Breaking the bread myth

Why has bread, made from wheat flour, been a staple food in Western society for hundreds of years, but suddenly we are all wheat/ gluten intolerant.

What’s changed? The simple answer is; everything. In my opinion one cannot compare a loaf of true sourdough bread made from bio flour, with a store bought loaf of bread. It’s like comparing margarine & butter, margarine is basically one molecule away from plastic (and tastes precisely like plastic should you make it into a soft fatty kind of weird substance). Butter (made from grass-fed cow’s milk) on the other hand is a fabulous natural food with real health benefits and a sublime taste. Its sacrilege to put butter and real bio sourdough bread in the same camp as these products masquerading as food fit for human consumption.

At this stage you are thinking I am one of those radical, fanatical health nuts, or just a hippy/ slash attention seeking scare monger etc. But if you are one of those suffering with wheat/ gluten issues, then perhaps read on.

To explain how everything about bread and wheat has changed, let me sum it up in a nutshell;

First we invented mechanical technologies to turn wheat into barren white flour. Then, we invented chemical and genetic technologies to make it resistant to pests, drought +  blight and easier to harvest, dramatically increasing yield per acre. And, while we were tweaking genetics, we also figured out how to increase glutens for better “baking properties” (fluffier results). Put another way:

We have mutant seeds, grown in synthetic soil, bathed in chemicals. They’re deconstructed, pulverized to fine dust, bleached and chemically treated to create a barren industrial filler that no other creature on the planet will eat. And we wonder why it might be making us sick?

If all of this alarms you, the simple and obvious prescription is “don’t eat wheat”. Hence the gluten-free craze. But, for most of us, there is an alternative solution: don’t eat industrial flour made with modern wheat.”

Do beware of glutenfree products made with other refined flours that are just as   as unhealthfull as refined wheat flour.

The answer for me is buying Eureka Mills Flour which is a NON GMO, stone ground and unbleached flour, crammed full of the excellent nutrition wheat has to offer.

Then there is the other really important question one has to ask about bread; is it a loaf of Sourdough or has it been made with instant Yeast; choosing true sourdough made from bio flour (stone-ground and unbleached off course) has the added benefit of being yeast free. Yeast causes havoc in our digestive system and is to be avoided. Sourdough on the other hand only contains flour and water which has naturally fermented to become the raising agent. And it gets better, during the sourdough raising and baking process the gluten content in bread is broken down…it is a win-win situation.

Really what it all bakes down to is making a choice between a real food and a fake food with no nutritional benefits. Yes, off course baking a sourdough doesn’t sit in everyone’s pants, artesian baking is an art form…but these days most towns and cities have lovely bakeries that use bio flour and uses the sourdough method. Bread freezes well, so perhaps buy a few loaves at once, slice them and then store them in the freezer. A few frozen slices can easily be retrieved and then toasted to serve wiyh with a soup or salad for lunch.

If you can’t (or won’t) bake, or get hold of a bio-flour sourdough loaf, then the next best thing is investing in a good bread machine. Using Bio flour and cutting out all the other unnecessary and scary ingredients found in store bought bread means the only ‘nasty’ your body will have to deal with, is instant yeast, (and you can even replace that with Bicarbonate of Soda in some bread recipes), when weighing up the evil’s of a store bought bread in comparison to such a bread machine produced loaf, it win’s hands down.

Bio-Flour from Eureka Mills is available from most supermarkets these days, I like to support awesome independent local shop’s, like The Country Butcher in Swellendam, who not only stock’s Eureka Mills Flour (and lots of other fabulous goods), but uses it to bake the most sublime Ciabatta’s daily. Find a similar store near you and make a point in visiting it weekly, you will be ticking more than one box.

Bread (even a heavenly bio-flour sourdough loaf) certainly should not be eaten with every meal, but can definitely be indulged in a couple of times a week, once again it comes down to quality above quantity.

Breaking the bread should become a celebration an a conscious choice. Balance, choice and knowledge gives you the power to heal your body.

In dedication to your best health,

Marlien

PS, this article is by no means applicable to anyone suffering from the very real and devastating condition of Celiac’s Disease.