The Whiter the Bread

Have you ever heard the old saying the whiter the bread the sooner you’re dead?  Well, just as all old wives tales have some truth to them, so do old sayings.  When I was a child growing up in Connecticut, we lived on what one could describe as a mini farm.  There was a pond with a damn, a pond large enough so that I couldn’t swim to the other side, (at least not before encountering a snapping turtle or two),  a vegetable garden, a chicken coop, and at one time or another, goats and sheep.  As you can see, my parents provided us with fresh, unprocessed food, sometimes canned or frozen which they prepared, and only occasionally did they serve any factory prepared foods from a can, bottle or box, that is until shortly after I was born, the last of four children.

            By that time, foods like tv dinners, Chef Boyardee spaghetti in a can and Wonderbread were staples of the American diet.  As mothers (mine included) went to work outside the home to bring in the second income that would send their kids off to college some day, it was my generation that took to eating spaghetti with red sauce out of a can or a dinner of meatloaf and gravy, with peas and corn and mashed potatoes off of a compartmentalized metal tray set on top of another metal tray in front of the television.  The favorite school lunch was the fluffernutter made with peanut butter, marshmallow fluff and Wonderbread. 

I had no idea at that time, nor did my parents, of course, that feeding my body the fluffernutter resulted in the same effect as feeding my body a six pack of beer, but without the buzz.  There was added sugar in every component of my favorite sandwich of which I continued to eat long into adulthood.

The peanut butter, although it was rich in protein, was made with added sugar and salt.  The marshmallow fluff was corn syrup and the soft white Wonderbread was made from refined flour, flour that had been chemically bleached, stripped of all nutrients including fiber, then enriched in the manufacturing process by adding salt, sugar, vitamins and finally gluten enhanced to obtain the doughy consistency.  When we feed our bodies foods made primarily with refined flour, such as pasta, pancakes, pie crust, flour tortillas, biscuits, pizza, pretzels, cakes, cookies, and foods that are battered or dredged for that crispy outer skin, we may as well replace them all with Wonderbread.  No wonder laxatives and stool softeners are such a big business in the U.S.  

The world wide web is a wonderful source of information, even more so than going to a reference library in any major city.  However, there is no such thing as modern day internet information police, no one to say, whoa, if you break the law by publishing untruths under the guise of fact, you go to jail.  No, in this amazing America, we have the freedom to do just that, publish untruths, that is.  For that reason, it is reader beware.  

I was recently disappointed by a site that generally gives good advice regarding nutrition, when I read an article that argued the merits of dining on foods made with enriched all purpose white flour.  The article argued that using the enriched flour would give you the important b vitamins (added back in) that you might otherwise be missing from your diet. 

What it did not mention was that eating foods made from refined flour (enriched or not) which has no fiber to slow the digestive process, has an immediate effect on blood sugar level.  Because there is no fiber to slow down the release of sugar, the body responds to the spike in sugar by releasing insulin.  The insulin secreted by the pancreas does its job, reducing the blood sugar level which then causes a tired feeling and makes the person crave more sugar.  Eventually the cycle results in overload to the pancreas, weight gain, obesity and diabetes.  The more refined the carbohydrate, the faster the release of sugar and insulin, the higher and lower the peaks and valleys of energy and mood. 

This is the same cycle for all refined grains, all grains that have been stripped of their fiber, not just refined wheat for white flour, but for refined corn, oats, rice, barley, and rye as well.  As of the writing of this book, I am replacing the old slogan the whiter the bread, the sooner you’re dead, with a new one, the more refined, the bigger the behind.  

More information on anti-aging gastronomy can be found in my latest ebook for Kindle now available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Smart-America-anti-aging-primer-ebook/dp/B008H76MAK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1341931244&sr=8-2&keywords=eat+smart%2C+america

Buon Appetito e Buona Salute, Chef Angela B