The 'Simple' Loaf of Bread

It all began when Lucy, my editor, told me she was making sauerkraut. The word, 'homemade' entered our conversation, as she spoke of her excitement over her first attempt at fermenting cabbage. She is a company president, musician, singer-songwriter and 23 years old! Who has the time? ... Why bother, I wondered? ... But it was very important to her. (She was avoiding starches, too, temporarily.) Then it began: a three-part series on the role of fermented foods & starches in our diet, a fictional account of the world-wide elimination of starches and now, the final installment, The 'simple' loaf of bread. ...

I was shocked to learn how unscrupulous things had become in the making of a loaf of bread. I was bewildered to learn that a chocolate bar was said to be a better food choice than a whole grain slice of toast. ... I had to find out why. Flowery language on bread's brightly coloured 'happy' cellophane packaging helps paint a glowing picture of this baked product in our diet. We have now entered the land of make-believe. ... 

 

An endless array of preservatives, flavour and colour enhancers, dough conditioners, bleaching agents for flour and bread now greet us in the grocery aisle. Bread is no longer about flour, water, salt, and yeast, anymore. It is now something else and I am not sure what. 

 

We have potassium bromate, a recognized industry dough conditioner, whose entry into our bodies, via bread and flour, began decades ago. It has been banned in many countries. Canada banned it in 1994. Bromine, the element, is a member of the group of 7 elements that include fluorine, chlorine and iodine. (It is a poison, in its original 'costume') ...Potassium bromate becomes bromide during baking.

Numerous scientific studies, examining its use and supposed benefits, in bread, have found no health benefits, whatsoever. Bromide is also an endocrine disruptor which competes for the same receptors as iodine. Guess who wins? Not iodine. Thyroid, the master gland now begins to malfunction on a grand scale. 

Bread is the star attraction in fine dining. Breakfasts are its premiere platform. Children, especially, love hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, wraps and grilled cheese, foods that use bread/flour in various forms to showcase the real food we are eating. Bread speaks to us on a primitive level. Lunches are made of it. Toast is its cousin with bagel or English muffin as its stand-in. Growing up, I ate rye bread with caraway seeds, regularly. White bread was not a feature of my childhood, though, at times, I wish it were. It was always rye bread with seeds bought from the Health Bread Bakery where my mom worked. ...

When potassium bromate is present, iodine, the critical element in thyroid function, is adversely affected. Iodine is also the weakest link when forms of fluorine and chlorine are present in the food supply, too. It is then that the chain of metabolic functions in our bodies begin their erratic decline. Welcome sluggish metabolism and weight gain. Every cell in our body has an ongoing metabolic duty to perform. If the thyroid malfunctions, the relentless war within our bodies continues. All major organ systems are affected. ... 

 

We have welcomed the 'enemy' inside, those preservatives and additives that help sculpt the picturesque loaf of white bread we are eating. Our cravings are also a testament to this dietary criminal act. Bodies never used to 'crave'. Once upon a time, food was eaten because of hunger, a word used to describe our relationship with food. Now, we have become addicted to poor starchy foods, not healthy greens, fruits or lean protein. It is usually, “Time to Eat” not “I'm hungry”, in our search for food satiety. 

Science is fact based. Mathematics is a numbers' game, not easily manipulated by opinion or belief. How does any chemical used in non-food products such as pesticides, carpeting, or anti-freeze cross the food barrier and end up in bread? Does it have something to do with the PPM - parts per million - rule, the safe dose for that food grade label? How far are we willing to go with commercially made 'food'?

Women's health is more adversely affected than men's when it comes to the ingestion of chemically laden foods. I should know. My thyroid is slow. When does it end? (And what agency is deciding the parameters of this PPM rule?) Did we have a say?

A sluggish thyroid is just one of the many dietary ills we might face today from eating grains.  It seems like a diabolical threat to our body that the simple loaf of bread is not simple, anymore. Grains - these grasses from the land - have been around for thousands of years, having fed billions of people around the world. In all shapes, tastes and forms, bread has fed the earth. 

 

A look at some of the 60 approved additives that may be lurking in bread today is a premonition of bad things to come. Momsey was shocked. There is chlorine dioxide forming a compound called dichlorostearic acid, maturing and bleaching agents added to flour. (Vitamin E is then destroyed) Oh, My! Then there is soy lecithin from soy, derived from GMO plants that softens bread and emulsifies fats. (An egg is an emulsifier, too, but that would be a costly move, albeit nutritious.) ... 

 

Because grains are susceptible to mould, propionic acid is added to solve that problem. Then there is azodicarbonamide, (found in the  production of foamed plastics) another bleaching agent found in bread flour, along with amylase, xylanase, L-cysteine hydrochloride,- (derived from feathers or hair ) - and polyoxyethelene monostearate. I promptly threw out my bag of flour when I read this list. I was not prepared to be a guinea pig any longer.

Are we re-structuring our DNA eating foods or breads that have been 're-formulated', time and time again? And what does secret recipe really mean? What about reproduction and the health of our children? The word 'element' from the periodic table is such a sweet sounding word until it appears in our food supply in some PPM form while having played a role in other non-food products, unknown to us. ... 

 

The Momsey is neither a chemistry major, a chemist or biologist. Some healthier breads, I was shocked to read, have had extra gluten added to make them more 'appealing', mimicking that tender light crumb taste of white bread.  More gluten? Really? Then we wonder why bread is bloating or inflaming our gut interior. Is that the reason? “Enrichment' makes bread seem more nutritious until we learn the original nutrients were lost during modern processing methods. 'Enrichment' is simply a tactic of returning some of the nutrients back to the bread in perhaps synthetic versions of the original minerals and vitamins lost. Oh, my goodness! Grass fed butter with more Vitamin A and D and butyrate promotes a healthy gut. Who knew??? Slather it on.

A slice of toast. A ham sandwich. A dinner roll or pizza slice should not be a slippery slope to ill health. The process of proofing is now a quickened process from days, hours to minutes, in some cases. Gluten, therefore, does not have a chance of breaking down into its digestible amino acid compounds. Has the  bread making process been dramatically shortened now? Is the profit motive in charge? I wonder. ... 

 

Chemical additives, conditioners, softeners, and taste enhancers are just some of the 'ingredients' being added to keep these mechanized loaves of starch moving quickly within a system designed for immediate maximum profitability. What would happen if we all simply stopped eating bread for just one day? Would things be any different tomorrow? Maybe, just maybe they would. ...

The epilogue to this series on grains, starches and fermentation rests with sourdough, the final chapter.