All About Bread We Eat – By Dr Harold Gunatillake

About Bread you purchase
(Updated from the previous paper)

Today, in the supermarkets and the local bakeries there are so many varieties of bread baked differently, in the more developed countries, and the choice is most confusing.

There are two main methods of making bread: the Bulk Fermentation Process and the
Chorleywood Bread Process.

(The Chorleywood bread process (CBP) is a method of efficient dough production to make bread quickly, producing a soft, fluffy loaf, developed by a British baking Industries Research Association at Chorleywood in 1961).

Compared to the older bulk fermentation process, the CBP can use lower protein wheat and produces bread in a shorter time.

The other ways of bread making include:
Activated Dough Development (ADD)
Straight Dough Method.
Delayed Salt Method.
Sponge and Dough Process (S&D)
Ferment Dough Process.

Who introduced the Bread and baking industry to Sri Lanka? Thanks to the Portuguese who came from a great bread-eating nation.

What is stone bread?
You will be startled to see ‘stone-baked’ bread in your local bakery or the supermarkets, not heard of back home in Sri Lanka. This method of baking dates back thousands of years. According to history, the earliest bread was made in or around 8000 BC in the Middle East, specifically in Egypt.

Baking the bread on stone provides an earthy flavour, they are harder to touch than the common bread with a thick crust on top, not seen on the standard bread baked on metal trays.

What are the more health benefits of stone-baked bread?
Stone-ground wheat retains more vitamins and minerals because the grain components stay together during processing. The flour used contains more vitamins, minerals, fats and fibre than milled whole wheat flour because it retains a higher percentage of bran and germ

Brown bread is healthy
The brown bread you buy from the bakery or supermarket may not be a whole meal. Molasses or other things can give the bread a brown colour. Always read the ingredient list. Real brown bread is considered more healthy than
white bread because brown bread is made from wheat and white bread is made from processed flour.

Weight watchers must eat brown bread for its high fibre content. Due to the high fibre component, you can prevent overeating, and many experts recommend it for weight loss.

The word “whole” should always appear before the name of the grain, such as whole wheat, whole oats, or whole rye. And it should be the first thing on the ingredient list.

Don’t be misled by labels that say “multi-grain,” “stone-ground,” “100% wheat,” “cracked wheat,” or “seven-grain.” These usually aren’t whole grain.

The healthiest types of bread include:
1. Bread made from sprouted whole grain, that has started to sprout from exposure to heat and moisture.
2. Sourdough bread

What is Sourdough Bread?
Regular bread is leavened with packaged yeast while sourdough bread is leavened with Lactobacillus bacteria and wild yeast. Here the flour is mixed with water and allowed to sit until microbes move in and ferment it.

Sourdough bread is considered a prebiotic to the beneficial microbes in your large gut responsible for the health and preventing inflammatory diseases of the large gut. These bread are lower in gluten than other bread.

3. Other types of healthy bread include Oat bread, Flatbread, Gluten-free bread.

Warning: Putting bread in the fridge will make it go stale quicker.
Storage: Bread from the grocery store will stay fresh for 2 to 4 days if you leave it on the
counter. Bakery bread, which usually has fewer preservatives, will keep 1 to 3 days.
If you want to store bread for longer, put it in the freezer. It will stay fresh for 2 to 3 months.

Salt in bread baking
In bread making the amount of salt added that is considered normal ranges from 1.8% to 2.2% of the total amount of flour, which varies according to the recipes. Anything over 2.2% of the norm is considered too salty.

Loading a lot of salt: If you eat toast in the morning, a sandwich at lunch, and a roll with dinner, you’re not just loading up on carbohydrates. You’re also eating a lot of salt.

Most people get too much salt. Bread and rolls are the No. 1 source, beating out chips and other junk food when it comes to food sources.

A single slice of bread isn’t high in salt. A slice of wheat bread has about 147mg of sodium. Eating bread several times a day adds up. Too much salt raises blood pressure. It can put you at risk of heart attack or stroke.

Enriched bread: The word “enriched’ appears on white bread and other bread products made from refined grains. Refining helps make bread light and airy and gives it longer shelf  life.

But it also strips away fibre, iron, and many B vitamins. “Enriched” just means that B vitamins and iron are
added back after refining. But fibre may not be added back to “enriched” bread. Fibre is found in bread made with whole grains though, so that’s your healthier choice

When you visit Sri Lanka, you’ll be eating white bread: wholemeal bread is not popular double the price of
white bread, and not freely available in the supermarkets.

Most working people in Sri Lanka eat bread and dhal curry for breakfast. The white soft bread baked in Sri Lankan bakeries is a treat to eat with dhal curry. No other variety of bread will give that flavour and taste, and you never get bored.

Roast Paan: Srilankan Soft Bread
Roast Paan is a bread that is baked not as a whole loaf but in slices, which makes it easier to just peel off and eat. Super soft it is the perfect carrier for spicy curries. These roasted bread slices come in two sizes, and most popular, and most times you may have to wait in queues to purchase them, as they are baked at certain hours of the day in the local bakeries

Nutritionally, each slice has 126kcal: Saturated fat 8g: Carbs
6g: sugar 5g: Sodium 1218mg: potassium 29mg: fat 11g.

New thought on white bread compared to wheat bread- for diabetes.
For some people study suggests that blood sugar levels did not rise- a process called the glycaemic response) with white bread or leavened wheat bread. The researchers found that there were individual variations, and the blood sugar level did not rise comparable to the Bread and dhal curry wheat wholemeal bread. What it means is that the glycaemic responses, different people respond differently to the same kind of bread

“In a broader sense, what this means is that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ diets that are given to the population as a whole, without personalization, are probably not optimal for everyone,” added study coauthor Dr Eran Elinav, who’s also from the Weitzman Institute.

At the same time, epidemiological studies have shown that people eating whole-grain bread have a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, inflammation, obesity and certain cancers.

Some believe that wholemeal bread contains fewer calories than white bread. However, they contain the same number of calories. What makes brown or wholemeal bread better than white is the fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients found in the outer layer of the grain.

The fibre in wholemeal bread maintains a healthy stable blood sugar level leading to a feeling of satiety, due to slower digestion and absorption. Toasting bread removes the water from the bread and does not affect the micronutrients.

Over toasting and blackening of bread can lead to the formation of a certain chemical called
acrylamide that can cause cancer.

Overall, it is advisable to stick to wholemeal bread, though the taste is lesser, and the cost is more.
Even whole-grain bread can contain 20 or more ingredients, including preservatives and added salt and sugars. Not all of these contribute to good health.

So, the Biblical saying,” Man does not live on bread alone” applies.
(Some reference to WebMD article)

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