Bread – Sometimes a friend, sometimes a foe
Bread has been with us since ancient times and it is only recently that it became this evil thing people blame all their weight problems on. To be honest, bread is really not the issue. Poor choices in bread and calories and lack of nutrients is really the issue.
Bread in ancient times went bad quickly. It was baked almost daily. Why? No, not lack of refrigeration but NO PRESERVATIVES. The use of preservatives in commercial bread makes some of it never grow mold and never get stale.
I have suggested my clients switch to a whole grain bread like Ezekiel for a long time. It contains no flour, just whole grains. No preservatives and must be kept frozen and purchased frozen in order to not go bad. It also contains some of the ancient grains that we have forgotten about. Spelt is one of these. Spelt is a relative of wheat but came long before grain had hybrids. And unlike wheat, many people who are sensitive to wheat can eat spelt. And like all whole foods, it offers a range of other benefits like a healthy dose of niacin (you know that B vitamin that makes your cholesterol go down!) And before you turn up your nose at it assuming it doesn’t taste amazingly good, consider this, my 11 year old eats the cinnamon raisin Ezekiel bread almost every day!!
So before you axe bread from your diet, look at the bread you are eating. Does it contain only natural ingredients? Did you make it yourself or buy it frozen or from an Artisan bakery?
OR – Did you toss it in your cart at the bread aisle and it won’t go bad for a month? Does it contain words you can’t pronounce? Anything hydrogenated in there? Start reading those labels and ditch those commercial, highly preserved bread-like blobs for some real bread!! Your body will surely know the difference.
