Whats wrong with todays bread

Here is a blog written by a baker, gives a little history on what is going on with our bread.

This is a sourdough site,quite interesting if you are into baking bread,explore the site.

Some of our digestive problems may be related to the way they now make bread and the grains used,

and the junk they put into it,and the bad cheap flour.

It is also interesting that around 1900 before a high UC incidence,the average person ate twice the bread

as we do today,of course most did not sit around all day at a desk.

This is a little something different than one of my normal posts.

I may even take sourdough baking up myself in the future.

Old Mike

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/foodphilosophy.html#breadmatters

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 5/24/2012 5:12:08 PM (GMT-6)

Mike,

As usual, great find!

Thanks for posting.

If one is so inclined, you can get some free starter from carlsfriends.net/source.html.

I have been making my own sour dough bread for the last few months in an attempt to eat less processed foods.

Mike, I appreciate your constant research. Thank you for posting this.

Many of you will be familiar with Dr William Davis's book 'Wheat Belly' but for those who are not here is the first part of a presentation which looks at modern wheat production and how the product we consume now bears no relationship the wheat our ancestors consumed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSDkJEF9aBY&feature=relmfu  I'm not talking about 'ancestors' in terms of thousands of years ago - the corruption of wheat is a recent phenomenon. Combine poor quality, genetically altered wheat with unhealthy production techniques and unnatural additives and what you end up with is what sits on the shelves in most supermarkets. Small bakeries are no less guilty as many will still buy cheap flour and add preservatives. In the UK we have it even worse as much of our bread is made via the 'Chorleywood method' which is why we have probably the least wholesome and most tasteless bread in the developed world: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorleywood_bread_process

I have been doing my own bread in the last 6 months. When I was living in Montreal I was used to old school bakers as the city is full of gastronomic pleasures. So most bakers would have proper bread and also used variety of flours.
I was used to immense quality. Then I moved to the uk. I found that bread here is horrible. You have to dig deeper to find quality breads. I found mainly the good quality breads at weekly markets on some stands. And they were very good however its not as accessible everyday. Especially when you try to be wheat free ahah.

So I decided to bake my own. Started with the easiest flour to work with wich was spelt. Then kamut. All turned out right and quite yummy.

I think also most poeple long time ago used ot have lots of proteins from bread. The average french worker used to eat quite a lot of bread. But the bread back then even from wheat was very high in protein. And they used variety of grains not just wheat. Spelt is very high in protein and very gewy and easy to digest. Rye flour is quite heavy but perfect for soups and during the winter. Kamut is just wonderfull.

I hve nothing gainst chewy breads like ciabatta of foccacia but not for everyday. And they are so easy to do that it's worth doing it at home, especially when its warm out of the oven with lotfs of garlic, thyme and olive oil on it.

This article didn't mention something right in front of our eyes... Read the ingredients, and most breads add extra gluten to make it chewy instead of stiff and crumbly. Gluten supplements increase GI disturbances in normal people.

Gluten supplements? I've never heard of that before, I could have sworn that protein source in particular (gluten) was invaluable to us...

Just wanted to add- for those (unlike me!) who do fine on bread and are interested in fermented grain bfeads, sourdough, etc, that a great book on making fermented foods in general, and which has a great chapter on fermented grains and breads, is "wild fermentation" by sandor katz. Good stuff in there too on kefir, sauerkfaut, kimchee, etc etc.

Just like to say I gave up on my own starter,ordered the 250 year old starter from King Arthur flour,it works great,that was about 3 weeks or so ago.

Anyhow easy to get it going and I have made 3 batches of the most wonderfull tasting

sourdough that I could imagine.  One friends comment was the best bread he ever ate.

Well I will not go that far,but it is very good.

I normally work with this recipie,I kind of like it without the rye flour.

Top it with the seeds of your choice,spritz with water or brush on

slash and bake with steam at 450,for 30 minutes or so,leave in oven

with door open at least 5 minutes.

Old Mike

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/08/my-new-favorite-sourdough/

Experiment with longer autolyse time like two hours.

I really did not think it was this easy,but better than many you may have tasted from a store.

 

Probiotic said...
Just wanted to add- for those (unlike me!) who do fine on bread and are interested in fermented grain bfeads, sourdough, etc, that a great book on making fermented foods in general, and which has a great chapter on fermented grains and breads, is "wild fermentation" by sandor katz. Good stuff in there too on kefir, sauerkfaut, kimchee, etc etc.

Probiotic, I'm just curious, when you tried eliminating grains, you didnt notice any changes with your UC?

I used fluconazole (a powerful systemic anti fungal medicine) to treat a corticosteroid induced candida infection. After that I've started to have problems with wheat (intolerance symptoms).

Just another aspect.

Xy123, your post dovetails with my suspicions about the rise of gluten intolerance (and maybe celiac). I am inclined to think there's nothing wrong with gluten or wheat, but there is something wrong with us--some of us are losing some necessary bacteria or other aspect of our intestinal flora that help us digest or tolerate wheat.