The bread we eat

[nosmokes]

and what a difference between the real thing and what we settle for, huh?
--###--

original-grain

The bread we eat

Andrew Whitley

While the paysans boulangers have been baking nutritious bread from old varieties of wheat in France (see here), a company in the north of England has been producing bread using recipes gathered from various parts of Europe. The Village Bakery was founded in 1976 by Andrew Whitley. Here he traces the history and diagnoses the ills of the industrialised bread produced in the United Kingdom.

"What an odd way" said the visitor, "to get your daily bread. First of all, you pay a miller to strip most of the good bits from wheat to make fine white flour. The bran and the wheat germ, you tell me, are full of vitamins and minerals, so the miller sells them to feed animals, because farmers know exactly what they should give their stock to keep them healthy. Your very white bread doesn’t have many of these good things in it any more, so you buy them back as pills in a little bottle from a ‘health food’ shop at many times their original cost.

"There are some people who don’t have much money and they eat a lot of this white bread, so your government tells the miller to put back some of the good bits, just to be on the safe side. He does this, not by using the original grain but by adding some chalk, some iron and two ‘synthetic’ vitamins. This doesn’t replace everything the animals have been given, but, as you say, it’s better than nothing.

"The miller sells his flour to the factory baker who adds some other things – flour treatment agents, emulsifiers, oxidants, preservatives and enzymes – not because they are good to eat, but to make his job easier, or to make the loaves bigger, whiter and lighter, or to make them stay soft after they’ve been baked. How odd to put things in your daily food which aren’t meant to nourish you!
~snip~
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complete article here

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. What, Bread's Not Good For Us Now? I'm S'posed Ta Like Boycott Store Bought Bread Now Or Something?

Not sure what the point was.

[elocs]

3. No, didn't you get the word? You're not supposed to buy bread on May 15th.

The more radical claim you should go a step further and not eat any bread on the 15th.

[NYC]

15. We're not supposed to buy bread on May 15th?

I hadn't known that. Thanks.

[elocs]

16. Or eat any bread. That's important too, although hard to prove. n/t

[NYC]

21. That will be difficult, but I'll figure something out.

Thanks for telling me.

Why? Who? And anything else you want to tell me. Thanks in advance.

[glowing]

5. Buy it at a natural store or bake it yourself if you have time, then

you know what is in it. I wouldn't bouycott bread all together, just the crap at the regular stores.

So sad to see people go to the store, spend all that money, and will just lead to heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and high cholesterol just to name a few. Even the veggies aren't real veggies when they've been Monsanto'd and irridated and pumped with chemicals from the ground to the aisle.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

8. ...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[glowing]

10. I'm not sure what is so funny. Making bread?

It is a really gratifying thing to do. Great way to spend time with kids making something with them. When we knead the bread I always tell mine to wish it some love, and then it will be extra special. My grandma used to do that to me when I was little. I grew up in VT. I know how to quilt, change my oil, a tire, bale hay, milk a cow, grow a garden, deal with harsh weather without electricity, how maple syrup is made, ride horses, walk in the woods, and I do ok in the city too (since I live in one now). I'm only 27, but I'm sure if their was an impending disaster, I would be able to do ok, and you'd be asking for my bread. (of course I'd share)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. I Like You.

I mean that sincerely. I love your reply. It was so spot on and polite that I completely rescind my previous wiseass reply and give instead my "Welcome to DU!" if it is warranted and a nice to meet you for being such a nice person. I truly got such a wonderful vibe from your post as if it made me certain you are truly a wonderful soul, and one in which it would be a pleasure to know and one in which should not have to deal with the likes of me.

God bless ya and thanks for the smile. :)

[glowing]

14. You are very sweet too. I voy a lot... I don't log on at work... I've

seen how some discussions can get out of hand. I maintain a view that works for me and helps me along life's path.

If someone wants to cut that view down to make themselves feel better, more informed, or whatever... so be it. I don't know why sometimes there is such a fury on views. I love life, I love people, I love my family, I love the beauty that "God" has given us... (I put God in quotes because really its the feeling inside where you are happy and clear and have no worries and really know peace and its so contentious on this site).

I've traveled and met people who have added pieces to my expression and even the negative one's I am grateful to meet because they challenge me more to look for more answers. Anyway, I should have pm'd that because it was sooooo off topic. Glad to know you friend. :hi:

[newyawker99]

23. Hi glowing!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[C_U_L8R]

2. I read the bread label the other day

and was horrified.
I had some bread that called "Health Nut" by Arnold
but after reading the label you'd have to
be nutty to think it was healthy.
I was looking specifically to see there was
wheat gluten in it (there is) but the horrifying
thing is that this bread is chock full of
high fructose corn syrup. Yuck!

[glowing]

4. High-fructose syrup is the most disgusting stuff they made for

children to sweeten up on. It is completely bad for anyone. And is probably the cause of most ADD ADHD in children today. Take a look at that 100% juice. I don't know how they get away with a statement like that when really only 20% is juice concentrate, and the rest water (probably full of flouride), dyes, "natural flavoring" (which means a bunch of chemicals the lab has cooked up to make taste, addiction, and color), and high fructose syrup.

Bread is best to make yourself, buy from a natural store, or a bakery you can trust uses more natural ingredients.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. It's just sugar, you know.

The typical table sugar, sucrose, used in homemade bread breaks down into fructose in your stomach.

[glowing]

9. Its chemically induced from a chemistry set. Its derivative is

corn (and who has too much corn as it is.. we're even putting it in our cars, even though it isn't efficient ). Anyway.. its not natural and the body doesn't recognize it. Also, the normal table sugar on your counter isn't good either. Its processed and crap. I have the natural sugar. And I use a lot of honey and maple syrup to sweeten things that need sweetening. I'd like to switch everyone to stevia.. but its incredibly hard to get my hands on (Japanese have their coca cola made from this, but it is virtually banned in the USA because of aspartame idustry which comes directly from Monsanto machine). Anyhoooo... no biggie. I'm not trying to tell anyone how to live their lives. Not my intention. My habits changed due to a little one and not wanting to feed him the bad stuff. Anyone can do the research of the FDA and pharm co. and food co. and the congress. One big circle to take our money. Better to be healthy and disease free, rather than lose my life's work to a disease.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Uh, it's biologically produced from CO2, water, and sunlight.

via a process known as "photosynthesis."

It comes from corn, yes. As opposed to that stuff in your sugar jar, which comes from beets and sugarcane. How do beets and sugarcane make sucrose? Why, they make glucose, via photosynthesis, and then they turn glucose into fructose. And then they take glucose and fructose and joine them together into sucrose. That's why when you eat sucrose, your tummy turns it back into glucose and fructose.

"Anyway.. its not natural and the body doesn't recognize it."

Nonsense. Like I've said, when you eat table sugar, it gets turned into glucose and fructose, both of which get processed biochemically. Same goes for "natural" sugar.

"And I use a lot of honey and maple syrup to sweeten things that need sweetening."

The major component of honey is fructose. Not quite as much as HFCS, but close. It's a major component of maple syrup too.

[glowing]

13. Well, your argument isn't going to get me to think that it's good.

Number one, I try to cut it out as much as I can. (Fruits are so much better for you and since my 2 yr old loves them, and tomatoes.. I feed him what he should have ). I read a couple of different studies done by different Phd types, that have explained the lynks of hfcs to diabetes, weight increases.... I do know how to read an actual scientific journal. I did it enough when I was in school and helped with just a few research studies myself. (mostly the marine and environmental kind... but since chemistry effects these things too, I took chemistry as well.)

Eat what you like. Do what you please. This is the land of consumption and the ever-widening waist band along with disease. There are so many toxins in our environment, its a wonder we haven't killed our species off yet, but we're doing a pretty good job erasing other species... It is time to have a serious discussion in the world about what is truely important... I can't feel like I've done all that I can when another person in this world is suffering. How do you reach a state of complete peace when you know that not all people have the same peace. HFCS is something Monsanto can shelve along with its seeds, and aspartame, and all the cide's that harm so many people.

[AZBlue]

20. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

24. Obviously.

I just wish people understood the world around them better.

"I do know how to read an actual scientific journal."

That's great, but please start with the basic texts.

[Gormy Cuss]

18. HFCS is not the same as sucrose and there is growing evidence that it is metabolized differently

than sucrose (which does break down into the same two components, glucose and fructose, that HFCS contains.) The jury is out on how important the difference is but some studies suggest that it may be deleterious.

one article with highlights:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/18/FDGS24VKMH1.DTL

Although some researchers have long been suspicious that too much fructose can cause problems, the latest case against high fructose corn syrup began in earnest a few years ago. Dr. George Bray, principal investigator of the Diabetes Prevention Program at Louisiana State University Medical Center told the International Congress on Obesity that in 1980, just after high fructose corn syrup was introduced in mass quantities, relatively stable obesity rates began to climb. By 2000, they had doubled.

...
Other studies by researchers at UC Davis and the University of Michigan have shown that consuming fructose, which is more readily converted to fat by the liver, increases the levels of fat in the bloodstream in the form of triglycerides.

And unlike other types of carbohydrate made up of glucose, fructose does not stimulate the pancreas to produce insulin. Peter Havel, a nutrition researcher at UC Davis who studies the metabolic effects of fructose, has also shown that fructose fails to increase the production of leptin, a hormone produced by the body's fat cells.

Both insulin and leptin act as signals to the brain to turn down the appetite and control body weight. And in another metabolic twist, Havel's research shows that fructose does not appear to suppress the production of ghrelin, a hormone that increases hunger and appetite.

"Because fructose in isolation doesn't activate the hormones that regulate body weight as do other types of carbohydrate composed of glucose, consuming a diet high in fructose could lead to taking in more calories and, over time, to weight gain," he says.

....
Still, other researchers are finding new problems with high fructose corn syrup. A study in last month's Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that women whose diet was high in total carbohydrate and fructose intake had an increased risk of colorectal cancer. And Dr. Mel Heyman, chief of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at UCSF, is seeing sick children whose bodies have been overloaded with fructose from naturally occurring fructose in fruit juice combined with soda and processed food.

There's much more available from reliable sources with similar info. As I wrote earlier, the jury is out.

[Shallah Kali]

22. Thanks for that article. I try to follow the precautionary principle aka don't be a human lab rat

If they aren't sure it's safe avoid it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. Never said it was.

High fructose corn syrup contains about 55% fructose in most of its uses. While sucrose is 50% upon hydrolysis.

[nosmokes]

19. HFCS is not benign.

The Dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup

and there is a lot of evidence (contested mightily by the powerful and well funded corn lobby) that aside from being largely responsible for the obesity problem we face in the the US and other industrialised countries, HFCS also plays at least a supporting role in the large increase in rates of diabetes and the rate of ADHD among children.

[Dora]

30. My complaint about HFCS is not the fructose, but the processing.

It's not just corn syrup. Corn syrup is a simple thing - like maple syrup, or cane syrup - they're all sweeteners.

High fructose corn syrup is a manufactured commodity engineered to provide more sweetening at less expense to the manufacturer. It's used as a sweetener and also as a quality control agent in commercial baking. It helps to ensure even browning - so our Entenmann's coffee cakes are assuredly golden.

There is a correlation between the advent of HFCS in the American diet and the rising rates of obesity and diabetes. Correlation, not causation. There are additional correlations with obesity rates, yes, but I'd like to suggest that HFCS is part of the syndrome that's plaguing American health.

It's an optional ingredient - and it's nutritively vacant. I choose to omit it from my diet and the family pantry. We're all better off - and I'm speaking as the mother of a tantrum-free two year old.

[Tesha]

26. "Fructose" is "fruit sugar"; do you really think your body doesn't...

"Fructose" is "fruit sugar"; do you really think your body
doesn't "recognize" it?

I mean, we can have a debate about whether eating all that
sugar is good for you or not, but there's nothing in HFCS
that's inherently harmful in and of itself. How do you feel
about fruit that comes off a tree? How do you feel about
honey? After all, that's just high fructose flower nectar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey

Tesha

[Dora]

29. Welcome to DU, Glowing.

I'm on the anti-HFCS bandwagon too. You are not alone.

There are a lot of people who don't want us taking away their Pepsi and Coke - it's a non-partisan addiction. The sad thing is that we can still have Pepsi and Coke w/out HFCS, if the manufacturers would just return to using cane sugar.

You'll find there are many minds here that will not be changed. It's the differences among us that keep the conversations interesting.

[malaise]

6. Lovely read

from a bran and whole wheat bread lover. We don't eat white bread ever and we don't buy commerical bread either. A friend owns a small bakery and we buy fresh from him. Sometimes I even bake my own bread.

Now I'm worried that all the ingredients are still crap today. :D

[Obamarama]

17. Store-bought bread does not enter our house...

We just flat-out refuse to eat store-bought bread. Life is too short not to enjoy good bread. We have two WODNERFUL artisan bakeries:
http://www.mackenziesbakery.com/
http://www.central-city.net/business_info.php?buID=12

They bake out-of-this world whole-grain breads. My partner has also perfected a wonderful whole-grain wheat bread (buy King Arthur whole wheat flour, follow the recipe on the package and you, too, can enjoy great bread!)

[EstimatedProphet]

27. That's why I like Ezekiel 4:9

http://www.mybloodsugar.net/foodforlife.htm

[Clark2008]

28. This thread just made my blood sugar jump to 140.

I have gestational diabetes.