by Lawrence Wilson, MD

BREAD, AND WHY AVOID IT

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

All information in this article is for educational purposes only. It is not for the diagnosis, treatment, prescription or cure of any disease or health condition.

I. INTRODUCTION

We suggest avoiding all bread. We know that wheat is called “the staff of life” in the Bible, and that bread is eaten throughout the world. However, bread today is not a healthful product. This article details why, and what to eat instead of bread.

II. PROBLEMS WITH ALL BREAD

PROBLEMS WITH ALL WHEAT

Most bread is made with wheat. The gluten in wheat makes the flour sticky so that it rises and forms bread easily. Unfortunately, wheat has become an irritating food that is best avoided. This is due to the hybridization of wheat.

Even organic, whole wheat is greatly hybridized and is not healthful. This is due to the “green revolution” and the advent of superphosphate fertilizers, also called N-P-K fertilizers. They are used on both commercial and organic wheat fields.

Wheat tends to inflame the intestines due to its high glutamine content today. It is also much lower in protein and in many essential minerals than it was 100 years ago.

This fact is well-documented by the US Department of Agriculture and by many scientists as well. It is truly a shame, because wheat was a fine food. It is still used in hundreds of prepared food items, but I would avoid them all. Wheat is not only used in breads, but also as a thickener, a way to keep ingredients together, and in other ways, as well.

What about spelt, emmer, kamut and einkorn? These are older grains that are related to wheat. They may be somewhat better, but I don’t recommend them, either. All of them contain some gluten, and they are similar to wheat.

What if one soaks, sours or sprouts these grains? Are they then okay? The answer is no. Soaking and souring makes grain more yin, which is not helpful today. Sprouts are slightly toxic.

What grains can one eat instead? Grains that are better are blue corn, organic yellow corn, amaranth, millet, oatmeal, and quinoa.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH WHITE, BLEACHED FLOUR?

First, it is wheat, which has become an irritating food. However, refining of wheat to make white flour involves removing the best part of the wheat - the wheat germ and wheat bran. Milling of wheat also removes half or more of most of the trace minerals in the wheat.

This leaves a product that has almost no fiber, almost no vitamins and minerals, and is mostly just starch. It is sometimes called ‘empty calories’ for this reason. It is basically just calories that put on weight, without providing any micronutrients such as minerals at all. It is truly an “empty food”. The cardboard box of a wheat cereal may contains as much nutrition as the cereal itself, if not more. This is how bad white flour is.

Enriched flour. Do not be fooled because the label says the flour is “enriched”. The reason it is enriched with 3 or 4 vitamins and iron is that around 1945, scientists realized how gravely deficient white flour was, and a law was passed forcing the baking companies to at least add back a few of the vitamins that are stripped away when whole wheat flour is refined into white flour.

However, the enrichment is paltry and not nearly enough. It is as though someone just robbed you of $1000.00 dollars, and then decides to “enrich you” by giving you back one or two dollars.

CHLORINE TOXICITY

Almost all white flour is bleached with a highly toxic chlorine bleach. This is another horrible insult to the basic wheat grain. The same agent is used to bleach wheat flour as is used to bleach clothing. It is then baked and the concoction creates extremely toxic chemicals in the bread that irritate the intestines.

The bleaching of wheat flour is purely cosmetic and never needed for any other reason. One or two bread companies, such as Pepperidge Farm, use unbleached wheat flour, which is somewhat better, although all the other problems with flour are still present.

IRON TOXICITY

One of the worst problems of enriched white bread is the addition of iron to the bread. Not only is too much iron put back into the bread. The form of the iron is also not very available to the body, and this is another insult.

The iron can build up in the body in a toxic form that is extremely irritating and inflammatory. It can contribute to every possible disease from diabetes and arthritis to cancer.

BROMINE TOXICITY

In the past, iodine was sometimes added to bread to help the dough to be more flexible. This is called a dough conditioner. This was a good idea for another reason – we need more iodine (though not a chemical form of it).

Today, however, adding iodine to bread is outlawed. Instead, some commercial breads and rolls contain sodium bromate as a dough conditioner. This is a poison that disrupts the thyroid gland and replaces iodine in the thyroid.

OTHER CHEMICAL ADDITIVES

Almost all commercial bread contains a number of other food additives. The most common is refined sugar or some other sweetener such as honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, fruit, molasses or agave syrup. It not only gives the bread a sweet taste, but acts as food for the yeast as well. Sugars are all very yin and horrible for one’s health in any form.

Other common chemical additives in breads include dough conditioners, yeast food, preservatives, flavors, coloring and others that may or may not be listed on the label.

HIGH TEMPERATURE COOKING

Another problem with most breads is they must be cooked at high temperatures, often for an hour or more. In general, the higher the temperature at which a food is cooked, the more damage is done to certain nutrients.

Bread is often baked at 300 degree F. or higher. This does a lot more damage than steaming, boiling, stir-frying or pressure-cooking your food.

WHAT ABOUT ORGANIC WHOLE WHEAT BREAD OR MULTI-GRAIN BREADS?

These are not much better. All wheat is imbalanced today and causes intestinal irritation. Even whole wheat is best avoided completely for optimum health.

The only wheat product I suggest consuming is a little wheat grass juice, up to 2 ounces and only twice a week.

WHAT ABOUT WHEAT-FREE BREADS SUCH AS 100% WHOLE RYE BREAD OR SPROUTED GRAIN BREADS?

Wheat-free breads are generally a little better. However, I still do not recommend them. They are still cooked at very high temperatures, and they are not fresh. It is much better to eat whole grains as cereals, or as tortillas or chapatis.

In addition, some non-wheat breads still contain sugar, sweeteners, or toxic chemical additives. Some people are also allergic to all gluten-containing grains, which includes rye, barley and oats in any form whatsoever.

Sprouted breads. Sprouted breads are more yin and somewhat toxic because sprouts contain chemicals that keep animals and birds from eating them. We suggest avoiding sprouted breads.

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