April 27, 2015

Baking Bread Might Be Good For You


"Going gluten-free seems somewhat faddish."


I am perplexed by the current anti-bread movement. How did such an ancient dietary staple get so badly burned?

I can understand if we are talking about the mass produced cardboard-like stuff that grocery chains sell. I bought some last week because it was half price. At 97 cents a loaf it still wasn't worth it.

What will we break if we don't break bread? Can we still refer to money as 'dough' or 'bread' as we once did in more leavened days? What will we give for wedding presents if toasters are now obsolete kitchen clutter?

Linda and I have been baking our own bread products for the past 13 years, and baking has become a welcome weekly ritual that nourishes physically, mentally and spiritually. Preparing bread is an intimate interaction with your food that is well worth making time in your life for.

How fortunate that I don't have celiac disease, a gluten intolerance, wheat allergy or other sensitivity to grains. It seems that not many other people do either, and that perhaps this whole anti-bread trend is a tad half-baked.

"There are certainly people who have a problem with gluten that’s not autoimmune or allergic. And yet, the data suggest that almost two-thirds of people who think they are gluten-intolerant really aren’t." 
- Darshak Sanghavi, paediatric cardiologist writing at Slate.com

If you have a wheat intolerance and can't eat bread I am sorry. If you don't, baking your own bread is a worthwhile, money saving, health bolstering activity you may wish to try. 

6 comments:

  1. This is on my to do list... to learn how to bake my own bread.

    Great post! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is very easy once you get the hang of it. I posted my recipe here a while back:

      http://notbuyinganything.blogspot.ca/2009/10/bake-your-own-daily-bread.html

      Scroll to bottom of post for recipe, and have fun.

      Delete
  2. Hi Gregg,

    I feel sorry for the much maligned loaf of bread! I agree that most people don't have gluten intolerance (although of course some genuinely do). I think most people are suffering because of the abundance of poor quality bread and baked products they have consumed. Truly most of the stuff you can buy at a bakery or supermarket is what I would class as 'non-food'.

    Changing to sourdough organic bread will help many. I also think refined flour is to blame, so go whole wheat.

    On Sunday I had my first go at making homemade phyllo pastry. It was a pleasure to get into the rhythm of kneading again, and in the end it yielded a smooth, elastic easy to work with dough. I filled my pie with all sorts of greens and abundant herbs from the garden - yumskie!

    Madeleine.x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yum - I am drooling. I have not tried sourdough, but am very intrigued. We love the taste of sourdough bread.

      Some day I want to be able to grind my own wheat berries into flour using a hand cranked mill.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous4/29/2015

    We are bread lovers in this house, we both could live on toast. I'm not physically able to bake my own now, and my bread machine died, but there are some pretty good options to be had at our regular grocery store bakery. Oh how I long to live close to one of those wonderful wood fired bakeries that make such gorgeous loaves of bread!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Toast is the best. When I was down with my back injury I did not do any baking. I missed it, but during that time sampled different types of breads from the store, including some that were very nice (but expensive). If we lived close I would bake you bread.

      Delete

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