Food Nutrition Facts

Wheat

Wheat is a type of domesticated grass, cultivated throughout the world for its highly useful and nutritious grain. It is one of the top three most cultivated crops in the world behind corn and rice, China being the largest country. It is closely followed by India and the United States.

It is being cultivated for more than 10,000 years and has its origin in the Fertile Crescent besides many other staple crops. Wheat grain is a staple food that is used to prepare flour for leavened, flat and baked bread, cakes, cookies, noodles, pasta and couscous. It is also used in the alcoholic industry to make beer, whiskey, vodka or fenny. Wheat is also used as a feed for the livestock. The straw is used as a fodder. Some parts of the world, the straw are used in the construction sector to make roofing thatch.

The most likely domestication was taken place in Turkey near Diyarbakir. About 5000 years before, wheat had come to India, Ethiopia, Great Britain and Spain. After 1000 years it reached China. Later, as the newer land was available, it penetrated into the different parts of Europe.

Wheat morphology consists of tough glumes, which tightly enclose the grain and a partially brittle rachis that cracks easily on threshing. To acquire the grain, further processing like milling and pounding is required to remove the husks or the hulls.

There are five major varieties of wheat cultivated widely- common wheat, durum wheat, einkorn, emmer and spelt.

Wheat is mainly used to make wheat flour, which in turn is the key ingredient of various types of baked goods.

A wheat field                                                               Wheat