Bread has been a food staple across cultures for millenia. But today, most store-bought loaves contain way more than just flour, water, and yeast.
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00:00Bread has been one of the most important sources
00:04of calories and nutrients across cultures for millennia.
00:08Today, it's a $200 billion industry around the world.
00:13Here in America, ultra-processed white bread is the norm.
00:17But this is what bread used to look like.
00:21It was typically made with just three ingredients,
00:24flour, water, and yeast.
00:26But nowadays, your average loaf of white bread
00:29can easily contain up to 20 ingredients,
00:33including salt, sugar, fats and oils,
00:35a cocktail of chemicals like dough conditioners,
00:39ascorbic acid, bleach, and more.
00:41And somehow, this bread is a lot less nutritious than this.
00:45So how did a food that has been such a staple
00:49change so much?
00:51And what kind of impact does that have on our bodies?
00:54I'm Mia de Graaf.
00:55I'm a health editor at Business Insider.
00:57The first traces that archaeologists have ever found
01:00of bread is these crumbs that are 14,000 years old
01:04that they found from a Neolithic site in Jordan.
01:07These crumbs seem to have been made
01:09from a rudimentary flatbread
01:11that were sort of a combination of water
01:14and ground-up grains,
01:16kind of the ancestors of modern-day cereals.
01:19Egyptians discovered yeast likely by accident.
01:23But the way Egyptians were making bread
01:25was what we would describe today as a sourdough.
01:28And that was the kind of bread
01:30that we were making then for centuries.
01:33So we could see from the Egyptians
01:35that bread-making could proliferate an entire society
01:40and sustain an entire community.
01:43Pyramid builders were paid with bread.
01:46People in higher-status positions
01:48were people who were overseeing the production of bread.
01:52That only develops further.
01:54By the time you get to 150 BC in the Roman Empire,
01:58bread-making by then was a really prestigious career.
02:02So how did bread come to the US?
02:05Rumor has it that when Christopher Columbus
02:07journeyed to the New World,
02:09he brought a crockpot of sourdough starter with him.
02:12And once we started mass-producing wheat across the US,
02:16bread as a business and as a culture really kicked off.
02:20In the 1880s, we saw the industrialization of bread.
02:25And that kicked off with mechanically milled flour.
02:28These mills would remove the germ of the flour.
02:31It contains so many nutrients.
02:33It's got proteins, oils, omega-3s, all of that good stuff,
02:37but it makes it quite unruly in a bake.
02:40They remove the bran, remove the germ of the flour,
02:43and completely pulverize the flour
02:46so that it is as fine as it can possibly be.
02:48Suddenly, you don't have that volatile element
02:51that could be a margin for error in your business.
02:54You can just scale this right up and make bread
02:57that seems to be very consistent every time.
02:59So that's what we've seen with all these mills,
03:01adding different kinds of chemicals
03:03and adding different kinds of ingredients.
03:05How could we make something that is shelf-stable,
03:09continuously fluffy, and just delicious at all times?
03:13In the late 1800s, we invented commercial yeast.
03:17This is a kind of dried yeast
03:19that can last way longer than fresh yeast.
03:23Fresh yeast, like a sourdough starter or a balm,
03:26you've got to treat it, you've got to feed it,
03:29but it's not the kind of thing
03:30that you could use for mass production so easily.
03:33But a commercial yeast, it's dehydrated in such a way
03:37that it could last for weeks and weeks and weeks.
03:40The mass-produced white bread,
03:42or the fluffy kind of Wonder Bread that we have today,
03:46was invented in the early 1900s, but it wasn't sliced.
03:50It was just this big block of fluffy white dough.
03:54In the early 1900s, an engineer called Otto Roeder
03:59had an idea that you could make one single machine
04:03that slices and packages bread all at the same time.
04:07It took him about a decade to finally finish his prototype.
04:11We get to 1928, when he debuted his invention
04:17at a fair in Missouri,
04:21and it was a huge hit.
04:22People's minds were blown, and within two years,
04:25the Continental Baking Company,
04:27which is the maker of Wonder Bread, was using it.
04:30I know mine eat their lunch now.
04:33I pack their favorite sandwiches on their favorite bread.
04:36Wonder, can't beat it up.
04:38This Wonder Bread, it's already got a ton of things in it
04:41that make it shelf-stable.
04:43Add the packaging, it's gonna last you for a week or more,
04:47you know, maybe even longer.
04:48It was a huge game-changer in American culture.
04:51The war was starting, the economy is really hard up.
04:54You have this thing that's gonna last you
04:55for a very long time.
04:57It actually created a supermarket culture,
05:00and really, decades later, we can see it created
05:03this huge shift in how we shop and eat
05:06and live in this country.
05:08By 1930, mass-produced loaves made up 30%
05:12of the average American's diet,
05:14which was a higher proportion than any other food.
05:17But scientists started to see the results
05:20of eating this bread that had all of the nutrients
05:23removed from it.
05:25Around the start of the Second World War,
05:27we started to see people developing diseases
05:31with quite worrying symptoms.
05:33There are diseases like pellagra,
05:35which has symptoms of dementia,
05:38or beriberi, which has symptoms of paralysis
05:41or losing the feeling in your hands and feet.
05:44People also had rickets, which is the weakening of bones,
05:47iron deficiency, birth defects.
05:50In response, the U.S. government collaborated
05:54with manufacturing companies,
05:56including the Wonder Bread manufacturer,
05:58Continental Baking Company, to produce and promote
06:03these more fortified versions of Wonder Bread.
06:06That's why you can help yourself grow bigger and stronger
06:09eight ways with Wonder Bread.
06:12I mean grow bigger and stronger eight ways.
06:16While this didn't make ultra-processed white bread
06:18as healthy as a whole grain,
06:20it did prevent people from developing diseases,
06:24which is capitalism at its finest.
06:27Each delicious slice of Wonder Bread
06:28supplies protein for muscle,
06:30minerals for strong bones and teeth,
06:33carbohydrates for energy,
06:34vitamins for nerves,
06:36all vital elements for growing minds and bodies.
06:39The point of ultra-processed bread
06:41is really business opportunity.
06:44It's something that was scalable,
06:46it's developed for convenience.
06:48So what are the ingredients
06:50in a typical loaf of ultra-processed bread?
06:53So first we have tartaric acid, also known as datum.
06:58This is an emulsifier,
07:00which is used to make bread smoother or fluffier
07:05and to stop ingredients from separating.
07:07Emulsifiers are generally believed
07:09to be safe in small quantities,
07:11but gut health experts worry
07:13that the combination of water and oil
07:15that's used to make this
07:17may wear down the gut lining in a way
07:19that can make you susceptible to digestive issues
07:22and digestive diseases.
07:24Next we have corn syrup.
07:27This is a really common ingredient
07:29in ultra-processed foods, including bread.
07:32It's super sweet.
07:34It can be used to mask the more chemical flavors
07:37of an ultra-processed food
07:39after it's been broken down
07:40and had so many things added to it
07:42to keep it shelf-stable.
07:43One of the health effects of corn syrup
07:45is that it's a high fructose type of sweetener,
07:49and it means that your liver has to work harder
07:52to break it down than, say, glucose.
07:56That can put you at risk of fatty liver disease
07:59as well as the risks of just consuming a lot of sugar.
08:04If you consume a lot of sugar,
08:05you're at a higher risk of diabetes,
08:07inflammation, heart disease, obesity,
08:11and all of the classic things
08:12that are associated with high-sugar diet.
08:14Another common ingredient used is acetic acid.
08:18This is an antimicrobial
08:20that's used to prevent mold from growing
08:22or to prevent the bread from going off
08:25or going stale quicker.
08:26It's a vinegar that can be used
08:29in other types of food production.
08:31Acetic acid is not dangerous to human health
08:34in the amounts that are used in store-bought bread,
08:38but it is part of this perfect storm of chemicals
08:42that are used to make bread last way longer
08:45than it naturally would.
08:47Then we have calcium carbonate.
08:49This is a dough conditioner
08:51which is used to improve texture
08:54and shelf life of ultra-processed bread.
08:57So on its own, calcium carbonate is not that bad for you
09:01and in fact, it can be good for you.
09:03The issue with calcium carbonate in ultra-processed bread
09:06is that it's making something inherently unhealthy
09:09quite enticing.
09:11Another common sweetener in ultra-processed bread
09:14is molasses.
09:16This is something which is quite popular
09:18with home bakers too.
09:20It's a sweetener that has a low glycemic index.
09:24So in theory, it would be healthier for you
09:26than a refined sugar.
09:28It can still spike your blood sugar,
09:30especially if it's used in an ultra-processed bread
09:33that you're naturally going to eat a lot of.
09:35Ultra-processed food drives people to eat more of it.
09:39Another ingredient that you will see
09:41on basically every label of store-bought bread
09:44is ascorbic acid.
09:46This is a type of vitamin C, which sounds great.
09:50The issue with ascorbic acid
09:51is that it's used in the manufacturing process
09:54as a flour treatment to fortify the dough
09:57against a rather aggressive manufacturing process.
10:00So it means that we can toss this dough around
10:03and slam it against machines and pulverize it
10:06in a way that's quite unnatural
10:09unless you have all of these ingredients inserted into it.
10:13A common preservative used in store-bought bread
10:16is L-cysteine hydrochloride,
10:19which is derived from duck feathers or human hair.
10:23It's an amino acid which is used to prolong shelf life
10:26and also enhance the flavor of processed foods.
10:30The FDA says that this is actually safe for human health,
10:33but it is widely regarded as just gross.
10:36You also have bleach,
10:37which is added to the bread to make it look whiter.
10:40So this can be done by adding chlorine dioxide gas
10:43to the flour before it reaches the manufacturing plant.
10:46We also have azodicarbonamide,
10:50which is used as a bleach and as a foam expander
10:54to give bread a fluffier feel.
10:57This is an ingredient that's also used in vinyl flooring
11:01and yoga mats to give it a squishy feel.
11:03The FDA says that it's safe to use in small amounts,
11:06but the EU and Australia and other countries disagree.
11:10Azodicarbonamide has been banned
11:12as a food additive for years
11:14due to concerns that a by-product can be cancerous.
11:18Of course, you have preservatives to prolong shelf life.
11:21So that could be calcium propionate.
11:24Fats are used in a store-bought loaf
11:26for volume and fluffiness and shelf stability.
11:29Look on your label for something like mono or diglycerides.
11:34That's made from soybeans and other oils
11:37to give it that kind of fluffiness
11:38and also to help it last a little longer.
11:40Let's take a look at these breads.
11:42First, we have Wonder Bread.
11:46Iconic packaging.
11:48So this, even holding it, it is so extremely fluffy.
11:52I can't ignore that fact.
11:54And this ingredient list is huge.
11:57The main ingredient in this is unbleached enriched flour.
12:02The second highest proportion ingredient is water.
12:04Then we have sugar, yeast.
12:07So we then have a very long list
12:09of micro-ingredients, let's say.
12:11Calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, soybean oil,
12:15salt, dough conditioners,
12:18sodium stearoyl lactylate.
12:22I don't know if I got that.
12:24Calcium stearoyl monoglyceride,
12:28mono and diglyceride.
12:30So calcium peroxide, calcium iodate,
12:33vinegar, citric acid,
12:35col, what?
12:38Colocalciferol.
12:41It sounds like a name of Game of Thrones.
12:43Soy lecithin, calcium propionate.
12:46And that's it.
12:48Wow, that was a journey.
12:49Okay, now we have Nature's Own 100% whole wheat.
12:54And this has 13 grams of whole grain per slice.
12:59Heart healthy.
13:01Whole wheat, this is great.
13:02This is something that I would look for in a store.
13:04You wanna see whole wheat or whole grain,
13:06but let's see what's on the label.
13:09So we have whole wheat flour.
13:11That's the first ingredient, and that's great.
13:14We have distilled monoglyceride.
13:16So that's a fat that's used in the process
13:19to create volume and bounciness and fluffiness
13:22to your bread.
13:23It's not necessarily bad for you in small amounts,
13:27and this is less than 2%.
13:29You know, it's a fat that can impact
13:32your cholesterol levels or inflammation in your body.
13:35Pepperidge Farms Farmhouse multigrain bread.
13:40So first off the bat, multigrain,
13:43this is something that I try to avoid, I would say.
13:47If you're buying store-bought bread,
13:49none of it's gonna be that good for you.
13:51But multigrain is not in the same league
13:53as whole grain or whole wheat.
13:55Whole grain and whole wheat,
13:56they have the entire kernel of the original wheat intact.
14:02Multigrain, this just tells you that it is made
14:04from loads of different kinds of flour.
14:06It's not telling you that it's necessarily
14:08a very healthy type of bread.
14:10So that's a bit of a red flag for me.
14:13No high fructose corn syrup, that's nice.
14:15So in theory, it's signaling that this is a healthy bread.
14:19Let's look at the label.
14:21Okay, immediate red flag.
14:23This has per slice, five grams of sugar.
14:28That is really high.
14:30That's double the amount of sugar in a slice of Wonder Bread.
14:34The ingredients here, we have enriched wheat flour.
14:37It's nice that it has oats in it,
14:38though in very small proportion.
14:41And this is extremely high in sugar for one slice of bread.
14:45According to the USDA, your daily intake of total sugars,
14:49including from fruit or coffee or tea
14:51in very minuscule amounts shouldn't exceed 50 grams,
14:55which is 12 teaspoons.
14:57Let's look at how many teaspoons are in this loaf of bread.
15:02One.
15:08Oh my God, we're halfway through.
15:10Nine, 10, 11, 12.
15:15So that's the total daily intake
15:17that anyone should have from anything.
15:2013, 14, 15.
15:23Wow, that is how much sugar is in this.
15:28These have little pieces of oats on them.
15:30They look very grainy and healthy,
15:33but I can feel from the squishiness
15:35and even just see from the bounciness of the dough,
15:38this is definitely an ultra-processed slice of bread.
15:41And I can see from the ingredients list
15:43that there is stuff in there
15:44that is not what I would be going for
15:46for a nutritious lunch.
15:48So this is how much sugar is in two slices of this bread.
15:52And it doesn't look like a lot, it's not a lot,
15:55but if you're buying this
15:56because you expect it to be healthy,
15:58you probably don't expect to be having
16:00more than a spoonful of sugar
16:02with every slice that you eat.
16:04Then we have Arnold Stone Ground,
16:08made with 100% whole grains, zero grams trans fat,
16:12good source of fiber.
16:13And it has a big love heart that says heart healthy,
16:16which is very sweet.
16:18Let's look at the label.
16:19The main ingredient is stone ground whole wheat flour,
16:22which is indeed very good for you.
16:24So yes, there are elements in this
16:26that do make this more heart healthy
16:28than some of the other breads in the store,
16:31but it does contain those telltale chemicals
16:33which show you that this is something
16:35that is not something that you could make at home.
16:38If ultra processed bread is a mainstay of your diet,
16:40it's gonna put you at risk
16:42for a bunch of kind of serious health issues.
16:45So all of the nutrients are essentially pre-digested.
16:49It creates a cascading effect
16:51that can dramatically increase inflammation in your body.
16:54The lack of fiber really drives up your risk
16:57of digestive issues,
16:58including something like constipation.
17:01Take for example,
17:02the fact that when ultra processed white bread
17:05was first marketed to Americans,
17:07one of the benefits was that
17:09you're not gonna need the toilet as often
17:12and as people who are eating whole wheat bread.
17:15So it goes to show that whole wheat bread
17:17quite clearly keeps you regular and white bread does not.
17:20The US government played a huge role
17:22in constructing the kind of bread manufacturing
17:26that we have today.
17:27It all started in the Great Depression
17:29when the US government provided subsidies for farms
17:32during a quite tricky time for the economy
17:35and also to prevent overproduction of certain things.
17:38Uncle Sam is rewarding the Midwest farmers
17:40who have done their part
17:42in curbing corn and hog production to raise prices.
17:45At Knoxville, Iowa,
17:46the first federal checks are distributed
17:48as loans to the farmers.
17:50That was really the beginning
17:51of what's now known as the Farm Bill,
17:53but it essentially provides subsidies for major farms
17:58that are mass producing homogenous kinds of wheat
18:01that can go to big manufacturing plants
18:04and make bread that will serve the entire country.
18:06The Farm Bill is not subsidizing smaller farms
18:09that are providing grain for local bakers
18:12and something that's maybe
18:14a slightly more diverse style of grain.
18:16So they're not able to reduce the cost of their loaves
18:19in the same way that ultra processed manufactured loaves can.
18:23The cost of an ultra processed white loaf
18:27is around $2 or under $2,
18:29but that's at the lower end of the scale
18:31of bread costs in the US.
18:33If you're looking for something more artisanal,
18:35you're looking for like a sourdough
18:36or something from a homemade bakery,
18:39those can get very expensive, up to say $12.
18:43Americans are consuming way less bread than they were before
18:46because of a wave of health conscious attitudes
18:50and the rise of low carb diets.
18:52There was a huge shift towards low carb
18:55in the 80s and 90s that had a really, really dramatic effect
19:00on our entire bread eating culture.
19:02In the year 2000, the average American
19:05was eating about 138 pounds of grains per year,
19:09which includes bread.
19:10By 2014, that dropped to an average of 122 pounds per year.
19:15It doesn't sound like a huge drop,
19:17but it's pretty significant in just a decade.
19:20Still, the business hasn't gone away
19:22and it has in fact grown.
19:23It's now worth about $26 billion.
19:27So it's thriving and it's definitely something
19:30that's still a part of our culture,
19:31but how we're choosing to consume it has shifted
19:34and brands have been racing to catch up with that.
19:37So what should you look for on a label
19:40when you're trying to buy healthy bread?
19:42Number one, look for non-refined flour.
19:45You're looking for something that hasn't had
19:47all of the goodness milled out of it.
19:49Look for low added sugar or ideally no added sugar.
19:54No trans fats.
19:56Trans fats are incredibly bad for you
19:58and increase your risk of heart disease.
20:00Ideally, few additives.
20:02Just the nature of the manufacturing process
20:04means that you need certain additives
20:07just simply to make it go through the machines.
20:10But as few additives as you can have, the better.
20:13Be aware, and this kind of rings true
20:15for all packaged food,
20:17that there are certain bogus words and terms
20:20like healthy or made with real wheat.
20:26Those aren't regulated terms.
20:27So if a label has that on it, you can just disregard it.
20:31It doesn't mean anything.
20:33Make sure whole grain is listed
20:34as the first or second ingredient
20:37if you're looking for a loaf
20:39that has a good amount of grain in it.
20:42If you look at the ingredients list,
20:43the first one listed is the most plentiful.
20:46Pick whole wheat or whole grain.
20:48So whole grain and whole wheat
20:50both have the whole aspect of the wheat.
20:53It has the germ, the endosperm, the bran,
20:56the entire kernel of wheat.
20:58Multigrain does not need to have all those things.
21:01Look for something that contains a lot of nuts and seeds.
21:04That's just going to increase the amount of protein in it
21:07and healthy fats and healthy oils.
21:10And most importantly, look at the label
21:12and see where the flour is from
21:15or where the bread is from.
21:16So I will say one of the things that local farmers,
21:20regional farmers, local bakers, grain activists
21:24really passionately are trying to communicate to all of us
21:28that all is not lost.
21:30You can still buy a delicious, nutritious loaf of bread.
21:34So the best way that you're going to get access
21:36to something that was grown without chemicals,
21:40without sort of any,
21:42all of the complexities of mass production
21:45is if you're going to have something
21:46that was grown near you.
21:48So look for flour that is from your estate.
21:53Look for loaves that were made in your state.
21:55Get to know your local baker.
21:57Go to your local farmer's market.
21:58There are lots of people,
22:00especially farmers on private farms
22:02who don't have the support of government money
22:05who are really passionate about educating people
22:08about where you can get good bread.
22:11While buying bread at your local farmer's market
22:13may seem like a more expensive luxury,
22:15it may actually be a worthwhile investment in the long run.
22:19It could save you money
22:20that you might've had to spend on your health.
22:22It could keep you younger for longer,
22:24and it could cut inches on your waistline
22:26without you even having to try.
22:28If you're still unsure, try baking your own bread
22:31because that way you'll know exactly what goes into it.
22:39But this is what bread used to look like.
22:43Is what bread used to look like.
22:45Is what bread used to look like.
22:47This reminds me of, like, being in the service industry.
22:50I used to have to, like, open a wine bottle at a table,
22:53and I'm like, oh, God.