Bread is one of the most common foods made for millennia around the globe and has been around since the invention of over the fire cooking.

Every civilization has mastered bread making and made versions of bread that reflect the dishes and environment where they live. Even the Vikings conquered bread making, although something tells me it was made with Mjød (mead) instead of water.

Over the years, I have often attempted to make different kinds of bread, but only in the past two years have I improved my skills. And to be very clear, I am not great at making bread.

Many recipes are easy to follow, and you will often yield some delicious creations.

However, the result depends on your attention to detail and patience. Don’t expect to make bread from scratch for dinner when you get off work.

Despite not eating much bread anymore, I can still treat my family to the world of homemade bread for school lunches. Homemade bread easily beats the storebought versions.

Too much bread is not good.

In the past decades, we have been told to reduce our bread intake as it is not suitable for our body, to which I wholeheartedly agree. It is all about moderation, frequency, and ingredients used.

There are some unfortunate side effects of overeating bread, in particular whitebread.

• You eat more; white bread tops the glycemic index. Food with high glycemic levels does unfortunately not curb your hunger, but it urges you to eat more.
• Blood sugar goes up; the damn glycemic also has the side effect of increasing your blood sugar levels, which can move you closer to type 2 diabetes – which we don’t want.
• Weight goes up; you eat more, and because there are no fibers in white bread, you will eventually gain weight.
• Constipation dilemma; you eat white bread with no fibers, which results in constipation. We need fibers to make our guts work better.
• The damn salt: storebought bread contains higher salt (sodium) and sugar levels. Eating too much salt can cause you to feel bloated.

Healthier bread

I firmly believe that we can eat healthier, and bread can still be part of our kitchen and meal plans. It is all about moderation and what ingredients we use.

I have eliminated salt from my bread recipes during my bread-making experiments and my desire to reduce my salt intake. Initially, the flavor of the bread changes, but salt is not essential to bread.

I have also attempted to make more fiber-rich and traditional Danish rye bread and paleo bread which is shitloads of mixed seeds and eggs.

The point is that you can make bread healthier with some tweaks to the recipe. But, it would be best if you still ate in moderation, and you have to be mindful of what spreads you add to it.

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