Most of us eat bread every day (unless you're on a special diet). For that reason alone you may well want to know what goes into your bread and why it's so important that it be healthy rather than detrimental to your health.
Basic bread has 6 ingredients. While there may be variations (e.g. milk instead of water or butter for oil, etc.) the 6 basic ingredients in their simplest forms may be summed up as:
Flour
Water
Oil
Sugar
Salt
Yeast
The reason I am writing this post is because most of us are unaware of where these ingredients come from, how they are made, how they have been treated and prepared and what they contain. I personally was truly alarmed when I learned of the answers to these questions and I thought people have the right to know. So let's have a look at all of these 6 ingredients in order of quantity contained in a loaf.
We start with flour. Flour makes up more than half of a loaf. The flour used in almost all bread is wheat flour, made from wheat. What's wrong with wheat then? Apart from all the well-known problems (gluten) and less well-known problems (peroxidase, thioredoxin, gliadin, etc.) with wheat itself that you may or may not be aware of, what is less known is that most wheat also contains glyphosate (Monsanto's infamous Roundup), which is a well-known carcinogen that causes cancer, among other health issues. It is in virtually all wheat flour, except organic. Why is that so? It has to do with crop failures in agriculture. Crop failures have been common, historically, which has resulted in the adoption of a method that consists in "treating" the wheat with weed-killer.
'How does that work?' you may ask. Well, during its maturing time in the field wheat starts to get golden and it's during this maturing stage of its life that it can prematurely get water into it through heavy rainfall and begin to SPROUT. Once the wheat sprouts it's no longer good to the farmer. To avoid this from happening farmers spray glyphosate on their wheat to dessicate it so it has no life with which to sprout into a new life form.
The result? Wheat that's dead even before it makes it to the bakery. Not only has the wheat long been dead, even worse is the fact that, as part of the process of the weed-killer killing the wheat, it enters the plant (that's how it kills it) and every grain of wheat along with it. Essentially your wheat is filled with Roundup.
Make no mistake, this practise is widely adopted by virtually every farmer all around the world and unless your flour specifically says 'organic' on it, it almost certainly contains glyphosate.
Next up we have water. It provides one third of the weight of a loaf. Depending on where you live your tap water may contain fluoride and other additives, but almost any tap water anywhere in the world is treated with chlorine. In some places tap water is treated sewage. Water may come from reservoirs that collect rain water (together with all the pollution it picks up from the air - think acid rain) or from under ground, which is even worse as it carries with it various chemicals (mostly VOCs - volatile organic compounds) that seep into the ground - herbicides, pesticides, cleaning products (car shampoo, polish), fuel oil, industrial solvents etc. etc. The same applies to "mineral water", with the added "benefit" of microplastics. Indeed, I could start a whole topic on water alone. Part of the reason we in my family never drink tap water OR mineral water.
Next we have oil. As there is such a wide variety of oils and alternatives which include butters, margarines, etc. which could contain anything, or on the other hand not much at all, there is not much need to explore the possible harm coming from using any all or even any of these. You will need SOME kind of oil in your bread for sure. You will find my recommendation further below.
Next on our list is sugar. Sugar is a BIG topic. Processed and refined sugar (the familiar white granulated “table sugar”) is arguably the single most harmful food substance you can consume. If you do your research you will find it's much more than just tooth decay, obesity, diabtes or a compromised immune function that you should worry about. Further risks include increased cellular aging and an increased risk of heart disease, even cancer, just to mention a few. While a loaf of bread contains only 2-3% sugar, it's also for that reason that replacing table sugar with a healthy alternative is not going to make your loaf cost a whole lot more to make.
Salt. The topic of salt is very similar to that of sugar. You don't want processed table salt that contains additives to prevent clumping and other harmful chemicals. Consuming too much of the wrong salt may lead to a number of health issues, most notably cardiovascular problems.
Yeast. The smallest ingredient in your bread, yet the most important. There are three main types of commercially produced baker's yeast: active dry, instant, and fresh. Fresh is obviously the best (although it may be more messy and need more work - it needs proofing), but since the amount needed in a loaf is so small you need not worry too much about the yeast. The situation is of course different if you suffer from yeast allergy or have candidiasis, in which case you shouldn't even think about eating bread in the first place.
Now that we have established the importance of healthy ingredients, let us move on to my recommendations, followed by the price per amount needed to make one large loaf of bread.
500g flour - organic traditional strong white bread flour - £0.50
300g water - filtered distilled tap water collected into a borosilicate glass container - £0.03 (use of a water distiller with built-in active carbon filter for VOCs)
30g (+/-15g) oil - raw certified organic extra virgin coconut oil (or olive oil) - £0.20
25g sugar - organic coconut sugar - £0.15
12g salt - natural unrefined Himalayan pink salt (which contains over 80 different types of minerals) or sea salt - £0.03
7g yeast - bakers instant dry yeast - £0.08
Total: 874g - £0.99
You will find most of these in the right brand at the best price by simply pasting the names of the product as I described them here into your search engine. Naturally, prices will vary by country. The above apply to the UK.
There are lots more nuances of course, however the above should be a suitable introduction into the subject of baking healthy bread, which in turn is a small part of healthy food and drink, which again is only a small part of how to maintain a healthy body, which is, of course, only a small part of healthy living. Yet since most of us eat bread nearly every day I maintain the quality of that bread is of real importance. You don't want to consume Roundup, surely.
So this is the recipe I've been using for many years. I measure everything except the oil, I always just pour it and judge by sight. Also I've been drinking distilled water for years, in case you were wondering. After drinking pure distilled water for a long time I find the taste of tap water repulsive. Indeed, like sewage. Also I make my own fluoride-free toothpaste. Dental care is a big thing for me that goes way beyond toothpaste. I shall start another MyTake on that some day soon. No poo, no deodorants, etc., only natural substances, is one of my main philosophies in life.
I hope I was able to spread a little bit of awareness of the importance of healthy living with my humble post.
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