Real Bread

            I have eaten bread my whole life, but I never really knew anything about it. Before I knew how important it was to know about the food I was eating, I just believed the marketing on food packages. To me, all wheat bread was healthier than all white bread, and anything “enriched” must be ok. I had no idea that I had so much to learn about bread – especially when it came to what was really good for me, and what wasn’t. One thing I never knew was the role that baker’s yeast or natural bread starters played in the production and health benefits of bread.

            What I’ve come to learn is that what I considered “bread” all these years is not actually real bread at all. Real bread is made of whole wheat freshly milled, yeast, salt, water and a possibly honey. Fake bread (the kind I had been eating) has dough enhancers, corn syrup, and/or white flour. Although there are gluten issues in all kinds of bread, certainly there are more problems with the fake bread. One of these is the use of baker’s yeast vs. the use of natural starters.

            A natural starter is a basic leavening consisting of water and flour that has been left exposed to the air for several hours. Yes – the air! The mixture actually catches wild yeast from the air. The dough rises because air bubbles are being released from the yeast growing. A pinch of that dough is set aside and considered the “starter.” This was the natural way to start bread – using wild yeasts.

            Unfortunately, baker’s yeast was made in a laboratory. It is one of the first adulterated foods, and it isn’t even one of the natural yeasts used for baking in the past. It takes more yeast cells for baker’s yeast to work. Baker’s yeast prevents the growth of lactobacilli, which utilizes maltose, so this symbiosis is not available in the fake bread. Baker’s yeast causes yeast overgrowth (weakening the immune system) and is not an actual real food.

            Unlike the fake bread that contains baker’s yeast, real bread has beneficial bacteria, and believe it or not, never gets moldy! Sure, it may get hard and stale, but mold is not present. (The hardened bread can then be used in soups.)  These real breads have more zinc, magnesium, iron, and B complex vitamins. Naturally leavened bread helps anemia and studies have shown that it is less harmful to those with gluten intolerance.

            Instead of buying bread – we should be making bread that contains things that are good for us.