Healthy Breads

Benefits of Ezekiel Bread

Ezekiel bread refers to a type of sandwich bread containing completely no flour. Its ingredients include four beans and four grains. The key ingredients include barley, wheat, millet, pinto beans, kidney beans, rye or spelt and lentils. This distinctive ingredient combination provides several health benefits to the body.

Excellent protein source: The good combination of various grains present in Ezekiel bread provides vital amino acids and diet ary fiber. This complete protein is required by the body for growth as well as development. It also makes a great addition to a vegetarian diet or a wheat free diet since it does not contain flour.

Great for losing weight: If you are currently in a weight loss program or you are simply looking to watch your diet, then you ought to start consuming the Ezekiel bread. This is because it has no trans fats and also no cholesterol. Eating this particular type of bread also enhances digestion because of the presence of dietary fiber

Benefits diabetics: As a result of the low GI (glycemic index) of Ezekiel bread, it is highly useful for people who require keeping their levels of blood sugar in check. Aside from that, this bread is not inclusive of any type of food flavors or other additives like corn syrup, which is high in fructose. It is undeniably organic bread and only contains low amounts of sodium.

Highly nutritious: Ezekiel bread also incorporates legumes while using a special type of baking process in order to preserve valuable nutrients. This bread is also very tasty and nutritious as well.

Ezekiel bread has a number of drawbacks also with one being that it has a very short shelf life. For that reason, it has to be kept in a fridge at all times, which might not always be possible.

Source:ezekielbread

Benefits of Spelt

Digestive Health: The very high content of fiber in spelt means that it facilitates healthy digestion in a major way. Dietary fiber helps to bulk up your stool and move food through the digestive tract, speeding up the absorption of nutrients and helping to reduce conditions like constipation, bloating, cramping, excess gas, diarrhea, and more serious gastrointestinal issues like ulcers. Spelt has one of the highest dietary fiber contents of wheat varieties.

Cholesterol: Dietary fiber has a second role in the body, which is to help lower the levels of dangerous cholesterol in the body. Dietary fiber can interact with the cholesterol uptake processes and inhibit the absorption of cholesterol from food. In fact, it can specifically target LDL cholesterol and eliminate it from the body to regulate a healthy balance of fatty acids in the body.

Circulation: The high levels of  iron and copper in spelt combine to significantly boost circulation. Iron and copper are essential for the creation of red blood cells, and when RBC production is up, there is increased blood flow throughout the body, which means additional oxygenation to organs and tissues, increased healing, boosted energy levels, and a more functional metabolism. Increased circulation can even boost hair growth, while the iron content helps the body avoid becoming anemic.

Hormonal Regulation and Creation: Niacin is one of the essential vitamins that can be found in significant quantities in spelt. Niacin plays a key role in the adrenal glands in the body, particularly in the production of sex hormones. The endocrine system is a sensitive and hugely important aspect of our health and general functioning, so maintaining healthy niacin levels by adding spelt to your diet is a wise choice.

Bone Health: Spelt has an impressive range of essential minerals that are necessary for bone health, including zinc, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, and selenium. These minerals contribute to the development of bone tissue and by boosting the levels of these minerals in your body, you can actively prevent osteoporosis and other age-related conditions that weaken or degrade the bones in our body.

Growth and Development: The high levels of phosphorous, combined with the impressive content of protein in spelt makes this cereal very important for the development and growth of new tissues, blood vessels, muscles, bones, and organs. Phosphorous is one of the essential elements behind creating new proteins and making DNA to build new cells, while the proteins you get directly from spelt can be broken down into their composite amino acids and then re-formed to be used in the body for nearly every important bodily process.

Immune System Health: Thiamin is known to significantly boost your immune system and stimulate the defensive mechanisms of the body, while also easing psychological stress and anxiety. Spelt is one of the few cereals that can boast a significant level of the B-family vitamin.

Diabetes Control: Although simple sugars and carbohydrates are known to be dangerous for diabetics, the high fiber content in spelt can counteract those effects and help to regulate the release and breakdown of those simple sugars into glucose. By regulating the release of insulin and glucose in the body, it helps to manage diabetes for those who already suffer from the condition, or prevent more people from developing it.

A Final Word of Caution: Despite all of these healthy benefits, spelt does contain gluten, which is the allergen that is responsible for Celiac disease. Therefore, people suffering from this condition should choose other grain/wheat alternatives.

Source: organicfacts  

The Benefits of Sourdough

​Sourdough is a culture of yeasts and beneficial bacteria that occur naturally in bread flour and dough. The yeasts are more varied and less concentrated than baker’s yeast, so they raise the dough more slowly. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) also require many hours of fermentation to work their wonders.

Real sourdough is very simple, as befits a method that’s thousands of years old. You take some starter, refresh it with several times its own weight of fresh flour and water and let this ferment for some hours until the yeast population has grown. You use most of this dough to make bread by adding more flour, water and salt, and keep a little bit back as your starter for the next batch of bread.

(There is no need to fuss over and ‘feed’ your starter regularly: we’re talking fermentation here, not pet-care. Established starters will keep undisturbed in the fridge for days, weeks or months between bakes.)

Time is crucial. When the sourdough is allowed to ferment slowly over several hours, it is able to transform the main ingredient – flour – in ways that together justify sourdough bread’s claim to be the best. 

Here’s a summary of the many benefits of sourdough, as revealed by research done in the past fifteen years 

  1. Sourdough LAB can modify the bits of gliadin and glutenin protein in wheat flour that are toxic to people with coeliac disease (CD) and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. This doesn’t mean CD sufferers can eat all (or even any) sourdough bread. It does mean that there is a time-honoured method for making wheat flour more digestible and that we urgently need to know which types of bread on sale in the shops deploy this to real effect.
  2. LAB (including those commonly found in sourdough bread) produce beneficial compounds: antioxidants, the cancer-preventive peptide lunasin and anti-allergenic substances, some of which may help in the treatment of auto-immune diseases. Interestingly, these by-products seem able to survive heating, suggesting that baked sourdough bread may have ‘probiotic’ potential by stimulating immune responses in the gut 
  3. Bread, especially if made with unrefined flour, is a significant source of dietary minerals such as iron, calcium, magnesium and zinc. But a slice of fast-made wholemeal may be nutritious only in theory if its contents pass straight through the body without being absorbed. The main culprit here is phytic acid, present in the bran layers of cereals, which ‘locks up’ the important minerals. Several hours of fermentation with sourdough is sufficient to neutralise phytic acid and make the minerals more bioavailable 
  4. Problematic protein fragments are not the only thing in bread that we might want to reduce to a minimum. Acrylamide, a suspected carcinogen, can be found in bread crusts. Long fermentation, typical of sourdough systems, can reduce levels of the amino-acid asparagine that is a precursor of acrylamide formation 
  5. Bread is often avoided by those affected by weight-gain and metabolic syndrome – rightly, perhaps, in the case of industrial white loaves with a high glycaemic index (GI). But sourdough LAB produce organic acids that, under the heat of baking, cause interactions that reduce starch availability. The lowest GI breads are whole-grain sourdoughs with a compact texture 

That’s a pretty compelling list of benefits even if we ignore the fact that bread-related metabolic complaints have proliferated just as the time taken to ferment most commercial bread has reduced. It’s this interplay of time and commercial advantage that should make us ask searching questions of some of the ‘sourdough’ breads now on offer.

Signs that your sourdough is real

  • the bakery keeps its own sourdough starter (if it doesn’t, it must be using dried sourdough powder)
  • the bread is made from scratch on the premises (i.e. is not ‘half-baked’ or re-heated)
  • the baker knows what sourdough is and is happy to discuss the process and the time it takes
  • the bread has no added baker’s yeast – or any additives, though this is hard to establish since the most problematic enzyme additives are classed as ‘processing aids’ and don’t have to be declared on the label
  • it tastes good and is easy on the digestion

Since there is no legal definition of sourdough, despite the Real Bread Campaign’s call for one, it is quite possible to give this name to a bread made with a dried sourdough powder or ‘pre-mix’ and raised quickly with baker’s yeast.

Such bread may be shaped in a winsome ‘boule’. It may even have a hint of flavour. But it’s unlikely to deliver on any of the benefits listed above unless lactic acid bacteria have fermented the dough for several hours. It’s even possible that ‘sourdough’ is being used as an opportunistic descriptor of ordinary bread in the hope of selling more, rather as the label ‘organic’ would be used by unscrupulous greengrocers in the days before that trade was properly regulated.  But the best way knowing that your sourdough is genuine is to make it yourself. And the really good news is that it’s easy to fit it into busy lives.

October 2014 saw the publication of a study, initiated by Andrew, of the effect of bread fermentation time on the gut bacteria of patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. This is the first part of a wider investigation into the under-researched issue of how breadmaking method affects digestibility and nutrient availability. Bread Matters plays an advisory role in this work, which will provide robust evidence for public-health-led innovation in milling and baking technologies. 

The title of the article is: Effect of Breadmaking Process on In Vitro Gut Microbiota Parameters in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.  
The authors are Adele Costabile, Sara Santarelli, Sandrine P. Claus, Jeremy Sanderson, Barry N. Hudspith, Jonathan Brostoff, Jane L. Ward, Alison Lovegrove, Peter R. Shewry, Hannah E. Jones, Andrew M. Whitley and Glenn R. Gibson.

Read the Abstract or the full article here, which is © Andrew Whitley 2013
Article Source: breadmatters

DBM COMMENT

The purpose of these pages is not to suggest that you select ONLY these foods to supplement your deficiency, but to show you that if you are eating a healthy balanced diet, eating from the rainbow, and excluding toxic foods, restore your gut-health, then your body will automatically receive the nutrients it needs.  Whilst the list of foods that we recommend you exclude from your diet is currently on our Daily Nutrition page – it is vital that in order to gain good health, you begin this exclusion process as soon as possible.

The Whole Food Plant based plate gives a good indication of the The Four Food Groups. For a balanced diet follow the recommended daily servings as indicated. Use this as a guide to get you started whilst eating the foods you enjoy, until you are familiar and comfortable with the quantities and volumes you need to sustain a healthy lifestyle.

The DBM Food Pyramid gives a good indication of types and volumes foods that we recommend to all DBM Patients/Clients.  Please remember, you may only eat the goat cheese and other goat products as indicated on that pyramid, on the advice of your DBM Physician/Practitioner.

Ensure that when selecting fruits and vegetables you Eat from The Rainbow. Whole grains and legumes form an important part of this natural, balanced lifestyle. 

By eating whole foods, a wide variety of fruit and veggies (eating from the rainbow) you will get all the nutrients your body needs.  To show you how wonderful fruits and veggies are – look at the graphics on the Eat From The Rainbow page and you will clearly see that a wide range of fruit and veggies will more than provide for your needs.

Note:

Please be aware that external lists or websites we link to might include fish, meat, soya, or other foods that are restricted on all DBM programs.  The links are retained as a requirement of copyright.  The publishing of this list is intended as educational and certain foods that this article might be listed or linked to do not support DBMs philosophies or practices.

At all times, ensure that the foods you select are permitted by your DBM Physician for your health imbalance. Select only NON-GMO sources that are organic and/or sundried.

Disclaimer:

We are obliged to notify you that the information on this website is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Doctors Across Borders NPO t/as Doctors Beyond Medicine, the author(s) nor publisher(s) take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.