Before my wife retired, she was the head bread maker (as in yeast dough) at the local school system. One of the Obama changes to the dietary program for school lunches was to go from the classic yeast lunchroom rolls to a whole wheat roll. The kids and staff hated it. The classic rolls were prized and there were never left overs, but the students would not touch the wheat ones and tossed 80% of them in the trash (so much for the statistics of school nutrition - food served is counted, not the food actually eaten, but I'm wavering off my point here). The staff being the renegade lunch ladies they were ended up making a blended white/wheat roll that worked well. They had to continue to order the wheat flour or the "lunch menu nazi's" in purchasing would know they were not in compliance, but once they found the right ratio of white flour to use, all was well.....
I think this is the same thing you father figured out, just for a different reason.