Is homemade bread really healthier than shop bought?

cooking-mama

Im starting to have doubts about my homemade bread, im aware there are less additives/preservatives in it,but im more concerned about what's not in it!..shop bought is often,"fortified with vitamins and iron"..even Omega 3 and calcium...any ideas how i can make my homemade "fortified with vitamins iron,calcium,omega3 etc etc."?
PS,I already add a tablspoon of wheatgerm,but dunno what else i could do.

weezl74

cooking-mama wrote: »

Im starting to have doubts about my homemade bread, im aware there are less additives/preservatives in it,but im more concerned about what's not in it!..shop bought is often,"fortified with vitamins and iron"..even Omega 3 and calcium...any ideas how i can make my homemade "fortified with vitamins iron,calcium,omega3 etc etc."?
PS,I already add a tablspoon of wheatgerm,but dunno what else i could do.

having done quite a lot of research on this recently, your cheapest way to further fortify your homemade bread would be to add some supermarket's own version of ready brek, often called something like 'ready oats'. I add 50g per loaf to my homemade loaves. It increases their calcium and b group vitamins to an extremely good level. with 6 slices (2 at brekkie and 4 at lunch) gives over 50% of my calciium, folate b group and iron requirements. I have spreadsheets with all thisin but I didn't want to boreyou with info you didn't need

But if you'd like it, I'll happily give you even more of the nutritional breakdown.

This is the cheapest way to elevate the vitamin and mineral component of homemade bread, other than having a vitamin pill when you eat a slice

HTH

wssla00

Hey cooking mama These titles are of little significance IMHO. They are just sales tactics. For example the calcium will come from the milk powder- which you will put into bread usually anyway wheat germ contains a good source of omega 3, and vitamins and iron usually come from other ingredients that you would naturally use in breads. They are just used to focus into buying products that really are high in sugar, salt, fat and the rest.... Ive even seen it on chocolate bars!!!!

Using a whole wheat bread flour, and adding seeds to your loaves will help some to increasing the vitamins in them, but at least you know what is in your loaves

Bitsy_Beans

Personally I'd rather eat HM bread that's low in salf and sugar and get my vitamins and iron elsewhere. At least HM bread fills you up so a couple of slices is all that's needed, unlike shop bought bread........

freyasmum

Foodstuffs are generally fortified because all the vitamins and minerals are lost to processing in the first place. That means they HAVE to put the stuff back in, not that they've just added more for the sake of making the product particularly healthy. It's a marketing ploy really.

I'm thinking particularly of cereals like cornflakes - it would be a pretty pointless food otherwise. To make cornflakes, you have to remove all the outer layers of the grains, and the germ and all the other bits that hold the 'goodness', so that you're left with just the flake. I imagine white bread would be similar.

I don't think any flours that you buy to make your own bread will have been treated any worse than those which are used by the major bakeries. I'd stick to wholemeal flours and add a handful of seeds or whatever else you fancy

weezl74

I agree with wssla's point about the milk powder, and obviously it depends how cheaply you want to fortify your HM bread. I like using milk powder, but it's 10 times more expensive to yield the same amount of calcium.:)

dandy-candy

My stepmom is a nurse and she attended a lecture by a heart specialist who told the room that if everyone made their own bread at home this country could halve the number of deaths due to heart disease. I don't know how accurate his figure is but he was definately of the opinion that the salt levels in bread were a major factor because everyone eats bread even if they are careful with salt in their other cooking.

BitterAndTwisted

freyasmum wrote: »

Foodstuffs are generally fortified because all the vitamins and minerals are lost to processing in the first place. That means they HAVE to put the stuff back in, not that they've just added more for the sake of making the product particularly healthy. It's a marketing ploy really.

BINGO! Freyasmum got it in one imo. I'd happily eat even poorly-made home-made bread than some of that dreadful salt-laden pap that's labelled as "bread" in the shops.

geordie_joe

cooking-mama wrote: »

Im starting to have doubts about my homemade bread, im aware there are less additives/preservatives in it,but im more concerned about what's not in it!..shop bought is often,"fortified with vitamins and iron"..even Omega 3 and calcium...any ideas how i can make my homemade "fortified with vitamins iron,calcium,omega3 etc etc."?
PS,I already add a tablspoon of wheatgerm,but dunno what else i could do.

The bread is not fortified with vitamins, iron and calcium, it's the flour that is fortified.

All flour sold or used in the UK, except wholemeal, has to have iron, calcium and certain vitamins added to it. So there is no need to add any more. Flour doesn't have Omega 3 added to it AFAIK.

geordie_joe

freyasmum wrote: »

Foodstuffs are generally fortified because all the vitamins and minerals are lost to processing in the first place. That means they HAVE to put the stuff back in, not that they've just added more for the sake of making the product particularly healthy. It's a marketing ploy really.

It's not a marketing ploy, all the iron, calcium and vitamins in grain is in the bran and the germ. You have to remove these to make white flour, otherwise you get wholemeal flour. You also have to remove them to make corn flakes and other breakfast cereals.

So anything made with white flour would not have any vitamins, iron, calcium etc. in it. Fortunately the government passed a law, or three, to force the millers to put back the vitamins etc.

So it's not a marketing ploy, they are just telling you that they have done what the law requires them to do.

Zazen999

If you eat a healthy varied diet, you don't need extra vitamins and calcium.

Unless you are deficient in something specific then you need a specific 'fortification'.