The current trend of demonizing wheat tires me. Whether gluten or carbohydrates (or both) are bedevilling, people are probably healthier in avoiding them simply because wheat is so omnipresent in prepared foods that cooking from scratch is the only way to avoid it.
However, modern industrial agriculture has done us no favours when it comes to wheat. It’s less healthy and worse-tasting, according to Bread is Broken:
Before the advent of industrial agriculture, Americans enjoyed a wide range of regional flours milled from equally diverse wheats, which in turn could be used to make breads that were astonishingly flavorful and nutritious. For nearly a century, however, America has grown wheat tailored to an industrial system designed to produce nutrient-poor flour and insipid, spongy breads soaked in preservatives. For the sake of profit and expediency, we forfeited pleasure and health.
I learned a lot, particularly about whole grain flour. Now I want to try bread made from real whole grain flour, including the germ that is generally discarded because it shortens flour’s shelf life. I adore good bread, which is all the more painful because of how hard it is to find any of it in North America.
6 responses to “Bread is Broken?”
It’s all about the Einhorn wheat
Brian James liked this on Facebook.
And I think a lot of people have forgotten that bread *can* taste like anything, let alone delicious!
Payton Swick liked this on Facebook.
I’ve started making my own bread again. It’s amazing fun, and the taste is completely different and so much better.
Erick Hitter liked this on Facebook.