MODERN BREAD, THE BROKEN STAFF OF LIFE

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MODERN BREAD, THE BROKEN STAFF OF LIFE

JoAnn Guest

Jun 18, 2004 00:03 PDT

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by Elmer M. Cranton, M.D.

 

Modern technology has transformed bread, once the staff of life,

into a mere broken reed, contributing to widespread vitamin and

mineral deficiencies. This has occurred in Western industrialized

countries where few people go hungry?

 

Bread is used here as just one example of similar processes that

degrades our food supply on its way from the farm to the consumer.

 

To get the conveniences of high-tech food processing, mass-

production, mass-marketing, long shelf life, uniformity of final

product, even coloration, and soft texture, we create nutritional

deficiencies.

 

The food processing industry deceptively markets its products as

more convenient versions of what grandmother once did in her

kitchen.

That is far from the truth!

 

Most of today's mass-produced foods are seriously depleted of

nutrients and are highly chemicalized with additives.

 

Processed foods today are not just more sophisticated and more

convenient versions of the foods eaten by our ancestors.

 

A wide spectrum of essential nutrients has been removed in the

manufacturing process. The basic molecular structure of what remains

is also degraded and nutritionally inferior.

 

Until recently, grains were ground between large stones to make

flour. Everything in the original grain remained in the finished

product, including the germ, the fiber, the starch, and a wide

spectrum of vitamins and minerals.

 

The final product contained all the naturally

occurring vitamins, minerals and micronutrients.

 

In the absence of refrigeration, stone-ground flour spoils quickly.

After wheat has been ground, natural wheat-germ oil becomes rancid

at about the same rate that milk becomes sour.

Whole-wheat flours should therefore be stored in a cool place,

preferably in a refrigerator.

 

Hippocrates, a physician in ancient Greece, once recommended

stone-ground flour, complete with its vitamins, minerals, natural

bran and dietary fiber, for beneficial effects on the digestive

tract.

 

Today, three-fourths of that dietary fiber is removed from

commercial flour. Partially as a result, constipation is very

common.

 

During the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century,

assembly-line techniques for mass-producing flour and bread were

developed.

 

Grinding stones were not fast enough for mass-production.

High-speed, steel roller mills were invented, to produce flour very

rapidly. Grain mills thus earned higher profits.

 

High-speed mills do not grind the germ and the bran properly and it

is ejected. Much of the original grain, including the most

nutritious portion, is taken out and sold as " byproducts " for

animals.

 

Animals are often better nourished than people are. It's been

cynically observed that more profit can be made from healthy animals

and sick people.

 

High-speed mills run very hot, at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, just under

the temperature that will burn and discolor the flour.

 

That high heat destroys many vitamins.

 

(While baking, the interior of bread does not get much hotter than

170 degrees, which is much less harmful to vitamins.)

 

Since the late nineteenth century, white bread, biscuits and cakes

made from white flour and sugar have become mainstays in the diets

of industrialized nations. That diet is much less nutritious than in

former times and new types of disease have become common.

 

Tooth decay, once rare, is now epidemic. The incidence of tooth

decay correlates perfectly throughout the world with

industrialization and the use of refined

foods--especially white flour and sugar.

 

Most bread is now manufactured in large factories capable of

producing up to a quarter million loaves per day.

 

This mass-produced bread is soft, gooey, devitalized, and

nutritionally deficient--laced with

chemical additives.

 

Public taste is accustomed to such bread. People have forgotten how

real bread tastes. Chemical preservatives allow bread to be shipped

long distances and to remain on the shelf for many days without

spoiling and without refrigeration. Again, resulting in higher

profits.

To make bread a brighter white, at the expense of consumer health,

flour is treated with chemical bleach,

similar to " Clorox " .

 

The bleaching process leaves residues of toxic chlorinated

hydrocarbons and dioxins.

 

Methionine, an essential amino acid, reacts with bleaching

chemicals to form methionine sulfoxine.

 

That toxic residue causes

nervousness and seizures in animals.

 

The bleaching process destroys many vitamins (those not already

destroyed by the high heat of milling). Bleaching agents have

therefore been banned for breadmaking in Germany since 1958.

 

In the United States, however, no such ban exists and the " bleached

bread " continues to be the mainstay.

 

Most white flour used in

super-market bread, rolls, cakes, pastries, spaghetti, noodles,

pasta, and breakfast cereals, has been " bleached " .

 

Grain millers in the nineteenth century soon discovered that highly

refined flour would keep without spoiling for prolonged periods,

even before the days of chemical preservatives and refrigeration.

It's now

clear refined flour is so depleted of essential vitamins and

minerals that it will not support life.

 

Even the insects and rodents cannot live on it!

Can humans be expected to fare any better?

 

Experiments were reported in a major British medical journal, The

Lancet, showing that dogs fed exclusively on white bread died of

malnutrition within two months.

 

Dogs similarly fed only bread made with stone-ground, whole-wheat

flour lived indefinitely in good health.

 

Chemicals continue to be added to super-market breads in large

numbers, despite increasing reports that similar chemicals

previously thought to be safe are potential causes of cancer.

 

More than 30 different chemicals are approved by the Food and Drug

Administration for addition to bread, including ethylated mono and

triglycerides, potassium bromate, potassium iodide, calcium

proprionate,

benzoyl peroxide, tricalcium phosphate, calcium sulfate, ammonium

chloride and magnesium carbonate.

 

These are all routinely added to bread to extend shelf life, despite

the fact that little is known about their long-term cumulative

toxicity,

 

when taken together. If you don't already read labels, you'll be

shocked when you do.

 

When grain is made into refined white flour, more than 30 essential

nutrients are largely removed. Only four of those nutrients are

added back in a process called

" enrichment. "

 

Using this same logic, if a person were robbed of 30 dollars and the

thief then returned 4 dollars to his victim for cab fare home, then

that person should be considered " enriched " by 4 dollars, not robbed

of 26 dollars. How would you feel in that situation?

 

You should feel the same about " enriched " white flour and bread?

 

Only vitamins B1, B2, B3, and iron are added back. Nutrients which

are

removed and not returned include 44% of the vitamin E, 52% of the

pantothenic acid, 65% of the folic acid, 76% of the biotin, 84% of

the vitamin B6, and half or more of 20 minerals and trace elements,

including magnesium, calcium, zinc, chromium, manganese, selenium,

vanadium, and copper.

 

If consumers would just educate themselves in the principles of good

nutrition and show an educated preference at the checkout counter,

the food industry would be forced to respond with more nutritious

products.

Iron, the single mineral added back to enriched white flour, is

present in toxic amounts in the bodies of many older people.

 

Iron contributes widely to premature atherosclerosis, heart attacks,

strokes, arthritis, cancer and other age-related diseases.

 

It is quite possible that enrichment of flour with iron has been

poisoning the public for decades. Avoidance of unneeded iron

supplementation is reason enough in itself not to buy so-called

" enriched " flour products.

 

Deceptive marketing practices are widespread. Much of the bread now

marketed as " whole-wheat bread " is the same old refined white bread

with

a little " brown coloring " added.

That coloring is usually burnt sugar, listed on the label as

caramel.

 

One manufacturer even added 'sawdust' to replace the lost bran,

calling it cellulose on the label and advertising it as " high-fiber "

bread. It is legal to describe inferior flour as " whole wheat " on

the label, even

when the bran and germ have been removed in high-speed roller mills.

 

It is slow and more expensive to mass-produce bread made with l00%

stone-ground whole-wheat flour. Manufacturers go to great lengths to

mislead the public by making inferior products appear of higher

quality.

 

Without chemical preservatives bread spoils rapidly. It quickly

becomes stale, hard and moldy. To market nutritious whole-grain,

unrefined bread

over long distances would require refrigerator trucks for delivery

and refrigerator storage in super-markets.

 

Even under refrigeration, spoilage would be faster than with

chemicalized bread. That would add greatly to expense. Profits would

be smaller.

 

Production of truly nutritious bread therefore falls to small

local bakeries, which sell direct or deliver daily to nearby stores.

 

Scientific evidence implicates a " low-fiber diet " of refined flour

as one cause of bowel cancer.

 

Without bran, transit time through the digestive tract is greatly

lengthened. Constipation results, causing hemorrhoids,

diverticulitis and increased risk of colon and rectal cancer.

 

What is the solution to this problem? Ideally, one should buy wheat

in sacks, grind the grain at home and quickly bake it into bread.

 

An alternative would be to buy stone-ground whole-wheat flour at a

natural food store, either ground at the time of purchase on the

premises, refrigerate at once and use soon. Stone-ground flour will

keep for several months frozen.

 

Unfortunately, most people no longer have time in their schedules

for baking at home and must rely on store-bought products. To

determine which bread is best, read the label thoroughly and choose

a product that

has the brown coloring of natural flour without any coloring agents

added. Choose a product with a minimum of chemicals listed on the

label.

 

 

Whole-grain bread does not rise as much and therefore contains more

wheat and less air.

 

A good loaf will therefore be heavier to lift,

firmer to squeeze and chewier. The flavor will be much better,

however.

 

Slow-speed steel hammer-mills are often used instead of stones. That

type of flour can be listed on the label as " stone-ground. " It is

equivalent to stone-ground flour and is equally nutritious. Any

process that renders the entire grain into usable flour, without

exposing it to high heat is acceptable.

 

If a loaf made with such l00% stone-ground flour cannot be found,

choose one with unbleached or " enriched " flour.

 

" Gluten flour " is just another name for partially refined flour.

 

Even so-called " unbleached whole-wheat flour " which is processed on

high speed roller mills is missing many of the vitamins, bran, and

germ.

 

 

If bread is made entirely with l00% stone-ground whole grains, it

will state so on the label. If the label does not contain that

statement,

then you must assume otherwise.

Many bakers add refined or so-called gluten flour to produce a

lighter and more uniform product.

 

Unbleached flour is better than bleached but is still inferior

unless 100% stone-ground. Bakeries seldom state the exact percentage

of

whole-grain relative to refined or unbleached flour. In those

instances,

it is usually safe to assume that very little stone ground whole-

grain flour is used.

 

A search through grocery stores and super-markets today will not

reveal any mass-marketed breads that meet the criteria for good

nutrition.

 

However, many small bakeries exist that produce superior products

for local sale, either direct or in natural food stores. Read the

labels.

Just because a product is sold in a health food store does not

insure that it is of high quality.

 

Look for a loaf that states " only 100% stone-ground whole-wheat

flour " on the label. Refrigerate it. Expect it to be heavier and

chewier. Squeeze it. If your fingers go in easily and the bread

springs back, it is not a nutritious loaf.

 

If you don't eat it within a day or two, freeze it until needed.

Expect to pay more. Whole-grain bread does not rise as much and

contains more wheat than the same size loaf of refined bread. You

are paying for more

grain, more time for production, and less air.

 

You will be much better nourished as a result.

 

Moderators Note: You will typically find that the majority of breads

that line the supermarket shelves contain harmful hydrogenated fats

(transfat) and numerous harmful chemicals, in the form of additives

and preservatives.

 

A more healthful alternative is found in Ezekiel " sprouted

grain " breads. Look for them in the freezer section of the Natural

Foods Aisle in your local grocery or health food store.

http://www.food-for-life.com

 

JoAnn

 

http://lists.topica.com/lists/AlternativeOptions/read/message.html?

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Elmer M. Cranton, M.D., graduated from Harvard Medical School in

1964.

He is Past President of the American Holistic Medical Association,

of the American Academy for Advancement in Medicine and of the Smyth

County Medical Society in Virginia. He served for many years as

Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Holistic Medicine and of the

Journal of Advancement in Medicine. He has authored numerous

articles and books for both the medical profession and the general

public.

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

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http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest