by Svetlana Konnikova

To make natural, homemade bread?! It sounds like a myth about old housewives’s hobby or at least, a modern offer to fly to the Moon…  Is that so? It is well known, packaged loafs provoke lots of problems for bread lovers, such as weight gain and other ills.

Making your natural bread at home became a necessaty today for people who love good bread, but want to stay healthy and slim.   Just try once to make your healthy bread! It’s not very difficult and time-consuming. After that, you’ll never want to buy any bread in a store.

Are time demands your excuses? So, do it during your weekend. Here is the recipe for olive and sun-dried tomato bread. Healthy, delicious, tasteful and flavorfull, this bread is freshly baked every day in many houses in Mediterranean countries for centuries.

INGREDIENTS: 

14 oz (400 g) or 2,5 cups organic whole wheat or rye flour; 1 packet active dry yeast; one half tsp sea salt with iodine; 1 tsp brown sugar; 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme; 1tbsp chopped Italian parsley; 7 fl.oz (200 ml) or 1 cup warm spring water; 4 tbsp. organic olive oil;  about 2oz (50 g) or one third cup pitted and sliced black olives; about 2oz (50 g) or one third cup pitted and sliced green olives; 3,5 oz (100 g) or about 1 cup drained and sliced, organic sun-dried tomatoes in oil or 1 can organic diced tomatoes; 1 whipped, organic egg yolk.

METHOD:

  • Place the flour, salt, and yeast in a bowl. Mix together. Then stir in the sugar, thyme and parsley. Make a well in the center. Slowly stir in enough water and oil to make a dough. Mix the olives and dried or diced tomatoes, and add in. Knead the dough for 5 minutes, then form it into a ball. Brush the ball with with oil and cover with a plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about one and a half hours. It should double in size during this time.
  • Prepare a clean cookie sheet. Dust it with flour. Knead the dough lightly. Then cut into two halves and shape into circles. Place them on the cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap again. Let the dough rise second time in a warm place for 40-45 minutes, or until two halves doubled in size.
  • After two halves doubled in size, make 3 diagonal cuts on the top of each piece of “puffed” dough. Brush these pieces with a whipped egg. Your artisan bread is ready to be baked.
  • Bake in a preheated oven at the temperature 400 degrees F/200 degrees C. Baking time –40-45 minutes, or until your bread is cooked through. Wait until the loaf looks golden on the top and sounds hollow when tapped on the botton. When it’s ready, take the cookie sheet with the loaf out from the oven. Let it cool a little bit. Then transfer on the wooden board. Your bread is ready to serve 4 people.

This delicious bread is made with clean, pure products and doesn’t contain any sodium, very little fat and  salt.

If you don’t have a desire or don’t have time to make your homemade bread, and buy it in a store, and then you blame this bread on your weight gain, you should know at least what’s the difference between two ingredients–salt and sodium that are present in packaged breads and  in your diet overall:

  • Salt is already a mixture of two minerals – sodium and  chloride. One teaspoon of salt equals 5,000 milligrams. 2,000 are sodium and the other 3,000 are chloride.
  • Sodium without chloride is found in many ingredients, like sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), sodium benzonate, sodium sulfite and other food additives.
  • Many medications also contain sodium.
  • Lower your intake. Don’t put salt on the dinner table and use less when cooking.
  • Eating too much salt (which doesn’t contain iodine) raises blood pressure in most people. Ten to 15% of all people, and 50% of those with high blood pressure, are  salt sensitive.
  • Too much salt can make your body retain fluid, which causes the heart and kidneys to work harder.

You can substitute salt with reduced-sodium or so-called “lite” salts in which some amount of sodium is replaced by the mineral potassium. This way you’ll use less salt. Make yourself salt-free herb and spice blends, and cook with fresh or dried herbs. Add for flavor lemon or lime juice, and seasoned vinegars.

Just a reminder: sea salt and kosher salt, which are more expensive, and are different from table salt in taste and texture, but have the same amount of sodium as regular salt.

Studies tell, Americans eat too much salt, 2-3 teaspoons a day. It is difficult to believe, but it is a matter of fact. You need only less than a quarter of a teaspoon a day. However, for many people is impossible to keep their intake of salt so low because salt is included in almost everything we eat–milk, vegetables, meat, bread. About 10 % of the salt we eat is naturally present in our food. By making you homemade meals you can reduce 15% of salt. If you don’t cook at home, you get the rest of salt in packaged, processed and ready-to-eat foods.

Fact: Most of your salt (75%) comes from prepared foods you buy at the supermarkets, when eating in restaurants, or take-out. Many studies around the world have shown that in places where little salt is used, blood pressure does not increase with age as it does in the U.S.

Make homemade breads as a necessary part of your healthy diet. As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, many people believe that eating bread is making them fat.  Well, if you eat packaged bread, you’ll definitely will gain weight and can develop different health problems. But if you eat organic, wholegrain (multigrain), good quality homemade bread or made by honest artisans, you get invaluable benefits, such as fiber needed for your muscles.

Here is an example of what you get from the most popular, packaged breads that bought in a store. It contains the following,

  • Baguette whole wheat, 2 oz, 140 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 360 sodium
  • French,  1,4 oz (1 slice), 78 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 172 sodium
  • Italian, 1 oz (1 slice) 81 calories,  1 fat,  0 cholesterol,  175 sodium
  • Pita Whole Wheat 2 oz (1 regular), 170 calories, 2 fat, 0 cholesterol, 340 sodium
  • Pita Whole Wheat 1 oz (1 small), 76 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 151 sodium
  • Pumpernickel, 1 slice,  80 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 215 sodium
  • Raisin, 1 slice, 71 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 101 sodium
  • Rye, 1 slice, 83 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 211 sodium
  • Sourdough, 1 oz (1 slice), 78 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 172 sodium
  • *Seven Grain, 1 slice, 65 calories, 1 fat, 0 cholesterol, 107 sodium

As you see, all of those popular breads are highly processed and have a high content of salt and sodium. An exception is Seven Grain bread with 65 calories per slice and 107 sodium.

The worse breads are frozen New York and breads made by Pepperidge Farm. What a generosity in calories, fat and sodium in these well-known, fancy brands!!! 

      Frozen New York:

  • Garlic, 2 oz (1 slice), 190 calories, 8 fat, 0 cholesterol, 390 sodium
  • Garlic Reduced Fat, 2 oz (1 slice), 180 calories, 4 fat, 0 cholesterol, 340 sodium
  • Texas Garlic Toast 1.4 oz (1 slice0, 160 calories, 9 fat, 0 cholesterol, 260 sodium

Pepperridge Farm:

  • Garlic. 1, 8 oz (1 slice), 170 calories, 10 fat, 30 cholesterol, 270 sodium
  • Garlic Sourdough, 30% Reduced Fat, 1.8 oz (1 slice), 170 calories, 7 fat, 5 cholesterol, 310 sodium
  • Monterey Jack Jalapeno Cheese, 2 oz (1 slice), 145, 11 fat, 41 cholesterol, 279 sodium
  • Mozzarella Garlic Cheese 2 0z (1 slice0 11 fat 41 cholesterol, 279 sodium

Even you are under time demands, don’t buy a lot of ready-to eat processed breads and other foods and don’t often eat out. As you see, these foods are much higher in fat, salt and sodium which are detrimental to our overall health.

References: 

Perfect Mediterranean, Paragon, 2008

The Healthy Heart Food Counter (Information You Can Trust From the Nutrition Experts) by Annette B. Hatow, PhD., R.D. and Jo-Ann Heslin, M.A., R.D., Pocket Books, 2002

Copyright 2009.