What bread is worth eating
What bread is the healthiest?
What criteria should we follow when choosing bread?
What kind of bread do we currently have to choose from?
A lifesaver for gluten-free people
Let’s pay attention to the weight of the bread!
What bread is the healthiest?
In the past, bread was the basis of human nutrition. Our grandmothers worked hard, baking loaves on their own, sometimes several times a week. Then came the era and – actually fashion – for convenience, i.e. visiting the bakery and buying bread. With the emergence of more and more competition in the bakery industry, the number of unhealthy products has also increased. Unhealthy bread, or what? Certainly one that is not baked on natural sourdough or kvass and one that contains a lot of flavor enhancers and raising substances. In addition, more and more often we began to reach for bread, which provides only empty and easily digestible sugars. The above shortcomings caused that today there was again the need to bake bread on your own, although with today’s lifestyle and striving for this activity, only a few can afford it. Those who care about healthy eating and at the same time are busy people have a real challenge ahead of them. Is it worth eating bread? What bread is the healthiest? This article will help you answer these questions.
What criteria should we follow when choosing bread?
In the introduction to the article, we mentioned that bread producers often use leavening substances, flavor enhancers, in the worst case … feathers of farmed birds or gypsum! They do this in order to increase production while saving resources. In a word: for profit. What can we as consumers do in the face of the controversy? We should carefully read the labels on the products. After all, every manufacturer is obliged to be reliable in this matter. However, let us not be deceived by the so-called marketing ploys. They can manifest themselves in clever encouraging slogans promoting healthy eating. However, if after looking at the label, we notice that this slogan has nothing to do with the list of substances contained in our flour product, then we can put it on the shelf with satisfaction. Here are the basic tips that we should follow when choosing bread:
First of all: let’s choose bread with as few ingredients as possible. To facilitate this task, we provide the basic components from which we produce healthy bread. To bake the most natural, we only need: flour, water or milk and a leavening agent, i.e. sourdough or yeast and salt. Of course, there are also various kinds of natural grains: linseed, sunflower or pumpkin. On this basis, we conclude that other bread additives are actually unnecessary and reduce its quality. If we are connoisseurs of wholemeal bread (it will be discussed in a later part of the speech), we must pay close attention to whether the producers have not tried to add caramel to it. What would that mean? The presence of caramel makes bread baked with refined wheat flour brown and deceptively similar to bread baked with unrefined flour. The consumer is actually dealing with a scam because such bread has nothing to do with the alleged wholemeal bread! Is it worth eating bread? Certainly not like that!
What kind of bread do we currently have to choose from?
Depending on our preferences, we can now choose bread for ourselves. There is a lot of bread on the market, and yet it is important that it fulfills the function of not only a “stomach filler” in our diet. If we carefully consider our choice, we can successfully buy bread that is both tasty and provides many vitamins and minerals.
A good solution for people who care about their health is to choose wholemeal bread, which we have already mentioned in the previous part of the statement. The production of this type of bread is based on the use of flour (wheat, mixed, rye), which the mill workers grind only once. Such flour is not only rich in fiber – due to the high content of bran – it is also rich in vitamins and minerals. The bran present in such bread makes our bread darker than the one in which refined flour was used. Purified flour is nothing more than pure energy, i.e. empty calories and no other nutritional value. In 100 grams of wholemeal bread, the calorie content is 210. So it is not a high-calorie bread, but at the same time it is nutritious and releases energy for a long time. Such bread has a low glycemic index, meaning slow absorption of carbohydrates, which does not cause a sharp rise in blood sugar. Thus, diabetics can successfully consume it. What bread is the healthiest? Just like that!
If we want to lose weight, we often ask ourselves: Is it worth eating bread? What bread is the healthiest? A good choice for people who want to reduce body weight is rye bread. It is a good choice because, despite the low energy value, rye bread contains a lot of B vitamins, folic acid and, of course, the aforementioned fiber. It is important that bread producers use only natural sourdough or bread acids for its production. It is thanks to him that it can be a valuable product for our health.
A lifesaver for gluten-free people
Before we get to the heart of the matter, let’s get acquainted with the definition of the term “gluten”. This protein makes the dough, from which bread and other flour products are made, elastic and easy to knead. This is an asset especially in the production of pasta, noodles or dumplings. Such flour products then do not fall apart and retain the desired form. This protein is also used in the meat industry. Manufacturers add gluten to meats to make them sufficiently elastic.
However, there are more and more people who are allergic to the protein in question and in varying degrees of severity. Extreme allergy to gluten is called celiac disease and is manifested by chronic nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, inability to assimilate vitamins and minerals (most often manifested by anemia) or migraine. People with such symptoms consult a doctor and detailed tests will show that they are allergic to gluten gluten, unfortunately they have to give up eating ordinary bread and flour products. Especially wheat products made of highly refined flour are actually the “seat” of gluten. No wonder such people ask themselves: Is it worth eating bread?
Manufacturers of gluten-free bread and flour products come to the rescue of such people. These are products baked from corn and buckwheat flour. This flour does not contain gluten, which is why bread manufacturers use it to add gluten-free products to their products. Interestingly, corn bread contains almost all fat-soluble vitamins: A, D, E; while the advantage of buckwheat bread is its low energy content. There are about 215 calories per 100 g of such bread.
Let's pay attention to the weight of the bread!
When buying bread, it is worth paying attention to the weight of the bread. If it is heavy, compact, it is a sign that it is valuable and does not contain artificial leavening agents. If it feels “puffed up” and is light, there is an almost 100% chance that manufacturers are being unfair to consumers. In this way, they artificially increase the volume of bread with synthetic leavening agents. Let’s not buy such bread and rolls, because it does not bode well for our health.
