Question and poll - bread of life, or death?

[mouppe]

Blimey, this is a scary thread! At what age do you start worrying about this stuff or is it because something happened?

I love bread products and the almond croissant I had for breakfast was amazing!


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[dickm]

slightly off topic, but US daughter is acutely coeliac. She uses quite a lot of xanthan gum in cooking to replicate the effect of gluten, but buying it retail is very expensive. She got a bulk pack of a kilo or so from some "lost goods" sale, but thought she ought to check that the white powder that arrived was actually the gum. Ran it through her lab analyser, which has a library of suggestions based on the spectrum involved. But this fooled it - only suggestion was chipboard!

(it was actually the gum!)
I'm another BP anomaly, on regular meds, but no apparent dietary reason. We eat a lot of bread, but make our own with minimal salt.
Panasonic breadmakers are a godsend!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

£10.72 per kilo at buywholefoodsonline. £30 for free delivery. Some of the stuff isn't cheap, but many of the seeds and spices are. Excellent service, too.

 

[RogerS]

Since M&S discontinued their superb Bara Brith loaf (I think they got their sums wrong and were making it at a loss as it was bulging with dried fruit), I've decided to have a go at baking a loaf myself - never having baked bread before in my life.

I have found several recipes but all of them say self-raising flour. But when I look on the shelves at Waitrose all i can see is white self-raising flour. yet the M&S Bara Brith is a brown colour. Would this brown colour come from the brown sugar in the recipe or is there some brown self-raising flour?

TIA

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Just add two tsp of baking powder per 150gms of plain flour. Brown sugar or even more so molasses or black treacle will colour the mix as will (slightly) using any water from soaking the dried fruit. I seem to recall seeing s/r brown flour somewhere - my friend was looking for it - but I can't think where. Wessex Mill do a s/r wholemeal.

 

[Dee J]

A lot of the dietary issues around food types seems to be based on certain regional groups having different tolerances to different substances. I seem to have a northern european agricultural constitution - no problems with wheat, gluten, dairy, nuts, eggs, meat, cholesterol, alcohol, sugar, caffine or whatever. Indeed, that plus some fish and some veg pretty much describes my daily diet. Just had my annual health check... v.low bp, excellent cholesterol results, good bmi. I seldom salt the food I cook or eat - not from any health choice - just I prefer to taste the food. So the included salt in the very few ready made things (eg bread) that we eat isn't going to bother me.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Roger, try soaking the fruit in cold tea overnight, or at least for a couple of hours. Yummy. I've never seen brown S/R flour.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Roger - Elizabeth David's recipe from Bread and Yeast Cookery (1977) :-
Strong plain bread flour , or up to 85%wholemeal 450gms
yeast 15gms
Butter 85gms
Milk 150gms
Soft brown sugar 60gms
Raisins 85gms
Currants 85gms
Peel 30gms
Salt 1 x tsp
Mixed spice 1/2 tsp
1 1/2L tin 20m -30m at 205c - 220c depending on oven, cover for last 10m.
Probably different to the one you've got, she's already reduced the sugar content. For practical purposes, I see no difference between raisins and currants.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Roger, try soaking the fruit in cold tea overnight, or at least for a couple of hours. Yummy. I've never seen brown S/R flour.

You can add your spices at this stage too.

 

[Cordy]

their main job seems to be to filter out the whiners and the trivial issues and point everyone else at the correct person who knows more than they do about subject X!

Yes that is my experience too !!
Sometimes a long delay before seeing the referred to specialist after the initial visit to GP

I eat three slices of brown bread most days for lunch usually with banana
Teetotal and proud
Never put salt or sugar on food/drink
Overweight; but no medication

Mother in law aged 93 lashes her food/drink with salt/sugar and doing ok, still living alone in her own house

 

[Jacob]

I bake my own bread, about 1/3 granary, 1/3 wholemeal, 1/3 white.
A 500g (of flour) loaf will have about 1 Tablespoon of salt in it. It gives the bread structure, it's not just for flavour, so 400mg/slice does not surprise me.

I also cook properly, I might have a bought pizza once or twice a month, but otherwise everything is cooked from scratch, I enjoy doing so. You won't find junk food in my fridge or freezer. I do use salt to season, but not much. I certainly don't cover my dinner with salt on the plate, like my dad used to.

I also take BP tablets...

That's a lot of salt. I put in 1 teaspoon salt for 500g flour - as per Panasonic's instructions.
I'm on statins too in spite of being fairly fit not overweight etc.
We have fish chips peas once a week from the chippy but one normal portion does for both of us. Pub food similar - we've often have one meal and ask for two plates. Not cos we are tight arsed it's just too much, and anyway I like to leave room for more beer.

 

[Steve Maskery]

OK. I've just put a loaf on. I put in my usual amount of salt (I never measure it out with a spoon, just pour some into my hand until it looks right) and weighed it.

10g. So you are right Jacob, a tablespoon would be too much. 10g must be a couple of teaspoons I suppose?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've just weighed a teaspoon measure - a measure not a spoon - 7 grammes.

 

[lurker]

That may explain why you are such a cantankerous old git
( really it IS a known side effect.)

Cholersterol levels are a load of old baloney peddled by researchers after a grant.

 

[lurker]

I trust my doctors, including the one I'm married to .

I had not realised that

If she is measuring your BP its probuabley correct
My Mrs does mine and it tends to be "normal" but if my GP does it he tuts a lot.
Having said that, I'm waaaaaay overweight.

 

[Jacob]

I'm on statins too

That may explain why you are such a cantankerous old git
( really it IS a known side effect.)

Cholersterol levels are a load of old baloney peddled by researchers after a grant.

[/quote]No - I was a cantankerous old git for years before I started on the pills.

 

[lurker]

Yes, but had it not been for the statins you might have mellowed in your old age - just saying.

 

[Jacob]

Yes, but had it not been for the statins you might have mellowed in your old age - just saying.

Dunno. Good job I don't give a F either way!

 

[artie]

I didn't read the replies, because my mind is made up on this one. I do not eat bread, have not ate bread for 10 years or more.

I am fitter now than I was 30 years ago.

Do a google search for "wheat belly" do some reading and make up your own mind.

I do have a guilty secret. Every few months I take two slices of gluten free bread and make a chip butty.

Mmmmmmmmm

 

[Jacob]

I didn't read the replies, because my mind is made up on this one. I do not eat bread, have not ate bread for 10 years or more.

I am fitter now than I was 30 years ago.

Do a google search for "wheat belly" do some reading and make up your own mind.

I do have a guilty secret. Every few months I take two slices of gluten free bread and make a chip butty.

Mmmmmmmmm

I had the same prob. Whole series of tests. Worked out for myself that it was wheat and cutting it out made the symptoms go away almost immediately. Lost a lot of weight.
But it's so difficult to avoid wheat, not least because so many tasty things involve it - bread, pastry, cakes, biscuits, pasta, sauces, puddings etc. Instead went on to PPI pills.