The writer Bethany Econopouly hit the loaf on the head when she wrote recently that, “It's time we seriously reconsider bread and what we allow to be called by that name.”
Go girl! So, what is bread, real bread?
It is flour, water, yeast, salt, and time. Five ingredients, and the fifth is as important as the first four.
Why so? Because it is in trying to subvent the time it takes to make real bread that commercial bakers have adulterated the noble loaf with all manner of garbage that has transformed the Staff of Life into something that, for very many people, is virtually toxic.
But the problem is that the big guys are allowed to call their garbage by the noble title of “bread”. But, hang on, their bread has, for example, azodicarbonamide. You might not think that you know azodicarbonamide but, if you own a yoga mat, you already do: it's used in yoga mats, as well as sandwich breads. And their breads have benzoyl peroxide. That's the stuff your kids use to treat their acne, incidentally. Yum. Gotta love it.
Here is Ms Econopouly again: “By categorizing all bread under one name we are potentially demonizing what in its basic form can be a delicious, inexpensive, and nutritious source of whole grains. Let's call "bread" that deviates from the basic identity of bread and its nutritional characteristics ... "process bread," "bread with added preservatives and sweeteners," or even "diluted bread."
‘Diluted bread!” I like it, because it conveys the fact that the goodness you expect from a loaf of bread has been consciously compromised. Would you buy “Diluted Beer” or “Diluted Butter”. You wouldn't, because when you buy beer or butter, you want the real thing.
If you want the real thing, then we need to listen to Bethany: “In the interest of nutrition, health, and taste, the time is right to clean up bread.”
And in the issue of honesty, the time is right to clean up bread.
Defining Real Bread
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