The best thing since sliced bread

Our daily bread, the staff of life, bread has been around for 10,000 years so it's got to be OK for us, doesn't it?

Unfortunately the bread we have today is vastly different from the bread eaten 100 and even 50 years ago.
People used to consume a wider variety of grains, but we have narrowed our consumption so much that now 50% of our food comes from corn, rice, or wheat.
The wheat currently used is a much higher in a certain protein called glia-alpha 9 than 100 years ago, and scientists in the Netherlands think this maybe responsible for the dramatic rise in people developing celiac disease.
 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20664999?dopt=Abstract

Our wheat is grown with an ever increasing cocktail of chemical pesticides and fungicides, and the majority of our bread is made by a process called the Chorleywood bread process.
This process was created in the UK in 1961, it shortened the amount of time to make a loaf of bread to just 3 1/2 hours from the start, to sliced, and packaged.
It requires the use of high speed mixers and chemical oxidents to produce plenty of cheap, soft, spongy and uniform packets of bread, and saved people lots of time.

It bypasses the old methods of bread making which slow and time consuming.
However our traditional methods of bread making have some distinct advantages.
All grains contain a substance called phytic acid.
Phytic acid binds with phosphorus and can block the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc.
A diet high in unfermented whole grains could lead to severe mineral deficiencies and also puts a huge strain on the digestive system.

An old traditional way of bread is sourdough bread.
Sourdough bread is prepared using a sourdough starter.
This starter acts as a natural yeast for the bread and ferments the dough, breaking down phytic acid and gluten, and increasing the nutritional content of the bread.
New research in Italy has shown that some people with celiac's disease can tolerate sourdough bread.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20975578

More and more people are discovering the benefits of sourdough bread, with it's distinct delicious taste, which is so much more satiable than the packets of cheap bread, or expensive air, stocked at your supermarket.

Follow me to learn more about how to make your own sourdough starter and bread.