Bread was a common staple that fed the Roman legions. There’s even a bread brand today that’s named after Romans. Unfortunately, many of today’s breads are a far cry from the food that kept Roman soldiers in top form.
Little or No Nutritional Value
Bread was once among the most wholesome foods one could eat. In days past, bread was made with safe, natural ingredients like yeast, eggs, butter, flour, salt, and sugar. Sadly, many of today’s breads have no nutritional value. It’s easy to see why.
Present-day packaged and pre-sliced breads are made of highly processed carbohydrates that are quickly digested providing few nutrients or healthful benefits. An article entitled The Problem with White Bread notes that the refined flour used to make white bread lacks high levels of vitamins (especially B and E vitamins) and minerals the body needs. White bread may even contain toxic residues of the bleaching chemicals used to brighten it.
Some of Today’s Bread May Not Be Safe to Eat
Sales slogans on today’s breads feed you gimmicks instead of food value. “Whole Wheat” “Natural” “Healthy” the labels scream healthy. Back in the 1950s, bread used sourdough leavening and a loaf would take up to two days to produce. This was necessary to ensure the dough was conditioned properly and to maintain the bread’s health benefits. Today’s bread, on the other hand, is produced using dangerous chemicals and enzymes to synthetically shorten the dough conditioning process from two days to two hours. This unnatural process makes you feel like you’ve eaten a full meal, but it contains little to no nutritional value.
Hidden Chemicals
Some of the dangerous ingredients hidden in your bread include:
- Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate (SSL). This emulsifier and dough strengthener may lead to sodium imbalance and allergic symptoms like itching, swelling, muscle spasms, hives, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- Soy lecithin. A common additive in commercial bread, 91 percent of soy products are genetically modified that contain pesticides that are injected right into the seed before it’s grown.
- An endocrine disruptor added to commercial bread since the 1960s. Endocrine disruptors have been linked to thyroid disorders, infertility, and breast cancer.
- Calcium propionate. This synthetic mold inhibitor has been linked to behavior disorders in children. It has also been shown to cause erosion of your stomach lining, leading to severe stomach ulcers and leaky gut syndrome.
- High fructose corn syrup. Shown to cause obesity by interfering with healthy metabolic processes, HFCS causes extreme sugar highs and violent crashes, causing you to feel hungry all the time. HFCS has been linked to diabetes, high cholesterol, liver damage, and mercury poisoning.
- Synthetic vitamins. These vitamins are not made from whole foods but created in a laboratory. Unlike vitamins made from whole-food sources, synthetic vitamins have no nutritional value. Your body cannot digest or absorb them.
Are there healthy breads?
Choose 100% organic, non-GMO bread that has no HFCS. The ingredients should be easy to pronounce and sound like real natural food, not chemicals. Look for breads that are naturally sprouted. It wouldn’t hurt to limit the sodium and sugar content as well.
Alex A. Kecskes is a published author of "Healer a Novel" and "The Search for Dr. Noble"—both now available on Amazon. He has written hundreds of film reviews and celebrity interviews for a wide variety of online and print outlets. He has covered red carpet premieres and Comic-Con events for major films and independent releases.
