Bread science and health - a podcast

The science of bread production and bread digestion makes for a fascinating political story.

It’s also a bit of a rabbit hole, if I’m honest, but throw in Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine and the “wheat war” that we may all be facing, and you’ve got a political discussion worth forming an opinion on; and that’s before we get sidetracked by fibre content and nutritional benefits… Wheat and bread are topics to be informed about in 2022.

Bacteria; nutrition; food labelling; traditional foods; modern diets; ancient civilisation; twentieth century food production; factories; grain markets; shelf lives; urban life; local foodways and international economics... It’s all in the science of bread and it’s incredibly interesting. If you want to get started on this discussion, here is a podcast. We all love a good podcast, right?! (It’s not long and it’s a good overview!)

Can bread be healthy? - podcast by ZOE Science & Nutrition (on all the usual podcast channels)

One of Minchin’s beautiful wheat fields. Canterbury, New Zealand, 2022

The ZOE podcast blurb goes as follows: “It’s no exaggeration to say that bread shaped modern humanity - it was the cultivation of wheat for flour that transformed our ancestors from hunter-gatherers to city dwellers. Today, millions of us start the day with a slice of toast, and most lunches in the US and UK are wrapped in a slice of bread or a burger bun as a cheap, flexible, and delicious energy source. But modern industrial processes designed to reduce the time and cost of baking mean today’s bread would be unrecognizable to our ancestors.  Today’s bread tastes good but has lost most of its nutritional content. With most of its fiber gone, and no time for bacteria to work its fermenting magic, bread has become a simple starch, rapidly turned into sugar in our blood and offering little to support our gut bacteria. For this reason, bread is increasingly demonized as an evil carb. In today’s episode, Jonathan speaks to two authorities on the subject to ask: Can bread can ever be healthy?”

How to eat grass

“Grains are basically grass seeds and humans don’t eat grass.” - Jane Mason

This pretty much says it all, right?! … Why do we ferment our grains? Well, that’s why! Also, because… um… delicious!

Unfortunately, how we process the grains to make them edible matters. Much has changed in the last century and wheat grains are largely unfermented these days. They are still cooked out as flour in most of the baked goods we eat, but the fermentation process is much less common. Hand in hand with this, we have seen a huge rise in incidences of gluten intolerance. There is more to it than that, of course, but for me this coincidence provokes key questions. Other considerations include the ones Jane Mason writes about…

She explains it like this:

“Eating grass or raw flour would give us an almighty tummy ache, as our tummies would struggle to know what to do and become bloated. Bread, and specifically bread made with wheat flour, has received a lot of bad press over the past few years, with articles about the dangers of consuming grains, and the rise of allergies and intolerances. …Celiacs must avoid any food with gluten, which includes bread made with wheat, rye, spelt, emmer, einkorn, kamut, barley, and oats (unless they are labeled gluten free).
Some people who are not celiacs still feel uncomfortable when they eat bread. There could be several reasons for this:

  1. Overexposure: a daily diet of highly refined wheat-based breakfast cereal for breakfast, white bread sandwiches for lunch, and pasta for dinner is limited in the extreme. Years of following that diet will put pressure on your system and could make you sensitive to wheat, or particularly, highly refined wheat. Eat everything in moderation is the advice our grannies gave us and they were probably right.

  2. Changes in the wheat plant: [This is a disputed point, but some people believe that modern wheat production may have also contributed to the increase in wheat sensitivities]. Today, some farmers are returning to what is now called “heritage wheat.” If you find you have a sensitivity to modern wheat, you could try heritage wheat as an alternative.

  3. Flour: flour is not clearly labeled everywhere in the world. [There is plenty added to flour long before it’s added to bread. Always consider the source of your flour if your body reacts, even to homemade bread]

  4. Bread ingredients: [there is an awful lot of stuff put in breads these days to make it last the journey from factory to pantry. However, the only necessary ingredients are really flour, salt and water. Read the label.]

p.148 Jane Mason, Ed wood et al. (2015) Homemade Sourdough: Mastering the art and science of baking with starters and wild yeast. Voyageur Press: Minneapolis

What’s cool is that in order to ferment the grains, all we really need to do is (make flour;) add water and watch for the yeast activity to start producing bubbles. After that, a little know-how and you can make bread!!!

Bakeries and Gluten Intolerance

Bread has been a staple food in many cultures for a really long time, but gluten intolerance has become a significant issue in recent decades. This goes hand-in-hand with fast-rise bread (think the stuff you buy in the supermarket and in many bakeries).

In the early 20th century, new rising agents made it possible for bakeries to make bread in a matter of hours. Fewer workers and fewer hours were needed to create such breads and the change from traditionally fermented breads to ‘fast-rise’ breads happened quickly.

Why? Much cheaper.

Unfortunately, the fast-rise breads do not rely on fermentation at all. Flour basically became a filler and the big players (supermarket breads especially) only needed flour that had an extended shelf-life and the right colour; just flour and lots of it. The flavour and the nutritional profile of the grain became irrelevant and grain-growers were forced to respond by growing grain for its yield and little else. The life inside of the wheat became a hindrance to shelf-life and the flour was treated accordingly. The gluten in fast-rise breads is not broken down, or ‘pre-digested’ by the enzymes naturally occurring in wheat. Wild yeasts are not able to bring out the flavour, lower the GI, or do any of the work that makes sourdough such a healthy food. The ‘gluten’ proteins in such breads are different and more likely to provoke a reaction in the human gut.

supermarket wholemeal bread

supermarket wholemeal bread

Proper sourdough or naturally leavened bread does not rely on the addition of yeast or proving agents, nor other chemical support crew; the basic ingredients are flour, water, salt and time. It takes 36-48 hours for the fermentation process to create such a dough. That’s why, allergenically speaking, most people can eat it.

Coeliacs know to be mindful that wheat flours and other sources of gluten will be loose in the air of any bakery (except gluten-free ones which have strict conditions to guarantee their product), but if you or your children have egg, dairy, soy or gluten intolerances (to name some of the most common), sourdough could work for you.

Unfortunately, there are no sourdough labeling requirements in place in New Zealand. Many bakeries and supermarkets sell breads labelled ‘sourdough’ which are actually just fast-rise breads made from premixes and shaped to look like traditional breads. Once you know real sourdough, you’ll be able to see the difference. Properly fermented food can’t be imitated. Meanwhile, the ingredients list and the fermentation time are dead giveaways, so ask first.

If you want to read more:

https://www.sourdough.co.uk/

https://www.alternet.org/2013/06/gluten-intolerance/

Bread and the Principles of Bread Making, Helen W Atwater (1900) - available online - makes for interesting reading, too.

There are also loads of really interesting podcasts out there about the grain movement, the development of seed banks, and sourdough more generally.

Supermarket white bread

Supermarket brioche

Supermarket brioche