Stop eating the wrong kind of bread.
Minute for your health #55
I recently realised I’m feeding my two year old the wrong kind of bread.
My dad sent me an article about ‘ultra processed foods’ and how they affect our health.
Smugly I skim read the article thinking ‘well this doesn’t apply to us, obviously we don’t eat ultra processed food’ - until I came to a list of ultra processed foods which included:
mass produced bread
And yes - my daughter eats mass produced bread. The good kind I had thought - whole grain rye bread with plenty of seeds.
So if even this isn’t the right kind of bread, then what is? Read on to find out.
Humans have been eating bread for millennia.
Bread has been a staple food in most human cultures for millennia. I mean, God threw bread (manna) down from heaven for the Israelites in the dessert.
So what’s the problem with bread all of a sudden? I’m betting everyone knows at least one person who says ‘I can’t eat too much bread or I don’t feel well.’
What’s the problem with bread now?
Eating the wrong kind of bread can make you feel all sorts of things:
Nausea
Indigestion
Tummy pain or cramps
Bloating and flatulence
Diarrhoea
Constipation
Congestion/runny nose
Cravings/hung pangs
Modern (mass produced) bread is made differently.
So what’s changed?
Production. That’s what. Mass production means bread is now made:
Faster than ever before
With less diverse grains than ever before
With less nutrient dense flours
With more added ingredients than ever before
With more yeast than ever before
So what’s the right bread?
Choose bread that uses traditional grains and production methods. Think:
Sourdough - ideally slow fermented (12 hours or longer)
Heritage grains like spelt, rye, emmer, einkorn, khamut, barley
Stone ground flours
As few added ingredients as possible (avoid sugar, iodine, yeast, syrup etc.)
Two slices of bread should make you feel pleasantly full. If you have eaten two slices and feel like you’ve just consumed air you are eating the wrong kind of bread.
Summary:
Humans have been eating bread for millennia but our current methods of mass production have meant that many can no longer tolerate this food. Choose slow fermented breads made out of stone ground heritage flours to improve your tolerance of bread.
You can now support my work 🥳
If you find my emails valuable and you would like to support my work you can:
Links and References:
Anjali A Dixit and others, Incorporation of whole, ancient grains into a modern Asian Indian diet to reduce the burden of chronic disease, Nutrition Reviews, Volume 69, Issue 8, 1 August 2011, Pages 479–488, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2011.00411.x
In Season:
I’m going to call July the month of the strawberry in the western hemisphere. While they started to flood the shops in June many of those were important from Spain or grown in heated greenhouses.
But from the end of June and well into July we have the privilege of eating sun ripened, local and delicious strawberries in Europe.
Once you’ve eaten these strawberries you know they are the real thing. No winter strawberry could ever compare, which is a great reminder why seasonal eating matters. Imagine not eating a single strawberry between September and July - and then tasting your first delicious strawberry when it’s naturally ripened.
I can highly recommend the danish strawberry tart if you are looking for something delicious to make with your strawberries.