What Makes A Food Whole Grain

The Whole Grains Council defines whole grains this way:
Whole Grains or foods made from them contain all the essential parts and naturally occurring nutrients of the entire grain seed. If the grain has been processed the food should give you about the same balance of nutrition that is found in the original grain.

The more processed the grains are, the more nutrients are lost.

When baking with whole grains, it is possible to bake with all whole grains, but most baked goods benefit from a mix of whole grain and all-purpose flours.

Many times, to get the best texture you will need to use both flours. If you do use all whole grain flour, you may want to let the baked food rest overnight to soften up the rougher texture of a whole grain such as whole wheat.

If you are wanting to add more whole grains to your recipes, try experimenting with 1/4 whole grains and increase until you find the taste and texture that you want.

Storing Flour

Some flours need different storage than others.

For example, pastry flour should be stored in the freezer.
It will not go bad, but pastry is best made with cold ingredients so keeping it cold in your freezer is only good sense.

Whole grain flours, such as soy or wheat should be stored in the freezer also.

Whole grain flours have a tendency to go rancid unless used up quickly. So, by keeping them in the freezer, they will last a lot longer.

All-purpose flour( both bleached and unbleached), cake flour, and bread flour are fine if they are stored at room temperature.
They are not going to turn rancid.
And if you use your flour for making bread, you don't want your flour cold.