Fwd: Modern Bread, The Broken Staff of Life

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Gettingwell , JoAnn Guest <angelprincessjo> wrote:

Modern Bread, The Broken Staff of Life JoAnn Guest May 31, 2003 16:22 PDT

 

MODERN BREAD, THE BROKEN STAFF OF LIFE

 

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 flour and bread

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.

 

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.

 

Submittted by

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

 

DietaryTipsForHBP

 

 

 

 

 

 

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