Can bread be healthy?

ZOE Science & Nutrition

ZOE

Nutrition, Science, Health & Fitness, Education

4.6 • 5.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2022

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s no exaggeration to say that bread shaped modern humanity - it was the cultivation of wheat for flour that transformed our ancestors from hunter-gatherers to city dwellers. Today, millions of us start the day with a slice of toast, and most lunches in the US and UK are wrapped in a slice of bread or a burger bun as a cheap, flexible, and delicious energy source. But modern industrial processes designed to reduce the time and cost of baking mean today’s bread would be unrecognizable to our ancestors. Today’s bread tastes good but has lost most of its nutritional content. With most of its fiber gone, and no time for bacteria to work its fermenting magic, bread has become a simple starch, rapidly turned into sugar in our blood and offering little to support our gut bacteria. For this reason, bread is increasingly demonized as an evil carb. In today’s episode, Jonathan speaks to two authorities on the subject to ask: Can bread can ever be healthy? Vanessa Kimbel is a specialist in personalised bread and her doctorate in nutrition & digestabilty of bread is in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine & preventative healthcare. Tim Spector is a co-founder at ZOE and one of the top 100 most cited scientists in the world. Download our FREE guide — Top 10 Tips to Live Healthier: https://zoe.com/freeguide Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 00:09 - Topic introduction 02:14 - Quickfire questions 04:08 - Why bread matters 05:23 - Is bread empty calories? 08:46 - What is bread? 11:30 - What is bran? 12:16 - The difference between the types of grains 14:19 - What is the impact of bread on our microbes? 17:03 - What should you look for in bread? 18:50 - What sort of bread should you look for? 20:10 - Supermarket bread is not fresh! 20:42 - On gluten intolerance 23:11 - How should we think about sourdough? 32:29 - How to know whether sourdough is real or fake? 35:47 - Practical advice on how to choose bread 38:54 - Summary 40:43 - Goodbyes 40:55 - Outro Episode transcripts are available here. Follow Vanessa: https://www.instagram.com/vanessakimbell/ Follow Tim: https://twitter.com/timspector Follow ZOE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoe/ This podcast was produced by Fascinate Productions.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Zoe, Science and Nutrition, where world-leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
0:07.0	It is no exaggeration to say that bread created modern humanity.
0:15.0	Archaeologists in the Middle East have found fossilized breadcrumbs from over 14,000 years ago.
0:21.0	It was the cultivation of wheat for flour that transformed our ancestors from hunter-gatherers to city dwellers.
0:30.0	Today, millions of us start the day with a slice of toast, and most lunches in the US and UK are wrapped in a slice of bread or a burger bun.
0:41.0	As a cheap, flexible and delicious energy source, this is no surprise.
0:46.0	But bread is not what it once was.
0:50.0	Modern industrial processes, designed to reduce the time and cost of baking,
0:55.0	mean that today's bread would be unrecognizable to our ancestors.
1:00.0	These processes were invented with the best of intentions, as growing populations meant more mouths to feed.
1:07.0	But this technological progress has a cost.
1:13.0	Today's bread resembles a sugary drink.
1:16.0	It tastes good. It looks good on the outside, but it has lost most of its nutritional content.
1:22.0	With most of its fiber gone, and no time for bacteria to work its fermenting magic,
1:27.0	bread has become a simple starch, rapidly turned into sugar and oblut, and offering little to support our gut bacteria.
1:35.0	For this reason, bread is increasingly demonized as an evil carb.
1:41.0	So in today's episode, we're finding out if bread can ever be healthy.
1:46.0	Which types are better than others, and what to look out for when doing your grocery shopping.
1:51.0	You'll also hear a bombshell about what baked in the store really means.
1:57.0	Joining me today is Vanessa Kimball, author, founder of the Sado School,
2:03.0	and specialist in the subject of bread nutrition and digestibility, and Tim Specter,
2:08.0	one of the world's top 100 most cited scientists and my scientific co-founder at Sado.
	...

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