Thirty thousand years ago, the flatbreads, the earliest variety of bread, had been consumed by many and became the primary staple food to every household’s table. Not only is it a good source of carbohydrates, but it’s also a handy food for a long journey, considering that traveling could be exhausting during ancient times.
Meanwhile, in the 21st century, bread has become the most widely-eaten food. From the traditional olden flatbreads, new puffed bread has been developed and commercially sold. However, only several bakeries bake authentic bread without incorporating additives that could be harmful in the long run. Nevertheless, seeking healthy and freshly-baked bread could be difficult today.
Thus, baking your bread is the most ensuring way to keep it healthy. Although some bread takes eight hours or a day to rest, it’s always satisfying to eat what you knead. Not only will you enjoy the fruit of your labor, but it also allows your body to absorb healthy substances. To enlighten you, below are the health benefits you will receive from eating home baked bread.
Whole-wheat Bread is Good for the Heart and Digestion
Baking your own bread is science. It requires exact measurement of ingredients such as water, yeast, sugar, salt, and especially a specific type of flour, which is the base of your bread. There’s a wide array of flour available in the market: all-purpose flour, pastry flour, and whole-wheat flour. Hence, you’ll prefer using whole-wheat flour for your bread among the variety of flour because it’s the healthier choice.
Proper Heart Circulation
The whole-grain, where this flour is made, contains numerous health benefits such as a healthy heart circulation. Medical research revealed that consuming whole-grain bread reduces the risk of acquiring heart diseases and stroke. In fact, all the parts of the whole-grain strengthen the arteries in the heart
Better Digestive System
Meanwhile, it’s also a good dietary fiber for the bowel movement and a fortified colon organ. The high amount of fiber in each grain helps the digestive lining assist proper bowel movement, taking out the discomfort during peristalsis. Moreover, it promotes the rapid production of good bacteria in the guts that help maintain a healthier colon organ.
Sourdough Bread for Diabetics
Please remember that it isn’t the end of your food journey when you’re diagnosed with diabetes. You can still enjoy food by exploring healthier alternatives in the culinary world. If you truly miss and prefer pastry delights such as bread, try to bake your own creation such as sourdough bread at home since sourdough bread is not that hard to make.
Incorporating and consuming sourdough bread in the daily diet is a great way of preventing diabetes, and if you have it already, it lessens the condition. During the fermentation process, this kind of bread produces acetic acid. This acid, the prime ingredient of vinegar, is definitely beneficial to diabetic patients because it helps maintain or decrease the body’s sugar level.
Monitor What You Eat and Your Weight
Considering that the bread is one of the many consumed food in the world, ensuring the nutritional value in each serving size can be daunting. Commercial bakeries use various additives to keep their bread fresh and stand on the stall for many days. They also use ingredients that are high in fat, sugar, and other components to make it delicious, that when excessively eaten, affects the well-being.
What’s excellent about home baking is that you know the components you put in your bread—the type of flour, the gluten, the water, and whatnots. Further, you also secure your product’s quality and cleanliness since it’s done in your kitchen.
Unlike commercially sold bread, you are blind with the whole process, and you just can’t stop thinking, “did they clean their hands?”, “Were the machines cleaned before using?” or “How do they transport the bread?”
Meanwhile, knowing all the ingredients in your bread allows you to track the number of calories, carbohydrates, sugar, and nutrients your body will absorb and how it will affect your overall weight. In this sense, you can adjust the quantity of measurement of your dough or even add healthier elements such as almond, pumpkin, sesame, chia, flax, and poppy seeds.
Avoid Potential Allergic Reaction
There are people whose bodies can’t just tolerate or endure certain ingredients in their food, turning them into picky and intricate eaters—often misjudged by others. Not knowing the whole story, they just don’t want to experience severe allergic reactions because it can be deadly if it worsens.
The ingredients in bread are composed of gluten, fat, egg protein, and milk. These primary components are the usual causes of an allergic reaction. One way to avoid allergies from occurring is by baking your own bread. This way, you regulate what to include, exclude, and replace the intolerable ingredients with similar alternatives.
Whole-wheat Allergy
Although whole-wheat bread is healthy for your body and diet, some people catch allergies by eating one. As an alternative, you can use almond flour or rolled oats as your base.
Egg Allergy
This type of allergy is the most common allergy people have. Since most baked goods have eggs in it, it’s challenging to find bakeries who sell egg-free bread. Worry no more because there are bread recipes you can do at home that do not require eggs, such as keto bread, white bread, dinner rolls, and ciabatta bread.
Milk Allergy
As one of the primary components of bread, milk can’t be friendly to those with an intolerable stomach. You can use almond milk, soya milk, or non-fat milk as an alternative.
Butter Allergy
The butter is made through churning the milk; therefore, it still has milk substances in it. To avoid such complications, you can use greek yogurt. Not only is it safer for your health, but it gives a touch of tanginess to your bread to cut the sweetness.
Please take note, consult a doctor first for proper consultation, and list food you must avoid and its alternatives for safe and healthy eating.
Takeaway
In a nutshell, bread has become an essential food to humanity. It’s a rich energy source that allows the body to be animated and dynamic on the daily grind. Furthermore, baking your bread at home extracts the most flavors and health benefits, rather than buying commercial baked goods. Thus, baking isn’t that hard, significantly, if it contributes to your well-being.