Bread has been a dominant portion of our standard diet since time immemorial – supplying a large fraction of energy needs to humans – and is packed with micro and macronutrients needed for survival and health.
Bread is prepared from a dough of flour, usually wheat, which remains one of the oldest human-made foods since the dawn of agriculture dating back to some 14,500 years or more.
However, processed bread (starch) is getting a bad rap, and for many good reasons. It has a high glycemic index, it makes your blood sugar and insulin go up and makes you put on weight.
We also have difficulty in making choices – white bread or brown bread, whole-grain bread or whole-wheat bread, etc.
What happens in the making of highly refined and processed wheat flour is, that they take out two of the most nutritive portions from the wheat kernel (seed), that is the germ and the bran, leaving only the endosperm (starch) behind. This they do to make the texture of the bread light and to increase its shelf life.
For those who are health and weight conscious – and for the ones bordering on diabetes and the type-2 ones – here is a hack which can bring down the glycemic index of all types of bread, white or brown, whole wheat or whole grain, etc.
It is a Proven Hack.
Freeze the bread loaf after slicing it – store it in the freezer, and then toast the frozen slices before eating. Freezing the bread brings down the glycemic index by almost 30%. Then toasting the frozen slices brings down the glycemic index of the bread even further.
This way you have (A) Slower release of sugar in your bloodstream (B) It gives you more satiety (C) Certain portion of the starch in the bread will turn into “resistant starch” due to freezing (acts more like fibre), which the body’s enzymes cannot digest in the small intestine, and as this starch passes deeper into the large intestine and colon, it becomes a feed (pre-biotic) to the good bacteria (probiotic) – and all this leads to an anti-inflammatory environment which is good for health.
This concept works with all types of bread – sprouted grain bread, sour dough, whole bread, flax bread, gluten-free bread, and the list goes on.
To sum up: Those living on white bread and many of the other processed foods which have high amounts of starch will have a problem sooner or later. The excess starch gets converted into glucose and this process over a long time may lead to diabetes, obesity, clogging of the arteries, autoimmune deficiencies, fatty liver etc. – so please be aware. Acting on the hack above can contribute much to countering the harmful effects of such damaging foods.
Zareer Patell – Blackbelt, Personal and Fitness Trainer and Wellness Columnist (since 1972).
