British people hear the word “biscuit” and think of a cookie; Southerners hear it and picture a soft, buttery miracle. When I made Southern biscuits in my Swedish kitchen today, something unexpected happened; they tasted different…
Southern biscuits are born from soft winter wheat; low in gluten; naturally tender; perfect for quick breads. Sweden doesn’t grow that exact wheat, but vetemjöl gets surprisingly close. What it doesn’t do is bring along the quiet collection of additives that hide in many American flours.
That’s the part of this story that matters.
Growing up, flour was just flour; a bag of white powder in the pantry. No one taught us that in the United States, flour could be bleached, bromated, and chemically rushed through a process that Europe banned decades ago.
Here’s the short version; the part that makes you stare at the wall for a minute:
1. Potassium bromate is banned across most of the developed world; but not in the U.S.
It strengthens dough; it also happens to be a probable carcinogen. Animal studies link it to kidney and GI tract tumors; it causes oxidative stress and DNA damage; and traces of it remain in finished bread more often than American regulators like to admit.
Sweden said no; the EU said no; the UK said no; Canada said no. The U.S. still shrugs 🤷♀️
2. Bleaching agents make flour look pretty; not healthy
Bleached flour uses chemicals to “age” flour instantly. Europe banned this too. Bleaching doesn’t directly cause cancer, but it can irritate sensitive guts; alter digestion; and contribute to inflammation.
Crohn’s, IBS, and autoimmune disorders tend to flare harder when bleached flour shows up. 💩
3. Processing affects your colon more than the wheat itself
This is the part nobody explains. People blame “gluten” as a monolithic villain; when often the real culprits are:
• fast-digesting refined starch
• chemical bleaching
• bromated dough conditioners
• additives that create oxidative stress
• flour that never had time to ferment naturally
Inflammation + damaged gut lining + oxidative stress = a colon that’s working overtime.
Over years, those stresses can contribute to colon cancer risk.
Europe’s flour laws simply avoid those stressors entirely.
4. Sweden keeps things simple
Vetemjöl is just… flour. No bleaching; no bromate; no accelerants. It’s milled differently, handled differently, and treated like food rather than a chemistry set. It feels gentle; because it is.
When people say European bread feels better in their bodies, it isn’t a fantasy; it’s physiology. Longer fermentation; fewer additives; lower-protein wheat; and zero bromate create a completely different digestive experience.
Which brings me back to biscuits.
Using Swedish vetemjöl, my biscuits came out soft and tender; Southern in spirit but Scandinavian in purity. And although my Maw Maw Brown made hers with Southern flour that was naturally gentle, the American flour industry has drifted far from the flours she used. Her biscuits were gifts from her heart; made with wheat that behaved like wheat should.
Standing here in a Swedish kitchen, I felt that same warmth; the same softness; the same connection to a tradition that has crossed oceans and centuries. But now I understand something else; the ingredients in Sweden simply let the story shine through without interference.
So yes; the Southern biscuit made it all the way to Scandinavia. And it tastes a little healthier now; a little lighter; a little closer to what our grandmothers meant when they handed us something warm and delicious.
Sometimes the smallest ingredient tells the biggest story
Sources:
Swedish Wanderlust 