Part of Primal eating means excluding sugar, grains and chemically processed vegetable oils but one of the most asked questions about Primal is 'But what about bread?'; this seemingly innocent and basic of foodstuffs causes more arguments and challenges than just about anything else and it's the one thing that most people (including me!) struggle with when going Primal. Bread is ubiquitous in the modern diet and even in our language – we talk about earning our bread, and work can be someone's bread and butter; we know which side our bread is buttered and something can be the best thing since sliced bread; you may be living below the bread line or maybe your bread always lands butter-side-down; so when someone (like me) comes along and suggests that bread may not be all that good for you, many people find that very hard. This week's blog is about the problem of bread – why it isn't actually the staff of life at all and how you can manage its removal from your diet (or not, as the case may be).
The case against bread
I have often heard the argument 'but bread is a staple food', and yes, nearly all cultures have a form of bread as part of their traditional diet but from an evolutionary point of view, bread is a newcomer on the scene. The regular eating of bread only began about 10,000 years ago with the beginning of agriculture and the cultivation of grains (and the beginning of the end of the hunter-gatherer way of living). Now I appreciate that this seems a long time ago (we don't have any Facebook or Instagram posts from that era for example) but 'modern' humans have been around and hunting and gathering for over 200,000 years, so 10,000 years is a very small part of our evolutionary history and, more importantly, a very small part of our dietary history. Before agriculture, our diet would have been plants and animals with nuts, insects, fish, fungi and the odd tuber when we could find it. It's also likely that from time to time our ancestors would have eaten a few seed heads from wild grasses but grains and cereals would have been completely alien.
With agriculture came the cultivation of cereals and plants and the raising of livestock; communities grew up, then villages and towns; also came the division of labour, land ownership and 'civilisation' as we know it with governmental structures. It can be argued that with agriculture a food supply was guaranteed – animals and plants cultivated and reared for eating so no need to go out hoping to find or catch something to eat but here's an interesting fact – studies of teeth and bones from both the hunter-gather communities and the later agricultural ones show that the hunter-gathers suffered far less malnutrition than the later agriculturalists.1
...the cultivation of grains as the human dietary centrepiece has resulted in a decline in human health. The advent of civilization paralleled a reduction in average human life span, as well as a reduction in body and brain size, increases in infant mortality and infectious diseases, and the occurrence of previously unknown conditions such as osteoporosis, bone mineral disorders, and malnutrition that took thousands of years to recover from
Mark Sisson The Primal Blueprint
There are a number of reasons for this decline in human health with the advent of agriculture but I want to focus on those that are affecting us today and their ongoing implications for our health.
Grains are a cheap source of carbohydrate This is one of the main reasons so many cultures have grains at the heart of their cuisine. Grains are easy and cheap to grow, harvest and distribute. If you look at the peasant food of most cultures, it will be a small amount of protein bulked out with lots of cheap carbohydrate – rice, pasta, potatoes and, of course, bread. This means that lots of people can be fed cheaply but at the cost of good nutrition.
Grains contain anti-nutrients Plants don't have claws or teeth and they can't run away so they have inbuilt defences to stop themselves being eaten – these are often referred to as anti-nutrients. The main compounds are Glutens, Lectins, Phytates and Saponins – without getting too geeky on the science, these compounds damage the digestive tract and can cause problems with our health. Gluten (the stuff that makes bread dough stretchy and enables it to rise) is known to have some serious effects on human health – gluten has been linked to a wide range of modern diseases including Coeliac disease, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, asthma and psoriasis, to name but a few. But it's not just wheat – oats, barley, rye and other grains also contain these anti-nutrients and contrary to conventional dietary advice, wholegrains actually have more anti-nutrients because they're found in the outer husk of the grain.
Modern wheat is addictive Now that sounds far-fetched but hear me out – modern wheat has been modified to increase yield and drought-resistance but it also has high levels of a protein called gliadin2. In his book 'Wheat Belly', Dr William Davis explains that gliadin is both highly addictive and an appetite stimulant. He also claims that some 25 years ago, manufacturers discovered this and since then have added wheat to as many products as possible which is one of the reasons getting wheat out of your diet is so difficult.
Bread is just a carb hit Compared to other foods, bread has almost no nutrients – it's just a form of easily digested carbohydrate. It's a vehicle for other foods – eggs on toast, pizza, curry with naan, sandwiches, soup with bread – and it makes more expensive (and nutrient dense) foods go further, but it will spike your blood sugar and cause an insulin response just as much as a bowl of sugar; and insulin stores excess carbohydrate as fat. I know absolutely from experience that the more bread I have, the more I want – probably a combination of the carb hit and the addictive nature of wheat.
Bread makes up way too much of our diet Toast for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, burger or pizza for dinner, maybe a bit more toast before bed... it's easy to see how bread becomes part of life but it can lead to some serious health problems and insidious weight-gain.
Yes, but it's sooooo delicious!
Trust me, I hear you. I love baking and one of the things I have always loved is making bread. I love hot, buttered toast and the smell of the local bakery so I know absolutely the problem with forgoing bread. It's also incredibly difficult to avoid when so much of our food culture is built around bread and you can be left with 'well, what do I eat then?' I hope that the case against bread above has maybe persuaded you to try a bread-free diet but in case it hasn't, here are a few more thoughts:
Even if you don't have coeliac disease, gluten (and therefore bread) can have some adverse effects including gut pain, wind, swelling, poor skin and heartburn
Many people who give up bread suddenly find that persistent low-level ill-health issues disappear
Our mothers knew it – I have a diet and beauty book from the 1970s and it's adamant that if you want to lose weight, the bread has to go. Remember the 'Nimble' bread adverts?
Bread can cause systemic inflammation – the gluten causes an autoimmune response which means the body can start attacking itself, low-level systemic inflammation can lead to lethargy, weight-gain, bloating, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
I recently started eating some bread (I was having a rebellious phase) and things I noticed very quickly were:
Constant and uncomfortable wind (my OH found it quite uncomfortable too!)
Puffy skin – a bracelet I was wearing left a mark on my skin for hours
Weight-gain – I put on a kilo in a matter of days whereas my weight is usually stable, and my belly became really bloated
Cravings for more bread and other carbs
A return of awful hot flashes – these had been fairly unnoticeable for months previously
Indigestion
Poor sleep
So although I do still love things about bread, to me it's just not worth it – a few moments pleasure while eating it followed by some fairly horrid side-effects which last for several days.
So what DO I eat then?
Planning is key here – if you decide to go bread-free, you need to plan carefully or you'll be back into the toast because you can't think of anything else to eat. But it's perfectly possible to enjoy most of your favourite things without the bread.
Sandwiches – I like to use crisp romaine lettuce leaves as 'wraps' – you can fill them with anything you would put in a sandwich – meat, eggs, tuna mayo, cheese and tomato, you could even do a BLT.
Pizza – you'll need to make your own for this but when I want pizza I just make it without the base. Instead I make it in a gratin dish so I get all the lovely toppings without the bread.
Burger – just enjoy the burger without the bun – you'll get more of the flavours anyway. Or, again, wrap it in a big crunchy leaf.
Soup – use toasted seeds (see recipe here) instead of croutons to give you that bit of crunch
Naan, chapattis – use the wheat-free flatbread recipe to mop up your curry
If you're eating out, ask for extra vegetables or salad instead of bread and if you take your own lunch, make a bowl of mixed salad with meat, fish, eggs or cheese and a tasty dressing – better than a sandwich any day! If you can prepare these things in advance, it will be a lot easier.
And when temptation gets too much...
There will be times when only bread will do, or the bread basket on the restaurant table is just too tempting, so here are some ideas -
Firstly, I would really ask you to try going bread-free for 3 weeks; this will help you to break the habit of eating bread (and the addiction to wheat) and it will also allow you to see whether you feel better without it – many people have lived with the consequences of eating bread for so long they don't even notice any more. You may well find that some of the things you have just assumed were 'part of life' disappear – like heartburn, puffy skin or hot flashes; you may even have some weight loss. You will also be able to spot the effects of eating bread more easily after having a break.
After that, assuming you decide that bread-free is the way to go, here are some more thoughts:
An occasional piece of bread out of the bread basket at a restaurant probably won't be too bad
Choose really good quality bread and just have a very small amount – eat mindfully and enjoy every mouthful!
Make your own sourdough – I'll put a link in for a good recipe at the end – but again, just have a small amount and enjoy it
If you have a bread-binge , don't beat yourself up – just put it behind you, but also observe any ill-effects – they might help to remind you of how bread isn't that great
I realise that taking bread out of your diet is a big step but I'm sure it's one worth taking and with planning it's not too difficult to do. Look to the Primal way of eating – plants, protein and good fats and you will find that you really don't miss it at all.
For further information on living Primally, see my blog here.
Live Long and Strong,
References:
Cassidy, CM (1980) Nutrition and health in agriculturalists and hunter-gathers: a case study of two prehistoric populations
Wheat Belly, Dr William Davis
Sourdough recipe:
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