Bread is almost sacred in many cultures and society, but processed breads today are not what they were forty years ago. More than 70 percent of people who eliminate bread cold turkey experience an immediate weight loss within the first two weeks. It is wrongly placed at the bottom of our food pyramid, which is taught to children in schools from a very young age. Some of these children grow up to be registered dietitians and promote the same nonsense. Processed grains in breads are unnecessary and even harmful to most metabolic types. Here’s why.
1) Whole Grain Bread Can Spike Blood Sugar Levels More Than A Snickers Bar
Whole grain bread does not actually have whole grains in it. Flour is formed in a process where grains are broken down into a powder form like flour. Since it is in a powder form, the body can rapidly digest the bread and let it enter the bloodstream as glucose. This raises the fat-producing hormone known as insulin. Whole grain bread even has a higher G.I (Glycemic Index) score than most candy bars such as snickers.
The starches in bread get broken down quickly in the digestive tract and enter the bloodstream as glucose. This causes a rapid spike in blood sugar and insulin levels eventually increasing appetite. This causes a perpetual cycle of eating, getting hungry then eating again.
Elevated blood sugars can also cause glycation at the cellular level when the blood sugars react with proteins in the body. This is one of the components of aging.
This is the downside of an the high carbohydrate diet that many misinformed authorities try to peddle us.
2) Bread Contains a Lot of Gluten
Wheat contains a large amount of a protein called gluten.
This protein has glue-like properties (hence the name gluten) responsible for dough’s viscoelastic properties.
Evidence is mounting that a significant percentage of the population is sensitive to gluten.
When we eat bread that contains gluten (wheat, spelt, rye and barley), the immune system in our digestive tract “attacks” the gluten proteins.
Gluten sensitivity is also associated with some cases of schizophrenia and cerebellar ataxia – both serious disorders of the brain.
Gluten is probably harmful for most people, not just those with diagnosed celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
The only way to really know if you’re gluten sensitive is to remove gluten from your diet for 30 days and then reintroduce it and see whether it affects you.
3) Processed Wheat Is Deadly
The world’s most popular grain is also the deadliest for the human metabolism. Modern wheat isn’t really wheat at all and is a “perfect, chronic poison,” according to Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist, author and leading expert on wheat.
Once agribusiness took over to develop a higher-yielding crop, wheat became hybridized to such an extent that it has been completely transformed from it’s prehistorical genetic configuration. All nutrient content of modern wheat depreciated more than 30% in its natural unrefined state compared to its ancestral genetic line. The balance and ratio that mother nature created for wheat was also modified and human digestion and physiology could simply could not adapt quick enough to the changes.
4) Processed Breads Contain Chemicals and Preservatives
Just like other processed foods, most commercial types of bread contain sugar or high fructose corn syrup.
Most grains also include the “anti nutrient” phytic acid and it’s one of the biggest problems with soy. Phytic acid is a molecule that strongly binds essential minerals like calcium, iron and zinc, preventing them from being absorbed. Most people stuck on the soy bandwagon are consuming far more phytate by the sheer volume through mass consumption of things like soy milk, tofu, cereals, and processed foods. Soy oil and soy lecithin are both common ingredients in many breads.
Dough conditioners such as azodicarbonamide are only now being exposed.
5) Bread Is NOT a Nutrient Dense Food
There is NO nutrient in bread that you can’t get from other foods in even greater amounts. Whole wheat bread will literally reduce the absorption of nutrients from other foods. By damaging the intestinal lining, glutendecreases the absorption of all nutrients.
Calorie for calorie, whole grain breads contain a low amount of nutrients compared to real foods like vegetables.
Wheat fiber may cause your body to burn through its Vitamin D stores much faster and contribute to vitamin d deficiency, which is associated with cancer, diabetes and death.
6) Wheat and The Diabetes Link
Andrew L. Rubman, ND, is medical director, Southbury Clinic for Traditional Medicines, Southbury, Connecticut, said wheat consumption (specifically gluten found in wheat, rye and barley) could play a role in turning the genetic diabetes switch to “on” for those who carry the risk gene. Dr. Rubman says that gluten avoidance might prove useful for people who already havediabetes because it may reduce the impact of the disease. He suggests to try a gluten-free diet for four to six months to see if symptom severity and blood sugar control improve. If the answer is yes, Dr. Rubman advises staying gluten-free for life.
7) Genetically Modified Enzymes
Enzymes, often genetically modified, are added to flour and dough to make loaves bigger and keep them squishy for days, if not weeks, after baking. But most troubling of all, recent research suggests that one enzyme, transglutaminase, used in food manufacturing and baking, may actually turn some of the gliadin protein in wheat flour into a form that can be toxic to some people. Even the organic loaves made by the industrial bakers can contain this stuff.
The industry is keen to sell us ‘premium’ loaves with fashionable additions of omega-3, inulin, folic acid and the like. But if we don’t attend to the innate quality of our wheat and flour, our diet will consist of little more than nutrified industrial slop.
~ The Guardian
