Yes, I eat bread.
It’s time to address the many questions I get about one of most wonderful and satisfying foods on earth – Bread! I don’t want to live without it and you shouldn’t have to either.
Bread is a really hot topic and is targeted as the root of many health problems. Overall, bread gets a bad reputation because grains are not easy for your body to digest, can overwork your pancreatic enzymes, contain the anti-nutrient phytic acid and an abundance of dreaded gluten. Also, our wheat crops in this country have been through some serious genetic manipulation to make them profitable for the food industry and less healthy for us.
The main problem with wheat (unless you have a gluten sensitivity) is that we as a culture eat too much of it in general. Just take a look at the typical American diet – a bagel for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch and rolls or pasta for dinner. That’s a lot of grain in just one day. Even larger amounts would be consumed if we take into consideration common snacks like crackers and desserts like cookies. Additionally, commercially available grain-based products that line grocery store shelves and are served at restaurants are unhealthy. They are full of ingredients that are not food, like azodicarbonamide (the same chemical in yoga mats and shoe rubber), other chemical dough conditioners, added sugars, artificial flavorings or coloring and GMOs. Flour can be treated with any of the 60 different chemicals approved by the FDA before it ends up on store shelves – including chemical bleach! Also, the industrial processing destroys nutrients, such as Vitamin E and fiber. Remember, it only takes 4 ingredients to make bread – flour, yeast, water and salt, there’s really no need for all that other nonsense.
If you are like me, you probably want to enjoy the occasional piece of bread without subjecting yourself to of all these questionable ingredients. I’ve done a lot of research on bread brands, and have uncovered what can make grains really unhealthy and which ones make a nutritious addition to any diet because they are whole, unadulterated and real foods.
Examples of Store-Bought Breads To Stay Away From:
Please note: Nature’s Own Bread recently took out azodicarbonamide, but is still not recommended. The picture of ingredients was removed after this news release in WSJ on 2/28/2014.
The Health Wrecking Ingredients in Bread:
- Dough Conditioners – these are unnecessary in traditional bread making and only make the process faster and cheaper for the food industry to make bread in big machinery. Many dough conditioners like azodicarbonamide (which is banned all over the world), DATEM, monoglycerides, diglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate are linked to health issues. Many dough conditioners start with manipulating fat – like soybean oil or corn oil, which is also most likely GMO. Nature’s Own, Arnold, Wonderbread, Martin’s, Sara Lee, and many other popular brands are guilty of using dough conditioners.
- Preservatives – Bread is supposed to be fresh and eaten within a few days from baking unless frozen. If you see preservatives like calcium propionate, which is linked to ADHD, put the bread down and keep searching. Warning: Pepperidge Farm uses this ingredient to “retard spoilage.”
- GMOs – Most commercially available breads contain one or many genetically modified ingredients like soy lecithin, soybean oil, corn oil, corn starch or soy flour. GMOs have not been tested long term on humans, however we know that the pesticides sprayed on them are absolutely toxic and considered to be poisonous. Some GMOs are created by inserting a toxic pesticide into the seed itself to make an insect’s stomach explode when they try to eat it.
- Added sugar – This is where you really need to watch out. There’s nothing wrong with a little honey to bring out the sweetness in whole wheat bread, but most manufactures are using high fructose corn syrup, GMO sugar made from sugar beets, or some other artificial sweetener like “Sucralose” that are not the best forms of sugar and can pose health risks. Almost all commercially baked brands have some form of added sweetener – especially watch out for “light” breads, which often contain more added sugar like “Arnold Bakery Light.”
- Artificial flavors and coloring – These ingredients are made from petroleum and are linked to several health issues like hyperactivity in children, allergies and asthma. They are easy to spot on the label because the FDA requires it. However, ingredients like “caramel coloring” can fool you into thinking this ingredient is a real food. Most industrial caramel coloring is created by heating ammonia and is considered a carcinogen when created this way. Martin’s potato rolls have Yellow #5 and Yellow #6, and Thomas’s English Muffins have caramel coloring.
Now before I share my top recommendations for the best (and healthiest) breads on the market – I should tell you the truth about how much bread I actually consume on a weekly basis. My diet consists of mostly plants like fruits, vegetables, seeds, beans and nuts along with the occasional meat, dairy or bread product. However, when I travel – I like to enjoy the local culture (think crossisants in France and pizza in Italy). I’m not about giving up whole food groups. My diet is about balance and choosing the most nutritious choices, but I do like to live a little and have my bread on occasion! At the grocery store, I buy the best of what’s available for my body and here are the choices I feel good about buying.
Thankfully, you don’t have to get out the bread maker or learn to make bread from scratch. There are many healthy bread options available – if you just know what to look for!
The Healthiest Breads On The Market
Sprouted Grains – I love sprouted grains because they are technically vegetables. To sprout a grain, you just soak it until it begins to sprout into a little plant. These sprouts are then ground up to make bread. When you eat a grain that has been refined into flour, your body quickly metabolizes it like a sugar, which causes your insulin to spike. This can make you gain weight and contributes to diabetes and inflammation. For all of these reasons, I don’t buy bread that is primarily made from flours, especially “wheat flour” which is really just white refined flour. The sprouts are much more easily digested than starchy flour, and contain more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than whole grains. Phytic acid is destroyed when the grain sprouts, so your body is able to absorb the nutrients in these grains – which makes them that much better for you!
My favorite sprouted grain bread is the classic – Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread by Food for Life – it’s made up from six different organic sprouted grains and absolutely no flour! This combo of sprouted grains contains all 9 essential amino acids, which makes up a complete protein. I use their “Cinnamon Raisin” version to make this yummy breakfast casserole. There are no preservatives in these breads, so I keep them in my freezer and take out portions as I need them. I also love the sesame seed bread, whole grain tortillas, corn tortillas and english muffins by Food for Life. Hands down – they are the healthiest breads on the market. They are available in most health food stores and some conventional stores in the freezer section.
Other good sprouted breads are Manna’s Sunseed bread and Dave’s Killer Bread Sprouted Wheat, which are both a healthy combo of organic sprouted wheat and seeds.
Ancient Grains (spelt, quinoa, amaranth, millet, sorghum) & Gluten-Free – Unlike wheat, these grains are called ancient because they haven’t changed for thousands of years. They are packed with nutrients and many of these grains can be used to make gluten-free bread. Just make sure that the bread you are buying is labeled as “gluten-free” if you are trying to avoid gluten – because not all ancient grains are gluten-free and they may be blended with wheat. Manna makes a good gluten-free bread with brown rice, sorghum, millet, amaranth, quinoa and chia seeds. Please note, almost all gluten-free breads contain added sugar in the form of honey, molasses, agave nectar or evaporated cane juice.
Here’s A Quick List Of Healthier Breads:
Sprouted Grain Breads
- Ezekiel 4:9 Sprouted Grain Bread – Food for Life (all varieties – 7 grains, sesame, genesis, flax, cinnamon raisin, tortillas, muffins)
- Sunseed Bread – Manna
- Banana Walnut Hemp Bread – Manna
- Sprouted Multi-Grain Bread – Rudi’s (contains added sugar)
- Sprouted Wheat Bread – Dave’s Killer Bread (contains added sugar)
- Sprouted Wheat Multi-Grain Bread – Alvarado St. Bakery (contains added sugar)
Gluten-Free Breads
- Buckwheat Bread – Happy Camper’s (contains added sugar)
- Gluten-Free Rice Almond Bread – Food for Life (contains added sugar)
- Gluten-Free Exotic Black Rice Bread – Food for Life (contains added sugar)
- Gluten-Free Super Chia Bread – Nature’s Path (contains added sugar)
- Good Morning Millet Toaster Cakes – Ancient Grains Bakery (contains added sugar)
- Gluten-Free Deli Rye Style Bread – Canyon Bakehouse (contains added sugar)
Ancient Grain Breads
- Gluten-Free Ancient Grains Bread – Manna (contains added sugar)
- Spelt Ancient Grain Bread – Rudi’s (contains added sugar)
- Good Seed Spelt Bread – Dave’s Killer Bread (contains added sugar)
See a PDF of the full list of ingredients here
Last – but NOT LEAST – Remember to always choose bread that is made with real certified organic ingredients. The wheat that is used to make most bread is heavily sprayed with pesticides and by choosing certified organic products you will avoid exposure to GMOs.
Now, let’s go break some bread with our loved ones and share this article with them. Everyone deserves good bread without chemical additives that can wreck their health.
Xo,
Vani
For gluten free bread I found Johanns Bakery to be awesome. It tastes great & doesn’t any any bad stuff in it. I’ve only found it at Sprouts. In all counties except Los Angeles but you can also buy it online. You’d never know it’s gluten free it’s so good.
SO glad to have this list! Trial-and-error is a bummer, and SO much money is wasted on awful GF breads! Thank you!
Some of the info on the gluten free bread is very good but use caution, the writer stated that an Ancient Grain bread containing spelt was gluten free. Spelt is not gluten free.
I don’t see any place where she claimed spelt is gluten free.
I’m quoting directly from the article here…
“Just make sure that the bread you are buying is labeled as “gluten-free” if you are trying to avoid gluten – because not all ancient grains are gluten-free and they may be blended with wheat”
I’m interested in making my own bread. How do we know what kind of flour is “safe” or “good” to use?
Please visit your local Indian shop and purchase stone ground unmodified durum wheat, also know as atta. Read the label and make sure it’s chemical free. It has 11.5-13% protein and a huge amount of fiber that prevents re-absorption of cholesterol back into the body. For thousands of years, people all over India and around the regions have been consuming this type of wheat without the effects of modern day gluten related intolerance found in the US. The reason is simple. Almost all bread made in the US are from modified seeds derived in the labs. Even in Europe, you do not find fraction of modified seeds than what you’d find here in the US. It’s strictly profit driven with no consideration for sustainable health. Fiendish lies would be covered up with glamorous ads with children and angel faces. In conclusion –in order to make bread you only need 4 ingredients; they are –wheat, yeast, salt and water. End of story. Anything else may be perceived as foreign particles by the body and could potentially cause the immune system to go on high alert often leading to attacks on villi, gut linings and more. It’s easy to break your own bread. An almost new break maker cost no more than $10 at your local Goodwill. I have been consuming quality bread, avoid processed foods at all costs, drink no drinks other than clean water and have been blessed with a good health with a six-pack ab. I’m not a gym rat either. :). Your good health is in your own hands and on in those on FDA. Wishing all of you the very best of health.
Where can one find recipes for homemade bread using these healthy ingredients? Excellent education and share.
I found some “Atta” at Amazon.com, can you please tell me which one do you recomend. Thanks!
Hi Eva and Ann,
I was away in Zen Southeast and South Asia on a vacation. 🙂 Therefore, the delayed response. If you want to know more about the recipes ingredients, sources to buy or what I buy and consume everyday, please send me a quick text at 331-330-6728 (Chicagoland). The best part is you won’t have to go on seventh sojourn across the seas to find the soul and palate satisfying ingredients. 🙂 Chances are, they’re available plentiful in your local area you haven’t ventured out to look. 🙂
I do teach food and food healing. I also learn from others. Together, let’s empower EVERY woman in the US one family at a time. Let’s create opportunities and embrace good sources of foods and in turn, good health.
Kind regards,
Shah
Pleasant hill farms ships unmilled grain. worth the prices.
You buy organic flour and ingredients.
You get yourself a bread maker machine.
You keep the bread in the fridge where it will have over 2 weeks shelf life if kept in a bag.
Job done!
Exactly what I do! So easy and cheap.
Hello, I have been seeking a bread machine without an aluminum pan or liner for the longest time. Do you or can anyone recommend one?
Either stainless steel or ceramic would be perfect. Most advertised brands labeled stainless steel are actually describing the outside of the machine, but I would really like to avoid any aluminum on the inside. Many thanks!
What about Whole Foods brand Organic breads?
I buy the Sara Lee 100% Whole Wheat bread because once in awhile, my son or husband will want toast or a BLT. Most of the time, the loaf spoils & gets thrown out. I don’t eat bread. Anyway, mine has totally different ingredients than what you posted. Mine says “classic” on it. Anyway, I specifically picked this one as I don’t allow HFCS in the house and this one is made with sugar. Ingredients are as follows: WW flour, water, sugar, gluten, yeast, wheat bran, molasses, salt, soybean oil, datem, calcium propionate, monoglycerides, calcium sulfate, soy lecithin, citric acid, grain vinegar, potassium iodate and soy flour. Maybe it has changed since you had looked at it. Thanks!
Datem and monoglycerides are emulsifiers known to have side effects from consumption. Calcium propionate is a preservative currently considered suspect because of autistic behaviors in rats that it was fed to. Calcium sulfate is gypsum and I’d rather get my calcium anything from other sources, thank you. There’s some other things on that list I’d as soon not have in my bread, and soy is one of the dirtiest crops out there in our modern agribusiness in America world… 🙁
You are born autistic you don’t become autistic from bread.
Unless it says cane sugar, it is almost always going to be GMO beet sugar. So you are still getting GMOs.
How come there is no printer icon provided with this article? I would very much appreciate being able to choose to print it or save it as a .pdf.
Ruth…to print, you will need to copy the printed part you want to keep, open up a new Word Doc, and paste it. I do this all the time to print JUST what I want and not a lot of the fluff (ads, comments, etc.). Hope this helps.
Unfortunately, none of these products are carried in my local supermarkets (ShopRite and Stop-n-Shop). They do carry Vermont Bread Company (organic)….does anyone know how they compare and why aren’t they on the healthy list?
Did you check the freezer section? I thought my local Loblaws didn’t have Ezekiel until I checked there. Or you could try a health food store; they usually have this bread.
A Loblaws? Wow, I have not heard of one since I was little. Where us it?
Low Blow Loblaw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS4qyM8TEqg
Do you have a health food store there; they usually carry Ezekiel and other products.
Definitely check the freezer section for these. If your ShopRite does not carry them, you can request them. My ShopRite (and most) will order per customer request.
I do not know what state you live in but here in California I purchase Ezekial Bread at Trader Joe’s and they are in several states and the parent company has other stores where there may not be a Trader Joe’s that may carry it. I have also seen it at Von’s here which is owned by the Safeway Corporation. One other place I saw it here is at Whole Foods which is owned by Albertsons Grocery. It was in the freezer at Whole Foods and Von’s but when I see it at Trader Joe’s it is on the shelf. I find that Trader Joe’s has more of a turn over on their products because so many people shop there and therefore I think it is much fresher when I buy it there and will not buy it anywhere else for that reason.
The news said that Subway removed Azodicarbonamide.
WELL…I looked up the nutritional ingredients on McDonalds website and they have Azodicarbonamide in all their hambuger buns and in the muffins (egg mcmuffins). Also, Azodicarbonamide is in the KIDS HAPPY MEALS (hambuger bun)!!!!!
I would be nice if everyone knew that!
OMW! thx for sharing. i had not thought about that. WOW! makes me want to pack a food cooler in the trunk at all times! LOL!
I found out about those English muffins from McDonald’s about 2 months ago and I haven’t had an egg white delight since then. I guess that’s good because I am saving 3.79( plus tax)
Your never going to find anything safe to eat at McDonald’s. When I go there to eat whatever I go in knowingly excepting that there’s no nutrition whatsoever in what I’m consuming just as well eat a bowl of candy.
Any opinions about The Essential Baking Company Bread? It is Gluten-Free Super Seeded Multi-Grain & sold at Costco….
our whole foods in columbus ohio has daily bread. its from a local bakery. ingredients as follows: 100% unbleached unbromated stone ground wheat, water, molasses, yeast, salt. 80 cal, 130mg sodium, 17g carb, 2g fiber, 4% iron, 2% calcium, 3g protein, 3g sugar. however doesnt not states non gmo so sad about that. i bought one loaf to try. its good. since there are no preservatives i freeze it and take out what i need as needed. have not tried the ezekiel breads. my husband works at whole foods and all their 365 brand stuff is non gmo even if they dont have the label yet. they are working on getting the label on all their products….just takes time to cover them all. 🙂
Unless the label says Kamut flour, this is modern, hybrid wheat which has been created in a lab in the mid- 20 th century. It’s gluten changed itself when the two parent wheats were combined. This is why many people cannot tolerate wheat. Even if the label says organic wheat, unless it is Kamut, it is modern hybrid wheat. Wheat (along with other grains and legumes) can be sprayed with glyphosate before harvest (when the plant doesn’t need to grow anymore) to make it easier for the machines to do the work.
I would also add that a true sourdough bread ( no yeast) is a good way to have your bread be more digestible.
trying to keepnup with health habitss.
Dave’s Killer Bread is truly killer. I buy it at Costco.
I love Ezekiel products; another really good one is Silver Hills – it’s sprouted too, non-gmo and organic.
Vain, I need your opinion on Pamela baking flour. I need to know if the ingredients are healthy? I wish to make breads. I didn’t know the white flour that contains wheat. Your feedback would be much appreciated.
Thanks for the post it helped me narrow down what bread to get at the store. However, I have one comment, I know many people cringe when they see sugar is added to a bread, let me state that if yeast is used in the proses sugar is needed same with salt. Sugar is a food for the yeast that activates it and salt slows it down.
Sourdough has yeast that the flour collects from the air.
Is sprouted grain bread the same as sourdough bread? If not which is the healthiest?
Why isn’t sourdough bread included in BEST BREADS? I’ve always read that it is the healthiest bread because of starter culture? Please advise.
I have a treenut, peanut, and Soy allergy. The problem I have run into is finding a bread that is both simple and safe. If one doesn’t have soy it has high fructose corn syrup or filament from hazelnuts or such if it is marketed as a “whole grain” bread. I thought that the sprouted breads would be a good route but to my horor SPOUTED SOY BEANS are hallmark in almost all of them. What are your thoughts about this and do you have any recommendations?
MAM.
My daughter has peanut, tree nut, soy and sesame allergies. Trader Joe’s has a sprouted bread she can eat. Ingredients: sprouted wheat grains, wheat flour, water, honey, vital when gluten, yeast, molasses, & salt. It’t not organic but it does have few ingredients, nothing I can’t pronounce or that I wouldn’t put in my own bread and the sugar comes from honey and molasses.
Azodicarbonamide is a major migraine trigger for me!
Took me YEARS to figure out, It got so bad, I couldn’t eat any kind of cereal grain without getting sick, and I couldn’t digest bread at all!
Started out with ulcer like stomach pain, nausea and migraine.
Nothing I took for stomach pain would help, and doctors kept pushing my appointments out 3 months at a time calling me a week before to “re-schedule”.
It wasn’t until I went on the Atkins diet when things began to click.
My nausea went away, my migraines became less frequent, less painful, and much shorter duration.
I pay a lot more attention to what is in the food I eat now….
Hey @Johnny Welsh –It may not even be the azodicarbonomide! Unless you did an elimination diet and re-introduced it – by itself – you can’t really know for sure. However, your symptoms sound a lot like mine. I quit eating any grains at all (including rice, oats and corn) and my symptoms have disappeared. It is strongly suspected that even if you don’t have celiac disease, you can still have a sensitivity to gluten which causes all sorts of pain, inflammation, IBS, skin problems for which many take antibiotics unnecessarily and unsuccessfully, and there are many other problems. If you Google ‘Gary Taubes’ you will find all the information you need to learn and realize that bread/carbs and sugar are what’s causing this obesity and general malaise epidemic in North America. Eating bread once in a blue moon isn’t going to hurt you if you aren’t celiac. However, if you completely eliminate these two things from your menu for a good amount of trial time, you will see a huge difference. That’s why the Atkins Diet works! Following a low carb/ high fat/moderate protein way of eating is healing people! In my not very humble opinion, there is really no bread that is good for you. 🙂
Wondering about your answer and feeling myown misery with migraines. I’ve never gone grain free. I’ve been gluten, corn, nuts, dairy, sugar, red meat, alcohol-free, but have been unsuccessful in lessening my headaches.
Can you say more about your experience?
You mentioned that Udi’s pizza crusts do contain GMO’s. Did the company confirm that specifically? Asking b/c in many comments on their FB page, Udi’s promises all of their ingredients in all products are third-party tested to be nonGMO. They claim they are in process of obtaining nonGMO Project verification on every one of their products. Is there any way to verify this is true?
Any “american style” bread in a plastic bag on a supermarket shelf, that feels soft when touched is not a bread in my sense. Go to a bakery where bread is baked freshly every day, has a crust and a certain firmness.
Is bakers caramel the same thing as caramel coloring?
I buy The Big 16 sprouted organic bread made by Silver Hills sprouted bakery in Abbotsford, BC Canada. I buy it at Costco. It is yummy bread
I use to eat the Ezekiel bread but I refrain from soy, so now that’s out too.
Ditto. I had to be placed on thyroid hormone a few years ago after surgery and have done my best to avoid all soy products but what I did not realize that while I was doing my best to eat healthier, I was consuming a product that had soybeans as one of its ingredients. At that time I was trying to avoid white flour, sodium, and a lot of sugar. I did not check the ingredients in it after I had surgery for thyroid cancer until today and boy was I surprised. I will also be checking into another bread that is comparable to it that does not contain soy. Good luck.
I buy bread from a bakery called “Berlin Bakery” in Ohio.
Their bread if from sprouted grains, guaranteed non gmo.
They have spelt, sourdough, and a loaf comparable to ezekiel 4:9
They also carry breadsticks, flour and pizza crusts. Shipping is free if
you order 35.00. My local health food store carries this too.
And it is good
Food Babe, first of all thank you for all you do to help make our food safer. Please research potassium bromate. It’s an endocrine disrupting chemical that is added to almost every wheat flour on the market. Bromine blocks iodine from your cells which can in turn impair thyroid function. Unless the flour is unbromated, it’s not safe for anyone to eat. It’s also banned in most developed nations, except in the USA, of course. Thanks again for all you do! #foodbabearmy
Many folks who don’t make their own bread fail to realize that the sugar that is “added” is simply done so to proof the yeast. To get around this, make a sourdough loaf, but it will taste drastically different than the standard “sandwich” bread so many are used to buying.
Honey or maple syrup can be used to proof the yeast. Do not use agave nectar — it is a high fructose syrup that is highly processed and not at all good for you.
Don’t forget Silver Hills – The only bread I will buy!
All of the listed healthy ones are waaaay too high in carbs for me. As a treat this is what we buy. We find it in the freezer in the natural food aisle. I hope it’s as healthy as I think it is. Here’s a link to the webpage that lists the ingredients.http://www.julianbakery.com/bread-product/paleo-bread-coconut/
I also follow a low carb/Paleo type of lifestyle. That bread at the link you shared sounds good for someone who just has to have a piece of bread. 🙂 Thanks for that link Sky!
Based on the research by Dr William Davis – you really do not want any product with wheat in it. Look him up on you tube and listen to his talks.
Any bread with soy, gluten, or rice due to arsenic in all rice, including organic are not options. From what I can tell, none of these recommended breads eliminate all three. I tried paleo bread….it’s absolutely horrific.
Hey Vani,
Have you ever heard of Great Harvest Bread Company? I’d love to hear your opinion on this company I love!
http://www.greatharvest.com/bread/ingredients.html
Thanks! 🙂
I’ll vouch for Dave’s Killer Bread. It’s amazing. It’s so good, I eat it without anything on it at times.
I posted before about Azodicarbonamide being in McDonalds buns and muffins. Most restaurants have their ingredients in their nutritional info. I contacted Jimmy Johns (it is a now popular franchise-owned sub and sandwich place).
They responded, “Unfortunately we are unable to disclose our complete ingredient list, as it is confidential to our brand.
We would like to help you so you know for the future, can you send us a list of items that you are allergic to and we will tell you if those ingredients are in our food.
I’m sorry that it’s not the exact answer you were looking for, but we hope that we can confirm or deny a specific product for you.
Thanks
Jimmy John’s
I responded back asking again. I said, ” Subway had Azodicarbonamide in their breads, and I just want to know what is in your bread.”
THEY NEVER RESPONDED BACK ANYMORE!!!!!!
Super article and helpful list, thank you! I love Ezekiel 4:9 breads and will look forward to trying the others. Eric
The list was short in that I don’t buy any of those brands. None good & None bad. So I don’t know anything about mine.
no need of getting bread making machine know how to make chpathi The INDIAN food that’s more than enough
I need bread that is gluten free and yeast free. the few that I was able to find were horrible. Can anyone recommend a brand???
Does anyone know about a bread by the name of Eureka?
What about Alpine Valley’s sprouted honey wheat? NO bad oils or HFCS. TASTY!
What about a safe pita bread? I don’t buy loafed bread…I use pita for sandwiches,breakfast, and pizzas…any suggestions?
This is all well and good, but on a fixed income who can afford these brands? They cost a fortune. Sometimes $5.00 a loaf.
I’m on a fixed income & recently had to move into a more expensive place. However, armed with my trusty breadmaker and new quick bread recipes, I’ve managed to “earn” rent reductions w/my landlord by sharing what I bake w/ the shut-ins at my complex and some of the other low-income families when they need food boxes. HEALTHY snack breads! All I do is share what I know to do, all they do is share what they have: flours, nuts, raisins, nuts like oats and pecans, etc. If you can do a tiny bit of moving about, it’s not too taxing. Let me know if I can help you get started!
Xanthan Gum was listed good in your recommended bread’s PDF file ingredients but here is listed bad in red.
Why you are contradicted?
How about three baker’s brand in ancient grains, r they good to eat?
There’s added sugar in yeast breads for a good reason: to make the loaves rise. The yeast needs fuel in order to work; the process of rising is a chemical reaction with the sugar that causes the releases of gases. Then the dough will rise. I know because I’ve tried to bake bread with less sugar, and it doesn’t work well.
And xanthan gum is a binder in gluten-free breads. (Gluten usually helps bread to rise, too, which is why sometimes there’s added gluten in regular breads.) Without the gum, the bread would be far too crumbly — or maybe even just a pile of crumbs.
Actually, gluten is in most wheat and wheat relatives. The longer you knead the dough made from that flour, the longer the gluten fibers grow. THAT’s what creates the loft in bread (the rise). If you don’t have gluten, there’s no rise. Yeast helps gluten form those fibers. The more yeast you add, the faster those fibers form but only so far. You still have to give them time to form and align themselves. Sugar is a way for gluten to form those fibers but they form too fast and then they break down just as fast (the dough collapses) and when it comes time to bake the bread you get a flat disc. I’ve sort of shortened the tale but it’s basically it. You want bread that has good loft but that isn’t tough so you want to add enough yeast so it rises quickly but not so quick it collapses before the dough is cooked through. The flour is enough food if you add enough yeast to it and leave it in a warm enough environment for a long enough time so that when you put the dough in the oven for a certain amt of time you get a beautiful loaf of tender bread with a crunchy crust (if that’s what you’re going for, for instance).
I’m appalled Foodbabe!
I greatly appreciate your articles for exposing the offending ingredients in our food supply. Some of the suggested products have extremely offensive ingredients!!!
However, I disagree with your list of “good products”. Not only do they include offensive ingredients like Organic Wheat Gluten, added sugar, and are very processed in their own right, they all contain an even more offensive ingredient: Wheat (and in whole form, no less!).
Wheat, sprouted or not, is a very offensive ingredient in its own right. Its negative health impacts are definitely stronger on susceptible individuals, but its high glycemic load, anti-nutrients, and gluto-morphins have strongly negative impacts to ALL humans. Not to mention that the majority of breads out there attempt to make up for the nutrient imbalance through supplementation of vitamins…some of which are fake forms impacting individuals with metabolic defects.
In the end, you can’t make wheat “healthy”. Just like you really can’t make cigarettes healthy (stealing an analogy from Dr. William Davis)
Are any of these breads bromine free? I’m assuming Ezekial but what about the other recommended breads do the flours contain brominated anything?
How about the organic bread offered from Meijer/Target?
All organic materials…. Is there stuff withheld from the ingredients list?
What about Trader Joes Brown Rice Bread that’s gluten-free? Is that any good? That’s what I’ve been buying lately.
I have come across many breads and tortillas that say “no preservatives” on the label but they totally smell of Calcium Propionate. Next time you buy a loaf of Rudi’s Organic whole wheat bread, take a deep whiff. You will likely notice a very slight trace of preservative. And, it’s not just Rudy’s. Many organic whole wheat products lie and say they have no preservatives. If you have ever made whole wheat bread, then you probably know that it starts getting moldy after 3 or 4 days.