesn't change it, but sprouting does. I eat (and teach) LGI lifestyle and the idea is to reduce grain consumption dramatically compared to the typical American diet (and the pyramid crap) but unless you have gluten issues, you can still enjoy grains.

NT (Nourishing Traditions, an instructional and recipe book on eating traditional diets for vibrant health, also just happens to fit perfectly into a self sufficient lifestyle!) is not LGI but the two concepts blend quite well.

If you want/need to lose weight, limit carb servings to, on average, two servings for women and four for men daily. That is a half cup of beans, lentils, yams, etc or one slice of bread per serving. Make sure the carbs are all "good" carbs, such as the ones above and only whole grains.

Everyone is different as to the number of carb servings that can be tolerated so a bit of experimenting is required. I have found that I can tolerate more the longer I'm on a clean diet and the more LGI veggies I eat.

Fat eaten with carbs lowers the glycemic load a little, too, so have them with butter, bacon, cheese, etc.

Sigh...now I'm hungry again!

 

[freemotion]

Oh, and if you soak/sprout grains for grinding, you need to dehydrate them thoroughly before grinding. Mostly I do the fermenting, or soaking, as part of the preparation of the recipe using regular ground wheat berries. But sprouting is VERY good and makes the flour more nutritious.

 

[~gd]

Oh, and if you soak/sprout grains for grinding, you need to dehydrate them thoroughly before grinding. Mostly I do the fermenting, or soaking, as part of the preparation of the recipe using regular ground wheat berries. But sprouting is VERY good and makes the flour more nutritious.

I'm willing to take your word for it, but I am unable to figure where the extra nutrients are coming from when sprouting. I know that the energy is stored mostly as starches in seeds and in sprouting starches are converted to simpler sugars. I love sprouts and they sure taste better than the seeds they sprouted from but where do the extra nutrients come from?~gd

 

[freemotion]

Not sure of the process, just from reading the analysis of the grains before and after. Must be converted from the starches in the grains. Protein skyrockets as the sprout appears, and then lowers again as the sprout progresses. Also, as phytates are neutralized with sprouting, the nutrients become available that were blocked from absorption in the intestines.

This happens with other foods. Sauerkraut can have ten times the vitamin C when finished as compared to the amount of vitamin C in the original ingredients. As long as it is not cooked or canned, of course.

 

[TanksHill]

I don't have a link but I have the Ann Wigmore book. It has amazing information and great explanations of the whole sprouting process.

g

 

[lwheelr]

There's another issue with fresh ground flour. I don't count carbs anymore, unless I'm pregnant. I pretty much avoid sugary stuff as a rule, and don't use much when I do have it, so I don't overload on carbs.

But the thing is, fresh ground flour has nutrients in it that old flour does not - not just from the wheat germ, but because some nutrients break down rapidly on exposure to air.

I ran across an experiment online where someone was testing wheat. They found that if they had whole wheat flour every day, their blood sugar control improved minimally. If they had cracked wheat every day, it improved a little more. If they had whole wheat, it improved a bit more.

He could not figure out why that would matter, but to me, the reason is clear - he was using commercial versions.

Commercial flour has a LOT removed during processing, and oxidizes rapidly because so many surfaces are exposed to air.

Commercial cracked wheat has some parts removed (the germ), and some surfaces exposed to air, but not as much as flour.

Whole wheat is intact, fresh, and doesn't age significantly. All of the nutrients needed to balance blood sugar and reduce the impact of the carbs are there, and working for your body.

So by milling fresh flour, and using it within a week, you get the benefits of whole unbroken unprocessed wheat, in flour.

By fermenting it, or sprouting it first, you just make it better and better.

Glycemic Index numbers do not take that kind of information into account. As far as they are concerned, flour is flour. But that just isn't so - and the Glycemic Index isn't the only thing that matters, because if a food has more nutrients in it to help your body handle the carbohydrate impact, then it won't cause blood sugar surges like the stuff that is measured for those indexes does.

It does take time to gain the effect, and the effect is gradual.

If you ferment the dough, you won't need sugar in the bread - an added benefit. You can then calculate carb count based on the total number of cups of flour in the dough (1/4 cup for 15 gms), and the number of slices in the loaf.

Also be aware that if you stop eating foods that are fortified with Thiamin and Riboflavin, blood sugar control improves. Those two vitamins are in a LOT of processed foods, and BOTH of them are very easy to OD on. A serious symptom for Overdose with them (which doctors do not recognize AT ALL), is high blood sugar. I have experience with this, and the difference is astonishing. Many cases of "gestational diabetes" are in fact caused by supplements in prenatal vitamins, and from the bread and cereal that pregnant women are encouraged to eat because of the folic acid in them, and it is likely that many adult cases of Type II diabetes would not exist if people just eliminated those supplements and avoided foods that have them added.

Anyway, making your own bread, from flour that is just FLOUR, has health benefits for blood sugar and insulin control that are way beyond the misrepresented numbers on a Glycemic Index chart.

 

[framing fowl]

Thanks for all of the good info! Is there any way to find out if it grinds at high or low speed? I've googled it but not come up with anything.