Consuming large amounts of ultra-processed food (UPF) increases the risk of an early death, according to a international study that has reignited calls for a crackdown on UPF.
Each 10% extra intake of UPF, such as bread, cakes and ready meals, increases someone’s risk of dying before they reach 75 by 3%, according to research in countries including the US and England.
UPF is so damaging to health that it is implicated in as many as one in seven of all premature deaths that occur in some countries, according to a paper in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
They are associated with 124,107 early deaths in the US a year and 17,781 deaths every year in England, the review of dietary and mortality data from eight countries found.
I switched from white bread to 100% whole grain about a decade ago after learning just how much better it was supposed to be. I wonder if it’s actually still pretty awful after reading this
No, it’s not. This refers to pre-packaged bread, e. g. white bread, toast etc. - the stuff you find in a supermarket shelf, full of preservatives and other additives.
Sigh… I get my wholegrain pre-packaged. I guess I’ll die.
If your bread goes moldy in a week, you might be good! (Am not an expert)
Often in less than a week, especially in a warm humid climate (or days of that type weather).
So… leading German “Toastbrot” brand, Goldentoast, their “American Sandwich”:
I do wonder why they feel the need to have an acidity regulator, the sourdough those industrial outfits are using is made using pure-bred strains, highly replicable and generally flexible enough to get the exact amount and type of acidity (lactic vs. acetic acid) that you want. Fava bean flour last definitely looks like they did quite some engineering, those are minuscule adjustments to the overall flour mix. Used as a characteristic ingredient you’d use 20% of flourweight of the stuff, thereabouts, and about 5% if you want it for dough properties.
Is it good bread, no, but nutritionally it doesn’t really look worse than any other white bread. Actually American bread would be highly illegal over here.
For comparison, an American store brand toast:
That’s what happens if you’re a) allowed to do it and b) want to erase “time” from the ingredient list. All those dough conditioners are unnecessary even if you don’t use sourdough if you only give the dough enough time to autolyse: Actually have the water seep in, not just wet the particles, where enzymes then change the chemical structure, e.g. turning starch into maltose. Those enzymes come with the flour, they’re how the seeds themselves turn storage into ready energy.
German industrial bakeries have long lines of essentially bioreactors taking the dough through various processes over a day or so, which is the same pace that traditional bakeries use, just scaled up and highly controlled. Also for pre sliced bread they’re baking like 2m long loaves, in a conveyor oven. That American label is the bread equivalent of a beer brewed in a day, which is about at least four weeks too fast.