Healthy food >>>> Health benefits and harms of bread

Health benefits and harms of bread.

At all times, bread was considered a source of life and an important product of the diet. Of particular importance to bread is not so much calories as useful microelements, vitamins and fiber. But the value of bread began to decline when various varieties of cereals appeared, suitable for cooking cereals, having a high calorie content, a more significant set of useful substances. And bread gradually began to acquire a secondary importance in the set of foodstuffs.

Bread and other flour products are among those rare foods that you can eat on their own and stay full, or eat a bite with any other kind of food in addition to them. At the same time, bread, having a pronounced taste, does not spoil the taste of other products in any way, but only complements and sets them apart. Bread is recognized as a versatile food product. But you can do without it if there is a need to limit yourself in calories (proteins and carbohydrates, in particular), since bread belongs to carbohydrate-containing foods with a high degree of assimilation, and to plant protein foods.

The ability to bake bread has always been considered a worthy pursuit, and knowledge of the varied and unique recipes for making bread has made the profession of a baker almost indispensable. With the development of technologies, bread products have significantly expanded in assortment. And if initially bread was baked from wheat flour or corn flour (a cheaper version of baking), then modern bread products are already represented by bread products baked from wheat, rye, corn, rice, barley, buckwheat flour and their combinations. To impart various useful qualities to bread products and for the sake of taste variety, yeast, malt, nuts, bran, seeds of spicy plants, powder or seeds of mustard, pumpkin and sunflower seeds are added to baking flour.

In choosing bread, each person adheres to preferences developed from childhood or acquired during life. If there are no medical contraindications for eating bread and other types of baked goods, then the choice of bread remains a matter of habit.

But when there is a question of making an informed choice of the type of bread and correlating it with the rules of dietary nutrition, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the chemical composition of specific types of bread.

There is one peculiarity in the preparation of bread that affects its composition and is directly related to the health of the body.

When grinding grain into flour, about 30% of useful substances from any type of grain crops remain in the flour. Before grinding, the grain undergoes processing stages (cleaning from the shell and various natural elements embedded in the grain structure). How effective the cleaning of grain is, the quality of the flour obtained subsequently will be so high, but when cleaning, those structural elements are removed from the grains, which contain many useful substances, for example, fiber, for the sake of which a person eats plant products. Fiber is the motor force of the gastrointestinal tract in the literal sense of the word, as it stimulates intestinal motility, trace elements and many B vitamins.

Thus bread contains two paradoxical phenomena of the usefulness and harmfulness of bread as a food product. On the one hand, bread is a nutritious and high-quality food product, on the other hand, baked with perfect grain cleaning, it is a harmful food product for many diseases, and itself, with its unlimited consumption, is capable of provoking the development of diseases: diabetes mellitus, obesity, celiac disease.

This feature of the quality of wheat bread led to the fact that at first this high-grade bread was considered an expensive food product, and after a while, with an in-depth study of the chemical composition of high-quality wheat bread, white bread became a universal privilege, namely, bread from coarse flour, flour from little refined grains wheat and rye flour, with the addition of various impurities, has become a more valuable food product and more expensive, since its usefulness for maintaining the health of the body has become known.

White bread made from the highest grade flour without additives, baked with yeast, is today considered a delicacy that people with excellent health can afford and in very small quantities, so as not to provoke the development of many metabolic disorders. Popularity in the field of bread baking has shifted towards mixed breads made with inclusions of bran, whole grains, seeds, nuts, seeds, and bread baked with wholemeal flour. These types of bread have contraindications for eating, but during normal functioning of the digestive tract they are considered the healthiest food: firstly, they contain fewer calories due to a decrease in starchy compounds and an increase in the amount of poorly digestible carbohydrates, and secondly, they contain a high percentage of fiber, and thirdly, they contain many additives, enriching not only the taste of a bread product, but also adding additional trace elements and vitamins to its composition. This is how the following types of bread appeared:

White bread made from wheat flour of the highest grade (yeast and yeast-free white bread).

Bread made from high-grade flour is useful for people with gastrointestinal tract inflammation, it is well digested and gently moves through the intestines without harming the digestive tract. But such bread should be eaten in dosage and, preferably, in the first half of the day, so that calories can be spent on physical efforts and mental activity of the body. For this reason, baked goods made from the highest grade of flour can be safely enjoyed for breakfast or a snack at lunch, but not later. For high-quality white bread to bring health benefits, it is recommended to eat it with vegetables or fruits (berries) in the form of a filling or a sandwich. Fruits and vegetables will play the role of fiber and healthy ingredients and complement the tasty, but unhealthy wheat bread. Nuts and seeds, as well as seeds of spicy plants add calories to white bread of the highest grade, but dried fruits and cereal grains, enrich high-grade white bread with useful substances.

Whole Wheat Bread (Whole Grain Bread).

Wheat grain is rich in vitamins A, B, E, F, C and rare mineral compounds Selenium, zinc, Magnesium, Sodium, Cobalt, Potassium, Iodine, Manganese. Such a selection of vitamins and microelements makes wheat bread a unique product in terms of its useful chemical composition, but all these useful substances are contained in the shell of the wheat grain and in the germ of wheat grain (in the germ of wheat grain). With a thorough cleaning of wheat grain and obtaining a premium wheat flour, only a small part of these useful components remains in the food product, and a significant part of vitamins is destroyed during heat treatment. As a result, baked goods made from high-grade flour do not have any useful properties, if you expect a beneficial effect on the body from a baked product.

But the dough for baking bread made from second-grade wheat flour, enriched with whole grains and wheat bran, has all the beneficial properties of wheat grain. The flour for such a dough is called coarse flour and gives the dough a yellowish color and a denser texture. The difference between baked goods made from first-class flour and second-class flour is visible to the eye Bread made from first-class flour is called white, and bread made from second-class flour is called gray - it is duller, outwardly looks less appetizing, does not have such a lush structure as white bread and lags behind white bread in taste qualities, but in terms of usefulness for the body, it takes the first place among wheat breads.

Gray bread made from second-rate flour (flour with bran) or grain wheat is not useful for people suffering from inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, who have chronic dyspeptic disorders, mainly associated with diarrhea. Such bread causes additional trauma to the intestinal mucosa (already inflamed) and aggravates the course of the disease. But gray wheat bread with bran and wheat grains can be consumed by people with intestinal atony problems, chronic constipation and a predominantly sedentary lifestyle - it is a product that stimulates intestinal motility. Gray wheat bread is still quite high in calories and is not suitable for weight loss diets or sports diets.

Gray bread with cereal grains (from the group of cereal breads).

This bread contains Phosphorus, sodium, iron, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin PP, vitamins A and E. This bread is useful for metabolic disorders, dysbacteriosis and intestinal dysfunctions.

Corn flour bread.

It is considered an alternative to wheat bread due to its chemical composition. When it is not possible to grow wheat or rye, bread is baked from corn flour. This is a high-calorie bread, but its composition is a complete healthy food product. Cornbread has a denser structure and can be a heavy food for the intestines if there is a tendency to inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. But in case of celiac disease, or digestive disorders, or metabolic disorders, cornbread is a full-fledged substitute for wheat bread.

Gray bread made from sprouted grains of wheat.

This type of bread has a high content of vitamins, groups B, E and C, contains thiamine and dietary fiber. This bread lowers the level of "bad" cholesterol, gently cleanses the intestines without injuring the mucous membrane, and can be eaten even with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Unleavened bread with malt sourdough (Dark bread, Black bread).

This bread contains a high percentage of B vitamins, vitamin PP, vitamin C. Bread increases appetite, is useful for diseases with enzymatic deficiency, a laxative effect. Refers to low-calorie breads, and is useful for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. But for people with high acidity of the stomach, bread with malt sourdough is contraindicated.

Buckwheat bread.

Buckwheat grains do not contain gluten, which makes baked bread easier for the digestive tract than white bread and more tender than rye bread. Buckwheat bread is not baked from pure buckwheat flour; a certain percentage of wheat flour is added to it to improve the baking of the dough. This type of bread contains Potassium, Phosphorus, Iron, all useful amino acids, Magnesium, Manganese. This is bread for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, for the prevention and treatment of vascular atherosclerosis.

Bran bread (made from wheat or rye flour).

Bran is the useful “waste” that remains after cleaning the grain (the ground shell of the grain). Bran bread contains vitamins B, PP, E, Nicotinic acid, minerals, a high percentage of fiber. Bran bread is useful for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, obesity, sports diets, and is useful for chronic constipation and intestinal atony. Such bread is categorically not suitable for people with inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

Mustard bread (from the white bread category).

Mustard white bread (yeast-free and yeast-free), in addition to the first grade flour, contains a flavoring additive from powdered mustard, which gives a piquancy to the taste and a beautiful yellow color to the dough. Such bread is undesirable for people with gastrointestinal diseases, in which spices (hot seasonings) are contraindicated. But for people with enzymatic deficiency, such white mustard bread is useful, as it stimulates the release of enzymes due to irritation of the gastrointestinal mucosa.

Rye bread (from peeled flour and wallpaper).

It is considered the most useful dietary bread today, convenient for maintaining weight loss diets, sports diets, in the treatment of diseases associated with intestinal atony. But this type of bread enhances intestinal peristalsis, causes the accumulation of gases, which in some types of gastrointestinal diseases is not shown in the diet. Rye flour bread can be yeast-free or yeast-free. With 100% rye flour, the bread is black (like white bread with malt), which often causes confusion when choosing breads by color.

It must be remembered when choosing bread for food that:

any type of bread with the addition of whole grains of cereals, seeds of herbs, seeds, nuts or dried fruits has a high calorie content, even if it is baked from rye flour;
any type of bread with whole grains of cereals added to its composition, seeds of spicy plants is harmful to the stomach and intestines in case of inflammation, ulcers, erosions;
any yeast-based bread has a high content of B vitamins, but in many diseases of the gastrointestinal tract it is contraindicated, which sometimes contradicts its usefulness;
any type of bread with the addition of wheat or corn flour, as well as any yeast bread is a high-calorie product.