Is homemade bread really healthier than shop bought?

freyasmum

geordie_joe wrote: »

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.

I know, that's what I said

I'd be willing to lay money on the fact that most people who see 'fortified with iron, calcium, etc' would assume that the manufacturers have actually added extra to the product, not just put back what they had to take away. That's what I was pointing out, they haven't actually added anything extra, just put back what they took away in the first place soo.... anything you make at home isn't going to be any worse for you than what you can buy, rather the opposite.

Fang_3

Yes. You know exactly what you put in it too.

weezl74

geordie_joe wrote: »

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.

indeed. And they put more of those nutrients back into white flour than they have removed. So in that sense white flour can be perceived to be better, containing more of those nutrients. (although you do lose out on some fibre)

I spoke to the company who supply asda (for another project, not cos of this thread:rotfl:)with all their bread flour and plain and self raising flours, and they do not add omega 3.

HTH

weezl74

freyasmum wrote: »

I know, that's what I said

freyasmum wrote: »

I'd be willing to lay money on the fact that most people who see 'fortified with iron, calcium, etc' would assume that the manufacturers have actually added extra to the product, not just put back what they had to take away. That's what I was pointing out, they haven't actually added anything extra, just put back what they took away in the first place soo.... anything you make at home isn't going to be any worse for you than what you can buy, rather the opposite.

they do put back more than they remove. I'm not on my home PC with my spreadsheet, but IIRC the calcium value of white flour is 2 times that of wholemeal

ceridwen

Yep - that does seem to be the idea - ie that foods that have been "fortified" by the manufacturer have had this done due to Government diktat (rather than out of the goodness of their hearts...) and that said "fortification" puts back some of the goodness the food had in the first place before they started processing it.

Anyways - if you want to make bread more "nutritious" - then use honey instead of sugar to make it/put in some olive oil/add seeds or nuts (eg walnuts) to it.

For a good/dead easy recipe for bread see my 5 Minute Bread Recipe I have just added this evening to the processed food thread on Old Style Board. Its a no knead bread that I've been making successfully for years now and I reckon it's as healthy as they come. To make it as healthy as it could possibly be I:
- use flour thats not just wholemeal but organic and stoneground as well
- the olive oil is extra virgin olive oil

and I do sometimes brush a bit of egg yolk (free-range of course) on the top and scatter sunflower seeds over the top of it and/or put 3-4 oz chopped walnuts in with the dough.

Obviously too - wholemeal flour has a goodly amount of fibre in it as well....

ceridwen

I've found my book that spells out the Chorleywood Process in detail - ie the process by which most shopbought bread is made. It's in the book "Low Cost Living " by John Harrison (p.94 onwards for those who have this book). This is a book that is very worth getting anyway by the way.

Anyways:
1. The flour is not stoneground (which reduces the nutritional value)
2. The flour is mixed with water, soya flour (NB most soya beans now are g*netically-modified), fat (probably not hydrogenated anymore - but could well be fractionated - which would appear to be as bad), baking aids (whatever they are), ascorbic acid (E300), emulsifiers (normally E471 or E472e), normally an anti-fungal compound and yeast.
3. Uses 2-3 times the normal amount of yeast (compared to normal bread).

Thats it very basically from what John Harrison says (but do get the book and read the full 2 pages worth).

Zazen999

And if you do get any of John's books, get them through his website [no, I'm not on commission]

http://www.allotment.org.uk/book/index.php

ceridwen

Zazen999 wrote: »

And if you do get any of John's books, get them through his website [no, I'm not on commission]

http://www.allotment.org.uk/book/index.php

...and, in my opinion, his books are all well worth reading...indeed well worth buying...

Ginger_Snap

I loved the taste and texture of my homemade bread but have had to stop making it as I got a really swollen stomach and didn't feel well at all. I was probably eating more bread than usual as it was so yummy (usually I only have a slice or two a day or shop bought bread) but do not know if there was any other reason for not feeling well on it.

ceridwen

Ginger_Snap wrote: »

I loved the taste and texture of my homemade bread but have had to stop making it as I got a really swollen stomach and didn't feel well at all. I was probably eating more bread than usual as it was so yummy (usually I only have a slice or two a day or shop bought bread) but do not know if there was any other reason for not feeling well on it.

Hmmm...don't know about stuff like gluten in bread...but wondering if you might find you did better if you made bread from spelt flour instead of standard wheat flour?