Thursday, May 20, 2010

What's in your ... bread?

In this day and age, there has been a lot of talk about healthy foods and processed foods.  Studies have shown that things like bleached, white, processed flours and high fructose corn syrup tend to be the main reasons why we have been in-taking more calories and sugar, lately.  Why is that? Well, as our society and culture has started to ween things out that have too many processed items in it, we have overlooked a product that has all this stuff in it and we may not even think about it: bread.

I've always loved fresh bread and while i was young and still at my parent's house, I used to wake up early in the morning and make bread; the long way.  Even after I was married and had my own home, I still made bread, the long way, and it was an all day event.  My wife never wanted to be tied down at home for any length of time during the weekends, since we work all day, so I never got many chances to make bread.  Finally, I broke down and for a small investment cost, I purchased a bread machine.

The machine we got was great and simple.  For example: a 2 pound loaf of bread takes about 3 hours, but all you do is put the ingredients in it and turn it on.  It peeps when it is done cooking and ready. 

Now, I'm surprised that more people are not into making their own bread, even those who use bread for toast or sandwiches.  So, what is in your generic white bread that you buy at the store?

Okay, so let's look at this list: enriched wheat flour (which is highly processed), water, high fructose corn syrup (which is that artificial sugar that your body doesn't recognize and turns to fat, instantly), salt, yeast, oil, fats, preservatives, more starches, more enzymes and soy lecithin (soy fat).  I wonder how much of that stuff is really good for you?


Ok, here is some fresh baked milk bread.  It has the following ingredients: unbleached flour (it is processed because I was out of bread flour), whole milk, a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, filtered water, butter and yeast.  That is it.  Now, while this loaf will not last weeks and weeks, it will taste good and be better for you than that other one. 

The link is located below and get yourself a bread machine. This is the one I use, it is cheap, VERY easy to use and you can clean it very easily.  Buy it here and buy it now. 

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